#as for themis i honestly dont have much to say

[myrfing]

If you haven't done Abyssos yet I hope you do in the future I THINK THERE IS SO MUCH YOU WOULD TALK ABOUT and I would love to look forward to any thoughts about more flaws of the ancients' civilization, poyo.

the poyomeister...thank you for gracing my inbox once again

I have! OK in reality I have to admit the ancients aren't my main point of interest in the game at all and I'd have been okay with it if they were never mentioned in length again after shb and especially after 6.0 which does dull my interest in it a bit even though it has my favorite ascian when he was a boyscout in it. I just talk about them a lot because well <- argumentative and they're a popular topic.

I think ultimately though the flaws of the ancients arent too different from our own. they're just people with a lot of juice. nothing I have been shown has ever contradicted that. abyssos definitely shows us a far more colorful palette of people than e-s let on and they honestly all seem to really be. WEIRDLY REPRESSED? abyssos is what prompted that post where I was like wow the ancients didnt know shit about each other's hearts. it's kind of insane that. ok first I will be a little hater I hate when people say the ancients feel grief and love with greater depth and breadth than mortals LIKE there's so much about that that will make me want to maul you but it's crazy that pandaemonium is considered to have a like blood moon effect on the people inside it and so erich's resentment for instance is treated like a strange overreaction even though. like honestly? to me he was relatively composed for a young guy whose mother died under mysterious circumstances in the company of their father who then emerged from the ??? all like I have to go to work. The Star. You are such a fucking failure btw. [92 years later] Anyway since you can't handle this situation I think we should blow this whole place up and kill all your coworkers. and then it's revealed that the mother he felt all that anger for used him like a lab rat and that his father very consciously chose to neglect him after protecting him one (1) time. like to me erich is very resilient for even continuing to try. like I don't think this is lahabrea's intent but. I guess even though I was like e-s you are full of shid and fard :\ from the start it like SURPRISED me that one of their most respected members of society (and they never mention his flaws post-sundering in this era, they're like oh he used to be very wise and respected) was so self-serving and callous towards his child. on the other end the other ancients seem very willing to be involved and facilitate each other's reconciliations and understanding and maybe that tradition explains their relative harmony versus any purity of individual self. and then back on the other end agdistis does this for lahabrea and in her final words says how much she admires him and he doesn't even grant her the favor of looking at her in her last moments. it's all so very ????

I also wonder if they're going to go the actually erich is a super special boy route and that's why he was used by athena and why his magic struggles but I also wonder if rather it was because he was born quite weak to two genius parents that he was considered something expendable enough to experiment on by a woman who is the epitome of their society's scientific curiosity and pragmatism. after all it is only aetheric density that seems to be what people look at to separate us vs them. I do think lahabrea "loves" erich but he also like. the only expression of that has been handing him that belt. it's like if your absent father gifted you a calculus for dummies textbook. his love manifests in the hope that erich can be normal and participate in society in the way he admires and in the way he extols himself for because that's what happiness is for an ancient. AGAIN...VERY VERY human flaws we see this shit all the time irl which is just like...dude you guys are just people lol. it baffles me that people can see them call erich overemotional and witness this whole Being At Your Friends House While They Fight With Their Parents Tier and be like well actually ancients are not only intellectually and physically but also emotionally superior to everyone else. like does this look like any of that.

also funny as fuck that lahabrea severed his problematique cringe younger self entirely from his soul and left it to rot in prison until it mutinied. mostly for the crime of mourning his own wife and feeling perfectly normal human regret at the tragedy and disbelief of it. i can see why venat did not think the convocation was capable of reaching meteion.

[dragongirlbunny]

incomplete list of guy ffxiv characters and how easy i think it would be to trans their genders

thancred: this would be tricky because thancred would be one of those "i dont have dysphoria so i cant be trans" eggs but if you can convince him to put on a dress and get him to look in a mirror there's a 70% chance that you'd just hear the egg shatter.

urianger: honestly its a split between spending a few months as a girl and going "not for me, but it was worth the try", being nonbinary with left gender, and being a girl but not changing her appearance in any way

alphinaud: i hc him as trans so this feels like it would be a detrans thing :/

estinien: i dont think estinien understands gender and just smiles and nods politely when you try to explain. if you do manage to explain gender to him he would end up being nonbinary but still he/him because changing pronouns would be too much work for too little gain.

zenos: i think you could do it but it would have to be through some kind of femdom forcefem thing

emet selch: emet selch has more genders than you can fathom. back in the days of paradise one could have as many genders as they so choose

the machinist quest guy: i think you'd discuss being trans and he'd listen intently, think it over, and go "nope i'm cis" and then two years later you'd bump into her at walmart and she has boobs and is like "haha funny story"

vrtra: you could do it but you'd have to use his sister complex and that's not my cup of tea so it wouldn't be worth the cost

themis: no amount of polite discussion will crack that egg you need to just call her a good girl

hythlodaeus: you look at him and say she doesnt already have girlboy swag

g'raha tia: she's 99% of the way there and just needs someone to ask if she's considered being trans for the dam to break because she overthought it to the point that she's like "well, if i was trans, it would be way too obvious right? so since nobody pointed it out i must be overthinking things"

honorable mention: cloud strife: she's too depressed to think she is trans because she thinks her backstory is too sad but if you get her therapy she'll come out like two months later

[chilapis]

hi lapis! i hope this isnt bothersome, but i thought i should tell you, today i found out my f/o has an official perfume too, and all i could think of was your extensive and detailed (and impressive) breakdown of tartaglias. my bf is a fellow hoyo character, luke from tot, which im not sure you know of, but generally personality wise hes quite energetic and positive, with angst and gloominess hidden and unprocessed, but thats .. irrelevant. the top notes of the perfume have lemon and orange, and there is apricot in the heart (?) notes, which i think does suit him quite well. as well as spearmint? which i did not know you could put into perfume. and lily of the valley, and then amber and whatnot in the base notes. to my understanding the top notes arent what it mainly smells like?? im not knowledgable about this stuff at all so i dont know what scents mix well or whether if they have like themes or symbolism, i feel like ive been losing my mind reading articles about different notes and the composition of scents. i am still very lost, but i feel like your post gave me some direction, so thank you!

anyway, hope youre doing well, and also that this isnt too weird of a message to send, as we have been mutuals for only some time <3

- @lov3dream

Oh goodness, this isn’t weird or bothersome at all — it’s been such a thrill to read. I haven’t really ever indulged in any other MiHoyo games, but I have briefly heard of Tears of Themis so I do have the briefest idea.

First thing? Don’t every think of something as not holding potential to be a perfume note; it’s mostly chemical compositions that are used to achieve those notes or accords, or wrung out essences. It is truly insane what you’ll find in the notes of perfumes sometimes. That said, taking all provided notes into consideration, that certainly smells refreshing — citrusy, minty, with a slight warmth and sweetness to it. I’d say the way fragrances smell have a-lot to do with many different factors. Namely, if you put it on yourself or such, it might smell different on you than it might on someone else because different people tend to pull different notes of the fragrance more strongly based on their own body’s natural scent.

As for the notes; notes are usually divided into three categories, top, middle, and base. Most people usually smell the perfume in that order too; meaning that you might smell the top notes right off the bat, the middle notes when it’s been a few minutes and it’s settled in, and the base notes when it’s been a while and it’s just lingering now. Of-course this isn’t a rigid rule and sometimes the base notes are so strong that they hit you as soon you spray. I feel like it depends on the general/full make-up for scents to work together? Not to mention Memo again (can you tell I have a favourite house yet), but their Italian Leather fragrance literally has Tomato leaf in it. Tomato leaf. Can you imagine making that work without making yourself smell like soup? No? Well, they managed it somehow and it’s honestly not a bad scent, though it’s not something I’d personally wear due to my own tastes. It’s actually quite nice. Scents do have themes and symbolism however; most people are a stranger to that so you don’t have to worry about it, as the average person is more or less just concerned about smelling good rather than smelling like or representing a particular style or feeling.

Articles can be really confusing though, I get that, because certain things are just, much easier to understand in conversation than in a pre-written article. I promise you don’t have to do this alone though; I could help you navigate scents and themes a little better? You can message me if you need any help and are confortable with it, I wouldn’t mind at all. This is such a sweet message either way though, good luck and I hope you’ve been seeing to your needs and taking care of yourself!

[mlynar-nearl]

i find it astounding that you have a system for this. i mean, not to say that i pull randomly, i do save for mostly lims only (the only one i lack would be nian herself actually) but i am seldom ever able to save up that much (175?? insane), its mostly about 80 to 100 for each banner. although i will say that i did pull for certain characters i like or found meta like thorns/surtr/gnosis/passenger but it did cost me which means im always fumbling for pulls at the end of each limited banner. ever since w banner where i dumped over 200 pulls for pots (why??) i have been more stringent with my saving but ive never actually saved that much. do you have monthly card or is it just somehow pure f2p things (do you use op? im genuinely curious how do ppl save this much when im always poor) ?

ah and yes gachas are exploitative in nature, but at this point of time, it is what it is tbh, i only choose to whale in games where i genuinely like the game to bits (read: honkai) or i support them in other manners, such as merch (i buy the ak anniv boxes every year !) but yeah gachas are honestly very predatory now its scary ngl. but genshin is cool :) i dont play anymore but i might come back just for kaveh (,,,,i love him so much,,,) and abt mhy games i would rec tears of themis ! if you like pretty men yeah thats my only excuse </3 the men are pretty i am gay but i can sure as hell appreciate the very pretty men hehe. perhaps i will sleep soon it is almost 3.30am so its probably my last ask of the day (?) ty for the consistent replies !

yeah of course! i use monthly card which helps and i buy some stuff around the anniversaries and such which helps, but limiting my possible moves helps Psychologically.

funny you say that ab kaveh because my roommate lured me in to genshin with alhaitham. we call it alhaithamquest because i played the game to get alhaitham, build alhaitham, and put alhaitham in Situations. i am up to the last object on that list. i'm putting him in SO many situations. kaveh and alhaitham fascinate me. i love autistic characters and love/hate relationships and i love how kaveh asks if youre hired actors. i just wish more people in sumeru were dark-skinned...alhaitham should be brown...they couldnt make him a moc because then hed be the optimal character i Think. genshin's plot and such doesnt feel nearly as robust to me as arknights but it is good fun, and i cant begrudge it that. also i think it has some of the funniest plot setups ever because the whole "zhongli helps you plan his own funeral" thing is literally comic gold to me. i'm not taking genshin too seriously admittedly considering the Scatman Diluc Incident but i like it that way. keeps the brain mold away.

hope you sleep well btw<3

[actualbird]

I got distracted reading 4-04 and 4-05 i totally forgot the actual thing i was supposed to ask you today, what are your thoughts on the kinds of shows the nxx team wouldve watched as kids growing up. MC and Luke have apparently watched animes and even dressed up as characters but i have this need to know the finer details. LIKE. WHAT DID YOU WATCH SPECIFICALLY?? And i remembered you said luke was the one who probably understood most of the terms zangr was saying so like?? Luke do you like these kinds of things?? -Marsh

MARSH, thank you so much for this ask and for the SPECIFIC WORDING "watched as kids growing up." because that makes me have to go back in time and thusly uncovering by far my favorite yet most under-utilized and never-brought-up detail of tears of themis:

the story of this game takes place in the year 2030

DO U HAVE ANY IDEA HOW FUNNIER THIS MAKES SHIT???? AND ALSO HOW MUCH MORE SENSE STUFF MAKES??? let me explain myself by going thru all the boys one by one

luke pearce

YEAH HE SAID HE AND MC WERE RLLY INTO ANIME AS KIDS. luke pearce who is 24 years old in 2030 means that from the Important Media Ages (12-15) it was 2018-2021. this period of time, anime started getting more and more accessible, most notably getting on netflix and stuff like this. so like all the anime on netflix rn? yeah luke's watched them.

though because i kin luke, imma say that his fave is fullmetal alchemist: brotherhood. ive got no characterization proof for this, i just want to give him this honor

additionally, luke is a HUUUUGE fan of the original Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle novels (ACD Sherlock) and i think this would have pushed him to watch like, just every popular sherlock media adaptation there is. he personally liked Elementary better than BBC Sherlock. he generally just gravitates to the adaptations that dont forget about the heart of all of the characters.

also also also, luke likes action movies ranging from "hey this is "good" to critics" to "this is a shit movie but MY GOD IS IT FUN!!!"

artem wing

artem wing who is 29 years old in 2030 means that from the Important Media Ages (12-15) it was 2013-2016. but also artem is a MOVIE SNOB LMAOOO, hes That Guy with the Opinions On Film and you bet that his analytical ass was into just the most extra shit to watch those days because no teenager is chill, every teenager has some kind of ego, i dont know what movies he would have watched at that point to be the Smartest Teenager About Movies, but he sure did watch them

though artem also is very into sci-fi literature and 2013-2016 had a BUUUNCH of huge sci-fi movies. Pacific Rim, Gravity, Interstellar, Arrival. Arrival is deffo artem's fave, dont fight me on this, i can explain further but not in this answer bc it will get LOOONG LOL

artem also is into "classics" which uh. wait artem what do you Mean by that, what is a "classic" for somebody born in 2001??? i dont really know exactly what he means by "classics" so i just take it to mean he's a slut for period dramas which leads me to my closing point

"Once upon a time, when [Artem] was younger, around 17 years old, he pondered identifying as asexual or as one of the subsets under that term, but he put that aside after he first watched Pride and Prejudice (2005). He had then acquired a recurring fantasy in which he would be sensually accosted by Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy in a secluded study after months of furtive, charged glances, lingering, split second touches, double entendres classily and subtly masked but still implying a repressed yet voracious—Moving on." -an excerpt from my comedy smut fic where artem goes thru a crisis. yeah. yeah. Pride and Prejudice dir. Joe Wright was his bisexual awakening.

MOVING ON!!

vyn richter

vyn richter who is 27 years old in 2030 means that from the Important Media Ages (12-15) it was 2015-2018 but honestly that doesnt help me AT ALL LOL BECAUSE VYN IS A TOUGH NUT TO CRACK.....

like honest to god i cant even imagine vyn as anything other than an adult KJBSJKFS (which is depressing, if i think about it more... but also what vyn would want, i assume he would hate for people to have known him as a child, imperfect and shunned.....which is ALSO DEPRESSING. VYN, U GOOD???)

okay yknow what im not studied enough in Vyn Richter Studies so i will come back to this once ive gotten more of his story and know more of his (what im theorizing to be a SHITASS TERRIBLE) childhood history. so vyn, i guess ur safe from me....ur safe FOR NOW, THAT IS....

marius von hagen

marius von hagen who is 21 years old in 2030 means that from the Important Media Ages (12-15) it was 2021-2024. good fucking lord, marius was born in 2009 and that makes him so young that his Important Media Ages arent even DONE HAPPENING IN OUR CURRENT TIMELINE, JESUS....

2021 is an interesting era of entertainment because it is getting steadily more and more apparent that corporate greed is trying to swallow up good storytelling; movies and shows are made as fast food products to be consumed immediately and thrown away just as fast. there are smarter posts and articles talking about this, but my point here is that marius "believes SO MUCH in art and art's capability to make a difference" von hagen would HATE THIS SO MUCH and, through spite, get into a lot of indie medias that dont necessarily sell. smaller movies, tv shows that got cancelled way before they should have.

oh, hey, MARIUS WAS 12 YEARS OLD IN 2021, yeah he could have watched The Owl House and threw a fucking FIT when disne/y nerfed the show's third season. he has not forgiven and he has not forgotten.

regardless of his age, marius, at some point in his teens watches Vincent and the Doctor (s5 e10 from Doctor Who). for those who dont know this episode, it involves Vincent Van Gogh and a bunch of sci-fi stuff but, at the end, a scene where Van Gogh is taken to the future and shown the impact his art has made on people. please watch it, if you havent it, it's very good and no words can do the experience justice.

anyway yeah marius watches it and it makes him FUCKING SOB

yeah so these are my takes kdjbfdsjfs

[antiloreolympus]

12 Anti LO Asks

1. this is something thats so unintentional about the colors choices rachel makes in comic but pure white clothing in ancient times literally denoted slaves and the poor, because they couldnt afford dyes or threads to make their clothes colorful. even beyond that, white (as she admits in the idea of it being a "wedding dress") can be seen as a gross visual of women needing to be "pure" and "virginial". i thought this was supposed to be against purity culture? why is she visually reinforcing it?

2.  punderworld suffers from the same issues as LO does, though, it's just less blatant. demeter is still abusive, people still look alike, and the rest of the kings are still put down to make hades seem like the best option.

3. is lo hades even actually attractive though? i dont mean looks, i mean personality. bc he just seems like a power hungry authoritarian who refuses to ever let go of control and hates to be questioned and not get his way. he just doesnt seem like a pleasant person at all, much less one this sweet and bubbly persephone would be happy with once the honeymoon stage fades away. i understand LO is going for persephone becoming like him to to be queen, but shouldnt it be the reverse?

4. honestly, even ana steele and bella swan had defined interests and personality traits, meanwhile LO persephone is just a blank piece of wood nearly four years in. having a few times showing her reading a book is not enough to claim she has anything going for her. shes just there to be developed around hades, not to be an character on her own.

5. all im saying is suitor armor had a whole month past between two episodes while LO hasnt even meet a full month in almost 200.

6. in regards to the humor in LO, rachel just isnt funny lmao. what she finds funny is very juvenile (fart jokes, people yelling, weird facial expressions, cringey millennial "humor", even memes as panels) that it just undermines what's supposed to be a "grand epic" like she's trying to make LO out to be. I think humor is good in serious stories when done right, but she adds them way too often and at bad times that it just makes it immature and takes you out of the story.

7. the problem too with LO refusing to use time skips and showing every minute of every day is that is basically bans the fans being able to speculate and fill in the gaps with little what ifs and the like. theyre allowed to no room to imagine their own scenarios or interpretations because LO is like this is how it is! do not question it! do not stray from it! which is like? how is that fun to read if the creator refuses to let the readers form an opinion outside of exactly what they say?

8. that one anon is selling disney princesses short. cinderella had the deep connection to her departed mother, snow white was exceedingly kind, aurora was rebellious and strong willed, jasmine, belle, mulan, and others had goals and personality to them. if anything comparing LO persephone to them is an insult, because she is nothing but hades' trophy wife and possible brooding mare. The disney princesses don't need their princes to be princesses, but LO persephone needs hades to be anyone.

9. honestly lo hades both build and face-wise doesnt even look different from any other man in the series (bc rachel cant draw anymore than two faces i guess) but her purposely making him have such short, white hair, always in boring suits, and acting the way he does makes him seem WAY older, which makes his gap in power, experience, and age to persephone, who is designed to be so childlike, even worse. making his so sharp and cold looking is a good idea on paper, but it kinda ends up backfiring,

10. even the synopsis is a lie at this point. like it sells LO as some light hearted, glamorous teen drama, but then you read it as its a degraded in art, disjointed mess of rachel trying to juggle persephone marrying a guy she hasnt known a month, kissing hades' capitalist ass, hera being a #GirlBoss, a second god war, a horrible handling of sexual assault, hamfisted cameos, illogical made up ships, american-named OCs, butchered "retellings", ill thought out coups, and shopping montages.

11. ok but we have to be thankful tumblr is basically a dead website because if not LO fans would be on those fandom chains going "little goddesses grab your pomegranates 😤" unironically like superwholock fans talking about sonic screwdrivers n shit.

12. on the subject of lawyers for persephone: wouldnt that be a perfect chance to introduce an actual law goddess? like dike, maybe themis, someone like that, as opposed forcing hades into a very biased role that makes no sense. like i know rachel only put him in that role to be like aw look how powerful he is and how devoted he is to keeping her out of trouble! but i just see it as a set up to persephone once again being dependent on him, this time for her own life. like? how is that romantic?

From OP, Not Anon: ---FP Spoiler---

RS ‘got rid’ of Themis by putting her on maternity leave. Can’t have an actual law god(dess) defend Persephone/Demeter I guess 💀💔