#ask arcana magnus

[askarcanamagnus]

Lady Arcana Magnus, and the collective that she's associated with therein, which forms of aesthetic variation do you personally find the most appealing or fascinating? Furthermore, which kind of ideal expression do you advise to a queer demimale who has been feeling some feminine aesthetic alignment for some time now, and would thus like to dress or style themselves accordingly? I was told once that I had a certain feminine quality about myself, though back to the core of the question, I suppose I'd love to learn more about your aesthetic experiences in order to learn more about my own potential.

Additionally, in terms of the outer multiverse that you may be aware of, have you ever encountered any variations of Shockwave that were trans, where perhaps learning about themselves and their own internalized biases led them to realize that their present external expression didn't align with what was truly themselves? I suppose I think it would be interesting if a Shockwave was able to better apply her potential in the service of aesthetic liberation :3

 The query:

Lady Arcana Magnus, and the collective that she's associated with therein, which forms of aesthetic variation do you personally find the most appealing or fascinating? Furthermore, which kind of ideal expression do you advise to a queer demimale who has been feeling some feminine aesthetic alignment for some time now, and would thus like to dress or style themselves accordingly? I was told once that I had a certain feminine quality about myself, though back to the core of the question, I suppose I'd love to learn more about your aesthetic experiences in order to learn more about my own potential.

Additionally, in terms of the outer multiverse that you may be aware of, have you ever encountered any variations of Shockwave that were trans, where perhaps learning about themselves and their own internalized biases led them to realize that their present external expression didn't align with what was truly themselves? I suppose I think it would be interesting if a Shockwave was able to better apply her potential in the service of aesthetic liberation :3

“Zoomy” Arcana Magnus: Dear Expansive Quester,

I am deeply honored, we all are, that you reached out to us about this. We will answer in three parts, first, regarding the various aesthetics we enjoy for ourselves and in others. Second, giving you tools to navigate your own iteration and desires on your journey for euphoria. As it sounds dress is a part of this, we will advise in that regard overlaid with our own experiences whether binary bond or otherwise, and some questions to consider. We are more than happy for this to be a blog conversation if you wish! 

Lastly, we will tell you about some the Shockwaves across variation we’ve met, for we do know some. I myself was close with an Autobot Shockwave, they was an instrumental strategic advisor on Nautica’s command staff in the Great War, and a proud single mentor to the stoic fun-loving Wrecker and Torchbearer errant in love with Windblade, Strongarm. We do know some she pronoun Shockwaves though. <3

On my part, as you may know, I am a trans torquey zoomdare and a gal, the latter from contact with humanity and my trans gal binary bond partner. For those unfamiliar with compound noun aesthetic assemblage terms originating from bots like us under the umbrella systems of sparktion (Cybertronian origin), hearth (Camien origin), voyage (Velocitronian origin),  sedneemet (Eukarisian origin) etc. terminology, some of which we first introduced to this world back in early 2022, we will define in brief in this regard:

Cybertron -sparktion - literal meaning: sparklike assemblage, assemblage of sparks, the seeing of trying to understand one's aesthetic singularity as getting to know one's spark.

Caminus – hearth - an aesthetic understanding from the fire of the person and community, of passion, of forging, of dedication, and the universe.

Velocitron – voyage - the love of the journey itself taken very deeply, considered more important than a long resting point of conclusions.

Eukaris - sedneemet - rock affinity based, specifically the intergenerational formation and changing of shape and composure from many different sources.

In regards to specific aesthetics to me zoomdare reflects a sense of a graceful rush in body and mind, it is somewhat comparable to the sensory re-acquaintance euphoria human bodied people experience particularly from doing hormone replacement therapy for aesthetic reasons, however it is also comparable to the reknowing of oneself and the world in other senses, whether meditation, dance, martial arts, whatever one feels at home and in tempo with, what makes one happy. That is more the zoom side typically, however these definitions are self ascribed, not prescriptive. People such as myself speak to the entwining with the other end of the dare portion reflecting an intrepidness in existing and building on that, and also to carry on and care for ourselves and one another, to protect, create, and deescalate all we can.

As such, for people like me, there is also a bodily component- while a zoomdare can be any shape, say a telescope or microscope bot in the zoom and/or daring of their magnification, or a building bot one with their surroundings and denizens- for many of us it is the altmode shape to soar or flit about or charge or outmaneuver or race or flow that affirms us- for me, being a robust high speed car with some torque and reflecting that in my bot mode shape and my fields of study makes me very happy. Windblade, Anode, Velocity, Aileron, Hot Shot, Trans-Mutate and many more also know themselves with their frames in a similar manner. As a mutualist in attraction, that is to more similar aesthetic assemblages while still reveling in symbiosis of our differences- I find that attractive, and there is a tank Shockwave who fits that profile for me, but we won't talk about her until the end of this post (my understanding is that the feeling is mutual, but we've decided not to act on it. sometimes attraction is just that).

But the truth is most bots of my world feel some affinity to zooming and daring, just as I do to holding, wooshing, booming, clawing, flapping, chords, spinning, flares, seeking, forging, the torque, blazing, plunging, the absences thereof, the whys, the hows, the whens, and where’s and on and on. We do after all have hundreds of thousands of years to have built up an assemblage viewpoint, to know ourselves as compounds of so much. In this way. My realizations of myself created a new kinship with my symbiotic launch tank-alt torquey wooshhow twin sibling Galvatron, for he could see and embrace through me what taking on mutualistic trans zoomdareness would have been like for him. 

Regarding torque- it's a way of referring to the rapid build-up and force of momentum of persona and/or euphoria of such in the frame and the ensuing results in contact with the world. It is somewhat comparable to your term “butch” from lesbian and sapphic terminology as one butch lesbian Spacewarp realized dating torquedare Perihelion, however as you can tell from the fact symbiotist Galvatron uses it the term torque, like the rest of our aesthetics, are not mere analogs for gender. They are our own parallel and vastly differing iteration that has some amusing overlaps. Some examples of primarily torque folks include Elita One, Pyra Magna, and Optimus Prime (all torqwhy), Road Rage (torqdare), Cliffjumper, Arr-Cee (a motorcycle bot I am close to), and Catapult (zoomtorqdares), whereason the holding or being held and knowing when to let go ranges from as small as Lug (holddare), to Titans like Lodestar (zoomholddare).

There will always be aesthetic contextualization and iteration, there has been as long as there has been life to experience of it, so at the very least as long as there has been sapient life- and in that sense, will always be around no matter how hard people try to erase it, and even should all life perish, we carry on in love’s memory forevermore beyond the question of physics or gods. 

“Prof” Arcee: while my world and that of Arcees you are familiar with use gender, the situation is similar. Our genders are linked to one another, and inform and are informed by alt mode and relation to it. I am a mutualist trans alt modus iterexper gal, so I am polygender in that way, and even in how harsh and tragic my world’s history was, we did still have many beautiful understandings, and though I would not know the word zoomdare until I was very old, we were building towards that framework, for example I did know I liked some torque to me, and this was actually a point of grief since Jhiaxus’s transmedicalist reformat of me in his rigid ideal of a woman and not what I wanted for gender affirmation as a gal, did not take that into account or more accurately ignored it. I would take millions of years to be brave enough to take on robustness again within the shapes I actually wanted. 

Regarding your question- I would encourage you to reflect from yourself and the world around you. What kind of gals or femme-spectrum folks do you look up to or aspire to be like? What clothing makes you happy? That will help answer your question. While clothing is not really my thing…

“Arcblade” Danielle Witwicky: if its not tough color schemed armor that allows maneuverability, I like a-skirts and dresses, because I can move easily in them, more easily than pants (not that I’ve worn pants for along time, hard to do as an exosuit cyborg), and I tend towards a stately appearance if I am bothering with clothes. Anything can be feminine if you want it to be, it's just a question of what resonates with you.

“Zoomy” Arcana Magnus: regarding Shockwaves, yes, we know of some who are trans, and some who even though they are not had their own epiphanic cycles entangled with the journeys of other people. The Shockwave I know from my life uses they/them, a zoomdare, is aconjunxic and asensual, and struggles with emotions. They however were raised in a loving community of my world’s Golden Age, that showed them to observe and understand that there is wisdom and reason for a society of mutual aid, consensus, care, and solidarity, and while they may struggle with being compassionate and loving emotionally, the concepts themselves make sense to them, and they know that we love them. There is one entity in the universe they do love dearly, can hug close most easily- their mentee, the brave and sweet gamer Torchbearer errant Strongarm, who they raised on Caminus in the late Golden Age, since they foresaw that world would play such a particular role in the aesthetic Autobot Revolution. Shockwave was a scientist of astronomy, physics, and engineering, but they also intently studied civilian and military strategy, and would go on to serve as one of the strategic command advisors to stratelect Nautica, who advised and coformed much of the strategic planning with Supreme Commander Optimus Prime on behalf of our pluralistic democratic government at the galactic level of the war. It was Shockwave who was the chief architect of the system by system, sector by sector randomized strategem algorithm offensive late in the war that made us unpredictable in our offensive late in the war against the remaining Decepticon sectors, before Nautica led the  command of a unified consolidation of special forces interdiction, fleet-scale peaceful penetration, and wave based planetary deployment with direct tactical ground support and in tandem with Decepticon defectors. 

It was my personal honor as a Prime and as elected Director of the Anchor special forces and thus one of the joint chiefs to present Shockwave with the Medal of Cosmic Survival, for their algorithm that they monitored and edited with real-time sapient input until conventional command resumed to have so thoroughly mitigated civilian casualties and maintained as primary priority the safeguarding of them above all else in a chaotic situation where we retreated from some regions and made full frontal assaults in others.

I won’t lie. Even with our pacifist military (which we in the brass knew was an oxymoron and were always looking for the day when we could build peace instead of fight to survive) considerations of not engaging in strategic bombing or bombardment of any targets that was not confirmed to be solely a conventional military base or holding with a confirmed lack of civilian presence in or close enough to be collateral, that even with maintaining only use of tactical direct support otherwise and de-escalatory doctrine always looking to find grounds for mutual reparation, restitution, restoration, and reconciliation, people were caught in the crossfire throughout the war even on the infantry scale. Even when the killing usually reached only the target in mind that itself is still a sadness and atrocity. It weighs on my conscience, on all of us. We cried a lot about it, and it’s the whole damn reason Anode and Lug made a plea to both sides to stop because of the sheer amount of trans people, and people generally, who had died on both sides over 500,000 years of war. But that’s a story for another time. Suffice it to say that at least we did not try to declare our cause just, to excuse what we did, and that even though it was the Decepticons who had seceded and tried to coup us with their stratocracy that eventually became neo-Functionist genocidal reactionary totalitarianism and as such eventually had a civil war with those who didn’t agree, that we did not annex them, that we helped to reconstruct democracy with them when all was said and done, and that we repaid all we could for the hurt we caused, just as they did for us. 

Shockwave helped with that. They, like me, gave up their rank, helped to rebuild damaged polities by hand, to ensure the traumatized received care, to step in the way of conflict and not return violence in turn, like the peaceful intercessions of old in cycles of violence during the Golden Age. To risk their life as someone working for the dream with their integrated cannon deactivated and stuffed with cyberflowers, working with their one arm, and hauling supplies on their treads. They told me they were happy when, years afterwards, they were instead tugging youngsters along on field trips to the observatory. 

"Prof" Arcee: I could talk about the Shockwave of my world

It is my understanding that some Shockwaves do know themselves as trans gals. One such example is a Shockwave from the Tyran Cluster who found her way onto Axiom Nexus after a Spacebridge accident while helping AllSpark bearer Multivalia Prime (Chromia) take down the Fallen in order to save the new forged population of Cybertron from being forced into an army and dying. But because of her pushing for offworlder equality simply because it made more sense than the extractive jus sanguinis  hierarchy, she was pushed by bruisers affiliated with the Freelance Police Legion into the Heap, where she joined up with the Unified Anarchists League in trying to make the best of scarce resources through caring for one another and finding joy in resistance- it was in learning to dance and the way of the sword that she realized herself as a gal, and as the bots of her universe could do, simply changed her shape to reflect what that personally meant for her. She rationalized having armored skirt halves like Anode’s that in this case form part of Shockwave’s tank armor because the skirts have pockets, but she did later admit that the moment to moment life and emotive expression her t4t partner Anode had through them is why she took them on for herself. After the post-Shroud revolution that brought a new consensus of equality to Axiom Nexus, I met her via a Multiverse Drive ship that ‘Backpack” Arcee was on, and we shared stories with each other. Shockwave seemed very happy.

[the-butterbun]

Hello. I’m glad you like my descriptions for your TMA Tarot.

They are very basic for cards. Mostly just enough to get a message.

But given each Tarot deck is personal to the images they use, I might eventually have time to really go into depth of cards meaning. I have 5 decks myself, and though messages can be the same, the way they are presented are different depending on the cards images.

(Example being my Arcana Deck’s star is very big into hope and courage. As the person who represents it is these things. But my Vampire Deck’s Star is more about the determination and desire of hope than the feeling of it.)

So for your deck I’d be going into more about how the Star and The Dark go hand in hand. Your deck would talk more about the facing of darkness rather than the hope the Star invokes. And would give more messages to the reader that, say reversed, means they are in despair.

So say they got Strength and The Star reversed, the reading would indicate they are in despair and fear, the darkness is about to consume them, and Strength would tell them to face the Dark with calmness and resolve. Invoking in a way two beings, to face the fear of The Dark you must embrace the strength of The Hunt.

I hope this gives you an idea of why I adore Tarot Deck’s that are stylized to certain fandoms. Because though the meaning of the cards are roughly the same, the way they are presented and told to the reader is very different depending on the art and/or fandom they are based in.

Sorry for this info dump, I wish you well with your exams and your project. Dont feel any pressure to continue it, doing 72 cards with 22 of them being heavy stylized as Major Arcane is not easy. (Not to mention the 16 Court Cards.)

((Dude!! The Court Cards could easily be the 14 fears with the Magnus Institute and its Underground being the last two))

Ah, sorry getting carried away with this ‘ask’. Again good luck and hope everything goes well!

I absolutely love your descriptions for the tma tarot cards I drew!

I don't have a lot of practice with more flowery/metaphorical language. Seeing your proposals for the card meanings really sparked up my drive for this project once again. I can go in depth about my reasonings and analysis but poetic prose is a whole other ball park.

The fact that I don't actually have a lot of experience with tarot is also certainly a factor. at the beginning I had trouble matching characters with their cards since all decks are different but that is also the beaty of tarot I learned!

Here's the whole list of the Major Arcana matches so far (keep in mind these might still change, some of theses matches I am more attached to than others)! I paired up all these cards a few months ago so atm am a bit fuzzy on my exact thought process but I made it a point to give each fear AT LEAST one card of the Major Arcana (including the extinction). I have not done the Courts as of yet and probably won't for a while.

0 - the fool - Micheal Shelly

1 - the magician - Anabelle Cain

2 - the high priestess - Melanie King/Helen Richardson (I'm still split on this one)

3 - the empress - Gertrude Robinson

4 - the emperor - Jonah Magnus/Elias Bouchard

5 - the hierophant - Raymond Fielding

6 - the lovers - Agnes Montague and Jack Barnabas

7 - the chariot - Julia Montauk and Trevor Herbert

8 - strength - Daisy Tonner and Badura Hussain

9 - the hermit - Martin Blackwood

10 - wheel of fortune - Georgie Barker and Oliver Banks

11 - Justice - Peter Lukas

12 - the hanged man - Jonathan Sims

13 - death - Gerry Keay

14 - temperance - Jared Hopworth

15 - the devil - Nikola Orsinov

16 - the tower - Micheal Crew

17 - the star - Manuela Dominguez

18 - the moon - Gary Boylen

19 - the sun - Jane Prentis

20 - judgement - Hazekiah Wakely

21 - the world - Simon fairchild

I have my in depth notes on these somewhere in my journal so if anyone's interested I can go in depth on each card, why I chose who I chose as well as alternative candidates :)

PS.: Actually I should probably check out the Courts before I finalize these matches. who knows maybe I'll find better ones and push off some of the Eye servants over there I mean I love them dearly but also this deck is VERY heavily Eye stacked. the 'one card per fear minimum rule' definitely stays regardless

PSS.: (god I can't even even fit them all in the tags, my pookies...)

[wooyoungisbaby]

@baldyeosang tagged me to pick my top 5 fave characters of all time and make a poll with them. im nERVOUS these are my babies!!! yes even griffith dont @ me i have terrible taste in blorbos (´◡`)

Choosing was HARD!! i have many blorbos i love so much, and i've been in untold amounts of fandoms. i had to limit myself to one blorbo per franchise, or this would have been just five black butler characters, no joke.

@ @loyle-trash @sillyspero @sxcret-garden @halavibe @hongjoongsgoat

@vesvosmozhno @wisteria-daydreamer @ubernoona @sourkimchi @haahka

@hwakakeri @xpi-x-elx @coffee-addict-kitten @beenbaanbuun :) no pressure though ofc

Btw no one asked but here's my unedited list (in no particular order) which does Nothing to disprove my being a giant weeb

ciel, grell, madam red, sebastian, snake, violet, undertaker, alois (black butler) magnus bane (shadowhunters) kira (bleach) usopp, rocinante, luffy, law (one piece) buffy (btvs) essek, jester, caleb (critical role) bertholt, levi (snk) grunkle stan (gravity falls) tom lucitor (svtfoe) lance, shiro (vld) lucio (the arcana) griffith (berserk)

[the-churroguy]

Omg! It’s here! The first chapter?!?!

So one thing I’m going to say. If you aren’t aware of who the Night Lords in 40k are: the worst. They are literally the worst. They should not be admired or looked up. They are assholes. In the worst way imaginable. Why am I writing shitty fanfic about them? Don’t ask question! Anyway, I do NOT ship the main male and female leads. They are NOT a wholesome couple. They aren’t even an item, I realize that won’t stop some of you, but please be warned that these two monsters are NOT NICE TO EACH OTHER.

Kerreck fiddled with the edge of his blood-stained lightning claws as he glanced through the red tinted goggles of his helmet. His eyes flicked left a hair's breadth as he took in the sight in front of him. Just barely visible above the egress zone of this accursed world were three more battle barges.

The first and most pronounced was ‘The Nexum Arcana’, an ancient warship hailing from the sons of Magnus; captained by Azariah, a skilled sorcerer, seconded by none save Ahriman himself. Across from it was ‘The Miasmic’, which was heralded by a war-band of plague marines being led by a powerful terminator captain simply named Locust. He supposedly took the name from one of his ‘grandfathers’ own never-born after slaying it in battle. Lastly, and most dreadful in Kerrek’s opinion, was ‘The Warmaster’s Requiem’ a battle barge belonging to Black Legion. It had been renamed by its captain, Talos Infernus, a Master of Possessions. The ship was renamed to pay tribute to their former primarch, the Luprechal.

Kerreck and his brothers’ war party were not here willingly, at least most of them were not. Their captain had lost sight of their fathers last wish, the Night Haunter’s dying command, and had chosen the path of ‘apotheosis’. This was no doubt spurred on by talks with either the Rubric or the Black Legionnaire, perhaps even both. He grumbled as he stared out of the viewport, still gently gliding his gauntleted hand over his lightning claws, “Hmmmph, demon-hood. As if it is to be some sort of honor.” If he had his helmet removed, he would have spit at the notion of ascension. He understood the ruinous powers of the dark gods, and the ‘gifts’ they could provide; but all, save perhaps Khorne, would trick their subordinates and cripple them or curse them for nothing more than entertainment. No, Kerrick wanted NOTHING to do with them.

“Perhaps…” a young female called up to him, followed by the sound of a whetstone grinding against metal, “The good captain and his guard are simply seeking to honor your father in this way?” There was a scratchy chuckle from her throat as soft pink eyes stared up at the Night Lord. “What better way to sow terror, fear and bloodshed across the materium than by becoming the monster of your own story?”

The female was in rudimentary armor, scraped together from plates of former guard members and scrap they had lying around in the dark belly of the barge. It was dingy, barely offering protection, but it was light, and quiet, allowing her to slip in and out of the shadows with ease. It stood in stark contrast with Kerreck’s own warplate. His armor was ancient, fierce and covered in a leathery, blood-soaked cowl of his favorite prey he had hunted. The Night Lord turned his head to face her; sneering beneath his face plate. This girl, barely on board their ship for a quarter of a century, had nerves of adamantine to address him so casually, even more so to assume his thoughts. But she wasn’t wrong, a monster is the only thing Kerreck could call his captain, Envrol Skavak. He had served the Night Haunter faithfully throughout the heresy, and had carried out their fathers will for three different crusades, but now… greed and power had poisoned his soul. His vision had become jaded by thoughts and spirits of the warp as he steered not only himself, but his entire company down this forsaken path.

“Have you completed your tasks, Sahar?” Kerreck inspected the ax blade in her hands. It was nearly as large as she was, and undoubtedly heavier, but she was able to maneuver the weapon with relative ease as she twirled it in her hands, the black of the handle nearly blending in perfectly with the ebony color of her matted hair.

A cruel smile curled around her lips as she offered Kerreck his weapon, bowing her head to hide her eyes, “Of course, lord. This one was tempted to test its edge against some of the slaves below deck. But she stopped at the thought of using her master's arms without his permission.”

“So there is still some wisdom in that malicious head of yours after all.” Kerreck scoffed and took the device. “That is good. I’d hate to kill you, girl. You’re the only human aboard this vessel who can truly appreciate a blade's purpose. I’d hate to have to train up another one of you.”

The girl giggled slightly, “This one shall do her best not to inconvenience her lord.” She straightened herself back out and brushed her hair out of her face, “Besides, she prefers the quiet blades, engines give away positions.” She rested her hand against the pommel of one of her machetes. “Have we been summoned yet?”

Kerreck tisked as he turned his faceplate to stare at her. His eyes peered into her soul as he reprimanded her, “Know your place, Sahar. You are my ward because I ALLOW it. But you are NOT part of this war band, you are NOT a Night Lord.”

Sahar’s expression dropped slightly. She knew she would never be an astartes, no matter how hard she trained herself, bruised herself, bled herself. She would never be at their rank. She bowed her head low, “Forgive this one's forwardness.”

Kerreck paused as perhaps a small tinge of regret lifted to the forefront of his mind, but he quickly shoved it back down. No time for sentimental weakness. “You are correct, however; the captain HAS called me up. You will accompany me, and we will see what fresh hell he has planned for the company. No doubt the makings of another crusade.”

Sahar leaned to the side as she looked up to Kerreck with curious eyes, as if she had forgotten that she had just been scolded by a Night Lord, “Perhaps the four of them wish to marshal favor with the war master?”

“Abaddon is beyond any of us.” Kerreck grumbled, “And the fact that you know his name is very… disturbing…”

Sahar giggled to herself as she followed alongside Kerreck, “This Lord talks in his sleep. Dreams of malice leak bits of information. She does her best to maintain knowledge for the sake of her lord.”

“Keep it to yourself, for both of our sakes.” Kerreck looked down to her, “Many of my brothers would relish the chance at us. And while you would never be able to stop them, you can certainly do your best to remain unnoticeable to them.” Kerreck turned to make his way towards the bridge.

—————————————————————

Sahar had never seen so many astartes assembled in one place; and there were so many different colors. The ones in gold trim seemed to strike her the most. She had never known metals could be so brightly polished. And they were shining. It almost hurt her eyes to stare at them for more than a few seconds. Hues of purple and blue danced around them. The warp ebbed into the cracks in the war plate and danced across the surfaces of their heraldry.

She caught her master's left hand shift slightly. Glancing up she saw his helmet slightly tilted towards her, a subtle sign that let her know she was staring. She took a half step back and pulled the dingy blue hood of her makeshift shawl over her head, wanting to remain as unseen as possible. She smiled a bit as she stepped back though. Other slaves aboard this ship were terrified of their masters, and rightfully so. The eighth legion was the most bloodthirsty of the corpse gods creations, perhaps even more so than the World Eaters. The twelfth legion shed the most blood physically, but they did so with ‘honor’ and ‘pride’, all to appease some god that would only cast them aside. Just as the corpse god had done to his sons. It was a pointless cycle to her. She and her master did not kill for honor, they did not do so to bask in the gifts of some heathen deity. They killed… simply because they could, and they were GOOD at it.

The girl snapped back to reality as she listened to the meeting. The captains were all arguing over the war plan. Another thing Saharr and her master hated about these joint efforts with the cousin legions. Planning and logistics and rituals and… Sahar had to hold back a groan as she stared out of the viewport. She was getting anxious, ‘and if SHE is anxious…’ she looked up to her lord; ‘HE was bordering on insanity.’

———————————————————————

Kerreck was certain that if his teeth had not been filed down and reinforced from his geneseed, they would have been ground to dust by now. His eyes darted between Locust and Azariah:

The terminator stepped forward, “Speak carefully sorcerer. My armor may not bear the shine of yours. But the powers of the grandfather, as well as the endurance of my own strength will see that I am alive LONG after you and your brothers are reduced to dust…” he looked Azariah up and down, “… again…” Venom dripped off of that last jab as Locust reminded the Thousand Sons captain of their legions greatest failure and subsequent curse.

The sorcerer responded quickly as his staff tapped the ground as roaring blue fire erupted from his hand, “Mind your tongue, you walking pile of refuse.” Azariah hissed, “Your foul bodies may be immortal, but a snap of my fingers will see that entire ship ripped apart in the darkest realms of the warp as demons feast upon your putrid souls.”

The terminator’s autocannon began to cycle on his right arm. But ultimately, it was Talos who had the final words, “Brothers, please.” He reached out and touched both of their chests, “We already have so few allies. We can scarce afford to lose what little we have in the materium. Besides, you forget we are ALL guests to our host, Skavak.”

A Night Lord captain, draped in leathery capes and skull-embossed armor plating, slowly crept from the shadows as he stared at each of them. “He is correct, you two. You stand in MY ship, surrounded by MY honor guard.”

Locust huffed, “Some guard, you merely keep a handful of Talons aboard this bridge.”

“Those are the ones you are ALLOWED to see. Do not forget my filthy friend, the Raven kin are not the ONLY ones who can hide in shadows. Now then, this debate.”

Talos bowed lightly, “Yes, noble lord. We are ready for the next step. Perhaps an explanation?”

Skavak nodded and looked at the plague marine. “I will not deny the power you hold, ancient one. But your grandfather's gifts will not serve me or my company as we haunt the galaxy.” He motioned towards the Miasmic. “However, they WILL serve as an invaluable shield against whatever Imperial reinforcements arrive at the mention of this planet's downfall. My gift to you is that. Whoever you wish to capture and claim during the fight for your purposes will go unchallenged by the rest of us.”

Locust went to protest, but he could see it in Talos’ stance that there would be no further negotiations of his cause beyond this, “Very well. But heed my warning, Envrol. The Great Changer is not as… merciful… to failure as Nergul.”

“Do you believe any amongst the eighth legion are prospects for mercy?” Skavak raised an eyebrow.

“I have said what all I will say.” Locust turned to leave, a noxious cloud following behind him like an opaque cloak.

The rancidness of his armor made Sahar gag as she had to bite her tongue and hold her breath just to keep herself from vomiting across the decks. Once he had departed, she turned her hidden gaze back to the Black Legionnaire.

“And for the three of us?” Azariah asked, “What shall be our goals here?”

“Tzeentch and Khorne…” Talos smiled, stealing a quick glance to Sahar as if he could almost read her thoughts. “The two brothers have always been in an ebb and flow for the champion of the great game. The blood god detests all things arcane, while the Great Changer is disgusted by Khorne’s… straightforward… tactics.”

Envrol growled, “And yet, you claim they will both accept me as their champion? This doesn’t make sense to my mind.”

“You are a CAPTAIN of the Night Lords.” Talos raised his voice, but not in derision or condescension, but rather as a sort of praise, “A true son of Kurze, the Night Haunter. Your armies wade through torrents of blood and death. The War god hates spellcasting, but apotheosis is something he is no stranger to. And your deeds here will cement your claim. As for the Keeper of Knowledge…” Talon turned to face Azariah.

The rubric nodded and took a half step forward, “Tzeentch is above all else, curious. He craves knowledge, and the idea of a merging demon prince between him and his brother may anger him, but his curiosity will win over. It can be done.”

Sahar caught something just there, as the sorcerer spoke. A slight pause, a fraction of a second in looking back to the Night Lord Captain. He was lying. A scheme was brewing between the two arcane masters. Skavak might very well achieve apotheosis, but he would no longer be the one pulling the strings.

“Very well.” Envrol nodded, “Nine days. We will lay waste to this world for nine days. Eight monuments are to be erected as we take the hive sectors to venerate the blood god, around each monument we will inscribe the whispers of Tzeentch. The blood will appease the one, while the knowledge claimed by this world slakes the other.” Envrol looked to Kerreck, “Prepare your brothers. When shadow falls across the planet. You will strike.”

———————————————————————

[anarchivalsystem]

Some of us feel like answering questions, possibly with art, so... feel free to send asks?

Series we have fictives from who are interested:

(As well as non-fictives who are interested; see Misc.)

The Magnus Archives

Martin

Lonely!Martin (AU, also vetting questions for our Little, Callum Brodie)

Tim

Michael Shelley

Mike Crew

Gerry

Annabelle Cane

Five Nights at Freddy's

Toy Bonnie

Foxy

Glamrock Freddy (also vetting questions for our Little, Cassie)

Glamrock Bonnie

Eclipse

Milgram

Mikoto

Shidou

Fuuta

Haruka

Kotoko

The Hollows (book series)

Rachel Morgan

Ivy Tamwood

Algaliarept (begrudgingly)

Pokèmon

Raihan (also vetting questions for our Little Allister & Middle Bede)

Leon (also vetting questions for our Middle Gloria)

Rika

Grusha

Arven

Penny (begrudgingly)

Helluva Boss/Hazbin Hotel

Blitz & Stolas

Moxxie & Millie

Fizz

Tex

Alastor

Misc.

November (Darker than Black)

Faith (Buffy)

Lonely!November (TMA/Darker than Black AU)

Beast Boy (Teen Titans)

Robin (Teen Titans)

Poison Ivy (Harley Quinn Animated Series)

Bear (non-fictive, werewolf)

Queenies (non-fictive, hive of miniscule dragons)

Selka (non-fictive, Middle, selkie girl)

The Arcana

Asra

Nadia

Portia

Muriel

[oneglass-zinfandel]

My Masterlist

Last updated: 17.12.2023 (day.month.year)

Games:

Call of duty

Ghost/Simon Riley

König

Horangi

Soap

Price

Gaz

Ships i will do:

Soap x Ghost

Horangi x König

Movies:

Scream:

Billy Loomis

Stu Macher

I won't do any ships but i will do Polyamory or you dating both of them

(I apologize for the following)

DSMP:

C!Sapnap

C!Wilbur

C!Dream

Lmanbur, Pogtopia arc, Ghostbur, Revivebur, Simpbur

Tommyinnit / C!Tommy (platonic)

Quackity / C!Quackity

Karl Jacobs / C!Karl

Philza / C!Philza (platonic)

Ranboo / C!Ranboo (platonic)

Tubbo / C!Tubbo (platonic)

Technoblade / C!Technoblade (platonic)

I won't do any ships only x reader

If it says "(platonic)" i feel uncomfortable writing anything to do with kissing or romantic and especially NSFW, but handholding or small sighs on love are fine

Otome games:

Obey me:

Lucifer

Mammon

Leviathan

Satan

Asmodeous

Beelzebub

Beelphie

Diavolo

Simeon

Solomon

Ships i will do:

Asmodeous x Solomon

Diavolo x Lucifer

Twisted Wonderland

Ace Trappola

Deuce Spade

Tray clover

Cater Diamond

Leona Kingscholar

Jack Howel

Ruggi Bucchi

Kalim Al-Asim

Jamil Viper

Idia Shroud

Malleus Draconia

Cruel

Ships i will do:

Ace x Deuce

Tray x Cater

Malleus x Leona

Kalim x Jamil

You can request other characters as well i would just prefer doing these,the ships i dont care just make it legal

Arcana:

Nadia

Asra

Julian

Muriel

I wont do any ships only x reader

Nu: Carnival:

Eiden

Aster

Morvay

Yakumo

Edmond

Olivine

Quincy

Kuya

Garu

Blade

Dante

I won't do any ships only x reader

Dating simulators/Visual Novels:

Error143

14 days with you

John Doe

Jester

Homegrown Pet

Blooming Panic

Please don't hate Christmas

GAVRIL

Your Boyfriend (+ Teenage Peter)

YOU and HIM

My dear Hatchet Man

Broken colors

Glass Mind

Duality

Video games:

Stardew Valley:

Sebastian

Sam

Magnus

Elliott

Penny

Leah

Halley

I wont do any ships just x reader

Genshin Impact:

Kaeya

Lisa

Diluc

Razor

Venti

Albedo

Rosaria

Xiao

Aether

Lumine

Beidou

Tartaglia

Zhongli

Hu Tao

Xinyan

Yelan

Kazuha

Thoma

Ayato

Arataki Itto

Gorou

Heizou

Tighnari

Cyno

Alhaitham

Kaveh

Baizhu

Dottore

Pantalone

Scaramouche/Wanderer

Eremites

Lyney

Ayato

Ships i will do:

Lisa x Jean

Razor x Bennett

Xiao x Aether

Diluc x Tartaglia

Diluc x Venti

Venti x Zhongli

Gotovu x Kazuha

Beidou x Ningguang

Xingqiu x Chongyun

Tartaglia x Zhongli

Kazuha x Scaramouche

Kazuha x Heizou

Kazuha x Heizou x Scaramouche

Reiden Shogun x Yae Miko

Thoma x Ayato

Arataki Itto x Gorou

Tighnari x Cyno

Alhaitham x Kaveh

Scaramouche x Tartaglia

Dottore x Pantalone

Capitano x Tartaglia

Dottore x Tartaglia

Pantalone x Dottore x Capitano x Tartaglia

You can request other characters as well i would just prefer doing these,the ships i dont care just make it legal, also gay cuz i legit CANT

Other:

Creepypasta:

BEN Drowned/Ben drowned

Jeff The Killer

Ticci Toby

Eyeless Jack

Jane the Killer

Slenderman

Masky

Hoodie

Jason the toymaker

The Puppeteer

Bloody painter

Homicidal Liu

Jane the killer

Splendorman (angst to comfort)

I wont do any ships just x reader

V-tubers:

Mysta

Luca

Shu

Ike

Vox

Shoto

ships i will do:

Vox x Shoto

Mysta x Shoto

Luxiem x Shoto

Vox x Ike

Anime:

Bungou stray drogs:

Atsushi

Dazai

Ranpo

Kunikida

Tanizaki

Yosano

Fukuzawa

Akutagawa

Chuuya

Tachihara

Gin

Oda

Ango

Poe

Fyodor

Nikolai

Sigma

Tetcho Suehiro

Ships i will write:

Dazai x Chuuya

Dazai x Kunikida

Dazai x Atsushi (only platonic)

Dazai x Akutagawa (only angst)

Dazai x Chuuya

Oda x Ango

Poe x Ranpo

If you have any characters i didnt mention or ships you would like to see you can still ask but i would prefer these<3

My hero academia:

Midoriya

Bakugou

Kirishima

Mina

Denki

Todoroki

Momo

Tamaki

Midnight

Hawks

Shigaraki

Dabi

Toga

Twice

Mr. Compress

Ships i will do:

Kirishima x Bakugo

Toga x Twice (platonic)

Blue lock:

Isagi

Nagi

Bachira

Chigiri

Niko

Kunigami

Aryu

Sae Itoshi

Ships i will do:

Nagi x Reo

Bachira x Isagi

Chigiri x Kunigami

Mob psycho 100:

Reigen Arataka

Ships i will do:

Serizawa x Reigen

Chainsaw man:

Denji

Power

Aki

Angel Devil

Yoshida (maybe)

Ships i will do:

Aki x Angel Devil

Please dont ask for Denji x Makima or Makima in general,that stuff is just gross and i dont want to write for Makima,i said i dont like any minors x adults

TDLOSK:

Saiki Kusuou

Kaidou Shun

Toritsuka (maybe)

Aren

Ships i will do:

Aren x Kaidou

Danganronpa:

Nagito

Soda

Gundham

Ships i will write:

Soda x Gundham

Im sorry i didnt really watch the show or play the games but just some gameplay with these three characters.

Buddy Daddies:

Kokhi Uchiyama

Kazuki Kurusu

Rei Suwa

I wont do any ships just x reader

SK8 The Infinity:

Reki

Langa

Joe

Cherry

Miya

Ships i will write:

Reki x Langa

Joe x Cherry

Hunter x Hunter:

Gon

Killua

Kurapika

Leorio

Feitan

Chrollo

Shizuki

Kite

Meruem

Ships i will write:

Gon x Killua (platonic)

Kurapika x Leorio

Moriarty the Patriot:

Sherlock Holmes

William James Moriarty

Louis James Moriarty

Albert James Moriarty

Sebastian Moran

James Bond

Ships i will write:

Sherlock x William

Jujutsu Kaisen:

Gojo

Geto

Yuuji

Megumi

Toge

Choso

Sukuna

Ships i will write:

Gojo x Geto

Yuuji x Megumi

Death Note:

Misa

L

Light

Mello

I wont do any ships just x reader

[lycanlovingvampyre]

MAG 183 Relisten

Activity on my first listen: cutting the jasmine in my garden.

Wanna say right at the start of this episode, I loooove the soundscaping in this one! Especially the sounds during the dialogue scenes.

MARTIN:"Oh, bugger off!" JON: "Everything alright?" Ha, Jon's tone xD Like "Heh, I know what you're going to say".

JON: "It’s a building. A tower, in a sense." MARTIN: "Oh yeah? And what sense might that be?" JON: [Faintly ominous] "The Tarot sense." I thought the Ivory sense, but okay?

MARTIN: "Really?" JON: "What? No. Sorry, it… felt like a good line." MARTIN: "No, no, it was. I just… I dunno, I… you did the look and… It’s fine, sorry." Okay, Martin finally seems to get one of Jon's jokes, but I don't, can someone explain this to me? XD Like The Tower of the Major Arcana? What's up with "the look"? Anything specific or just Jon being a theater kid?

MARTIN: "What, what’s the deal, though? Parts of it almost look like –" JON: "The Institute." MARTIN: "Yeah." JON: "Yes. It makes sense. After all, it was built on the ruins of what Robert Smirke constructed." Also, like... The Magnus Institute was an academic institution. And this domain is about academia as far as I remember...?

HELEN: "I was so looking forward to catching up after that whole Basira and Daisy thing, but then pfft! You both disappear. I’d be very keen to know how you managed that little trick." MARTIN: "Why, it caught us by surprise too. I mean, w-we actually ended –" JON: [Firmly] "We found somewhere to rest. That’s all." MARTIN: "Oh, yeah. Ah. Yes." Hm, makes sense that Martin would tell her. With Helen per se he didn't really have any bad experiences yet (He did with Michael, but Helen is definitely different and that can draw a mental line, not seeing that it's actually still the same being). Jon on the other hand, oohohoho... He knows not to trust her.

JON: "She made her choice." HELEN: "With your assistance." JON: "It was still her choice." Ahhh, the choice and free will theme again!

JON: "Martin, I’d prefer we talk about this alone." HELEN: "Oh, I bet you would. You were probably just going to bypass it entirely, weren’t you? I can’t believe you would deny him the choice to see his own domain." MARTIN: "My… my wha– John, my what?" It's not Jon's fault they're being stalked by gaslight gatekeep girlboss all the time so she can show up and sprinkle some of her manipulation all over them, so they would start to argue. Good thing Jon and Martin are better than that. And technically, Martin should already have a strong suspicion he has a domain, they talked about it in MAG 167. Jon said they all have a domain and when Martin asked about his, Jon wanted to check in, if he really wants to know about it and Martin immediately declines. Being in denial of something or intentionally looking away doesn’t mean that that thing isn’t real.

Hm... This really took it out of Martin though. Normally he wants to talk things through, but now he rather has a moment to quietly think about it...

"The one who sits in the central chamber cannot remember his name. But he knows that people called him ‘doctor’. He made sure of that. To ignore it would have been the greatest disrespect and he will not be disrespected." Lol, is that poor soul Austrian? (There are sooo many memes about this here in Austria! They usually are titled "Tell me you're Austrian without telling me you're Austrian" and then it's someone with insanely many titles or absolutely stupid things with titles. For example doorbells on the outside of an apartment complex. There are no names, they are simply titled (ha) "Top 1" or "Top 2" and so forth. And then there is one with a small sticker in front of it so it reads " Dr. Top 5" xDD)

"This… wasn’t right. The first of the doors would lead him… Maybe that wasn’t the first of the doors. But it, it was, it was the first door. But that would mean… No, he, he was right, he was certain, he had factored in all the timings. This didn’t make sense." This has strong "My code isn't working... I have no idea why - My code is working... I have no idea why" vibes XD

That statement doesn't do much to me. Then again, I'm not an academic. My sister who has a PhD however says she totally feels this one.

JON: "Well, you’re a watcher, Martin. You worked for the Institute, you read statements. The Eye is… fond of you." This is super interesting. Cause this means, not every watcher out there is evil or a bad person like Jude, or Simon... So for the post-change-world this would be super interesting. (Oliver also seems chill to me, that's why I like him so much.)

MARTIN: "But I’m not an avatar." JON: [Heated] "Avatar isn’t a thing, Martin! It’s not– It’s just a word. A word used by… fools like Smirke to try and sort everything into neat little boxes, to reduce the messy spray of human fear into a checklist: Human, avatar, monster, victim." Love that we get this conversation, about how the world works, in a domain where this was the theme.

JON: "If you’re sure." MARTIN: "… I’m sure I love you." [FOOTSTEPS] JON: "I love you too." [FABRIC RUSTLES] Those two <3 (Ha! Better luck next time, Helen!!)

@a-mag-a-day

[fandomanimatic-tournament]

Fandom song animatic tournament: Bracket 1 Side B

Ultimately - Khai Dreams

"I think I'm better when I'm with you But I worry when you're gone I think I need to learn to love myself I must learn to be strong"

Who Are You, Really? - Mikky Ekko

"Who, who are you really? And where are you going? I have nothing left to prove 'Cause I have nothing left to lose See me bare my teeth for you Who, who are you?"

Remember that we're voting on how Iconic they are for ANIMATICS, not for the song itself. In order to make things fair, the tone and mood of the song should not affect how iconic it is (for example, a serious song should not be considered more iconic than a joke song just because it's serious)

Propaganda and animatic links of the songs under the cut:

Ultimately - Khai Dreams

Propaganda:

it’s so sweet but sad at the same time there’s just that note of melancholy and nostalgia for something that never was, hidden by soft words and ukulele it’s just so lovely i adore it

Animatics with the song:

Snufmin Animatic

Steven Universe Future

Razor and Bennett Animatic

SVSSS Bingqiu Animatic

Haikyuu!! Animatic

Who Are You, Really? - Mikky Ekko

Propaganda:

This one’s for all the cool looking villains with cool sounding backstories

I discovered this song through a Stanley Parable animatic and it's so so good. It's about breaking free from being controlled and taking charge of your own life and that fits so many characters!!

Animatics with the song:

Last Life

The Stanley Parable

The Magnus Archive

The Arcana

DSMP

Please be cautious and read the title, description and warning cards on the animatic videos if you decide to watch them. If you've got specific triggers I'd recommend even more caution when watching animatics of fandoms you don't know, since sometimes canon-typical themes don't get warnings.

Please keep in mind that I don't know all the media and fandoms of the animatics provided as examples and I don't have the time (nor the will) to research them all. Don't come into my notes or my ask box complaining about them being included, I will simply block you. If a ship animatic included is about an adult and a minor, do tell me and I'll take it out of the post

ALSO keep in mind that I don't know all the artists submitted; in fact, even if I do know them I do not know absolutely nothing about them as people (I do not have twitter nor tiktok) and I could not POSSIBLY have the time to research ALL of the artists' controversies and what came of them so PLEASE don't flood my inbox with the artists' entire crime list.

[corvid-mellofficial]

hhhhhhhai

i’m steel :)

(he/him/it/its/bird - 19 - queer - US American)

welcome to my art blog!!

here is where i post art i’ve made and reblog art i like!

i’m a traditional artist who usually uses alcohol markers for my colour work

…undertale and oc hell, sorry not sorry. the special interest is strong and underfell sans has had a vice grip on me since 2016

asks are open! feel free to bug me about my little shit characters or request a sketch

more under the cut

here's some stuff about me :D

favorite colour? cyan!

favorite genre of movie? horror!

favorite genre of music? ...quite literally everything. my liked songs is a minefield. rn i really like rage rap and swing though!

favorite song?

favorite musical artists? will wood, hozier, jhariah, do not resurrect, BABY GRAVY, pierce the veil, melancolia, deftones, kendrick lamar, tyler, the creator, nothing but thieves, etc.

favorite literature? oscar wilde my beloved (i left his book at home don't ask me trivia blease i just love him), biology, thrillers, societal commentary

fandoms? undertale (obviously), UTMV (obviously), homestuck, deltarune, the magnus archives/protocol (no spoilers pls), the arcana, marble hornets, creepypasta… sorry.

favorite aus? underfell!!!! though i am also very fond of understate, echotale, and sunnemona’s dreamtale!

gender and sexuality? am trans and some flavor of asexual idk. but i'm also the asexual who's posting pure filth on ao3 and will not shut up about being attracted to underfell sans and nightmare and i love my girlfriend SO MUCH

my aus and fics, currently! (corvid_mellow on ao3)

-UnderHeist

-Veneraverse

-Death and Despair Multiverse

-FINAL GIRL (18+)

-Finis Via

-being so normal series

-Should I Stay or Should I Go (on hiatus)

-The Cat and the Canary (under major reconstruction and hiatus LMAO)

-a surprise tool that will help us later (i need to finish my breakdown and analysis so i can start on my rewrite)

i consider myself to be pretty ship neutral!

that being said, i don’t go through and block people for ships and stuff, and the less i think about it the better, BUT!! i am incredibly uncomfortable with incest! whether that be fontcest, dreammare, frans, etc. sanscest is fine (id fuck an alternate version of myself, but never my siblings), but please don’t bring any of that onto my posts 🫶

also dni if you're any kind of queerphobic, racist, fatphobic, ableist, hateful in general, OR support the harassment of people over silly internet things. i won't be fighting with people on this blog, so i'll just block you if i catch your ass. i do not tolerate the hate of those who have done nothing to deserve it.

#'s!

i tag my art with “steel arts”

reblogs are “steel bebloggin”

asks and text posts are “steel blogs” and/or “steel says stuff”

me being absolutely down bad (usually underfell sans) is “steel simpery”

my writing tag is “steel be writin”

aaaaaand my ocs are tagged with “[character name] posting”

i try to tag everything i reblog with important tags, and i don’t do politics here!!

love y’all :)

[alex-dontknow]

🪶⛧ PINNED ⛧🪶

Hello! We are Crow (collectively), as you could tell by our blog theme. We are transmasc and collectively go by he/him. We are an autistic system and I (X - he / him❌️) am the main host and poster.

We are an artist and writer, explicitly fandom trash and OC creator. We are britlatino and, as of writing this post, bodily sixteen :3

You will mainly see art and writing on here, we hyperfixate HEAVILY and you'll see a lot of headcanons and interpretations of different characters. We are active in current events so you will occasionally see activism in posts and reblogs.

We are also a recently-converted Satanist. Unapologetically. No, we do not worship the biblical devil, kindly go educate yourself. ⛧

▪︎ IMPORTANT:

NSFW blogs DNI. This goes for asks, requests and mentions. You will be blocked. Only mild suggestion is allowed along with jokes and memes, but know the boundaries.

We struggle heavily with understanding tone over text. Please use tone tags when speaking to us.

Do not ask us for free art or writing unless we ask. The only exceptions are close friends and mutuals who we have frequently jested and interacted with.

We will occasionally say slurs we can reclaim on this blog (e.g. T and F slur). If you'd rather us not use them in our responses to you, please let us know.

Our DNI list is the following: basic criteria, endo / othergenic systems and supporters, proshippers, fujoshis and fudanshis, transmeds, AI "artists", zionists and neutral / pro-Israel — this page is strictly pro-Palestinian. You don't belong here 🇵🇸 — toxic religious people / extremists, right wingers, anti self-diagnosis and anti-recovery.

For more information on us including our other socials, here is our carrd.

We also do commissions :3

▪︎ INTERESTS:

Friday Night Funkin'

Miitopia

The Stanley Parable

Doctor Who

Devil May Cry 5

Six of Crows

Lunime, including old games

The Magnus Archives

The Arcana

Sanders Sides

Astronomy

Radiation + Nuclear disasters

Psychiatry + Dark Psychology

Unethical Experiments + Dark History

[grandhotelabyss]

You know what, though, about that last post on Sontag and Paglia: since writing it, I've had what they call a download.

There's an expression: "be careful what you get good at." When I was a kid, back in the monoculture, we all went to see the now-forgotten Oscar-bait Richard Dreyfuss vehicle, Mr. Holland's Opus, about an ambitious composer who takes a high-school teaching job, never writes his masterpiece, and discovers in age that his life-long pedagogy and its inspiring effect on his students has been his real chef-d'œuvre. In middle school, my friend Dan and I, who had begun to collaborate on our own comic books, were horrified by this movie. We were ambitious artists! Is this what adulthood would do to us?

The movie's tagline, borrowed from John Lennon, evocative of its resigned melancholy to the missed opportunities and failed utopias of the 1960s, is, "Life is what happens to you / While you're busy making other plans." But my life's not that different now. Sam Worthington and I were plotting outside the local riverfront arthouse theater last night—there was a Lynch revival; I was there to see Mulholland Dr. for the first time in a theater since, well, the first time, just a month after 9/11, though the film's elegy for America wasn't as evident then as it is now—to start a new art movement and save the culture, wildfire smoke from Canada smothering the city (unreal city) on the other side of the Mississippi.

(All of the above is why I placed a little allusion to the film—Mr. Holland's Opus, alas, not Mulholland Dr.—in my novel-in-progress Major Arcana, by the way. Please don't run out and see this weepy old movie on my account—I myself haven't seen it in over 25 years—but if you've already watched it, you might revisit MA, Part One, Chapter 8.)

Now teaching has been fine for me, actually. I can see why other artists and writers find that it misleads them, takes them away from their real work, but it doesn't affect me that way, first, because it keeps me close to the arts of reading and interpretation as practical and performed arts, and second, because it introduces me to some 50 to 100 new people a year. Both of these, I believe, can only improve me as a writer, and my fictional characters' bitter remarks about their own students, especially when these characters are frustrated artists like Simon Magnus or Alice Nicchio-Strand, should never be mistaken for my views.

Criticism, though, is my "be careful what you get good at." A comparative book-length belletristic essay on Sontag and Paglia—it's a good idea, let's face it, one of those good ideas whose obviousness makes it better than something more flashily counterintuitive would be. Why on earth hasn't this been written yet? And look, I'll write it if somebody pays me; I'm not proud. But Anna K needs to write a book before she dies, as I believe Dasha was just telling her, so let her write it. Because I don't really want to do it. I was on a podcast recently—it hasn't come out yet; I'll let you know; not Red Scare—and the host asked me if I wanted to write a nonfiction book, and I said, truthfully, no, not really.

Sontag herself offers a cautionary tale here: the supreme critic as frustrated artist, berating everyone at the end of her days that they shouldn't bother with her essays, that her novels are all that really matter. I myself have never read even one of her novels. (Mea culpa, maestra—I will read at least The Volcano Lover this very summer.) And I understand this because I myself on bad days want to make people sign an affidavit that they've read each of my novels twice before they're allowed to read my criticism! And my criticism, such as it is, I want to say, is just a series of poems, not judgments as such, not pronouncements but moods, occasions for certain styles of thought. "You took my sadness out of context," I want to say when people treat my negative verdicts too seriously, as if I wanted to outlaw this or that way of writing. This is insane on my part, I know, and don't worry, I'm much nicer in real life than Sontag was.

Paglia, on the other hand, holds an ideal of scholarship qua scholarship that neither Sontag or I quite did or do. Paglia's father was a professor, remember, while Sontag and I hail from the true suburban lower middle class, "Lower Slobbovia" as she called it, quoting a comic strip: the kingdom of bêtise. We, Susan and I, are more lowbrow by origin than Camille, which is why we're so much more uneasy than she is with popular culture, but also equally uneasy in academe. Sontag wasn't, as Sigrid Nunez once clarified, a snob—how could she have been?—only an elitist, which, in art, is fair.

(I dedicate that observation to anyone who wants to say I shouldn't write about two lesbians; there are infinite microscopic ridges and hollows to every smooth-seeming facet of "identity," whatever that even is, and as much as I might miss something about their gender or sexuality—and then again, you know, I might not; I was raised in a lesbian-run beauty shop—a lesbian writer to the manner born is equally liable to miss something about their class, ethnicity, or religion. Nobody can say everything, but everybody has some part of everything to say.)

Anyway, my download was this. I've been saying to myself that 2023 is the year I relax my critical clench, unlearn my Arnoldianism, so to speak, as Sontag never quite unlearned hers; and I've been saying to myself, too, that when Major Arcana is finished—which it almost is for me if not for you; it's 50 chapters long, so you'll be reading it until next March—I would write a play. I've wanted to write a play in the abstract, on principle, as it were: I had no ideas for a play. Now I do.

(I should stop looking, ever, at Twitter, but today they're talking about what a bad play Hamlet is—not even a pseudo-political moral objection this time, though the prince is toxic, I'm sure, just about what a "mess" it is. My goal, then, is to write a play as bad as Hamlet.)

Anna K can write the prose treatise on Sontag and Paglia, but I'm writing their tragicomedy, under new names, of course: in the guise, in fact, of wholly new characters, characters in a dream, a dream of siege and sickness and spectacle, a Platonic dialogue on love in which these intellectuals' daemons—Walter Benjamin and Walter Pater, Simone Weil and Emily Dickinson—dance and duel. I call it Saturn Dreaming of Mars. I destine its completion for the end of the year. I plant my flag; I stake my claim; you heard it here first.

[askarcanamagnus]

hello arcana whats it like working on the solus shield resistance?

Arcana Magnus: ah, that's an interesting story... you see, Solus Prime is my grandmentor. She and Amalgamous alongside Azimuth helped my laborer-teacher mentors Gallium and Feldspar to raise Galvatron and I. Primes where I come from are- not people with direct political power from their title. They are more advisors, who navigate their personal life with the help of the wisdom of a Matrix while taking a role in the collective good as a Prime. Sometimes of course, this does lead to them to become sages, knights errant, archivists, scientists, artists, in a different path than their life before, from the realizations a Matrix comes with... and when there is unfortunate need, war leaders. Solus- deeply cared for the iteration of the cosmos, whether the causality and variability around us or contextual formation and internal creation and imagination we are capable of, from dust to dust, a reflection of a deeper truth of the world. They loved to make things, forging tools for the people to use, teaching people to do so, building some of our first train lines, working on our first FTL engine, and, to her joy- presiding over aesthetic affirmation surgeries. She wasn't a blacksmith, so she couldn't help with initial protoform shaping the way dear Anode can just with hands, but sometimes extra help is needed then or after.

In my case, more than a century after, with her and Minerva's help, working with the parts I forged with tools to bring my own realizations into shape, but I couldn't quite add them to myself.

The Shield of Solus formed in my grandmentor's honor, to lead the defense the AllSpark and the Core of Cybertron as she had against the Functionist coup of our Cybertronian pluralistic democracies, and did again when the Decepticons attempted to strike at the same time Unicronists and Neo-Functionists did. When the Great War reached a point where it was clear it wouldn't end any time soon, she gave up her Matrix, now beared by Elita One- the head of the Shield of Solus, the vanguard command team of the Elite Guard.

It was hard, those millennia when Cybertron was blockaded and besieged by a Decepticon fleet from the Rim. Seeing polities and landscapes we had rebuilt after the Unicron incursion and the Functionist coup thereafter bombarded to rubble again... so many fleeing deep underground for protection from the Core once more... The team I fought alongside made it bearable. Greenlight, one of my dear loves, kept us alive with her hacking and intel skills, as darling Lancer also did as an engineer, and the two are both quite skilled combatants in their own right at range and up close. I often was in the role of a sniper duo with Moonracer, or wading into melee with Chromia, and advising Elita's command of the guerrilla defense of Cybertron while we waited for our galactic alliance to cut through as we tried to drive the Decepticons away. And Firestar dragged me out of the rubble or put out fires on my frame more than once, guarding me until Lifeline or another medic could reach me.

More than anything, the close-knit spirit, the endearing touch and care and friendship, made the three of us who were partners feel at home with them. We had moved to Caminus after the Functionist War, but the events leading up to the Great War brought us and our neighbor Firestar back to Cybertron often, and we were there for a strategy session when the Decepticon armada led by Six Shadow struck. Moonracer, a Velocitronian, was reporting in for defensive Wrecker duties in the Hadean, and Lifeline was a medic on staff for Paradron's delegation in the Autobot Alliance. Elita's flagship battlecruiser was the first ship to be struck, rammed in a surface repair yard by a Decepticon dreadnought, both ships lost in the process, devastating the Hydrax Plateau with a massive detonation from the sheer mass and acceleration, dwarfing any of your nuclear weapons, more akin to crashing a large asteroid into the Earth. I did not see the Hadean sun with my own optics for many years. So-

We gave them all our fury, and each other all our sweetness, and compassion and understanding to all. We fought as Autobots do. We cried, we laughed, we raged, we kept our heads cool most of the time, but it was hard.

The day we led a marine assault on Six Shadow's flagship and took down the Phase Sixer with our thermal weaponry and ununtrium rounds was one of the most relieving of my life, and to embrace Aileron, Grimlock, Galvatron, Windblade, Strongarm, Gauge, and Sideswipe, helped make it all feel real, that we had actually succeeded. By this point, we of the Shield of Solus felt close enough to try using an Engima of Combination to combine together, such was our trust. But that is a story for another time... <3

[iztarshi]

rules: In a new post, post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them and then post a little snippet of it or tell them something about it

Tagged by @readalong

Some of these are very old... WIP doesn't mean I'm actually working on it, it's more of a conceptual status.

The Magnus Archives

Ceylon Snippets

De-aged Peter Snippets

A Little Knowledge

Familiar Magic

Poems

Spop

Space Bats

Community Service

Volunteer

Signal to Noise

Utena

Vexed to Nightmare

Pokemon

Daemons

Horsepeeps

Rules of Engagement

TGCF

The Sword

Where There's a Weasel

and six untitled I got very disorganised here

Girl Genius

Magical Girl AU - Jäger Arcana

rottmnt

Jäger AU

Gods AU

ALT 4 - Experimentation

untitled

The Turtle Nexus

tmnt (it's 87 but that's what the folder's titled)

Five Times The Boys Met April Unexpectedly (And One Time They Went Looking For Her)

Raphael vs Aoi

(Febuwhump)

Day 1: Helpless

Day 4: Obedience

Day 10: Killing in Self-Defense

Day 21: Unresponsive

Tagging @magicalspacedragon @gelpenss @sroloc--elbisivni @kithnkin

[twisted-coffee-shop]

👁On the menu👁

Thank you for choosing our coffee shop, feel free to look around. Once you're ready for a purchase, please gather your belongings and head to the check out (ask box). Your order will be prepared with much care and love. Afterwards, you can enjoy your items on the shop's grounds or in the safety of your own home.

What I will do: 𖦹Character x reader 𖦹CHaracter x character 𖦹Poly ships (up to 4 characters) 𖦹Smut (tagged #shield your eyes) 𖦹Paraphilias 𖦹Drug use <3 𖦹Angst 𖦹Fluff 𖦹Dead dove; do not eat (Tagged #do not consume) 𖦹Headcanons 𖦹Short fics 𖦹Imagines 𖦹Moodboards

What I won't write for: 𖦹Politics 𖦹Discourse 𖦹Content creators 𖦹Scat, piss kink, emetophilia, vore, omegaverse, foot kink, pregnancy 𖦹Submissive reader 𖦹Smut for pre-teen characters Sources: 𖦹Arcane 𖦹Attack on Titans 𖦹Avatar the Last Airbander 𖦹BNHA 𖦹BG3 𖦹Creepypasta 𖦹DC 𖦹DreamSMP 𖦹Genshin Impact 𖦹Hazbin Hotel 𖦹Helluva Boss 𖦹Homestuck 𖦹Jujutsu Kaisen 𖦹Kuroshitsuji 𖦹Marble Hornets 𖦹Marvel 𖦹Naruto 𖦹Obey me! 𖦹Sally Face 𖦹Stranger Things 𖦹The Arcana 𖦹The Magnus Archives 𖦹The Witcher 𖦹Youtube personas 𖦹YTTD 𖦹Xiaolin Showdown

🍄𖦹Mod Shroomai𖦹🍄

[faggotry-fandom-fanfic]

Masterlist

A

Arcana

Julian

Lucio

Muriel

B

Beetlejuice (Musical)

Beetlejuice

C

Chronicles of Narnia (Movies)

Prince Caspian

Edmund

Peter

D

Dead Poets Society

John Keating

Deadpool

Deadpool

G

Good Omens

Aziraphale

Crowley

The Great Mouse Detective

Basil

Ratigan

M

The Magnus Archives

Elias Bouchard

Gerard Keay

Jonathan Sims

Jonah Magnus

Martin Blackwood

Michael Shelley

Michael Distortion

Peter Lucas

Timothy Stoker

MCU

Bruce Banner

Clint Barton

Loki

Scott Lang

Steve Rogers

Thor

Tony Stark

Monster High

Clawd Wolf

Deuce Gorgon

Jackson Jekyll/Holt Hyde

Kieran Valentine

Gender bent ghouls <3

S

Sherlock Holmes (RDJ)

John Watson

Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes (books)

John Watson

Sherlock Holmes

Spider-Man: Universe

Hobie Brown

Peter B Parker

Peter Parker - Spider-Man Noir

V

Venom

Eddie Brock+Venom (I can’t separate them so every Eddie request is automatically poly :3 )

Feel free to send an ask or DM me if you don't see a character/fandom you like and think I might enjoy writing for - it's very possible that I forgot about tons of characters and fandoms!!

[blue-mosaic-tiles]

Art requests are open! I've got some time now, so feel free to request!

Slots - (0/5)

Rules -

I only do requests for fanart, but I am willing to do original art as well, if the prompt is interesting

I'm not comfortable with any amount of nudity, or ships. Maybe a chaste kiss on the cheek or something, but nothing more than that

Do not request anything bigoted, you will be blocked without question.

If your ask doesn't have a response within a week, I will not be considering it.

Requests are going to be primarily done with ink and maybe some markers.

The fandoms I draw for -

Games

Genshin impact (please only request modern au, there's way too many details on their outfits. Or let me have full creative freedom with the outfits)

Honkai Star Rail

Hollow Knight

Hades

Undertale

Our Life Beginning and Always

Twisted Wonderland

Obey Me

The Arcana

Anime

Ouran High School Host Club

Snow White With The Red Hair

My Hero Academia

Jujutsu Kaisen

Demon Slayer

Ghibli films

Books

Song of Achillies

Percy Jackson (and all related books including Magnus Chase)

Circe

And those are all the fandoms (for now). I'll probably make a masterlist or something just to organize things better. Why is this starting to feel like a writing blog???