#but both options I provided seem like the only valid options

[yuurei20]

I might be dumb but what happens to 4th year students? They’re mentioned but we don’t see them on campus(?) and they can’t play spelldrive? Is it like they go to another campus or??

Hello hello! Thank you for this question! 🏫

We get some information about the fourth-year students in Book 5, where Crewel explains, "At Night Raven, students spend their senior year at internships and research placements related to their magical professions."

Both Crewel and Riddle mention the fourth-year students being on-campus for the culture fair, but we never meet anyone!

Both Ace and Grim comment on never seeing them at the school, and Trey explains that "The typical M.O. for four-year magical academies is that seniors go off-campus for hands-on learning."

Riddle provides more detail:

"Some people apply to shadow a certain special team in an administrative organization, while others leave to excavate or explore ruins, or to decipher ancient texts. Still others accept internships with magic related businesses."

We learn a bit more in Book 7, and the orientation for off-campus internships is the catalyst for the entire Book 7 story! 🥳

Crowley explains:

"The internship program is 100 percent mandatory...Each stint is three months, or one quarter. You can choose up to three internships over the course of the year. It's perfectly valid to devote all three quarters to a single, in-depth internship, as is choosing a different internship each quarter to gain a wider breadth of experience. The internships are at businesses, research institutes, and foundations that cooperate with our school...Be aware that your options will differ based on your electives, class credits, and grades. And in addition to interviews, some internships have special exams you must pass to be eligible. Each quarter, you must receive an evaluation of a B or higher at your internship and submit a report. You will not get credit without those two things. If you receive credit for two of the three quarters, then you'll qualify to take the graduation exam."

Concerning Spelldrive: you are very much correct!

While both game- and novel-Leona say that he intends to participate in the Spelldrive tournament the following year, novel-Jack points out that he isn't going to be on campus to do so:

"Both Malleus-senpai and Leona-senpai are gonna move up next year, so they won’t be here for the tournament anyway. We’re lucky we only had to compete with that monster athlete for one year.'

-Twisted Wonderland the second novel (fan translation)

So it seems that presentations at the cultural festival are tied into the internships themselves, so they are allowed (and maybe mandatory?) but Spelldrive tournaments are not? 🧐 Possibly!

[utilitycaster]

Level Up: Bells Hells Level 12

As always: are there errors or major omissions? Let me know! Your preferred feat or spell isn’t listed? That’s because it’s not my preferred feat or spell, and you should make your own post for your own preferences! Additionally, because level-ups are no longer done at the end of sessions but are rather their own separate videos, I now include speculation for the next level(s) since there’s often very little time to speculate on the current level.

Chetney: He could take another rogue level, as Fearne has, but I think leveling in blood hunter is by far the wiser choice, though Travis does have the rare carte blanche for being good at mechanics award I just made up. Anyway, rogue would give him cunning action, but blood hunter is a big one: hemocraft die goes up to d8, unarmed strike bonus goes up to +2, and he not only gains another use of hybrid transformation per rest but also can now regenerate a small number of hit points at the start of each turn while injured, which will improve his already impressive tanking prowess. Looking forward: I think he should stick to the single rogue level, honestly, and keep leveling in blood hunter. 12 is an ASI level, so: ASI to strength, int, or con, all key stats, would be best in my opinion. He could even out his wisdom score, but also he's rarely been badly afflicted with bloodlust and this party does not lack for wisdom but does need all the int, str, and stacks of HP it can get.

Laudna: You've already seen my thoughts on sorlock before (if you haven't, basically: I think it's not as strong as people think) so this is a bit tough to optimize. Anyway, warlock 4 is a very narratively valid choice if Marisha wanted to level in order to indicate the impact returning to Delilah has had. It would grant her an ASI/feat, another spell, and another cantrip. Personally, I am once again asking Bells Hells to get some intelligence; as a warlock base Laudna's WIS save is already pretty solid, though a DEX bonus wouldn't hurt her either. I don't actually have a ton of feats in mind since she came in with a bunch of feats. Meanwhile, if she continues in sorcerer, level 9 is something of a milestone level and grants access to 5th level spells (and a new known spell) in addition to the usual sorcery point increase. Ultimately this is a tough choice - I think sorcerer is the superior choice mechanically, but warlock might make more sense in-story. Looking forward: really dependent on which path she takes, honestly, but if she does level in warlock I think she should level in sorcerer next. [Note from JUST NOW: she's taking sorcerer; place your level 5 spell bets now]

FCG: It's an ASI level for the non-multiclassers of the group, and: Wisdom. Up wisdom. I don't care if it's a +1 feat or a +2 ASI, either are valid, but increase wisdom. Last time I mentioned skill expert and observant as options; skill expert is I think the better choice since Orym has observant covered. Looking forward: it's a quiet but powerful time for clerics; level 13 grants seventh level spells and pals, all of them are bangers. Plane Shift and Resurrection are the famous ones, but Fire Storm? Divine Word? Etherealness? Symbol? Not a dud in the bunch.

Fearne: She took rogue last time so I do hope she takes a druid level, because cauterizing flames seems thematically appropriate with the shard and with embracing her power -both its healing and harmful sides - and also it's a fantastic ability. If she does take rogue, I feel like thief is the subclass that makes most sense because in combat, she's going to be relying on druid powers, and thief provides some great out-of-combat utility (and is generally an underrated rogue class). Looking forward: I do like the idea of thief Fearne, but also, level 11 is when she gets Transport via Plants, which is pretty key. Level 11 has a bunch of other great druid spells, as fans of Keyleth during the Briarwoods arc would know: Heal and Heroes' Feast both overlap with FCG's abilities but it doesn't hurt to have access to both; giving Fearne Conjure Fey is particularly funny; Sunbeam rules and she's done great things with Daylight; and Bells Hells is already learning the value of Wind Walk.

Imogen: ASI level and I say even out your stats: + 1 each to INT and WIS. She has a lot of feats already and the only one that I think makes sense to take now is War Caster, but right now she does not have a great wisdom save bonus and again, even a +1 to INT wouldn't hurt (plus she is, iirc, proficient in investigation, making her better at it than anyone but Chetney, so another point in that won't hurt in this part). Looking forward: I am assuming she's going to keep leveling in sorcerer and if things happen re: Predathos or Kord it will be represented by a subclass change rather than a class change or multiclass, but watch this space. Anyway, level 13 is time for seventh level spells, and my vote is for teleport since FCG can cover Plane Shift, but I must admit I do love Prismatic Spray.

Orym: it's another ASI and he gets a zillion of them! My boring ASI-loving ass says +1 to INT and CON. He could also take Sentinel although the big three generals can all probably teleport so I don't know if it's that useful, but Mage Slayer probably would be. Looking forward: At level 13 he gets a second use of indomitable, which is great but there's not a ton to say about it. At level 14 he gets another ASI and he should take whichever of the recs I have up here he doesn't take at level 12.

Ashton: An ASI to them too. I feel the move is to max out strength at this point. The CON loss sucked but their CON was already very good; focus on hitting a little harder. Sentinel and Mage Slayer are also valid options for them, though I'd go for the ASI and let Orym, he of the zillion ASI levels, take those. Looking forward: Brutal critical comes at L13, and a path feature at L14; as their subclass is homebrew I have no idea what that feature might be, but I'm excited.

[humbledragon669]

S1E5 – The Doomsday Option Write Up P2 - Saturday (The last day of the World) from "the wiggle on" to "He was waving"

Alright, so now we have the seed of hope planted for an Aziraphale/Crowly reunion, this episode moves, pretty swiftly, through a number of plot threads that now all need to be brought together to serve as the climax for the season.

Thread number one: Madame Tracy and Shadwell, and their purpose in the storyline.

I don’t have a great deal to say about this scene, only one tiny question. Why is that Julia makes no move to hand over a “donation” to Madame Tracy?

Both Mrs. Ormerod and Mr. Scroggie (brilliant names by the way) are clearly well-prepared to be handing their money over, but not so young Julia. I don’t think it’s important, just one of those little things I wondered about when I was watching the scene back.

Thread number two: bringing the Four Horsemen together.

Couple of things to point out in the next montage sequence, including an Easter egg or two. Firstly, the immigration official has clearly become disillusioned with her job in the short time that she granted Anathema into the country.

It’s a very different interaction than the one she had with Anathema where she was actually paying attention. Even Famine seems puzzled at her lack of interest. Next up I just want to say that I really didn’t have the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse down for being tea-drinkers. Don’t get me wrong, I’m British. Tea is the foundation of civilised society as far as I’m concerned. But that’s kind of the point, isn’t it? These four characters are about to, quite happily, undo all of civilisation. Always time for a cup of tea I suppose though. And now for an Easter egg! Feels like it’s been a minute since I’ve pointed one of those out. The top scores on the arcade game next to the one that Death is playing on are all allocated to D.EATH, except for the #1 spot, which goes to T. PRATCHETT.

There is another Easter egg here for the eagle-eyed, this one of the apple variety – one of the questions on the quiz machine asks what year Apple Computers was founded in.

And the last thing about the quiz machine: the machine that displays the “GAME OVER” sign is actually not the machine that Death has been playing on:

As a little side note, once we realise that it’s Death playing on the quiz machine, we can appreciate that he has in fact been there from the beginning of the scene. I wouldn’t swear to it given the camera angles that are used, but I don’t think his bike is in the car park when War arrives. You could argue that it’s out of shot, but I’m still pretty sure she would have recognised it for what it was and known that he was already inside. Famine and Pollution too. So why aren’t they aware of his presence from the outset? Again, probably not important, and the little quiz machine interaction provides some much-needed light comedy.

Back to thread number one. I found little of interest in this scene prior to Aziraphale’s arrival from the spirit world, aside from the vapid personality of Mrs. Ormerod and the obvious dig at the validity of psychic mediums whilst using the delightfully oblivious Mr. Scroggie. What I do really enjoy about this scene is the sound editing (I know, you’re all shocked I’m picking up on sound cues…). We know that something is about to happen when a low rumble begins, enforced by some lightly flickering candles in a room with no breeze, but the real joy here is the sequence of noises, animal, human, and object, that issues from Madame Tracy’s mouth as Aziraphale takes up residence in her body. Miranda Richardson does a pretty stella job here too – this was either really fun to shoot or incredibly embarrassing. I’d lean towards the former, given she’s largely a comic actress, but managing to keep a straight face throughout the whole thing must have taken an incredible degree of self-control. I’d be quite interested to know how much free reign she was given with this, how much of it was improvised, and if she knew there was going to be extra noises added in post-production. Here’s a list of the noises that I could pick up in the sequence that takes place during Aziraphale’s possession:

Rumbling noise before Madame Tracy starts vocalising.

Madame Tracy making a low rumbling noise.

Elephant trumpeting.

The noise of something ramping up, like a turbine engine but not. No idea what this noise actually is!

Thunder (from outside the house – accompanied by lightning).

Madame Tracy’s short shout followed by very high and musical almost-screams.

Another one of those weird ramping up noises but shorter and sharper.

Panting.

Madame Tracy blowing a raspberry.

Loud singing (enforced in the soundtrack) of the William Tell overture.

Madame Tracy belching.

A little quacking noise made by Madame Tracy.

A fart (no way was I leaving this off the list), which puts a definitive stop to any other noises that are ongoing.

Pretty impressive. Those sound editors aren’t done yet though, because aside from another chaotic sound sequence for Ron’s possession, there’s still a load of work to do with the voices coming out of Madame Tracy’s mouth. I love the way they shift between her voice and Aziraphale’s during the following sequence, starting from the very first sentence that she says after the possession has completed – she starts out as Madame Tracy and finishes as Aziraphale (in German, which we were led to believe that he couldn’t speak back in 1941). There are times in this scene where both voices come out of her mouth at the same time and there are other times where Madame Tracy speaks in her own voice but in a deeper tone, and times where it’s one or the other speaking, and it’s all so seamlessly stitched together. Not to mention the fact that it never once looks like it’s not Miranda Richardson speaking – her lip movements match the words exactly. She even adapts some of Aziraphale’s mannerisms when she’s speaking as him.  It’s a really brilliantly put together scene. The sound sequences for Ron’s possession (played by none other than Johnny Vegas) are more difficult to pick out because the surrounding scene is very noisy (not that Shadwell would know anything about that, sound asleep in the unaffected boudoir) but I did manage to pick out:

Another raspberry.

A short squeal.

A line from “Moonlight Becomes You” (by Johnny Mathis, I couldn’t see any immediate Easter eggs or references from the lyrics).

A prolonged shout.

More thunder.

What sounds like a piano string or strings (from low down the keyboard) being struck.

A retching noise like someone’s about to hurl.

Something bubbling.

Howling.

Lightning.

Fireworks, used in the same way as the fart in the first sequence – to cut off all the other noises.

It feels like quite a jolt moving from all that cacophony into Madame Tracy’s peaceful kitchen. There’s one little thing that really makes me giggle in this scene:

She seems pretty blasé about the fact that there’s a blonde, slightly transparent, male figure staring back at her from the mirror. It’s only when he actually waves back at her that she reacts at all, and even then it’s pretty muted. I think most of us would have taken off screaming at that point, or pass out, but not Madame Tracy, she’s way too worldly-wise for that dramatic nonsense.

I was a little puzzled at the choice of soundtrack for Crowley’s battle against the traffic in the next scene, but then I wondered whether it was a reference to the M25 being another one of Crowley’s plans that started out so well and then ending up foundering “on the rocks on iniquity”, which appears to be a bit of a running theme throughout the show – first the misplacing of the Antichrist, again in his desperate pleas to Aziraphale for them to run away together, and in his failed rescue of the angel. This particular instance of Crowley’s well-intentioned failings would suggest that it’s a characteristic he has been prone to for a long while, and that the foundering of his plans can take anything from seconds to decades. And just for a bit of fun, a tried to get screenshots of the M25 before and after Crowley’s interference:

I also noticed that the projector Crowley uses is marked as belonging to Room 11:

Having fallen foul of my neglect in consulting Strong’s Concordance with numbers in my write ups before, I did actually remember to look this one up. According to my scant research, 11 in Strong’s Concordance represents a place of destruction or ruin. Whether this is a reference to Crowley’s original intentions for the M25, the eventual fate and purpose of the M25 in the show, or a tongue-in-cheek remark to the experience of actually driving on the M25 in real life isn’t clear. Maybe it’s a bit of all three. Or maybe it’s just a random number. Unlikely I think.

Now that Shadwell’s had a nice little snooze, he also seems to have had some sort of personality transplant. That’s the only real explanation for the impassioned attempt at protecting Madame Tracy’s dignity, right? I think we as the audience all know better, but he clearly forgets himself in the heat of his jealous moment. Interestingly, the mirror no longer appears to show Aziraphale’s reflection:

I think this might just have been a case of budgetary or time restraints rather than an intent to convey anything specific. Whatever the reason, Aziraphale doesn’t seem too upset at Shadwell for discorporating him. One question though – how does the angel know that Shadwell has referred to him as “the Southern pansy” before? As far as I can remember, he never uses that name to his face, which only really leaves the possibility that he has obtained the information from Madame Tracy, who has heard him refer to Aziraphale in that way at least once before. I find it unlikely she would have told the angel the offensive name that had been allocated to him, which suggests he has obtained the news from her own thoughts. Obviously at this point Madame Tracy is sharing the residence of her body, but it does raise an interesting question for later when Aziraphale and Crowley perform the body switch – would they be able to read the thoughts of the other without the sentience of that other being present concurrently?

Whilst we are on the topic of how people know things that they do, how does Crowley know the M25 has just combusted into a ring of infernal flames? I know we’ve had the whole “Crowley turned the M25 into a hellhole” scenario written out for us already, but that was to do with the eternal traffic jams he caused, not some sort of hidden boobie trap that would cause it to spontaneously combust. Presumably this is one of those things his demon-sense tells him has simply happened, like when Adam welcomed the Hellhound into his life.

I find the next scene with the cold caller provides an interesting overview of the way nuisance callers have evolved across the years. The basis for the call in the original book was double glazing, but we’ve moved on to ambulance chasers in the show. As a society I think it’s likely we’ve moved on even further now, from using actual real people to individually make these calls to automated recordings, but Hastur wouldn’t be able to eat them all in that case, thus denying the audience the satisfaction of the sick justice he unwittingly wreaks on the call centre staff. Got ourselves a little Easter egg here too – the message that Lisa types out on her screen (to a colleague or as a note on a casefile isn’t clear) is the title of a Queen song:

This happens to be the very song that Crowley was listening to in the Bentley on the M25. She also types that up right before she arrives his own casefile (titled “Anthony Cowwley”, which differs from the book’s “A J Cowlley”).

Shifting back to Crouch End now (this episode really does jump around a lot doesn’t it?!), can we just take a moment to gape at Aziraphale adamantly declaring that the Antichrist must be killed. The Antichrist who is a child. It really wasn’t that long ago that he was vehemently stating that he himself could never do such a thing, nor could he endorse it without suggesting that it would be for the good of Heaven’s reputation. Now though, he’s very happy to encourage a human, for whom the consequences of killing an innocent child would be dire in Heaven’s eyes, and even worse for killing the Antichrist as far as Hell is concerned, to do the deed, but this time the motivation is nothing to do with his employer; it revolves around the fate of the World. It feels like something of an oxymoron – his siding with humanity driving an incredibly inhumane act. In fairness, Shadwell follows it up with an oxymoron of his own:

So, as far as Shadwell’s concerned: witches? Kill without question. The Antichrist? Not so sure. Even if he’s going to bring about the end of the world. Sounds like he’s all good with the plan when Aziraphale tells him that he has traits associated with witches though. Good morals Shadwell, well done. Perhaps not quite as terrifying as Aziraphale’s declaration of triumph when the sergeant suggests they can use a massive antique gun to fire lumps of building materials to assassinate the Antichrist. Again I’ll point out that Adam is a child, but perhaps it wasn’t clear enough earlier on that Aziraphale also knows he’s a child.

I don’t know whether what I’m about to say describes a typically British behaviour when caught in traffic jams or not, but here goes. Anybody else find it suspect that other people aren’t either already driving down the hard shoulder or that Crowley doesn’t have a giant tail of cars following him? I’ve been in my fair share of motorway gridlocks, enough to know that once some entitled prick starts driving down the hard shoulder in attempt to assert their own self-importance over the rest of the people caught in the chaos, anybody else with delusions of grandeur will follow suit very quickly. Not for Crowley though, he’s just pottering down the escape lane under his own steam. And is it just me, or does it feel like a bit of a violation when Hastur removes Crowley’s glasses? Looks to me like Crowley feels like that as well to be fair.

He manages to get over his surprise quickly enough though, characteristically engaging his brain into full gear to try and find a solution, which he does with an interesting choice of music:

I find it interesting because it deviates from what we have come to believe is his usual taste in music. Mozart would actually seem to be more Aziraphale’s taste than Crowley’s. It’s also a pretty sedate underscore for what he’s about to do. As a side note, this piece not only doesn’t actually start from the beginning when it starts playing in the Bentley, but is also used in another one of my favourite shows – Our Flag Means Death. In that show, it’s used as background music in the final episode when Prince Ricky is strolling down the street his victory over the pirates with another naval officer. The Mozart doesn’t stick around for long though, morphing into Queen’s “I’m In Love With My Car” (no need to point out the reference with this one) as Hastur starts to lose his calm. For those who haven’t read the book, or just don’t remember this detail, there is mention of this phenomenon in the original text – the apparently common mystery that every tape or CD left in a car is doomed to become a Queen album eventually, but this little detail is left out in the show, with the audience instead being led to believe that the CD player plays mood-appropriate music instead.

The speech we get from Crowley here goes a long way to showing us how much he has come to love both humanity and modernity – he’s actually quite complimentary about humans and their ability to invent new things.

Lovely clever people, inventing cars and motorways and windscreen wipers.

He also, in a very dismissive way, puts a clear distinction between himself and Hastur with his marking of the difference between his feelings towards the 14th century and what he believes the Duke of Hell would have thought. That simple little line actually says a lot to me about how he believes he distanced himself from the other beings in Hell – it’s a clear declaration of “we are not the same”. I also find myself wondering if Crowley had little to no contact with Aziraphale during the 14th century, contributing to his dislike of the time period. We certainly never see anything of the sort – the meetings we bear witness to have a large gap between 537 and 1601, though the book and script book tells us that there was definitely a meeting in 1020, and the script would suggest that there were several (dozens of them in fact) meetings between that and the 1601 meeting.

It's interesting to hear that Hastur is concerned that he’s going to be discorporated as it confirms he’s been issued with a human body, just like Crowley, even though he doesn’t reside on Earth. I’d be interested to know if the body was issued to him in that state or whether it looks pretty run down because of Hastur’s lack of appropriate care (which would in turn suggest that both Aziraphale and Crowley have had to work towards maintaining the appearance of their own corporal beings). And whilst we’re on the subject of bodily appearances, I love the little detail that the snake component of Crowley’s eyes now fill his entire eyeball as he maniacally drives through the flames.

I have a suspicion that the size of the snake “irises” (for want of a better word) is reliant on his emotional state, but I don’t feel like I have the patience to go through the show and test the theory. And I don’t know if those little horizontal lines on Crowley’s nose were intentional here or whether that’s just a natural crease in David’s face, but they certainly strengthen the snake resemblance. As a final comment on this scene, we actually hear God telling us that Crowley really is fundamentally different from his peers – he has an imagination. Which is not so different from the idea that Aziraphale is different from his peers because he has free will, a theme that has been presenting itself, with increasing clarity, throughout the series.

Final little note for this section, and it’s about this snippet of epic:

Apparently the most amazing thing about this, according to the local bobby, isn’t the fact that the car is on fire, or that it’s just driven through a wall of fire, or that it’s still moving forward, or even that the person inside it is not only alive, but unharmed and still capable of driving. No, the most amazing thing is that the driver is waving. Gotta love the way us Brits have a way of stating simple facts to display complete amazement.

Right, this section went on for way longer than I thought it was going to so I’m going to cut it short. I was hoping to get as far as the defection of The Them from Adam, but as soon as I started watching that scene I realised I had more to say about it than I thought, so I’m going to let you go for now. As always, questions, comments, discussion – always welcome! See you next time 😊

[cynthia39100]

Merlin rewatch -- S2E3: The Nightmare Begins

Gaius is the worst

I hated Gaius so much in this. Not just the gaslighting but also how full of self-righteousness he was while his gaslighting was clearly failing already. Morgana's nightmare clearly hadn't stopped since s1e13 and her magic was leaking so obviously. He still thought drugging her was effective? “ I’ve taken good care of her”?She already recognised his own magic. “ (gaslighting Morgana) For good reason”? It's obvious the secrecy only fueled the outburst of her magic. The fact that Morgana told Merlin about her magic should prove that Gaius’ method couldn’t even keep her mouth shut. It’s good that she found Merlin. What if she ran into someone whose mouth wasn’t that tight?

Gaius just didn’t want to help. Merlin proposed so many ways that didn’t concern Gaius. Druid is a valid option. Uther wasn’t actively raiding druid camps at the moment. (Merlin failed because the plan was rubbish, not because going to the druid was a bad idea) And frankly, Gaius was the person who could talk to Morgana with the least risk! He used to practice magic so it makes sense that he had the knowledge. If Morgana could be more in control, there wouldn’t be more of this kind of ‘accident’ that put Uther into witch-hunting mode. If he’s that scared of getting into trouble, fair. What annoyed me was that he acted like he knew best. “ I will (take care of Morgana). As I’ve always done.” Drugging and gaslighting don’t count.  “ What makes you think that you know better than me?” Merlin knew much much better thank you.

The second confrontation between them was not bad since Merlin stood up for himself and Gaius did get his point in the end. I’m still a bit mad that Gaius used “ people’s lives are at risk” to scold him. If Morgana didn’t lose control Uther wouldn’t start to arrest people in the first place. Also I’m never convinced that Gaius taught Merlin about ‘ the good in magic and the right way of using it’. I’m sure Hunith gave him that impression too if that adorable fire dragon was anything to go by. And Kilgharah was the one to tell him about his destiny. Merlin also used magic to save Gaius at the very beginning. He always knew to use it for good. I guess Gaius did provide him company, a people to counsel with and the fatherly love. But that’s not the same.

How I wish the episode ended at the lovely Merlin & Arthur scene. Why did Merlin have to apologise to Gaius? He did do some stupid things but it’s not like Gaius was personally affected. If Gaius was willing to help Merlin wouldn’t have to act alone. Gaius saying “ it’s not your fault. You were only doing what you thought was right.” seemed to indicate that he was correct about keeping Morgana in the dark, which is frustrating. At least Merlin did reply “We both were”...

[S2E3] [other episodes]

[brightest-stars-if]

if may i ask for one favor (that i ask with no sense of entitlement and that you may feel completely free to refuse), should you ever want to edit the demo:

i really love picking the culturally significant names you provided (Calista and Basil are my favorite, respectively). would it be possible to come up with one more cultural name but have it be unisex, and then have that one name be put in both the m!MC and f!MC name options?

overall, i think it could just be interesting to see whay a unisex name looks like from this world that is so heavily gendered. and i also think it could be of comfort to any players outside of the binary who, while willing to play a character within one of those said binaries, may feel a unisex name option of in-game cultural significance as a salve (i say that as a they/them who leans moreso towards one gender end of the spectrum than anything else)

but if you want to hear why i specifically ask for this indulgance, it is a bit convoluted. usually only come up with one MC per i.f. game, and i think it'd be really fun to have this "one MC" have an alternate universe as a male and as a female. and normally, if i felt that inkling, i would just fucking do it lmao BUT i usually also feel no connection or drive to pick one of the pre-suggested names. so then i just pick a unisex name that fits within the game in question and manually type it in per replay. BUT i so love when fantasy games (especially i.f. as i so rarely see it done) gift the player names that have a cultural significance to the world they are in. so i wanted to ask if that could be coded in for selfish reasons too (tho i do genuinely believe in the former reasonings as valid; i just also dont project my they/them gender identity into my MC within this game, so im personally not upset this world doesn't have a Genderless Child MC option. and a huge part of this is thanks to your well-polished craftsmanship in how one of its main focuses of this story seems to very well be, in fact, the arbitrary futility of the binary with characters assigned in these two (semi-)strict gender roles. so like. i am being selfish in this favor request being for indulging my interest in "play one MC but switch the genders and see how the story impacts this specific personality as things go on + haa a culturally significant in-universe unisex name", but yeah, also, i do think it could be a comfort to other fellow nonbinary people and i do think seeing how this heavily gendered fantasy world would construct/react to a unisex name would be fascinating from a world-building/character-reactive perspective. bc it doesnt seem unusex names are too common, apart from Lux themself's name. and as an example of a character-reactive perspective, i bet m!Lux was worried about [unisex named m!MC] being a possible girl until informed otherwise that [unisex named m!MC] was another boy. ans, in a world-building sense, i also wonder if Lux and [a unisex named MC] would be treated differently bc of the seeming unpopularity of unisex names; but Lux has the protection of their father as king, whereas [a unisex named MC] has, though many protections, less than Lux and may be more often given the proverbial "a boy named Sue"/"a girl named Freddie"/"the initial elusivity of a child named Sam" treatment of others' distaste/mocking of their name, especially if it is or is not a true 50♀️/50♂️ unisex name. tho, again, i am only asking for one unisex name and to have that one unisex name be in both m!MC and f!MC's name options, im just saying not all unisex names are regarded with the same reputations of "unisex". but if youd like to add multiple unisex names of varying "it's unisex but tends to more often be a girls's name/it's unisex but tends to more often by a boy's name/it's unisex and perfectly divided between both genders in popularity" i would never step in to stop you lol)

but yeah, again, no expectations of entitlement towards this and you have every right to refuse, as it is your game 🤷 i just thought "eh. worse that'll happen is a 'no' lmao so whats the harm in asking??"

regardless: thank you for reading this far, i know i rambled a bit towards the end there. im a name-nerd, and so i LOVE it when authors say "this pre-suggested name has meaning in-game 👀", and the differing reputations of unisex names being dependent got me excited lol but i digress. thanks for the excellently fun game!! have a great day! 💗💕

So I read through this, and then I thought about it. And I figured yeah, I absolutely don't mind including a gender-neutral name option for the MC!If it makes people feel more comfortable, I don't see why not. And it's just a good option to include regardless. It will appear in the naming options after chapter 2 is uploaded.

Regarding Lux's name, honestly them having the ONLY gender neutral name was not intentional. It's just that if I'd named then Lucius/Lucia, for example, then I would have had to just call them L, and the thought of that didn't appeal to me. And besides, the meaning of their name is an important connection to the game. So that was my reasoning for Lux's name.

Every other character I named was off of meanings I'd found, pure vibes, and/or both. So the lack of gender neutral names was not intended to create a social bias against them, it was just a coincidence.

For the gender-neutral name I'm adding, however, I'll probably add some flavor text. If you choose it, then the MC's namesake is a woman. And so reactions to the MC being named after her will, occasionally, vary due to that. So it's sort of "a boy named Sue" situation, but not exactly.

TL;DR: yes, I'll add at least one gender-neutral option.

[haven-of-dusk]

After discourse about the topic spawned over there, I posted this analysis on how healthy I believe Ethan/Danny and Aiden/Lydia were as couples on the Teen Wolf subreddit. But looking back over it, I'm honestly happy enough with the analysis that I'm going to copy it wholesale to right here:

With Dethan, what Danny did for Ethan was pretty straightforward, but significantly important for Ethan: he just made him happy. With what we know about the Steiners' past, it's more than likely that the only friend Ethan had with any consistency was Aiden, and much as he loves his brother, Aiden is...himself. Ethan can spend time with Danny and not have to worry about wolf politics, or orders, or look over his shoulder waiting for someone to come looking for revenge or Deucalion to appear and punish him.

As for what Ethan provided for Danny, while we don't get a ton of information on Danny, what we do know is that A. He probably was a bit lonely at the start of S3 considering his 'best friend' left town, B. He never seemed to have a consistent partner up till Ethan, and based on the partners he did have we can guess it was either because those relationships were about sex/intimacy and nothing else, or because there just weren't many options and nobody was the right fit, and C. Danny expressed that finding out about his condition and its effects usually drove people away or made them far too overly cautious for Danny's liking. Using all that, I think it's safe to say that Ethan's consistency and willingness to basically fight to stay with Danny was a big part of why Danny got attached. Ethan wanted to be around Danny just because Danny was himself. Instead of driving him away or making him overly protective, Danny getting sick had basically no effect on Ethan's behavior outside of just reaffirming love.

In short, they worked for each other because they provided the stability they both needed for the other.

With Aidia, what Lydia did for Aiden was...basically calling him out for bad behavior. It'd be reductive to say she became the angel on his shoulder, because it's a bit more complicated than that, but what made the way Lydia helped Aiden grow so effective was that she never tried to force him to change his personality. He didn't need to stop being sassy, or 'cure' his anger, or anything of that sort. What was important was that when the chips were down, she could count on him to do the right thing, and he did prove that, and along the way she helped him finally feel good about himself (likely not a commonality with all the abuse in his past). It is a wonder what positive reinforcement can do.

As for what he did for Lydia, I think it's most important to remember that her boyfriend immediately prior had an extremely toxic relationship with her that ended with verbal and borderline physical abuse, not long after she was basically SA'd on the field by Peter (and then had her mind invaded). So in essence the fact that Aiden was devoted to her, let her take the reins so to speak, and allowed her to dictate her needs from the relationship was a big step up and the type of healthy boundary setting she desperately needed after Jackson doing...the exact opposite of all of that. Whether he was the right forever partner for her or not, Aiden was the exact sort of boyfriend she needed in that moment of her life.

So in essence their relationship worked because they both felt validated and cared for by the other, but Lydia was still able to set a line in the sand and Aiden realized he wanted to stay behind it and change for the better.

With all this I'd be remiss to not mention and address a couple of the major criticisms I've seen directed towards these couplings...

While it is true that they started the relationships because of the Alpha Pack's mission, the way the show depicts that element, the initial deceptive phase lasted about 24 hours at most before they both actually started falling for their 'targets'. Ethan was definitely just dating Danny for its own sake by at the latest Episode 7, and the dialogue a little later on even confirms that Ethan was attached to Danny despite the Alpha Pack no longer having any need of him. The switch in Aiden's mind is a little harder to pinpoint, but at the absolute latest it was by the 3A finale when he was ready to fight Kali to protect Lydia. So just on the whole I don't think it's fair to say their relationships were 'built on lies' when their feelings turned genuine so quickly.

The other one I've seen is speculation that Ethan and Aiden are child predators/adults dating children/are no better than Kate. But really the oldest the Steiners could be in my opinion is 19, and are probably younger than that given how easily they pass as teenagers. The most information we get about their age is that they 'never finished high school' which could mean anything from dropped out the previous year and are, in fact, still the same age as their peers, to dropped out several years ago and are now somehow 25 year olds able to masquerade as teenagers. And honestly, with how easily they slip into the high school life, I don't think the latter is plausible. I don't really have a 'gotcha' piece of evidence for this argument, but I just find it hard to believe that two adults could enter the school system and blend in easily and no one, anywhere in the show, mentions that they aren't actual teenagers.

To be honest, use of that last argument feels like attempts to manipulate some of the show's vague lines to discredit the pairings, since there just isn't much to scrutinize otherwise.

And to be clear, none of this is saying you have to like these pairings, but it is always important to recognize the difference between not liking a couple and declaring that couple unhealthy.

[1yyyyyy1]

What exactly is feminine and masculine energy acc to u and is it something simply inherent to the person? and not really a set of behaviors that are learned (and then fall in either of these labels)?

I do believe that "feminine" and "masculine" energies are a thing and are inherently presented in people to a polarizing degree, they are not related to biological sex and represent a specific way people approach the world in. Feminine energy is the energy of creation from within (internal regulation) and masculine energy is the energy of creation from outside of oneself (the material plane). I call them "yin" and "yang" to make more sense of these terms because, like I mentioned, they have little to do with biological sex or gendered presentation.

What I mean by these energies being represented to a "polarizing degree" is that different people will be born as and "specialize" in one or the other energy, as in, some people will be more "in their head" and introspective, favoring things like psychology and arts, and some people will be more business-oriented and enjoy material goods and physical labor, or, to directly influence the outside world. Despite the common idea that "feminine energy" is some kind of inaction, being and embodying it is not about "not doing anything" — on the contrary, it is about doing quite a bit, the process is just not visible to the naked eye and only gets externalized at certain points in time, like when I sit down to write down my findings after weeks of internal labor. It is true that embodying feminine energy attracts and provides you with the things you desire and I genuinely cannot elaborate more on this because, in my opinion, it is something you have to experience for yourself to fully believe in it being a thing because that is the only foolproof way to dissolve skepticism when it comes to metaphysics.

In regards to my latest post on energies and receptivity... Knowing that feminine energy attracts the desired outcome when a person is simply being themselves, women insisting that the main way to actualize it is by initiating near-transactional contact with men would seem counterintuitive seeing that the principle itself allows for a state of no-contact, like being engrossed in your hobbies, and the truth is that there is no contradiction between LOA's principles and heterosexual dynamics being the way that they are. I generally encourage people to look at the lifestyles of those who have a good grasp on LOA to understand that these people's market-like attitude towards relationships and the universe is not contradictory, like with rich women showing off their bodies to intimidate their rivals and keep "options" coming well into their marriage, that is the kind of lifestyle they wish to live for personal reasons and women consistently finding themselves in materialistic, superficial relationships points at just that. Women are in general rarely aware of the fact that they love the drama of hypergamy and that a lot of the time they take on a "masculinized", cutthroat approach to relationships because they like competition and the feeling of being the exceptional collectible item they have built themselves up to be, especially if it involves a man with an extensive dating history which in turn validates their "price tag" to themselves. In other words, women subconsciously manifest being in their masculine when it comes to actualizing their femininity and they fail to recognize that they have shifted the paradigm because they appear feminine both to the world and themselves, meaning that their advice is useless to those who wish to actualize theirs without turning it into a marketing strategy. This competitive mindset inherently puts the individual in a high-pressure environment and disconnects them from their empathetic side at the cost of improving their marketing capabilities, and a lot of the time women, in acknowledging that women's rejection of femininity oftentimes stems from trauma, act as if said traumatized women are completely unreasonable for continuing to live that way and pressure them into believing that their only way to actualize their potential is through interacting with those they know to be a danger to themselves. Dressing up and going on a date so that the man you are with gains status from being in your company is a masculine act because it is an externalized, premeditated exchange, which is why many "divine feminine" coaches can come across as competitive, abrasive and in general appear as if something is "off" about them — they are businesswomen operating in their masculine and cultivating a feminine appearance is their part of that business exchange.

It always seems pretty pointless to me to be calling people out without proposing an alternative solution, otherwise I would be admitting that I am powerless to change anything and am complaining for the sake of it, but, from my experience, feminine energy has little to do with men to begin with and is, rather, the imaginative component of LOA. The metaphysical principle behind attracting your desires is that the universe responds to your vibration when you think about and visualize things, with said vibration being elevated through cultivating peace inside and around yourself, and that you get rewarded more and more profoundly the higher your vibration is, but the more believable way to view this phenomenon is that embodying feminine energy is about being in tune with your intuition and not second-guessing yourself when opportunities come your way. This comes down to knowing who and what you are, what and what does not serve you and which opportunities will benefit you if you are to pursue the elevation your own well-being — and if this sounds like an easy task that could not possibly bring that much prosperity, I want to ask anyone who is reading this just how often they doubt themselves because I know that I rarely do.

I believe that I have attracted numerous things by simply curating my blog, and by "attracted" I mean "was handed in for no apparent reason in circumstances unrelated to my blog"; me sharing my writing is the "embodying" part of "being and not doing", that is, my blog is me being myself because a person who figures out how to improve people's and their own mental well-being and recites their findings in an accessible format is what I am. It is a stark contrast between seeking out public spaces or navigating the dating scene, which I personally do not appreciate because that is how you come in contact with too many unsavory people; and I do believe in attracting a partner energetically more so than direct effort in case anyone is wondering... The universe will always reward you when you are a "feminine energy" doing your "feminine energy" thing and there is no need to debase yourself by entering the heterosexual rat race for a chance at a sponsorship if it goes against your convictions, especially given the fact that you would have to be in your masculine for quite a while to achieve that. Again, cultivating feminine mannerisms and appearance for the sake of receiving goods from a man is a masculine act because it is an externalized business partnership.

Another misconception heterosexuals like to promote to validate their sadomasochistic dynamics is that men are the only sex capable of sensibility and leadership because they are supposedly not as emotional and that "logic" equals "reason" when that is far from being the case. Masculine energy being the "logical" one means is that it is predisposed to operating in the material world as opposed to internally, and while it is beneficial for actually tackling material matters, it is a mistake to assume that the only sensible decisions to be made are the ones that are void of emotion because reason is made up of both intuition and logic. For example, a person could take their surroundings into account and discern that being racist in certain circles will give them money and status (logic), but if they are not in tune with their emotions and are not aware of their sympathetic nature (intuition), they will suffer for this decision long-term and the distress experienced will cancel out any material benefit gained. This alone should give you a decent understanding of why neither thinking pattern is better than the other and that people being attuned to their emotions says nothing about their decision-making capabilities.

All of the above can sound a bit controversial because it goes against the common conception of what "feminine" and "masculine" energies are, and it can be intimidating to entertain the idea that you could in fact not need anyone but yourself because it is quite easy for society to convince men and women that they "need" each other without taking additional factors into account, like most people being sexually abusive, egotistical scum that only ever concerns itself with materialistic power struggles and drama and that relationships as of right now present a high risk of traumatization when entered, making self-reliance a very valid choice. The good news is that you do not have to listen to me and can always turn to the people who talk about the complete opposite of what is being said here to see if their advice works for you.

To conclude, you do not "need" a masculine partner if you are feminine and you do not "need" a feminine partner if you are masculine, and anyone who tries to convince you otherwise is a predator because they are attempting to manipulate your boundaries by forcing you to operate from a state of lack. Feminine and masculine energies are certainly complimentary, it is why both of them are represented in all people, even if to a different degree, and an individual's goal should genuinely be mastering both of them for their greater good instead of despairing over the idea that they are ought to be dependent on someone else for the rest of their life. While cooperation is important, I am less interested in promoting codependency and more in willing consent into existence.... It is possible to cultivate a balance between these two energies to harmoniously exist by yourself as a person if that is what you want out of life.

[bumblingbabooshka]

What sort of relationship do you imagine Tuvok has weith B'Elanna? During and after the maquis undercover ordeal. Side question: Favorite Tuvok episode and/or line?

X : Web weaving thing I did regarding B'Elanna & Tuvok's self-destructive habits (and secrecy regarding those habits) in the face of grief. X: A series of lines taken from the show which can be summed up as "What if your co-worker who you were trapped on a ship with for ostensibly the rest of your life reminded you of your estranged mother, your childhood bullies and yourself all at once?"

In the Maquis I doubt they would have had much of a relationship. Afterwards I can see B'Elanna being enraged at the betrayal but trying to keep it as professional as she can (I can also imagine Tuvok poking at this - 'I can see you're angry at me. You need to put that aside.') which only makes her angrier. B'Elanna is an incredibly passionate person and Tuvok is not. I imagine she'd see him handing them over to Starfleet as an extreme betrayal. They were fighting for something in the Maquis. They had values, they believed in something - how could he do this? The fact that the answer is 'easily and without difficulty, remorse or second thought' is -!!!!!!! There's a scene in an episode....I don't remember which exactly. Learning Curve maybe? Or Meld? When someone from the Maquis is angry with Tuvok saying something like 'you sold us all out to Starfleet' and Tuvok says 'It may be difficult for you to believe but I did not have to feel anything to do that.' <- I think this lack of passion would make B'Elanna confused and upset. I can see her thinking he doesn't truly BELIEVE in anything. Because of this and his earlier betrayal I think it would be hard for B'Elanna to trust him and Tuvok is not a comforting or particularly empathetic person. He isn't cruel but isn't 'sweet' you know? An example is when Neelix tells him about how a childhood trauma led to his fear of something outside the window Tuvok suggests he draw the blinds. He isn't saying this to make fun of him but he isn't connecting to the problem emotionally, bc he's Vulcan, but B'Elanna is an emotional person. Tuvok also in general doesn't seem to think highly of Klingons or B'Elanna in particular.

Here he's speaking about something that took place decades upon decades ago but more recently concerning B'Elanna he makes comments about her which make me believe he doesn't think very highly of her.

This is from 'Random Thoughts' and it's possible to argue that Tuvok is just providing a counterpoint to Janeway as like a good investigator explores 'all logical options' (as he later does tell Nimira that he has a responsibility towards both B'Elanna and actually doing his job which supersedes his admiration for the Mari's culture) but his admittedly personal comment about the Mari is interesting. A facet of a Tuvok's personality is that he's pre-disposed towards relating more to Vulcans and Vulcan-ity thus seeing it (and himself) implicitly as better. Humans also do this. Really, most star trek Vulcans vs Humans arguments are just both of them thinking they're superior because that's the way they live their lives. There's a certain unwillingness there (especially demonstrated by Humanity BECAUSE we see Humans interact with other species much more) to see other points of view as equally valid. Basically like: 'This [alien] is good because it shows [Humanity]' <- thereby subconsciously labelling Inhumanity as bad. Here, Tuvok does the same thing but for Vulcans. I think what I'm seeing implicitly in his exchange above is more explicitly stated in the exchange between him and B'Elanna below (same episode: Random Thoughts)

Really saying the quiet part out loud with the line "Burdened as you are by your Primitive Klingon psyche" eh, Tuvok? B'ELANNA.....KILL HIM!!!! HE SAID 'YOU'RE WELCOME' !!!! IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A COMPLIMENT??? KILL HIM!!!!

He does say in 'Juggernaut' that Emotion itself is primitive so he COULD be saying 'Your [emotional] Klingon psyche' but it's still a HUGE red flag to be going around calling an entire species primitive. Tuvok isn't the only person who basically does this exact thing - attributing all of B'Elanna's perceived faults with her Klingon side and condemning them or feeling more threatened by any negative emotion she expresses than other crewmates BECAUSE she's Klingon but it's insane to me that the writers just have Tuvok SAY that to B'Elanna STRAIGHT up and she THANKS him????? KILL. HIM. !!!!! AND THE WRITERS!!!! In 'Juggernaut' we see them interact more than we have before. I think this might be the only time we get scenes that are B'Elanna-Tuvok other than that one where they captured and held in a cell together? She tells him a story about a time she fell into a rage because of constant bullying from another child who kept calling her turtlehead.

Tuvok seems to grasp that her lashing out at the time was a coping mechanism. It protected her, gave her strength and courage. However he has no qualms with immediately throwing what he's learned back in her face to provoke her. I can see what he's doing - he's trying to show her: "This USED to be a source of strength but now it's a weakness. If you can be provoked so easily you're at the mercy of others, not strong" but his methods don't seem like something that would mesh well with B'Elanna. I'm sure this would just be hurtful and irritating to her.

Again B'Elanna's surrounded by this type of behavior. Even the man who supposedly loves her sees her this way.

Again in the same episode Tuvok plainly expresses that he has no faith in her. How is he supposed to be mentoring someone he doesn't believe in? There's also no (to my recollection) scene or moment after this where he realizes he was incorrect not to have faith in her and so I can't say for certain whether this has changed his opinion of her. Which is also wild because the episode STARTS with them but has no conclusion to their meditation or relationship plot. Unfortunately I don't think we really have anything that shows how B'Elanna views Tuvok other than her dream in 'Barge of the Dead' where she sees him as the arbiter of what is and isn't a Proper Klingon which I imagine stems from him being so staunchly a Proper Vulcan. Basically Tuvok & B'Elanna are so conceptually interesting...one is desperate to not be perceived as part of her species, estranged intentionally from her culture and associating it with all that is 'bad' about her ("My father left us because we were Klingon") and Tuvok is someone who is very much part of and proud of his culture BUT he also views B'ELANNA'S people as lesser which B'elanna also believes?? What would happen there - a feedback loop? They also have similar backgrounds in that they were forced into monasteries, were rebellious teenagers and have had poor experiences with Humanity & Starfleet but Tuvok...'recovered' from these experiences and B'Elanna did not? In that B'Elanna is still clearly ashamed of herself and self-conscious about others and angry and hurt and rejecting her Klingon culture while Tuvok is fine with those aspects of himself and found peace through embracing them. Given his distaste for Klingons it really is difficult to imagine him canonically doing anything except encouraging her to be more Vulcan while negging her the whole time which, you know, I'd kill him for. Humans & Vulcans shaking hands and in the middle it says 'Thinking Klingons are violent barbarians full stop' - finally some common ground between them! Hitting them all with hammers. That's more of a Star Trek in General issue but it applies here. I don't see how they could have like...a healthy dynamic, even JUST as mentor-mentee let alone friends or father-daughter as I've seen some people portray them. On paper it works because Tuvok is a Vulcan so who better to help control her emotions AND B'Elanna had an absent dad and Tuvok's a dad so he must be fatherly towards people! But given their canon interactions it would probably be a very condescending and bad mentorship. And honestly her having issues with her father would probably only make it worse since Tuvok doesn't believe in her and sees her as lesser because she's Klingon. For canon (meaning their canon regard for each other) the best I can imagine is them being strictly professional or B'Elanna falling into a mentorship with Tuvok which essentially just becomes her trying not to 'fail' another father figure by being too Klingon. If I were to write their relationship improving there would have be SO much unpacking of ALL of that which I showed above...like I don't even know dude it'd take YEARS and it'd effect the entire ship because again, just because this is centered on Tuvok given the nature of the question - Tuvok is NOT the only one who does this!!! EVERYONE does!!! It's infuriating once you start to watch for it v_v One of my favorite Tuvok lines is his big windup about how easy it'll be to win at pool like so easy, logically it'll be a goddamn breeze and then he loses at pool and is like "Hmm maybe the ship is off balance" or something. Sore LOSER!!!

[weirdly-specific-but-ok]

Hey, I have a question about how to handle your family constantly fighting and you being too scared to come out as asexual because you know your mother wants a grandchild and is pestering you already even if you‘re only 21 years old?

I know it’s complicated and I don’t really want to go into details (god knows what that could entail🫣)

Anyways, even though my current situation isn’t exactly great, I always felt safe and understood by the good omens community and in your fandom. I‘m glad to be one of the maggots.

Have a fantastic day/night! You‘re great person. Never forget that😊

Hello my lovely anon maggot! Thank you so much. I really am glad that you've found a safe place, both with the good omens fandom and with mine.

Of course I don't know everything about your situation, but I'll do my best.

First, you are so valid as a person and your asexuality is something that is yours, it's not for anyone else to decide. And I'm sorry that your current situation makes you feel scared to defend that part of you, when it shouldn't even need to be defended. That's awful.

But remember that, in this as well as other things, choices like these belong to you and only you. Making them based off other people's wants would be unfair to you and to the life that you deserve. Wanting to have children herself, that was your mother's decision, and she made it. Wanting to have grandchildren, that's not her decision. At all. Though people make it seem like a big family issue, it's really not, it's your choice and your parents don't have a say in it. Anything they might bring up about what you 'owe' them or the family or telling you to think about their needs, that's not a factor at all.

Raising you and loving you and providing for you was not a favour they did you that entitles them to police your decisions in that way. It was the bare minimum, it was their job. You are not obligated to them for it.

Which I hope you know already, but I'm saying it again, in the hope that when you do have to confront them about it, you'll do it with the courage that comes with knowing that you are in the right, and it'll keep you safe from guilt trips and manipulations.

As for the fighting, it sucks. I've been there, too, and it's awful. And a lot of the time, you can't change it, because of the amount of emotional baggage and history and the personalities of the people involved. And it's not your responsibility to fix it, either. Encouraging communication and going to family therapy are all great options, but the simple truth is that it's not really possible in most situations. So if, somehow, things do settle down, of course that would be wonderful.

But if they don't, the best that can be done sometimes is to just... move away from it. Either you already live on your own or one day you will. You'll be away from it, I promise, and you'll be independent. And then you can make the choice of whether to confront them about everything or not. Whether you want to meet them regularly or not. How much presence they have in your life. How much you want to spend time with them, let them do for you and do for them.

Either way, I hope that you find peace in all the moments that you can, whether it's here with us or elsewhere. Whenever you do choose to confront them about things (or not to), I hope you'll remember that you're valid and you are precious and you are loved. As for the asexuality and coming out, stay safe, and do what is best for you. Not for anyone else, but for you. Educate them and try to make them hear you out. But even if they don't, that's not your fault.

Again, I don't know everything about your situation, so take my advice with caution, and of course I could be wrong about a lot of things. But I hope that at the very least, you know that you're not alone, you are heard. I'm so glad that you've found a community with us, too. I'm very glad you're one of my maggots.

All the love in the world to you.

[phantomoftheorpheum]

One thing I've been seeing a lot of recently that, quite honestly, really pisses me off, is people complaining about concertgoers who actually want to sit in their seats instead of stand/dance the whole concert. I have seen a lot of people saying that they are "bringing the vibe down," should just not come if they don't want to stand/dance, or that it's annoying because they don't want to feel guilty for standing in front of those people (if you feel guilty about it, maybe there's a reason). And I've seen a lot of- "Who even goes to a concert to sit, anyway?" So I will answer that question. For one, disabled people, like me.

Now, personally, I have a problem with the lack of accessible seating at the venues, not specifically with people who want to stand/dance (though if you are someone who complains about other people sitting because you don't like that vibe, I think you need to think long and hard about the inherit ableism of that complaint), standing and dancing is a totally valid way to want to experience a concert, and I don't want to take that option away from anyone. However, in my experience, concert venues are genuinely terrible about providing truly accessible seating. The "accessible" seats (which to most venues seems to exclusively mean you can get a wheelchair there) are often on the floor, and as soon as the rest of the crowd stands up, any visibility of the stage is gone. Those of us who are unable to stand don't have any choice about this ("If you want to see, stand up, too. The artists encourage people to dance!" is a comment I have heard frequently when this topic comes up), which is frustrating when you're at a show for an artist you're excited to see and that just becomes an impossibility for you.

There are so many overlapping issues here, including, but not limited to- the fact that wheelchair accessibility is not the only accommodation needed by many people, the fact that there are rarely (if ever) any sections that require people to sit and therefore meaning that visibility is frequently limited or non-existent to people who are unable to stand (for whatever reason, be that age, health, injury, etc.), the fact that many of us are both publicly shamed for sitting (because we are not perceived as disabled) AND publicly shamed if we access any kind of accommodation (because we are not perceived as disabled), and the fact that "accessible" seating is often incredibly limited to begin with.

Anyway, my intent is not to shame people who like to stand and dance during concerts (I would love to be one of you), but to remind people that your experience through life is not anyone or everyone else's and it's important to take a mental step back and consider an experience outside of your own. And also to remind people that concert venues are often incredibly inaccessible and do very little to create genuinely accessible spaces.

P.S. People are allowed to sit if they want to, even if they are completely capable of standing and dancing. They do not owe you a specific "vibe" and there is more than one way to enjoy live music.

[littlemessyjessi]

"The Divine Bond" : A Kili Durinson Fiction

Kili Durinson Imagine 

.

Warnings: Arranged marriage themes.  Past violence/abuse.  Also, just middle earth in general.  That's kind of a clusterfuck in and of itself. AFAB Reader.  Fem Reader. Past heartbreak.  Concept of soulmate AU if you will though it's not referred to it as that. Bagginshield.  Post BotFA.  Everyone. Fucking. Lives.  I have chosen to sheild us all from THAT particular trauma.  

Disclaimer: Obviously, I don't own the main characters and Tolkien's concept of middle earth.  I do however own this variation of reader and my writing. 

. 

Two dark eyes stared out into the distance. 

Dark eyes that were normally big, sparkly and all but chocolatey in their gaze. 

Not today. 

Today, there were dark and stormy and full of resentment. 

A fierce glare that, admittedly, lost a bit of it's severity due to the contemptous pouting mouth that lay beneath it. 

Today Kili was supposed to meet his intended. 

An arranged marriage. 

It was unheard of among dwarrow because they all firmly believed that they had a true match. 

Their One. 

Fili was no different in this belief. 

The difference lay in the fact that he believed that title belonged to a red haired she elf.  

Tauriel, Mirkwood's Captain of the Royal Guard. 

She was not. 

There had been curiosity, of course. 

Attraction even. 

From both parties. 

But in reality, perhaps more than anything, there was simply solidarity in the fact that the both of them felt lonely. 

Elves only truly love once. 

Dwarves are no different. 

And it is so absolutely divine that neither question it. 

Of course, there was always the option of them choosing one another anyway. 

Were it not for the fact that Tauriel had found her own. 

An elf in Rivendell with " …eyes like spring and a smile of pure sunshine. she's as bright as starlight, Kili." as she'd put it. 

Kili had tried to be happy for her. 

He had. 

He tried to be a good friend and be supportive. 

But it had killed him inside. 

He'd been heartbroken and jealous and…. stupid. 

Today's meeting wasn't exactly his first go around with an arranged marriage. 

He'd initiated it in the first place. 

The first with a dwarrowdam from some distant kingdom. 

Kili, assuming that he'd just watched his One fall in love with another, resigned himself to the possibility that he would just fade away and as such, told Thorin that he would offer his hand in marriage to someone suitable as long as it provided thriving trade options for Erebor. 

In truth, it was one of the most political, level headed and responsible things Thorin had ever seen from his youngest nephew. 

Though it still did nothing to keep his heart from shattering as he looked at him. 

Thorin knew very well what it felt like to be at odds with your One… as he stupidly made it that way with Bilbo most of the journey to reclaim Erebor. 

And he also knew what a dwarrow looked like when they found their One. 

And Kili did not look like that with Tauriel. 

The lad had a love and got his heartbroken. 

While still valid, Thorin knew that this would be a whisper in the wind if Kili was ever blessed to find his intended. 

However, he seemed bound and determined to seal his fate all in the name of Erebor. 

Or spite. 

Thorin couldn't be sure anymore. 

The last time they'd done this, it was later found out that the dwarrowdam had been abusive to Kili throughout their entire courtship. 

She'd played the part well and no one had been wiser. 

And whether it was that Kili would never raise his hand to a woman or perhaps he was delusion in thinking that he somehow deserved this… he refused to retaliate. 

It had only been when Fili noticed new battlescars all over his brother that things had come to a grinding halt. 

Kili hadn't seen battle in nearly five years and no amount of sparring or training would've produced that. 

The only thing that had kept Thorin from executing her on the spot was the fact that he'd come to know her mother and was assured that just consequence would be done upon her for the rest of her wretched existence. 

And also because Bilbo asked him not to.  

Thorin had been in a rage over it, declaring that they would never go through with it again. 

Yet a year later in a drunken fit of misery, Kili took it upon himself to make a royal degree and sent out the bloody invitations himself. 

Honestly, after word of the last one spread… barely anyone responded. 

Though there was one. 

A distant kingdom of creatures. 

The Felinites of Bast. 

Supposedly, lay in the far south, secluded in the desert rested the Mighty Queen Sehkmet and she had a daughter who was willing to meet with him. 

Queen Sehkmet had written back. 

The deep blue ink along the parchment telling him who it was long before he was ever given the letter. 

'Prince Kili, 

We have recieved your invitation to council over courtship leading to a future union of Erebor and Bast.  I have discussed this with my daughter, the Princess and heir.  We have decided to accept and will be travelling to Erebor soon to discuss further matters.  

Highest Regards, 

Queen Sehkmet of Bast' 

However, now that the day had come and Kili was no longer in a fit of drunken despair … he was sorely regretting his decision to not just let things lie. 

Apparently, the regret seemed to roll off of him in waves. 

"Kili." 

The deep, rumble of a voice was undeniable and he didn't need to look to know that Thorin had joined him as he stood there staring at the clouds. 

It wouldn't be long now until they'd arrived. 

Already, word of strange caravans approaching had spread to Dale and into Erebor. 

"Kili, you don't have to do this." his uncle sighed. "No one will think less of you."

"I will marry her." Kili sighed.  "It will be a good step towards security for Erebor."

Another sigh. 

"Kili… Erebor is fine.  It grows prosperous every day.  We've enough wealth in this mountain." 

"The kingdom from where she hails is known for their impressive spices and dye powders.  That could be very useful to us." the young prince said. "According to Ori, that is not all that seems to be abundant in Bast.  There is a lot to be gained from this, Uncle." "Yes, Kili, but this does not have to fall to you." Thorin said, pinching the bridge of his nose.  "An agreement could still be achieved without a marriage." 

"It will be much easier with one." Kili countered. "Besides, this could further future endeavors with Mirkwood. Her people, they are weavers and have been known to work with spiders.  I can't help but thinking that could be useful and if they were able to minimize the situation in Mirkwood, Thranduil would be in our debt." 

Thorin was impressed. 

He was saddened that his formerly jovial and lighthearted nephew had taken to looking at things so clear cut… but he was still impressed with this level headed diplomatic opinion of his. 

"And if they can solve that issue and we are on better terms with Thranduil then we stand to gain from a possible trade of textiles with not only Mirkwood but perhaps Rivendell." Kili said, glancing at his Uncle's curious expression. "I understand that spidersilk is both incredibly strong and extremely luxurious. Now, I can't say that I found the experience luxurious when we were dangling from it in the forest.  However, it was strong enough to hold dwarves… and we're heavy. From what I gather, it does take certain skill to both calm the beasts and work with the byproduct.  If an agreement with the elves were to be reached over the passing of mithril and spidersilk we would, and pardon the butchery of this but, have them by the balls. For those two items, we could demand just about anything." 

Thorin was passed impressed.  

He was just plain proud. 

He clapped his hand on his nephew's shoulder making a ghost of a smile appear, "I had no idea you'd put so much thought into this." 

Kili nodded, "There's too much potential gain for Erebor for me to worry about a little marriage getting in the way." 

And Thorin's smile fell again. 

"Well, we will meet with them and if you decide that it's what's best then we'll continue.  However, if not, you need only say.  There will be no grudges and I will work tirelessly to achieve your goals in any other way." he said.  "I'm serious, Kili. This does not fall to your shoulders." 

The dark haired prince only gave a nod. 

.---.---.---.---.---.

When they came, they came in a rush to the senses. 

Color, scent, sound. 

The Felinites of Bast were a sight to behold and that was undeniable. 

Music carried on the wind long before they reached Erebor.

 It echoed from the city of Dale. 

Caravans turned to boats as they crossed to Erebor and soon those drums were thumping through stone as if the Mountain itself had come alive and it's heart was beating. 

A group of people, thirty at best, were making their way inside after having been granted access at the gates by Dwalin and his guard. 

They were a tall people, it would seem. 

Not nearly so as the elves but only just. 

The air was perfumed with spices and flowers as they came. 

The starkness of the mountain split into as they glided through, the hues of their garb, glittering like jewels. 

They were so foreign to Erebor and yet they seemed all at once it they were meant to have been there.  

Queen Sehkmet was a mighty woman with a towering height. 

Her skin was warm and bronze and decorated with painted shimmering golden markings. 

It stretched over muscles that many a dwarf would envy. 

Her hair was golden, braided into tight rows that fell over her shoulder and a shimmering crown that mirrored the sun set around her head like a halo or a lion's mane. 

Her eyes were matching piercing gold surrounded by darkness.  

All of those paled in comparison to the rounded golden ears atop of her head… and matching long tail swishing behind her. 

She looked like a mighty lioness ready to strike at a moment's notice. 

The Felinites were a people who walked the line between man and beast… and proudly so. 

The Princess walked not behind her mother, but beside her. 

Her hair was a mass of black, braided and drawn back into thick sections atop her head; bunched and banded to keep at bay with smaller banded sections of hair near her face. 

Her crown was much simpler involving just a simple golden hoop at the back of her head that swooped down under her hair before resurfacing at the front in the form of two great horns shaped in such a way that they resembled the ears of a cat. 

Her eyes were that of her mother's though they held not the darkness of Sehkmet's and while her mother's markings were golden, her's were simply white. 

Her pupils were slanted, as were Sehkmet's, as were all of the Felinites. 

Her gaze held the fierceness of her mother. 

Though where there was ruthlessness in Sehkmet's … there was yet still a soft, awe of wonder in hers as she took in the mighty kingdom of Erebor. 

Thorin, who'd been observing their entrance, reasoned that it was because the Princess was likely young and had yet to see much war. 

"Welcome, honored guests of Bast!" the king spoke, a sudden regalness to his tone making his sister, Dis…. and almost everyone around him nearly roll their eyes and laugh at him. 

Thorin hated the stuffiness of royal affairs… but he played the part none the less. 

Queen Sehkmet bowed her golden head slightly, "King Thorin, thank you for your welcome.  Please allow us to extend our gratitude of your generosity." 

Thorin lifted a dark brow at her. 

"We have brought gifts." she smiled, revealing a set of teeth that while beautiful… were very sharp.  

She turned to the princess with a sharp nod. 

Kili watched as the Princess turned to the others behind her and retrieved the first of what seemed many gifts.  

The people of Bast scattered to gift each and every person in Erebor a gift from their homeland. 

It mattered not how big or small, their status or class, everyone recieved a gift. 

Kili watched as the princess approached the royal guard, dipping into a kneel before Dwalin who's eyes widened. 

He took the glimmering pouch from her with less of a grumble than Kili had seen from the dwarf in a long time. 

She approached the high court and kneeled again before each and every member working her way up the line to him. 

She swept down again and presented him with a pouch that glimmered so brightly and fiercely that it reminded him of burning embers or perhaps a sunset. 

Her hands bore the same mark as her mother. 

Intricate details all in shimmering white paint. 

Upon further inspection, he noticed that it wasn't paint at all but rather stained. 

Was she inked or simply stained? 

"Kili." 

The bark had less bite than usual from Thorin and he tore his eyes away from her hands to look at his uncle who gave him a pointed look.   

"Thank you." Kili whispered. 

He started a little when her head snapped up to look at him, those great glowing eyes locking on his. 

The slits of her eyes widened until nearly the whole of the golden iris was overtaken by shining black pools. 

She turned suddenly to look at her mother. 

Sehkmet's eyes, as if it were even possible, narrowed at her then at Kili before they slid to meet Thorin's gaze. 

"It would seem, King Thorin, that the winds of fate have brought our people together." Sehkmet said. 

"I beg your pardon?" 

"Are your people familiar with the concept of the divine bond?" she asked. 

"We don't call it that." he said. "Though, I understand what you mean.  However, if that is what you're about to insunate then I suggest we take this meeting to a more private location at a more appropriate time. My nephew will not be -" 

Though Thorin's words died on his lips as Kili's whisper seemed to echo over the entire room. 

"My One…."  

….

Hello, loves!  So I realize that this is a big fat cliffhanger.  It's meant to just be a cute if not angsty little Kili work.  However, if you DO want to see more about Kili and this mysterious Princess, I would absolutely love to write more about them!  I just didn't want to throw out a bunch of new stories at yall if you weren't interested.   I hope you DID enjoy and I would love to know what you think!  

All my love, 

Kenny 

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[space-blue]

I love thinking about what-ifs like this so...what do you think would have happened if Silco never found Powder after Vi got arrested, let's say it went like this: Vi slaps Powder and walks away, Marcus knocks her out and grabs her to give a scapegoat to topside, Powder manages to run away, only then Silco gets out and both girls are gone. Would Powder have made it back to Ekko? Would she have told him what happened? How would she have grown up, with all the same trauma but with no Silco to raise her?

This may come across as Silco simping, but I'm genuine when I say I believe Jinx could only really thrive for so long with him. I think Powder joining Ekko would end poorly. The firelights barely have any adults around as far as we're shown, and they're a band of misfits held together by their common goals. Since Ekko is their leader, it's pretty clear there isn't the same sort of hierarchy as with Silco's group.

What do you think would happen when Jinx has her first breakdown? When she explodes someone? When she kills more and more people with her homemade explosives? Would she even manage to reach the expertise and precision she does with Silco?

Because let's not kid ourselves, Silco DOTES on her. She has a fully furnished lair, and she didn't carry the couch down on her own… She has all the tools and chemicals she needs. She even wastes stuff by throwing bombs over the edge as she monologues. A very far cry from the Powder who was headfirst in bins scavenging for scraps.

Ekko and his firelights are busy building building a treehouse for years. Then fighting against Silco. They clearly have some sort of income or resource since they're able to maintain their community and their hoverboards, but it can't compare to the deep pockets of a chembaron.

How many accidents before Jinx becomes a source of confrontation? How many deaths? How many breakdowns? How soon until Ekko is forced to chose between the community he's building and the friend who is clearly hurting, but not just herself?

Jinx is also someone who has an unhealthy need for validation, love and approval. She goes to get the gem because of a perceived distrust on Silco's part. But he honestly wanted her to take a break. He recognised she was unwell and ordered her to stand down, and Jinx spiraled from this, dealing with her voices…

Would Ekko be able to give her that sort of love and attention? That much of it? Would he tolerate as much as Silco does? Not that being as tolerant as Silco is turned out so well for him, but you know, Ekko is either the same age or younger than Jinx, so he couldn't have the sort of domineering or fatherly relationship to her that she seems to need/crave. What would happen when she crosses a boundary that Ekko has to enforce for the good of everyone else, and young Jinx takes it as another unbearable betrayal and the proof she's all alone with her voices?

I think Jinx could make the Firelights implode. Obviously it's all authorial intent at the end of the day.

But I think the darkest option is Jinx crashing the Firelights or setting them back by years, or even potentially burning the tree down with another bomb attempt gone wrong, Ekko enforcing a boundary demanding she stops, Jinx taking it really badly, Ekko putting his foot in his mouth, and her running away.

Then found by Silco, but a couple years have passed and he does NOT imprint on her, doesn't see her as anything but a tool, the only person who put a dent in his operations with weird booby traps. He'd still educate her and provide for her but she'd not be treated half as well. Her life could be really different and miserable. She could be fed to Singed as part of an experiment to try and 'tame her' and because she's more harm than good when spiralling.

In another version of that, being with Ekko she doesn't become Jinx, doesn't touch a bomb ever again, grows increasingly convinced she's no good and helping out always brings out a curse. That she's better off withdrawing from the world. She'd run away as soon as anything she does fails or flips on her. She could end up on a boat to Noxus or discovered sobbing near topside by Viktor. It's entirely open-ended and fanfic author heaven. Viktor finding distraught Powder and eventually putting 2 and 2 together about the lab break in and the little traumatised genius in front of him, deciding to make her into an officious lab assistant to house and feed her and teaching her in their time off, would be the best development for her personally.

I'd like to think that she would still struggle to care about a cause, or about doing good. She's a mess but ultimately she's self centred and cruel because that's what Zaun made her. No amount of Silco's love cured her of that, although the lack of violence at the academy might help.

Since all stories need conflict, I think it'd be fascinating if she inserts herself between Jayce and Viktor and ends up preventing Viktor from losing himself and losing time faffing around with Jayce. He wouldn't "forget to do good" if he had a traumatized Zaunite kid in his skirts at all times. Jinx having nightmares, PTSD reactions at loud noises and hearing voices and struggling with debilitating fear of disappointing and fucking up, hiding under a desk punching herself in the head and crying… Every breakdown, every flinch would be a reminder that kids just like her are suffering down in Zaun, but they also have to cutr a purse, work a dangerous factory job or prostitute themselves to eat, while Jinx at least is getting room and board.

Viktor in that context wouldn't waste years making mining tools. Jinx could focus him. She'd remind him every day that he's team Zaun.

And if you want Silco in that story, this may be how Viktor ends up spending time in Zaun and meeting someone whose political drives sound incredibly attractive paired with the Tech Viktor is developing. Would he then have access to medical shimmer sooner? Would he see Silco as responsible for a large part of Jinx's trauma? Would talking to Silco and building trust with him lead Viktor to unravel what happened to Vi?

Dun dun dun...

Anon, stop trying to make me write Arcane fic. I'm almost done with the next chapter of F&D, I don't need a Vik

[yellowhollyhock]

I noticed in the episode samurai tourist people like saying how intuitive mikey was in noticing the role that Leo plays. But here’s the thing is it felt like he was defending Leo’s shitty behavior and telling Donnie and Raph their feelings aren’t valid. Also wasn’t Raph the first to notice Leo was fighting something else? The only reason Donnie and Raph were so hard on him at that is point is because Leo was being drill Sargent Leo to them except Mikey so of course Mikey had no issues with angry mode Leo because he wasn’t getting trained to death by the guy and yelled at. So I saw that as Mikey making excuses for Leo’s behavior all season. It feels like the logic of your mom defending your dad being an asshole. oh your father works hard to provide for the family! Don’t be so hard on him for drinking and yelling at you! Nice logic there Mikey Don and Raph had every right to be mad at that point.

Oh there’s all kinds of family politics going on during that arc

I think the main reason Mikey was defending Leo is because he’d just had training from him in Grudge Match. Also possibly he didn’t want them to be talking bad about him in front of guests? Almost like, yes this is an issue but let’s not do this in front of people. Which is thoughtful in a way, and immature in other ways. Which makes sense because Mikey is both thoughtful and fifteen.

Raph and Don have put up with a lot from Leo, and Mikey was shielded from the brunt of it. At the same time, Leo does go easy on Mikey for a reason, the two of them have a special bond and giving in by admitting his attitude is not okay might feel like a betrayal to Mikey? So yeah I do think he’s defending Leo’s bad behavior, and not really being fair to his other brothers in that moment. The whole family is trying to work around Leo’s demons though, they aren’t always going to make the right calls.

As to your point about Raph—yeah he seems to have picked up on the most the earliest and that’s why by Samurai Tourist he’s Done defending Leo’s behavior. He’s been patiently on the sidelines trying to let Leo work this out for himself and it hasn’t been working. It’s time to jump out in front of his brother and make the demons go away. Except he can’t because it’s not that type of enemy. This is the first time Raph hasn’t been able to reach Leo when he needs it, and that’s why he’s airing things out with Don. I think part of him hopes Mr. Fix-It will have some kind of solution the rest of them haven’t seen.

Meanwhile out of all of them I don’t think Donny’s trying to help anymore. He’s just tired of being yelled at and glad to have Raph’s ear about it. What they’ve all just lived through with Shredder’s defeat was very uncomfortably close to what he saw in SAINW. Probably literally everyone picked up on that except Leo, bless his heart. So we’re seeing both Raph and Mikey try to do their best for Leo here, but I think in their own (imperfect) ways also trying to look out for Don. Raph wants to confront the problem head on and Mikey wants to keep everyone happy in the moment. Neither of those things is truly an option, though.

I had a sibling go through her own type of Big Leo Arc and I remember these exact types of fights. Getting frustrated with each other when our approaches didn’t match up. With something like that going on, you have to be able to Treat Them Like Normal and make good memories in the middle of the chaos, and you also have to sometimes do what it takes to Dig Things Up so they can actually heal. I think we all tried both at one time or other and rarely were we on the same page. That experience definitely influences the way I see this arc (doesn’t make other readings less valid btw, just makes me extra obsessed with the family dynamics through those episodes).

I hope I kind of addressed what you were talking about? Short answer, Yes agreed let’s go easy on Raph and Don, they’ve put up with a lot already, and they’re not picking on Leo they’re trying to help (mostly. They’re definitely also mad but can we blame them?). Personally I’d take it easy on Mikey too, he reacted in a flawed way to a sucky situation. I think when people bring this up it’s mainly because they see that Mikey Is emotionally attuned and looks out for his brothers, but most of the time he does that through humor, which leads to him being treated as comic relief, in the show and sometimes in fandom as well. So I can see why Mikey lovers would want to use an example that doesn’t lead to a Comedic Moment, even if it isn’t necessarily the best one.

[mike-wachowski]

i think my favorite thing about my food poll breaching containment is seeing the responses to the roast beef dinner titanic options, because theres only two sides

"op i love roast beef and i have autism/food senitivities/am a picky eater and that actually sounds super delicious"

"op why would you put roast beef on here i eat that every day its so boring i want to try something different"

and its like, both responses are super valid !! but what i love about response 1 is that thats the EXACT reason i put the roast beef dinner on there - because i knew it was important to provide an option that seemed relatively tame for people with food sensitivities or what have you so that they also felt like they had a delicious and fun option !! plus you get to be on the titanic, which fucks severely !

[dearweirdme]

I feel sad for Tae, this is obviously a stunt and I doubt he agreed to do it for clout and exposure, he didn't seem happy to do it and he is not feeding it in any way so that leave of some other options, I think it was more about providing a cover for tk, I don't think it's a coincidence that it happened just before both of their solo debut, jk's being international makes things more high scale too, so jk is also benefiting from this without dealing personally with the hard stuff, I won't argue that this has made tae even more popular but he's being attacked constantly, people making everything about him about this woman and prepared to make his hard work about her too, calling him a coward and making fun of him with 5k likes, always being on the news bc of "dating" it's also not necessarily a good thing, your fans calling you a liar and thinking that you are ball less when you are one of the bravest ppl out there mustn't be nice, ppl insulting even his family and this situation created a bunch of ppl obsessed with his privacy and personal life, like some army won't admit it on public but they have whole gcs for gossipping and he is the focus, and all bc yg and hybe are using him for this media circus, and this all before caring about his artistry and considering how Tae has been acting like him posting that wake up song tht has a clear message just after the Bruno Mars concerts when all the social media rockus was about tn, him coming out of the airport and doing a live immediately to show us that he is alone....yeah I doubt this doesn't bother him at least a bit, he is someone with a lot of integrity, what I'm saying is that it pains me to see the situation and it started to annoy me to see everyone benefit from it, jennie and YG, jennie is being victimized big time in twitter and every critisism done to her about stuff like her actions and lack of effort in concerts it's pin down to ppl 'jealousy' of her dating Tae, no critisism is valid now even the ones coming from her own fans and ppl are super defensive of her, even more than before, and jk too....this lifted some of the gay rumors just in time for his international debut ( I don't think this is coincidental) and I know this bc when Jennie dropped those pics so many comments from different accounts not even armys or shippers were ppl cheering bc 'tk is so not real' and ppl thinking in what should be just a typical gay kpop ship first thing everytime those rumors break tells me that deep down a lot of ppl thought or feared that there was some truth in tk and are relieved and happy that it's being 'debunked', I guess this is part the goal, a bit of protection for the both of them but yeah I don't like it that's Tae just dealing with all the bad stuff and jk only getting the benefits, at least that's how it looks bc obviously we don't how he feels emotionally but facts are facts and the one dealing with the worst of all is taehyung, lots of new ot6 accounts, ppl didn't leave jk bc of this rumor as much as tae, ppl aren't calling him liar and a pussy in mass scale, he doesn't have to see his face on the news bc of dating rumors, he is seeing it bc of the success of his music that hybe pushed ( which I think it's really deserved bc he has worked hard his whole life) but things don't look fair to me in regards of Tae,how fitting it was Tae saying that he would take the responsibility sometimes I wonder if that's the dynamic of their relationship.

Hi anon!

Yeah, this is the worst part of being in showbizz really. I agree that Tae probably isn’t unaffected by this, though I hope he has maintained a bit of distance from social media. The way it looks now, I think he agreed because it’s a fairly short stunt (only one walk for him, and the rest is mostly done by fandom) and it probably allows him more freedom in the long run. I feel his post with the Disney hoody is rather pointed. Reclaiming his true self a bit. I don’t think it’s been mainly to hide Taekook, but rather to make it seem that he (also) dates women. I’m quite curious to see how the launch of his album will go (in general, but also regarding this).

I don’t agree that Jk benefits from this without doing anything himself. Jk has been deemed ‘straight’ the last couple of weeks because of Seven. He didn’t need Tae to do Taennie, since to most of fandom and the general public Tae and him are just friends. They’ve successfully hidden that way for years now, and only now something like this is happening. I really suspect it’s because of Tae’s album, and because he wants to be able to be more himself in general. People are sadly enough more inclined to accept/ignore a hint of queerness when a man very publicly dates a woman. We’ll see soon I suppose, since his album is probably going to be released soon.

I think Tae and Jk are very connected. Jk’s tears when Tae’s grandmother died tells me that he is not immune to Tae’s hurt at all. I therefore think that Jk will also have hurt because of this Taennie thing. If not for himself it will have been for Tae. There’s no benefit in standing by while your partner is rumored/shipped with someone else. That hurts! Jk is also a very feeling, emotional person.. it took him quite some days to come on live again after the Paris stuff. You don’t come this far in a relationship (that is already complicated) by letting one person carry the brunt of it.

[bbrokenbback]

Hi! Thank you and UseYourDelusion so much for the Warhammer Kinktober prompts. I was just wondering though, what's the difference between Denial and Edging, and Sthenolagnia and Muscle Worship? The words in both pairs definitely have different vibes but I've tried to look up the difference and they seem to be the same thing, so I'm a bit confused. (It's a-ok if they are repeated prompts btw, you provided lots of options to choose from so no one has to repeat unless they want to! Just asking for my own clarification ☺️)

Hi! Sorry if I'm answering late, I was out of tumblr recently >.<

Actually, the list itself is full of options which depend mostly on how you'd like to approach them. If you want to consider those tags the same — so be it, it's totally okay.

But, if you want to write them differently, you can use your own perception of the tags. For example, I think denial might not only be about denying orgasm to one of the characters but also about not reciprocating someone's feelings, and the other side is getting off on that impossibility of getting what they want or whatever xd.

Sthenolagnia is mostly about just the fact of strength to me, not exactly muscles. To me, it's mostly about how a stronger person is umm... perceived in society? Is this the right word? Idk sorry. While muscle worship, while it can just fine be considered the same, is mostly only about appearance and not about the influence it makes on people.

Let me ask you to simply be creative if you want to use our list. There are no strict rules or particular ways we'd want you to write. Search for loopholes, write about your otp every day, studying characters' relationship from different sides, you are not even supposed to write any smut, if you don't wish to, and all of that is perfectly valid, okay and appreciated.

I hope I explained my position well enough. Thank you for giving attention to our prompt list! I wish you all the best.