#but i got thinking about the fact that we're just animals with the capacity to do harm to eachother in more ways than any other animal

[gayinajar]

I spent too long last night thinking and it turned me into a communist

[briteboy]

Someone is sending an ask about your past blog and your fanfic you wrote about two teen anime boys. I suggest you acknowledge it on this blog to let people know instead of trying to rebrand and have a “redemption arc” when what you did is more than wrong, it’s disgusting

if i was really trying to rebrand i wouldn't leave my previous url permanently in my header so people wouldn't forget. ("redemption arc" is from an anon message i received, just for clarification.) i've said this before, but i'll reiterate: anyone who's curious can go to that url and see the post that lives there where i've made my final statement about the situation (and reposted on this blog as well at the time), where i also make it clear that i'm not "rebranding"...i simply got sick of my last url. believe it or not i am just a person and not everything i do is purposely diabolical.

i've tried to handle this as responsibly as i can, i've spoken about this ad nauseam and i've apologized multiple times. what more am i supposed to do or say if i'm not actively harming anyone or contributing to the problem, and haven't been for years now? genuinely asking. like...yeah, it was weird and gross. i'm not disagreeing with you. i'm sorry and i'd go back in time to stop myself from writing fanfiction of aged up personifications of teenage anime characters– or better yet, urge my even younger self to question the norms of fandoms and the like that i'd grown up in, where this was commonplace– if i could.

i don't know how many different ways i can make it clear that i'm not even remotely the same person i was then in any capacity. anyone who's known me for years could tell you this. i could apologize again and again but people would still hold it against me. so at this point i think it's well within my rights to live my life and enjoy my hobbies (completely unrelated to the situation at hand) without being indebted to those who know me through the narrow lens of sims tumblr for a mistake i made 5 years ago and took accountability for at the time, and again even now. as long as this keeps being rehashed, i will continue to do so. it's all i can do.

i know that very insular online communities like to think some people are just Bad Forever but that's just not how life works, especially in the case of ignorance where people actually take the time to reflect, learn and grow after realizing the wrongness of their actions. but if believing that makes you feel more comfortable, then i invite you not to engage with me. we're both better off that way. more than that, i encourage you to consider the fact that people change. that's all i have to say.

[secretoreimo]

Hello I can't resist the obnoxious urge to blabber about my feelings so long analysis under the cut!? JHSDHJKJS

Okay, so. Indeed, while I understand that the game couldn't keep them blood-related for censorship reasons and such, I do think it killed the impact of them getting together a good bit.

My suspension of disbelief kind of tanked when Kirino asked Kyousuke to be her boyfriend right after he poured his heart out, expressing his insecurities that something might change between them. The game really does treat it like it's not only a non-issue but also a logical step to take, now, and I honestly have the capacity to ignore that for what I'm here for (them interacting, period), but it was definitely jarring.

I will say though, I did like that this began because they sat down to have a genuine talk about it. That felt much more organic and in-character than the nonsense we got in season 2, with the screaming in public and whatnot. And it did a lot more to stress the lengths they've changed since the beginning of the series, letting them sit down and confess to each other nervously. Well, I'd have liked if it were significantly more nervous, personally.

The thing about their relationship is it is inherently fucked up, like. It is at the center of all of their problems. Kirino has a crippling obsession with "imouto eroge" and this stemmed from the fact that, from a VERY young age, she believed herself to be a freak who had improper and disgusting feelings for her older brother, and eroge was something she latched onto as an escape from that reality. Sure, it did end up just being plain her favorite thing, but it came from that place.

I think if there's one thing I'd credit the anime for, it's that she didn't admit to her feelings ever, not until the very end when it was absolutely undeniable that they were reciprocated. She was repressed for so long I truly don't believe there'd be a reality where she'd say it first. Kyousuke has his own daddy issues, but there's something to be said regardless of a guy who is otherwise pretty normal, but finds himself falling in love with his little sister, however estranged. He's pretty fucked up, himself. Although I wish he hadn't screamed it in the center of the street at the top of his lungs in the most soulless loss for his character ever, I think the only way for them to actually move forward in a relationship would be for him to come to terms with it and say something first, however long a process that may or may not be.

I love the scenario the game poses where their relationship starts to take a "maybe I'll invite her out, just the two of us" turn, and she actually agrees instead of being flat out disgusted and disparaging. Sure, the beach was a little random and the game could have picked a better excuse than "idk why im inviting her to the beach it's almost like i got her route in a video game", but like. Idk, I like it when they interact, it feels natural for the most part. The game feels really good when you scoop out those little moments of "we're not siblings actually we're just a boy and a girl and it's natural".

Even just this scene post-confession, if I were to pretend that part had happened a different way, the banter over how they're gonna continue as a couple is pretty cute and in character.

I'm rambling about all of this not like to bitch I just have so many feelings and things I like and don't like and there are parts that I'd mix and match between anime canon and game canon and things... it's kind of fun. All in all I'd say this feels like an extremely well-written (and well-voiced) fanfiction. I'd accept these things in a fanfiction and move on, just as I'm gonna do for the game, but since it's official I get to be a freak on the internet and write paragraphs about it jhfhjsg

I am ultimately of the opinion that them being blood-related is the better story, it says more about their flaws and their personalities, and tbh I'm a sucker for characters who shouldn't be in love falling in love. Especially when they're as lovingly crafted as the characters in oreimo are. This series really is something special, I think, and it's kind of impossible to describe that to someone who hasn't seen it and just knows it for its reputation as "the anime where the brother and sister get married and kiss on the mouth at the end", which I guess is all anyone was gonna get from season 2

I rambled so long that I don't even have time to continue playing past their confession!! Now I have to go to sleep, but continue I shall soon, because... I love them...

[muninnhuginn]

For the character ask meme, Anya from spy x family? :0

hi! thanks for the ask ^^. weirdly, I think anya's probably the spy x family main I've thought about the least? there's plenty to her so idk why I've not thought through her entire deal more, maybe just because the child experimentation angle will be grim and we're lacking so many pieces of her backstory rn. but even with that, there's plenty there. so anyway, good choice is what I'm saying. this gives me an excuse to not get distracted by loid and yo--

anyway anyway, answers below cut because this got long:

My first impression

This is gonna sound bad considering I only got into the series when the anime started coming out which is fairly recent all considered, but I genuinely don't remember? I'd probably seen memes involving her before I actually started the anime or manga, but for the life of me, I couldn't remember what they involved.

My impression now

She's young and that colours pretty much all of her actions. But it also means she has a huge capacity for growth and allows her to create that change in others too (the obvious one being Loid but you see it with others too). And Spy x Family may be a slow-burn but we're starting to get some of that pay off in terms of character development.

Hmm, what else, I guess she's pretty determined. Thinking of that post about how "Anya would be unstoppable if not for the small fact that she's five". So yeah, her logic is questionable at times (most of the time) and she's got abandonment issues and she's hindered by her age. But she's found a family now and it's clear she wants to keep them and wants them to keep her too.

Favorite thing about that character

I think the aspects that cause Anya the most trouble are those which she hasn't shared with anyone. Her powers, her background in general, her age. They're all tied together and her fear of abandonment (likely exacerbated by her foster families) prevents her from seeking help when they cause her issues. Loid knows pieces, but he's missing some really key bits of information and he has no idea. So it's neat that this character who arguably holds the most knowledge about other people's secrets cannot share her own.

Least favorite thing

I really don't like to think about some of the stuff that if you follow logic Anya must have been exposed to through her powers. There's some aspect of her not being able to comprehend all thoughts, but I imagine there's a lot that gets through which is just, quite frankly horrific.

There's that scene fairly early on where Loid and Anya come across a rally and there's some pretty yikes stuff being thought by those attending. In that scene, the focus is more on how crowds tend to overwhelm her given her powers, but between that and whatever's going on with Melinda, well, it's pretty clear she can and will hear things that would be uncomfortable for *anyone* to hear, never mind someone not even six years old.

Favorite line/scene

Maybe Ania mini-chapter. What does it all mean?

Favorite interaction that character has with another

Loid-Anya cruise subplot. She's not lost the abandonment issues, but she sure has Loid wrapped around her finger and takes full advantage of it. She's just trying to help Yor, but she's making Loid completely suffer for it and it is hilarious.

A character that I wish that character would interact with more

Handler. They've had a couple of interactions in canon and Anya reminds her of her own daughter which is already such a dynamic to start with. Anya seems to like Handler too. It's a mutually healing relationship, but also funny to consider them both driving Loid up the wall with stress.

Another character from another fandom that reminds me of that character

Maybe Steven Universe? Something about kids with atypical family setups who are too young to be involved in this stuff getting involved regardless and setting themselves up for trauma down the line. Wanting to save the world, but not yet understanding what that entails. Their powers being tied to something beyond their control; something that will absolutely come back to bite them.

In terms of personality though? I'm kind of blanking.

A song that reminds of that character

(Might have to follow it through to Youtube to get the subtitles to work)

This is one of those where it's more the vibes than the exact story, but I think the whole 'family to family until you find a home' and 'seems cheery but actually quite sad' and some of the stuff around 'helping' all fit in a way.

An unpopular opinion about that character/A headcanon about that character

(Merged this with 'headcanon' because I realised my read of the situation here could fit that and I blanked on *actual* headcanons but they'd probably mostly revolve around sensory overload from her powers so)

Not sure how unpopular this opinion actually is, because I don't tend to lurk in those places, but I genuinely don't think Anya at this stage is "into" Damian in any way. And though I doubt it'll pan out that way, I would very much prefer if she stays uninterested in him in that way? I do think it'd be neat to explore the fallout when Damian realises she was trying to befriend him for his connections given that's already been brought up as something that'd upset him. But I'd rather their dynamic lead to genuine friendship rather than romance. For now, Damian's crush and Anya's awkward overtures as she tries to progress the mission do entertain me, as do the small moments where they interact genuinely. But I just find the idea of a crush when they're that young actually working out to be... well, pretty unbelievable?

Favourite picture

Ahh don't make me pick. She has too many good faces I'm not sure how I could narrow it down. I'll just go for.... her "heh" face, but genuinely way too much choice. (Also, there are some more serious options like when she realises Loid's reason for coming to rescue her in ep/ch1 or her reaction about the whole "Ania" spelling. But again, can't pick)

[vegapunk-aurora]

Can someone please just say the Ask Tales blog is permanently closed? It honestly hurts to look back at it with even the slightest optimistic glimmer of hope.

Hi Anon,

I'll go ahead and field this, IDK if any of my fellow former ToA mods got this message as well or not but hey, I was kind of unofficially looked to as the Owner so it's on me either way.

The short answer is yes, it is safe for you and anyone else still wondering to consider Tales of Answers over. All of us mods, while we still keep in touch, have largely moved on to other projects and gotten much busier in our personal lives, to the point where even with all hands on deck maintaining the blog at the rate we did at its peak is unfeasible.

It's also a matter of loss of interest. I still love a lot of these characters and I had a blast getting into their heads while it lasted but my interest in the Tales series as a whole has waned significantly since those days, and I think I speak for the whole ToA moderation team when I say that. Part of it is we agree that there is/was an overall severe decline in the series' writing quality for a while, but it's also just that naturally people move in and out of interests as their lives go on. Our hearts aren't in it anymore to the extent that we could produce content for this fandom with any kind of consistency and quality, and it wouldn't be fair to us or anyone who remembers our work fondly if we tried to go back to it without the passion we had when the thing started. Or, worse, start using ChatGPT or some bullshit. Honestly, that had already faded pretty significantly by the time we put a pause on the project, which was most of why we did it in the first place.

On that note, there was also a lot of Fandom Drama and toxicity to deal with back then. I've been somewhat disconnected from the wider Tales Fandom for the past several years so I don't know if it's cooled off, but at the time it was pretty exhausting to be entrenched in. For what it's worth, I don't think we were completely devoid of fault in any fandom drama that ensued, and I apologize if we ever did anything particularly incensing to anyone reading this.

In any case, I will say that yes, Tales of Answers is considered closed by its former moderation team. We consider passing it on to new mods out of the question, as it was a personal project by a group of friends and we don't really want to pass it to someone we don't know and can't guarantee would operate it in line with our own views and wishes. However, the good news is that there's absolutely nothing stopping someone else from starting a new Tales mailbox blog and taking up our mantle themself! In fact, if anyone is interested in doing so, please feel free to make use of all our character animations, which you can find on the blog itself. Most of those weren't even made by us, it was kind of a free for all to begin with.

Will we ever return in ANY capacity? Hard to say and I wouldn't count on it. For my part, I've considered occasionally popping in to make little unprompted skits whenever the inspiration strikes, but as y'all can see, said inspiration hasn't struck significantly enough in the past eight years to actually do it. Maybe I will some day, if any of the other mods still attached to the blog want to they're invited to as well. We're probably not gonna open the mailbox back up, though. Sorry.

ANYWAY now that I've disappointed everyone, if for some reason you still want to keep an eye on whatever I'm doing, I'm pretty inactive here these days. You can find me on Twitter (for however long it takes for Muskrat to kill it) at @aceofplaces, or on CoHost at @vegapunk-aurora. I have a lot of little projects I don't talk much about in public brewing in the background, hopefully some day I'll have one congeal enough to actually be worth sharing.

Now go, be free. Thanks for holding a candle for us for so long and sorry for making you do it for nothing, it is sincerely pretty validating to know this weird little shitpost factory my friends and I made when I was in high school ended up meaning something to somebody even now. Take care of yourself.

-Aurora (formerly Mod Ace)

[briarpatch-kids]

Hi :). This might be a question more for you at the beginning of your being disabled/sick/?. I'm not disabled but how do/did you mentally deal with other people having more gas/energy than you? Because the people around me can do so many complex tasks in a day like wake up, take care of animals, cook, clean the kitchen, go to the store, come back, and then do something else. And theyll be tired but mostly fine. And like I'll do like three simple tasks and it feels like somebody has beat me up?? If I tried to do the amount of tasks they do I would simply fall apart. And it's like I do 3 tasks and I'm DONE but they (and also other people too) just keep going and going and now I feel lazy or something because I feel like I could be helping or doing something and now I'm just sitting down :(. I hope this makes sense and is okay to ask.

It got a lot easier as soon as I made peace with the fact that my life is not going to be the same as everyone else's. I'm not going to be able to work, or keep the house in order on my own, or likely have a kid* but I still have goals and dreams. They're just different ones, like learning new hobbies that I can do in bed or becoming someone I'm happy with being.

Another tip is to start learning how to say "I'm not in any hurry" because it helps you slow down and not hurt yourself trying to do things at the speed of an able bodied person.

Also, I've tried really hard to reframe my annoyance when i complain about being tired and someone's like "yah I did xyz and worked 8 hours and then exercised for 2 and now I'm beat! 😅" to think of it in the way of like... I'm exhausted all the time from just living and I know how much fatigue can hurt, so I can relate to how much pain they're in and commiserate with them. Instead of getting annoyed that they got to do ALL that and still complain about fatigue. I usually like saying something like "aw man yeah you did a lot! You MUST be exhausted." Because doing all that is so exhausting only an abled could do that, of course they're in pain and I know how that feels.

*someone just had a kid while having spinal muscular atrophy and half the lung capacity I do, so if I have a good year we're gonna revisit the idea of a science baby

[geehollow]

So, I was a bit confused too (but I am a weird kind of aromantic in the sense that I'm still figuring it out). Humans are social animals. We live in packs. The fact packs are societies and have way too many rules doesn't change the fact that they're packs. So I was thinking–there can't be such a thing as a person not wanting bonds without being asocial or antisocial even. I thought I was and that I was happy alone, but then I managed to make one friend (I was adopted by an ambivert), then another (I live close to an extrovert of the ambivert's friend group) and finally another (we're online friends who got to talking through meta), and I realized I like company. I like having someone I can send messages to about things that piqued my interest. I like having people to pester about reading my drafts. I like being able to see some event and have someone to turn to and drag along, someone to ask "wanna go write in the library with me? Wanna ask the other one to join us for ice cream later?" every now and then.

And it clicked. Every now and then. If I'm alright with three friends and have no interest in making any more, and there's people like me, then there must be something about it.

Yeah, completely rejecting the company of other humans isn't good. But there's a difference between rejection and indifference. Rejection stems from hurt, from something happening to a person that shouldn't have happened. A person indifferent to companionship isn't wrong, isn't necessarily hurt, they're still part of the pack, just in their own bubble. They might go to events. They will collaborate in projects. They'll pick a few selected friends and be content, or they'll never feel the need for it, or it'll just happen to them and sure, let's hang out every now and then like in my case. I'm not aplatonic, because I do feel attachment/a bond (and it's stronger than what I feel for my blood family). But I can see how someone else can be content with just vibing with the pack as a free element with no orbit.

So yeah, it also might have to do with neurodivergence (I'm suspicious but undiagnosed atm as I can't afford it). I have also apparently reached maximum capacity for actual friends beyond acquaintances, no more slots left. I'm happy I was adopted by extroverts, but it happened to me, I didn't seek it out. I am aware that if it hadn't happened, with the childhood and adolescence I had to go through, it wouldn't have been good for me. For me. But it took me less than twenty minutes to reason that for others it's not the same and doesn't have to be. There's no such thing as an identical universal experience, only matching vibes.

if you can understand that sex and romance aren’t essential to the human experience, you can understand that friends and platonic feelings aren’t either.

[autisticandroids]

i contemplate 9x22 from cas' perspective Every Day now it's dean's turn. like i've said that dean Did That because he wants to isolate cas but i do think it's more complicated than that, these days.

because like. okay. zooming out. it's conventional wisdom to say the mark is nothing, right? like, the mark fizzles, mark dean isn't really different from normal dean and the effect it has on the show is mostly to make it boring and as an excuse to critique things that are already true. yes? but that's looking back on it with the full picture. like, that's totally true of s10. but s9 is way more interesting because in s9 mark of cain dean does genuinely seem to be... not himself. and the way the mark is treated is also more interesting. in s10, it's just like, an affliction, we're not interested in where it comes from or the specific way it got there. in s9, dean makes the choice to take on the mark. like, the thing about season nine is that it's like. a really bad time in dean's life. like the gadreel thing is like. @themauvesoul has said this somewhere but gadreel is the perfect deantransgression because it's really awful but also totally understandable. like dean should not have done it it's really horrendous but what the hell else was he gonna do, let sam die? like maybe he should have but he never could have. and so dean is in this hole, right? he knows what he did was bad. and so he just digs himself deeper. he gaslights sam because he can't face the consequences, and he wrecks his other relationships on purpose because he is so completely convinced that he's poison. he can't reckon with what he's done so he self-destructs. and taking the mark is part of that. and like, it's a classic dean self-centered self-destruction move, right? it doesn't matter who he hurts as long as he's hurting himself more. and that's what's happening with the mark in s9. like, at the end of 9x22 he attacks gadreel like a rabid animal in a way that makes very little sense, finally confirming that he's not himself. the deantransgression in s9 isn't what he does under the influence of the mark, it's taking the mark in the first place and allowing himself to fall under its influence. which is a lot more interesting than what happens in s10 which is both milquetoast ("here's some bad things dean did. pay no attention to the fact that he already does stuff like that all the time and it's considered fine") and stupidly non-culpable ("he did the bad stuff for magic reasons that aren't his fault"). like, the s9 mark stuff is way more interesting in terms of an exploration of dean's character flaws than what it becomes in s10.

anyway all that to say i genuinely do not think dean was himself in 9x22, like, i think we can give him a "diminished capacity/under supernatural influence" pass. because what's interesting is what he learns from 9x22.

okay so season nine is when dean learns that cas will accept you know. pretty much any treatment from him. like in general i tend to see dean kicking cas out of the bunker with nothing as wildly ooc, but it also can't be totally discounted because of it's impact not just on cas' characterization but on dean's. like because it was so out of character, it's one of the few bad things dean has done to cas that he fully sees as like. horrendous. and cas is just like. oh you like me again! thank you for accepting me back into you life! i love you dean. like dean is crushed by guilt and cas is just fine with it. so this brings dean to a new understanding of cas. like, cas will accept anything that dean does to him. which is horrific, but it's also soothing. because if dean is poison, if he is simply doomed to harm everyone around him (which is certainly what s9 dean believes), then isn't it nice to know that he can't drive cas away? like, yes, horribly guilt inducing. but also comforting.

and he doesn't think about that. because it's too horrible. but then later when he's under the influence of the mark. well. he doesn't feel so much guilt. he doesn't feel so much love, either. he becomes cruel and sadistic. he sees cas as a fun chew toy, and as pathetic for what he would let dean do to him. and he takes the horrible conclusion that dean has already come to and says: well, if he comes back every time i kick him, how hard can i kick him and have that still be true. that's maybe the biggest reason dean is acting like that in 9x22.

(there's another big reasons which is: it's a punishment, not for cas, but for sam. 9x22 starts off with sam trying to assert himself in their relationship a little, and this pisses mark!dean off. so mark!dean inflicts a double layered punishment on sam: first, on the obvious level, he is really nasty to cas in front of sam as a way of saying look at all these nasty mean things i can do and you can't stop me. but much more crucially it's about. well. mark!dean is extremely aware of the difference between sam and cas. he can kick cas as much as he want and cas will react by crawling back to him and trying to appease him more. sam won't, sam will object. and so dean at the end of the episode plays them against each other: he chastises sam, and then goes off to get all sweet with cas in front of sam. this is partly for cas' benefit, as a means of re-securing their relationship, but it's also a message to sam: look at what i just did to cas, and he's still good. he's still obedient. look at the rewards he reaps. you're in the doghouse, cas is the favorite now, because you keep being a little bitch about stuff. it's a demonstration of how dean thinks sam should act. he's rewarding cas for his behavior in front of sam to show sam that cas is the favorite now, and also that sam could have rewards too if only he let dean walk all over him.)

but anyway re: how cas will always come back: dean was tormenting cas in 9x22 for fun, because of the mark, and part of that was testing him. he was experimenting for intellectual amusement: how bad, and how obviously maliciously, can i hurt cas and he'll still come back. and what dean finds out is that there's practically no limit to it.

and like, well.

okay. after he loses the mark, well. here's the thing.

i'm sure dean feels really, really guilty about having performed that test. like, really, really guilty. he doesn't want cas' life wrecked, even if he isn't a fan of the other angels and stuff.

but like.

he can't unknow the results.

dean will always be aware after that of just how far he can push cas, how much the elastic stretches. he'll know, even if he doesn't want to, even if he feels bad about it. he'll know that whatever he does to cas, cas will always come back.

...which is why the divorce arc happens.

[demigoddreamer]

LGBTQ+ Themes in Greek Mythology

I'm no Greek Mythology expert i don't have any professional qualifications whatsoever(tho when i go to college imma minor in classics with a bio major but you don't care sorry :'(

i'm just a nerd who spends way too much time researching/reading a million books(calling all PJO fans/riordanverse in general i'm a fan too)on greek mythology(btw any of you read song of achilles, that shit broke my heart but i can't help it i just love greek mythology adaptations so fucking much)

these aren't in order i don't have a particular timeline but i think it's important to discuss lgbtq+ themes in greek mythology in SOME CAPACITY especially with something called ERASURE I SAID GREECE WAS GAY YALL but the greeks were more sexually fluid so they don't really have labels for this the same way we do and the way we defined their sexuality is not how we define it but this is most likely how it would've translated in the modern world and it's still important because seeing lgbtq+ figures in ancient cultures proves their existence and that we're here and queer, I can't do everyone here so i might do a part 2 if yall want

*Zeus did have like maybe 1 or 2 male lovers, the most notable ganymede but like Zeus is an asshole he's not cool enough to be queer so no i'm not going in depth about him AT ALL

1. Apollo

we all know Apollo, god of: music, poetry, healing, sun/light, archery, prophecy

but also he's THE bisexual icon(there are other gods like Hermes and Dionysus notable for male lovers I said Hermes was pan in like he was literally the god pan at one point and he's pansexual) but Apollo has the most male lovers out of any god and he does have a fuckton of female lovers(not nearly as many as zeus tho, no one gonna surpass him) Apollo is also depicted to be extremely hot no pun intended but also having a rather feminine appearance

some of his famous same sex lovers include:

Hyacinthus(this one my fav)- so fucking tragic got turned into the hyacinth plant

Admetus- no tragic end for Admetus unfortunately Admetus is a...straight-ie(I usually only call the cringe straights straighties but i'm just in pain in how Apollo hopelessly pines over him)

There's others but they're not as notable so imma speedrun but if you want me to talk more about them in depth and other lgbtq+ themes in greek mythology ask for a part 2

2. Hermaphroditus

This god was the son of Hermes and Aphrodite(please don't ask how THAT happened it just did)

Hermaphroditus is intersex, he's the god of intersex people, a symbol of androgyny and is the reason why intersex animals like snails(they have male & female reproductive parts) are called "Hermaphrodites"

The story is Hermaphroditus was just chilling in a body of water when the nymph Salmacis jumped on top of him while he was chilling and intended to rape him and she called on the gods to make it so that she and Hermaphroditus would be together forever so the gods merged them together into a partly female and male individual

3. Chaos

if any of yall read hesiod's theogony or...just hear stuff elsewhere, you may have heard of this creation myth where in the beginning there was a primordial kind of emptiness or void which was Chaos and this is mostly a headcanon but i legit cannot remember if they refer to Chaos gender AT ALL sooooo

NON-BINARY NON-BINARY NON-BINARY

4. Sipriotes

There are multiple stories of Gods changing mortals gender maybe as divine punishment, to help disguise them/protect them or whatever so the mortals may go mtf or ftm so TRANGENDER

Sipriotes isn't the most notable or even the most important in fact she only gets like a 1 line mention in some author's work but she's important to me

because she has some agency in this story. basically i think what happened is that she(he at the time) saw Artemis bathing(like actaeon but the reason that Artemis gets mad at her isn't clear since this myth is so obscure and it's not certain if the bathing is even the "correct version" or correct as can be with greek myth) so Artemis in retribution gave Sipriotes an ultimatum, she could either be given a woman body and join Artemis's hunters or worse so Sipriotes chose the hunters and the woman bod

5. Iphis and Ianthe

There are 2 people in this one cause 1. this is much longer than i anticipated and i don't think people wanna read that much 2. these people aren't important enough to have their own and their stories are so intertwined that individual sections would be too short and basically the same

Iphis was raised as a dude despite being a woman so one day when Iphis gets married they are offered to a woman named Ianthe. Iphis is sad because Iphis fell in love with Ianthe(mutual) but Iphis knows they can't be together as 2 women so Iphis prays to the gods for a solution to be able to marry Ianthe so the gods like turn Iphis into a dude

so this could be a trans guy with a bi?(if ianthe knew iphis was a woman) woman or technically this could be seen as wlw or i should say sapphic cause this greek i tend to lean toward this being trans guy but i won't argue with your interpretation unless you're being transphobic

6. Callisto

Now greece was very misogynistic and had a high emphasis on manly men. that's why in greek mythology there were so many mlm couples but you can't find shit on wlw there are technically only 2, one of them being the previous one and this one...it's technically not wlw it's awful it's evil but it's all we got

Callisto was a hunter of Artemis who might've been a queer woman. So basically Artemis's hunters say no to the company of men and swear off romance so none of the gods can touch them. But one day Zeus was like "yo Callisto do be looking kinda hot tho" and tried to seduce her even tho Callisto is off limits, he did this by shapeshifting into the Artemis and then called Callisto into a private spot where he raped her and got her pregnant. unfortunately since Callisto is no longer a virgin she had to leave the hunters and i think she got turned into a bear by usually Hera but sometimes Artemis too tired to double check

7. Artemis, Athena, Hestia

Now these lovely ladies are famous for being the only 3 beings Aphrodite(goddess of love) has no power over as they are virgin goddesses who swear to be maidens forever. I tend to see them on the Aroace spectrum.

Artemis was someone who said no to romance and to forever forswear the company of men that could technically be interpreted a few different ways(aka did she like girls? lesbian ace maybe?) I tend to lean toward no she appears more aroace as she had nada in the relationships department(no she never loved orion i'm tired of answering that question)

Athena is pretty specifically aroace as its very much explicit that she has no time for romance and prefers to spend her time on battle strategy and crafts. She is called Athena Parthenos* virgin athena for a reason. I heard her childhood best friend pallas was her woman lover from a random internet person but i can't find any sources for this so take that with a grain of salt but it could be that sources are hard to come by for ancient civilizations idk so she could be biromantic ace maybe????

Hestia is def aroace but also we have very little sources of any kind about her. only about her worship no myths. which is sad as fuck because she's a dope goddess i wish there was more about her

*I just realized i forgot to do achilles and patroclus but i was just so tired, i'll do them in the part 2

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

What are the major reasons for as to why people have created religions?

Religions fulfil a number of fairly natural human needs. The problem is the way they do it, that they're no longer the only way to achieve these objectives and, oh yes, they're not true.

They help to explain the world, where things came from, what was there before we were self-aware enough to consider our surroundings, why bad things happen, how birth and death work. Problem is that they came up with these conclusions out of storytelling and myths that were changed and adapted from earlier stories and myths. But were never rooted in fact to begin with.

They give a sense of comfort, that there is order in the world, things don't just happen arbitrarily, you don't have to be afraid, it'll all be okay because there's a plan. And something isn't right, there's somewhere you can go for help. Humans are pattern-seeking creatures, which is one of the reasons we survived - it's better to see the predator in the bushes that isn't there than to not see the predator that is. So we associate the things we do with the outcomes we want, even if they have nothing to do with each other and don't influence each other in any way. Lucky underwear to win the game, prayer to survive COVID, etc. Unfortunately, it means we're also really bad at understanding randomness.

They answer existential questions like what do I do with my life, how do I get the best me out there, what are we here for? The answers are garbage when you really consider them, but on the surface, they give people peace of mind that they're supposed to be here, not just a random accident, and give people a sense of purpose.

They create communities to be social in, to know your place within society. We like to think that we're all independent agents, but the truth is we like structure, and tend to create groups and hierarchies. Even anarchists structure themselves around who's in charge of the group that doesn't like anyone taking charge, or how do we decide what we're going to do. So they solve social problems - who am I and where do I sit within the community? What type of person am I compared to others?

They also create moral structures as well. How do I know what the right thing to do is? What's right and wrong, or is it anything goes? How do I know what the right thing to think is? How do I group together with people who share the same values? How do we protect ourselves together from those who have different, sometimes very different values, and how do we keep others in the group from misbehaving and threatening the group like the outsiders? Which kind of ignores humanity itself as its own moral community, and usually sits on top of a mythology that ignores the evolution of human morality and the fact we wouldn't be here if we hadn't, and attributes it to an external cause, since we didn't see it happening.

Many of these are very natural instincts from a species that has developed in the wild under survivalist conditions, became self-aware but wasn't aware of becoming self-aware. And the conclusions are not surprising, given our tendency towards pattern-matching, confirmation bias, and capacity for problem solving and imagination, etc.

The species has only been around about 200,000 years, we only really became good at answering these questions within a few thousand years, and only started answering them correctly within the last few hundred years. A hundred years ago we couldn't fly. Now we have robots on Mars and a probe out past Pluto.

And yet, biologically, we're still more-or-less the same animals as we were 10,000 years ago (height and build have shifted due to changes in food supply). So, many of our innate instincts remain the same or similar, despite the change in our understanding and the complexity of the world.

https://twitter.com/jon_snow_420/status/659443020908003328

god: i have made Mankind angels: you fucked up a perfectly good monkey is what you did. look at it. it's got anxiety

It's not surprising that religion emerged, so it's not especially surprising that people continue to seek or act out many of the above functions in non-deity groups (political, ideological, even recreational, e.g. fandoms) that mimic religious, even fundamentalist, structures.

But we now have the capacity to meet these needs and solve these problems in better, more reality-aligned ways.

If only we had the courage to do so.

[darnestdungeon]

The fact that even Jester and Leper got face reveals in DD2 but not HWM makes me think that the Crimson Court's art was reconned. C'mon, he even used his sleeves while in jail to cover his face, it isn't like he was trying to hide his identity from the authorities.

Maybe he really is hiding some scar or deformity. My mind fills the blank with something similar to Simo Hayha's injury.

I love when we as fans craft many theories and specific headcanons to try and explain Bourassa's design choices that bother us. I wish I still had energy to do it but I've honestly become a bit resigned when it comes to DD lore.

Your theory is interesting (albeit not right and I'll get to that in a minute), and I got to say, as much as I love Crimson Court Dismas sexy face reveal, I always thought those scars weren't as many and as deep as I imagined from the DD1 sprites. Maybe The Blood rejuvenated and healed him a bit? This is what I'm choosing to believe.

As to why your theory isn't right, I've found an image in the DD2 files that disproves the face deformity thing. I don't want to share it though cause it's not in the game yet, I'm not sure if it was scrapped or if it's a WIP. Regardless, I don't want to leak anything in respect for Red Hook, I hope you can understand it!

I answer two more asks under read more! (Sorry for overall silence and lack of art, been playing some other games as of lately.)

Anonymous asked: I think the pets will be sort of like the companion animals you can get in Don't Starve Together. You gotta take care of the pet, obviously, and in exchange you'll get a variety of boons depending on what oet you get. Like, say, the falcon improves your ability to scout ahead and reveals random nodes for you. And every character has their own pet preference, meaning a new source of either stress reduction or stress incrementation.

Having to take care of the pet would give some use for the food we're always throwing away when we reach max inventory capacity, that could be an interesting addition. I hope the heroes get to pet the pet sometimes for some stress healing (like in Signs of the Sojourner, there's a dog that reduces a bit of your fadigue if you play against it and it's the cutest thing ever). This would be useful cause there are so many sources of stress but so little sources of stress healing...

Anyway, in my opinion, these are the only two things I can see that would differentiate the pets from regular trinkets and the trophy... I'm not sure about the hero's preferences thing, since it seems like the pets will be a random cultist/miniboss battle drop, but we'll see when time comes!

Anonymous asked: In Shakespeare's Hamlet, Yorick was the jester who used to play with Hamlet in his childhood and give him piggyback rides. Hamlet inquires some gravediggers about the skulls they had found, discovers that Yorick's was among them and mourns him. Alas, poor Yorick!

Oh that's so sad... Oh god, now I'm afraid they're adding Reynauld's skull/helmet as a pet. I know there's no correlation between this and that, but this is where my mind went-- Bourassa jokey mentioned in a podcast about slipping in Rey's helmet as a trinket (don't take this at face value, I'm just paraphrasing). One fear.

[meantforinfinitesadness]

-blushes furiously- People like the vibes we're giving out. -hides my face in my hands and moans in horror- I'm about to ruin that into the ground.

I have an absolute favorite vinyl. It's actually a story, called "The Point" by Harry Nilsson. In fact, someone animated it, and it's a very VERY good story, I cannot recommend it enough. My dad burned it onto a CD about a decade ago, and I listen to it in lieu of the local radio because honestly, sometimes I need the memory to keep me from doing something crazy, like change lanes without a turn signal.

I didn't have friends in high school. Not until I was a senior. I was pretty heavily bullied. I've got scars from some of the things that happened, and it changed me in ways I don't want to go into. My 18th birthday my parents invited all my bullies (because they were in my church (that I didn't want to attend) as well as at my school) over, and surprised me. My parents forced me to interact. It took away any and all pleasure of my Dad making it for my 18th birthday when the last one he'd been home for was my 14th. My senior year though, I'd kind of given up, and I was thinking seriously of doing irreversible things, and I was exhausted and no longer cared about anything. One day, I was out for a hike with the youth group and lagging in the back because then my bullies wouldn't see me but I could step in if they were ganging up on someone else, (I wasn't in a good place that day. I am pretty sure I kept my head down and kept slogging because all of my bruises HURT) when all of the 12-13 year old boys fell back and surrounded me, laughing and chatting. They lifted my mood, made me smile for the first real time in a very long time, and that was that. They forced me to be their friend. Anytime we had a group activity with the boys and girls of all age groups, they grabbed me and dragged me off. The adults weren't happy about it, because I was 18 and they didn't think it was appropriate, but those kids buoyed me. Turns out that they hadn't noticed on their own, they'd had a visit from a specific Marine who had been actively trying to save my life for 4 years and was leaving soon, and he wanted me to be watched out for. So he set the boys on me. None of those boys kept in touch after I made it out of the house, but it was still good. It was what I needed at the time.

I don't have co-workers I actually work with. I don't miss it. I get to hang out with my discord friends if I feel up to it instead. MUAHAHAH!!!

Hopefully this Ask doesn't sadden you. It was a long time ago, and I'm in a way better place now. The scars of then will always be around, but I've learned to take them in stride. Spilt milk, all that. It might be one of the reasons why I prefer my imaginary friends though. So I envy anyone who has friendships from when they were kids. Mine never were, or are gone. I've lost people in my journey through life, but that's more because they joined the military and died overseas. Gives me a skewed perspective I suppose. Something I've never lost though is my capacity to love, or my willingness to give my love and affection to others, knowing full well that some day they'll be gone, and I'll no longer be with or near them. I remind myself that it's the cycle of life and change, that the time we had together should be beautiful, and should be cherished. And so that's what I've been doing with these weirdish asks. Giving you the only thing I can of myself, my time, my interests, and my affections.

I'll have to listen to that. I'm always interested in other people's interests. I like to know what they like. It, I don't know, helps me connect better with them. I really will have to listen to it.

Oh, I'm so sorry. People are cruel. I don't understand why they bully others, why they seem to think themselves better than others. I'm sorry you went through that, but I'm happy it turned out for the best. I'm happy there were people watching out for you, that helped you out, made you feel happier. No one deserves to be bullied. No one deserves to be hurt so horribly by others. I wish the world was a better place. I hope you're still doing alright. I hope you know that I enjoy talking to you.

Honestly, I get that. I like to kind of stay to myself. I like being with people sometimes, but it's always nice to have time for yourself. My job has made it so I have to be with people. I've met some nice people and some not nice people (retail, what can you do?). Oh, but that's so good you've got your discord friends!!!!

I'll admit it did make me a bit sad, but that's how I am. I'm happy that you've taken it all in stride. Those that never lose their capacity to love are some of the most amazing people. You've got scars, but you're taking them in stride. Yes, those younger years were not kind, but you're kind. You're sweet. I can tell that you're full of love and affection. It's sometimes hard for me to know that someday the people I know will be gone. But, it's just life. I agree that we need to cherish this time. Cherish those we love and the time we get with them. Thank you for sending me these asks. I seriously love them. It's wonderful to know that you're alright with telling me about yourself, giving me your affection and your time. It's lovely. Thank you

[gildedbarbarian]

Somehow we are on similar wavelengths once again, it was about 1:30am when I finished writing mine, and I was definitely not fully awake at that point. I was determined to get a response out before I went to bed, but it probably could have bene better if I'd just waited lol

Spoilers for Bleach (Arrancar arc), Jujutsu Kaisen (current), Wind Breaker manga up to Ch 146 under the cut!

Re: connecting points

I absolutely agree that it's the connective tissue of the narrative that we're missing at this point. We lack the fundamental understanding going into this that Bofurin has been heading towards this for a while (at least in part because they've not faced a challenge like Endo and Takiishi that we've seen). There really wasn't anything, in my opinion, that established this as the obvious endgame based on early-story clues the way that a lot of anime/manga narratives do. (Like the examples you provided or, as an additional drop in the bucket, Sukuna in Jujutsu Kaisen.)

Additionally, the more that I think about it, the more it occurs to me that the fights we've seen Bofurin in so far have been conversations that went well. Shishitoren became friends and allies, Roppo Ichiza already were in some respects, and Gravel got a massive opportunity through Bofurin and Roppo Ichiza. What we got out of those chapters was a sort of external strengthening of the team. (Again, to harken back to Bleach, this feels like the Vizards or perhaps Neliel and Grimmjow.) Their connective tissues, their support system, has grown. Without those people, there's a chance that they might have failed to protect the town. That said, though, we haven't seen Bofurin experience much by way of loss yet. That feels like a gaping hole in the framework of a story like this. Perhaps, then, this is the first loss. And if this is Bofurin's first on-page loss (and by default, also Sakura and Umemiya's), then... yeah, this is absolutely the first act.

re: Kotoha/backstories

As a point of comparison, it feels safe to say that the story very quickly presented the idea that Umemiya's past is a large part of what enabled him to be as kind as he is now and as driven by the idea of family. Even before chapter 93, there was an air about him that indicated an underlying sadness that, while it hadn't consumed him, was part of the foundation of the young leader we knew. As his backstory was actually revealed, it became rapidly apparent what the history was and how it, in turn, made him who he is today. Even if we had been piecemealed his backstory over a broader span of time, it would have been equally as clear by the end of the Umemiya's Childhood chapters where his wisdom, compassion, and kindness come from.

This, in turn, is what I'm expecting in some capacity for Kotoha. Because, as you said, she's wise beyond her years and gives great advice for someone her age. She's also, as far as I can tell, running a restaurant full time and not attending school. (This has not been explicitly stated, but I can't remember anything said to the contrary either.) In a similar capacity to Suo, Kotoha is a mystery in almost every way that there is to be one. Nii-sama has laid out a trail of tiny details and inferences we could take about her, but we have so few pieces of that puzzle at this time that we barely know her at all. It's a little surprising to me, as you said, that we don't see her in Umemiya's backstory chapters. And the only thing I can take from those is that she likely wasn't there when he first arrived. Why we didn't catch a glimpse of her in the Ambition chapters, I'm uncertain, but I think maybe it's just indicative of the fact that her story is that big.

I think that the audience's biggest insights to Kotoha generally come from her one-on-one moments with Sakura, and I wonder if there's a degree to which she isn't all that different from him--or at least, wasn't before. What exact form that takes or how it loops her in so closely with Umemiya, I'm not sure yet. But I do think her backstory drop could be one of the most interesting that we see play out in this story.

Regarding everyone else, it stands to reason that we'll get at least some of Takiishi's perspective in the fight with Umemiya, though frankly I'm not sure how much of that we'll actually see, since it already seems to be well underway. Of course there's a level of time weirdness in things like this because we simply aren't able to see multiple ongoing narratives at the same time, but part of me wonders if we'll pick up at a less linear point in that part of the story. The implication that we got from Endo's monologue is that Takiishi is this fairly emotionless fighting machine who's never really had a fight worth his time. And I wonder how, perhaps, this fight with Umemiya will challenge that concept. (Ume-chan is, after all, Bofurin's strongest fighter. Or at least that's what we've been led to believe.) Hopefully there we'll get clarification on whether Takiishi's fixation with our favorite fearless leader is akin to Endo's hyperfixation on Sakura or if it's something else entirely. I look forward to that explanation and to getting a better understanding of his inner workings. Because so far... he just feels like a wall of force.

Similarly to Kotoha's, I truly think that Suo's will be a longer story than say, Kiryu's or or Sugishita's. Simply due to his prevalence within Sakura's support system (not to undermine the impact the other two have in any capacity), and the undeniable mystery of it all, even if his backstory isn't as traumatized as Kotoha's or Umemiya's, I do think that it will be a sizable reveal. That said, he has a spark of rage and ferocity to him that makes me think he's not just your average kid (again, comparatively speaking). I keeping asking the question, what drives someone to that level of training, proficiency, and rage at as young of an age as they are? And that's not even getting into the "conversations" he's had in his fights and how those have focused around the growth and maturity of the person he's fighting. What 16 year old takes time to teach other teenagers (likely senpai, at that) how to age better? And what puts them in a position to start that conversation at all? Suo is fascinating.

Re: story length/pacing

The deeper we both dig into this, the more sure I feel that we're on the right path in terms of story drive at the very least. When I first started reading this arc and was immediately confronted by how final it all felt, I took a moment to do some cursory digging in how long typical shonen last. I was shocked by the answer that the average lifespan of a shonen is... quite short. (This, of course, is because of prolonged exposure to the longer-running, more popular shonen like Bleach, BNHA, One Piece, etc.) That realization made me so nervous. But this dialogue we've been having has abated a lot of those concerns because I simply think that Wind Breaker has been too well orchestrated up until this point to end as abruptly as it seems it could be right now.

Sakura and Bofurin's world seems to be crashing in on itself, coming to an abrupt and rapid end. The status quo may very well be flipped on its head here. If anything, though, that leads me to believe that we are far from the actual conclusion of this story. (Again using Bleach as a point of comparison, it feels like maybe we're in early Arrancar arc at most. Starting to learn that our heroes are perhaps not as invincible as we thought and that our preconceived notions of the world the story takes place in might not all be correct.) And if, then, we are still early on in the story, the next question becomes... how much story is there?

Thinking on this question earlier this morning after reading your response, it occurred to me that maybe we're looking at a three-act play. I have no basis for this really, other than a gut-feeling but since the prologue (as we have since determined chapters 1-90ish) has only barely concluded, I think a sizable three-act play with some well-timed intermissions would make sense. Frankly I'm struggling to explain this one in a way that aligns with what I'm thinking, so I'll consider this one a bit longer and try to elaborate when I feel like I'm able to better articulate the thoughts I have.

Now the Four Kings are a fascinating topic imo, as currently they feel deeply unbalanced. Not only do we really only have a decent understanding of Tsubaki and Hiragi, but in terms of power levels, Mizuki and Momose seem to be much weaker. This might not be wholly fair to conclude given how little we've seen of them so far, but I also think it's the general lack of narrative presence that puts them in this position in the first place. On all fronts, I think this is a fascinating choice from Nii-sama, and further evidence to the fact that this just cannot be the end of Bofurin's story. We've really only seen Mizuki and Momose, the other two of Bofurin's Four Kings and Umemiya's top generals, get their asses handed to them and then charge back in. While there's something to be said for strength of character and also determination, the picture painted thus far just doesn't align with who we know the other three of this core five to be. So then... there must be more, right? With the power level we currently know of Mizuki and Momose, they couldn't take on an entire class at Bofurin, let alone the entire school. Especially when you account for ability improvements and general experience increases over the last few years.

So then why wait? Because they will be instrumental in the rebuilding, I think. If Bofurin falls, then we have to see it rebuilt. And who is better suited for that than the tactician (Mizuki) and the architect (Momose)? These are titles assigned on minimal information, but with what we know right now, I feel fairly solid in these assumptions.

All that said, I'd love to be tagged in any Wind Breaker analysis you do in the future! Thanks so much for asking!

so I'm reading the Wind Breaker (Satoru Nii) manga... and uh... I'm in the 120's for chapters and this feels.... like a final fight kinda? Do we know if we're already gearing up for the end?