#crazed idea associations

[anthurak]

Do you ever just have just like… completely random idea associations to form something that is both totally bonkers and utterly awesome?

You see, over the past couple days there are two things of particular note that I have been doing:

A: Building a Yugioh deck in Master Duel that I have dubbed that ‘What if Alexis Rhodes actually got to be the awesome fucking badass she deserved to be’ deck.

It’s a mix of Cyber Angel, Herald and Drytron focused on getting out badass ritual monsters like Cyber Angel Vrash, Herald of Ultimateness and the giant Dyrtron mechanical space dragons. Basically the kind of deck Arc-V Alexis could probably use to pound Yuri, his dragon and his smug Melvin-wannabe ass face into the dirt.

B: Watching the Bowser vs. Eggman Death Battle episode a few times, and specifically doing a post on how I found the dynamics of Team Eggman through the fight particularly interesting.

So now, after having been idly listening to the battle music after having been playing this deck a bit, I have now found myself with a particular… vision in my head:

Alexis Rhodes, commanding an ARMY of Celestial Cyber Angels, Heavenly Fairy Heralds and Giant Mechanical Space Dragons. Specifically in an epic battle against Zarc and his gimmicky gaggle of extra-deck dragons.

As in, it’s barely even a ‘duel’. Like Alexis throws down the Drytron Fafnir field spell and just starts commanding her forces from her GIANT DRAGON SPACESHIP, which can also transform into a mech. And is also crewed by various faeries, lesser angels and Cyber Girls.

And it’s all Cyber Angels, Heralds and Drytrons battling with the Dimensional Dragons and their followers. The ‘lesser’ Drytron modules going up against an army of Supreme King Darkwurms, the Cyber Angels battling the various ‘Magicians’ of the Supreme King, the various Light Heralds flying around providing support, Drytron Meteonis Draconids and Quadrantids battling the Four Dimensional Dragons and Drytron Meteonis DAD ducking it out with Supreme King Z-ARC.

Which ends with Cyber Angel Vrash wiping out all the Extra Deck dragons, Herald of the Diviner combining all the heralds into Herald of Ultimateness and cheekily negating literally EVERYTHING Zarc does in response, Meteonis Draconids clearing out all of Zarc’s remaining Special Summoned monsters, Meteonis Quadrantids wiping all of Zarc’s spells and traps and a super-charged Drytron Meteonis DAD obliterating Supreme King Z-ARC.

And then like… I dunno, Alexis and her Cyber Girls pummel Zarc into the ground until he agrees to not be evil anymore? Or maybe just punt him into space and vaporize him with Fafnir.

Like, uh… I have no idea if I’m every actually going to DO anything with this idea. I just wanted to put it down and throw it out there.

[prettyboysdontlookatexplosions]

had to ponder this one (at first i was like, i thought the internet had decided iced coffee was a bisexual thing?) but i think we’re back on “there is no other reason for literally the most famous woman to ever famously play a guitar to wear her nails short”

[iatrophilosophos]

Hey I'm hearing uh. More, and more, and more buzz about GLP-1 agonists like ozempic from random ppl and healthcare providers alike and there's like a terrifying lack of lucidity abt it so I just wanna say, if you've heard some stuff and are curious:

Ozempic is a chemically-aided crash diet. That's it.

Like metformin, an older diabetes medication used off-label for weight loss, it's functioning as an appetite suppressant in this use-case. It's not magic; it's not changing how your body makes or uses fat; it just makes it less miserable to eat less. It is contraindicated by histories of disordered eating and should absolutely not be prescribed without a full screening for above-adequate food intake and nutrition *and* ongoing screening for adequate nourishment/malnutrition: this is broadly not happening.

I've also seen no indication that ozempic/GLP-1 agonists are any less likely to lead to weight cycling (w/o constant use) than a straight crash diet, or do anything meaningful to limit the known, significant health risks of weight cycling.

Nothing has changed:

The main things we know from a western scientific perspective about weight and weight loss are that 1) almost all people who lose significant weight gain it back and 2) weight cycling causes cardiovascular and metabolic health complications. Yall we aint even have strong evidence to suggest that weight loss is beneficial to health conditions associated with higher weights. This *should* point to Dr's never ever reccomending weight loss (we do know it can hurt, don't know it can help) but yknow we live in uhhhh fucking world.

We are possibly ripe for an aggressive intensification of anti-fat medical rhetoric, especially in pediatrics

Among the projections for an RFK FDA that ive gotten from folks i know in these fields is a renewed focus on childhood obseity and general military-style fitness. As the ozempic fad has already been ramping up, I'm kinda! concerned! about this being a major point of focus for the oncoming administration--i figure we're ripe for another mass diet craze associated with a wide variety of deaths anyway and that existing cultural+market inertia added to it being literally on the agenda spells some not great things. I really seriously reccomend paying extra attention to this area.

Clinics love ozempic because it's extremely popular and extremely profitable--i even know someone who's job was threatened for refusing to prescribe it. We already know that we cant trust doctors to be informed around weight or for the system to sound public alarms.

Obviously, people have the right to do whatever they want--but the disclosure just isn't there and people are being sold this stuff based on the idea it'll make them *healthier* and prevent disease. It can't and it won't.

If the claims here about weight in general are new to you, start here: (Don't love the title of the article, second the exasperation)

If you want to understand more about glp-1 agonists specifically, like, start with the Wikipedia article and do some googling it lays out the pharmacology in relatively plain language. Sry i ain't doing a buncha work to find citations ppl won't click; there's not a lot of good critical stuff out there that's actually published but it doesn't actually take a lot of reading up on critical weight science to form a critical take on the sources singing ozempics praises.

Peace, good luck, do whatever you want forever, maybe tell ur mom that this isn't any different from the disastrous weight loss fads of the 90s.

[nanenna]

This Conversation is Exactly as it Should've Been

Sleepy King AU Masterpost

Slight change in chapter title because with this brand new POV we finally have someone being reasonable!

🌟✨💖✨🌟

Duke was in the middle of his midday patrol when he got B's alert. “Come to the Watchtower, O will brief.”

Ominous, but not overly so. Nothing about the message said it was super urgent, so Duke turned back but kept an eye on the streets below as he switched to Oracle's channel.

“Hey O, what's the sitch?”

“Oh boy, do I have a story for you!”

Two attempted muggings and one long explanation later…

“So B wants me up there… to be the Ghost King's welcoming committee?”

“You guessed it!”

“What.”

“B thinks Danny will be more comfortable with another teenager, once you're up there just guide him to the hangar and wave as he and whoever's on the craft leave.”

Duke switched out his helmet for a domino, it would help not hide his age, and got into the zeta tube, “And where is this guy?”

“Let me patch you into the team's channel.”

Duke set his comms to listening only, he knew how B operated.

“Kal,” came B's deep voice, “where is Danny right now?”

“Why?” Superman asked. 

“So we can have someone nearby to guide Danny.”

“Wouldn't I be the best option?”

“No.”

There was an awkward moment of silence before some else spoke up. “Danny did run from you.”

“I have contacted an associate closer to his age, he's ready to go meet Danny.”

Superman sighed, “Of course you did. Anti-possession charm?”

“It's part of our standard equipment.”

That was news to Duke, he should ask about that later. Superman rattled off a floor number and directions to a storage room. Duke obligingly followed the directions.

“Danny spotted, he's out of the closet.” 

Duke couldn't help snorting at O's joke. “Good for him!”

“Shush, he's heading towards you, just keep heading down the hall. And remember, play dumb.”

Duke could do that. He rounded a corner to see a brightly glowing mass of shadows shambling down the hall. The figure themself was a slightly greenish white, like a glacier put through a color filter, hair face and all. Their eyes were two neon green flashlights, like the Lazarus pits or kryptonite. Their whole body glowed, like they'd been dipped in glow-in-the-dark paint. Their aura was dark shadows, writhing around them. There was a jagged blackhole floating over their head.

Duke blinked and instead found a pale teenager with black hair, intensely blue eyes, and wrapped up in Batman's cape with pale fingers clutching it closed.

“Oh I was not the best choice for this,” he muttered under his breath. He shook his head to finish clearing his vision, then smiled at the guy now standing a couple yards away, eyeing Duke warily. He pasted on a bright smile and waved, “Hi, I'm Signal.”

“Signal?”

“Yeah, I work out of Gotham. And from the looks of it so will you.”

“Huh?” The guy, presumably Danny, looked down to where his slippered feet were poking out the front of the cape where it parted to drag behind him on the floor.

“Batman's cape, looks like the adoption craze has struck again. B keeps bringing home new kids, there's like half a dozen of us.” Duke laughed along with the polite titters on his comms. Then he stepped closer to Danny and stage whispered, “Half of us have black hair and blue eyes, so you'll fit right in.”

Danny looked at Duke skeptically, “Do you?”

“Sure do.”

Danny didn't seem to know how to react to that.

“So, where you heading? I know the Watchtower can be pretty confusing at first.”

Danny's eyes grew big as saucers, “I'm on the Watchtower?!”

“Yeah, want a tour?”

“I… I …” Danny nodded eagerly, then hesitated. “My ride’s here.”

“Oh cool, where they at?”

“The uh… the hangar?”

“I can show you where it is.” Duke started walking, Danny fell into step next to him, still clutching B's cape. Duke let the silence sit for a minute because… 

“Marvel, Danny’s parents are ghost hunters,” B’s voice came over comms. Duke had no idea what was going on on Marvel’s end, O likely had him separated on that front.

“Are we sure sending the Ghost King home with ghost hunters is a wise idea?” Wonder Woman asked, trust her to ask the real questions.

“Yes!” Someone else said with heavy exasperation.

“They seem to have recently had a change in heart, they’ve denounced all their old work as flawed and outdated.” There was typing to go with O’s voice, likely showing everyone else said announcement.

It seemed the peanut gallery was calming down, so Duke turned his attention back to Danny. “So, you an orphan too?”

“No!” Danny sounded aghast.

“Ah, not as much a requirement as one might think. My sister, Orphan, still has both her parents, ironically enough. So does Spoiler and Batwing and Robin.”

Danny looked confused again. “Um… I'm pretty sure my ride is actually my parents.”

“That's cool, it's good to have supportive parents.”

Danny flushed, super obvious against his pale skin, but smiled happily. “Yeah.”

Danny seemed content to let the silence sit as they entered an elevator that would take them directly to the hangar. Duke wasn't done teasing yet. “So I told you my name, what's yours?”

“Oh um…” Danny looked down, “Danny.”

Duke raised an eyebrow, “Not got a code name yet,”

“No, I d- uh…” Danny's lips thinned. “Nope, just Danny. I'm not doing the whole,” a hand extended from the cape to gesture up and down Duke, “costume thing.”

Well that was an odd response, maybe Danny was the one steering the body after all. Then again, they had very little idea what Phantom looked like, and whether he considered himself a hero or was just being territorial.

“Well you don't have to if you don't want to. Lots of people with powers just lead normal lives.”

“Who said I have powers?” Danny asked defensively.

“Sorry, I shouldn't have assumed. It's still true though, as metas become more common it's going to be less common for them to go into cape work.”

“Yeah well, I don't even wear a cape.” Danny looked away with another blush.

Interesting.

Duke nudged Danny with his elbow, “You're wearing a cape eight now.”

Danny looked down and blushed all the more. “Fine, I guess I am.”

“But good choice, I don’t wear a cape either. Capes are cringe.”

Danny cringed at that, the blush coming back. So Danny does have a code name, is wearing a costume, and that included a cape at least for a little while.

The elevator slowed to a stop with a ding. The door opened into the hangar, where a small, unfamiliar craft sat in the middle of the otherwise cleared off runway. There was Captain Marvel and some people Duke didn't recognize standing near the craft. The strangers, one of whom was waving around a safety green baseball bat, seemed to be scolding Marvel, who had his hands up in surrender. Danny let out a relieved sigh as he stepped out of the elevator, quickly heading for the group.

“Danny!” One of the group said. Everyone’s attention turned to him, most of them smiling.

“Danno!” A large man in bright orange grinned and waved cheerfully. “We’ve been worried about you!”

“Hi, Dad, Mom, Jazz, Sam, Tuck,” Danny said in quick succession. “Sorry about that, I have no idea what’s going on or how I got here.”

The woman in teal turned her attention to Marvel, “Well someone was about to explain the whole situation to us, weren’t you mister champion of magic?”

Marvel grinned sheepishly, “Of course, ma’am.”

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Do you think twst has any chance to make at least one fan ship canon? Like for example they hint on someone from nrc main cast is dating, or even something deeper with yuu. Or absolutely nothing of that happens because it's a disney game at the end?

No way, absolutely not 😂 They'll always tease it, but never actually commit to it. That's why Ace has an ex and not a current girlfriend (the other part of it is just him being an asshole). That's why Eliza/the Ghost Bride doesn't actually marry Idia; only expresses an interest in him but ultimately settles for someone else. That's why Vil has several adoring fans but those fans are not depicted as gunning for him as their boyfriend/husband (when the most crazed of fans irl would). That's why Lilia confessed to Maleanor but she chose someone else and later died (while the other person Lilia "loves", Raverne, went missing), thus "freeing" Lilia up. That's why Cater always talks about cute girls (and even fellow peers) but doesn't go out of his way to act on those flirtations. This has less to be with "oh, it's Disney" and more to do with the genre of the game (joseimuke). If anything, I feel like people might expect there to be canonized romance because it's Disney--a company closely associated with happily ever afters and fairy tales--not expect no canonized romance. However, a joseimuke game often presents characters in a platonic or questionably platonic light so the players can project whatever relationships with the characters they wish, whether that’s between the character and themselves, between the character and an OC, or between character and character. To canonize a "love interest" for a character hampers the self-insert appeal for fans of that character. There have been multiple instances of gacha fanbases becoming upset when the games try to introduce a "canon" or even a “rival” love interest for a beloved waifu, husbando, etc. because it makes fans of the now "taken" character feel ignored, rejected, or generally (for lack of a better term) "cheated on". That goes for shipping between the player or an OC and the character as well as shipping the characters with one another. This would also potentially upset the fans who headcanon the characters as a certain sexuality and/or with a certain dynamic in mind. I'd imagine Twst would want to avoid this at all costs, as it causes drama in the fandom and could eat into their profit margins.

I'm also very much against the idea that one character will be the romantic "end game" for Yuu. I often see one particular character (who shall not be named, as I do not want to stoke unnecessary discourse) being hawked as "the canon love interest", but if I'm being honest those kinds of claims make me uncomfortable. In stating one character is "the canon love interest" (even as a joke), it unintentionally invalidates those who don't wish to be forced to "be" with that character, and especially if they have a preference for someone else. This would be even worse if ever canonized; fans of that ship will rejoice but everyone else would be dissatisfied. Again, it just hinders the self-insert design of joseimuke games and is extremely counterintuitive in that regard.

[obseletrix]

#smth else about this blog is that india is likewise impenetrable to me. the sheer historical and geographic scale is unbearably intimidatin#where does one even start?#ed* ^ i know the basic 101 historical outlines but i don't think that's “knowing” a place

comments on this in tags ->

You know Mandarin??

sometime in the spring of this year i kept encountering the idea on other social media that chinese is impossible to learn for europeans, that it's too difficult, that no westerner can learn or truly understand it, and in combination with a mainland friend visiting and telling me the ancient chinese etymology of some basic characters (and the 白人饭 Lunch of Suffering meme) i got fed up/enchanted and did the extremely mentally healthy thing of teaching myself basic mandarin, through about ~april to july. at some points in may i remember coming home from work, scribbling characters in my mandarin notebook over and over, doing chores, going to sleep, and repeating the cycle. a taiwanese friend on here helped out with a lot (it's much, much easier if you have chinese friends to help you, however, i am really not about traditional, although i admit it's more beautiful) and baptized me with a chinese name.

i don't know mandarin, and at this point a lot of the characters i'd learned have faded from memory, but i insist that it's not actually difficult to learn chinese (up to a point— maybe HSK 3 or 4 is where it gets really difficult). in fact, learning chinese is really, really fun.

the difficulty lies in the fact that you have to do it every single day for at least an hour, probably for more (i spent pretty much all my free time on it, but there was something not normal going on with me then). you'd think, isn't that the case for every language? yet i don't remember doing daily french like that, and i consider some aspects of french conjugation/russian grammar much more difficult than what chinese throws at you at similar difficulty levels (good luck with motion verbs, non-slavic speakers). i found learning characters to be very, very easy. they're all distinct. if you learn them together with their etymology, looking at ancient chinese and how they developed along with associated idioms, it's endlessly rewarding. at least in the early levels, there's a bit of a system to how characters and words come together and increase in complexity—sometimes it's funny, sometimes it's cute. it's a breath of fresh air to start reading even basic sentences and idioms in a language so entirely different from anything you've experienced before. many people say speaking chinese is easier than reading/writing: in my experience, that's false. i barely started getting a grasp on the tonal system (my goal was to get to HSK 1 solely through written chinese); i remember listening to the same 2 minute audio clip of two people exchanging phone numbers for half an hour or something once before getting everything right. people say "chinese doesn't have grammar" but that's not true, because otherwise it won't be a language at all, though you don't have to learn any conjugations, declensions, etc. at HSK 1-2 you just throw a modifier/particle into a sentence and you're good to go.

the other main difficulty besides tones is that imo chinese culture is borderline impenetrable if you want to have a genuine stab at it (but for this you don't, necessarily, need to learn mandarin). you can learn HSK 1-2 in a few months or a semester, but it will take you years to genuinely understand the cultural context—there truly is no context clue or familiar idea you can latch on to, as opposed to when learning a european language/history, or even turkish, arabic, persian; there is nothing in common here, and if you guess, you'll probably wind up wrong. it all makes me think of how many journalists/experts get russia wrong: i now firmly do not believe a word of what people write about asia unless i find the author knows the language

anyway

[ciozio]

Hmmm Post Canon Hapfrin mayhaps?

Also hi I really like your au and think it's really neat!! (Sorry for anon TwT)

Thank you for liking my au wwawawawawwawawa

Already have some Post / Act 6 ideas laid out!

Spoiler alert!!

hes mentally ill

Yay!!

Siffrin regrets his time (especially what happens in act 5 wink wink) in the loops, especially his actions. Feels like the scum of Earth, no matter how much his friends try to help him.

Hes very uncomfortable around Isabeau and Odile specifically, but it's mainly out of guilt.

Isabeau, because of some horrid things he's done (kissing and even dating Isa in one loop).

Odile, because maybe he could've told her sooner. She's noticed him act up multiple times, and his messed-up mind claimed her to be the villain sometimes during the loops.

Overall doesn't trust himself around the family at all!! Doesn't even consider them family.

He doesn't think he's worth it.

Considers them "associates" because calling them allies or the DREADED "audience" would hurt him.

Doesn't remember all of their names, mainly remembers their titles. Includes his own! The name "Siffrin" is the haziest! His writing also worsens from the craze.

Takes a while for Siffrin to heal to trust himself from making choices that won't hurt those around him.

But no matter what, the family won't leave him behind! They all help him the best they can.

As for Loop, well..

Loop is from a Sadness timeline, Siffrin is from a Happiness timeline. 2hats isn't the same as the og ISAT

Older sketches in Read More

Here's some older doodles that also are Act 6 / Post Game

[wieniawskis]

Chaotic Kuon Analysis

I want to talk about Kuon after what happened in episode 19 because I feel like a lot of connections have been made from the conversation between Kuon and Mashiro.

It's very interesting to see that his crazed quote from episode 9 wasn't just a one-time moment to emphasize how twisted he was, and I really like how they keep bringing it back, adding more context to it.

He says, "Hoeru is pure, like an angel descended from heaven. He's my love. My hope. My doll*."

Kuon calling Hoeru his doll is probably the easiest to address, since it's meant to showcase his need for control. He wants to control who can influence Hoeru (ep 9) and even control who he preys on (ep 8). He pushes his own ideas and projections onto him, trying to mold Hoeru into his perfect "doll", but also... his puppet.

(*In the scene, he says お人形, which can mean both 'doll' and 'puppet'. Personally, I think it can mean both. He sees Hoeru both as a doll to control and a puppet to do his biddings.)

Next, Kuon's "Hoeru is my love" is really interesting considering how messed up he is. I do think he loves Hoeru but he's become so twisted that I don't think he understands what love is anymore... And I think that's what Kuon's "let's get married, Hoeru," is meant to say.

(That he no longer knows what it means to love and fails to realize that his so-called love is exactly what's hurting Hoeru.)

One thing that intrigues me is the fact that it's implied that Kuon also went to Hisamitsu's house and witnessed the two children, and it makes me wonder what his thought process was.

I did notice that he, unlike Hoeru, never referred to them as his parents, so it's possible that Kuon doesn't see them as such, having removed himself from the name 'Tono Hisamitsu'... but I also think it's possible that witnessing them only fueled his twisted ideas of love for Hoeru.

Next, Kuon's "my hope" and "he's an angel descended from heaven" is given more context in episode 19... which is what I mainly wanted to talk about.

In the conversation with Mashiro, he says that Kuon is anxious and in a rush, and he implies that the reason for this is the wound festering on his back. It's here that Mashiro also says that Kuon's one and only hope is Hoeru.

I find it really interesting that Kuon emphasizes that he has no god but that he has an angel instead (Hoeru). He could say that Hoeru is his god and that he doesn't believe in any other, but no; he specifies that he has an angel.

Now, Kuon's insistence of Hoeru being an angel could be due to the fact that angels are symbolically portrayed as 'pure' beings, while gods, while divine, can also be associated with less pure concepts.

Kuon might want to emphasize Hoeru's purity by specifically describing him as an angel than a god, but there's another thing that makes me wonder if there's more to this.

Gods are typically figures that offer salvation. They are the source of such things and have the power to grant them. However, angels, typically, do not have that power.

Fallen angels, most of all, cannot receive or give salvation at all.

Therefore, Kuon might not seek salvation but then... what does it mean for him to see Hoeru as his hope? If he doesn't want to be saved, then what does he want?

... To be destroyed.

I still don't really understand why Kuon alternated his pronouns in that scene in episode 9 (俺がお前を壊してやる…そしてお前が僕を壊す���だ…) but considering how Kuon mainly uses 'boku', I'm going to assume that he wants Hoeru to destroy him, Kuon, specifically.

Kuon's intentions of having Hoeru destroy him would explain him protecting Hoeru's ring in ep 15, as it would benefit him for Hoeru to not be affected when the world was remade.

Some other things that don't really have a spot in this post but I really want to mention:

When Mashiro says that Kuon is being shackled by fear, Kuon visibly reacts, which leads me to believe that there is truth to his words. If so, then what exactly does he fear?

Based on the conversation, we can infer that Kuon is on borrowed time because of the wound on his back. He wants to be destroyed before it's too late... but for what reason? Is it death? Or is it a point of no return?

Kuon is visibly angry when Mashiro exposes this truth and the fact that Hoeru is his only hope, and this can be because he doesn't want to admit it OR because he doesn't want someone overhearing this.

The fact that he says he wanted to be destroyed by Hoeru behind closed doors leads me to believe the latter. If so, then why? Is he truly loyal to Tegajune or is he conflicted?

Kuon becomes the most angry, going as far as to grab Mashiro when he says this: "However, at times, hope can also bring forth suffering."

[perfectwitchcrown]

Make the Exorcist Fall in Love - Witches part 2

Welcome to part two of the witches meta! Here's a link to part 1 of the meta: Part One.

Content warnings for discussion of sexual violence, execution, images of cartoon nudity and violence (all Ekuoto panels), also major spoilers for Ekuoto and minor spoilers for Berserk, the movie Perfect Blue, and the movie The Craft

Witchcraft and Gender: From Old Hags to Magical Girls

Back to overall discussions of witchcraft, I’d like to cover the issue of gender. Usually, when people are talking about witches, they are imagined as women. It is important to ask why that is.

In Early Modern Germany, people of any gender could be accused of witchcraft, however “Menopausal women and post-menopausal women were disproportionately represented amongst the victims of the witch craze,” which Roper associates with the link between reproduction and social status among women (Roper Witch Craze 160-161). Lara Apps and Andrew Gow in “Conceptual Webs: The Gendering of Witchcraft,” argue that while witches were conceptualized as being of any gender, they became associated with women due to the elaborated concept of witchcraft’s idea of a demonic pact—women were misogynistically stereotyped as being easier to trick, so then the Devil is easier able to trick them into becoming witches (Apps and Gows 118-119). Of course, this is not true of all regions at all times—in Iceland, Russia, Finland, and Estonia, for example, more men were accused of witchcraft than women (Ryan 49, 73, 83). However, I think it’s relevant to talk about as the idea of witches as women has carried over into the modern era, and I think its explored in Ekuoto.

In Make the Exorcist Fall in Love, gendered stereotypes and the way they can be baked into language has been explored in chapter 10 of the Leviathan arc. In that chapter, Leviathan notes that envy (嫉妬) has the radical meaning woman in it twice (女). We can understand then that this is commentary on the way that “envy” is societally coded as a feminine trait. I’m not able to check all of the Japanese chapters as they’re paywalled, but I checked the Japanese description of volume nine, and the word for witch it uses is 魔女, which also contains “woman” in it. This is the standard way of writing the Japanese word for witch, but because of the earlier scene, I think it is important to take note of.

We should understand the idea of misogyny as essential to our understanding of the witches —not that they’re all women, but that in opposition to the church, which is formulated as patriarchal, they are those oppressed by the patriarchy. Bécu, for example, is a new witch and formerly worked as a sex worker. Her reasons for joining the witch’s Sabbath are repeatedly shown to deal with gender oppression and seeking freedom from it—in chapter 17 she is shown reading from the First Epistle to the Corinthians—specifically, the section on women being silent—before tossing it into a bonfire and joining the Sabbath. Later, we see her state that she thought the Sabbath “was a gathering for those tired of societal virtues and bindings.”  

Charlotte, too makes a really interesting statement in the above image in regards to gender. I couldn’t double check the Japanese chapter (paywalled…) but based on the comments it does seem she uses 魔法少女, so she’s fully talking about Magical Girls as in the genre.

In Kumiko Saito’s article “‘Shōjo’, and Metamorphosis: Magical Girl Anime and the Challenges of Changing Gender Identities in Japanese Society,” she discusses the ways in which the Magical Girl genre has evolved. Some of the key points for our discussion is that the genre’s origins were partially influenced out of the success of the American show Bewitched (so Western constructions of witchcraft bear a relationship) while Toei was trying to expand its children’s animated television programming (Saito 147) She breaks down three key time frames of the genre, arguing that “The dual context of magical girl anime, as children’s programs that convey messages about gender roles reflecting standardized social norms and as a stand-alone vortex of representations operated by visual fetishism of young female bodies, may respectively belong to the two different eras of the 1960s to the 1980s, but today the genre has grown to easily incorporate both contexts and beyond” (Saito 147). The 1960s era of magical girl stories is conceptualized as one focused largely on the freedom of youth before marriage, fighting enemies who are coded through “heavy makeup and obsessed with careerism” as “women who failed to be a wife or a mother” while targeting a young girl audience, then losing this focus in the 1980s as otaku culture was born and adult male audiences began to be targeted as well (Saito 145-146, 148, 156-157). Gender and how gender is performed then have really heavy histories in this genre.

I personally thought the connection with the idol industry was an interesting way of thinking about it, because there’s a similar fetishization of purity and youth. In the movie Perfect Blue, for example, where an idol’s attempt to move from idealized, consumable, virginial purity to an acting career in which she is presented as sexual (but in a way that is associated with lack of agency), is met with extreme violence by a former fan. Betrayal is felt over this change—neither of which have any real relationship to the woman’s identity but are rather marketing aspects. Highly recommend this movie, although I also recommend checking out the content warnings before you watch as there’s some very heavy scenes.

Charlotte is making a statement on that sort of fetishization of purity, and I think its interesting that as nasty as the bestiality element of it is, its also locating the power of her sexuality as completely outside of heterosexual bonds. She’s simultaneously sexual, and unavailable to men (although her relationship with Vergilius complicates this I think). She is neither fetishizable through ideas of purity or sexual objectification.

The commentary on familiars is also interesting—witch’s familiars are both a historical aspect of witchcraft beliefs and of contemporary magical girls. Historically, familiars were most prominent in English witchcraft beliefs, where they appeared as “demons in corporeal form” (Parish 1-2). The animals that came up the most were “mice, cats, dogs, and even toads” (Parish 5). Within the English context, they also represent an inversion of motherly duty, as the witches would suckle them their blood (Parish 7). In terms of Ekuoto’s familiars, I think they bear similarity to the ones reported in Basque witchcraft beliefs, where “Basque toad familiars are decorated and dressed in little colourful outfits,” the outfits being something unique to the region’s beliefs.

Magical girls in anime also of course also often have mascots (familiars). I’m not entirely sure how this developed. Sally the Witch’s manga, which started in 1966, had a magical crow/younger brother named Cub. I haven’t watched or read the series, but it sounds like he stays in younger brother form most of the time? Akko Chan (1962) has a cat, but to my understanding the cat is not really a familiar? Regardless, magical mascots are a pretty standard aspect to the genre.

As to why the Ekuoto’s familiars look like axolotls with chameleon tongues: I don’t know. If anyone has any ideas, I’d love to hear them!

The Punishment of Witches

Another thing that’s important to keep in mind about witchcraft is jurisdiction—when we talk about the trials and punishment of witches, who was doing the punishing? The answer is—that depends on the time and place.

Witchcraft was prosecuted both in secular and religious courts in various parts of Europe for a long time. In 1484, Pope Innocent VIII’s bull Summis desiderantes tried to strengthen and clarify authority over witchcraft prosecution in Germany over two inquisitors, as their authority had been overlapping both with secular courts and clerics of individual dioceses (Levack 137).

However, non-Catholic nations also had witch trials. Scotland in the 1590s, for example, had witch trials conducted through secular systems—“most witchcraft trials were in special local courts held by virtue of commissions of justiciary,” this power emerging from the crown (Goodare 240-241). There is, of course, the famous Salem witch trials in Puritan Massachusetts. In medieval Russia, where the Orthodox Church was the major religious power, there weren’t a ton of witches prosecuted, but there still were some: “From the published records, it would appear that in the seventeenth century there were a hundred or so court cases in which accusations of magic features” (Ryan 66-68). Court cases in Russia were handled by the church up until the implementation of the Voinskii artikul by Peter the Great, when it first entered secular military law (Ryan 62-67,70).

That is to say, even when there was some level of continuity to witchcraft beliefs, the authorities involved in prosecuting these cases could be wildly different based on region and time—and sometimes, multilayered within their own area.

This extended to the way in which witches were punished when found guilty. Cornell University’s exhibit “The World Bewitched: Visions of Witchcraft from the Cornell Collections” places the number of executed witches in Europe from between 1400 to 1750 at 50,000-100,000 (Crime and Punishment). Legal proceedings did not follow assumptions of innocence—it was the job of the accused to prove their innocence (Crime and Punishment). Execution methods depended on region as well. Burning was largely popular, although in England you would be hanged (Crime and Punishment). Burning’s popularity was due to witchcraft’s associations with heresy, as burning was also the execution method for heretics (Gaskill 66).

Now, not all accussed of being witches were found guilty—and not all found guilty of witchcraft were executed either. This depended on region. Overall, across Europe, around half of those who went to trial were executed (Gaskill 66). Elsewhere, however, the numbers could really range—“in the Pays de Vaud, the execution rate was 90%,” while “Spain’s largest witch-hunt involved a staggering 1,900 suspects, of whom just eleven were condemned” (Gaskill 66-67).

Extra: Names of the Witches

Fun little thing on where the names of the different witch’s may have come from (all of these r like. Majorly a stretch lmfao). Also none of these will be cited bc I’m lazy and also most of these are easy to find information on in comparison to the rest of the information in this meta. I’m also excluding Vergilius because we already know.:

Charlotte

A French/Italian name, feminine form of Charles. Honestly, it’s such a common name that I have no clue if there’s any reason it was chosen. Goethe is referenced early in Ekuoto (Priest is reading poems by him in the first chapter) and Charlotte is the name of the woman Werther is in love with in Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther, so it could be that, but that’s a complete guess. Charlotte Perkins Gilman (of “The Yellow Wallpaper “fame) also wrote a short story called “When I Was a Witch.” This could also potentially be a source of the name. Unsure, but for thematic reasons I could see it being possible. Gilman was a feminist, but also a eugenicist, and both of these ideas are reflected in the short story. Her brand of feminism is also very late 19th century early 20th century white feminism, so like just as a warning to anyone looking to read her fiction keep that in mind.

 Here’s a link to this short story: https://psychopomp.com/fantasy/miscellaneous/when-i-was-a-witch/

The TLDR ; Narrator becomes a witch. She makes a series of cruel wishes that come true because she’s a witch. She then decides to wish for her idea of a feminist utopia on earth (this image is shaped by an emphasis on ideas of motherhood and eugenics -> that women will shape the world through reproductive capabilities by breeding out “bad” men) and it doesn’t happen because “this magic which had fallen on me was black magic-and I had wished white” and then all her witchcraft gets undone. With the witch’s being framed as trying to overturn patriarchal society, I could potentially see this as an influence, but it’s kind of a niche short story. Also I don’t see the witch’s getting framed as eugenicists, unless the connection we’re supposed to draw is with the deliberate killing of bad men as sacrifices ?? Idk

Who knows tho. Charlotte is such a common name. If anyone has any other suggestions, I’d love to hear them.

Erskine & Cyril

Ok I searched so hard for potential origins for their names but was struggling to find anything. I was centering on the Paisley witches, where stuff happened near Erskine in Scotland, and Cyril of Alexandria, but both of these felt like massive massive massive stretches. Then, recently, I saw this tweet by user @ mizuno_awa: https://x.com/mizuno_awa/status/1879681767172698205

They source the names Erskine and Cyril to the Oscar Wilde short story “The Portrait of Mr. W.H.,” which I had not previously read (sorry Oscar Wilde), but it’s completely spot on. This short story is available through Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/773), so I highly recommend checking it out, but here’s my short explanation of why it’s an interesting thing for their names to reference for those who don’t want to read the short story

William Shakespeare wrote a series of sonnets. A section of them are referred to as the ‘Fair Youth’ sonnets (whether they should be considered a sequence is one of many things Shakespeareans argue about) This sequence focuses on a young man that the poet has a romantically (and erotically, depending on how you read some of the poems) charged relationship with. The collection of sonnets (including both the Fair Youth poems and the Dark Lady poems) is dedicated to someone known as “Mr. W.H..” Some scholars believe Mr. W.H. to be the fair youth the fair youth sonnets are about (Shakespeareans argue over this also). There are several different major camps as to who Mr. W.H. is -> one major group argues it’s the Earl of Southampton, and the other camp argues that it may be the Earl of Pembroke. There is an additional camp that argues, due to wordplay in some of the sonnets, it’s a boy named Willie Hughes, but there’s no Willie Hughes that Shakespeare on record knew so like who knows.

Oscar Wilde wrote his short story in conversation with this theory. In the short story, a man named Erskine tells the unnamed narrator about a friend of his, Cyril, who was apparently incredibly pretty (there’s a whole paragraph about his family background that just devolves into describing how good looking he was) and became consumed with trying to prove the Willie Hughes theory, including by having a portrait of the supposed boy actor forged, before taking his own life. The narrator becomes obsessed with the theory, tries to prove it, convinces Erskine but then becomes himself unconvinced. Erskine then dies too, and the forged portrait passes from Erskine’s possession to the narrator’s. It’s basically a creepy haunted painting/Shakespeare theory story, like if the Ring was about a twink’s cursed Shakespeare theory instead of a haunted video tape.

So the interesting part then is that this is a short story focused on queer readings of Shakespeare being examined by queer coded characters, written by a queer man. It’s not as on the nose as Dorian Gray, but I think I laughed out loud when Erskine starts talking about how Cyril once played Rosalind in Shakespeare’s As You Like It (the main character of a play who spends a significant portion of it crossdressing and hitting on the guy she likes, while going by the name Ganymede. Good ol Elizabethan queercoding, that Wilde definitely knew about, since he engages with it as well in Dorian Gray). Anyways, naming these two after this short story is amazing queer coding of these characters Arima Aruma you’re so funny to me ur mind is so big

Bécu

A French surname, famously held by Madame du Barry (a courtesan who became Louis XV’s mistress). Seeing as how Becu is a former sex worker from France, this seems likely. The account I list in the Erskine and Cyril section drew the same conclusion as me.

Manon

A real name, but also in the 1996 movie The Craft a bunch of teenage witches worship a deity named Manon. I went and watched the movie for this meta LMFAO but basically they view Manon as a being outside of the dichotomy of god and the devil. Each of the girls has picked up witchcraft for a variety of reasons that all have to do with their outsider status in their private Catholic school. The main character gets invited to join their coven, and they start taking magical revenge on those who hurt them, but it starts to spiral out of control. Manon is also a common enough name though that I could see there being another origin to her name.  

Works Cited:

Apps, Lara, and Andrew Gow. “Conceptual Webs: The Gendering of Witchcraft” In Male Witches in Early Modern Europe, 118–50. Manchester University Press, 2003. www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt155j84b.10.

“Crime and Punishment.” The World Bewitched: Visions of Witchcraft from the Cornell Collections. Cornell University, 2017. rmc.library.cornell.edu/witchcraft/exhibition/punishment/index.html#modalClosed. Accessed 4 February 2025.

Forrester, Sibelan. Baba Yaga: The Wild Witch of the East in Russian Fairy Tales. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2013.

Garrett, Julia M. “Witchcraft and Sexual Knowledge in Early Modern England.” Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies, vol. 13, no. 1, 2013, pp. 32–72. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/43857912.

Gaskill, Malcolm. Witchcraft: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2010. ProQuest Ebook Central.

Goodare, Julian. “The Framework for Scottish Witch-Hunting in the 1590s.” The Scottish Historical Review, vol. 81, no. 212, 2002, pp. 240–50. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/25529649. Accessed 1 Feb. 2025.

Levack, Brian P. The Witchcraft Sourcebook. 2nd ed., Routledge, 2025. doi.org/10.4324/9781315715292. Accessed 4 February 2025.

Mackay, Christopher S.. The Hammer of Witches: A Complete Translation of the Malleus Maleficarum. Cambridge University Press, 2009.

Newman, William. “Technology and Alchemical Debate in the Late Middle Ages.” Isis, vol. 80, no. 3, 1989, pp. 423–45. http://www.jstor.org/stable/234934.

Parish, Helen. “‘Paltrie Vermin, Cats, Mise, Toads, and Weasils’: Witches, Familiars, and Human-Animal Interactions in the English Witch Trials.” Religions vol. 10, no. 2 (2019): doi:10.3390/rel10020134.

Ryan, W. F. “The Witchcraft Hysteria in Early Modern Europe: Was Russia an Exception?” The Slavonic and East European Review 76, no. 1 (1998): 49–84. www.jstor.org/stable/4212558.

Roper, Lyndal. “Witchcraft and the Western Imagination.” Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 16 (2006): 117–41. www.jstor.org/stable/25593863.

Roper, Lyndal. Witch Craze. New Haven, Yale University Press. 2004.

Saito, Kumiko. “Magic, ‘Shōjo’, and Metamorphosis: Magical Girl Anime and the Challenges of Changing Gender Identities in Japanese Society.” The Journal of Asian Studies 73, no. 1 (2014): 143–64. www.jstor.org/stable/43553398.

Saunders, Corinne. “The Middle Ages: Prohibitions, Folk Practices and Learned Magic.” In Magic and the Supernatural in Medieval English Romance, NED-New edition., 59–116. Boydell & Brewer, 2010. www.jstor.org/stable/10.7722/j.ctt14brqtb.6.

Sneddon, Andrew. “Witchcraft Belief and Trials in Early Modern Ireland.” Irish Economic and Social History 39 (2012): 1–25. www.jstor.org/stable/24338815.

Ugresic, Dubravka. Baba Yaga Laid an Egg. New York: Canongate U.S., 2011. Accessed January 5, 2025. ProQuest Ebook Central.

Watt, Jeffrey R. “Superstitions, Magic, and Witchcraft.” In The Consistory and Social Discipline in Calvin’s Geneva, NED-New edition., 138–61. Boydell & Brewer, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv10vm05k.10.

Weishaupt, Marina. “Mythos Walpurgisnacht: Was steckt hinter den Hexen-Sagan?.” National Geographic, 27 Apr. 2023. www.nationalgeographic.de/geschichte-und-kultur/2023/04/mythos-walpurgisnacht-was-steckt-hinter-den-hexen-sagen-tanz-in-mai. Accessed 3 February 2025.

Wilby, Emma. “Familiar Demons.” Invoking the Akelarre: Voices of the Accused in the Basque Witch-Craze, 1609-1614, Liverpool University Press, 2019, pp. 124–44. JSTOR, doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv3029v1q.13. Accessed 1 Feb. 2025.

“Witch Trials in Early Modern Europe and New England.” UC Berkeley Law. www.law.berkeley.edu/research/the-robbins-collection/exhibitions/witch-trials-in-early-modern-europe-and-new-england/. Accessed 4 February 2025.

Zipes, Jack. “Foreward.” Baba Yaga: The Wild Witch of the East in Russian Fairy Tales. Edited by Sibelan Forrester, Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2013.

[sloanesallow]

Mama's Potatoes

Sebastian doesn't know how to cook. Good thing the Niffler does. Sebastian Sallow x F!MC (Siobhan Sloane) Tags: Domestic life, Peter the Niffler, pregnancy, potatoes. 1.8k words A/N: I wrote this while grieving the loss of my cat, Peter. Sloane's Niffler has always been named after him, so this was just another way for me to honor him. Thank you for reading. He loved potatoes, too. [Ao3] | [Wattpad] | [Tumblr Masterlist]

Sebastian doesn't know what he's doing.

It's a rare feeling. He's not stupid—he wouldn't be the youngest curse-breaker at the Ministry if he were—and usually knows how to handle a daunting situation. Crazed Inferi, dangerous artifacts, unusual hexes, you name it. But this...this is a new level of difficulty.

He's been standing in the kitchen since sunrise, flipping through old cookbooks and Sloane's recipe journals, looking for something—anything—within his skillset. Despite his wife's numerous demonstrations and seemingly limitless patience, he has never quite gotten the hang of cooking. If his father-in-law were there, he'd scold Sebastian. What self-respecting man can't cook for his pregnant, bedridden wife?

He hates this, hates that he isn't good at something so simple.

It should, in theory, be akin to potions, which he excels at. But alchemy isn't the same as cuisine—you can't just throw everything in a pot and hope for the best—not if you want it to taste good. Cooking is science, not magic, regardless of how easy Sloane makes it look. Maybe that's why she's so good at it, because she insists on doing it without spells. She's a natural, and Sebastian...

Well, it's a good thing he provides in other ways.

With the birth of their child imminent, however, she's resigned to the bed, on strict orders from the nurses at St. Mungos to keep off her feet. This leaves Sebastian in charge of the meals, which he knows are lackluster, even if Sloane never complains. If they were still in London, he'd pop out and grab something from the local shops, or hire one of the house elves in their old building as a cook. But they moved to the countryside in preparation for Little Sallow's arrival, settling down where he'll need to be self-sufficient.

What he wants is to prepare something hearty and healthy, something warm to lift her spirits before the baby comes. Sebastian allows himself five more minutes of wallowing in self-pity before opening another worn journal, hoping he'll see something he's helped Sloane make before. These recipes aren't in her familiar script, but he quickly finds something promising—Beef Stew.

Except...half the instructions are in Irish.

Sebastian grumbles to himself—just another thing he hasn't mastered. He's learned a few languages in his lifetime, largely due to the thirst for knowledge and travel associated with his work, but Irish isn't one of them. And while his wife is of Irish descent, she speaks it so infrequently that he never caught on.

"This must be her mum's," he says aloud, discouraged. He continues to read over the old parchment and the idea of surprising Sloane with one of her mother's recipes is too enticing to shake.

Sebastian is nothing if not ambitious.

The best-case scenario is that he manages to cook a delicious meal. Worst case, he blows up their kitchen. It wouldn't be the first time.

Emboldened, he gets to work, rolling up his sleeves and clearing off the counter so he has space to prep. Instructions in hand, he grabs everything he needs—or thinks he needs—pots and pans and cutlery, and lights the stove with the flick of his wand. Before he can do anything else, it is yanked out of his hand and he whirls around to find Peter, Sloane's beloved Niffler, already stashing the wand away in his pouch.

"Merp!"

"Hey!" Sebastian shouts before clenching his jaw, glancing toward the hallway that leads to where Sloane is still sleeping. He looks back at Peter in annoyance. The two tolerate each other, but mostly bicker about who Sloane loves more. "Give that back, Peter. I need it—"

"Merp!" he interrupts, batting Sebastian's hand away when he tries to touch his fur.

Sebastian sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I don't have time for this."

Peter makes a series of noises that sound very much like the Niffler is mocking him as he stares at the tattered journal in Sebastian's hands.

"What?" he sarcastically laughs. "Are you going to help me?"

For a Niffler, Peter is incredibly expressive, furrowing his brow and blinking his beady little eyes. "Merp."

Sebastian can't believe he's about to have a Niffler be his sous-chef. "Fine."

"It's beef stew, at least I hope it is," he continues, reading over the recipe again. "Sloane must have it memorized because I've never seen her use this."

Peter chitters.

"Right," he mumbles, moving to the cold box where they keep their perishables. "At least this is in English. Two pounds of roast, cut into small cubes."

Sebastian places the parchment-wrapped meat on the counter before scratching at his chin. "One point of...what is...prátaí?" He frowns, reluctantly looking at Peter for guidance.

The Niffler huffs and carefully scales down the side of the counter before scurrying toward the garden door. He pushed through the little flap Sloane installed, poking his head back in a moment later to glare.

"MERP!"

Sebastian follows after the little beast until they are in the middle of Sloane's vegetable garden. There's a little bit of everything, and even though they have the space (and magic) to grow whatever her heart desires, she's kept a modest size. Peter digs at the soft soil, right beneath a small plot marker that reads Mama's Potatoes.

"Oh," Sebastian hums, feeling dumber than before. He grabs a nearby basket before crouching down to take the unearthed potatoes from Peter. "Since when do you know Irish?"

"Merp," Peter answers, as if to say 'I'm smarter than you, Sallow'.

The Niffler continues to roam the garden, bringing Sebastian the vegetables and herbs he needs for the meal. When the basket is full, the two head back inside where Peter monitors the prep work with an intimidating aura that rivals Papa Sloane.

Sebastian follows the instructions the best he can, relying on memory and Peter's so-called translations. He tenses every time routinely grabs his wrist to correct his movements, wondering if he should hand over the knife to let Peter cut the vegetables but figures. Then again, the last thing he needs right now is a knife-wielding Niffler.

He cooks the meat in a hot skillet until the cut pieces are lightly browned, before moving on to the vegetables—sauteing the diced onion, garlic, rosemary, and bay leaves until they are soft. Peter pushes over the bottle of red wine, and Sebastian carefully pours the liquid into the pan, stirring until Peter gestures to add the beef broth. Once everything is combined, he adds back in the meat and secures the lid before placing it into the hot oven.

"Should be ready in..." he reads over Mama Sloane's instructions.

"Merp," Peter chirps, tapping the counter three times.

"Three hours," Sebastian nods.

He takes some time to tidy up and quietly sneaks down the hall to see his wife still fast asleep. Too nervous to leave the food unattended again, he makes himself comfortable on the floor in front of the oven and starts counting the minutes as they pass by. Peter joins him for a little while but eventually disappears, only returning when it's time to add in the rest of the vegetables.

An hour later, Sebastian holds his breath, protective mitts trembling as he pulls the steaming pot from the oven. He prays to Merlin, and maybe a few other deities, before slowly lifting the lid to inspect the final product. Peter climbs back onto the counter to peer inside, his bill opening slightly as he sniffs the air.

"Want some?" Sebastian quips, scooping a hefty portion into a bowl.

Peter shakes his tiny head. "Merp."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Sebastian mutters, taking a bite for himself. It's not bad, though he isn't sure if that means it's good, either. It certainly tastes just about the same as when Sloane makes it, but doubt swirls in his mind. "I hope she likes it."

If he hoped for some semblance of encouragement from Peter, he doesn't receive it. Instead, the Niffler huffs and leaps from the counter before scampering away. Sebastian reminds himself to find the little troublemaker later so he can get his wand back. Good thing Peter can't perform magic—right?

Sebastian places the bowl onto a tray, along with a spoon and a cloth napkin. He tears off some bread from the loaf he (barely managed) to bake the day before and runs back out to the garden to pluck a few flowers for good measure. After steadying his nerves the best he can, he ventures back down the hall to the bedroom.

Sloane is awake now, reclining in their bed, eyes closed as she smooths her hands across her rounded belly. She glances up as Sebastian crosses the threshold, surprise lighting up her expression when she spots the tray in his hands.

"You cooked?" she asks, struggling to sit up. Sebastian quickly sets the food down on the nightstand so he can help her, softly laughing at the way she's too focused on the steam rising from the bowl to cooperate. She sniffs the air. "Is that...my mother's stew?"

He falters when he notices the shine of tears in her eyes, making sure she's comfortably leaning against the pile of pillows. Her emotions have been heightened, to put it mildly, throughout the pregnancy, but he still didn't anticipate tears.

"Hey, hey," he coos, brushing back her hair and swiping his thumbs across her cheeks. "It's alright, sweetheart. I just wanted to make sure you don't starve."

"Well I am starving," she whines and he holds back his amusement, kissing away her pout.

"Here," he says, making sure Sloane has a good handle on the bowl before leaning back. "I uhh...hope it turned out right."

Sloane takes a moment to take in the aromas, smiling at him with glossy eyes as she stirs the bowl. "Thank you."

Sebastian can't respond, not when he's still terrified that he's done something wrong. He watches her, unblinking, as she finally takes a taste. As soon as the spoon is in her mouth, her eyes go wide and she goes still. He panics, leaning forward to grasp her shoulders and tug the spoon from her hand and mouth.

"Sloane? What is it—oh fuck—" he curses, heart racing, clumsily placing the food back on the tray before fussing over her again. "Did I poison you? Are you dying?"

Sloane snaps out of the trance to shake her head, her mouth twitching into a shaky smile. She grabs one of Sebastian's hands and presses it to her enlarged abdomen. His chest tightens for a completely different reason when she finally speaks.

"I think the baby's coming."

Reblogs, comments and likes are appreciated. 💛

[everytimewetouch-dot-mp3]

Okay WHAT is Oh look it's Gilgamesh

wip game post here!

oooouuugh yay ok i was hoping someone would ask about this one. it’s a modern au binggeyuan inspired by this post i made a billion years ago.

i’m in the exploratory phase of this one too, but i’ve been putting a lot more work into it lately bc it has become my 2025 writing goal lmao. i’ll talk abt it under the cut :D

…so i just finished writing and it’s a little longer than i anticipated. tl;dr: what if satan from the actual literal bible crawled out of hell and told the pope that he wanted to be friends now because there’s something much worse than himself down there.

so the idea is that luo binghe is a mythological figure somewhat like gilgamesh or odysseus but ‘evil.’ he’s a heavenly demon who, after countless cruelties, decided to take his revenge on the world by inflicting that cruelty a thousandfold. the stories go that he was born in a bid to broker peace between the demons and the humans, but huan hua’s palace master tried to sabotage sxy’s pregnancy and wound up killing her. tlj, in his grief, allowed himself to be captured by human cultivators so that he could plot his revenge in peace.

then we get lbh’s life, being cast into the abyss, coming back and taking his revenge. just when he and his father are about to merge the realms, the human cultivators sacrificed themselves to seal him, his father, and the entire demonic realm behind impossibly powerful arrays. the abyss and demon realm have merged, but the human realm is safe. to protect humanity, the few remaining cultivators hid knowledge of the jianghu and the secrets of cultivation, which explains why there are no immortal cultivators anymore.

there are legends and books and movies and operas retelling this story, always celebrating the heroic cultivators who sacrificed their lives for the rest of humanity and vilifying the endless cruelty of the demons. shen yuan has heard these stories since he was a little kid. you know how some kids have their ancient egypt phase? sy had a ‘myths about luo binghe’ phase, and it never ended. when the story starts, he’s a doctoral candidate writing his dissertation reconstructing luo binghe as a real historical person (which he was) and finding the real events that inspired the myths. he’s been officially working on it for five years at this point, but the dude really started when he was like 12. he kind of despises some of the retellings of luo binghe’s story, because they all vilify him with no compassion, and he feels binghe’s story is less a triumph of humanity and more a tragedy on all sides.

there is no retelling he hates more than proud immortal demon way. the author caricaturizes luo binghe and uses his story to sell shitty porn cranked out at an inhuman pace, and shen yuan thinks it’s despicable. he has to read every chapter just so he knows what this piece of shit author is doing to his favorite character. that’s the only reason why.

at one point, shen yuan is interviewing some people associated with the supposed descendants of the four great sects in the legends, and while he’s there, there’s an earthquake. someone rushes in wielding an actual real life sword? a real sword. that’s glowing a little bit? maybe shen yuan got hit on the head… but no that sword is definitely glowing a little bit. and he says ‘the seal has cracked.’

suddenly the stories aren’t stories anymore, and shen yuan doesn’t know how to keep his nose out of things—he wants to be there if/when luo binghe comes out. right now it’s just monsters, and it turns out the so-called cultivators were…real cultivators. and they’re fighting abyssal beasts.

they expect luo binghe to emerge commanding armies of demons and beasts as he demands his revenge on humanity, but instead he fights his way out, a crazed look in his eye, and insists that he’s going to help the cultivators seal the rift. he won’t take no for an answer. he refuses to allow those beasts to destroy humanity.

[bug-in-a-cage]

at a top level, i don't have an issue with the concept of "sfw g/t" (though i'm not sure how much of this stuff can really be considered "safe for work" - it certainly wouldn't be safe in my workplace) but...it's kinda weird and othering when i see people from that sub-community talk like "sexualising giants" is something shameful and weird and disgusting, and that having a non-kinky interest in relationship dynamics between giants and tinies is, somehow, more "pure" than thinking giant or tiny people are hot.

like, fine, being sex-repulsed is valid, it's possible to have a fascination with size tropes that is not kinky, or is kink adjacent. i myself am on the ace spectrum and i understand the complexity that brings to relationships, both with others and with your own sexual and romantic orientation.

but uhhh.

it's kind of...weird to see people imply that if you do get off to the idea of giants or tinies, that you're somehow a disgusting pervert with an adolescent libido who is intruding while The Adults Are Talking.

i'm not saying that people should be allowed to sexualise characters explicitly labelled as sfw g/t, not at all. boundaries are important and should be respected.

but what i am saying is that size spaces will inevitably contain people, like myself, who think giants are hot, and if you are repulsed by that in general, your response should not be to think of those people as sex-crazed intruders who don't Truly Appreciate size.

sexuality is not inherently bad nor good. it just is. it is another mode of being. and indeed there are people who like size solely as a sexual fantasy and have absolutely no interest in romantic or platonic g/t relationships. those people are not wrong to feel that way about size.

it is true that there are many size kinksters, pretty much universally heterosexual men, that are genuinely regressive in their views on women in kink spaces, and who regard giantesses largely as dispensers of orgasms rather than thinking and feeling human beings.

but that does not describe all people who have a size kink. it doesn't describe me or any size kinksters i associate with. to paint all people who like size tropes chiefly as a sex thing as afflicted slaves to passion is, at the end of the day, just reproducing 19th-century Protestant sexual repression, where sexuality is seen as something aberrant that must be avoided or controlled to remain Pure rather than, you know, just another biological impulse, like eating or shitting.

it's fine to find sexuality distasteful and unpleasant and want to avoid it. it's not fine to talk about the people who do have kinky fantasies like they are disgusting and gross.

we are all human beings and it takes all sorts to make a world. it's fine to say "i don't get this or like it, but i recognise that others might feel differently" and then just...walk away.

[cameronspecial]

(I have a lot of ideas sorry for the spam)

drew x reader where he cooks all the time cause she can’t cook, but she starts to feel bad cause he cooks everyday. So before he come back from work she try to make dinner but she hurts herself. Maybe cut herself or burned herself on the stove and when he gets home, he sees her trying to hide her injury because she is embarrassed. He gets a bit mad but not like mad mad just worried mad yk? Like “what the hell happened? I told you i would make dinner tonight!” And she cry and be like “I’m sorry I just wanted to make you happy” and he comforts her and say she shouldn’t be sorry.

Kitchen Nightmare

Pairing: Drew Starkey x Reader

Warnings: Cooking Injury and Blood

Pronouns: She/Her

Word Count: 0.6K

Masterlist

Y/N can’t cook. It is no secret on set that the girl is notorious for being a nightmare in the kitchen. The meat she cooks is always overcooked on the outside but raw on the inside. The rice she makes is always way too mushy or just hard as a rock. It’s like the universe only gave her the ability to cook food at either end of the extremities. The cast of Outer Banks loves her, but they dread going over to her house for dinner because it means they would have to utilize their acting skills to not make her feel bad about her cooking. When she started dating Drew, everyone felt relief that they would never have to eat her cooking again because Drew promised to take care of it. And Y/N was very grateful for that because the truth is that she hated cooking and she knew how bad she was at it. She never told her castmates because she found it amusing to watch them fake liking her food. 

However, she is beginning to feel bad that Drew is always the one who cooks. She knows he is more than happy to, but she also knows that being the one to think of a meal every day can be stressful. Her decision to help him out tonight scares her, yet she is determined to do something nice for him. Ordering food didn’t seem like a personal gesture, so she asked his mom for the casserole recipe she knew he loved so much. 

She feels like it is starting well. She has all the ingredients and the right tools. The first thing she has to do is get the chicken breasts out and washed. She is setting it in the pan and notices how thick the chicken looks. Her hand finds the packaging and realizes she made the mistake of not buying thin-cut chicken. She needs this dinner to be perfect, so she takes it out of the pan and gets it onto the cutting board. The knife shakily meets the chicken’s muscles and slices it apart. She always feared using knives. She knows how clumsy she is and can always imagine the disaster that would occur. Stuck in her own mind, it is exactly what happened. Her hand slips against the raw meat and the knife glides against her skin. A red line blooms across her finger. It is a scary situation and she knows she shouldn’t laugh, but the only thing that comes to her mind is a scene from Bob’s Burgers. Her cut is in the exact same place as Bob’s and now, all she hears is Linda saying finger crotch repeatedly. 

Drew enters the apartment to the smell of raw chicken and the faint hint of iron associated with blood. What is even more scary than the unknown source of blood? Finding his girlfriend laughing hysterically with a knife in one hand and her other bloodier than a slaughterhouse. He rushes to his girl, taking her hand into his. “What the hell happened?” he questions, piecing the scene together as he looks around the room. “I told you I would make dinner.” Her crazed state is now dying down and her laughter turns to soft cries. 

“I’m sorry I just wanted to make you happy. I know cooking every day can be stressful and that you miss your mom’s cooking. I wanted to surprise you.”

He feels bad about his harsh anger, pulling her into a hug with a kiss to the temple. “That’s really sweet, Sweetie. I’m sorry I was so angry. I just get worried when you cook. I don’t want you getting hurt,” he explains, combing his fingers through her hair. She nods. He gets a clean towel to apply pressure on her wound and gets his car keys out. He rushes her through the door. “Let’s get you to the hospital and then maybe to cooking lessons.”

Taglist: @winterrrnight @loves0phelia

[marzipanandminutiae]

Now that we are speaking about the old timey pixie cut, I was wondering if it is somehow related to people who were selling their hair for wigs. I guess some of them would sell their hair, specially if it was long before the cut, but do you think it could be one of those fashions where the rich notice the poor looking a certain way because poverty and going "well, if it isn't A Look" and copying it? I don't know the social perceptions of selling your hair, but do you think there is an intersection here somehow?

Interesting thought, especially because fashion rarely moved upwards from the bottom in that way during the 19th century

Selling your hair was seen as terribly noble and Romantic...if done for reasons almost nobody ever had in real life. literary heroines of the time sell their hair to feed their children (Fantine in Les Mis- written later but set around the Directoire era), to bail out an unjustly imprisoned fiance (a magazine story I read once), etc. whereas in real life, the thriving human hair market among hairpiece-makers usually sourced its raw materials from "hair fairs" around the European countryside. peasant women would sell their hair for money to augment their usual incomes- I've read a few cases of women doing it to fund travel to a city, for better job opportunities. some women were even serial hair sellers, growing it out again each time for the sole purpose of cutting it for sale when it was long enough

how aware upper-class women would be of this, when their sole experience of the idea was Selling One's Hair For A Noble Cause, I'm not certain. and it WAS seen as a tragic sacrifice in most of those stories, with commentary of the aftermath confined mostly to the lady's Poor Shorn Head and Steadfast Love rather than "omg so cute! a Lewk!" so it's possible the thought would have held cachet for them based on a fantasy, but that fantasy did little to proclaim the aesthetic qualities of short hair. and to notice it on a poor woman and think positively of it would have required some other inducement from a pre-existing source they had positive associations with, if that makes sense? so I'm personally skeptical that that could have been the origin

apparently, when a brief short hair craze arose in the US and specifically Chicago in the 1880s, there were newspapers theorizing that some lady of fashion may have been ill and cut her hair in the throes of fever, as was commonly thought to vent heat from the brain back then, and either liked the result or put a brave face on to pretend she did. It's possible that that had something to do with the Titus making its jump to women as well, earlier on? or it could just have been getting lost in the neoclassicism sauce, as the name of the style suggests

it's interesting too because it's a unisex style, but you see it in fashion plates and portraits (and later, photographs) of women who are NOT masculine or androgynous at all- to me that's what differentiates Ye Olde Pixie Cut from A Woman With A Men's Hairstyle. it's a different mindset; not trying to look masculine, but adopting an unconventional fashion popular among decidedly feminine women

[plutaztix]

Finished first draft designs of the hazbin cast- Alastor., Charlie, Angeldust, Nifty , and Vaggie.

Some of them got minor redesigns while others got revamped, so I’ll be going down the line and discussing my reasoning for each one (please note, these are not perfect, and probably are not animator friendly, I did this for fun, and a lot of the decisions I made were because I felt like it. Do not throw a fit if you don’t like them)

Alastor- when redesigning alastor I focused on 3 major details: that he was from the 1920s-1930s, he was from the south, and that he was a “radio demon”. I took away the voodoo stuff cause that felt like a really weird way to associate him with Louisiana culture, and instead went for the more “southern gentleman” feel using the slicked back hair and simple clothes. I also replaced his monocle with a full pair of glasses, because I think not being able to see his eyes makes him more menacing, same thing with the straight teeth. I made his color palette into warm browns to kind of give the vibe of an old timey radio- with a highlight of gold as well. Side note: I like to imagine he doesn’t open his mouth, and instead it just lights up like an actual radio- cause I think that’s cool character flavor. I also kept his deer motif cause ,apparently, it was supposed to connect with how he died- plus I’m always a sucker for the kind of evil character that has an innocent animal theme, super fun. (Also his microphone is sentient and does change the text depending on the situation)

Charlie Morningstar- I think Charlie is a lovely character, she’s one of favorites, but she felt pretty plain in some aspects. I learned that she was kind of inspired by porcelain dolls, which gave me an interesting idea of making into kind of a “devils Pinocchio”- because what’s more innocent than a doll imbued with the power of her father’s dreams? So I really leaned into the soft friendly doll look, giving her ball joints and large eyes that stare into your soul. I softened a lot of her colors and gave her rounder shapes as well as leaning into the goat aspects of her character, because i thought it could be fun to have her play off the deer motif that alastor has.

Angel Dust- My boy , my good lad. He is also pretty solid when it comes to design , however- HE DID NOT LOOK LIKE A SPIDER. I had no idea that his freckles were supposed to be eyes until I rewatched it. Soooo I definitely tried to make him more spider like by making his eyes more prominent and giving him pointy side burns that act as mandibles. I also gave him him his spider butt and some weird ass legs. Oh and , unrelated, I like to imagine he does burlesque.

Nifty- MY FAVORITEE , I love nifty guys, she’s my POOKIE bear. When going into her design I knew I wanted to make her look older since I thought it was weird how much she was infantilized so I gave her lipstick and pearl earrings to make her look more like a refine 1950s housewife, as well as give her an apron and cleaning gloves to make her feel more like a maid. I also leaned into her subtle bug theme by giving her antennae, and giving polka dots on her dress for a very subtle lady bug theme (cause she’s my little lady). Some more small things I gave her a little swirl in her bangs to call back to victory rolls, as well as some subtle hints of green to call back to the uranium craze of that time.

Vaggie- she was difficult. Initially, I had no idea what I wanted to do with her, but I think that’s also because she’s not a very fleshed out character? Her whole story is kind of , Support Charlie and be a fallen angel.(still love chaggie tho) So I took some creative liberties, and gave her a more mature look- with some periwinkle to act as a subtle hint to her angelic nature. I also gave her the monocle from alastor design cause I thought it made more sense for her? Like, if anyone is gonna have the one eyed visual aid it’s gonna be the bitch with one eye. It also makes her look more matured? And I gave her a moth broach to call back to her moth inspo.

Annnd that’s it! I’ll be working on the next batch soon, which will likely have husk and sir pentious, if you have any other people you wanna see lmk!

[zal-cryptid]

fun fact, i didn't think that a betty spaghetti was a real toy because i've just never seen them before? but when i showed misfits in toyland to a friend they IMMEDIATELY said "oh a betty spaghetti!" so i guess i just never saw the betty spaghetti craze lol

now that i see them i realize just how accurate jen is lmao

but what are jen's toybrain instincts? i have no idea how betty spaghettis are meant to be played with, and i've basically not seen jen do or want to do anything but be a little shit to people

A key thing to look for when trying to figure out a toyfolk's toybrain instincts is to figure out what the toy is meant to do and what the toy is meant to be.

A baby doll, for example, is a toy resembling a human infant, so one can expect someone like Mel to exhibit traits associated with babyhood.

A Rubik's Cube would develop the urge to be rotated and solved. A stuffed animal would want to be cuddled. Most girls' dolls stereotypically have a compulsion to have tea parties. Ballerinas dance. Balls bounce. Toy soldiers march.

So...what is the purpose of a Betty Spaghetty doll? What personality is assigned to it? What is it a depiction of? What does the toy do? The doll is portrayed as a "fun-loving teenager or preteen". It's a bendable fashion doll that comes with exchangable body parts and accessories.

The reason why most of Jen's toybrain urges aren't that visible is because they're not that different to the traits she already had as a human. Flexible body, a love for fun, fashion, and accessorizing, a dark desire for dismemberment, a youthful personality...honestly, it was a perfect match.