#even if they've only talked via letters

[ladyaster]

For timelines that have both Hector x Florina and Lyn x Rath, please consider Lilina and Sue growing up as penpals.

[nexus-nebulae]

god sometimes i wish the whole "you wouldn't say/do that to a physically disabled person" lie that certain mentally ill people say was true bc i fucking WISH i could use "I'm in a wheelchair" as a gotcha for people being ableist against me. unfortunately,

[charyou-tree]

I'm trying to hype myself up to come out to my parents as trans tomorrow. I'm planning on sending them a long letter I've been working on composing explaining the situation via email , with a text to prompt them to read it. I want to give everyone involved some time to formulate their thoughts before we talk.

I'm traveling home for 4th of july and although I haven't medically transitioned I really don't want to grow my beard back out, and I'd prefer not to lie and deflect about why I suddenly shaved. I'm probably overthinking it, but I just hate feeling like I'm keeping secrets from the important people in my life, and quite honestly I don't want to keep pretending to be a guy when I can safely get away with it. I've been agonizing over whether I was trans for years now, I want to stop hesitating and enjoy being a girl. And if I'm going to come out to them, I don't want to show up the day before a big family party and surprise them with a huge life event and have everybody have to process that on the spot as guests are arriving. I'd rather tell them sooner so that everyone has a few weeks to get used to the idea of me being a girl before I visit.

I'm fortunate, I'm 99% sure they'll accept me as Claire. I've already come out to them as Bi, as has my wife, and they've been cool with my trans and nonbinary friends. My folks were understanding when one of my cousins was struggling with their gender.

That only makes it so much less scary to explain to your parents that their idea of their child is wrong in a fundamental way, not to mention the danger that identity puts them in.

And more than just that, I feel like telling my family makes it real. Like, if I were to entertain the trans impostor syndrome in my head and decide that this was all a big mistake and un-come-out to my friends it would be a bit embarrassing, but ultimately nothing about my life would change in any meaningful way. But once my family and wider social circle knows a lot of people will see me fundamentally differently forever, no matter what I do. Once I share this secret I can't go back to comfortably pretending to be a guy even if I should want to. Now being trans isn't just a fun roleplay that I do for my internet friends (and a tiny circle of IRL friends), now its my actual fulltime identity. Its a scary but necessary step.

I know I won't regret doing it, but the minutes between sending them that email and getting a call back will be some of the longest in my life. I've been stressing about it all week, I need to get this over with.

[themonotonysyndrome]

hello, lovely lady!

i truly hope you’re doing well, and im sure you know this, but your work is much appreciated, but please please take care of yourself!

with that being said, even though i’ve seen previous head-cannons, do you think it would be possible if we sort of got an updated head-cannon of how Cecila and Castin will parent their children when they’ve reacher their teen years? just curious. 🙃

please don’t feel obligated to indulge me or do such, and as always have a fantastic day/evening.

💖🤍

It's the awesome addie! Hello, hello!

I'm okay—well, as alright as I can be. I'm very happy that you enjoyed my writing, and that's enough to make me feel so much better!

Ah... teenagehood. I was a pretty chill teenager—moody but pretty tamed. I was more into writing than doing sports, lol. But let's check out what Celica and Castin are like as parents raising their teenage twins!

Headcanons where Dain & Deirdre are teenagers & how Castin and Celica raise them:

This may come across as surprising, but it's Castin's that's gonna be a low-key helicopter parents 😂

Castin is very invested in Dain & Deirdre's life. What's the tea at school? Any dramas between friends? Any crushes? 👀 Any new hobbies?

While Celica is also interested in their children's daily lives, she only asks how they fare in their studies and if they've been keeping up with their etiquette training, which their governess would report to her directly. Unfortunately, after giving birth, the Baroness is busier than ever.

This isn't to say that Castin is also not busy with his patrols and hunting down any signs of rebels, but unlike Celica, who's actually at home, he would keep in touch with the twins via letters and calls even when he's on the other end of Intacia.

Castin habitually announces ridiculous rules for the twins during dinners every other week! EX: "Neither of y'all are allowed to talk more than 100 words to your crushes." And the next week would be "Don't spar with the opposite gender! Oh, wait - " Yeah, the twins learned to just ignore the rules, lol.

As for Celica, though? She has only one rule for the twins: "Do not tarnish the Anesidora name." Now, this might seem cold, and while the twins absolutely hate it, believing that their own mother is more concerned about their family's reputation than her own damn kids that she nearly died giving birth for, Celica's rule is actually a test to see if the twins are good at deception and finding loopholes on doing any anything that she doesn't like behind her back. Because if they can pull it off? That means they're on the way to inherit her position, and that's what Celica has been waiting for.

Now! Teenage rebellions!

"Don't worry, baby. Big Daddy Caddy is on it! He knows a thing or two about stopping rebellions!"

"Please do not tackle our children to the ground as if they are criminal."

"Pfft - I won't, I won't!"

Each of the twins acts out in different manner but most often, their attitudes are directed at their mother. Dain's acts of rebellion are more... subtle. Avoiding eye contact when Celica is talking to him, refusing to smile in her presence, purposely scrapping his cutleries onto the plates when eating, creating an ear-piercing sound and etc. Deirdre is a lot more of an outburst. She would skip lessons, walk away in a middle of the conversation, and getting in a shouting match with Celica because all she cares about is asking about their progress, not how they really are.

Of course this isn't true as Celica is only thinking about their future and of course, every time her children lash out at her, she feels hurt but then she would react in ways that was ingrained to her since childhood - stoic face, silent and retreat to her office for several days.

Those are the moments where Castin had to mediate between them and always remind their twins to be patient with their Mum and try to think about things in her perspective. The only reason they could act freely as teenagers and not would-be politician or hell, even consuming poison are because the Baroness constantly serve as a 'shield' for the twins in high society.

Every mistakes they made in public, every blunder they offend a household would immediately smooth out by the Baroness.

That's her form of love. Castin knows this after being married to her for so many years but the twins don't understand that.

She's hard on them because the world was cruel to her growing up. She's awkward in showing affections because her Ezekiel, Eaton and Tristan keeps her at arms-length due to their status.

She's a damn good Baroness and she hopes that in time, she'll be a worthy mother to Dain and Deirdre.

[zeroar]

An Open Letter to the People Who Support Autism Speaks

Autism Speaks is eighteen years old. The age they should start dismissing themselves as being an authority on autism like they do with autistic adults if they cared about consistency at all.

They were founded in 2005 by a couple of Hollywood executives who grieved the diagnosis of their grandchild. This was a full dozen years after the seminal "Don't Mourn For Us" by Jim Sinclair was penned and presented.

From the beginning, Autism Speaks was anti-autism. They sought a "cure" they could use to erase our existence from the planet, they fomented anti-vax conspiracies which are still plaguing our society today, and they fostered and continue to foster an environment supportive and understanding of child-murder.

But. They were connected to celebrity. And they had the endowment and reach to become the largest anti-autism group in the nation and world.

The primary method of advertising which Autism Speaks used from the beginning is known as "fear appeal".

Typically, they frame autistic children as changeling-like creatures which replace the allistic or neurotypical child you had with one which will never love you and will tear apart your family.

Autism Speaks spotlights the worst of having an autistic family member and pulls the drapes on any mitigating circumstances or assistance. They emphasize the burden we are and the harm caused to our families by our existence.

Autism Speaks then goes on to frame themselves as being the solution and the experts on everything autism. They say, don't listen to autistic people, listen to their parents and other people who have been negatively affected by their existence. Listen to these cherry-picked examples.

They talk vaguely about support for autistic children and families while they campaign ceaselessly to find the genes which contributed to making us... so they can unmake us.

As you might expect for people who frame themselves as being the victim of their children's existences, they have been easily taken in by snake-oil salesmen and conspiracy theorists.

To this day, Autism Speaks continues to emphasize the "environmental causes of autism" even while fully knowing (from the millions of dollars of research they put in pursuing a debunked study) that autism appears to be primarily genetic and our environment really only affects our presentations as autistic, not our realities as autistic.

"Environmental causes" is a dog whistle for vaccines because they no longer feel it is profitable for them to explicitly encourage widespread death and alternative disabilities of children, so they have started only alluding to it and finally, years after the study was debunked and retracted, agree that vaccines do not cause autism.

"Environmental causes" is also a dog whistle for things like heavy metal poisoning causing autism and various other external things that can be "taken care of" via chelation therapy and bleaching our insides. Yes, Autism Speaks is at least partially responsible for spreading bleach "cures".

I believe they've taken it down since I first started advocating for SPLC to recognize Autism Speaks as a hate group—something autistic persons have recognized for years—but as recently as a year ago they were still directing people to seek out these "cures".

They worded it in such a way that it was, "These 'cures' do not work and can cause harm, but you should talk to people who tried them for their children and see for yourself."

It's cruelty for cruelty's sake. Or it's believing scientifically disproven things in a way that promotes the torture of children.

Which brings us to arguably their biggest crime against humanity and against autistic people specifically thus far: the advancement of behaviorism or behavioral conditioning as the "treatment" for autism.

Behaviorism, that is, conversion therapy torture. When done on autistic people, it is commonly called ABA or PBS.

This is another reason why they cling to "environmental causes", because behaviorism is entirely consumed with external presentation.

Autism is a pervasive neurological state which colors every aspect of our lives. Their "solution" is to deny our reality, break us to their will, and have us pretend to be "normal".

Through their efforts, they have ensured conversion therapy is not just used, but frequently the only choice for covered treatment of autistic children.

I say "choice", but the torture is sometimes court-mandated (and this is more common when the parents are marginalized-by-society in some way themselves).

Autism Speaks is so very proud of their government influence. Shortly before I started the petition, I watched in horror as their testimony scuttled a bill at the state level intended to help autistic children which had the support of their parents because not enough torture was included in the "help".

People say they've "changed", yet it's not like their institution is so hallowed and sacrosanct that it is necessary to keep around even as it is continues to encourage harm and death to autistic children and autistic adults.

Autism Speaks is the multi-headed hydra of anti-autism rhetoric and hate in the world today. They have so many branches and have infiltrated so deeply that many of their supporters ( I hope ) are not even aware of the hateful rhetoric and active harm they spread.

People tend not to even question the premise that autistic humans are better off dead than alive, people have for ages not even thought of us as human. Autism Speaks recommends starting behavioral conditioning as early as possible in children as young as two. The least intensive programs they recommend are for dozens of hours a week.

This is what they recommend, push, and lobby for with *all* autistic children.

If they become able to accurately recognize autism in a fetus, then their genocide and eugenics will only accelerate. I am pro-abortion, but no one should be coerced into an abortion with lies and one-sided propaganda.

Showing hateful rhetoric and catastrophizing about our existence to a newly pregnant person is similarly abominable as the sort of thing anti-choice people do.

Autism Speaks has not changed, though they have gotten better at pretending normality. Maybe they put themselves through conversion therapy torture to learn how to pretend to be a force of good while being sympathetic of child murderers?

Or, you know, they've hired publicists and PR people.

If you were duped by them, I'm sorry that their hate is not more well-known. Can you imagine if the first place you felt supported you and understood your struggles was the bad guy? Who would think that by default?

But they are the bad guy. And they're using you. Preying on your isolation and desire for community and support.

They start early. Constant public outreach. Working with cops. University chapters. There may even be entire branches under their umbrella that are actively dedicated to good. But they support the hate and harm by supporting Autism Speaks.

If you support Autism Speaks, then you support the elimination of autism.

If you believe their fear-driven propaganda designed to earn more money for themselves, that may sound like a good thing to you.

But you cannot eliminate autism without eliminating the autistic person, too.

We cannot turn off our autism, some of us can pretend normality—frequently to our great misfortune—but others can't do that either. It's similar to what happens when you force queer people through conversion therapy torture / behaviorism regimes.

There is not some hidden switch in our brains to "fix" us. Even if there was, we would not be ourselves, we would be different people. You cannot separate autism from the autistic.

If this letter spoke to you, I hope you will consider signing my petition to get the Southern Poverty Law Center to track anti-disability hate and to recognize Autism Speaks as an anti-autism group.

You can find the petition here:

Thank you for reading, Zero Richardson

[sirenjose]

Wu Chang's 2023 Character Day Letter Analysis (+ Qi Shiyi Analysis)

Letter Summary (Short)

Jose's father performs trades for others with some of his cargo as collateral

Umbrella eventually sold to Qi Shiyi

Theories

Jose's father, Joaquin Baden, is performing trades in the Mediterranean Sea, with some of his cargo (including the umbrella, with the receipt signed by "Bourbon", who's likely Sam) as collateral.

Based on the umbrella's involvement and the fact their voyage will take them to a new "specified area" of the Mediterranean, this should take place during Jose's 1st letter. The voyage Joaquin never returns from.

Based on the reference to the "Bourbon" signature and "list of goods", this should connect directly to Jose's 2nd letter. The "signature on my father's ledger of goods". This means that the "ledger of goods" Jose saw belonged to Joaquin's ship, which we know was called the "Parthenope" from Jose's 1st letter, from the voyage his father disappeared from.

Also, the fact Jose in his 2nd letter says he's seen this handwriting "once before" makes it sound like Sam was only involved with the Badens on this 1 voyage (aka, he doesn't regularly work with them).

Based on how it says "again", it seems they've sailed to the Mediterranean Sea to perform these trades before (they just go to different areas of it each time), meaning this is likely not the 1st time they've done this.

Could this be the "special missions" assigned to the Baden family by the royal family in Jose's deduction 5?

If so, is Villhelm Lamb potentially connected to the royal family?

It doesn't say what Joaquin earned as part of performing this trade. Yes, he gets his cargo labeled as collateral back, but what did he get in return? Money? Or was it just one of his tasks in service to the royal navy?

“Villhelm” relates to the Old German name William apparently, and can have meanings including “protector”. Lamb is explanatory enough.

I do wonder if it’s possible Villhelm Lamb could be the manor owner (aka, he used a fake name). It could be a real person and not a fake name, but like I said, it’s just something I wonder.

If it is a fake name, we know it can’t be Sam (or Demi) based on the “Bourbon” signature. Sam we know is a “colleague” of the manor owner based on Demi’s 3rd letter, and it was confirmed in Demi’s release backstory that Sam did go to the manor (specifically, it says he was “offered a job as a bartender” but it’s likely this wasn’t the complete truth considering what we know he worked on while there based on Demi’s 3rd letter).

We know Sam’s “masterpiece”, which the manor owner also refers to as a “drug” and “reagent”, used the same “raw materials” as the manor owner’s, likely referring to the fern known as “Delphi” based on Vera’s 4th letter.

We know the materials the owner used were supplied to him via the 2nd anniversary package (which says “new specimens arrived”, “before the next restock”, and “I must find someone else to help me supply”). Demi’s 1st letter talks having “extracted 9 samples from the things they brought back from the Mediterranean Sea”. Considering what we know Joaquin was doing in the Mediterranean, these “things” likely came from the Badens, and may have been the “Delphi” ferns.

All of this is why I do wonder if Orpheus could’ve been Villhelm Lamb.

If anything, the meaning of the name Villhelm, “protector”, relates to what Alice says Orpheus promised her in the 2nd anniversary package “…person who promised to protect me forever”. (Orpheus’ S-tier, Hollow, in his design notes even mentions “he once thought he could use his way to protect his island, everything he loves”).

Going even further, “Lamb” ties to Alice based on her Source of Evil, who’s description even says “Perhaps ‘purity’ is merely the lamb’s disguise – it’s in truth the origin of all sins and the source of evil thoughts”, while her design notes even say “the little girl is the lamb”.

Ergo, maybe Orpheus chose the name “Villhelm Lamb” as a nod to him protecting Alice.

With how it says “the Promisee shall put up a shipment of goods as collateral”, it sounds like it was Joaquin (or maybe Sam, who seems to be the one inspecting the goods?) chose to offer the umbrella as collateral. Was it because they didn’t think it valuable?

Moving on to Qi Shiyi, it seems like “Legwraps Huang” (in the Chinese version, the line here is “脛巾の黄三児より” had his friend Chang Chip (though earlier it said the “last word has been altered many time”) meet him at a harbor about the umbrella he that came into his “possession”. According to Legwraps Huang, he acquired it from a “friend working on a foreigner’s fleet”. The umbrella should be the same one Joaquin put up as collateral, Wu Chang’s, while the “foreigner’s fleet” should be the Baden’s.

It is unknown who this “friend” is, but there is something interesting about “Chang Chip”, especially after Legwraps Huang comments “Do you remember boarding that huge ship together back then?”. What’s interesting is that “Chang Chip” was the name of 1 of the 6 Chinese survivors of the sinking of the Titanic (there were 8 Chinese passengers in the third-class cabins on the titanic total). The other 5 were Lee Bing, Fang Lang, Ah Lam, Cheong Foo, and Ling Hee (the 2 that died were Len Lam and Lee Ling). These 6 eventually arrived in the UK to support the sailor shortage during World War I. Chang Chip apparently grew ill and eventually died 2 years later due to pneumonia.

I find this especially interesting as Demi’s 2nd letter is apparently written “on the Back of an Old Ferry Ticket”. This “ferry ticket was for a trip from Southampton to New York. It had not been used”. Southampton to New York was the route the Titanic took the day it sank. Considering Legwraps Huang describes the boat as “huge”, it seems fairly certain the boat is meant to parallel the Titanic. Though the Titanic sailed in 1912, which is a few too many years ahead of what the time period of the game currently, which is still sometime before 1900, at least until/after the Final Game.

Considering Huang describes Chang Chip as “wearing one of those jackets made by foreigners”, this seems to fit with what we know from history about them going to the UK and becoming sailors.

As such, it’s likely that Legwraps Huang is meant to be 1 of the 5 other Titanic Survivors (excluding Chang Chip).

Even though Sam didn’t board that ship, maybe Sam and Huang somehow did know each other, for Sam to be the “friend” Huang got the umbrella from. I mean, Sam’s signature as well as the umbrella were “circled” according to Wu Chang’s letter, so maybe it’s possible.

I have 1 other idea. Based on the letter, it’s likely that Legwraps Huang got the umbrella when Joaquin failed to fulfill the task with the required items, at which point Villhelm Lamb may have given away or sold the shipment of goods left to him as collateral by Joaquin. In which case, Villhelm Lamb may be the “friend” Legwraps Huang referenced. And technically, this idea and the theory Villhelm Lamb could be Orpheus aren’t mutually exclusive, as the manor owner (if he is Villhelm Lamb) could’ve sold the umbrella as he also didn’t see it as something valuable (and if he really is in debt to Count Barriere and then Lily, he might need the money anyways).

If Joaquin and the Parthenope did sink while attempting to retrieve “the goods from the specified area in the Mediterranean Sea”, that would also imply their wreck was likely in the Mediterranean. In that case, that means the wreck at Lakeside Village (which we know has to belong to Jose’s father based on what can be found in the ship: https://twitter.com/SirenJose/status/1558166028022173696?s=20) likely wasn’t the wreck from Joaquin’s disappearance.

Though that does mean it could’ve been their wreck from the “nightmarish waters” incident, when they sailed through the area marked as “dangerous” to avoid a storm and any “delay[s]” (if most of the crew perished according to Jose’s deductions and it took 2 months before they could sail home, especially if the waters are described as “nightmarish” and “dangerous”, it is highly likely they did shipwreck).

The large shipwreck at Lakeside is referenced in several letters, including when Volcker went there to investigate, and in another letter that mentions an old man is living in the shipwreck. This means the shipwreck is from before the Lakeside villagers disappeared, and could’ve potentially been there for a long while, which would fit if it was from the wreck right before the DeRoss tragedy (https://twitter.com/SirenJose/status/1682410040664244224).

Another important point is that, if the umbrella was being used as “collateral” and would only be returned if Joaquin provided the goods desired from the specified area, that means the “them” that the “cannons couldn’t kill” wasn’t Wu Chang. The umbrella wouldn’t have even been on board the ship when it sank, instead being held by Villhelm Lamb for at the time. If the umbrella wasn’t on board, it means they couldn’t have been behind whatever the crew were trying to kill. It’s still possible due to possessing the umbrella at all that the were the victims of the umbrella’s misfortune, even though it wasn’t with them at that time.

It still seems like if the crew were trying to kill something with cannons, but failing, that may mean they were hallucinating. If Wu Chang wasn’t behind the hallucinations, what then? Well, we are aware of something that can cause hallucinations, something the manor owner himself created, who may have even been the “Villhelm Lamb” who requested Joaquin and his crew go to the specified location.

Even if the owner isn’t Villhelm Lamb, we do know Sam, who was the one to actually sign the “ledger of goods” for Joaquin’s ship that day, does work for the owner. And in Demi’s 2nd letter does say “Despite our many attempts, the new mice all died in fear with no exception”. “New” would fit with the idea Sam was only involved with the Badens this one time (based on Jose saying he’s only seen the handwriting once before). “Mice” could just be a way to refer to test subjects, and we already know the manor owner and Sam have both performed experiments for their drugs on people. The manor owner experimented with all the participants of his game. With Sam, he at least tested on Demi’s mother based on him commenting on Demi having the “same curious drug resistance as her crazy mother”. There’s also how Demi’s deductions reference him having “observation diar[ies]”, not to mention if Dovlin was the drug he was trying to perfect, and we know he’s let others at their bar have the drink, but not Demi interestingly (suspiciously), he may have also used the customers of their bar as test subjects. That may have been why, when it wasn’t working well enough, he had to go to the manor. Finally, the part about the “mice all died in fear with no exception” could relate to how we know the crew were freaked out about some “them” that they tried (and failed) to kill with the cannons, with the part about all dying “with no exception” can connect to how, unlike the “nightmarish waters” incident, the entire crew “with[out] exception” died this time.

Aka, the manor owner or Sam are possibly the reason for Jose’s father’s disappearance. Or both considering Demi’s 2nd letter references “start[ing] the game immediately” aka the manor owner’s games as we know Sam was the manor owner’s “colleague”. If Joaquin really was involved in the DeRoss tragedy, it’s possible Orpheus chose them as the “mice” as part of his revenge. Though Sam does say “this is clearly not what he expected to see”, but that could simply refer to them all dying, but not necessarily that he didn’t want to make them hallucinate or suffer. He may have not expected it simply because he wanted to continue to use them for more experiments, like he does for the participants of his games, who he is willing to reuse in multiple rounds or experiments.

We see that Chang Chip eventually sells the umbrella, as well as his store, to Qi Shiyi. The umbrella is specified to be sold at a “discounted price”, which sounds like Chang Chip wanted to get the umbrella off his hands and away quickly. This may mean he was a victim of the bad luck that seems to follow that umbrella (which would semi parallel the real Chang Chip’s fate).

As for the addresses, we can actually find these locations in the in-game Chinatown map.

“Blessed Luck, Ramyhurst Street”

We know this is the location of Chang Chip’s, and later Qi Shiyi’s, store based on the sign (you can check the Chinese version of Wu Chang’s letter to confirm).

“Royal Scenery, Ramyhurst Street”

We know this is the other location, “Royal Scenery”, due to connecting it to Chinatown’s backstory. In it, we see that Lin Jingfu is the owner of Yujing Pavilion (aka 御景轩, the same name used in the Chinese version of the letter). The backstory talks about him excelling at making clay sculptures, and his art was so popular he was always in short supply. Lin Jingfu we know is who Qi Shiyi is staying with, as he is a “distant relative” of Qi’s “Uncle Lin” aka “Lin Congbin” and Qi is sent to him when Lin Congbin dies.

We know from this deduction that Lin Jingfu is pressured (potentially by his family or wife) to “kick her out”. Qi becomes an assassin to earn some money and ensure she doesn’t starve (she is described as a “motherless beggar” in her deduction 7), potentially for Tang Jiashi considering how the Tang family businesses have been closing in Qi’s last deduction, as well as how Qi talks about Tang Jiashi not being able to get in touch with her, or maybe someone else if not Tang Jiashi. That’s why Qi’s deduction 8 says “many wealthy businessmen in the city were found dead. It’s a suspected case of hired killings due to unethical business practice”. It fits considering we already know Qi’s design notes say she studied “martial arts... to survive and get revenge”.

Earning money in this way is likely how she was able to eventually earn enough to buy Chang Chip’s antique shop, which again matches with how her design notes says she “[fled] the country, even crossing the ocean, before finally living among ordinary people as an antique dealer”.

This here may be the part in Qi Shiyi’s story where she attempted to “rid her hands of the stains that plagued them and attempt a new life as an ordinary person”. This means she likely stopped performing assassinations and sought to go clean and earn whatever she needed from her new antique shop. Considering her parents were described as “scholars”, so maybe being the owner of an antique shop was in some way related to what her family used to do, which could’ve been why she was willing to attempt to be an “ordinary person” and “rid her hands of the stains that plagued them” (aka, stopping all her assassination attempts and revenge).

Considering the mention of “Xie” in her deduction 2, it’s possible Qi’s family, the Xiao family, knew or were friends with the Xie family. If it is the same “Xie” as Xie Bi’an, considering Wu Chang’s backstory states how “people believed that Xie Bi’an (White Guard) resided in the umbrella”, it’s possible that his family kept the umbrella as a keepsake (or relic of the deceased). At least until the 2 families were executed for “colluding, conspiring to rebel, sowing discord among the people, and seeking to do harm to the government”. Whether or not they actually did what they were accused of, we don’t know for sure. They could’ve been innocent (maybe similar to Wu Chang in his backstory), or maybe they weren’t. All we have is that Qi Shiyi’s backstory says “the Xiao family's decision to shut out the outside world was the reason for their downfall”. After they were killed, she was taken in by Lin Congbin “an old servant of the Xiao family who’d returned home from an illness… The two of them were destitute like beggars”. Qi attempts to get revenge via assassination (on the emperor potentially), but only his “double” actually died. It is then that she is forced to flee, after which she’s taken in by Lin Jingfu and everything we’ve already discussed.

Going back to her trying to live like an “ordinary person”, we know however that peace didn’t last forever for her, as “that manor decided to steal away the most important person in her life...”. The person that was “[stolen] away” was likely Tang Si from Qi’s deduction 10, who she potentially befriended, as Qi’s backstory trailer says “And for her safe return”. Qi goes to the manor to retrieve Tang Si (we have no way to know right now how she ended up there), and this is likely how Wu Chang’s umbrella ended up at the manor before Jose arrived.

Therefore, based on this, it’s possible that Qi Shiyi was in an earlier game before Jose, potentially Game 1 (after Game 0) as that is the 1 game before Jose’s (game 5) that we have no knowledge of any of the participants (though I do wonder if Lily could also be in game 1 as she is tied to Galatea, from game 0, and she may want Orpheus to pay his debt to help Simon, and Orpheus does also appear in game 0, so maybe game 1 could make some sense for her if not the final game).

[nhaneh]

One of the things that really get me with this huge "AI" fad is how for all their talk of Artificial General Intelligence and whatnot, they've really only recreated the Chinese Room thought experiment and declared it the solution to all of the world's problems.

The Chinese Room, if you're unfamiliar, is this hypothetical about the difference between understanding and the mere appearance of it, and basically goes like this: imagine a room with a man and a book. The room has a tiny slot on one end where one can communicate with the man via written letters in traditional Chinese*. The man himself does not actually know a single character of any of these languages, but the book contains an exhaustive list of possible messages he can recieve along with appropriate responses and instructions on how to write them. Now imagine that this book is so well constructed that in spite of not understanding any of the communication he is receiving, nor any of the replies he is giving, the man and his book are still able to effectively pass the Turing test and convincingly appear a fluent speaker to anyone knowing a traditional Chinese language: can we realistically say anything within that room has any actual understanding of either Chinese or any of the communication it has participated in? The man clearly has none - does the book? Does the room as a whole system?

While I personally tend to think the thought experiment isn't necessarily all that useful due to underestimating the necessary complexity of the book and also the sheer extents to which humans showcase Competence Without Comprehension, it's not lost on me how the recent proliferation of Large Language Model systems and the forced attempts to insert it into just about anything and everything no matter whether it makes any sense or not is basically a straight up example of the Chinese Room on an industry-wide scale.

We have entire throngs of techbros falling over themselves in praise and wonder of these fancy little rooms they've constructed and the free market capitalism that purportedly has created it - even though OpenAI, the organisation that kicked off the AI gold rush with ChatGPT, is technically a non-profit organization, supposedly with the explicit goal to keep AI research available to the public and not left purely in the hands of grubby venture capitalists and profiteering CEOs.

Honestly it's kind of hard to shake the feeling that the whole AI rush is basically the same hypercapitalist tech cult that previously worshipped the blockchain turned to a new golden cow so they don't have to think about their own culpability in the current late stage capitalism hellhole we find ourselves in, even as their latest toy tech god already indulges freely in misinformation, rampant fraud, and good old racial profiling - just to name a few.

And honestly don't get me wrong - I think LLMs as a technology likely have far more actual practical applications than the blockchain ever did, but it's pretty inescapable that most examples we're being shown aren't particularly practical - if anything, I'd argue most of what I see is just spam, spam, spam.

(* the hypothetical scenario of the Chinese Room was proposed by an English-speaking American, and the choice of traditional Chinese as the example is one made purely on the basis of its perceived illegibility to many westerners. The thought experiment does not depend on any particular characteristics of traditional Chinese languages beyond their distance to English, and can easily be exchanged for any written language you personally find utterly incomprehensible - or even some generic form of encryption if you prefer, so long as the information in the notes exchanged is never presented to the person inside the room in a form that they could possibly understand)

[poorlittleyaoyao]

#this play isn't even really about the incest! it's about the nature of fate and the cost of truth!!#<- prev YEAH. and now im thinking about that one bit of uhhhhhh violence and the sacred#'If we eliminate the testimony brought against Oedipus in the second half of the tragedy then the conclusion of the myth#far from seeming a sudden lightning flash of the truth striking down the guilty party and illuminating all the mortal participants#seems nothing more than the camouflaged victory of one version of the story over the other#the polemical version over its rival—the community’s formal acceptance of Tiresias’s and Creon’s version of the story#thereafter held to be the true and universal version the verity behind the myth itself'#rip i realise i am a) pasting literally a paragraph in the tags and b) thinking abt jgy as oedipus instead#(he Did have a patricide moment though. like that is notably a thing that did also happen if under very different circumstances)#but mostly i am thinking about how the revelations of jgy's crimes are consistently Focalised Through Other Stuff#like are you seeing the actual thing or like. someone else talking about a letter written about someone else knowing about etc etc etc#and there is a limit to how much of that is just because the protagonist isn't able to see it Directly#but the result is like. im not going to paste another girard paragraph but there IS one about how all the accusations against oedipus Are#Just An Argument with tiresias (and creon?) and it's only the injection via prophecy etc of what an audience Knows is in the myth that#breaks the stalemate of This Is Just An Argument by Revealing the crimes the audience already knows were fated#i think the way the narrative (can it count as a narrative if it's a play) of oedipus rex relies on an audience knowing and trusting a myth#is v similar to how the narrative of mdzs/cql uses focalisation to allow The Victory Of One Version Of The Story Over The Other etc

@catilinas I am reading this tag analysis on the Oedipus post like 👀👀👀 and wANT TO HEAR MORE because

1.) The discrepancies between the version of events in CQL that we see unfold as viewers in real time and the version we get from NMJ during the Empathy sequence are a constant subject of rumination for me, and they're yet another example of seeing JGY through not one but two sets of filters, and NMJ's version of events is the last we see, and thus forms our lasting impression, but it's so far removed from the originals you don't even realize how much they've omitted unless you watch them back-to-back. Meanwhile, Tiresias's account is one of the first things we hear, but it colors everything that comes after it because We All Know The Story, the characters themselves fixate on it, and everything unfolds more or less in real time so we the viewers don't have time to forget anything and never got to see Oedipus or Jocasta or Laius outside of this moment.

2.) something something JGY claims that someone tried/ is trying to harm him every time he's confronted, and Oedipus accuses Creon of plotting to overthrow him

3.) what if "JGY lives" AU in the style of Oedipus at Colonus

[chorusmusarum]

🎲I also have Petra as a muse but I need to properly list her, whoops! Anyway, hit me :>

I added your request ones if that's okay!

Maruki/Sojiro: Of all my Persona muses, we got the one that doesn't interact with Maruki or if they do, it's minimal. Oops? Sojiro would be so angry should he ever learn about the reality-warping. Very, very confused, but angry. Futaba's been through enough. She doesn't need her mother being dangled in front of her.

Shez/Dorothea: Did I understand correctly that it's only Houses where Shez won't join the empire? Hopes-wise, Dorothea's general demeanour changes massively between SB/GW and AG, though this isn't reflected in supports due to the nature of them. So interactions may vary depending on the route, but even if Shez doesn't understand most of her music, I think she'd appreciate her trying, and just being around? I'm fairly confident it's stated that Dorothea is the only commoner in the eagles, including generics, and she's been surrounded by the glitz that comes with being a diva for so long, I think she'd love to have more friends who aren't part of noble society.

Byleth/Claude: We could do something relating to their respective roles post-VW? With Claude showing up like what's up, King Khalid of Almyra here. Sure their friends really appreciate discovering that out of the blue.

Byleth/Hubert: I can work with Silver Snow but it would be purely a hostile relationship as Hubert does not allow himself to care about or trust Byleth at all until the moment they side with Edelgard, should they do so. Could do a thread where the Kingdom or Alliance manage to take him alive and he can reveal what he knows about TWSITD? Because oh boy if they've lost, he's got nothing to lose by warning the victors. He already does in VW via a letter. Hopes-wise? Hmm. I'm not too sure currently, to be honest. CF I can definitely work with them, but SB less so and same with the other routes.

Yuri/Hubert: They don't interact which I'm upset about because I really want to see supports between them and also, in CF Yuri is canonically working for Hubert? He mentions it in an exploration line. They're both sneaky little guys and I just think it'd be neat if they talked. Also Hubert's helping Edelgard reform a crest-based society that has harmed Yuri, even though Hubert is someone who is privileged because of the world they grew up in. That could lead to some questioning from Yuri, I feel like? I enjoy fantasy politics though I know they're not everyone's cup of tea. Hopes-wise, I see the AG preference and I utterly hate that Hubert and Ferdinand die off-screen so I am down for an AU where they're in hiding and show up as green units to save Edeglard/take down TWSITD. We could do something with that?

[jmagnabo92]

JILYPAD WEEK 2023 - Day 3 -  Favorite Canon/Potentially Canon moment 

Ooooh, so many choices... for a favorite Canon or Potentially Canon moment.

I think I have to go with Lily's Letter to Sirius. For Reference:

Dear Padfoot,

Thank you, thank you, for Harry's birthday present! It was his favourite by far. One year old and already zooming along on a toy broomstick, he looked so pleased with himself, I'm enclosing a picture so you can see. You know it only rises about two feet off the ground, but he nearly killed the cat and he smashed a horrible vase Petunia sent me for Christmas (no complaints there). Of course, James thought it was funny, says he's going to be a great Quidditch player, but we've had to pack away all the ornaments and make sure we don't take our eyes off him when he gets going.

We had a very quiet birthday tea, just us and old Bathilda, who has always been sweet to us, and who dotes on Harry. We were so sorry you couldn't come, but the Order's got to come first, and Harry's not old enough to know it's his birthday anyway! James is getting a bit frustrated shut up here, he tries not to show it but I can tell -- also, Dumbledore's still got his Invisibility Cloak, so no chance of little excursions. If you could visit, it would cheer him up so much. Wormy was here last weekend, I thought he seemed down, but that was probably the news about the McKinnons; I cried all evening when I heard.

Bathilda drops in most days, she's a fascinating old thing with the most amazing stories about Dumbledore, I'm not sure he'd be pleased if he knew! I don't know how much to believe, actually, because it seems incredible that Dumbledore could ever have been friends with Gellert Grindelwald. I think her mind's going, personally!

Lots of love,

Lily

I love this moment because it tells us SO much about Sirius & Lily's relationship. Since we have canon proof of how much Jily and Prongsfoot love each other via moments like the wedding photos and SWM where James is literally showing off for and would only listen to Sirius and Sirius only ever talks about James in the books, Sirius/Lily - Sily, Lilypad - is the one where things can swing either way.

So, when we got to DH and had a letter like this - it conveyed so much love and understanding of one another that it made it easy to start shipping Jilypad. Before, everyone talked about how Sirius would be that annoying friend that Lily would probably be upset is always tagging around, but here we see it's not like that.

Lily reaches out to him to thank him for understanding her son with his gift, she tells him how it made her laugh, she confesses that she's been done, that she and James miss him. This isn't a simple "thank the godfather for being a good godfather" - this is a true friendship with lots of love that really showed us that they've bonded, too, and it makes it so easy to make this romantic.

Anyway, this is the canon moment I love.

The potentially canon moment would probably be asking Sirius to be the godfather because again, Lily loves and trusts Sirius and it just... displays so much.

[mlobsters]

supernatural s11e23 alpha and omega (w. andrew dabb)

so i've often complained about how dean and cas's relationship is talked about a lot more than seen onscreen (we're best friends! ok when?) but this part of this season has been a lot more of dean showing how cas is high priority to him. it feels a little out of nowhere to me i guess, because i never got whatever vibes they were trying to establish (i didn't come into the show with any sort of bias other than i knew destiel was The Thing and got blindsided by wincest feelings out the wazoo). anyway, i just try to accept that the show is gonna try to sell me on dean and cas being close, and try not to bitch (too much) about not getting it. clearly failed that brief today

oh, i thought lucifer bailed because he thought amara was gonna off him via cas, apparently it was amara who yoinked him out

LOL chuck clinging onto sam is really cracking me up. he looks so small and sam looks like he doesn't even notice there's a person hanging off him

CROWLEY Well... that was a complete and utter dog's breakfast, wasn't it? CAS I didn't know dogs had breakfast. DEAN Cas is back.

i was 🤔 because since i (clearly) watch gbbo i know the phrase is dog's dinner lol. if a dog eats in the morning, is that not a breakfast, cas?? haha and dean's response to sam like obviously cas is back, based on the doofy comment (and voice, amirite)

based on their reactions and the dramatic music i was expecting something a little more exciting than an especially pretty sunrise

oh, the sun is dying. that is very dramatic. i don't know that would be the conclusion most people would make from that view

oh no, is this british men of letters? 😴 you know MoL storylines are my favorite. and a new batch of them

really. because we don't have enough characters. i hate the music, i already hate the premise and it's only been literally a minute

CHUCK Sam. I get it. Even if we could lock Amara away, it wouldn't do any good now. I'm dying. And when I'm gone, a cosmic balance between light and dark—it's over.

beating the dead horse of "what about the other deities" and here's the problem right. you know (they probably know) they'd make a fucking mess if they tried to address it. but they did address other religions and deities in the past several times! oh what is God just the most important god or somethin :p i know it's a no-win situation, but it still irks me on the regular

CAS I was just... so stupid. DEAN No, no, no. It wasn't stupid. You were right. You were right to let Lucifer ride shotgun. Me and Sam wouldn't have done that.

all right. bend the story around so it wasn't a fuckup

DEAN You know, sometimes me and Sam have got so much going on that...we forget about everyone else. CAS Well, you do live exciting lives. DEAN Yeah, that's one word for it. But you're always there, you know? You're the best friend we've ever had. You're our brother, Cas. I want you to know that.

and i'd offer that he's the best friend they've ever had because he's been semi-indestructible and resurrected all the times he has died when their friends pretty much never get that kind of service.

i try to really be fairly neutral when watching and writing these up, i obviously have some bias towards sam and dean as a unit because the show sold me hard on it from the get-go. but i think the lack of relationship established to me, and the very large presence cas and destiel has within fandom and even just the outsider perception of spn based on that large fandom presence - well. stuff like this, i just don't like it. it doesn't feel true to me and it kinda sorta pisses me off. and it pisses me off that part of my feelings about the character are based on some dumb kneejerk reaction to the fandom stuff. and it's perplexing.

the previous show i was into was teen wolf. stiles/derek is obviously the prevailing ship there - and there's almost nothing in canon between them. really working with crumbs. the ship that is much smaller but i can totally vibe with is scott/stiles. but i happily read all sorts of sterek fic too and it never bothered me like this does. so i'm reminding myself that it's not that it's a ship i think is more fanon based than canon that is the problem. or even that it's the popular ship. i think it's an amalgamation of the weird mismatch for me in the show, the fanon-sold-as-canon meta i see sometimes (which i avoid meta in general now) and (honestly) the virulent hate directed towards wincest shippers that i'd stumble into when just browsing the spn tag. anyway. (maybe if i keep explaining, someone will understand!!)

she really does look beaten down

SAM So, we don't really have a choice. I mean, look. Y-You've got darkness and light. You take one side away and— CAS It upsets the scales—the whole balance of the universe. SAM Exactly. But you take both away, and now both sides of the scale are empty, so...

*raising my hand to ask about when they killed those other deities*

CAS Well, what about souls? They fuel your demon deals. Souls are living batteries. They're full of energy. They're full of light. Each one is as powerful as...100 suns?

okay so would this process destroy the souls? i mean better than being tortured in hell, but the ones that are ghosts.. surely they're not all destined for hell after they get taken care of? guess it's a moot point of the earth/universe gets wiped out. ends justify the means etc

well that was cute

got their shiny rock stuff full of people and billie lurking around, of course, why not. we don't have enough people involved in this. man i'm crotchety this evening. ah right, because billie has access to a lot of souls? having flashbacks to whatever fucking season that led to the leviathans lol. marcia, marcia, marcia!

is amara having a crisis of conscience or something

AMARA So you hate him. WOMAN Well, a little bit. Sometimes. But you know family. Even when you hate them, you still love them.

eyes about rolled back into my head. so all the things we said about amara, scratch that

i do like the little flirting between crowley and billie though, that was cute

ROWENA You won't carry the bomb. You'll be the bomb.

oh for fuck's sake. and they're busting out the mushy music, not surprisingly. i refuse to get upset over this because i'm sure it's also going to be walked back very shortly. like hey amara doesn't want to kill everyone anymore because she was sad about some flowers she killed and realized the importance of family from a conversation with a rando in the park

dean's gonna (not) die-die and get thrown in the empty and he hasn't even talked to sam about it. power through. (the part of me that empathizes too much with sam had the brief moment of despair, "dean's going to leave him again! forever")

oh, come on. pulling the dead parent card? this is the kind of thing that edges into emotional manipulation for me. there better some really good fucking hugs in this episode in payment for this bullshit.

no no NO funeral planning. i actually had that conversation with my dad with terminal cancer when i was 16 and no. (he didn't want the wake to be sad but i mean. fucked if i can remember what it was like) not when it's all gonna get taken care of miraculously some other way. do not push these buttons for some shit that got cooked up halfway into the episode. i said i wasn't going to get upset and clearly that was a failure.

so do we find out chuck was lying about something. is the british mol thing just like, introducing a new plotline for next season.

look at that, amara and chuck are all peachy now.

AMARA Dean, you gave me what I needed most. I want to do the same for you.

...they couldn't zap dean back home before they left?

TONI We've been watching you, Sam. What you've done, the damage you've caused—archangels, Leviathans, the Darkness, and now, well— the old men have decided enough's enough. I mean, let's face it, Sam. You're just a jumped-up hunter playing with things you don't understand and doing more harm than good.

great. couldn't go to the good old nugget of the police or fbi being after them, gotta step it up to some supernatural police

so what dean needs most is his mom. ok, sure

[sevenredrobes]

genuinely, episode 8 was terrible. and like yeah, it's in part because of the slashed run time and max almost certainly behind the scenes saying that a s3 would need a hail mary but oh myyyy gooood

where was the development for zheng/jim/olu/archie?? why did auntie suddenly give her blessing to olu?? what changed her mind about softness?? where was the change except for the watsonian explanation that auntie and izzy mirror each other in their roles to their captains??

why did they fucking kill izzy - a disabled, elder queer man with a visible scar from a past suicide attempt?? and then it being to "free" ed from blackbeard!! but he had already let go of blackbeard. he was already offering support to ed to choose what made him happy just last episode!! it was ed who chose to return to the blackbeard leathers and it was completely independent of izzy!

(and god, the optics of killing off a suicide attempt survivor just to further another character's arc!!! and also that he's a queer man off who'd already survived suicide!!! killing off a disabled man to further the arc of the able bodied man that directly led to the disability!!! what the fuck!!)

(and that one shot implying izzy couldn't pivot to avoid getting a deadly belly shot because his leg limited his mobility. the implication that a disabled character died via his disability is just!!! it sucks man)

and also izzy saying ed's got a family and then it ends with just ed and stede alone while everyone sails off into the sunset? ok, and did the family promise to stay in touch? or do we not know that because the show chose to rush shit instead of just trying to make a more open but better paced ending work?

and god ed and stede's relationship was so rushed! ed reads a love letter from stede, they fight some brits, and suddenly their very real relationship problems are solved? what about their mutual issues around responsibility? what about their mutual issues around violence? what about ed being upset at stede for rushing things between them and becoming a bit of a fame monster? how am i supposed to believe that theyre emotionally ready to deal with each other's traumas?

neither of them have even remotely begun to learn how to support each other and learn to disagree healthily! nothing about their latest break up was resolved! stede still moved too fast, ignored ed's wishes about killing ned, and still was a fame monster! and ed still had issues with loving himself and viewing himself as someone beyond blackbeard! they've had some major disagreements and issues and those issues havent been properly explored or resolved!!

and god, ed's character arc!! where is he at the end of the season? has he been magically fixed by one of his oldest companions dying in his arms? he was on the first steps to healing and where is the rest? is the rest going to be fixed by stede's magic dick a la a fanfic? is it going to be fixed by completely divorcing himself from his time as blackbeard and so completely denying a part of his identity and years of his life?

and don't even get me started on how stede and ed's reunion run on the beach was juxtaposed with stede's s2ep1 dream spot of ed in a full beard and not talking in his real voice, in a dream sequence imo that clearly showed that stede was himself also not seeing ed fully for himself and instead for a different version of him!!

honestly, the only things i'm happy about are that lucius and pete are married (despite the jarring and tonally deaf tone change of all that) and that spanish jackie and the swede are chilling and scheming. otherwise everything feels bad and i hate it here

[mythical-illustrator]

For the ship ask game...

Grace, Bly, and Aayla 👀 😏

Let me tell you I have been thinking about this for two days! Thots be happening

*this will have two endings, a Happy endings and a post order 66 ending* I'll put the sad one below a cut.

Anyway

Grace - half twi'lek former night sister turned jedi x Bly- commander clone xAayla- Jedi knight

(can't have one without the other 😊)

So Grace and Aayla grew up in the temple together since they were brought in. Ayala trained under Quinlin Vos and Grace under Shaka-ti.

Grace definitely developed a crush on her childhood friend.

They've been friends which switched into keeping each other company as hormones kicked in. Definitely each other first's - trust and safety to explore.

Grace's crush got worse because her friend is competent and beautiful and shes dying but it's fine. She will be content with what she has.

Ayala also has a crush but it's slower to build, taking trust and suddenly it hits her she likes her friend more than she should.

Jedi are not able to form permanent attachment (despite doing so often ) they trust and care for each other.

Then the war happens. Aayla fell in love with Bly because competent abilities, and sunny disposition.

Bly screams the - you get them sweetie I'll hold your flower. Tell me if you need me to shoot something.

Grace being a healer gets moved around a lot- and eventually gets stationed with Aayla and Bly.

She calls Aayla out on her crush and wonders why the Jedi hasn't slept with the man yet. Aayla makes some stuff about authority and inappropriate nature and Jedi codes.

Grace calls bs so she goes to set them up- she has the entire battalions support -they're tired of the pining.

She starts spending time with Bly, trying to get to know him. She trains, spars, talks to him. She gets why her friend likes him so much

Now she's got a crush on two beautiful competent people and she's dying inside.

Bly loves Aayla and would never do anything without her and wishes her all the happiness.

He spies in Aayla and Grace sharing a kiss one night and decided he would back off. He loves her and wants her to be happy even if that isn't with him.

Ayala - who has accepted her crush on both people and content to have what she can without asking for more is confused about all the time Grace is spending with Bly and starts to feel jealous - of which person she doesn't know.

The battalion is now groaning because they've got three miserable pining commanders now.

This goes on for a while- so much getting close and pining and trying to back off the other. The other clones are miserable

The command squad is miserable because now Bly won't shut up about two twi'lek Jedis.

Eventually it will all come to a head- via Quinlin

Quinlin id visiting his Padawan between missions at the same time Grace has been stationed (he always thought the crush the two twi'leks had in each other was adorable but didn't want to interfere i.e he promised Shaka-ti he wouldn't)

He whiteness this massive cluster fuck that is these three and is in pain. He calls obi wan- to complain about it, gets no help on that front and decides he's got to do something about it.

Organizing stranding them somewhere, temporarily of course. Finds a nice little planet the troopers can take their shore leave on. It's got beaches and lush landscapes and little huts.

Sends a message to the three of them- all marked with various urgency.

The three get there only to find everyone fine and I'n health and a letter from Quinlin telling them they should all just bone now.

Que blushing, explanations, clearing up Blys misunderstanding of Jedi rule of attachment. Grace explains poly relationships, crushes are revealed. Bly gets to watch two beautiful women make out then their eyes to him. He'll die happy now thank you

Bly gets to catch up on years of exploration and experience with two women showing him how they like to be touches

They spend the entire shore leave in that Hut.

Everyone is happy - only they're worse now. You thought these fools were love-sick before. Oh no, there complements and subtly flirting and looks across the room.

They create a force bond with each other, Bly can't feel them but they can feel him and support him emotionally as much as they can when times get hard.

Sparing is foreplay. I will not take any questions on that.

This will be the happy ending -

The war ends, Palps is discovered just in time, chips are removed. Bly gets two women cuddling him during his recovery, spoiling him with affection.

the Jedi who have grown to love their clones and the clones who love their Jedi start working towards going back to their peace keeping ways.

The three of them start going out together, helping villages negotiate peace talks, supply healing and care. Repairing the reputation the two have in the galaxy as a whole.

They never actually get married but emotionally they are as tied together as a clone and his Jedi ever can be. Aayla will one day take on a Padawan, and Grace will adopt a small company of baby clones to train as the next Clone / Jedi team.

Below is Cannon compliant ending

Oder 66 ending

Order 66 goes out when they are together but opposite sides of the scouting mission.

Bly turns his blaster on Aayla without hesitation and kills her. Grace feels it in the force just as the men turn in her.

She escapes, after killing so many men. She rushed to where she last felt Aalya and Bly, wondering what was wrong, what happened. Why why why !.

She gets there only for Bly to turn his blaster on her. He gets her across the chest as she turns to flee- injuring her greatly but she does escape.

She has to fake her death to do so, injuring herself further, and blowing up a few ships to sell it. But the clones think she died in a fiery explosion.

Grace steals a ship and escapes, hearing Obi wan's message. She flees to her birth planet Domthir to try and wait for the strange mess out.

Eventually Blys chip wears off, and he remembers what he did, he takes his blaster to himself.

Grace, trapped in Domthir feels him go. And it breaks her. She gives back into her night sister roots. Falls but is empty, she feels nothing.

She wanders the waste land of Domthir like a wraith, a witch that will kill anything she comes across. Even the surviving zabraks and other night sisters stay out of her way.

She wanders, waiting till she can be reunited with her loves, always muttering to herself

Why why why .

She will wander there till a surviving Jedi Padawan lands on Domthir many years in the future where he will eventually help put her out of her misery.

Thank you for the ask- i hurt myself.

But I love this ship now not gonna lie. Got to do some drawings of them now.

Tag list

@anxiouspineapple99 @sev-on-kamino @dangraccoon @523rdrebel @clonemedickix @secondaryrealm @multi-fan-dom-madness @wizardofrozz @starrylothcat

[pastafossa]

Hey Pasta! I was rereading some of the new chapters and wanted to ask when Jane and Matt went from just impressions via thread, to full blown words and conversations?

I was trying to remember if there was a distinct shift, and I'd love to go back and read it if there was!

So while there's definitely a sloooow, gradual build to full conversations, the first time an actual word gets through is in chapter 31! This also happens right before the Away chapters, and as we know, they get a toooooon of practice trying to communicate with words, then, and are up to short sentences by the time she comes back.

BUT LET ME TALK ABOUT THIS WORDBUILDING A LITTLE THO CAUSE IT'S RELEVANT. I intentionally wanted it to feel slow and gradual, the way they go from emotional sensations -> full conversations. Even when they're talking to each other via thread now, they're not actually talking the way we think of it, which is why when you read their conversations, you'll still sometimes see something like this (Ch 134):

Bloodstained lips shifted, shaping a word on his tongue. Even before he spoke it, the air around him seemed to shiver as his intent manifested, his current aligning with yours where it lay quiet. "Mine," he whispered, the word raw smoke and rough city streets, letters a caress on your skin. "Understand?"

This isn't any of the languages we use every day. It's a language built on the bones of emotion, sensation its sound, with intent giving the words form. That's why it's taken them both so long to work up to where they're at now - they've essentially been learning a new language, one in which each word is also a sensation, a memory, and a physical change in the thread world as intent manifests (with stronger intent enacting stronger effects, as Matt almost discovered). It's a language only they can speak (that they know of), although I will confirm they learned it far faster, far more intimately, and far more fluently than anyone In The Know would have expected. Whether that's because they're soulmates, because their thread is just REALLY open now, or because Matt's super senses align perfectly with her abilities is something I'm leaving open for guessing at present.

[thetavolution]

for Bex

👄: How do they talk? What's their vocabulary like? What does their voice sound like? Any accent, verbal tics, etc?

🔮: If they were to feature in the art of a tarot card, which one would it be and why?

✍: What does your character's handwriting look like? Do they write letters often? What other contexts do they usually write in, if any?

😄: How can you tell when they're really happy? What sorts of things make them happy? How often do they smile?

🌹: Are they experienced romantically? How many romantic partners have they had? How has this affected their view of romance?

🎉: Who are their party members/companions? Describe each of their relationships with your OC (however brief or detailed you want).

Thank you for sending this in!

👄: How do they talk? What's their vocabulary like? What does their voice sound like? Any accent, verbal tics, etc?

Even in the BG3/DnD universe, she keeps her natural American accent. Her accent could be pegged as Midwestern. You can hear her speak in The Bonneville Game. (Sorry, not sorry for plugging my show lol.)

She does find roundabout ways to explain stuff sometimes. If she can't think of what something's called, she'll try to describe it via a sound effect. It doesn't always work out. She does have a pretty decent vocabulary. She reads a lot more than people expect her to. She sometimes uses antiquated sayings, especially if it brings her joy. I.E. "They've got the morbs."

🔮: If they were to feature in the art of a tarot card, which one would it be and why?

This one was tough! Hopefully I'm reading the cards properly and I'm open to critique here. I went with the Devil due to bondage and hopelessness. She only recently regained her independence. She lost a lot of years to a situation where she was enslaved. It's part of what beat her down and has her foreseeing a bleak future for herself, which is why I thought the Devil.

On the flip side, when she's doing better she would probably be the Fool. The Fool is about accepting your choices which I think she needs to do. It can also be about entering a new phase and living in the moment. At least, that's what those cards mean for her.

✍: What does your character's handwriting look like? Do they write letters often? What other contexts do they usually write in, if any?

She has a lot of distant friends that she likes to write. She actually feels like she expresses herself better in letters so she finds it freeing. She often sends a 'thinking of you' letter whenever she has a chance. Outside of that, she writes down ideas in her recipe book or catalogues recipes she's tried and liked.

Her handwriting would probably look something like this:

😄: How can you tell when they're really happy? What sorts of things make them happy? How often do they smile?

She smiles a lot, actually! It's just not a "real" smile. It's usually some kind of smirk or something to hide her real feelings. When you get to know her, you can tell the difference between the smiles. It doesn't reach her eyes when it's her normal smile.

When she's truly happy, it's usually because she's around someone or several people she cares about and feels safe with. It can happen just being around them or telling jokes. She also will give every animal on earth a real smile. Acts of kindness towards her also get her to smile. When she really feels like someone cares about her, she gives a true smile.

People usually can see it in her eyes when she finds real joy. She's also more willing to be genuinely sappy, even if she acts like it pains her.

🌹: Are they experienced romantically? How many romantic partners have they had? How has this affected their view of romance?

She's had a lot of romantic partners, including casual ones. I don't know an exact number. She's had plenty of bad relationships. She was never really shown what love is while growing up, and she doesn't think she deserves good things.

While she understands love can be a beautiful thing, she assumes it'll always be stained by misery when it comes to her. She usually just waits for the other person to decide she's too "broken" to be with.

She had one huge betrayal in the past that makes her assume everyone will betray her eventually. It's why she wasn't even that hurt by Astarion confession. Just very confused. I tend to develop things via music and three songs that sum up her romantic past are The Stranger Song, Joke's On You, and 10:15.

🎉: Who are their party members/companions? Describe each of their relationships with your OC (however brief or detailed you want).

In BG3, she's romancing Astarion. They both do the whole "I can make them worse" and accidentally make each other better thing. Astarion is also the first person to force her to notice she actually does do good things for people.

She ends up being shocked by the effect she has on everyone else. She definitely likes to tease Lae'zel and Lae'zel eventually warms up to it. They earn each other's respect. Bex has a soft spot for Wyll, but she's terrified of the world chewing him up and spitting him out. (It already kind of did.) She questions "who protects the protector" in his case.

She thinks Shadowheart is genuinely hilarious and likes spending time with her, especially when she renounces Shar. They 100% talk shit together. Of course, Bex adores Karlach because it's Karlach. Karlach is someone who can always get a real smile out of her. They crack each other up. She loves to tease Gale, but it's always a mutual playful thing with each other. She respects him and she would stab Mystra in the eye if she could. When people outside of the group make fun of Gale, she gets angry. To steal a line from Bob's Burgers, "Messing with Gale is a privilege, not a right."

She has a fling with Halsin with Astarion consent, of course. Halsin helped raise her self-esteem up. She and Astarion will probably invite him into their lives in the future. She also wants to be Jaheira when she "grows up." I accidentally killed Minthara on her run so... no Minthara lol. Minsc cracks her up and she just can't not love that guy.

In original story adventures, she hangs with Minty, Laura, and Ingrid. Minty entertains her to no end and her earnestness is endearing to her. Minty accepts Bex as part of her found family. Minty breaks down her walls and Bex starts to open up around her.

Laura doesn't like her as much at first, but they don't hate each other. They bond over their sense of humor over time. They start being each other's wingmen, too.

Ingrid was a little scared of her at first. When Ingrid realizes she's not so bad, she starts to open up to Bex. Bex treats her more like a little sister. She's more gentle with her, but also tries to get her to stand up for herself... and she likes messing with her. Ingrid is easy to fluster. Ingrid eventually stands up for herself more, with Bex's help, and starts to rib Bex in return.

[featherlouise]

Idk if you ever mentioned it before, but in Radi fucking dies speedrun edition, how is Hollow's relationship with their mother like? What does she think of her husband's overprotectivness over them?

I think I’ve briefly mentioned it?? I’m ngl I’ve kinda been neglecting WL in like. All my AUs. I need to step up lmao she doesn’t deserve that shit

So!! I’ll try to make this quick lmfao

WL and Hollow’s relationship isn’t strained persay, unlike PK, WL hasn't allowed herself to care for them. She's kinda locked the motherly side of herself away for her own sake, to the point where she didn't even cry at the funeral, all she felt was a distant, detached kind of sadness.

It wasn't until they show up in her gardens a couple weeks after waking up, being dragged by Hornet bc "you PROMISED you'd play with me when u got better and now you're better so PLAY WITH ME!!"

And as she watches them dote on their baby sister, it really hits her that they're alive. They're not the cold husk of what was supposed to be her Child, they are her child. They have been her child for the past 15 years, and what has she done but ignore them every chance she had.

Suddenly a ton of small moments in their childhood were completely recontextualised. When Hornet was a toddler and they'd just stare as WL held her. The way that, when they were really small, when she still thought she could be a mother to the Pure Vessel, even if only in small ways, they'd lean into her touch, just slightly. And then when she stopped trying to touch them, they'd sometimes twitch towards her, in such a small movement that she thought she'd imagined it, as if they were seeking out her touch, her affection.

How is she supposed to make up for years of neglect?? Their childhood is over, they don't need a mother anymore. Surely she missed her chance to forge a meaningful relationship with them.

So. She does nothing.

For 6 months.

During which time, Hollow has begun to crawl out of their shell, show more of their personality. They're no longer afraid to express opinions, and have forged real friendships with the Knights. It's not an uncommon sight to see them running around after their baby sister, no longer bothering with the pretence that "I was told to watch her, so that's what I'm doing."

There is one slight problem though.

There's an infamous story in the palace, of a time when more than a dozen guards came stampeding in to the queen's garden in the palace, trampling over all her flower beds. In the end, the walls of the corridor leading to the gardens had a few more uh. Decorations. Than it had previously.

It took 3 days to free everyone.

Long story short!! No guards are allowed into the Queen's gardens unless they have express permission.

So!! After receiving many complaints via letters, Herrah suggests maybe taking a picnic down to the gardens the next time she and Hornet visit. It's a day free from their guards AND perhaps a way to force their mother to FINALLY fucking talk to them.

It's awkward at first, neither of them know each other particularly well, so Herrah and Hornet carry the conversation. But!! At some point, Herrah mentions Hollow's desire to learn how to garden (something they've offhandedly mentioned a couple of times) and WL practically jumps at the chance to offer to teach them.

Thus begins their weekly lessons. Hollow gets a day free of their constant guards, and they both get to bond over a common interest.

There is, however, the underlining concern that despite how many times they've complained to her about their entourage, she refuses to do anything about it. Surely she could at least try to talk to their father, but the few times they've suggested it, she just brushes them off or changes the subject.

Honestly, to an extent she's glad that her husband is so protective. She's missed so much of their life that now she actually has a relationship with them?? She's terrified of their time being cut short. And there's also a small part of her that's afraid that if they no longer need to take solace in her gardens, the visits and lessons will stop entirely. She can't take that chance.

Regardless, they do have a pretty good relationship by the time the confrontation happens.

"I'lL tRy To MaKe ThIs ShOrT" get fucked past me