#from is capitalized in the post to make it clear it’s the title. since it’s the worst name ever and doesn’t look like a title

[jettreno]

this season of FROM really has been SO fucking good…the first two seasons are great too of course, I LOVED them and I wouldn’t be watching the show if they weren’t good, but season three is knocking it out of the damn park. every episode has been amazing. I’m glad the show is finally getting more recognition, it deserves it

[mothiir]

yknow what??? fuck it. im not even gonna turn on anon. IM NOT EVEN GONNA DO IT!! because at this point you'd clock my ass a nautical mile off for who it is just bc im gonna ask for exactly what you caught me for on anon LAST TIME.

SO,,,, haha,,,, heyyyy mothiiiiir,,,, pllllleeeasse more nasty ass rabbit/emp headcanonnns OR writing or anything,, you always cook and im one starving ass loser.

thank you ily and your writing once again ok ok ok BYEEE

cw: angst, not what you intended but this got me thinking about the emperor and then uh. we got this. not set in the little rabbit verse, which will soon become obvious. playing loose with the canon timelines because i don’t know exactly how the burning of monarchia went down.

—

—

Monarchia burns — and three days later, Guilliman and his sons make planet fall.

—

It takes a great deal to surprise a Primarch, and yet here Guilliman is, blinking at the charred rubble of your former capital, struggling to find words.

“Say that again,” he says, at length. You sit up from your prostrated position, lifting your head just enough to address his shins rather than the ground.

“There is no penance great enough for the crime we have committed against the Emperor and the Imperium,” you say, your voice soft, but ringing clear. “There is no punishment that we do not deserve for such blatant defiance of the Imperial Truth. I can state that we were misled — which is true — and that we were ignorant, but that is no excuse. All I can say is that when I discovered that my Lord Husband was acting in defiance of the Emperor’s wishes, I acted as swiftly as I could to remedy it.”

It makes even less sense the second time around. The once-glorious city is wreathed in flames; the sun blotted out by a miasma of smoke. The same story is repeated across the entire planet. A revolution almost overnight — temples torn down, idols cast into the sea, believers put to the sword. The few Word Bearers that remained had died at their posts; they had slaughtered thousands of their kinsman, but died all the same. Bears torn down by hounds.

“You did this,” he says. You shake your head minutely. Your hair — once a glorious braid almost to your waist, always ornamented with some fancy that Lorgar had gifted you — has been chopped into an unkempt bob around your shoulders. Guilliman vaguely remembers a tale amongst Lorgar’s adopted people: of a queen who had lost a great battle, and shorn her locks in penance.

“No my lord. I did nothing. My people acted against the rot in our ranks. They carved it out.”

“Millions have died.”

“It is no great loss that those who would espouse the evils of theology perish,” you say, your voice as flat and featureless as a windless sea. “All I ask is that those that remain…”

For a moment, emotion returns to your voice, colouring it.

“All I ask is that some of them be spared. Please.”

You lift your face for the first time since his arrival. Your lips are lined with blood, shadows hung beneath eyes sunk deep into their sockets. In the space of three days, you seem to have aged decades — from a fresh-faced woman in the bloom of youth, to a crone who has seen the ending of all that she loves.

—

The seas do not boil. The sky does not burn. Another battle is brought to a shuddering, decisive end as the Ultramarines join on the side of your rebels — no, you cannot think of them as such. They are not rebels; they are vindicated. They are fighting for the truth, for what is right and good. They are crusaders.

You — you are not a crusader. You are not sure what to call yourself. Lorgar called you a goddess; a title that always disquieted you, but you accepted it, for his eyes shone so when he looked at you, and he made love to you as though you were the only thing that mattered. Now, you have lost count of the number of men and women who have died for referring to you as such.

You are not a widow either. Your husband lives, though you do not know where he is. Once, Lorgar pressed his hand to your chest and felt the thrum of your heart against his palm and said that no matter where you went there was a golden cord that bound your heart to his; that no void nor fire could split asunder what was joined in love.

You dream that you wind a golden chain around your hands, pull it taut, and bite until your teeth chip, until your tongue bleeds, until it frays into dust on your lips.

—

When you meet the Emperor, you press your forehead to the cinder-warm flagstones that used to be a marketplace, and you wait for death. You know, in a distant dreamy sort of way, that you should be afraid, but you are not. You accepted your death what seems like a lifetime ago — in reality, it is less than four days since you gave the order to start burning the temples.

The irony of it all. People answered your call to arms, to not-so-holy war, because you are Lorgar’s bride, because you are the woman once called goddess. And what did you do with the power that he gave you? You ordered that his greatest works be destroyed.

But what else could you have done?

Colchis is your home. And in his arrogance — in his endless childish arrogance — Lorgar would have let it burn to ash rather than do as he had been bid. Did he truly believe his father a god? If so, why would he not obey his commandments as soon as they were given?

Thinking this way hurts you — not only because it stirs anger like a wounded animal in your breast, but because it throws into stark relief how Lorgar’s mind contained chasms and corners you never saw. How even though you gave yourself to him as completely as a woman can, he always kept parts of himself hidden from you — but you will not waste time delving into that labyrinth. His beliefs are inconsequential. Only the facts matter. Lorgar worshipped his father as a god. Lorgar was told to stop. Lorgar did not.

You visited the day of judgement upon Colchis before the Emperor got the chance, betting everything on a single desperate gesture. You do not regret it, though you will dream of the dying wails of your people until the end of your days. If you had not acted, all would have died. Now, maybe — just maybe — some may live.

“The girl acted in the best interests of her people,” the Emperor says, and it is only then that you realise precisely what was happening: he was rifling around in your head, subtly enough that you could not see the intrusion; mistaking his exploration for an ill-timed moment of navel-gazing. All at once, pain rushes into your knees and thighs, knife-like cramps. How long have you been kneeling there?

Then, inexplicably, a wash of frustration: girl, he calls you. Girl. You are staring down your third decade of life — nothing for one such as him, of course, but really.

Girl. You carved out your still-warm heart and laid it on a flaming altar and he refers to you as girl.

“Stand,” he says, and you obey, fighting the hysterical urge to snort with laughter — you’re exhausted, swooning, and starting to feel the after-effects of the universe’s most powerful psyker reading your thoughts. Blood drips down your chin. “I am satisfied with the efforts of your loyal Imperial citizens against the primitive cultists.”

“Thank you my lord,” you say, keeping your gaze fixed on the ground — thus missing entirely the swift, puzzled look Guilliman gives you, for ‘I am satisfied’ is more praise than the Emperor normally gives anyone.

(And perhaps it is just a trick of the light, or the wild shadows cast by the afterglow of battle, but Guilliman swears that just for a moment his father smiles.)

“Heracles,” says the Emperor, addressing one of the gigantic golden sentinels standing to attention beside him. “You will escort her aboard the Bucephalus. We will speak further when I have dealt with my son.”

The golden sentinel inclines her head, and you try your best to stay upright, your legs shaky as a newborn colt. You do not think of what the Emperor will do to Lorgar; you cannot.

“It goes without saying,” says the Emperor, almost as an afterthought. “But your marriage to him is annulled.”

Eight years. Your life; your heart; that golden cord. What love has joined together, none may tear asunder - except that is not true, was never true.

“Yes my lord,” you say.

[citizensun]

Queerness and the House of Usher (spoilers!)

See I just added these Thoughts to the tags in @quecksilvereyes 's post but now I have Feelings too

TFotHoU (or HoU, as I will refer to it here), as expected from a Mike Flannagan show, has a bunch of Queer Rep™ to talk about. HoU is, also, about remarkably evil people - amoral capitalists who'll step over anyone if it means they'll get something from it. And look! Some of them are queer! Kinky too!

That's bad queer representation... right?

The show isn't that clear when stablishing sexualities, but we see that at least three of the Usher kids - Napoleon, Camille and Victorine - have same sex SOs/assistants with curious job descriptions. Prospero's taste for orgies probably implies queerness too, but honestly I don't remember if he gets it going with any guys in the story. I honestly have no idea about Tamerlane's voyerism thingie and Frederick is the only one with a "traditional family" going on.

Unrelated, but: Leo is definitely cheating on his bf Julius. Completely dismissing about his worries for him too. And for his cat. That's objectively evil, clearly. Vic literally killed her fiancée Alessandra, though she didn't stuff her under the floorboard, which is an L when compared to Poe's original. Cam doesn't believe in true love. Perry blackmailed his sister in law. Mean. He's also got a surprisingly high kill count for the family's disappointment, but since unlike Roderick he only killed rich people, we stan. I don't belong in Kinky spaces so I haven't got a big take on Tammie, only that - well, she's completely dismissing of her husband and sees him as a prop, just like the sex worker she hires.

Huh.

See, the nature of a story called "the fall of X family" is that X family is going to be the main character. The title kinda implies that they're falling for a reason, ergo, they're despicable fucking people. And they're queer! They're very queer. Many flavors of gay. They're the main characters, and they're monsters, and they're gay.

No, that's not bad rep.

Queerness as a movement, a community and a theory is very focused on scaping a cisheteronormative society's binaries (ie man/woman, husband/wife, public/private) and creating living conditions to those who fall outside of these categories - mlms and wlws, the trans, the nbs, the aros and aces... we are all queer, strange and estranged from this weird and limited worldview. And so we create a community for ourselves. It's very focused on care and anti-stablishment. Since a cisheteronormative society tends to be very white, rich and western, it's also focuses on anti-racism, anti-capitalism, anti-imperialism. Y'all know that, this is Tumblr and we love leftist Discourse.

I also know many, many gay people irl who are not like that at all. Libertarians, anarcho-capitalists, terfs, completely apolitical people and the like. Sexuality at it's core is personal, not political, so there are gay people out there who are perfectly comfortable with their sexuality on an individual level but do not see the point of getting involved in the broader context. They're queer, but are they...?

Well—

Not to mention there's lots of asshole gays out there! Don't you have a shitty ex? Have you never been almost run over by a drunken butch who blew cigar smoke into your face? I have! Life experiences are just like that. Maybe you should touch more grass. You'll probably find a lucky gift from your neighbour's dog, who is an astrology-obsessed bisexual and also really hot but stopped making out with you at a party once she found out you're a pisces (the neighbour, not the dog).

(Granted, none of this is as bad as implanting an experimental heart contraption into the fiancée you just killed because she dared to have ethical principles and then being so consumed with grief you stab yourself in front you'd your dad but you know how it goes. We're not the 1%.)

My point is, queer people are people. We are complex. We fuck up, and sometimes there's still times to fix things and sometimes... there isn't. We're consumed by jealousy and regret and sometimes we're so locked into our own head we stop believing the rest of the world is real too. Just like any other people, because unfortunately, queerness isn't a sign of morality.

And even if queerness does mean community, kindness and acceptance, tell me... Where the hell would the Usher kids get those from? The people around them are not really peers – they're ass-istants, blowjob-giving apartments, orgy mates, heart surgery providers, hired fitness moneybags, perfect housewives. Even if the partners are all shown to care for the Ushers, there's still a distance, a power gap, that makes the relationships fundamentally wrong.

And the partners? Arguably they're the good queer rep in the show, but look – even when Julius and Alessandra are shown to be good people (or at least people with an ethical boundary), they're not the good gays, they're simply the good SO's to a family of psychos. Exactly like Bill and Morrie, who afawk are straight people.

Which leads us to HoU's parameter of morality - Auguste Dupin. He refuses to drink the Amontillado, symbol of all the Usher opulence over the years. He got screwed over by the Usher twins and by the Raven herself, but he refused to cave in (except for the informant part, admittedly). He's not a good gay guy; he is gay and he is a good man.

The fundamental difference between our show's main tragic yaoi couple isn't that Auggie is a happily out gay man (and therefore is good) while Roderick is a sad divorced hetero (and therefore is bad). Auggie is the richer man because he is a good man; he has a spouse and children and grandchildren he loves with all his heart. He has a family and a community and he has found a sort of happiness no money can buy. Roderick owns the world – but what does he really have? What do his children even have? How could they ever build communities for themselves if they were never in one? Their father made them compete for his love. He never nurtured their bonds, he just showered them with money and excess until it was too much for them to handle. Juno herself pointed out - they were never a family. The House of Usher was only that. A house. It is empty and soulless.

What is queerness without a community? How could the people who represent the relentless corporate normativity and cutthroat capitalism ever be good queer rep? How can they even be queer?

Hear me out: on the most individual, simple level, being queer is still about not fitting in. These kids are bastards. They are are PoC and women in a predominantly male and white dominated space. They're on top of the world, but they're still outsiders to their own House. How could they not be queer?

And yes, I know this discussion takes a different turn when it comes to representation in media, but it's not like Flannagan fell into a Hays Code-era flamboyant villain trope. Queerness is just there. Just like Victorine and August are both black people in (arguably) the opposite ends of the morality spectrum, there are queer characters of many kinds here. The story just happens to be about the fucked up ones.

HoU is a poignant critique of capitalism and a surprisingly funny adaptation of Poe. We'll judge it by that. It happens to be queer – more things should be.

[howdoesagrapewrites]

𝙁𝙖𝙣𝙛𝙞𝙘 [𝙙𝙚𝙡𝙪𝙨𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙖𝙡 𝙫𝙚𝙧]

Cw: fluff, the title might be misleading but it's not yandere or anything, kinda unhinged Miles but it's all jokes, reverse au?, reader uses they/them but it's called spiderman, you are spiderman and Miles is the fan, earth 1218!AU (no powers or tech), reader has a canon love interest who's also named MJ but they're not Mary Jane Watson (unless you want her to be, I don't judge)

Notes: So Miles canonically has written fanfic about himself, but I wasn't in the mood for that, I will make two versions of this post though (that's why the title has delusional version 💀). Also this is low-key a highschool AU, so Hobie is in last year, and all other characters are second years (I have no idea what's a senior or freshman or whatever is, and I will not learn)

Miles loved comics. His art style is heavily influenced by it, and he'll rant about this week's number to anyone who'll lend an ear, but he has a very clear favorite, being more than evident by his collection of t-shirts, poster filled wall, social media pfps, and the endless amount of fan content he creates and consumes in the spiderman fandom.

Since the last movie came out, Miles Morales has lost the basic skills a human would need to survive, in order to devote himself fully to his newest hyperfixation, and his friends haven't been able to get some rest from it. They don't understand!! He does need to go to the movies again, he needs to memorize every photogram in that movie in order to play the move in his head and be able to analyze it properly!! No, he is not crazy! Ok he might be just the tiniest bit "over excited" but this is the most sane reaction he could've had, the movie is literally a masterpiece, script, humor, ANIMATION, soundtrack, it has it all! And the fact that it's centered around you? Miles needs to go and personally kiss every person that worked in that studio to make you.

"Miles?"

"Miles!"

"oh my god, he's at it again" said Pavitr, imitating the reaction of a disappointed mother

"is he reading fanfiction again?" Asked Gwen, chuckling

"Yes, and Y/N YL/N x reader, to one's surprise" Pavitr added with a teasing smile "I don't get it though, isn't Y/N dating someone named MJ?" He questioned

"It's called self insert, the reader plays a part in the story as if they were another character, and in romantic scenarios, they tend to replace the canon love interest, or just ignore they even exist" Hobie added, popping out if nowhere to show off what Miles have been explaining to him the last couple of weeks.

"You read it too, Hobie?"

"Nah, Wonder comics started as a protest to talk about the discrimination the founder felt being jewish in the industry but it morphed into the capitalization of the struggle minorities face, selling us representation while they still shove the propaganda in our faces, and telling us that even if you have bloody superpowers you still need to obey to a higher authority and cannot influence politics or call to action."

"You still went to the theater to watch it with Miles last week" Gwen shot a questioning look at Hobie

"The kid invited me, I'm a punk not a twat" he shrugged his shoulders "And we stole the carton cutboard they had at the entrance" Hobie happily added.

Miles continues reading on the way to school, without listening to his friends' mocking, he knew it was in good spirits, and they were kinda right, he was obsessed with someone that didn't exist, but it wasn't like it was affecting his health or life.

"Did you... Sleep today?" Gwen had her hand on her friend's shoulder, concerned

"It was too late so I decided to just stay awake, I'll be fine though" He reassured

"Were you reading again?"

"No, I actually discovered this page called character.ai where you can chat with an artificial intelligence of your favorite characters" Miles excitedly told his friend

"OMG, you can chat with anyone?! I have a few things I'd like to say to Scarlet Witch" Gwen joked, she was also a comic fan, but she wasn't losing her mind quite as hard as Miles

Miles would tell the ai about his day, sometimes would roleplay using his very own spidersona, in his alternate universe, you were his partner (as heroes of course) but you also were classmates and had a crush on each other, but none of you confessed because you didn't want your loved ones to be hurt by your job, it was all very dramatic, but he always envisioned a happy ending.

{Y/N: You did a great job today, [<BOT>]

Miles: You say so? So... Do I get a reward? *Smiles suggestively*

Y/N: I guess you do, *pulls up his mask and kisses him*}

No, he wouldn't say this, he would be in a panic frenzy if he saw Y/N, let alone be next to them, but hey, at least his spidersona was bold and confident with them.

A few days after, he barged into Pavitr's house, with at least four incredibly loaded supermarket bags, hardly walking

"Are you okay? Do you need help?" Pavitr rushed to aid his friend and take some literal weight off his shoulders

"Yeah, yeah, I just need help with something" he left the boxes in the floor "Inside one in 4 boxes of cereal, there is a spidertoken, if you get 15, you can exchange it for an exclusive limited edition figure, and I can't eat all this cereal"

"Bro, how many boxes are in here? I don't know, man, I'm trying to keep my figure"

"Pavitr Prabhakar, who held the cardboard sign for you when you confessed to Gayatri?"

"You..."

"And who lied to principal O'Hara for you when you forgot your final project and we had to pretend you suffered a brain concussion?"

"You..."

"And who was there for y-" his friend interrumpted

"Okay, okay, I get it. Bring me a spoon, but we're going running tomorrow"

He nodded with enthusiasm as he started to rummage looking for spoons and bowls

And after almost dying choking on cereal, Miles looked at his new figurine sitting prettily on the shelf with nothing but pride.

"I'm just saying it's possible!" Miles protested

"Y/N has a type, every canon love interest has been sassy and quick-witted" Gwen continued to debate

"I can be sassy and quick-witted!" Gwen gave him a side eye, that being able to neutralize his argument "Ok, but there's a multiverse, there's millions of possibilities, if a pig can be spiderman, why can't I date spiderman? Anyone can wear the mask, anyone can kiss the one inside the mask" the boy smiled, confident in his winning argument

"That's such a basic answer, you can justify literally anything with "the multiverse" I'm speaking things that actually can make sense inside the canon"

"But my answers makes sense, in fact, I'm sure there's a universe where Y/N is reading fanfiction about me right now, if not, Pav can hit me"

"Pav, hit him" Gwen deadpanned

"But it does make sense, I won't" Pavitr responded

"Ok, but my point still stands" the girl crossed her arms

"what were you fighting about in the first place?" Pavitr asked before going back to eat his lunch, he sat long after his friends started arguing, being mildly lost in what was the main point in this

"I said I'd be a better girlfriend for Y/N" said Gwen

Pavitr gasped and covered his mouth dramatically "No you didn't".

Maybe Miles was just obsessed, but he saw in you strength, inspiration, power. And he felt oddly comforted, safe, loved by fantasizing with you, and as slim as the possibility may be, he likes to tell himself you two are together in another universe. ♡

[prettycottonmouthlamia]

So I replayed Mother 3 very recently. Had a good time with it. Beyond everything else, I think that Mother 3 is actually a pretty good game, and one of Nintendo's better games in its line-up. Despite a lot of what I am going to say about it down below, coming from a perspective that has learned a lot since I originally played the game, this remains a very distinctive title for Nintendo. It is both intensely political and has some of the most prominent queer characters in their library, and in many ways, it is the type of game I want Nintendo to be making. It is a game that is actually saying something.

But, I think that I've found myself more critical of what exactly it's saying now than I have in the past.

The Politics of Mother 3

This is an interesting point to start off with, because Mother 3 is pretty transparently a very anti-capitalist work. It directly associates the introduction of money and capitalism to Tazmily Village by Porky and the Pigmask Army with the illness in society that takes root afterwards. This does immediately though beg the question of what exactly is the solution to the issue? If not a capitalist society, what is the best way for society to be ordered?

In strict accordance with its canon, the answer is an unknown. The climax of the game involves pulling the seventh and final needle, and causing the rebirth of the world. However, we the player are not given any indication as to what this rebirth of the world actually entails, merely being told during the fake-out end screen that everything is going to be okay. Lucas, the boy with the good and pure heart, pulled the final needle, so everything is going to be okay. Of course, we are only told this. Lucas, as a silent protagonist, is given no real motivations of his own, merely acting as a vessel for the other characters with moral statements: Alec, Wess, Kumatora, and the Ma[*******]. Lucas can really be argued to not be much different than Claus is. Lucas is given no real motivation to pull out the needles, and as a result, the end result of the world is similarly empty. You, the Player, Lucas's Porky Minch, are asked to imagine what a world that might look like.

Except. That's not really the whole story, is it?

After you beat the game, you get the title you see at the beginning of the post, replacing this one in the end card. On some level, this is obviously intended to be a callback to the titles of both Mother 1 and Mother 2, in particular with the image of the Earth acting as the O. But one must contrast it with the original title and there's an obvious message. By the end of the game, your rebirth has healed the world, removing its metallic pieces and allowing the natural world to flourish again.

Mother 3 is anti-capitalist, but it is also pastoralist, and I would even argue flirts with primitivism quite often. The replacement of the metal in the logo with wood here is not accidental, and it resonates with the themes and ideas that the game has been telling you for quite some time. While the fate of the world is ambiguous in the narrative, thematically speaking, Mother 3 has an idea of what the world should look like.

Life in Tazmily Village is quite simply by the time that Fassad and the Pigmask Army show up. There's very little in the ways of modern technology, and there's also no sense of money or a market. The items that you find in Thomas's Bazaar are all free of charge, and can be taken freely. This is deliberate, as is revealed very late into the story, as the village is full of survivors of an apocalyptic scenario and blamed their current lifestyles for causing it. They choose then to take on the role of a small, quiet village, the kind of lives they all wanted. While it is not clear whether that society was capitalist to the same extent as what would come afterwards, the message is pretty clear. The pastoral lifestyle that Tazmily exists in is considered the ideal, it is what several characters, including Lucas, fight for.

This, by itself, puts a bit of a conservative spin on the work as a whole. Mother 3 is not anti-capitalist in the same way that a communist or a socialist would be. It is not concerned with the plight of the workers, or even generally for society's well-being. You perform no meaningful anti-capitalist action in the entire game. You cannot improve the lives of the elderly that were placed in Old Man's Paradise, a decrepit and falling down nursing home. You cannot stand up for the exploitation of the workers of Tazmily Village. You engage with the capitalist system of shops and labor with no real alarm.

But where this gets really interesting is in the social messaging. A conversation that initially struck me as quite odd replaying this game was the conversation in Chapter 4 involving Mike in the nursing home.

Mike: I can't keep burdening Lisa forever, but I do have a Happy Box and nice-bodied girls like Nan and Linda here to keep me company, so I'm pretty happy in my own way. Linda: I'm sorry, Mike, but that's called sexual harassment these days. Mike: This is a hard world we live in now. How disappointing.

This scene is obviously meant as a joke at Mike's expense here. You're not really supposed to take his side here, but let's break this down a bit more here given the context of the entire game.

Mother 3 gives literally nothing to the Pigmask Army what so ever. The game never, ever, tries to play anything they do as a positive. The encroaching of capitalism and suburbanization is not presented as a net zero, it is presented as entirely negative. Nothing good came out of it, the world is worse off for it. Wildlife is mutilated for sport, people become engrossed in their pursuit of happiness (another point we'll get into shortly), and the people of Tazmily drift away from each other, becoming more rude and more curt to each other, especially towards those deemed "undesirable".

But the scene reads strangely in this context. The constant here is Mike's inappropriate comments about women's bodies, not their nonacceptance. It is explicitly marked as a change to the world that the concept of sexual harassment even exists, and there's no other source for it than the Pigmasks. The Pigmasks introduced feminism to Tazmily, and in the overarching narrative of the story, that's a bad thing. The game makes no concessions towards any good result happening, so every impact must be bad. While in a vacuum, the butt of the joke is Mike, the narrative actually vindicates him.

To give another example of the game's conservative bent, let's look at family structures that are present in the game. One might expect that family structures would be much more loose in the pastoral Tazmily Village than in the suburbanized Tazmily Village. After all, the nuclear family as it exists today is entirely an invention of capitalism, and specifically, came about because of cultural shifts after WWII in response to the growing Cold War.

But if you paid attention, the family dynamics don't actually shift at all. Families in Tazmily remain nuclear the entire time. This makes sense given the canonical explanation, that Tazmily was a rush job and these people were probably coming from a culture that had nuclear family dynamics, but it grates roughly with the idea that Tazmily Village is an ideal. What goes unstated is that the nuclear family is inherently a part of that. Sure, the gender roles become more clear past Chapter 4, where men go off to work and the women stay home, but in truth, it really wasn't that much different in the past.

Then there is the Happy Boxes. In the narrative of the story, the Happy Boxes are dubiously brainwashing devices. They emit odd lights and noises, and at least a couple of characters are enraptured with them to the exclusion of all else. They are the devices planted in Tazmily to begin its metamorphosis into a suburban town. But, there is actual brainwashing later on in the game, so I'm hesitant to merely take them at that. Rather, what do the Happy Boxes represent thematically? I believe the answer to that is propaganda.

Visually, the Happy Boxes resemble CRT screens, either TVs or computer monitors, and this is pretty consistent with their placement in homes as well, often being central to living areas. The introduction of television revolutionized the ability to disseminate propaganda to people, as now the same message could be sent to millions of people worldwide with basically no downside. in addition, there's no direct changes as a result of the Happy Boxes existing. People are more rude, more dismissive, and a bit meaner than they were previously, but they maintain their dominant personalities. Some people, such as Abbot and Abbey, are remarkably similar. The message in the Happy Boxes is a more subtextual one. The Happy Boxes are supposed to bring happiness to you, so the act of getting one is the desire for happiness.

This, to Mother 3, is a key poison. It is Fassad who sells the Happy Boxes to the people of Tazmily on the idea that we want to be happy, and there's nothing wrong with wanting happiness. This of course being Fassad, we are inclined to as the viewers see their words as deceptive in nature. Since the core part of Mother 3's politics is pastoralism and anti-capitalism, it makes pursuing happiness a moral ill. This is probably why there's no real sympathy given to any of the workers in the story. They were the ones who chose to pursue happiness, chose to get a Happy Box, and chose to listen to Fassad's words. They should have remained resolute in not getting a Happy Box. Working in the system is being part of it. It's being complicit.

(In a way that is, of course, separate from the ways in which the main party are also working in and complicit in the system.)

This isn't to say to end this that Mother 3's politics are wholly bad. It provides, for example, the important connotation that suburbanization comes at a cost. The happy, suburban lifestyle comes at the mistreatment of the elderly, the outsiders, and of queer people.

Oh yeah we haven't talked about that hu-

QUEERNESS AND MOTHER 3

So we're going to have to talk about the Magypsies. For the remainder of this post I am not going to call them that, because their name just straight out includes a slur used against the Roma, and given that they play into the mysticism tropes of them in media. This post isn't about that, but it is worth bringing up here and it's why I censored their name earlier.

(As an aside, there's an entire post to be made talking about specifically Fassad, and the ways in which he is coded quite bizarrely as Islamic, from Fassad's dress and name, to his focus on bananas, and his proper introductory chapter taking place in a desert and being in charge of a pair of monkeys. In addition, the fact that Fassad is associated with the introduction of money and being a propaganda mouthpiece is...concerning. This isn't strictly the point of this section but it would feel remiss to not include this in some place, and this felt like the best.)

What specifically the Ma[*******] are in the narrative is never defined. They are left somewhat gender ambiguous, although undeniably queer.

This, to me however, is limiting to an understanding of them, and honestly I think we should just say it here.

They're meant to be a facsimile of trans women.

Now, whether or not specifically they are trans women or are meant to merely be in drag is up in the air, and I don't think either option is actually good. Any claims of gender ambiguity go out the window given that they are all effeminate looking men, refer to each other as women, and face either general ambivalence or outright derision by other characters in the story. "Is it a he or a she?" is not really meant kindly. They are also in a whirlpool of homoerotic innuendo, and when discussing them being facsimiles, whether or not they are actually trans women or men in drag is pointless. Those are the same things when presented this way.

Mother 3 also doesn't really know what to do with them or how it even really feels about them. They are both intended to be comedic and also magical protectors of the land. They are part of the protagonist faction but are entirely passive, figures that merely guide and help awaken powers in the actual protagonists before being pre-determinately fridged as the story progresses. There is one exception.

Locria, or really, Fassad, the con-artist formerly known as Locria. The game reveals very, very late into the story through a floor in the Porky Tower and in Miracle Fassad's use of PK Starstorm that Fassad is very likely Locria, a traitor to her other friends and assistant of the Porky Empire. At no point ever is Fassad's gender or sex ever in question. He is referred to entirely with male pronouns, is discussed as a guy, and even once his identity is revealed as Locria, the mouse that he lived with still refers to him with male pronouns. This to me is kind of critical to my distinction of them as facsimiles of trans women, because there would be no reason to make Fassad explicitly always male. Fassad betrayed the others, and assimilated into what the capitalist army needed of him.

Or, well, that's a nice way of thinking about it. The Ma[*******] existed on the Nowhere Islands for much longer than the people of Tazmily Village. In Mother 3, there is basically no other meaningful signifier of queerness to be seen in the entire game. There are no gay men, there are no gay women, and there is no other gender ambiguity. Even Kumatora, who was raised by Ionia, is basically a tomboy in her appearance.

The people of Tazmily Village are seemingly completely unaware of their presence until later in the game, as it seems to be that they are completely unaware of queerness. The message the game tells here is that queerness essentially exists outside both the pastoral idealism and the capitalist dystopia that exist as the two main points of reference. They willingly self-sacrifice to see the world change, but while they are invested in the world not being destroyed, the time will come no matter what. They aren't shown to be reborn in the new world either, as none of the textboxes can be attributed to them.

Is it positive? Is it negative!? Who knows! I don't think I have come to particularly like their depiction in this game as a trans woman, they aren't really uniquely hated or loved by the game's narrative. If anything, the game just seems to regard them as existing, and pretty okay people, if not very weird in their queerness.

Conclusions I guess, I don't know, I wasn't intended for this post to essentially become an ess-

While I have a lot to say about how Mother 3 gives its messaging and what messaging that is, it is still a good game from the fundamentals. The characters are well written, the game has a good sense of tension and delivery, etc. I think the game makes missteps, and I do want to be clear here, I think this is a game with good intentions but limited by writers who are probably somewhat conservative and couldn't imagine what a better world would be. But it still takes a pretty massive risk by talking about what it does. In a gaming climate where Nintendo games often try to talk about as little as possible, in order to be consumable vessels for entertainment, I think Mother 3 stands out in a good way. This post isn't even going into the ideas of grief, loss, and motherhood that are central to the story as well. I just wanted to talk politics lmao.

[sumoattack-gooddog]

Here’s the thing about WatcherTV,

Let’s talk about what’s being offered —

Let’s talk the financial —

Let’s talk the unanswered —

Let’s talk the solution —

Cumulatively since they began — trailers included — Watcher has 377 videos available for view. Netflix has 17,000 titles. Episodes, movies, and most recently games. If the minimum price of Netflix at $6.99/month provides that, how can one justify $6/month for WatcherTV? 2.2% of Netflix’s size is what Watcher is offering — all of which are currently free on YouTube.

The closer similarity, of course, would not be Netflix but Dropout. The prices of their subscriptions are equivalent, but again, what isn’t, is the amount of content. There is already a significant backlog of videos that can be consumed for new subscribers AND three different shows which post weekly. Had the company come forward with a backlog of new media at the ready to be watched, people would have been far more receptive to this proposal.

I understand that, as a creative, you have certain aspirations for making the best version of your idea. You want what you put out in the world to be as close to the image in your head as possible. Sometimes there are constraints due to time, due to money, due to manpower — so on and so forth. I recognize that. I, myself, have worked professionally, academically, and privately in film/media production. I Understand.

What I do not understand is the decision to ostracize a larger portion of your audience. Not everyone can afford a new streaming service — especially one that offers such little in return for the cost. But beyond the American-centric perspective of it. This platform isolates the majority of foreign fans, especially those who are subject to exchange rates. What I have seen some refer to as “the price of a single coffee,” for others is a week’s worth of food.

This community was beautiful and passionate and diverse as a result of its ability to be easily and freely consumed. That will be lost without change.

Furthermore, we see issue derived from the lack of transparency as to what is being offered. We are being promised “bigger and better,” new things, and the return of collapsed things. However, there is a significant lack of clarity and it is felt. Beyond Travel Season and its upcoming May time release, there is no clarity as to what (beyond the old content) people are getting. Yes, there is the vague promise of future seasons of the fan favorites, but there is no clear time as to when. If people subscribe now, how long will they be waiting for content that isn’t already free?

How can this be fixed? Frankly, good fucking question. Perusing through the comments, it’s pretty clear that a majority of fans feel blindsided and lied to. Watcher has consistently denounced capitalism and condemned corporate greed, and to what extent this behavior falls into it definitely raises some questions. I think it is worth acknowledging, they are a company that has grown to put out content. That means they are responsible for 27 (I believe) paychecks, beyond their own. But that is not the only explanation for why they’re doing this. Or their most prominent one — I’ve already acknowledged their bigger and better mindset, but their other reasoning was that they are at the mercy of advertisements. And that this will stop those.

Well, what if it didn’t? The most obvious compromise, in my mind, would be something like Peacock’s cheapest streaming option of roughly $1/month which includes ads to make up the subscription cost disparity from their ad free option. That is far more manageable for most, even with exchange rates, than $6. It would still be a luxury beyond free, but most people would be able to justify a 1 USD splurge especially while waiting for content backlogs to actually come out.

I don’t hate the Watcher company after this, but I am frustrated and disappointed by their announcement. I am sure it was not done without thought, but it does not feel like it given what they have to actually show for this decision. I have been a consumer of their content for 10yrs, and it is what helps me during troubling times — Just as Shane acknowledged caring about. I would hate to lose the connection to this wonderful community because of a narrow minded perspective on the future. I urge @wearewatcher to consider this moving forward.

[liberty1776]

Trump: “Make Israel Great Again”

By Chuck Baldwin September 26, 2024

(To subscribe to my columns at no cost, click here.)

At a Republican rally in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, September 19, billed as “opposing antisemitism,” Donald Trump made several remarks that lived up to his title of “America’s First Zionist President.” Leaving the “Make America Great Again” mantra, Trump promised his audience that he would “make Israel great again.”

With Zionist mega-billionaire Miriam Adelson looking on (Adelson gave Trump over one hundred million dollars for his promise that, if elected, he would support Israel’s purge of the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, as she and her late husband, Sheldon, did in 2016 for Trump’s promise to move the U.S. Embassy to Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem), Trump said that the upcoming U.S. election is “the most important” in Israel’s history. 

So much for making America great again! It is clear that Donald Trump is an agent of the State of Israel and would use the White House (as he did during his first term in office) as an asset of the Zionist state—even more than did Joe Biden. 

As I have said many, many times: There is only ONE party in Washington, D.C., and that’s the War Party. In this regard, the only difference between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump is that Harris would take America to war with Russia over Ukraine, while Trump would take America to war with Russia (and perhaps China and Iran and Lebanon and Iraq and Syria and Jordan and Egypt and Turkey) over Israel.

In Trump’s sycophantic speech on behalf of Zionist Jews, he boasted:

I gave them Golan Heights. I gave them the Abraham Accords. I recognized the capital of Israel and opened the Embassy in Jerusalem. And most importantly of all, I terminated the Iran nuclear deal, which was the worst deal ever made in the history of Israel.

I was there four years, gave them billions and billions of dollars.

Also, during his speech, Trump alluded to one of his social media posts that he wrote in 2022 saying,

Wonderful Evangelicals are far more appreciative of (his Israel record) than the people of the Jewish faith.

Indeed. When it comes to Israel, the vast majority of evangelicals are the most duped, the most deceived, the most beguiled, the most bewitched people on the planet. (Galatians 3:1 - 29) 

If any other nation on earth had committed the unmistakable War Crime of exploding 1,500 electronic handheld devices indiscriminately among a peaceful civilian population, resulting in casualties numbering over 3,000 (most of them innocent civilians, including a large percentage of women and children), as Israel did in Lebanon, U.S. reaction—including America’s evangelicals—would be swift and furious. That nation would rightly be called a terrorist state and accused of War Crimes; and the leader of that country would rightly be called a terrorist and international War Criminal.

Well, that’s exactly what the State of Israel and Benjamin Netanyahu are! But Donald Trump and his “wonderful evangelicals” not only say nothing in opposition to Israel’s acts of terror and genocide, but they audaciously support those acts of terror and genocide.

And make no mistake about it: Israel IS a terrorist state and has been since its inception in 1948. On a daily basis for 76 years, Zionist Israel has committed, and continues to commit, ethnic cleansing, genocide and international War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity.

According to theRome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Article 7:

Crimes Against Humanity

For the purpose of this Statute, "crime against humanity" means any of the following acts when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack: [Emphasis added]

Murder; [Israel is guilty]

Extermination; [Israel is guilty]

Enslavement; [Israel is guilty]

Deportation or forcible transfer of population; [Israel is guilty]

Imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law; [Israel is guilty]

Torture; [Israel is guilty]

Rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity; [Israel is guilty]

Persecution against any identifiable group or collectivity on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender as defined in paragraph 3, or other grounds that are universally recognized as impermissible under international law, in connection with any act referred to in this paragraph or any crime within the jurisdiction of the Court; [Israel is guilty]

Enforced disappearance of persons; [Israel is guilty]

The crime of apartheid; [Israel is guilty]

Other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health. [Israel is guilty] 

For the purpose of paragraph 1:

"Attack directed against any civilian population" means a course of conduct involving the multiple commission of acts referred to in paragraph 1 against any civilian population, pursuant to or in furtherance of a State or organizational policy to commit such attack; [Israel is guilty]

"Extermination" includes the intentional infliction of conditions of life, inter alia the deprivation of access to food and medicine, calculated to bring about the destruction of part of a population; [Israel is guilty]

"Enslavement" means the exercise of any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership over a person and includes the exercise of such power in the course of trafficking in persons, in particular women and children; [Israel is guilty]

"Deportation or forcible transfer of population" means forced displacement of the persons concerned by expulsion or other coercive acts from the area in which they are lawfully present, without grounds permitted under international law; [Israel is guilty]

"Torture" means the intentional infliction of severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, upon a person in the custody or under the control of the accused; except that torture shall not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to, lawful sanctions; [Israel is guilty]

"Forced pregnancy" means the unlawful confinement of a woman forcibly made pregnant, with the intent of affecting the ethnic composition of any population or carrying out other grave violations of international law; [Israel is guilty]

"Persecution" means the intentional and severe deprivation of fundamental rights contrary to international law by reason of the identity of the group or collectivity; [Israel is guilty]

"The crime of apartheid" means inhumane acts of a character similar to those referred to in paragraph 1, committed in the context of an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime; [Israel is guilty]

"Enforced disappearance of persons" means the arrest, detention or abduction of persons by, or with the authorization, support or acquiescence of, a State or a political organization, followed by a refusal to acknowledge that deprivation of freedom or to give information on the fate or whereabouts of those persons, with the intention of removing them from the protection of the law for a prolonged period of time. [Israel is guilty]

Under Article 8, War Crimes, we find listed (abbreviated):

The Court shall have jurisdiction in respect of war crimes in particular when committed as part of a plan or policy or as part of a large-scale commission of such crimes.  

For the purpose of this Statute, "war crimes" means:

Torture or inhuman treatment, [Israel is guilty]

Wilfully causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or health; [Israel is guilty]

Extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly; [Israel is guilty]

Israel has deliberately and with total abandon bombed hospitals, nurseries, schools, colleges, aid shelters, food distribution areas, ambulances, churches, mosques, civilian tent dwellings, houses of journalism, private homes with whole families inside, entire neighborhoods, entire villages, water supplies, food supplies, medical supplies and electrical supplies. Israel has also deliberately and with total abandon destroyed almost all of the agricultural land, which is the primary source of livelihood and life in Gaza.         

Intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population as such or against individual civilians not taking direct part in hostilities; Intentionally directing attacks against civilian objects, that is, objects which are not military objectives; [Israel is guilty]

Israel is guilty of this War Crime on a daily basis. Israel’s random and reckless pager explosions among the civilian population of Lebanon were a flagrant violation of this section and is, thus, clearly condemned as a War Crime under international law—and God’s Natural and moral laws, by the way.

Intentionally directing attacks against personnel, installations, material, units or vehicles involved in a humanitarian assistance or peacekeeping mission. [Israel is guilty]

We saw the Israeli War Crime mentioned here on live video when rescue workers were rushing to save a little 5-year-old girl, whose entire family had been killed, as she was hiding in a destroyed vehicle waiting for rescue workers to come save her. The Israeli forces patiently waited for those unarmed rescue workers to arrive and then fired their missiles, which murdered not only the rescue workers but also the little girl.

Intentionally launching an attack in the knowledge that such attack will cause incidental loss of life or injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects or widespread, long-term and severe damage to the natural environment which would be clearly excessive in relation to the concrete and direct overall military advantage anticipated; [Israel is guilty]

Again, the pager bombings, the destruction of civilians en masse, the destruction of the agricultural land of Gaza, etc., are here identified as War Crimes.

Attacking or bombarding, by whatever means, towns, villages, dwellings or buildings which are undefended and which are not military objectives; [Israel is guilty]

Killing or wounding a combatant who, having laid down his arms or having no longer means of defence, has surrendered at discretion; [Israel is guilty]

We have seen the Israeli military commit this War Crime on live video.

Making improper use of a flag of truce, of the flag or of the military insignia and uniform of the enemy or of the United Nations, as well as of the distinctive emblems of the Geneva Conventions, resulting in death or serious personal injury; [Israel is guilty] 

We have seen Israeli forces commit this War Crime on live video.

The transfer, directly or indirectly, by the Occupying Power of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies, or the deportation or transfer of all or parts of the population of the occupied territory within or outside this territory; [Israel is guilty]

Intentionally directing attacks against buildings dedicated to religion, education, art, science or charitable purposes, historic monuments, hospitals and places where the sick and wounded are collected, provided they are not military objectives; [Israel is guilty]

Destroying or seizing the enemy's property unless such destruction or seizure be imperatively demanded by the necessities of war; [Israel is guilty]

Declaring abolished, suspended or inadmissible in a court of law the rights and actions of the nationals of the hostile party; [Israel is guilty]

Pillaging a town or place, even when taken by assault; [Israel is guilty]

Employing weapons, projectiles and material and methods of warfare which are of a nature to cause superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering or which are inherently indiscriminate in violation of the international law of armed conflict. [Israel is guilty] 

Again, indiscriminate mass bombings of innocent unarmed civilians by Israeli military forces take place every day in Gaza—and now in the West Bank and Lebanon. 

Committing outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment; [Israel is guilty] 

We’ve seen plenty of photos of Israeli forces committing this War Crime. 

Intentionally directing attacks against buildings, material, medical units and transport, and personnel using the distinctive emblems of the Geneva Conventions in conformity with international law; [Israel is guilty]

Intentionally using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare by depriving them of objects indispensable to their survival, including wilfully impeding relief supplies as provided for under the Geneva Conventions. [Israel is guilty] 

This is the Israel that Donald Trump wants to make great? Yes.

This is the Israel that evangelicals claim are God’s chosen people? Yes.

This is the Israel that uses lobby groups such as AIPAC to dominate our U.S. Congress and most state governors? Yes.

This is the Israel that the War Party in Washington, D.C., wants to take America to nuclear war with Russia over? Yes.

Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!

Israel and Ukraine! Yes!

And if somehow America miraculously avoids a nuclear confrontation with Russia over Ukraine or Israel, the bloodthirsty (and money-hungry) War Party in D.C. will find another monster for the United States to destroy.

I personally believe that the Jewish bankers (Rothschilds) manipulated the founding of Zionist Israel in 1948 at the conclusion of the Second World War for the specific purpose of destabilizing not just the Middle East but the entire world to make sure that perpetual war continued beyond the Paris Peace Treaties in 1947. I further believe that the history of the State of Israel—up to the present hour—substantiates my belief.

Soon after America’s founding, French historian Alexis de Tocqueville wrote that America was “great” because America was “good.”

If goodness is the prerequisite for greatness, Zionist Israel will never be great, because Zionist Israel will never be good.

© Chuck Baldwin

  No matter who Americans vote for, they still get leadership that puts Israel ahead of the USA. With Harris she puts both Israel and Ukraine ahead of the USA. Why cant we get at least one party that puts the USA first?

[shmowder]

Hi!! Love your blog, look forward to seeing your posts!! Every time they show up even if I’m not personally interested in the character/topic it’s about And since you seem to have a very good grasp on lore and the characters! I have a question about how something I’ve been thinking about would work/could it work? So how would the towns dynamic change if there was a fourth mistress? That only seems to really pop up during the events of the game? Since the playing field of the town is always getting shaken up so what better way to shake things up then have a fourth mistress who only reveals themself at the final moment? Maybe this persons family hid them/ their abilities away from the rest of the town for their protection? And now that the town is in disarray there’s no way to hid any longer? Or Meta reasons they only get added in because the kids got a new doll they wanted to add into a preexisting story?. I’m curious on how you personally think something like that would work/if it could work as a concept!? Since you seem to have a really good understanding on those kinda things! so I trust your judgment sorry if this is annoying I promise I’m not trying to be!!

also here’s a flower since your writing and memes are rlly cool 🪻

There are Mistresses with a capital M, and then there are mistress candidates.

In the town–not the Kin/steppe–there are only two Mistresses, light and dark, Nin and Victoria. Katerina is a false Mistress, she never counted to begin with.

However, there are currently three mistress candidates ingame and zero actual Mistresses. We never see one come into her full power, it simply ends too soon.

Maria, Capella, and Katerina. All three of them are only candidates. A Mistress's power extends much more beyond mere clairvoyance, sure they have "magical" abilities, but they haven't earned the title yet. Much like Artemy needed to earn the Menkhu title and not just be good at surgery.

The Light and Dark Mistresses are both new additions to the town. Their dichotomy belongs to the Capital, they're not native to the place.

Now for Kin "Mistresses" the definition is a little...vague.

They only have one, it's the Earth Mistress.

Let's make one thing clear, the Mistresses's powers are not part of them, it does not belong to them, they simply borrow it. Weaving magic through the air.

Much like one would wield a sword, it takes a tremendous amount of training and strife. And when you die, the sword doesn't wither alongside your body, instead it remains next to your corpse, waiting for another to come along.

Anyone can pick it up and wield it. That's how the powers are "passed" between generations. These swords do not actually belong to certain families despite what they may claim. The roles are more fluid than anyone thinks.

Katerina became a mistress candidate for dark after the passing of Nina as a way to keep balance, but by the time she started getting kinda of decent at wielding her sword, Victoria passed away and Katerina threw her weapon and powers out the window, rushing to the light and to take Victoria's place.

A light Mistress's role is more favourable, your visions leave you joyous, and you're well beloved amongst the people.

But by doing that, Katerina reset all of her progress, and she was back to learning how to wield this new magic from square one. Losing both tracks in the process since Maria and Capella's abilities far surpass hers by that point despite the early start advantage she was granted.

So...her eyes turned to another role, the Earth.

But she's not from the Kin. She can never hear the twyre whispers or trace the lines.

That's where the Rat Prophet comes in.

Remember how Mistress powers are only borrowed? Their visions are hazy, and prophecies are vague?

Well, the Rat Prophet IS the sword himself in this scenario. Those are his powers, always was, always will be. Part of the earth yes but an independent part, like one of your limbs suddenly gaining sentience and doing their own thing.

In the P1 Haruspex route, you can get a prophetic vision from him. Not about you, but about The Changeling, who starts doubting her powers and begs you to go ask the Prophet because he simply refuses to talk to her.

You ask him–or pretend to fool him and he immediately realises what you're doing–then answers directly. No beating around the bush, no weird euphemism, not a single room for doubt

The Changeling will lose her powers if she realises she has them, simple as that. Everything she says becomes reality. Every lie will twist into truth, and the second she becomes aware of it, all of her powers will vanish.

To the Haruspex it sounds like gibberish, but to you? The player who knows better? Oh, he hits the nail on the head. Because that's the thing, he never was talking to Artemy! He was talking to you. In every interaction, he is always addressing you the player.

That's the true "magic" everyone is so obsessed over, breaking the fourth wall, realising this is a game. That's why Clara powers surpass her age and time, because she is already past one layer of meta narrative, she knows this is a game which grants her better access to magic...She just thinks it's a kids' game, a sandcastle built by two kids and nothing more.

She hasn't been past the second meta narrative layer. She isn't even aware of its existence.

That's why the Mistresses can only weave it. They're just blindly grasping at the games code. No wonder they come out of it very confused.

It's a whole alternative reality to them. They don't have computers, and they don't know what Java Script is! You ask Maria to write you a simple Python IF function, and she'd tell you why the hell would she use a snake like a pen to write with?

The only way they can explain this ability, make sense of these binary codes, is clairvoyance.

Why their prophecies are so distorted and nonsensical, why they can only speak in riddles.

Why the Rat Prophet who casually breaks the 4th wall all the time has the luxury of being direct, crystal clear snippets of the future at the tips of his fingers...rat fingers?

The Rat Prophet is the one who comes to Katerina and lends her crumbs of his powers, just enough to get her to believe him when he starts calling himself the voice of the earth.

For what end? I don't know. His intentions for tricking her are never revealed. But he succeeds, and she fully buys into it, making her a false Mistress. She's not much of an earth mistress when the weapon she's supposed to wield has auto aim on, huh? Katerina is basically playing Pathologic Mistress Simulator with trainer cheats activated.

But, he doesn't give her the right prophecies, deliberately aiming on the wrong targets.

So there are only two actual self-made Mistresses so far.

-

In the P1 termites ending, Capella mentions how the Mistresses will be reinvented.

In the town, there are three power houses, right? Olgimskay, Kains and Saburovs. Each pulling from different directions.

Well, there is a fourth hidden cog, there always has been based on Capella's theory–the Kin. Not the employees under her father's command, but the real actual Kin indigenous to the town before settlements came here from the outside.

So the death of one Mistress doesn't start a domino effect of catastrophes like last time.

Capella wants to keep the balance of things, restart the cycle and maintain the status quo. The system wasn't broken and doesn't need changing, she claims, people just implanted wrong.

This time around, she will make it even more balanced. Leave fails safes everywhere by spreading out the power even more so there is less room for error and greed.

That's what Isidor saw in her and the termites, the potential to rebuild the town and ensure its survival. Her goals also coincidentally align with the Artemy's whole approach of maintaining traditions and not forsaking the past for a shiny future...at least if you play him as faithful to his role as a Menkhu.

She describes it as a "blend of many colors"

The new Mistresses are:

Grace The Beige Mistress (whatever the fuck that means)

Taya Malachite Mistress (who picked these names??)

Murky Lilac Mistress (Capella get a colourblindness test ffs)

And her. Capella. Still the Light Mistress.

She also claims to be able to see their "aura" and she picked their new roles and powers to suit the colours of their soul–on a side note, the same "aura" is also mentioned when Maria is being put down for never being able to amount to what Nina was because her soul is scarlet, transparent, not black, never an abyssal darkness like her mother.

You might ask, now who will become the next Dark Mistresses? Probably Maria still.

So what...Five total Mistresses in the termites ending?

Yeah! If not more, Clara is on her way to becoming the Earth Mistress right? Katerina needs to die first tho so the Rat Prophet stops using her as a puppet to larp as a Mistress with.

Capella basically said fuck it, everyone gets magic now. Kains and Olgimskays are united so the political tension is gone from the town. Everyone is special so no one is special so this town and its people can finally get a single fucking moment of peace at last.

The roles are shuffled, everyone has a new, more suitable title.

And Capella still needs a colourblindness test still bc Murky's scarf is NAVY BLUE, it's not LILAC.

WHERE ARE MY LORE DUMPS THAT CHARACTERS THREW AT ME OUT OF NOWHERE HUH ICE PICK LODGE? WHY IS P2 SO AFRAID OF GIVING A CHARACTER MORE THAN TWO PARAGRAPHS OF LINES IN EACH CONVERSATION? WHY DOES ARTEMY REPLY IN SHORT SENTENCES AND SINGLE WORDS? DID YOU LOBOTOMISE THE WHOLE CAST?

That's it, that's the whole P1 Mistresses in a nutshell summary :) I am NOT getting into P2 Mistress lore idgaf. It's not finished cooking yet.

They changed so much–things are somehow even more vague? It's like P2 is allergic to giving straight direct answers. Everything is suggested and hinted at rather than clearly stated.

Anyway.

For your questions.

So how would the towns dynamic change if there was a fourth mistress?

Which town? No really, which version of the town are we talking about her? Pre-plague town? Okay, do you mean the first wave or the second wave? Or post-plague town? Then which ending are we going with?

Honestly, it would change as much as it changed when Clara got introduced. That's basically your best point of reference to what adding a fourth mistress candidate would cause. Take Clara, double it and give it to the 4th.

But keep in mind that the 4th will be a mistress candidate not a Mistress. Especially if she was birthed normally as a human and had to grow up–then her progress would match Maria and Capella who still haven't came into the Mistress title.

Clara is a special case, an outlier, and the spider George of Mistresses, so we are not counting her.

"To receive her full powers and become a Mistress, a future Mistress has to go through a painful process, accompanied by seizures and fainting, and then finally wake up. After that, she will not be the same person. A future Mistress must recognize the next Mistress, passing on continuity. It is not clear whether the role of Mistress is a tradition, or a necessary stage of mystical transformation. "

As long as the 4th is still herself, she has her personality and traits still, and then she hasn't become a Mistress yet. Remember how Capella started changing at the game end in P2? It's the best example there is of what would happen to her, what awaits Maria in the future as well.

Also she needs to be acknowledged by the other Mistress candidates, even if they hate each other they will still acknowledge her if they glimpse actual powers in her.

what better way to shake things up then have a fourth mistress who only reveals themself at the final moment?

Everyone can wield the sword, but not everyone can see the sword on the ground in the first place, which is why most people don't pick it up; they don't realise it's even there. Everyone CAN become a Mistress, but most women won't.

-

That's a very mild shaking, more like stirring a cup of coffee. It's too late for her to do anything meaningful or affect any outcome. The Mistresses do not decide the game endings, the healers do. (Except anomaly mcguffin Clara again bc fuck me ig)

Block and Lilich do not believe in the Mistresses or respect them much, and it's them you need to convince to spare the town. Clara could brainwash people unless the 4th can do that too then...yeah, no.

Even then, she needed the same 13 days of preparations beforehand and a tremendous amount of human sacrifice. Most reactions to a new Mistress revealed from thin air at the last day would be like

Maybe this persons family hid them/ their abilities away from the rest of the town for their protection?

"oh cool. So like where were you while people were dying?"

-

Mistresses are mothers. That's basically it. They "mother" the town and its people, they have the heavy presence of a parent you have no choice but to abide to. You want to please them, you feel the need to obey them much like a kid clings to the skirt of their mother.

That's counterproductive. It's Mistresses who protect people, not the other way around. Their abilities are celebrated—even Nina the Evil was adored and respected despite her wrongdoings. No one dared lay a singer finger on her, not just out of fear but out of genuine reverence.

And she has, in fact, killed people.

And if she was hidden, it means she never got properly acknowledged by the other mistress candidates. So she never officially became a candidate herself and hasn't earned the title yet, only managing to hold very little power and influence.

Best case scenario, Capella integrates her into the termites/her vision of the new town. She wanted Clara to join her cause yk, but Clare refused.

... but maybe the ones who hid her did it out of fear they might lose her? Once she ascends to power, she will lose herself, feelings, and everything she once held dear. A complete factory reset of her brain. Sure, she still has her memories, but they feel like a stranger's more than hers.

That's one reason to prevent someone from pursuing their Mistress potential.

-

Or Meta reasons they only get added in because the kids got a new doll they wanted to add into a preexisting story?

That's clever! She needs to be a hated toy like the rest for them to throw her in there. It will need to be both, tho. The kids AND the hiding thing lore working in unison.

-

I’m curious on how you personally think something like that would work/if it could work as a concept!?

It's very feasible and could definitely work! But without time, preparation, and coming out of hiding years in advance if she is human, then she won't make much of a difference to the main story except be an interesting sideplot.

Think of it this way, All the herb brides hold the potential to be Earth Mistresses. That's how little it requires to be a mistress candidate. You are somehow connected to any string of magic in any form? Congratulations! You can enroll in the Mistress Academy starting today!

But it doesn't mean you will pass, or be accepted by the current best Mistress candidates.

You also need to want to do it, as in actively train and seek it out. If you ignore it, the power growth stunts.

-

Since you seem to have a really good understanding on those kinda things! so I trust your judgment sorry if this is annoying I promise I’m not trying to be!!

I...don't think I have that good of an understanding. I don't think I even qualify to answer this. I haven't played the Changeling route yet, nor finished the Bachelor. I just reread the wiki a lot and scoure whatever info I can find on the sub reddit.

Specifically "info" cited screenshots and texts, I don't trust opinions and theories because Pathologic is very abstract and vague, P2 even more so than P1. Two people could easily misinterpret the same concept, then the most popular version gets spread around and everyone thinks its canon.

Like Isidor adopting Rubin when it never happened, yes they planned it but he died before it could happen.

Or Daniil being short? He is pretty tall and strong, he survived a fist fight with Artemy.

Or MY BIGGEST PET PEEVE EVER, PEOPLE WHO ASSUME THE GAINT PAINTING HANGED AT THE ENTRANCE OF VICTOR'S OFFICE IN P2 IS HIS WIFE NINA.

NO! it's Maria's. Yes, she has short hair. It's her board game portrait. That's his daughter, you pricks! stop writing lewd stuff about it and the scene where he has a breakdown in front of it—it was supposed to be a bittersweet thing for him to sit on the ground in front of his daughter's painting, now you just made it about his wife and sexual stuff.

It's a reference to the many paintings of her he had in his P1 office.

My point is. I can get things wrong too, there are huge gaps of information in my brain, I am also very biased towards certian theories.

Treat this whole essay as a suggestion, a reference sheet rather than a guideline. A lot of things are left vague and up to personal interpretation, which I like a lot!

I know a lot of people have issues with Pathologic open-ended plots and optional multie choices that can be contradictions, making it harder to have a set-in-stone canon about the characters.

But I like it :) It is a meta game, after all, right? It makes sense for the player to get the power to alter this version of reality slightly. And the worlds have already changed in each playthrough! it is on purpose, a canon in game because it breaks the 4th wall. So, mulite universes and versions of events can co-exist at the same time.

Capella was right about there being a fourth hidden cog, Daniil, Artemy, and Clara are the obvious clear three.

But she was wrong about it being the Kin, because it actually is you.

The Player.

The Bachelor, The Haruspex, The Changeling, and The Player.

You've always been the hidden fourth power, the extra healer who persistently tries to cure the plague in three different universes.

That's why I love the opening cinematic in the theatre so much! The three of them are on the stage, under the spotlights and in plain view.

While you, the only other person in the room besides them, are hidden up in the corridor. Veiled by the darkness, silent and voiceless, making your way to the same exit they are.

You always belonged to the same group as them. You just were and will always be hidden out of sight and mind. Only spoken with through 4th wall breaks, even then, the characters aren't allowed to acknowledge it or remember it afterwards. You're immediately ereased from the memory of anyone you converse with after the last word is said.

-

I didn't get a chance to thank you for your sweet words, so thank you! <3 I'm glad you enjoyed my writing. I had fun delving into this, used it as an excuse to avoid my responsibilities - today has been... horrible.

I assure you, you're not annoying or anything. I'm very happy with these types of questions! I like writing x reader as much as I enjoy talking about the game, discussing and analysing the plot! I love dissecting things under a microscope, and if I do get something wrong, I try to go back and fix it.

Also a reminder, this whole post only applies to the canon of P1. It won't add up in P2 lore, neither do i plan analysing much of a game that's still not finished. Without the Bachelor and Changeling routes, we can't say much about the plot.

Thank you for the flower, that was like really endearing and cute—here's a flower back 🌺 I really like hibiscus.

[dalmascan-requiem]

Lente's Hymn: Resistance (Chapter 1)

-------

It's time to face the past.

-------

Read on AO3 or keep reading after the jump

content warnings: none

Next Chapter >

------

It's finally time to start the Bozja fic! This is one of the most important bits for both of my boys, and it is angsty. They have a lot to work through, after all, since Kris went MIA for four years going around doing Warrior of Light stuff. I'm not sure how long this one will be, but we'll be going through the whole Bozja story in the process!

Of note, I've moved the Bozja storyline from post-Shadowbringers to post-Stormblood, and Cid's around more. That's the important canon-bending stuff!

"Must you glare at me so, Kris?" Hancock looks over the rim of his teacup at the Viera, rose-rimmed glasses making his gaze inscrutable. "Have some tea! I just wanted to have a simple chat."

Kris sighs and leans over to pour himself some tea. "Chats are never simple with you."

"Hah! You know me too well." Kris's frown only grows deeper as Hancock chuckles, and the Hyur quickly clears his throat before continuing. "I have something of utmost importance to discuss."

Of course it's important… no one would call the Warrior of Light for a relaxing tea time. Kris inwardly rolled his eyes at the unwanted title. He's helped to liberate countries and slew eikons the world over, but it's never enough to earn some rest.

"I received word from Lord Hien that our friends in the Bozjan resistance, our comrades in the Eastern Alliance, seek the aid of distinguished heroes in their fight against the Empire." Hancock sets down his teacup with a smile. "Naturally, your name immediately sprung to mind."

The Bozjan resistance, strange that they're asking for help. Kris remembered some of the interactions--or rather, arguments the Bozjan and Dalmascan resistances had over the years. Neither group was willing to accept much in the way of outside help, to both force's detriment. 

But Bozja won't truly be free without loosening the Empire's grip on Rabanastre, and that much is clear to Bojzans and Dalmascans both. 

That means working with them eventually… but with any luck my work will be done before I run into someone that recognizes me. The last thing he'd want is for--

"So, what say you?"

Kris snaps out of his thoughts to look at Hancock. I forgot he was talking… "Yes, of course. I can't very well deny them after you so… thoughtfully talked me up, now can I?" He stands up and heads toward the door, tea untouched. "I'll find Hien straightaway. Thank you for the tea."

"Ah, must you leave so soo--" Kris shuts the door before Hancock can finish his sentence.

~

The next few days flew by in a haze. It appeared that the Bozjan Resistance wanted more than just heroes--they also wanted to outfit them with recreations of the Blades of Gunnhildr. Seeing vaunted heroes on the field with such legendary arms would serve not only to boost morale, but also send the Garleans a message that the Queensguard lives on.

The problem was no one remembered how the godsdamned things looked. It appeared, however, that Mikoto from the Students of Baldesion was able to conceive a device to delve into a person's subconscious--and if they found someone that had been close to the weapons in the past, they could get the information they'd need to recreate them now.

However, years past, the Garleans destroyed the whole of the Bozja capital, and with it, the soldiers that would have seen the Blades. But if Mikoto's precognitive Echo was correct, there is one person who can still help… Cid Garlond.

"Bozja… I would never have thought I could try to atone all these years later." Cid's voice is quiet, nearly carried away from the wind whipping around the airship.

Kris looks towards the man in silence until he continues. "The incident that destroyed the captial… it was my fault. If I had only--"

"Self-flagellating will get you nowhere." I know that all too well myself. "We will be diving into your past shortly, anyway. No need to torture yourself by reliving it now."

"Perhaps…" Cid mumbles, then turns to meet Kris's gaze. "Bozja is but a stone's throw away from Dalmasca."

Kris frowns slightly. "That it is."

Through a lapse of judgment on Kris's part, Cid found out about him being a former member of the Dalmascan Resistance. He didn't tell the Garlean much of the details, just enough to sate his curiosity. Thankfully, for his part, Cid never told another soul about this.

But his past is hard to ignore when it's so close by.

Cid clears his throat, then continues. "Is seeing your former comrades again something you wanted? No doubt they be happy to know one of their own is the Warrior of Light."

"I doubt that, Cid. And you know full well it's never been about what I wanted."

The sharp edge in Kris's tone stops Cid from prying further, and the Garlean falls silent until he speaks up again. "My apologies, that came out harsher than intended. Regardless, the Bozjan resistance is not working with Dalmasca--they'd spend too much time bickering instead of fighting the enemy."

"I see…" Cid stares at the horizon as Gangos comes into view, lost in thought.

Kris follows suit, looking at the fastly approaching cove. "Are you ready?"

"No, but I will face the past regardless."

~

Kris sighs as he watches the sunset. He and Mikoto delved into Cid's past as planned, and the Garlean was forced to face some harsh truths about his family and his past. It felt cruel, putting him through that…

However, the effort wasn't fruitless. Cid had been in the inner sanctum that held the Blades, and seen each in enough detail wherein the others could recreate both the look and the important inscriptions upon each weapon.

But as expected, creating the weapons takes time, and Kris has spent the last few days idle. He has offered to go to the battlefront, but Bajsaljen had refused, urging Kris to save his strength. The Viera spins a ring on his finger, frustrated with being unable to do anything.

Kris's ears twitch to the direction of footsteps from behind, breaking him out of his ruminations. He turns around quickly to the sight of Bajsaljen. "Apologies, I hadn't meant to sneak up on you."

Kris simply shakes his head and turns his gaze from the Hrothgar to the weapon in his hands. "Is that the blade you'll have me wield?"

"Yes." Bajsaljen lifts the greatsword up slightly. "This is Blade's Justice, a greatsword used by one of the Queensguard with some… more unique abilities."

Another Dark Knight, then. He takes the greatsword in hand and turns it over a few times. What a savage looking blade… and deadly sharp to boot. It'd take no effort to cleave a man in two. Such a fitting weapon for the Warrior of Light.

The Resistance leader continues. "The inscriptions you helped us recover have a use, as well. If you channel a small amount of aether into the blade, it will glow. Many soldiers rallied to the Queensguard on the battlefield by looking for the weapons' glow."

"Makes sense. Easier than trying to yell over the noise of battle, and it wouldn't be a proper recreation if it didn't act as a beacon… for allies and enemies alike." Bajsaljen fumbles over his words in an attempt to respond, but Kris ignores him and channels a sliver of aether into the blade. 

The weapon begins emitting a dark purple hue, somehow bright in spite of the shade. He watches the blade's colors pulse and shift for a moment before cutting off the flow of aether. 

"Fascinating." Kris looks back up to Bajsaljen. "Thank you, I'll be sure to use it well."

"Of that I have no doubt." Kris had thought the conversation would have ended there, but as the Hrothgar shifted his feet in the sand, it was clear he was not yet done.

"What else, Bajsaljen?"

"Ah--we've… we've completed the recreation of all the weapons, so we are nearly ready for you to join the front lines. We're simply waiting for the soldiers from Dalmasca to join us."

"The Dalmascan Resistance? I thought your group and theirs were on poor terms."

Bajsaljen lets out a growl of frustration. "That is true, but… we thought to extend our hand in hopes of mending the rift, and having a few of their strongest fighters wield the Blades and fight with us. To me, there seems no better way to work towards our shared goal than for the troops to see us all fighting together."

"I can't argue to that." As much as I wish I could… Godsdamnit, why is Dalmascan getting involved already? "Who are the soldiers they're sending?"

"I don't have any names, but of importance, they have a fighter that can wield the Blade's Resolve."

Kris's eyes widen slightly in shock. "You mean… the gunblade? Why would you have a Dalmascan wield the very symbol of the Queensguard?"

"We… have no Gunbreakers among our ranks. Not anymore." Bajsaljen shakes his head and shifts his gaze to the nearly-set sun. "We thought the art completely lost when the capital was destroyed, as so many were killed when the capitial fell. We had heard of a survivor happening upon the Dalmascan Resistance, however, and that he trained anyone with the aptitude how to wield a gunblade."

The Hrothgar crosses his arms. "Likely he thought he was the only one left and needed to pass down the art any way possible."

"I see…" Kris remembered the time the Hrothgar mercenary came across his camp all too well. He indeed taught as many as he could how to use a gunblade, but only a handful of soldiers showed enough aptitude and confidence to take them afield.

"But you needn't worry about the resistances' petty squabbles. Just know that you will have allies at your side." Bajsaljen turns around and begins heading back to the camp. "Rest well, the fighting will begin soon."

Kris watches Bajsaljen leave, then looks down at the greatsword, nervously strumming his fingers against the hilt. What awful luck to have Dalmascans joining us so soon. I hope no one recognizes me. And a gunbreaker too… The Warrior of Light looks out on the water reflecting the last light of dusk. I know there are several gunbreakers among their ranks, and likely even more have joined since I left, but I can't help but think to…

~

"Elja."

Laurent doesn't turn away from the papers scattered across the table of his tent. "What is it?"

"A-a message from the commander."

The Viera waves a hand vaguely toward the edge of the table. "Put it there, I'll look at it later."

He hears the messenger clear his throat. "The commander said the orders are urgent and I'm not to leave until I've seen you open it."

Laurent huffs and turns on his heel, facing the messenger. "Fine. Give it to me."

The messenger shifts his eyes away from Laurent and holds the letter out.

"Don't be so nervous, that'll get you killed next time you're carrying urgent messages across dangerous territory." Laurent grabs the letter out of the messenger's hand as he attempts to string together a response.

"I… yes, s-sir, noted sir…"

Laurent ignores him as he breaks the seal. Whenever Fran needs something from me, it's never anything pleasant. As fushcia eyes continue to scan the letter, he could tell that this time would be no different.

~*~

I have an urgent request of you. The Bozjan Resistance is looking to make a push to liberate their lands now that Garlemald is reeling from its losses. They are looking to recreate the Gueensguard, with none other than the Warrior of Light at their head.

Furthermore, the Bozjans have asked for a few token warriors in our ranks to help with the push, looking to bring us into the Queensguard as well. It appears to be a goodwill attempt, perhaps a way to get us to shift our focus to Bozja. That said, a unified front will be better than a fragmented one, so regardless of the reason I felt compelled to agree.

You are to travel to Gangos, where the resistance is currently stationed. Go there, accept their terms, and fight to free Bozja so we can free our own lands. Make sure our interests are known, so that they will not forget this kindness and help us, in turn.

~*~

"What in the seven hells is this? I am to simply drop everything and head to Bozja? Ridiculous--" Laurent looks up from the letter to complain to the messenger only to find him gone. I guess he did see me open the letter…

He reads over the contents a few more times before pinching the bridge of his nose. Gods, why me? I've never been good with the politics of dealing with the Bojzans. Eir was-- Laurent shakes his head and begins packing the tent up. I came here to fight, not to deal with the hemming and hawwing of the Bozjans.

"And the Warrior of Light, too…" The Viera clicked his tongue in annoyance. He had heard plenty of stories of the hero that has liberated countries around Hydaelyn, but he also knew they were too fantastical to be true.

No singular person could achieve such feats on their own. "On top of the Bozjans I'll have to deal with some pretenious and over-confident child that rode on the coattails of the armies and took all the credit. Gods, what a mission…"

But, I can't refuse Fran, so… I best prepare to leave.

[aurorawest]

Title: The General Mess and Imprecision of Feeling Author: @aurorawest​​ Rating: M (language, violence, sexual content) Relationships: Loki/Stephen Strange, Loki & Thor, Jane Foster & Loki, Jane Foster/Thor Major Archive Warnings: Creator Chose Not to Use Archive Warnings Word Count (so far): 6.0k Summary: Loki knows his feelings for Stephen Strange are a capital B-Bad Idea. Whatever character growth he’s struggled through hasn’t changed the fact that he’s uniquely incapable of making another person that kind of happy for more than a night.

When a powerful Asgardian artifact goes missing, Loki and Stephen must team up to track it down—especially once it becomes clear that the theft is part of a larger, insidious plot.

Can Loki tie together the loose threads of his life: the threat to New Asgard, his friendship with Stephen, and the feelings he can’t stop no matter how hard he fights, and write himself a happy ending?

Thank you to my betas, @mareebird​​​​​​​​​​​​ and AsgardianHarmony!

Chapter 2, The Odinson/Foster Household, is posted!

Ugh, well, it wasn’t like his dinner date wouldn’t get out. Not dinner date. Dinner. Dinner…engagement. Someone would see him meet Strange this evening and most of the village would know by the time he got home. He cleared his throat. “Actually, it’s funny. I would have thought he’d come by to say hello, since the two of you get on.” Silence from Jane. “Strange.” “What’s strange?” “No—Strange. The man. The wizard.” God, he could hear Strange in his head: The man, the myth, the legend.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | Epilogue

[shipcestuous]

This post is a collection of asks from the same anon. It seemed easier to post/answer this way. So these recommendations come from the anon and not from me. 

Call me~ Anon Sophie~, part 3/3 

Speaking of Content... Have you seen (if you haven't then.. this is a list of recs!):

The Films:

°Black Island (2021) https://www.netflix.com/title/81170838?preventIntent=true (Category: Aunt Nephew)

The plot was Completely Absurd at points

+he has no idea she's his aunt until much too late whilst she knows

but their chemistry was... Something Else.... makes the absurdity of the plot not even matter cuz ur like wow That Chemistry Tho.

ETA: I just realized the black island (2021) link I sent had a dubbed in english trailer.

I watched the subbed version&recommend that one to watch to anyone out there, just fyi.

Netflix dubs always sound slightly off to me.  Something about the emotion getting lost in translation...

__________________________________

°Map To The Stars(2014) https://m.imdb.com/title/tt2172584/ (Category: Mainly Brother Sister but there's Some subtextual & a tiny bit of blatant textual Mom Daughter stuff going on with Havana)

Don't care what anyone says, Agatha & Benjie carry that film & are the reason I will love it to pieces for eternity. Their dynamic is so very trippy&sad&dark but amazing.

__________________________________

Sister My Sister (1994) https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0111205/

Murderous Maids (2000) (aka Les blessures assassines) https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0216578/

(Category: Sister Sister)

Both Films about the same tragic situation but I only recently heard about MM

so I watched it to see if it was better or worse then SMS & it turns out that I like both films equally for different reasons.

__________________________________

° Say That You Love Me (2011) short film (aka Powiedz, ze mnie kochasz https://m.imdb.com/title/tt2084080/   (Category: Brother Sister)

~english subtitles https://vimeo.com/46529127/description

No idea how I even came across it (it is funny to me tho that ever since I started really getting into these kind of films, tv shows etc I happen upon them without having to actively search for it nowadays, like they fell from the sky lol)

__________________________________

The First Hope (2013) short film https://m.imdb.com/title/tt2401394/  (Category: Brother Sister)

https://vimeo.com/50655982/description

No clue how I found this one either but that one girl from Riverdale is in it, so it was pretty cool to see her.

Also this was kinda precious 😢

__________________________________

(bonus bonus round (ok last last ask for real.. Probably... For today anyway))

Oh! Also Have you seen:

°Amityville II: The Possession (1982) https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0083550/ (Category: Brother Sister)

Just watched it today.  It was very interesting.... because he gets..  Capital P Possessed? But she at no point is-

which implied to me that she had a clear head the whole time about...  Certain Things,

(she also says something very key later in the film which also gave me that impression.. lol I'm trying to reveal.. without being truly spoilery if u haven't seen it&I don't think I've pulled it off in any of my asks 😥 sorry)

whilst his head was muddled so it makes everything that happens both tragic but also like it must have stemmed from somewhere,

well not the end (I think the end was pure ~he is possessed~ because I doubt there is any world in which non possessed him would ever do what he did)

but the middle/beginning of the film to me, was a mix of what I believe was possession+inner subconscious from him&pure subconscious moving into slightly conscious from her.

Some of these titles are brand new to me so I am really excited to be able to add some new things to my canon masterlists and have some new recs on the blog. As well as some additional commentary. Thank you so much for the links and the details! What a nice variety of different things, too. 

I apologize for taking so long to answer. I’ve been bad recently, only answering asks once a week. Ideally I like to do it at least twice a week. 

Call me ~Anon Blah at this point:

(Last one & then I'm putting myself in timeout))

Also also I don't know if ur a fan of or against ~Sailing the High Seas~ as it were

because I have .. links to places to watch all the stuff I just recced if you haven't seen it & have no place to view it

but some blogs are against those kinds of links so if ur okay with links then I'll send another ask but if ur not then lol ignore me mentioning it 😉

Yes high seas links are very welcome. Don’t worry about it for these ones, but in the future please feel free (and encouraged) to include. And I hope more incest movies and shorts will fall into your lap!

[creaticare]

I have been tagged by @grayseyebrowscar for a WIP game, and I have too many WIP's to not make a separate post. Some of them haven't been touched in ages, but they are still WIP's. There are also themes of death, abuse, and self-harm at least in the titles, and maybe in the WIP sentences.

rules: share the first line (or two or more!) of every current wip you have (that you feel comfortable sharing) and tag some writer friends! feel free to add the titles of your documents if you see fit

AOT

Guardian Angel: "Sasha sat up and looked around at her surroundings, she was back at her house in the forest.*

Criminal Minds

Our Witches Heart: "Reid sat at his desk just spinning around, he had finished his paperwork a while ago and now he was just letting his head roam."

DC Comics/Young Justice

Fear Toxined Batfam: "It was a normal patrol when their comms crackled to life, Oracle's voice coming through into their ears."

Green Lantern Ring: "The battle was nearing its end, the Justice League was on its last leg stopping these aliens."

Our friends shouldn't meet ends: "Jason stood with a sword in his hands, at the ready, a playful smile on his face as Wally also fell into stance."

When I Find You: "Dick always found the prospect of soulmates intriguing, his parents seemed like they had a perfect unbreakable bond, so that means he should also have the perfect bond when he was older."

Fairy Tail

MCD one-shots Bxl: "The feeling of being burned from the inside out wasn't one that Bixslow would ever say he appreciated, especially as he felt blood dribble out of his mouth."

MCD one-shots Gjl: "The Guild Hall was buzzing with an uneasy energy under the normal rambunctiousness."

Our Souls Weave Through, Chp 3: "Another week had passed since they had first found themselves in these strange times."

Our Souls Weave Through, Abuse, Gjl: "Gajeel absolutely hated it here, he has only been a part of Phantom Lord for a month and he was miserable, best guild along with the ranks of Fairy Tail his ass."

Our Souls Weave Through, Bitey One-Shot: "Fairy Tail was pretty used to the biting habit Natsu seemed to have, most of them having grown up with him, and having seen him constantly doing it, or being a victim at one point or another."

Haikyuu:

Got a secret series, Can you Keep it: "After all the Ushijima Fiancé craziness had washed over, a fan chose to go back and rewatch the interview."

Swim, Spike, Receive: "Kageyama Tobio didn't always live in Miyagi, he actually used to live in Tokyo with his older brother."

My Life is your Tribute, Hunger Games Crossover: "The ten districts of Panem all used to be one unified country along with their Capital, until they rebelled, causing a war to spread."

Racing Royalty: "Empress sat upon the hood of her car as her Knight filled up the gas in preparation for the race."

Tsukishima's Shoulder, Finding our Footing: "He kept going through the cycles, kept going through these large cycles of doubt. The surgery date was creeping up on him and he was scared."

Creepy Crawly Crows: "The two teams on the court flinched back and the crowd went silent as the Military burst through the doors in the gym."

Figure Four, Finale: "The announcer cleared their throat to get the attention of the stadium, 'Everyone there is still one more performance for today.'"

Sewn Silence: "Bokuto's insecurities were knocking on the metaphorical door once again, he had the all locked away behind a wall of fake emotions."

Short & Tall: "Nishinoya picked up his pace as he tried to keep up with Tsukishima's freakishly long strides. This was one of the many reasons he was not a fan of tall people, they walk too damn fast."

TPN x Haikyuu: "Emma threw her head back as she felt the breeze pass by, she took a deep breath of her true freedom."

Buckle up, it's MHA time

(I have so many MHA fics, at least plans, I was hyperfixated on it for a long time.)

1-A childhood friends and soulmates: "Memories are a fickle thing, you cherish them when you're young, but they will slowly disappear as you grow. Those who you would hold so close to your heart, will suddenly disappear."

Bomb on Campus: "The bright numbers flashed over the campus as teachers were guiding students out of the buildings and through the gates."

Bonding Notes, Chp 3: "As Shoji makes his way into the dorm he digs into his pocket for his white cane."

Fuck, it's the Family: "When class 1-A walked into the classroom one fateful morning they were put on edge by the sinister smile on their teacher's face."

Gouged Clouds and Pittering Paws: "Aizawa was born with his Parental Mark set on his collarbone, a small black cat curled up, sleeping peacefully."

Interviews with the 3's: "The recording flickered on as they all sat around the common rooms of the dorm, Class 3-A and 3-B convened together."

Mutation Quirk Erasure: "Aizawa woke up and went to wake up his kids with a bad feeling in his gut, his brain telling him that something had happened."

Quirk Drawback Fics, Shoji: "The day had been slow, they all started off with Homeroom and then went through their classes until getting to hero training."

Separated for Safety, Chp 2: "Bakugo woke up, his vision slowly coming into focus, he stares at the bright white ceiling as he tries to remember what happened."

Splat the Colorful Hero: "Deku sat atop the roof that All Might had left him on, he sat on the edge with his legs dangling over."

Trauma and Friends: "The class had been getting closer, they were three fourths of the way through their first year at UA, but there were still some barriers between them."

Vanishers, Later in the fic: "Aizawa's head swiveled around to look at the door that had just been flung open, standing there was a panting Present Mic."

What Happened to Memories?: "Memories are a precious thing, but they always seem to just disappear."

When time turns back: "The class was scattered around the area as they fight villains in close and far quarters."

3 Pros, 1 Civilian: "Izuku Midoriya was an odd kid raised in odd ways, he has 4 parents that helped raise him but that's not what was weird about it."

3-A year: "Shoji quickly finished packing his bag, even though classes didn't start till tomorrow he wanted to make sure he had time to move back into the dorms, and get adjusted to his friends."

Deaf MHA: "Aizawa watched his students closely both in and out of class so at any moment he could see if there was anything wrong with them."

Pro Hero Wards, Chaos Fic: "Shoji sits in the common room with his stuff as the class slowly leaves for Christmas break, he was one of the few left waiting."

Shoji Retires: "He couldn't have even told them himself, they had to find out from the official Pro Hero news. Katsuki had run across the article that morning and sent it to the group chat of their old class."

Whumptober

Day 7: "She looks behind her quickly to check if the people are still following her, she doesn't see anyone, but she keeps running."

There are all of my Current and Old WIP's, I'm not gonna tag anyone, but it's open for anyone who wants to do it.

[rottingintheautumn]

My Personal Interpretation Of the Song "Get Money N Die" by Sematary.

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(Note that this is just an Interpretation of this song could totally just be sematary flexing hahaha but I'm autistic and I like looking deeper into things so fuck u)

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Now on Surface level this songs is very straight forward with what it is saying Basically just the title of the song itself "Get Money N Die" But I think there's something a little bit more to it When You start take These things into Consideration.

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Sematary's Rise From 2019 to Now

Sematary's Love of Rural America and Folk/Country Music

Current Economic Situation

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To Summerize How Big The Haunted Mound has gotten let me show you all the achievements of The Haunted Mounds Career

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SLUG CHRIST Feature on SKINWALKER

Butcher House Tour Selling Out Shows all over America and Europe

Black Kray Feature on Hallowed B Thy Wrist

Popularizing brands like "Affliction" and "Truey Jeans" Among the community and later having its own influence outside of the circle.

Collabing and making Clothes With "Affliction"

A FUCKING SOSA FEATURE

Bloody Angel's Tour and The Haunted Mound Polos Selling Out During the Tour.

Hitting 2 Million on SLUAGHTER HOUSE

Hitting 1 Million on Haunted Mound Reapers

WENDIGO being his fastest growing song

Bloody Angel Mixtape being in Top 10 of fastest "selling" albums of the week in America

Buckshot Modeling??

N More I'm probably forgetting

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Sematary Has Basically been grinding nonstop since 2019 to make all this happen just now finally officially taking a break from this to recuperate.

Note That His latest Mixtape "Bloody Angel" he has said in a interview that he has had to take Hella "Oxys" to even finish some songs so with that nugget of info we can safely say that he is exhausted and that "Get Money N Die" Is Victory Lap over his whole Career up to this point.

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Now His Music Taste. Sematary has made it very clear he is an American Patriot and with that comes with His love of old Country and Folk Artist. One piticular Artist I want to pick that he has posted on his tumblr and put one of their songs on his "DO NOT LET ME DIE" DJ Mix. Is The Carter Family, Basically Legends in their respective genres and I really like their work too.

What makes them so interesting to me is how sad their music is. For what some people on surface level may think this is some genuinely beautiful and sad lyrics coming from this piticular band and it that sadness comes from the hopelessness of the time of when the great depression happened.

The Carter Family made music through out the entirety of The Great Depression and with that came Beautiful songs like "Never Grow Old" and "When The Worlds On Fire".

Given That History of the time and this band and the music that they made with it and Sematary's general love (and hate) for America I feel Like it perhaps had some influence on sematary For this song.

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Now the less fun shit to talk about that just makes everything feel hopeless.

We all basically kinda know it inflation had been fuckin NUTS America and run by capitalism and heavy commercialization of everything You can basically get money out of anything and Retirement ages have been increased to 62 in a world where of half of the people barely make it to 45..

America has been built up to point where if u aren't making constant money at all the damn time while also making it so that u can barely get personal shit and only give JUST enough money to even survive.

America Has quite literally built to a point where it literally is "Get Money N Die"

OOOH OBLIGITORY REFERENCE TO THE ORIGINAL POINT OF THIS ESSAY TO MAKE IT ALL FULL CIRCLE HAHAHAHAHA

But like seriously Normal Mfs and even mfs with degrees are barely getting enough to survive it fr is fucked up out here with little to no breaks.

And im gonna do it again

In the grand scheme of things, it really is Just Get Money N Die

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Now With all these Points Combined to me this Song Feels Like A Victory Lap that Sematary is Proudly Parading in this song as He has grinded hard for years to reach these heights with Lyrics like

"imma flex till I dyyeee... cuz boy u no I grriinnddd.." and "I gotta go riiddeee 49 more miilezz till tha end of tha niittee.... Haunted Mound Reaper Count tha Money Uuuppppp!!".

And also this song could be a satirical take on America's Views and Capitalism and how absurd shit be with money. Specifically with the lyrics

"Get Money, Get Money nn dyyyeee!! Wooah wooooaaahh I LOOKED DEEP INTO YR EYYEESS... N ALL I SAW WAS LIIIEEESSS!!!" and the line that really started this whole yap fest. "Money WONT save yr soul when tha Reaper comes..."

That line alone had me thinking of is this track has something more to it or is it just sematary flexing?

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Me personally I think it's both.

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Thank u for reading my yap fest and my shit outro to this I love u.

Fuck the Government 1312 Kill all Transphobes Stay Rockin in tha Free World and god bless the Haunted Mound

[stillthewc]

YEAR OF THE FANGAN - JUNE EDITION

ꕥ DANGANRONPA: A QUARTER PAST DESPAIR ꕥ

It's time to check out yet another story that was advertised on TV Tropes! However, this one’s a truly unfortunate case due to being stuck in post-prologue limbo since 2018, and having all the trappings of a really high-quality story to boot. 

Well, sure, this prologue goes through the usual plot beats most fangans do (wake up in a strange room, meet students, meet mascots, someone nearly gets killed attacking said mascot), what draws me in the most is the set-up for the central theme: the desire to make a change in one’s life. the main character Fuyuko exemplifies this the most since he joined the Akihara Technical Institute for Gifted Individuals as a way to find fulfillment in his life, but additionally during the second half of the prologue, one character's brutally lambasted for living out a miserable, meaningless existence. Building blocks are being set up to explore each character's perspectives on their own lives, something my ensemble-cast-loving heart can't help but appreciate.

In terms of set dressing, I also really enjoy the location in which the killing game takes place. A "time" motif is clearly present, with most of the rooms giving off an oppressive, grudgey vibe (shoutout to the pool with toxic water and dirty pumps especially, that visual is nasty as hell). The rules at the end also note each student will be working within the area, adding an extra bit of interaction to these locations.

Finally, I have to talk about the art the story has interspersed through it, something I’m always a sucker for. While all they consist of are the intro cards and the chapter's title card, both look really nice: the title card is drawn beautifully, while the intro cards look stylish as hell (with special mention to how a clock blocks off each character’s pixel sprite. Love how that ties into the story's theme!). Special mention goes to how Fuyuko, Iori and Budou are drawn, as I think they have the best sprites out of everyone in the story. 

Unfortunately, there’s not much else to really talk about, as this is mainly a set-up for the characters / setting (a problem I sadly see happening frequently when covering prologues here), but I still do suggest giving this one a quick read!

FORMAT: Written

WHERE TO FIND IT: Ao3

FAVORITE MOMENT: Monokuma mercilessly ripping one of the classmate's livelihood to shreds in front of everyone.

FAVORITE CHARACTER: Katami Shishigami, the Ultimate Doomsday Prepper. He’s a man who speaks in overly-flowery expressions, to the point where it’s ridiculous (my personal favorite line from him: “What if I were a serial killer with a magical laser gun and shot you just now? You would be dead: shot, evaporated, murdered on the spot.”). While stoic in nature, it’s clear he’s a little loopy. Is also in serious need of deodorant.

OTHER STANDOUT CHARACTERS: Arisu Jukai, a level-headed woman who takes an empathetic approach to criminals, wishing to fix the society that failed them / find more humane ways to perform capital punishment despite being an executioner, and Susumu Iori, a horror-obsessed IT specialist whose crankiness and sarcasm are always a joy to read.

[sacred-stanning]

Chapter 13 Part 8: This is the problem with GBA bosses

So we've cleared out the map except for Selena, and since she's a boss, she doesn't move. Now it's time to just do dumb, ridiculous nonsense to get more experience.

I'm going to baby Marisa a bit more.

Tethys catches up with the group and dances her way to level 2. She got HP, which will keep her alive, and luck, which can prevent enemy crits. Awesome sauce!

I check out Gerik's odds, but I don't like the crit chance, and I think he was getting doubled with his other weapon, one of the heavy "blade" weapons. So he doesn't actually attack.

I could've gotten him something else to use, but I decided to just focus on Marisa instead.

Lute heals her way to level 2 and gets her 2 most important stats, magic and speed.

And I set everyone up to be near each other and get support points.

For anyone who is not familiar with the GBA support system, characters gain support points for every turn they end next to each other. The really important thing to know is that building supports takes forever for the most part, so artificially dragging out a map like this is pretty much required if you want to get characters to support ranks like A.

With this set up, Marisa can run in, attack, then Tana can rescue her out. Then Cormag takes Marisa from Tana and drops her. Then L'Arachel--who also needs experience, remember--can heal Marisa.

Oh yeah, and Marisa and Gerik are finally near each other, so they say hi too.

The final piece is to have Tethys able to dance people so that she can also gain some experience and become a little more durable.

At some point during this process, Marisa gets a kind of disappointing level up.

I ended up leaving Tethys next to L'Arachel so that L'Arachel could heal Marisa twice per turn, thereby doubling her (pathetic) exp gain!

The set up here also lets these pairs gain support points:

Tana and Cormag

Gerik and Tethys

Gerik and Marisa

Ephraim and L'Arachel

Lute and Vanessa

Franz and Seth

There might be others I've overlooked, but those are the ones I knew about off hand when I made this formation.

Look at her go! I'm glad this grindy silliness is good for someone!

Marisa finally pokes Selena to death and gets a level up with no strength or speed again.

She is at level 10 though, so she can promote and maybe still contribute somehow!

After we defeat Selena, Myrrh comments on how even though she got her dragon stone back, she's so sad.

Ironically, it may have been Myrrh who contributed to Selena's death here. If Myrrh hadn't talked to her and slowed her down from leaving, she might have taken the dragon stone and returned to the Grado capital before Ephraim arrived...

Like I alluded to in the title of this post, being able to do grindy nonsense like this against bosses is kind of a weakness of how they work in the GBA games.

Since the bosses don't move, and since the player gets to move their entire army on player phase, and since they can use characters to rescue other characters, the player just has all the tools they need to send people in to chip away and then back out over and over again.

What's really bizarre in this map, and the one before it, is that the bosses aren't even on special tiles that make them harder to kill. In many maps, the boss is on a throne or whatever, and that means they have more avoid, and more defense and res (I think) and they heal automatically every turn.

Imagine if Selena moved on this map? Maybe it would be bad if she moved right away since she could thunderstorm any unit of yours and you'd have no way to stop her, but if she at least moved once you got units into the inner area, that would be a bit more interesting.

Ultimately though, Fire Emblem Engage figured it out, (finally, 20 years later) by making bosses move, but giving them multiple health bars. It means one unit can't kill a boss, no matter how strong that unit is, but if you move multiple units in and don't finish the boss off, now they have the opportunity to move around and target one of your weaker units.

Next time: An assault on the capital

[thehipovercor]

Cor Lore Comp (#1?)

Aw yeahhhhh time to get to some questions with some answers. I'm also gonna link the Giant Lore Sheet since it'll answer a lot. I got plenty of questions, which is AWESOME but so many that I'll have to save more for another time :)

Without further ado, permit me to make a cut so this doesn't clog anyone's feeds lol

i got asked as a joke how Corda poop: the answer is they Do Not

I have made a diagram of Cor internals! I haven't had enough to say on it to share separately but now's a great time. Basically when I say these guys are mostly hollow, I mean it. There's a lot of supernatural/magic shenanigans going on but what I do have figured out I took seriously.

Cor heartrates are slower than humans', with Scouts having a fun and concerning resting BPM of about 20-30.

2. What planet are they from? EARTH BAYBEEE

Corda are from Earth and emerged at the same time prehistoric humans emerged in Africa, notably because Corda are "parasitic" and require a human population to reproduce for them. The Giant Lore Doc's intro paragraph is simultaneously a mythic interpretation and a factual explanation:

"Born out of a Great Hydra's misdeeds and curse, Corda are modified hybrids between humans and the now-extinct species the Great Hydra belonged to. To be clear: Corda Falsum result when the Great Hydra, referred to classically as The Suffering One, distributes a portion of its eternal curse to an unborn human fetus, thereby sharing part of its being with the human."

There's a previous lore post on the Hydra here.

3. What form of political powers exist in Falsum society? Two-layered congress

Focusing on the Capital city, there are Class Heads -- elected members of each Cor Class that exemplify "peak form" and "exceptional public servitude" -- and Class Elders -- the oldest surviving members of each Class whose opinions are appreciated but typically too gruff or outdated to serve well. The Class Heads (Qwerty, Dr. Aksoy, the Capital's Overcor, and Beowulf) serve "for life" unless they retire or are forcibly ejected from the position. Recently, Thanatos was caught committing atrocities and was lovingly arrested and stripped of his title and all its benefits, being replaced with his second-in-command.

The actual governing borrows from other countries' laws with custom laws being passed in congressional debate, usually with the Heads' cabinets present to argue and vote. Tentative decisions get passed by Elders and their input is either ignored or considered into the final decisions. There are courts with educated judges, leaving the Class Heads more free to do their normal jobs around the city. ...Unless, of course, the case is tricky and needs input.

BTW, the Overcor is named as such because she's an overseer, akin to a mayor, secretary, and treasurer all at once. Each population center in the Underground has their own Overcor, but the one at the Capital is the High Overcor. Each continent has their own Capital and their own High Overcor alongside their own Class Heads. The Elders are a North American Capital issue, since they're located closest to the legendary Pit in which the Hyrda is said to dwell.

4. What's considered an adult if they're 30 years old when they metamorph and others can be thousands of years old? uh

Typically, a Cor needs to be about 80 to be considered "comfortable in their Falsumness" but there are a few sticky details. You see, Corda appear the age they feel. Some centuries-old Corda present themselves not a day over 35, while some can hit 100 years and have an existential crisis that ages them to wrinkles instantly ("instantly" AKA over a period of a year or two). Personal interactions are up to the individuals with literally-younger and young-presenting Corda usually being viewed as little whippersnappers being group-effort considered. Nuances are too uh well nuanced to explain but to summarize: Corda divide themselves up pretty respectfully and friendships between """age groups""" can influence one another to literally equalize their age presentations. Additionally: once a Cor hits a certain age, old is just old and only the Elders are significantly impressive. A 3,000-year old Conduit is peanuts compared to Cicero, who racks up 22,000 years, but the 3,000 who presents as an old person is par for the course for an 800 year-old who also presents as elderly. Likewise, Qwerty and her best friends are all 100 or younger and they definitely act like young adults (~23 yrs) who feel invincible and garner terror from others who want so badly to explain how life works.

Explaining this was a mess and I'll probably tinker with and refine it later lol REGARDLESS: they're all adults and can figure stuff out between themselves! BONUS: Corda don't have biological sexes, no genitals, no issues there.

Falsum Children -- Corda who haven't undergone metamorphosis yet -- are 100% considered children even if the FC is 29. Any relationship besides a mentor figure is insanely taboo and expressly forbidden.

5. What's the entertainment like in the Capital? THERE'S OPTIONS

The city is set inside of a giant natural cavern that has been expanded upon and outfitted with debris nets and support fixtures to minimize collapse. There are districts for housing and commerce, although there is no one currency (lots of bartering and trade). Because it's an extremely cosmopolitan location, entertainment depends on what the citizens set up. There are park areas and open squares scattered around that are frequented by festivals, music, and general "man i love being at the park" casual-goers. There's a district set up for the large Warrior Classes humorously called The Barracks, but it's mostly a section constructed to accommodate their body type; however, there's a beloved amphitheater reminiscent of the Roman Coliseum, although the fights held there are more like sparring matches and the ring is also used for plays and performances. Nearby, the Cognizant Labs has recently set up a visitors' center meant to educate and inform on the safer Lab floors, as well as be a quiet location for seminars and talks. The Capital Castle (built into the cavern's far wall), additionally, will host organized formal events since it's separated into administrative and cultural sections. There's no monarch figure in the Castle.

If nothing in the city works, the manmade tunnels outside supply lovely views for walks and runs as well as paths directly to designated natural pools and springs. (Some water bodies are strictly off-limits to preserve nature and are guarded as such <3) There's a surprising amount of flora that evolved alongside Corda and discovering fauna ( usually bugs) is a treat.