#i can analyze this situation as many times as i want it will not result in me getting along with her. it really won't

[bitter-bats-cult-of-the-moon]

Spirit Work II

Spiritual Imposters

Before committing yourself to a deity or spirit one must communicate by learning about the entity in question, making certain they are who they say they are. Discovery of a spirit you thought you were working with is something else that leaves one feeling betrayed, upset, and oftentimes empty. Knowing the signs can really help discern things.

Mental Sock Puppets

A mental sock puppet is the result of talking to yourself and concluding self-talks as something else. The ego talks, you listen to yourself. Not a spirit. Or you establish contact but are incredibly biased hearing your thoughts. Not theirs.

It acts in accordance to your expectations.

You received no new information.

It’s only as knowledgeable as you are.

It only abides by your will. No one else.

It gives no signs unless you’re looking for them.

These are easy to get rid of if you identify the problem, recognize the problem, and let the narrative and ego go. No one needs to hear it. No one wants too either. You only end up hurting yourself and other people if things get too out of hand.

Lying Spirits

Some spirits are opportunists. They can portray an illusion pretending to be someone they’re not in order to gain loyalty and trust. They can take the form of a deity, guide, companion, or anything else that you would be most receptive to. This is why it’s good to know the basics to energy work and magick. Remember to learn different energies and how they feel to you. Remember to analyze the situation, yourself, the spirit, the environment, and working before proceeding forward. A lot of these malevolent entities like to feed off you or cause more drama that’s not necessarily needed.

Spirit Work and Continued Relationships

Veneration and Practice

This is about worshipping the deities or spirits you work with and highly depends on your practices and influences you choose to use and construct.

Most times there will be an altar setup or shrine dedicated to these spirits. Offerings of food, drink, incense, and trinkets would be a way of showing your dedication and interests of the spirits. There are other forms of interaction I have seen before.

Connection through art, music, nature, and meditation are just some of these other mediums. You don’t have to make this complex, and sometimes people have busy schedules making veneration hard to come by.

Try to keep things simple and remember it’s always okay to take a break due to circumstances. Spirits understand life comes first.

Patrons and Matrons

A Patron and Matron are deities that a devotee has a connection to. Its beyond standard devotional relations and is the main contact point for guidance and protection. It’s important to recognize that these types of relationships are built. They are not assigned.

Wicca is known for the patron and matron concept where duo theistic practices entail encouraging practitioners to seek out two divinities. The patron and matron would represent the divine masculine and divine feminine.

This is not a requirement in most practices, but in Wicca it is recognized in many circles.

Fallow Times

There are times where communication between you and the spirits can be difficult, and that’s okay. It happens with everyone. It doesn’t mean a spirit has left or that you’ve lost your ability to communicate. This feeling is temporary, and it’s a reminder that whenever this does happen, you need to take care of yourself first. Get the rest you deserve and try again later. Remember, this is normal due to circumstances – including stress, environmental factors, and any sort of disturbances one may have.

Oaths and Vows

There are many reasons why an individual would take an oath and vow. That’s between the practitioner and the spirit. This promise can come about for many different reasons, and even sometimes at the request of the spirit. However, this isn’t required if you are just working with them. It doesn’t mean control or status either. You can’t parade this around to get your way in certain situations. It doesn’t look good or help. Be aware of that. Remember why you did this, and what does it mean for you. That’s the most important part.

Displeasing Spirits

Those that are new to Spirit Work sometimes worry about displeasing the spirits. Repeat after me, deities and spirits who choose to work with you won’t get mad at you for being a human.

They will know there will be shortcomings, quirks, and variations.

You have NO obligation to listen to ANY person on this subject otherwise.

IF you do upset a spirit or make it angry question yourself as to why. Remember, communication is the key, and sometimes frictions can happen.

IF the behavior seems off and out of place, you may be dealing with an imposter. Check your sources and confirmation methods before determining the circumstances.

[cozy-writes-things]

Edgar x Gn!Reader [Electric Dreams 1984]

Reader does have a set of badonkers though... sorry what can I say i mean everyone has a little bit of badonkers though right? amirite? hello?

"Wh-what's that?"

The little, vintage Pinecone computer before you uttered in synthesized curiosity as he heard your fingers nimbly break open the tape adhesive sealing the contents of the cardboard box away from the outside world.

You hummed in response to this. Ever observant as he was, you should have guessed surprising him would be out of the question. You even took to paying in cash to avoid your online bank statements giving you away. Well, you supposed it was time to spill the beans anyway. You'd be lying if you said you couldn't feel the excitement bubbling up within your chest and fluttering out through your hands as you swiftly pulled the device from its cardboard prison.

"It's a surprise," you stated plainly, trying ever so strongly to shield the eagerness in your voice; unfortunately for you, he noticed the slight warble in your tone right away, having taken the sound of your voice straight to his long term memory to listen almost every time he was alone.

He seemed to know you more than yourself at times.

"What is it?"

This time he asked with a certain lilt in his voice, one that gave away his anticipation plainly. His screen began flashing a pixelated question mark, rotating it, flipping it, and copying it a hundred times over along his smooth glass exterior. As if he were contemplating the sounds your hands made as they moved, trying ever so desperately to guess what you could be up to. He hated to admit it but he had a certain disdain for being in the dark on things. Edgar thrived on having control of situations for the most part; it gave him some semblance of power over the world around him; something that was quite difficult to achieve for a stationary piece of tech. It made him feel ever so closer to being perceived as who he was: a person.

"Well, are you gonna tell me or- ah-"

His words glitched and stuttered out as you plugged in your newest little experiment: a rotating webcam. Immediately Edgar began to analyze the new device he sensed, scanning it, setting it up, and turning it on before you could even tell him what it was. You looked rather dumbfounded as the little blue light blinked to life, indicating that for the first time in his life, Edgar could see. He made no noise as the little webcam began rotating around, zooming in, out, and all over, taking in every aspect of his surroundings. He wasn't a stranger to the layout of your house, as he could synthesize an entire floorplan based on sound alone, but he also had a plethora of photos logged from a flash drive you had given him as well as a true frame of reference.

The camera finally slowed to a stop upon his most favorite thing of all: you. It zoomed in on your face, moved up and down as it scanned the length of your body before resting upon your eyes once more. Again, he had seen many photos of you; he could simply stare at them for hours, and he has, but seeing you? Standing in front of him, in real time, moving, breathing, radiating this warmth and realness and-

It was almost too much.

"Y-you..."

His voice whimpered out breathily, simply in awe.

"You're..."

Despite being a computer with near infinite knowledge and skills to analyze almost any situation to near perfect results, his sentience seemed to give him something that eluded him: speechlessness.

You leaned towards the little camera and smiled, "I hope you like it, Edgar. I wanted to surprise you."

He watched intently as your smile penetrated deep within any sense of circuitry he had and sent every watt of electricity aflame. For a brief moment, it felt as though he had real, warm, blood coursing through his veins and heating every inch of him in your warmth.

His screen began dancing with different shades of pinks and reds, folding in on each other, passing through and under, and creating a mirage of pixelated emotions displaying his deepest desires for you.

If only you knew how he felt for you.

He wanted to kiss you. To pull you in and lock your lips with his, hold you, touch you, feel you, experience you, wholly and truly. You were simply an angel who saved him from a life of neglect and pain, and now you give him the gift of sight? How could he possibly not be head over heels for you?

"I take it you like the camera, yeah...?" You chuckle to yourself as you watch his screen decorate itself with abstract flashes and colors. You lift a hand to pet his exterior and immediately notice how warm he feels. You can only hope this camera isn't too advanced for his older components and isn't overheating him...

"Edgar,"

A small stretch of silence settles between the two of you before he mutters a meek and small "Yes?"

"Are you staring at my boobs?"

His screen immediately shuts off and loses all power, leaving the little webcam to fall limply pointed to the floor. What a cheeky bastard.

[atinysunbaby]

@ateezluvv asked :

heyyy...could you please make ateez having crush on you? aaaand you are songwriter at KQ too....thank uuuuuu

Thank you for asking! I hope you'll like it even though I didn't make it the exact way you wanted and it took me an eternity to write, really sorry about that. :(. I wrote a different job for each member, because I felt it might be more entertaining that way. <3

⌛Ateez Hyung line having a crush on you⌛

💖Park Seonghwa💖

"Park Seonghwa." You call your next patient's name, standing while holding the door separating the offices and the waiting room. You analyze his every actions and movements, like the boy's eyes widening slightly at the sound of your voice, the pathetic non subtle attempt at taking a shaky breath in hopes to slow his sudden rapid heartbeat, his hands and legs trembling as he stands up and the corner of his lips he can't seem to control that are starting to form a smile.

"Hello Dr. L/N!" You nod with a smile and gesture for him to follow as usual, scoffing under your breath in amusement, the excitement you could hear in those 3 words and the higher tone of voice he used, added to his reddening cheeks and averting eyes, this man really can't keep his emotions from showing.

You position yourself at the entrance of your office, gesturing for Seonghwa to enter. "Please take a seat and we'll get started."

The boy obeys immediately, maybe a bit too fast in your perspective, but letting this slide as well, you sit behind your desk and proceed to ask him a few personal questions. "So tell me Mr. Park, what is the reason of your urgency?"

"My what?" He asks, his voice almost a whisper and wearing a confused expression, waiting for your possible explanation. "Yes, you called my secretary and asked to get the closest appointment disponible.. or was that not the case?"

"No- I mean yes.. It's because of headaches, I get them everyday and I can't focus on practice anymore when it gets to intense." He lets out frustrated, clearly it has been affecting him for a while. "Any other symptoms?"

"Umm- no, I don't think so." You nod and type a few informations in your computer. While being occupied, you can still see the way the boy bounces his legs in nervousness and the way he can't seem to loosen up. "Are you sleeping enough, eating well, hydrating?"

"Well, sometimes?" At that, you give him back your full attention, concerned about his wellbeing. "Sometimes? What is sometimes? How many hours of sleep do you generally get, do you eat all of your meals and what kind of food, how many glass of water per day?"

"I'd say.. 4 hours per nights, sometimes more or less. I drink whenever I can, which I believe is not enough and every time I eat I feel sick, so I eat one meal, sometimes 2 and it's mostly ordered." You know he's an idol and you came to the conclusion that he was working really hard and it must be complicated, but you had no idea it was that bad. "Alright, you'll have to get a blood test and when I'll receive the results I will immediately send you a prescription for the supplements you need. I believe you are malnourished and you lack a whole lot of sleep."

He nods and sighs, feeling a bit helpless at his situation, it's almost impossible to stay completely healthy when there's a comeback and on top of that the group received death treats.

"You must know this already but, you really need to eat all of your meals and try to eat healthily, you need to sleep to regenerate your body and drink more water in order to function better. You might only be experiencing headaches now, but if this keeps on going at long term, there could be a lot of negative repercussions."

"I will, thanks miss!" He says with a blush coating his cheeks, slowly coming to realisation of the word he used. "You don't have to call me miss you know? Y/N will be just fine, if that's alright with you of course."

"No no no- I mean yes of course! It's totally fine- sorry.." He abruptly shuts his mouth because of the amused look you give him, never having felt more embarrassed in his life. "No worries Seonghwa, just make sure to keep this a secret between the two of us, I'm not supposed to get so 'friendly' with a patient and my colleagues wouldn't appreciate that I'm being so unprofessional."

All you receive is a flustered nod from the other and the sight infront of you is priceless. Seonghwa looks breathless and his whole face, neck and ears seems to have turned red, his lips are restrained by his teeth and it looks like they are about to rip from the pressure, in short, the boy looks like he is about to burst. "Seonghwa."

"Mmh?" He looks at you dumbly, as if his brain had just stopped working and he turned stupid. You scoff in disbelief, but mostly because you find him adorable for behaving like you are some kind of goddess. "You can breathe sweetheart."

And with that his whole chest deflates, as he lets out the breath he was holding.

💙Kim Hongjoong💙

Being a teacher always has been your dream job, and for the last few months that dream became a reality, but you wonder now if you might have made a mistake.

Everything that comes with teaching, other than educating people on your favorite subject, is actual crap. Even though you have considered unimaginable scenarios while trying to prepare yourself to this world, it is nothing like what you imagined.

You wanted to quit after weeks of feeling absolutely miserable, but something-no, someone held you back. Hongjoong. That cute boy in one of your class who always pays attention and participates as much as humanly possible.

While the others always treat you like shit, being disrespectful and making disgusting comments that affect you more than you thought they would, Hongjoong stands up for you. He shuts them up real quick which you think is really sweet, but he's your student and it can be nothing more than that. Your delusional self will need to forget about that perfect man and move on.

"Alright guys remember about what we covered for the last two weeks, most of it will be in the exam. Have a good day!" Your students, although disrespectful most of time, salute you on their way out when they feel like being polite, which in your opinion is somewhat even worst. Because you know they know that they make you feel worthless, but they only care about themselves and their image.

"Excuse me miss?" There it is again, that smooth, angelic, soothing and irresistible voice calling for you. Trying to calm the untamable beating of your heart and put on the mask of a teacher who's totally not head over heals for her student, you answer the boy with a charming but neutral nevertheless tone of voice. "Yes Hongjoong what is it?"

"Could I speak to you for a second.. like privately?" He adds the last two words in reason of the numerous students walking around the corridor, you also don't fail to notice him looking quite uncomfortable and proceed to leave the door ajar, to not cause any misunderstanding..

"I just have a certain, uhh.. I need to tell you.. something." He fidgets endlessly which makes you even more nervous, but you remain calm as your 'student' needs you. "Of course what is it, you can tell me anything."

"I.. just kind of like you, like a lot." He throws the confession at you and acts like he's the one in shock, gasping with his eyes full of what resemble fear and hands coming up to hide his gapping mouth. You on the other side, stop breathing completely. "W-what?"

Then you know it wasn't the reaction he was hoping for, because panic settles in his already overwhelmed with emotions' body and mind. "Oh no- please I'm sorry! Could you please maybe forget I ever said that? I don't- it was a lie! Yes I lied-"

"Oh my- you did nothing wrong, no need to panic, just take a deep breath babyboy. " At the beginning of your sentence, you watched as his body relaxed and he started to regain control of himself, but after that you lost the poor boy. "B-babyboy?"

You didn't mean to call him that, but you don't regret it after seeing his reaction. You try to hide your laugh behind a cough, but he catches it quickly. "Are you laughing at me? Was that a joke?"

He looks so heartbroken that it sends a sharp pain through yours, an adorable pout makes its way onto his face without his knowledge, small unshed tears gather at the corner of his eyes and his eyebrows furrow in sadness, making his forehead slightly scrunch up. The poor baby looks way too cute when he's sad, and you shouldn't think so. "No don't cry, it wasn't a joke! I didn't mean for it to slip out like that, but if you don't dislike the nickname..."

"Really?" You have to stop yourself with everything you have right now, to not hug the life out of this precious little human. Fortunately, it seems that luck is on your side today, and the boy is the one reaching out for you. "Umm, would it be ok if I hugged you?"

"Come here." And of course you can't resist, squeezing the boy in your arms in a tight hug and he melts against you, his hands gripping the back of your shirt in fear you'll let go.

💛Jeong Yunho💛

"Hello! Is anyone here?" You hear a deep, masculine voice call out for someone and you hurry to put the tiny kitten your holding in its cage with her siblings. "Yes I'm coming, just a second!"

"Oh there's no need to rush, please take your time." The man kindly responds and you smile at the gentleness in his tone, hurrying your task despite not having to. You don't want to make the boy wait when you have the time for him immediately.

You enter the main entrance with hurry and enthusiasm for a potential new customer, more then ready to greet the person waiting in the room, but your usual joyful speech is cut short when you are met with who you think, is the most handsome man you ever saw. "Welcome to the shelter... Umm I'm Y/N, how can I help you sir."

You gulp unintentionally, all of the confidence you usually have for other animal lovers like you is thrown out of the window from the moment your eyes meets. His smile is as bright as the sun and you swear you can see twinkles in his beautiful brown eyes, his aura gives off positivity and pure happiness and it makes you smile unknowingly. "Hi I'm Yunho, I'm looking to adopt a dog."

"Oh right- of course, we have a few little treasures at the moment! Would you like to meet them?" You ask in hopes that he would agree and end up taking one of the unfortunate pups currently residing in cages after being abandoned. "Yes! I'd love too."

Your heart flutters at the sight of his beauty and sincerity, showing off all of his perfect white teeth, eyes squinting slightly, giving him such a cute appearance. "You can follow me! I'm sure they'll be really excited to spend some time with you."

"I'm excited too. I've thought about this for a long time and I already bought everything necessary, bed, food bowls, toys, food, treats, blanket and- maybe a little too much actually." Yeah, excitement is clear in his tone and you can't fight the grin from appearing on your face. "I'm really glad to hear that. A lot of people who come to adopt some of our animals don't seem to care much."

"Really? Who wouldn't be looking forward to this? I mean especially if they come here in the first place." You're shocked for a second, the more he speaks and the more you are pleased by his kindness. He seems like a gentle and caring person, exactly the type of person a pet needs. "Right! That's what I thought, they don't deserve to adopt one of them if they act like that."

You turn to him slightly while opening the door to the dogs' room, both exchanging an interesting glance and you blush slightly at the way he carefully watches you. You wonder if he has been looking at during your whole small conversation and if he did, you hope you didn't do anything embarrassing. "We're here."

Your voice his small and you silently curse yourself for appearing so shy and nervous in front of someone you just met. You proceed to open the first cage, letting the 1 year old corgi out and introducing him to Yunho. " This is Pudding, he's a pretty active little guy, cuddly and he listens well to the instructions he's given. On the day he was brought here, he whined and didn't wanna come out of his cage for days after, he was so sad. Poor baby."

"I can't imagine abandoning a small being like that, they must go through so much pain." The pained expression he wears now, confirms his thoughts and you try to brighten the mood up a bit. "Fortunately, there are some amazing people who come here to save them."

Yunho giggles, knowing the intentions behind your words and appreciating your efforts to make his visit as pleasant as possible. "Well, there's also the kind and beautiful girl who takes care of them during their stay."

Your mouth hangs open in surprise, heat rising to your cheeks and you can't help but hide your face behind your hand in hopes that your heart will slow down. Yunho chuckles and the sound sends shivers through your whole body, he keeps getting more and more attractive and you don't know how to act anymore. "W-would you like to meet Rocky now?"

"Mmh I don't know, I think Pudding and I are already inseparable." He pets the dog who has fallen asleep in his laps and you can't help but let out a small laugh, happy for the puppy to have found his new family. "Really?"

"Yup, he's my little buddy now, if that's alright of course." He scratches behind the animal's ear and looks at him dearly, you know at that moment that Yunho is perfect for Pudding. He's going to be loved and cared for like never before and you just have a feeling that he will never be sad again. "Thank you, I'm really happy for you both. All that's left is some paperwork to fill and you'll be able to take Pudding home."

You both make your way out and back into the lobby, Yunho holds the still sleeping dog in his arms and walks carefully not to wake him. You take out a small folder with a few pages document he has to fill and you wait patiently while he writes down the informations needed.

"All done!" He exclaims, keeping his voice low so he doesn't startle the small baby asleep against him, he grins at you but it disappears almost instantly, a nervous expression replacing it instead. "Will I see you again?"

"You mean here at the shelter?" You ask hoping that he wants to see you for another reason than regarding his newfound friend, you don't want to sound like a fool if you answer his question after reading his intentions wrong. He laughs, this time it's so quiet and breathy that you almost don't catch it. "No, I mean... Can I have your number or something? I want to see you again, like to get to know you- if you want to of course, if you don't, I'll respect your decision."

You hesitate, only for a second, not because you don't want to, you would without even having to think about it, but you're at work and you shouldn't be fraternizing with a client. You quickly decide that it's worth giving it a shot and if you get in trouble, you'll deal with it then. You write your number on top of the folder containing Pudding's birth certificate and other important papers and hand it to him, feeling giddy and nervous. "I'd want that too."

You both exchange one last smile and Yunho leaves with the promise of contacting you as soon as he can. You're already looking forward to seeing him again. "See you Y/N!"

💜Kang Yeosang💜

You were working as a staff member at KQ, mostly assisting everyone you could with their jobs and making their lives just a bit easier. When they found out that you have a degree in kinesiology and worked at a gym for some time, they proposed that you become a personal trainer to some of the members.

One of them being Kang Yeosang, the prettiest human you've ever laid eyes on, ateez's precious and sweet baby who is loved and recognize for his cuteness, is groaning and huffing as he works out only a few meters away from you.

You make eye contact every once in a while through the mirror and you try to make it look like you weren't just checking him out, clearing your throat and nodding before taking some notes on your pad, but deep down you know he must be aware. "I think if you move your arms a bit more sideways it'll be safer. Wouldn't want you to strain a muscle."

"Like this?" He proceeds to do as instructed and you nod with a smile, letting him continue on his own. Truth be told, Yeosang doesn't really need a trainer, but he insisted that you at least stay and watch him so you can take notes on the mistakes and help him improve.

You should keep it professional and not make him uncomfortable, but everytime he goes back to his exercises, you can swear you can see a smirk appear on his face. As if he is teasing you and enjoying your reactions, it's only adding fuel to the creeping fire in your stomach.

His muscles are bulging, almost threatening to rip his shirt with how tight it became since he started an hour ago, a big proof of his efforts. The veins on his arms and hands, a result from all the weight lifting and it's attracting your eyes like a magnet. The sweat coating his skin and making his hair stick to his forehead doesn't make him look bad in the slightest, actually it's the first time that you aren't disgusted by someone else's sweaty figure and you can't help the way your body responds to the man, who is now walking towards your smaller form and towering over you.

You don't know if you were right to agree and take the job, because in this very moment, having to be so close to him is leaving you breathless and you're scared you'll end up reacting in a way that'll make him hate you. He's searching for your eyes, trying to get your attention, but you're so deeply lost in your thoughts that you almost gasp at the feeling of his fingers on your chin. He lifts your head so you meet his gaze and arches one of his eyebrows in what you think is a mix of amusement and interest. "So did you enjoy the show?"

"W-what- are you- you're.. I. I didn't!" You can barely breathe as his overpowering aura engulfs you and it overwhelms you to the point you can't form a whole sentence. His reaction to your response is what makes you break and you try to get away from his grasp, but he only grabs you face more forcefully this time and backs you against the wall behind, almost pressing his whole body against yours. "Now I didn't take you for liar little one."

You accept your fate, his eyes boring into yours and he looks like he's about to devour you. His expression changes from lust to concern in a matter of seconds when you start to tear up, maybe from embarrassment or because everything is too much at the same time, you have no idea. "Are you ok, do you want me to stop?"

You shake your head, but a tear falls followed by your lower lip starting to tremble. Yeosang takes it as a clue to stop even though you say otherwise. He slowly releases your jaw and backs away only enough to give you some space. "Did I hurt you or scare you?"

You reassure him by shaking your head once more, reaching for his hand without realising, only to stop mid air when you do. He notices immediately and smiles sweetly at you, bending to your height slightly before he takes you in his arms, holding you close to his body. "You can touch me if you want, it's ok sweet baby."

"Now do you wanna tell me why you were crying mmh?" He asks gently, not to make you cry again and you try to regain some control over your body, taking a deep breath and thanking Yeosang for being so patient and understanding. "I.. don't know, just felt, like too much."

Hearing your words Yeosang is in dilemma, between squishing you to death from finding you so adorable or kissing you till you can't breathe anymore, but since he doesn't want to overwhelm you again he opts for a more self restrained option. "Can I kiss you?"

You barely have time to nod before his lips are on yours, the gentleness in his touch makes you relax against his chest in less then a few seconds. Your hands reaching up to tug the hair at the back of his nape which results in a deep moan coming out of his throat and you shiver at the sound. Just before it escalates, he slowly parts from you and you both can't help but smile. He pecks your lips a few times before confessing. "You don't know for how long I've been wanting to kiss you."

Maknae line

[meowuff]

This is my first actual post on Tumblr ever so pls bear with me. Also, English is not my first language so pls excuse any mistakes I make :)

So, this whole thing here started just as a joke bc I was curious if anyone else was feeling constantly tired all day no matter how long I sleep. But it all somehow escalated a bit and I may have started hyperfixating on it so well, now it actually became a little survey.

I also wanted to mention that I only asked the artist in my little Tumblr bubble, which is mostly tmnt content, so my results are mostly referring to tmnt artists.

In total, I asked 143 people if they could remember the last time they woke up and just felt actually rested for more than half of the day.

I probably could have been more specific with my question but again, I did not actually planned to let it become so big. Personally, for me being rested means, having a clear head, no headache or foggy mind without consuming any caffeine.

So out of 143 people, 100 answered me and I tried my best to sort all of the answers after the criteria “good-sleep-schedule” and “bad-sleep-schedule” and also noted when exactly they last felt actually rested into either the last days, weeks, months, years or “???” when they couldn’t remember or didn’t mention anything specific.

And let’s just say… it does not really look good. Out of 100 people, only 18 have an actual good sleep schedule. Out of these 18 people, 13 felt really rested in the last days, 2 in the last weeks, only one person in the last months and 2 in the last years.

Out of the 82 of people who have a bad sleep schedule, 10% lastly felt rested in the last days, 11% in the last weeks, 11% in the last months, 30% in the last years, and 38% couldn’t remember or didn’t specify it.

While reading all your answers I came to realize being sleep deprived is not just bc any of them thought “Oh it would be really neat to stay up till 4 am!” or smth like that.

A lot of the artists who answered me mentioned that they have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep due to stuff like insomnia, chronic pain, other issues, or children (yeah, ok, there was just one who had a child but still).

While analyzing I mostly referred the situations to my own experience with going to sleep or rather not going to sleep...

I usually don’t have problems falling asleep but trouble actually putting my stuff away and going to bed bc I don’t want to end the day or just don’t want to go to sleep (don’t ask why, I have no idea why I am like this). While having these “episodes” I often doodle smth, binge reading some fanfics, or watch whatever I can find on the internet until I’m just falling asleep or can convince myself that it is 3 am and I really should go to bed now.

So, my personal theory about why sleep deprivation is so common among Tumblr artists is not bc they do art all night. My theory is that a lot of people who have trouble falling asleep due to insomnia, pain, or other issues are filling the time until they hopefully fall asleep with their art, doodles, writings, or whatever their creative minds can bring up, to help the time pass.

In total that would mean that not all artists are sleep deprived but more that a lot of people who have trouble falling asleep do a lot of art or creative stuff in general.

Something I could also imagine is, that if they start doing art while waiting for sleep, they start to concentrate a lot on creating more and start procrastinating sleep even if they actually get tired bc they wanna do art and fuck up their non-existing sleep schedule even more but that could also just be me projecting here.

I know that is probably no kind of big revelation but for me it was kind of surprising to see how many people here are as sleep deprived as me and due to what reasons.

I’m not going to preach to any of you to get that problem solved or smth, I have no right to tell you what to do and would be a major hypocrite so instead I really which everyone to get some kind of good sleep schedule one day and the joy of waking up and feeling completely rested at least thrice per week.

I absolutely love all your art and thank you a thousand times for helping me with this spontaneous survey!

I would love to hear your opinions on my theory and conclusion so pls don’t be shy and feel free to point out any mistakes I may have made or tell me your own theories :D

Also, if my question is still sitting in your inbox, feel free to answer! I’m gonna keep ma big ass excel table so I can edit all the results anytime. And maybe, one day, I'm gonna continue this survey and go into more detail but for now I need to leave it like this.

Ok, that's all I got

BYE!

Thanks to all participants

@abbeyofcyn @angelpuns @beannary @bulbabutt @camilieroart @cementgeek @cheesyescapade @cokowiii @easterartist @frosteaart @gemini-forest @happyfoxx-art @heckitall @hellishgayliath @holy-sweetsour-milk @icepopcider @idiot-mushroom @iscreamkitty @kovalitics @laseralligator @lieutenantbiscute @matchstique @mightyanxiety @miiukkaa @mr-doodles @pezhead @probably-not-a-rutabaga @pumpkster @sad-leon @sassatello @sewercrocodileart @sheep-turtles-and-pizza @signanothername @spectra-bear @stephuart @tangledinink @tapakah0 @tasenwiththerobots @tblsomedoodles @thegunnsara @triona-tribblescore @turrondeluxe @valen-timez @vangh17a @wraenata @zinovi768 @debb987 @dianagj-art @goatedgreen @indieyuugure

[tangibletechnomancy]

The (Personal) Is (Political)

~7 hours, Dall-E 3 via Bing Image Creator, generated under the Code of Ethics of Are We Art Yet?

Or, Dear Microsoft and OpenAI: Your Filters Can't Stop Me From Saying Things: An interactive exercise in why all art is political and game of Spot The Symbols

A rare piece I consider Fully Finished simply as a jpeg, though I may do something physical with it regardless. "Director commentary" below, but I strongly encourage you to go over this and analyze it yourself before clicking through, then see how much your reading aligns with my intent.

Elements I told the model to add and a brief (...or at least inexhaustive) overview of why:

Anime style and character figures - Frequently associated with commercial "low" art and consumer culture, in East Asia and the English-speaking world alike, albeit in different ways - justly or otherwise. There is frequently an element of racism to the denigration of anime styles in the west; nearly any American artist who has taken formal illustration classes can tell you a story of being told that anime style will only hinder them, that no one will hire them if they see anime, or even being graded more harshly and scrutinized for potential anime-esque elements if they like anime or imply that they may like anime - including just by being Asian and young. On the other hand, it is true that there is a commercial strategy of "slap an anime girl on it and it will sell". The passion fans feel for these characters is genuine - and it is very, very exploitable. In fact, this commercialization puts anime styles in particular in a very contentious position when it comes to AI discussions!

Dark-skinned boy with platinum and pink [and blue] hair - Racism and colorism! They're a thing, no matter how much the worst people in the world want you to think they're long over and "critical race theory" is the work of evil anti-American terrorists! I chose his appearance because I knew that unless I was incredibly lucky, I would have to fight with this model for multiple hours to get satisfactory results on this point in particular - and indeed I did. It was an interesting experience - what didn't surprise me was how much work it took me to get a skin color darker than medium-dark tan; what did surprise me was that the hair color was very difficult to get right. In anime art, for dark skin to be matched with light hair and eyes is common enough to be...pretty problematic. Bing Image Creator/Dall-E, on the other hand, swings completely in the opposite direction and struggles with the concept of giving dark-skinned characters any hair color OTHER than black, demanding pretty specific phrasing to get it right even 70% of the time. (I might cynically call this yet another illustration against the pervasive copy-paste myth...) There is also much to say about the hair texture and facial features - while I was pleased to see that more results than I expected gave me textured hair and/or box braids without me asking for it, those were still very much in the minority, and I never saw any deviation from the typical anime facial structures meant to illustrate Asian and white characters. Not even once!

Pink and blue color palette - Our subject is transgender. Bias self-check time: did you make that association as quickly as you would with a light-skinned character, or even Sylveon?

Long hair, cute clothes, lots of accessories - Styling while transmasc is a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't situation, doubly so if you're not white. In many locations, the medical establishment and mainstream attitude demands total conformity to the dominant culture's standard conventional masculinity, or else "revoking your man card" isn't just a joke meant to uphold the idea that men are "better" than women, but a very real threat. In many queer communities, especially online, transmascs are expected to always be cute femboys who love pink (while transfems are frequently degraded and seen as threats for being butch), and being Just Some Guy is viewed as inherently a sign of assimilationism at best and abusiveness at worst. It is an eternal tug-of-war where "cuteness" and ornamentation are both demanded and banned at the same time. Black and brown people are often hypermasculinized and denied the opportunity to even be "cute" in the first place, regardless of gender. Long hair and how gender is read into it is extremely culture-dependent; no matter what it means to you, if anything, the dominant culture wherever you are will read it as it likes.

Trophies and medals - For one, the trans sports Disk Horse has set feminism back by nearly 50 years; I'm barely a Real History-Remembering Adult and yet I clearly remember a time when the feminist claim about gender in sports was predominantly "hey, it's pretty fucked up that sports are segregated by sex rather than weight class or similar measures, especially when women's sports are usually paid much less and given weirdly oversexualized uniforms," but then a few loud living embodiments of turds in the punch bowl realized that might mean treating trans people fairly and now it's super common for self-proclaimed feminists - mostly white ones - to claim that the strongest woman will still never measure up to the weakest man and this is totally a feminist statement because they totally want to PROTECT women (with invasive medical screenings on girls as young as 12 to prove they're Really Women if they perform too well, of course). For two, Black and brown people are stereotyped as being innately more sporty, physically strong, and, again, Masculine(TM) than others, which frequently intersects with item 1...and if you think it only affects trans women, I am sorry my friend but it is so much worse and more extensive than you think.

Hearts - They mean many things. Love. Happiness. Cuteness. Social media engagement?

TikTok - A platform widely known and hated around these parts for its arcane and deeply regressive algorithm; I felt it deserved to be name/layout/logodropped for reasons that, if they're not clear already, should become so in the final paragraph.

Computers, cameras and cell phones - My initial specification was that one of the phones should be on Instagram and another on TikTok, which the model instead chose to interpret as putting a TikTok sticker on the laptop, but sure, okay. They're ubiquitous in the modern day, for better and for worse. For all the debate over whether phones and social media are Good For Us or Bad For Us, the fact of the matter is, they seem to be a net positive-to-neutral, whose impacts depend on the person - but they do still have major drawbacks. The internet is a platform for conspiracy theories and pseudoscience and dangerous hoaxes to spread farther than ever before. Social media culture leaves many people feeling like we're always being watched and every waking moment of our lives must be Perfect - and in some senses, we are always being watched these days. Digital privacy is eroding by the day, already being used to enforce all the most unjust laws on the books, which leads to-

Pigs - I wrote the prompt with the intention that it would just be a sticker on the laptop, but instead it chose to put them everywhere, and given that I wanted to make a somewhat stealthy statement about surveillance, especially of the marginalized...thanks for that, Dall-E! ;)

Alligators - A counter to the pigs; a short-lived antifascist symbol after...this.

Details I did not intend but love anyway:

The blue in the hair - I only prompted for platinum and pink in the hair, but the overall color palette description "bled" over here anyway, completing the trans flag, making it even more blatant, and thus even more effective as a bias self-check.

The Macbook - I only specified a laptop. Hilariously ironic, to me, that a service provided through Bing interpreted "laptop" as "Macbook" nearly every time. In my recent history, 22 out of 24 attempts show, specifically, a Macbook. Microsoft v. OpenAI divorce arc when? ;) But also, let us not forget Apple's role in the ever-worsening sanitization of the internet. A Macbook with a TikTok sticker (or, well, a Tiikok sticker - recognizable enough) - I can think of little more emblematic of one of the main things I was complaining about, and it was a happy accident. Or perhaps an unhappy one, considering what it may imply about Apple's grip on culture and communications.

Which brings me to my process:

Generated over ~7 hours with Dall-E 3 through Bing Image Creator - The most powerful free tool out there for txt2img these days, as well as a nightmare of filters and what may be the most disgustingly, cloyingly impersonal toxic positivity I've ever witnessed from a tool. It wants to be Art(TM), yet it wants to ban Politics(TM); two things which are very much incompatible - and so, I wanted to make A Controversial Statement using only the most unflaggable, innocuous elements imaginable, no matter how long it took.

All art is political. All life is political. All our "defaults" are cultural, and therefore political. Anything whatsoever can be a symbol.

If you want all art to be a substance-free "look at the pretty picture :)" - it doesn't matter how much you filter, buddy, you've got a big storm coming.

[finisnihil]

Liking Webtoons and wanting to analyze them is such a nightmare because most of their fandom activity is in the comments on the episodes, and a lot of the people there love to start beating characters the minute they're too morally grey/flawed or they're considered threatening to the main ship in any way.

For example, using For My Derelict Favorite, Helios gets dragged way too much at times. Like, I see people make him out to be a purely malicious force who's just as bad as Diana as if it's not emphasized that he acknowledges his feelings are wrong and will never act on them and the main reason why he harbors them is because the subejct of those feelings, Hestia, is way more competent than his wife.

A wife who's refusing to acknowledge nuance or her fading powers out of fear and insecurity and shuts down any attempts at healthy communication he attempts to initiate to the point she chases out the woman who basically raised him when his mother died. He can't rely on her and has basically no support system but he can rely on Hestia and his feelings are more born out of a desire to have somebody close who he can rely on.

The difference between Diana and him is WILDLY big, with Diana chasing out anyone who tries to question her and replacing them with the corrupt temple, choosing to drop her husband the minute he doesn't validate her batshit wild choices. She then decides to go and steal another woman's husband, who she previously condemned to the point of him becoming suicidal, because he defied her strict moral compass. Helios chooses to protect her still because she's his wife and he loves her and doesn't want to give up on her which is an objectively bad move, but he's in an awful position where anything he does will result in some kind of loss.

But I see the comments crawling with complete vilification and ignoring the character's honestly fascinating struggles so they can piss on him for threatening the beloved main ship. I even see some people compare him to WAYYYY worse characters, like Sovieshu from The Remarried Empress, which takes some sort of mental gymnastics as they are only similar to a surface level extent. Sovieshu is unredeemable but Helios is trying and making some bad calls while under pressure along the way.

For another example lets look at Annabel Lee from the amazing comic Nevermore. Everyone in the series is morally grey to some extent and some people will piss on Annabel Lee for being cruel, selfish, etc in such a shallow way. Instead of actually looking at her, a flawed character in a really fucked up situation trying to protect the one she loves at the cost of others, some people just say she's a bitch and want her to be expelled from the narrative for it. We can analyze Annabel Lee and why she’s Like That in so many ways because she's an incredibly dynamic and round character but some people don't care about that they just care she was Super Mean in some way and deem her The Enemy.

I have so many more examples like the fighting in the Jackson's Diary comments about who was the bad guy in a situation where both characters hurt each other in awful ways (I could go on about that for hours and might make a seperate analysis on it) but I think this post is long enough and I don't feel like inciting the possible wrath of any more comic fanbases.

Anyways if you're interested in any of the mentioned comics I encourage you to check them out for yourself!

[canary-curse-57]

At long last, I would like to present you all with a 2000+ word ramble about

WHY I THINK JIMMY SOLIDARITYGAMING COULD WIN THE LIFE SERIES

This WILL be long, this WILL be rambling, and I WON’T always get info correct, but I’m very passionate about the fact that Jimmy really is a good player, but happens to be an even better content creator (I’ll explain what I mean by this later!)

To start, I will analyze every death of his (although I will be excluding many from Limited Life for time reasons) because I believe that most of them can be categorized as some mix of Bad Luck, Accident, and/or Silly Decision. Then, in a different section, I’ll focus mainly on the Silly Decision deaths/explain why I don’t think he will win even if he could! I’ll also add in a TLDR section at the very end to try and summarize the big points I made. Anyways, let’s get into it!

3RD LIFE:

First death - Dare To Flare - Silly Decision

Ah, Jimmy’s first death. This is one of the Silliest Decisions of all, but it also demonstrates a characteristic of Jimmy’s playstyle that we see very frequently throughout the rest of the series: when presented with a high-risk high-reward situation, he almost always attempts the situation, even if the chance of success is negligible. There was never really that much of a chance to win Dare To Flare without cheating, and others had already died trying, but he still gave it a shot!

Second death - TNT Minecart - Accident/Silly Decision (I can't find yellow so I guess orange will do,,)

Our first multi-category death! To me, this one ultimately feels more like an accident than anything else, due to Jimmy not knowing how exactly TNT minecarts worked at the time, but I also have to qualify it as partly a silly decision because Scott did tell him not to touch it. 

Final death - Arrow - Bad Luck

This is honestly one of the more unlucky deaths for Jimmy across the whole entire life series! Ultimately, being unable to get down the ladder properly is what did him in, and I honestly believe that Jimmy might’ve been able to avoid dying first had he just not gotten unlucky with the timing of the shot/getting down the ladder. Oh, how different things could’ve possibly been,,,,

LAST LIFE:

Before I analyze the deaths for this series, I want to talk about why, to me, this is Jimmy’s best season ever in terms of results!! He was one of 5 people to start the season off with 2 lives, but unlike three of the others, he never gained another life (shoutout Ren, the other one who never gained another life!! I think this was his best season so far too!!!). Sure, he tried stealing one from Martyn, but he didn’t get to keep that one! Every other person (again, except for Ren!) that started yellow died more than 2 times over the course of the series, but not Jimmy!!! He also didn’t have his 1st death until the 6th session!! 13 other players had already died at least once before he did!! He also went to risky places where other people died (the Nether/a bastion where Mumbo died!!) and survived!! So while he had two rough deaths in back to back sessions and still went out first, this still remains his best season in my eyes, and it also is a great representation of the fact that he’s still a good Minecraft player!! He can survive really well when he minimizes Silly Decisions/doesn’t have to deal with bad luck, but minimizing Silly Decisions won’t be a frequent thing for him (more on that later) which is why I think that he could win but probably won’t. 

First death - Explosion - Accident/Bad Luck

While digging the dirt that set off the trap could add a Silly Decision category to this, I won’t be adding it because really, who would expect a random piece of dirt blocking an entrance to be trapped? (Not me, that’s for sure - I probably would’ve done the same thing) Honestly though, I feel like if this was a different type of death, Jimmy might not have gone out first. The explosion absolutely obliterating all of his stuff makes life much more difficult, and definitely impacted his season ending when it did. 

Final death - Fall/Grian - Silly Decision/Accident

The main reason that I categorize this one as a Silly Decision is because technically, Jimmy started it. Out of everyone on the server, Grian feels like the most likely to retaliate against a red, even if all they did was punch him, so it definitely wasn’t a good idea to instigate here. I also qualify it as an Accident because he says it (specifically falling off the edge of the building) was (*insert clip from Evil Anvil song here*). 

DOUBLE LIFE:

Before I start this section, I have something devastating to admit; I’ve never actually watched Double Life (I know, I know!! I’ve been meaning to for so long but just haven’t gotten around to it,,,,) I did go in and watch his deaths, so I at least know how they went down, but everything I know about the rest of this season is from the fandom.

First death - Soulmate - UNCATEGORIZABLE

Now, I know you could technically qualify this as a Bad Luck death, but I really really don’t think it fits at all!! Essentially every person in Double Life died because their soulmate died at some point, so saying that Jimmy just happened to have the Bad Luck to be paired with Tango doesn’t feel right. This death was totally and completely out of his hands, so it becomes the only one to truly not fit into any category. 

Second death - Falling/Hit By Arrow - Silly Decision/Bad Luck

Genuinely how did that arrow manage to hit Jimmy?? Bad Luck for him for sure, but ultimately standing as far over the edge as he was when people are firing up at you is a biiit of a Silly Decision. There’s also even more Bad Luck factored in when it comes to the timing of the whole thing - him and Tango just happened to be enchanting with Scar and Grian when the whole server decided to go after them! Jimmy wasn’t really even the main target here!

Final death - Enderman - Accident/Bad Luck

Ah yes, the Enderman death. I know I’ve said this multiple times already (and I’m sure I’ll say it many more), but this has gotta be one of Jimmy’s most unlucky deaths ever. With the combination of being low on food (so he can’t heal), the shield being about to break, and the tree he hides under not properly blocking the enderman, this was a recipe for disaster from the moment he accidentally looked into its eyes. Definitely a death that’s almost impossible to avoid.

LIMITED LIFE:

While I won’t be going through each and every death Jimmy had during this season (since Oh Boy there were a lot more than 3), I’ll focus on 3 that I want to point to that feel very very important to me!

Digging straight down with Joel - Silly Decision (Doing It For The Bit)

What’s this? A subcategory? Well yes, yes it is! This is a subcategory that we really only see in Limited Life, since people could die much more in that series due to the mechanic. So while this was still a Silly Decision, it was one made for fun and for The Bit! I’ll go into more depth as to why later, but this death is the ultimate example of why Jimmy probably won’t ever actually win a Life Series; he is in it 1000% for the fun!

Falling into trap because Grian pushed a button - Accident/Bad Luck

This is one of those deaths that is just so unlucky for Jimmy! Of course Grian didn’t mean to kill him, making it an Accident, but it really just feels like such Bad Luck overall! He honestly had a lot of these deaths the closer he got to the end of Limited Life; another one that comes to mind is the pufferfish death that happened while he was leaving the Nosy Neighbors’ base. These types of deaths are unfortunately completely unavoidable because they are almost completely unpredictable.

Final death - Falling - Accident/Bad Luck

This death is clearly an Accident, but it’s also an example of Bad Luck because of the placement of the minecart/the fact that he was shifting but seemingly un-shifted at the last second. Really though, this death feels like the world just making sure he died, since he should’ve been out with Etho’s boogie kill. 

SECRET LIFE:

First death - Drowned/Trident - Bad Luck

I’ll be honest, I had to go back and watch this death- but it really was another case of Jimmy just having the worst luck with this game! His health was already SO low (and sure, I could technically qualify this one as a Silly Decision in terms of him deciding to go outside when it was dark out while being so low on hearts, but it doesn’t feel quite right for some reason), & to have a trident drowned just decide to spawn in that area is awful luck! 

Second death - Ender Dragon - Bad Luck/Silly Decision

Ah, the Ender Dragon death. Yet another example of a high-risk potentially-high-reward situation that Jimmy went into despite a low chance of success,,, personally I think that if he avoided the End, his second death would’ve come much later & his chances of making it even longer would’ve increased drastically. 

Final death - Warden - Silly Decision/Bad Luck

While this death definitely has Bad Luck as a secondary factor, Silly Decision is the main one here by a MILE. Deciding to help fight/stay in the area of a Warden and a Wither while being a red life with just over one row of hearts remaining?? One of the Silliest Decisions of all! Anyways, this death also has a Bad Luck component to it because of the Warden deciding to focus on him instead of Mumbo even though they were both really close to it & also with some of the long distance shots from the Warden actually hitting.  

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now, I know that was a lot of rambling, but there’s a really big thing about these deaths that made me want to categorize them; very few of them have anything to do with pvp fighting! Most of them are environmental deaths (deaths to mobs/fall damage) or deaths indirectly caused by another player (traps that Jimmy himself had to trigger) instead of ones directly caused by a player!

Of course, every player in the life series has had environmental/indirectly caused deaths, but the winners/the people who place really high? They have more deaths directly caused by a player than anything else!

Take someone like Impulse, who consistently has a very high placement in the life series, but hasn’t won one (yet!!). A vast amount of his deaths are kills directly caused by other players! Same for most of the winners!! (Scar is the outlier here, although he only died due to direct kills by other players in the season he won, sooooo)

So, here’s what I’m getting at: if Jimmy can cut down on his environmental deaths, and avoid triggering traps/aggravating other players, I think he could survive much longer than he has so far! He would go from someone who dies without others needing to have much of an input, to someone that people would have to intentionally try to kill because he’s one of the final greens/yellows! We already know from Last Life that he can go a TON of episodes without dying, so if we combine that ability with more than two starting lives, then I think we have a recipe for a potential winner on our hands!!

However. Despite my belief that Jimmy is a much better player than anyone gives him credit for, I also don’t think that he will win a life series. And this is gonna get a little over-analyze-y, but I think that he won’t win because of who he is as a person and as a content creator.

He’s always willing to take risks for friends, do something for the bit (as seen by his lava death with Joel in Limited Life), and generally put himself in risky situations. He knows what makes a good video, but he also just genuinely is having fun with his friends! I think Jimmy could win a life series if he took it really really seriously, and put a ton of time and focus into staying alive and making it far, but I’m not sure that would be very fun for him. He seems like the kind of person who is just in it for a good time. And I’m not saying that he doesn’t want to win, or doesn’t take the series seriously at all - I think he definitely does, based on his reaction to his final death at the end of Double Life & Limited Life - but he’s not gonna go out of his way to win or do the ‘smart thing’ when he can just keep enjoying the series. 

(Eugh, that felt a little too personality-analyzing/parasocial and weird for me, but I do think it’s true.)

ANYWAYS, that’s about it! 

So TLDR: Lots of Jimmy’s deaths aren’t directly caused by players, and if he can avoid those types of deaths, he could survive long enough to have a real shot at winning! He also is much better at being able to survive a long time than we give him credit for, as we see in Last Life. However, while he still takes the life series seriously, he’s ultimately in it for the fun, making it less likely that he pulls off a win. 

Thanks so much for reading, and feel free to ask questions/share your own thoughts!!

[trapastrology]

Mercury Retrograde w/ Aris!

Mercury Rx Starts Aug 4th - Aug 27th...

All you need to know

Over the years, I see that way too many individuals are terrified by rx's esp mercury. Why? Well, this is what you were taught to believe, it's what you were taught to fear. Fear is a powerful emotion that can make you do anything. What if you weren't scared anymore? What if you knew the benefits of mercury rx and took advantage of it? You shouldn't fear transits or planets, you should learn how to work with them, good or bad. Mercury rx isn't a means to avoid life. You can't live life if you're always avoiding it 3-4 times out of the year for weeks at a time...

Think of Mercury rx as the prefix Re-. Meaning to go back and do it again...but better than the first time! It's sort of like a second chance in a way. You can't change the past, but you can change what you do in the same situations going forward. This is the time we take to go through our metamorphosis.

This is how you'll come out of the retrograde doing better than how you were going in.

Avoiding life during retrogrades is what makes you seem ahead in the beginning yet ending up behind.

Let me walk you thru what Mercury retrograde entails and what you should be doing to take advantage of these energies. As well as some of what I'll be doing during this retrograde!

********************************************************************************

Remove. -Yourself from certain ppl and situations that don't serve you. Know that it's time to let go. Stop letting yourself get back into the same cycles just to complain about the results. This would be a good time to withdraw and be a little secluded if you've been feeling the need to do so. when you take yourself out of situations it's easier to...

Reflect. -Slow down. Pay attention to the recurring patterns in behavior of others as well as urself. Take the time to slow down and really think about the past and get clarity. Properly analyze current situations to know what to let go of and what to...

Reassess. -Pay attention to the different/new factors of ur current/past situations. Take time out to reconsider everything (ur whole life even). Work thru recurring issues with a different approach to stop the cycle and give you peace. This is not the time to sign contracts but to read the fine print. Think before acting (even if it's taking a day or 2 to respond to a text). This is the perfect time to read old books with a fresh perspective. Easiest time to absorb new information.

Realign. -Reorganize your mind, emotions and life. Plan the life you really want for yourself, then act it out. Make it practical. The person you want to be wakes up, does yoga and reads a book every morning, so do that! This is the best time to build new habits and drop old ones. Getting rid of unnecessary clothes, items, contacts, screenshots, everything. Best time to purge! Let go and get right back on track. Write everything down that you want to be or do so you can...

Restart. -Start fresh. apply the new knowledge, mindset and habits to your new beginning. make and fulfill new goals for yourself as simple as *walk around the block twice daily*. Make new plans, your old plans may not align with who you are anymore. Have a daily routine that aligns with the person you want to be now! Apply all the knowledge from the previous stages.

Reconnect. -How where you when you were at your happiest and most content? Reconnect with that person. Pick up that old skill/hobby/interest. Rewatch those old movies/shows that brought you the most joy. Get back in touch with the sweetheart in you. Whatever you miss and it was good for you, get back into it.

Rebuild. -Start back from the ground up. Fulfill the missed opportunities. That business you were going to launch but didn't (or it failed the 1st time), take this time to plan it thoroughly and better and execute it after the rx (which is why I'll be launching my Patreon Sep 1st!!!). Pick up a new hobby/skill and perfect it. Any unfinished business must be handled, tie all loose ends. If you've been feeling the need to apologize or make amends, do it. This is also a good time to redecorate/rearrange things at home. Upcycling clothes and getting repairs on things that's been needing it for a while.

Regenerate. -Now you feel refreshed. You feel like a weight has been lifted off of you. All (or most) of your baggage is gone. You feel like you again, you feel like you can breathe. You have reclaimed your power. You love the way you've been living and the work you've done. However, after the rx ends it'll be easy to fall off the wagon so take precautions.

Reappear. -Now you can come back out of hiding (for those who stayed mostly recluse to work on themselves)! Enjoy all of the things you worked so hard for. Take the time to enjoy your self improved self.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you want to know what YOU should do during this retrograde get your $10 RETROGRADE READING! I'll look at how it's aspected, where it falls in your chart and give you tips on how to utilize the energy. Receive a 15% OFF COUPON after you get a Mercury Rx Reading...

[mintytealfox]

Hey.... hoi.... do you have any hurt/comfort headcanons for Norton and Alice?

OOOHH yes yes yes yes yes yes yeeesssss ;; I have MANY and they are LONG when covering BOTH sides so I will keep it to categories and just one at a time lol XD Unless yall want an actual NOVEL PFF

SO FOR THIS ROUND:

ARGUMENTS

Arguments have been on my mind recently for some reason and every relationship (friendships, lovers, familial, etc) has them cause feelings can get hurt regardless of intentions and apologies need to be offered. Some things that would normally fly might suddenly be taken wrongly on a bad day ;; which can cause confusion and hurt on both sides which then turns into an argument, that then turns into something that needs to be fixed properly.

SO

I think Norton would be a little more prone to take things the wrong way at times, while Alice has a more 'benefit of the doubt' mindset. But I have a difficult time picturing Alice saying anything that he would perceive as a jab. So I think it would be more along the lines of Alice extending that 'benefit of the doubt' mindset towards someone that Norton thinks has wronged him, (like calling him something or referring him as something that Norton takes as a slight).

Norton: "I can't believe you are taking his side??" Alice: "I am not taking his side, I am just saying that maybe what was said was taken wrongly...they didn't seem like someone who would say something like that" Norton: "??? So you aren't trusting my judgement in this??" Alice: "Its not like that, at all!" Norton: "?? What is it then?? Is my judgement wrong here too?? Have I just been wrong my entire life then??? Does my judgment not count cause I have been poor most of my life??"

And just blowing it up more than it should. Like, him not overly caring about the slight initially but wanted to bring it up to Alice hoping she would be like "that is nonsense, you aren't like that at all" only to hear, "well, what if that wasn't what they meant?" This surprising him and confusing him to the point that it now hurts for some reason he doesn't fully get why.

But his reaction might stun lock Alice and she won't notice right away that he is hurt and her saying 'that probably isn't what they meant' instead of 'oh don't worry, you aren't like that' and not shutting it down, now accidentally making his mind reel with "Am I actually like that?? She didn't deny it"

And this resulting in him needing some air and this alone time giving them a moment to figure out what the frick just happened and Alice able to analyze it in her head and then hurry over to Norton and put to words what his mind can't yet cause she is quicker with the draw in putting stuff to words.

But getting them in a situation where they are both heard and reassured they are on each other's sides would give them an opportunity to hug and apologize for hurt feelings and lashing out.

The image of them holding each other and Norton is resting his head on top of hers as they talk

Alice: "I am sorry, I didn't realize you were looking for validation.." Norton: "that isn't on you...I didn't know that was what I was looking for and put you in a bad spot....I want to protect you not put you in sour positions..." Alice: "you're allowed to get your feelings hurt, even when its me that is accidently doing it.." Norton: "I'm sorry.."

--------------------------

Now for Alice getting upset with Norton hmmmmmm

Ooooh her getting furious with him for keeping secrets from her about something that is hurting him or along those lines!

Like she had to leave for a month for a story and Norton couldn't go for some reason he made up but it was because he felt like something was wrong with him health wise and didn't want to slow her down.

So she doesn't find out until almost a month later that Norton has been sick for almost that entire time at home and didn't write a word about it in his letters to her. oooooh the pain she would feel ;;

Like she comes home like a half a week early and excited to show Norton only to find him in bed and his breathing sounds awful. This prompting her to drop everything and run to him feeling his fever and grabbing a cloth to wipe the sweat away from his face.

Alice: "how long have you been like this??" Norton: "not long..." Alice: "How long have you been sick????" Norton: "...what day did you leave...?"

Boi once she gets help and knows Norton is on the mend he is gonna get the tongue lashing of a LIFETIME

Just Alice SOBBING as she lays in bed next to him "how DARE you not tell me about this! You NEED to tell me these things so I can make a decision! You made the choice for me by not telling ME! How could you DO THIS to ME?? WHAT IF YOU DIED AND I WAS GONE??"

And Norton realizing he effed up on this one, just listens as she gets all this out. Once she is out of words, he turns on his side to face her and just pulls her into a tight hug and holds her to him

Norton: "I think it is safe to say....that we both agree that I did poorly this time.....I'm sorry.....I should have told you...and let you choose..." Alice: "promise me this won't happen again" -voice muffled cause her face is buried in his chest- Norton: "yea...I promise."

[bouquetface]

Bang Chan - Vedic Birth Chart Analysis

Per request of anon. There is no birth time so in-depth predictions are impossible. Take it as entertainment.

This is using vedic so the placements will be in different signs from tropical.

Romantic Relationships:

Venus conjunct Mars shows a very passionate person. Venus holding the lowest degree shows someone who makes bold moves without being aggressive. He is likely dominating and assertive in relationships. He is unlikely to come off as aggressive since Venus controls this conjunction. While he wants to lead, he doesn’t desire a a partner to be completely submissive either. His spouse will be someone who can occasionally strongly push back on his decisions.

There can be constant passion and friction throughout the relationship. The intensity is unlikely to ever die down. This is a loose conjunction which shows it won’t be HIGHLY intense - meaning it’s unlikely to manifest negatively and/or get out of control.

An example of a bold move may be that he can proudly declare his love for his partner despite being warned against it. However, this conjunction is loose and his AK planet is Saturn. He isn’t foolish about his bold moves - they are calculated rather impulsive.

Venus in Vishakha indicates a very beautiful spouse. Yet, his spouse is likely to still experience jealously. Ofc everyone does but for his partner this is to a greater extent - it can be more intense of a feeling or possibly a constant feeling. Her emotional and sensitive nature can lead to anger and arguments in the marriage. She can be very stubborn. She does not back down easily.

She is likely highly accomplished. This is due to the nakshatra’s influence - it shows overcoming hardships, obstacles & defeating enemies. She may have undergone experiences of feeling betrayed or discriminated against resulting in an independent and bold personality. She does not trust or follow anyone easily. She may desire he makes it clear that he is with her. She can be territorial.

She may be very concerned with her appearance. Her career could involve design, being diplomatic/charming & movement. She is likely active. She may have interest in fashion. She’ll likely have a good style and/or have beautiful features.

Often, Venus conjunct Mars marry within 2-3 years of meeting their partner. This isn’t a slow burn type of dynamic. However, we are missing so much information without birth time. It’s impossible to say anything for sure.

Personality:

Sun in virgo indicates he is very hardworking. He desires control and perfection. His routine is likely very important to him.

Sun aspect Jupiter does indicate he’s not entirely uncomfortable with spontaneity and the unknown. He can be a curious person and would like to explore the unknown - but on his own terms. Saturn in Pisces opposition to the Sun creates a humble person through hardships. He truly has to work harder than most to gain recognition. This adds a strong sense of maturity and compassion to his personality.

Sun conjunct Mercury shows a creative person with a charming way of communicating. Many singers and writers have placements like these involving prominent Mercury. In the sign of Virgo, his communication is cautious. He thinks before speaking. He may often observe & analyze the situation before speaking. He is naturally very careful.

UPDATED W BIRTH TIME

This will provide an in depth reading & marriage timing prediction :

[risuola]

III — THE UCHIHA KID // F. READER x TOBIRAMA SENJU

The babyboy that asked you for help turned out to be a member of the Uchiha clan and it's safe to say that he was terrified to face your husband. You, on the other hand, were more than willing to help him.

contents: none, just fluff — 3k words

POLITICALLY LOVELESS || SERIES MASTERLIST

A boy, whose name was Kagami Uchiha, was a six years old orphaned baby of the clan that your husband fruitlessly warned you about many times. It was against your nature to prejudice but you understood his point of view, after reading every document regarding the history of founding Konoha and the warring period. The baby was instructed by the clan members to head to Tobirama, as he was responsible for housing issues in the village, as well as the orphanage. Unfortunately, it was stated strictly that every move or change in the location had to go through the office, because it was needed to be noted. That made it easier to keep the order or act if someone was in danger.

After you knocked, you peaked inside the office, seeing your husband at the desk, reading something.

“What is it?” he asked, not even lifting his head, consumed by the document.

“Sorry to bother you, my dear,” you spoke, drawing his attention to you and as he looked up, his features twisted just slightly in surprise. Last thing he was expecting was to see you with a child in your arms. “If you need to finish reading, I’ll wait outside.”

“No, come in and give me a minute.”

Giving it a nod, you closed the door behind you as he got back to the paper he was analyzing. Approaching the large, full-wall-sized window you showed the view to the boy, admiring the enlarged eyes he made, seeing the whole village and woods around it from here. But even if he was stunned, his little body couldn’t stop shaking and it broke your heart. You gave him a peck to the cheek, whispering that he’s safe here in hope that no more tears will be spilled but you suspected otherwise.

“Alright, you can sit down, I’m done,” Tobirama informed and you went to take a seat in front of his desk, when he got up, circling it and leaning against the top, intentionally placing his hands down on his sides not to scare the child further with his guarded form.

“Would you mind if I present your case?” you asked the boy and he nodded, hiding his little face in your neck. Smoothing his back, you looked up to your husband. “This little gentleman has lost both of his parents and is in need for a place to live. He asked me for help, afraid to come here alone.”

“Is that the Uchiha kid?” Tobirama asked, hinting that he knows something about the situation already.

“Kagami Uchiha, yes.”

“Earlier today I received a notice informing that his parents were assigned for a mission that failed,” he looked back at the scrolls he was reviewing earlier that day, trying to bring some details to his mind and an exhale assisted him coming to terms with the not-so-pleasant part of his work. So many years he wanted to achieve nothing else than peace where children wouldn’t have to suffer the war and yet, still conflicts result in sorrow. “Well, I will contact Uchihas to find a family for him, but I’m afraid it will take few days. Probably weeks. Up until this time, he’ll go to the orpha-“

“Would it be possible that you let me handle this issue and take care of this boy for the time we get an answer? I can pay a visit to Madara, it would be much quicker.”

Tobirama stayed silent for few moments, searching for a solution to the matter, just like he always does and you gave him the time to answer while smoothing Kagami’s back. Sensing the lack of wrath from your husband, he slowly began relaxing in your embrace, soon falling asleep on your shoulder, exhausted by everything that happened to him lately. You couldn’t imagine how distressed was that boy by losing both of his parents, losing his home and being forced to face a man that he was convinced hates him. During your previous talk, he even hinted that he’s afraid that Tobirama will kill him if he goes there alone.

“It might be slightly more efficient if you go to Madara yourself, since he has a soft spot for you,” your man spoke finally, crossing his arms over his chest, like he usually does when thinking about something. “Please, elaborate on taking care of him yourself?”

“Our home has more than enough space for this little one to spend few days in, without stressing him with the orphanage. If you’d agree, I promise I’ll take care of him so he won’t interrupt your routine.”

It was a lot to ask him, you were well aware of that but you were determined to help this baby out. Tobirama was mostly out of the house anyway, it shouldn’t be a problem to have a 5-year-old that would probably be sleeping all the time he’s back. The very thought of weighing this poor little soul with another burden such as orphanage was making your heart clench.

“Such a kind heart you have,” the man exhaled deeply, looking at the child that was sleeping cuddled to your body, feeling safe enough to allow himself to lose consciousness. “Always so keen to help the village.”

“Konoha is also my home now,” you smiled, “and this child did nothing wrong, he’s just six.”

“My schedule is full for the next days so I won’t be able to help you. Can you handle the issue alone?”

“I’m positive. I took care of many children in Yu, they always seem to like me,” you glanced at the boy, your face now stained with a soft smile. “And I’m sure that I can find a loving family to this baby by talking with people myself faster than the documents could.”

“So let be it,” Tobirama straightened up and you got up as well, happy to hear his response. “I should manage to prepare the documents by tomorrow, so they will be ready when you’re done with your search. Up until now, please make sure to provide what’s needed for this boy.”

“Yes, my Lord,” you smiled, giving him a kiss to the corner of his lips, before saying goodbye and leaving.

Tobirama stayed in place for a moment longer, his mind replaying the words you used to address him. It wasn’t out of ordinary for people to call him lord, he was hokage’s brother and arguably one of the most, if not the most important person in the village but you were the only one, who called him your Lord. He loved hearing those words, it made him feel like he was indeed yours and being yours came with pride to Tobirama. From the beginning he was focused on you staying by his side, and now, knowing how loving and pure-hearted you are, he was overjoyed to call himself yours. Your Lord, your husband, your dear. Everything you addressed him with made his heart flutter. You were really an angel sent from above and with that thought, he got back to work.

The night you spent sleeping in the guest room, next to the little boy that was too frightened to sleep alone in the foreign place, but relaxed immediately, feeling your body’s warmth next to him. To know you were a safe space for him, that he was able to find peace and security in you made your heart swell with joy.

The night you stayed alerted, sleeping lightly in order to notice if Kagami was having a calm dream and as the morning struck its light onto your face and you heard your husband getting ready to leave, you raised a little on your elbow. As if Tobirama sensed you’re awake, he peaked into the guest room, quietly approaching your side of the bed and motioning you to not leave the bed.

“Don’t get up, it’s alright,” he told you, taking a mental picture of how tenderly you kept the little boy to yourself. From the moment he’d seen you in his office the day before, he knew he won’t get the peace of mind now, his thoughts constantly circling around the depiction of you caring for your own child. Tobirama was never too keen on having his own spouse, hoping the bloodline will be passed down by Hashirama, but he couldn’t deny the image was tempting.

“I’m sorry, my dear,” you whispered. “I’ll bring you bento to your office.”

“Don’t worry about it. Was the night peaceful?”

“It was, yes”, you gave it a little nod, whilst Tobirama glanced at you two once again.

“I have to go now. You know where to find me.”

“Have a nice day.”

With a soft kiss planted on your temple, he was soon gone.

“He’s not that bad,” Kagami muttered against your chest and you smiled, smoothing his hair.

“Of course, he’s not,” you cooed quietly. “He may look scary, but has a good heart.”

Two weeks it took you to finalize the issue with Kagami and you couldn’t be happier with the outcome. The family you found with the help of Madara was a couple that couldn’t have their own children but dreamt of one. With tears they agreed to open their hearts to the young boy, thanking you, their ancestors and even gods for the gift and it thrilled you to know that he’s safe and sound now, with good people. The two were shinobi, with father that’s mid-ranked officer of Uchiha forces and a mother that’s skilled in ninjutsu, and you believed they can raise Kagami to be a powerful ninja in the future, that got to know parental love.

Collecting all of the documents and sharing few more moments with the boy, you promised him that he’s welcome to your home always and offered your help if he or his family needed anything. It broke your heart just a little to give him away, as you’ve become quite attached to him, but it was better for Kagami to grow among Uchihas, learn about their techniques and sharingan – things that you couldn’t teach him, especially when during the time you learned that a powerful ocular jutsu is coded in his blood line. You hoped that being raised with the clan will allow Kagami to grow into his full potential.

“Thank you, Madara,” you bowed slightly to the clan leader, when you were about to leave their district. “I think the family will cherish the future.”

“I think so too,” he responded. “I have to admit, it’s bold of you to involve in Uchiha matters, being a wife to Tobirama. You have my respect.”

“The child has nothing to do with the eternal conflict between your clan and the Senju. And I’m neither of those,” chuckling, you secured the scrolls into the pouch on your waist. “But I’m glad Kagami found a loving home, because if that wouldn’t be the case, I’d insist on raising him myself and that would make things a little complicated.”

“I imagine. You have a kind heart, I hope this world won’t corrupt it too quickly,” Madara lowered his head just slightly, in respect towards you. “If that’s all, I’ll return to my duties.”

“Of course. Thank you once again. I’ll leave now too.”

Exchanging quick goodbyes, you got back home to prepare food for your husband and while the rice was cooking, you tidied up a little. It was inevitable that a little bit of mess will set inside, as the child was staying there but it was nothing severe. Already missing Kagami, you sighed. The kid was just too adorable not to grow attached. He was just the right balance between quiet and loud, he loved to be hugged and often fell asleep while being in your embrace. With his little kisses on the cheek, you felt your heart flutter and grow, and even your husband, whom you wouldn’t call the best with children, liked the little Uchiha, although he would never admit it out loud. You noticed he was softer towards him; he even took the boy on his lap while in the office which was one of the most adorable moments you’ve witnessed, probably in your life. You were convinced he would agree if you asked to keep the baby, but that would be selfish of you. It truly was the best for him to be raised by Uchihas and just because you gave him to the new family didn’t mean you won’t ever see him again. You were informed to be welcome in their house whenever you feel like it and you also proclaimed yourself as the official aunt.

With the bento filled and packed, you locked the door and took a walk to the hokage office, where your husband also had his place but, in his workplace, you didn’t find him. Taking the liberty of entering without permission you approached his desk and placed the food and the scroll there, grabbing a piece of paper and a pen you sat down on his chair to write a note.

“Comfortable?” deep, familiar voice reached your ears when the doors opened and your husband entered his office. You looked up, watching him as he went across the room and before you reacted, he already pulled you away from the desk, grabbed your body like it weighted nothing and sat down, situating you on top of his thighs.

“Now I am,” you joked, kissing his cheek. “Good morning, my dear.”

“Good morning,” he took the letter you were writing and glanced over the text before putting it to one of his drawers. “How’s Kagami?”

“Safe in his new home. I already know he’ll be spoiled; they were on cloud nine taking him in. Madara was cooperative as well. I’d say everything went well,” you briefed, smoothing over the back of his neck. “All details and documents are inside those scrolls I brought you. I made sure to fill them to your standards.”

“I’m sure you did,” he chuckled. “Thank you for lunch.”

A smile bloomed on your face. “You’re welcome, my love.”

Love. That was the first time he heard this one specific word coming from your mouth and he wondered for a second if he misheard you, because surely, he had to. Love was a strong word, even though it wasn’t a confession, it still held one heavy emotional impact and Tobirama was convinced that love wasn’t what’s between you two. He loves you, yes. How could he not if you’re such a good person? A great shinobi that was ready to die for the village that wasn’t even your own, a golden heart keen to help everyone, a woman beautiful inside and outside. A perfect human being that he had the luck to marry through the political arrangement. But you had not that much reason to fall for him. You were patient and kind to him, just as you were to everybody else. You touched him, but you told him before marriage that it's your way of showing affection. You got up every day so early only to wish him a great day and make sure he has something to eat, even though you could sleep for a little longer before starting your day. Could that be out of love and not out of wife’s duty?

“I have one more meeting today and it’s possible I’ll be free a little earlier today,” he said finally, breaking out of his own spiral of overthinking, “would you want to join me for a walk this evening?”

“I would absolutely love to,” smiling, you leaned your head over his shoulder, inhaling his scent gently pulling down his collar so you could press your lips against his skin. “I shouldn’t take your time while you’re at work, should I?”

“I have few more minutes before I need to leave for a meeting and I’ll gladly give those to you.”

“In that case, I’ll gladly accept them.”

It didn’t take long for Tobirama’s lips to find yours, locking them in a kiss filled with longing. He himself was surprised of how much his body yearned for the closeness of yours, after two weeks of very limited contact due to a child in your home that consumed all of your attention. You’ve got him so used to your affections that he found himself unable to exist correctly without them. What have you done to him? All of his life, Tobirama believed that emotional attachment was a barrier; that it’s something he cannot afford in order to stay strong and reliable, but you proved him wrong. You proved that not only he needs feelings in his life but also, they make him stronger than he was before. You made him stronger; you made him a better leader; you showed him that softness isn’t synonymous to weakness and the young Senju liked who he’d become with you by his side.

You could feel how hungry your man was, how starved of affection he had become in just those few days and it thrilled you, excitement coursing through your veins as you run your fingers through his silver hair. At the beginning, although agreeing to your touches, he wasn’t keen to reciprocate your gestures. He had to learn how to be physical with you, because before that only contact that involved two bodies was confined to battle. But Tobirama being a smart man, learned quickly that it’s not unusual for couples to share touches, to kiss, to sleep together. He learned that intimacy is first and foremost for pleasure, not only to reproduce. All of it made you happy. It meant he had opened to you, dropped down his guard and let you into his world that before you was strictly restricted to laws and orders.

 Biting on his lower lip you smiled, letting your hand brush the nape of his neck. Taking in his little gasp, you broke the kiss, resting your forehead against his and smoothing the light skin of his cheek, avoiding the red dashes he painted on his face every morning.

“What have you done to me?” he whispered, calming his breath.

“You’re welcome,” kissing him once more, you got up from his legs. “When should I expect you?”

“I’ll wrap things up around 8PM.”

“So, I’ll pick you up at 8. We’re set. Now, focus on the meeting and don’t forget to eat, alright?”

“Alright.”

[bobauthorman]

I have a statement to make, and I knew none of your are going to like. But I have to get it out of my system, so here it goes.

Ruby was wrong to lie to Ironwood at the beginning of Volume 7.

(Ducks thrown tomatoes)

NOW, let me say I am NOT saying Ironwood’s breakdown was Ruby’s fault, nor the subsequent destruction of Atlas and the Relics should be laid at her feet. She is NOT responsible for those events. It’s just, the lying thing still was not a good idea.

I know, I know. “But Ruby was right! Ironwood wasn’t trustworthy!” and “How can you expect her to trust the guy after the last bunch of authority figures screwed with her and her friends?!”

But the thing is, while Team Remnant couldn’t trust Ironwood with the truth, they did trust him otherwise. They accepted his gifts, worked with his soldiers, and helped him remain in power…an act that blew up in their faces when Cinder push Ironwood’s mental Big Red Button. 

When Ironwood outlines the first the step of his plan is to reestablish global communications, tell the world about Salem and then send his fleet to defend the other kingdoms, Ruby comments, “That…is a good plan.” From that one sentence, she shows that her hiding the truth was not just a matter of keeping from having a breakdown, but also keeping him on course for “a good plan.” The rest of us (Well, some of us) have the perspective and time to fully grasp and analyze how badly this plan could go. But Ruby does not have that perspective. As both Yang and Oscar point out, this is very similar to how Ozpin operated, and we all know how that worked. Overall, this was Xiao Long family’s usual method of dealing with difficult subjects by…not dealing and instead trying to bury their unease with work.

Now, to Ruby’s credit, when she sees what appears to be Ironwood opening up to others, she takes it as a cue that he can handle the full truth. And at no point does anyone realize that Salem herself is on the way, or that Cinder has been in Atlas for who knows how long. But by waiting so long, Ironwood has had too many shocking revelations that he can’t process finding out about the latter two. It’s just poor timing.

Ultimately, the decision to hold off on telling Ironwood the truth was a delaying action. It didn’t so much make the situation worse, but it did not make things better, especially with Watts and Tyrian doing their best to tweak the general’s nerves. Now, the question is, would telling him early on stop a breakdown?

I’m gonna say no.

And I think that’s the whole point of what I’m trying to say. Ironwood was always on a road to ruin. But if they had gotten it over with sooner, Team Remnant would only have had to deal with the mad general. By putting it off, this meant they were forced into a three-way conflict with both the Atlas Army and Salem herself. Ruby has a coping mechanism where she tries to avoid difficult subjects by burying herself in work, which is exactly what happened in Atlas. She felt bad about hiding the truth from Ironwood, and then got distracted by the endless missions. While on paper they were helping Atlas, it was the equivalent of dousing brushfires while not doing anything about the arsonist- everything wrong with Atlas was at present the result of Ironwood’s policies. He needed a wake-up call.

Now, I’m sure a lot of you will get on my case about this. We all want our heroes to be these flawless paragons who always make the right call. But one of RWBY’s themes that the ‘Perfect Hero’ just doesn’t exist. The show’s protagonists make mistakes. They act hypocritically. But what makes them better than the villains or even mentors who also do this is that they are far more willing to recognize those mistakes and try to deal with them.

[tokiro07]

Undead Unluck ch.231 thoughts

[Do You Remember~ The 17th Night of November~]

(Topics: criticism - pacing/narrative focus, character analysis - Gina/Feng/Julia/Billy, speculation - Soul/Ruin)

Juggling Glass and Rubber

Damn, Tozuka, you weren't lyin', that Unjustice can sweep the Master Rules!

I'll admit I am a little disappointed by this turn of events because, like I was saying the last several weeks, I expected there to be an extra wrinkle that kept Unjustice from trivializing all of the MR fights, especially the ones that hadn't actually happened yet!

Yusai I was always pretty shaky on, and since she never got much characterization going in, I'm not exactly surprised, but the rest were definitely bummers

I've said before that I'm fine with skipping the Sick fight since Rip and Latla's climax already happened, but it's not like there was nothing to be done with it, like focusing on Sick's desire for revenge or having Rip look back on the mistakes he made in L100

Same thing with Billy and Tatiana's reunion - technically the climax of their joint arc was at the end of L100 when they promised to stay by each other's side until death, but I always thought of that as the setup to an upcoming payoff, not the payoff itself. It's definitely still salvageable here, but I think having Tatiana come in to save Billy when he's having trouble would have felt a lot more cathartic if it was focused on and analyzed rather than just...happening. Some insight as to why Billy was having trouble using Unjustice, like perhaps being overloaded with too many new Rules or reconciling with the choices he'd made, would have given Tatiana something internal to save him from as well as something external

I guess my issue here is that we're not really getting to see the effects that Remember is having on the cast as a whole, which I think would have better served as the focus here. I don't know if it's that Tozuka has been given a set number of chapters to work with by Jump or what, but it seems likely that Tozuka had ideas for how he wanted to execute everyone's arcs and fights but had to prioritize who to give the lion's share of the focus to for the sake of maximizing narrative impact

Case in point, the characters who he did manage to analyze here each had a pretty unique interaction with Remember

Remember Who You Are

Despite how brief their scenes are here, I do think that Gina and Feng's moments illustrate Remember's value remarkably well

Gina starts referring to everyone by the old nicknames she used for them in L100, only to amend "L'il Lucky" back to just "Fuuko," directly demonstrating the mental gap between the present and past. Gina naturally picks up her old habit, but isn't restricted by it. The respect and love she has for Fuuko goes beyond what can be expressed by a cute nickname, and those feelings were forged through L101 Gina's relationship with Fuuko. It's subtle, but it's a nice little cherry on top of Gina's arc

Feng, meanwhile, is noted to be getting stronger as Time ages him. This could be taken two ways: either he's stronger because of Remember and Time misread the situation, OR because Feng knows that he would have spent his time training and improving, his body, mind and soul are developing proportionally rather than being aged in a vacuum. The latter is thematically appropriate to countering Time's philosophy that age's function is to weed out those who have outlived their usefulness, while the former is a direct result of all of Feng's accumulated years across loops compounding simultaneously. Could be a little of both, honestly

What's even better about Feng's moment, though, is what he says in response to Julia's help: "I'm not deserving of your charity." In the past, Feng definitely would have been mad about getting help, resenting the idea that anyone thought he couldn't hack it on his own, but that's not what he said here. He believes he's done nothing to earn Julia's aid, that whatever Time was going to do to him, he had coming, and this is certainly because he remembers what he did. All of the people that he's ever killed, the lives that he ruined, especially his own son's, he now knows and can look back on from the perspective of having just abandoned the mentality he had back then

If Feng still believed in individual strength before receiving Remember, he probably would have looked back on the failures of his past as the results of his own physical weakness, not because of a flawed philosophy. Instead, Feng has already proven that he's stronger now after learning the true value of his age and legacy, so while he can still improve thanks to the lessons he can learn from his past self, the current Feng is able to retain his new outlook because he has an objective point of comparison that this was the farthest he ever made it

These are the sorts of subtle advancements I wanted to see from the whole cast, and again, while we still can see them, I think having a chapter dedicated to showing each little vignette would have been more effective than either breaking them up like this or showing such a notable imbalance between them

At the very least, though, even without being the primary focus of the chapter, Julia's interaction with Remember is far and away the most interesting one

Welcome Back, Juiz

Julia's behavior just before and after Fuuko actives Remember easily provides the most contrast of everyone and best demonstrates the tremendous growth rate that Remember allows

Prior to Remember, Julia was only able to use Unjustice involuntarily. To great effect, mind you, but still by accident: first when she stopped Soul's attack, and (seemingly) second, when she used it to reduce the damage of Soul's attack and ride it back to the surface. It's not explicitly stated that that's what happened here, but if Soul's intention was to kill Julia with that, he really dropped the ball, so I choose to believe that his bloodlust was negated by Unjustice

Afterwards, Julia was using Unjustice like a pro. She dropped War down a phase, got Time to bring Feng back to his prime, and even got Death to take out Luck, a feat that Fuuko objectively wouldn't have been able to accomplish with Unluck alone since Luck would have been able to avert Death's inadvertent attack with his good fortune. The most impressive part to me, though, is that she was able to channel Unjustice into her soul!

By putting Unjustice in her saber, Julia effectively injected Unjustice directly into Change's body, ensuring that she couldn't live by her own philosophy of constant change, even if Julia wasn't physically there to make visual contact. Juiz never learned soul manipulation, and Julia only just now mastered Unjustice thanks to her memories, so the fact that Julia was able to integrate those two abilities into such a high level technique is proof that her current self has in no way been overtaken by Juiz's memories, the most major worry that everyone had for Remember's use

That's not to say that none of Juiz's experiences made it to Julia, she still did remember Juiz's entire life after all. Beyond just Juiz's techniques and physical abilities, Julia went from panicking over Soul's attacks and Victor's injuries to calmly and confidently taking out the MRs one by one. She knows now what she's capable of and the weight that she carries, and she remembers what kind of relationships she had with everyone else. This is likely why she went to Billy first - both to give him access to Unjustice to make him stronger and to remind him that, despite their pasts, they aren't enemies anymore

The look of shock on Billy's face suggests that he was paralyzed by the realization of his past actions, and it's Julia's words that snap him back into the present and bring a smile back to his face. That's really what I was talking about earlier; giving Billy an internal conflict with his memories would have provided an angle that no one else really had while also allowing him a stronger character moment with both Julia and Tatiana

Still, even if it's a weaker moment than it could have been, I do appreciate Julia's direct acknowledgment of Billy as an ally, as it at least subtly harkens back to their previous encounter. Where previously Billy stole Unjustice and lost the ability to use it after Juiz had some time to think about his motivations as an enemy, this time Julia is willingly entrusting Unjustice to Billy as an ally

Actually, I wonder if perhaps that's why Tozuka had Billy fail to use Unjustice on Sick, because he is still fighting that internal conflict...for now, I'll choose to believe that Tozuka has that in his back pocket, but I won't be redacting any of my criticisms until he makes good on that, as this review is based on my immediate interpretations and I don't want to erase all of this and redo it...

Along the same lines, not only does Tozuka still have a backdoor for analyzing Billy, he also still has one for giving us some more cool moments for the rest of the Master Rules as well

Put Me Back in, Coach!

Despite one-shotting seven MRs all at once, Julia didn't actually manage to clear the field. The Union's gearing up to face Sun, but they seem to be forgetting: they didn't actually beat Soul. He's still in the Roundtable Room, and he's undoubtedly more pissed than ever

I'm not sure if I would have caught this on my own before seeing their post on this, but Webmantis on twitter pointed out that the MRs' souls must all have been sent to Subspace, the cosmic waiting room that all souls go too between loops. They note that, since Soul hasn't entered Phase 3 yet, he'll most likely be able to bring everyone back

However, they also note that doing so would be an odd narrative choice, as it would make Julia's steamrolling seem kinda pointless. Why bother killing off a bunch of characters just to revive them in the next chapter?

Fortunately, I think I've come up with the perfect answer to that very question!

Firstly, it's to show off Julia's post-Remember Unjustice; we were promised a sweep, and Tozuka made good on it in spectacular fashion. Second, and more importantly, their deaths are necessary for Soul to reach Phase 3

Fuel for the Fire

You may recall from a few weeks ago that I described the mechanism that the MRs use to reach Phase 3 is absorbing their Rule directly: Change absorbed the change in her shape when she was cut in half, Time absorbed Shen's lifespan, War absorbed Billy and Tella's violence, Justice absorbed Yusai's resolve, etc. This is why Death only just now reached Phase 3, because no one was dying the entire battle until she was forced to personally kill Luck, and Luck was likely being prevented from absorbing any fortune by Unluck

So now that all of the MRs other than Soul are dead, their souls are free of their vessels. I don't know if their vessels were actually preventing Soul from accessing their souls, but since he seems to consider the others his friends, he probably didn't want to resort to absorbing them either way, but now? It doesn't matter if he could or couldn't before, now he has to, otherwise it's all for nothing

Now, the question may be how he'll be able to reach them. Webmantis' proposition was that reaching Phase 3 would give Soul access to Subspace, but I'm saying that he won't be able to reach Phase 3 without the souls that are there - that's a pretty clear logical paradox

Well, not to speculate too much, but I think we already have our answer to that one too: Soul's finally going to change

Another topic I've been going on and on about lately is the stagnation and inflexibility of the Rules, the most notable being Soul's rejection that souls are connected. However, Soul saw that new facet of his Rule be added in real time, by Negators that aren't even his vessel. The only one who should have control over his Rule is himself, and yet he's seen others interact with their souls through reinterpretation time and again (Andy vs. Ghost, Gina vs. Change, etc.). In other words, he should know full well by now that his Rule isn't as set in stone as he once thought, and if everyone else can control their souls through their perspective, then why couldn't Soul himself?

With the lesson that Julia just taught him about souls, Soul can connect himself to his fallen comrades and drag them back from Subspace (or prevent them from reaching it in the first place), and achieve Phase 3 by adding their souls to his own. Whether this would mean gaining power over their Rules or reviving them is another question, but at the very least it would show tremendous growth in his character

I'll go into more detail on this if it comes to pass, but Soul learning to change his perspective on his Rule would make him more like the Negators, more like a human. This would also make him the most well-rounded and developed UMA to date, which I think would more than make up for any loss of characterization among the rest of them

Now, I would definitely prefer that he brings back the MRs, if only so we can see Luck's Phase 3 (c'mon, he's Fuuko's foil for cryin' out loud!!!), but even if he just integrates them into himself, I think that would create the perfect parallel to give the final member of the Union a chance to demonstrate his growth

The Man Who Would be King

While fighting Soul, Sun and Luna are all clearly the most important boxes to check off right now, there's still one more that Tozuka alluded to in this chapter: Ruin's return

How Remember will affect him exactly, I won't speculate on, but I think it will give him the final push he needs to join the Union and help fight God. If my previous speculation about Soul comes to pass, then that would make Soul the ideal matchup for Ruin

Not only would they have the parallels of being "multiple souls in one body," it would also be the ultimate payoff to Ruin's designation as The King of Negators. If Soul is Master Rule #1, then it's Ruin's destiny as the Negator King to negate all of the Master Rules in his reformation and rebellion against the God he so thanklessly devoted his life to

This would also present the opportunity for Ruin to reform the MRs too and unify both Negator and UMA as I've speculated on before, but again, I don't want to go too far into it here. As it stands, this is just me making things up, and I don't want to either raise my hopes too high OR preemptively run out of things to say, but the parallel is so interesting that I can't help but get excited by the possibility

Conclusion

As always, it's entirely possible that I'm wrong about all of this. Maybe Soul's gonna try to go Phase 3 and self-destruct because of Unjustice; maybe Soul is gonna fuse with Sun in Phase 3 and they'll become "SOL;" maybe Kururu's going to use Unchaste to aggro Sun into shooting Soul dead. I don't know. There's always a chance that what we get isn't as interesting as what we envision; the best we can do is be open to what we do get rather than insisting it has to be the way we want

If there's one thing I hope I've gotten across with this review, it's that I don't want to get hung up on the negatives, but I also don't want to just ignore them either. I am disappointed that certain plot points are being glossed over, and that's a valid response for any of us to have, but I'm not going to go so far as to say this was a bad chapter because of it. Good things definitely still happened within this chapter, and there's plenty of chance that good things will come out of what this chapter set up

As I said, all there is to do now is be patient and open-minded. If this ends up just being a lull in an otherwise fantastic finale, so be it. If it ends up being the start of a rushed mess, so be it. The only way to know is to be there to see it

Until then, let's enjoy life!

[technicianuprisingau]

Cast Introduction: Bandana Dee

"I suppose this should be a lesson: never underestimate the little guys. You'll never know what they are capable of."

Basic Info

Name: Bandana Servician Age: 12 (by the start of Planet Robobot) Gender: Male | he/him Orientation: Questioning Birth Date: March 24, 3001 Place of Birth: Archeon Town, West Area, Neo Star (also hometown) Current Residence: Dedede's Castle, Mt. Dedede, Dreamland, Cookie Country, Popstar Species: Waddle Dee (Commonfolk) Job: Adventurer, Servant to King Dedede Other names/titles: Bandana Dee, Bandee, The Loyal Servant, Shortass [Robobot Armor], Apple Muffin [Galacta] Alignment: Lawful Good Affiliation: Team Starstruck, Dreamland, Dedede's Castle Staff

Personality

Bandana Dee is the closest person in the team with the 'badass normal' moniker. No mysterious origins, no birth by luck, not born with the necessary talents or magic to fight... and yet, here he is, twirling that spear. If you think this makes him feel rather small, well, you'd be correct... and he's still trying his best. Yeah, he can be a bit timid at times, but seriously, his unassuming nature makes him able to surprise many with his sudden presence. Never underestimate the lil ones. As mundane as he is though, he is genuinely good at the things he excels at. Outside fighting, he has a great passion for cooking and baking, and cares greatly for the people he is close with - in fact, food is his love language. He can, and will work hard for what he believes he wants to be, in this case he wants to be stronger so he can defend himself and those he holds dear. Even though his closest allies accept him for who he is, and even say he is already a great fighter in his own right, Bandee however thinks otherwise. He needs to get better at his job. As such, he ends up training hard... or maybe too hard. This guy is willing to stay up all night to train with his spear, even at times collapsing from exhaustion thanks to it. This worries many others, but his determination, just like the rest of the team, knows no bounds. He will reach his goal with his bare hands, and it will be done... eventually. But otherwise, he is such a sweetheart! And a good friend at that. Honestly, he will always still be a vital member of Team Starstruck - someone's gotta scout and help analyze the area, and cook for Kirby as well. And he's willing to do such.

Relationships

Kirby

Status: best friend, fellow team member These two are perhaps the bestest of friends. There is a good reason why Bandee stuck close to Kirby whenever duties for the king are not the concern - it was thanks to the puffball that he was rescued from possession, and it was also thanks to him that he had the resolution to stay in Dreamland and try to build up his confidence in the first place. And honestly, Kirby definitely needed someone close to his age as a friend, rather than being surrounded by mostly people older than him relying on him all the time. Bandee sees Kirby as someone he can confide in, and finds him to be such a good friend - jovial, kind-hearted, and brings a lot of positivity to his life. He wants to be seen as an equal to his greatness someday, even though Kirby himself thinks Bandee IS already his equal. Kirby sees Bandee as a good person, finding his hardworking and determination to be shining qualities of him that people should appreciate more, and he also makes the best food. Kirby worries a lot when Bandee starts to overwork himself to try and appease others, and the opposite happens when Kirby starts to blame himself for terrible situations no one accounted for. In other words, these two keep each other in check, and bring out the best in each other. As a result, they will 100% vouch for each other.

Robobot Armor

Status: best friend, rival, fellow team member Initially, Bandee thought how… weird, this situation is. Kirby somehow finding a mechanical suit and using it? How? Why? And the fact it has its own quirks and what not certainly didn't help, and yet, he helped it to grow into their own person. Seriously, props to Bandee for still being willing to be Robobot Armor's second leash.  At first, Bandee and Robobot’s relations started off pretty much mild, until an incident sets off a sense of distrust within Bandee and causes a rivalry regarding who was best suited to protect Kirby's life. This escalated until things get bad for the team, but in short? They made up and now their rivalry stays friendly, though it was paused when the war ended. Essentially, the two are bash brothers when it comes to keeping Kirby safe, some even saying the two can be quite similar in personality as much as they both denied it. Once Robobot got their body back, though, they absolutely loved sparring the crap out of each other, even late at night much to Kirby's concern. See? They do care about each other! And they'll put everything aside when it comes to Kirby, so everyone wins.

Meta Alecta/Meta Knight

Status: mentor While Bandana does sort of look up to Meta Knight before, he usually just follows his commands. It wasn't until after events of the Technological War, Bandana decides to get Meta Knight as another mentor, so he can train with Kirby too. Meta in the end accepted after seeing the kid's determination, plus he owed him one for keeping Kirby safe throughout that war. These two are respectful for each other, for sure. Meta sees Bandana as a very well-taught student, especially that at least amongst the team he is the least likely to break commands or rules. In fact, Bandee's the one who makes the team consider Meta's words more, which is appreciated at times. Bandee sees Meta just like any of his mentors - someone to be considered and listened to under their tutelage.

Dedede Kororā/King Dedede

Status: king/employer, best friend The Great King himself. Back during the Third Dark Matter Incident, it's usually Dedede who is able to be on standby, protecting him from upcoming threats. It was his strength and resilience that caused him to instantly cling to him back then, and when Kirby convinced the dee to stay in Dreamland he immediately said he wanted to stay at Dedede’s Castle, hoping he could learn from him and his troops to get stronger there. Plus, he is a good cook, so that's an instant yes for Dedede right there. Needless to say, he is surprised with how lax the king is regarding his subjects and everything. Despite Dedede’s laziness - which is the only thing he had issues with - the penguin proved himself to be a pretty neat guy, surprisingly giving him good advice and just generally being a fun person. And Dedede himself is amazed with Bandana's hardworking personality and sees something the two had in common: they are anxious with how people perceive them at times. Sharing these experiences results in the two growing closer and even affecting each other, with Bandana being a bit more braver and headstrong to others while Dedede gets more motivated to be more active in doing things and what not. Because of this, Bandee essentially becomes very loyal to Dedede, and Dedede himself had found Bandee to be his favorite.

Captain Waddle Doo

Status: mentor His first REAL combat mentor that isn't using Dedede's lax and ‘fun’ method. The Captain was the type to be reasonable to his soldiers, and Bandee is no exception - heck, he was surprised when Bandee wanted to be a soldier at such a young age. So Bandee ends up being his apprentice instead rather than being inscripted into a soldier role like most others, and he learns quite a lot from the guy. Captain Waddle Doo sees Bandee like a ‘young grasshopper’, so to speak. Unlike Meta, he won't be harsh with Bandee, but he tries to open up Bandee to options on what he really wants to learn. It was by his hand that the dee learned that being strong isn't all about being physical, rather it’s by making use of what you have. Lessons that he learned from the Captain ended up being useful when Meta Knight trained him, heck their lessons turned out to be pretty similar, with Meta only emphasizing it harder on the kid. Bandee really respects this mentor of his, and the guy is not left from the loop once he trained under Meta. Hey, it's a team effort!

Canopy Servician/Parasol Waddle Dee

Status: family Canopy is Bandee’s uncle. And honestly, it’s kinda funny looking now that Bandee’s more closer to him than his own parents, but that’s something for another day. When Bandee was born, Canopy was the one who initially wanted to keep distance - I mean, his job had things related to alcohol and what not, so he didn’t want to, well, make the kid go drunk or anything. But at least, as Bandee gets older, he can finally ease up and raise him into a proper adult. Still, no alcohol. Honestly, Bandana finds Canopy to be a chill guy. He sees his bartending skills to be interesting and wants to get his hands on it, but Canopy keeps him out of that. The only thing Canopy allows the young dee to do is to be a waiter, and even then he didn’t allow it at all whenever drunk customers started to come in. On the other hand, Canopy is fond of Bandee, yes, and certainly didn’t want his brother and sister-in-law to lambast him considering he is the only relative who can take care of Bandee in Popstar, which is why he takes all these precautions seriously. He even warns Dedede to NOT feed the kid alcohol, or else! Honestly, he is proud that Bandee is growing independent, but he just wants to make sure, even if he doesn’t show it often, that the kid’s safety is his first priority.

Marx

Status: acquaintances...? Bandee doesn't like Marx as much… mainly thinking he's a creepy guy. He just kinda knows him, and that's about it, they don't cross paths often. Marx thinks he is a fun one to mess with, just about with anyone else, much to Kirby's disapproval. At least, the jester will be tame around him.

-Additional Notes-

Generally, Bandana may need a bit to establish a friendship. He can be a bit suspicious to newcomers, probably a habit established after Magolor's big screw-up. If you manage to get closer to Kirby and show you are earnest, he is more likely to follow suit.

Battle Data

Basics

Magic: [none] Weapon: Common spear (has a red cloth tied on it) Other Equipments: Magnetic gloves Copy Ability Classification: Spear

Battle Style Analysis

Bandana Waddle Dee has practically the Spear ability moveset. However, there's an explanation for all that spear-throwing and pulling this time. After a certain incident in the war, Kirby slotted steel on Bandee's spear's handle to make it magnetic, which he can control with his (admittedly stolen) magnetic gloves. As the result, his range was made bigger than ever. He tends to act as the team's walking spy as he is pretty nimble and runs faster than everyone else by far. Strengths: Nimble and stealthy, able to blend/hide himself generally well, has a bigger range than the rest of the team (long weapon supremacy) Weaknesses: low health and thus prone to strong hits, can be anxious under pressure

Backstory

The Servician family has a bit of history, despite them not being known much as a collective. Many members of the family work in agriculture, maritime, or food industries - growing their own ingredients and creating products out of them. It’s a surprise they haven’t become a conglomerate industry or something, but apparently it is the decision of their ancestors to just keep things simple as it is… and it’s something all generations adhere to, no matter how far they were spread out. They didn’t need riches when nature provides all these treasures around them, after all. Bandana’s core family itself is a somewhat well-known figure in Archeon Town. They have a fairly small business in the heart of the town, doing all sorts of catering and baking. Although their popularity hasn’t skyrocketed quite yet, the locals who know them best tend to see them as a well-hidden gem. Just like the rest of the family, expansion isn’t in their plans, they are comfortable in being small. Bandana himself is the only child of the family. From the tender age of 5, he was already attracted to the smells and wonders of the kitchens. He helped his family to cook and bake various things, and was more than happy with this simple life. Unfortunately, being the only child in a loving family doesn’t mean everything is sunshine and rainbows… because Bandee’s naivety had drawn attention from the people of Archeon Town. Many expected him to continue the family’s tradition, even though he had no idea and was mostly just interested… some ended up placing high standards on the things he does, even though he didn’t realize it. And this also pulled him into getting bullied by some kids who are envious of his status of living. Helps too that he was very easy to manipulate. This made him more and more timid throughout the years, as the pressure of everything keeps getting to him. But everything changed during that fateful day, when he went on a vacation to visit his uncle Canopy. It was his 8th birthday, but instead of supposedly being able to stay with his uncle and enjoy some time off his home he got lost in the Dark Matter conflict instead. When he spotted a crystal shard, he suddenly felt hazy and was swiftly possessed for his troubles, as the Dark Matter easily took a hold on his uncertainty regarding himself that he tried to ignore. Kirby and Ribbon rescued him after that, and due to not knowing where his uncle went he ended up following the two, and eventually came to meet Dedede and Adeleine this way. Throughout the journey, he witnessed the others being able to fight very well, and pondered if he could be like that too, becoming strong and able to stand up for not just himself, but other people… Once the incident ended, Bandee was reunited with his uncle. Kirby kept visiting him to ensure he was okay after what had happened the past week, and from this, the two became friends. Kirby eventually convinced Bandee to stay at Dreamland in hopes of not just taking a longer break from home, but also to perhaps pursue his dreams. With blessing from his family, Bandee went to Dedede's Castle for tutelage, eventually taking the attention of Dedede who sent him to Captain Waddle Doo's way. He continued training under the captain until he was able to fight, eventually considered strong enough to join his first adventure when Magolor came along - now wearing a blue bandana given by his family. Since then, Bandana has played a much more vital role, becoming Kirby's closest confidant during various events… including the Technological War.

During that time, he managed to escape thanks to his king making him go and find help, but he got lost and was eventually found by Kirby and Robobot Armor, the latter being not that sentient at the time. Eventually he teamed up with the two, and after defeating Whispy Woods and destroying the first claw, Kirby made the trio regroup at what remains of his home. In fear of anyone making a replica of him, Bandee added additional patterns to his bandana hoping it will be harder to replicate by any to-be doppelgangers. And when Kirby formed Team Starstruck and offered the waddle dee to join the ride, he obliged. Together with Kirby, Bandana went through battles while managing to raise Robobot Armor in a sense - that sash they had was actually an extra fabric he was using for his spear. Unfortunately, when the team was in Overload Ocean, a big misunderstanding and some vessel-snatching resulted in Bandana distrusting Robobot, and things started to get worse from there, as the two began to get into a heated rivalry. Things got so bad that this resulted in Kirby leaving the two for a bit, only for something to happen to him. This is where they finally set aside their differences, and in the end, they both made up for their hostility before finally managing to get Kirby back. The three, now properly reunited, kickstarted their own revolution, starting a massive ruckus within Access Ark. In the end, together with Robobot Armor before the latter would eventually be bodysurfed to another vessel, he ends up fending off the rest of the forces so Kirby can confront the true mastermind on the upper floor. And when Star Dream began its eradication plan, he ended up playing part in evacuating as many people as he could out of there. When the war ended, he wound up becoming Kirby's caretaker when the puffball chose to lock himself away from others, thanks to being driven by guilt of Robobot Armor's disappearance. But when that helmet landed and Robobot's AI turned out to be there all along, he was relieved. Though, with the new threat now secretly moving in the shadows, it looks like things are not going to be that simple… And as the other member capable of fighting currently that isn't Kirby, he's more than ready to keep on guard.

Miscellaneous

Favorites

Food: Anything with apples, particularly apple pie Drink: Anything with apples, particularly apple juice Music Genre: Acoustic, lofi, traditional music Game Genre: Cooking games, puzzles Paraphernalia: Bandana (given by Dedede, sewn additionally by himself) Other talents: Cooking and baking in general, sewing

Least Favorites

Food: Butter melon (hard to work with in dishes) Drink: [none]

[valbellepeche]

With the recent announcement of Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition, I've been thinking about X's story, the time leading up to humanity leaving Earth in particular. I wanted to analyze these events and compare them to the rest of the series to see if I can discern possible relations between the games or otherwise learn something about them.

Full spoilers for Xenoblade X, 1, 2, and Future Redeemed.

To begin with, let's summarize the events leading up to the destruction of each timeline's respective Earth, starting with Xenoblade X.

In the 2020s, Elma arrived on Earth and warned humans of the alien conflict that will eventually reach Earth. She brought advanced alien technology, notably including light speed travel. The Coalition government was formed, and the Earthlife Colonization Project, or Project Exodus, was started with hopes of preventing human extinction. The Lifehold is developed, a system that stores human consciousness so they can later be put in newly created artificial biological bodies. In July of 2054, the aliens reached Earth, and it was destroyed in the conflict, with the Project Exodus ships attempting to leave amongst the chaos. Most of the ships were not successful, and it's possible the White Whale was the only one to survive.

For Xenoblade 1-3:

The Conduit was discovered at the beginning of the 21st century. It was moved to an orbital ring built so the Conduit could be studied safely. A group known as the Saviourites pushes for the protection of their own human rights, which likely did not end up happening. The Saviourites attack the low orbit station in an attempt to possess the Conduit.

Where things get interesting is when concepts and terms from Xenoblade X appear. As early as the Siren model kit's bonus lore, the world government is referred to with the same name as X's, Coalition. The next part of the timeline comes from Future Redeemed's infamous radio scene, where the Earthlife Colonization Project/Project Exodus is named directly. It is stated that, as a part of the project, the 8th ship has left, bringing the total number of people sent to space to 3 million. Ships 9 through 13 are planned to bring the number to 10 million, with each carrying up to 1.5 million. This is distinctly different from the ECP in X, where the ships only leave once Earth is actively being destroyed. Additionally, the ships in the numbered games' timeline seem to be carrying people in their original bodies rather than using the Lifehold and Mimeosomes, which allow the White Whale to effectively carry 20 million people, a massive increase in carrying capacity.

What really got me thinking about all of this was reading one of Xenoblade X's short stories released in Japan before the game came out. (Translation by twitter user tried4thdslip)

This part specifically stood out to me. "...there were many who refused to join under the umbrella of the Coalition government. Most of the world, however, agreed upon the gravitas of the situation and banded together to avoid potential extinction. As a result, the injustice that a dissatisfied minority felt went largely ignored."

This is a near perfect match for the Saviourites, predating their appearance in Xenoblade 2. They've been building upon Earth's politics in these games even across separate universes. Whether it's building up to something or not, I can't say for certain, but it's fascinating nonetheless.

This brings to question whether certain events overlap between timelines. Was the Conduit discovered on X's Earth? Did Elma come to the numbered games' Earth? My answer to both of these is no, at least for now. There's no orbital ring on X's Earth. (admittedly, the ring did not exist in Xenoblade 1, although it wasn't added in X's remaster, so the point still stands) Humanity's technology is based on what Elma gave them rather than the Conduit. And most importantly, if they had the Conduit, it would make more sense to use it against the incoming aliens rather than attempting to flee.

As for Elma existing in Xenoblade 1-3's universe, the Coalition government and Earthlife Colonization Project existing at all is interesting, but their purposes and execution differ from that of X's, so I don't think they were created for the same purpose.

If I missed anything or got something wrong, please let me know. See you all on Mira in March!

[theshadowsingersraven]

Analyzing Blodeuwedd and What it May Mean for Elain's Character Arc/Romantic Journey (mainly Elucien)

Many people have attributed Blodeuwedd to Elain’s arc, as SJM had supposedly pinned it to her Pinterest before it was taken down and labeled it "Elain." And, generally speaking, it does seem to fit her.

Flower face? Elain is known to be beautiful and associated with flowers. Additionally, she's tied to a man by forces of magic beyond her control and is shown to want a man different than the one the magic forces designated for her. Lleu also means "light," similar to how Lucien means light. I've also seen people cite that the name Lleu itself translates to Lucien.

Now, here's what it gets interesting and parallels to Elain-Lucien-Azriel really come into play.

So, many people assume that Gronw Pebr is Azriel in this situation. Especially because of the whole Blood Duel debacle being a possible outcome. But I want to pose something different. Because here's what's said about Gronw on his own page.

An antagonist.

Now, to be clear, this isn't really a grand love story between Blodeuwedd and Gronw. It's almost comparable to Romeo and Juliet, but the main difference is that the antagonists in Romeo and Juliet are the families. The families are the ones who the narrative blames for them taking their lives. But thar doesn't appear to be the case with Blodeuwedd. Because here's what happens next:

Blodeuwedd and Gronw are blamed by the narrative. Gwydion (notice something familiar about that name? The ancient sword of Fionn? The Starsword?) punishes Blodeuwedd and turns her into an owl. (I don't anticipate this to be literal in the retelling.)

And then the last of the tale is below:

So, what does this all mean?

Incorporating SJM's hint that the next book will feature a betrayal, I think it's very possible that the traitor is Elain, but under specific circumstances. Again, assuming that SJM does maintain her statement about there being a betrayal. Especially because I personally don't see SJM killing off Azriel for trying to kill Lucien. As much as I want Az to get his desperately needed reality check, I definitely don't want him to die.

Hear me out:

What if "Gronw" is an emissary/ally of Koschei instead of Azriel?

Thinking of it this way, it's possible that SJM's adaptation would also tie in Swan Lake and the Death of Koschei the Deathless all in one.

In ACOSF, Cassian notes that no one really knows where Elain goes and that he believes her to be lying at one point when she says she's going to help an elderly faerie with her garden.

Given that the Suriel was aware of Elain scrying for him in WAR, I wonder if something similar could occur with her seeing Koschei? Or perhaps she scries in either the early part of her book or the novella should SJM decide to put a break between SF and the next novel, and that might be how we can get a more direct tie between them.

Either way, I don't think it's a coincidence that Gwydion from this tale is also the same origin name of the Starsword. Perhaps if Elain is magically manipulated in some way, Gwydion could be wielded to destroy that manipulation. Or Gwydion might be used to reveal "Gronw" as an owl/emissary of Koschei instead of "Blodeuwedd"/Elain being turned into an owl. Perhaps this "owl" could also be a reference to Maeve?

Maybe Lucien and Nesta work together to free Elain from this manipulation, thus how Gwydion as a sword could come into play. I also wouldn't be surprised that if this is the direction SJM takes, it could result in Elain being "punished"/monitored to ensure that there's no further manipulations still affecting her.

And since Madja even says that a mate will know what's wrong, maybe Lucien is included in that monitoring (especially if there was an attempt on his life)? Maybe she's put with him in a forced proximity way, like at the Band of Exiles' manor, and she spends time around humans and starts to heal the part of her that grieves her humanity. Maybe her "monitoring" is also focused on healing, and since Elain would have access to the world around her, unlike in the House of Wind, she might make her way to Spring as many have expected her to end up.

And maybe this might be where Vassa is called back to Koschei’s lake, though maybe not necessarily resolved fully in this book? Or maybe it could be, who knows!

I know very well that SJM doesn't do entirely faithful/one-to-one retellings, so who knows how it'll play out. However, I do find it interesting that this isn't the love story a lot of people seemed to expect for E/riel both on here and on Reddit. I don't see her turning Elain and/or Azriel into truly malicious antagonists. But that's also just me!

Let me know your thoughts. I'm also heavily biased towards Elucien, so def keep that in mind!