#i had fun with it though!

[aftgphoenix]

How do you feel about Kevin ?

I'm not really sure what you are looking for, anon, so here's a random jumble of thoughts that I hope makes some sort of sense. Thank you so much for the ask!

I think he's such an interesting character and one that I wish we could learn more about. I would love to learn more about his childhood with his mom and then his experiences at the Nest! I wonder if Kayleigh was a good mom, if she spent a lot of time with Kevin, if she let him explore other interests aside from exy. Imagine little Kevin dragging his Mom through different historical sites as they travel around the world for exy! Once Kevin's in the Nest, I keep thinking about Riko and how his friendship with Kevin developed into them being "brothers" and Kevin being Riko's pet. Imagine the slow slide as Riko let his sadistic side grow. I think it probably got noticeable worse when Jean arrived but I imagine it was already bad before then.

With what we do know, though, I think he's hiding a boatload of trauma that he'll likely keep repressing as long as he can until everything implodes. I would love to see him really start working through that in his fourth and fifth years with the foxes with Betsy. Actually, that would be a super cool fic to read! If anyone knows of any/writes one, please let me know!

His growth in the series was really cool to read too. He is still learning how to be his own person with his own thoughts, interests, and personality. He's learning how to be brave and to take a stand against his abusers. He's learning how to overcome the cult mindset from the Nest and he's learning to let Riko go. He's learning how to live a life with more than just exy and to care for others in a way that wasn't allowed in the Nest. He will always be connected to exy, but I think even if he had been raised in a healthy place, he still would have been exy-obsessed. I mean, his mom created the game and his dad is an exy coach (and presumably a really good player prior to that).

I hope he's able to find healthier ways to cope than getting drunk. He deserves so much better than that. (On a side note, my husband's family has struggled with alcoholism and it isn't fun at all. It tears apart families and can cause a lot of negative impact on the kids, even without an abusive aspect.) I understand why he does it, though, because I can't imagine having to live with the memories he does. I mean, watching Nathan kill that man would be traumatic enough but Kevin has seen so much more than that and I know it haunts him.

Unpopular opinion, I know, but I also like him with Thea. I like the idea of him falling in love with someone who isn't very familiar with exy but I just don't think that's very likely to happen. Instead, I like to imagine that he and Thea get a boatload of therapy and rekindle their relationship, first as friends, relearning about each other, then moving into a romantic relationship while they process the absolute horrendousness that the Nest's sexual culture was (what do you mean Riko was in the room? Yikes!!!). 

He's definitely one of my top favorite characters (but let's be real, I have about twenty favorite aftg characters). I love reading fics about him! Hopefully this makes sense and maybe answers your question? Either way, I had a lot of fun writing this all out! I love getting asks, so thank you!!!

[xejune]

little request for @bookcalanthedaily of her calanthe & ciri (+ an additional tiny comic), thank you for your patience! ✨

sketches + process shot underneath the cut!

[kareenvorbarra]

The Sidosians, the Medes, and the History of Ianna-Ir

I wrote a post a while ago where I compiled all the different demonyms and other descriptive words that the books use to describe the Medes. This post is about a different group who are not mentioned nearly as often: the Sidosians.

There are only three textual mentions of the Sidosians in the entire series (if you know of another one please tell me!)

"It’s very old," the queen said with a smile. "This was an Attolian megaron, a fortified room on a hilltop, when your emperor's present palace was an empty plot of land in the Sidosians' territory."

The Queen of Attolia (ch 14)

He taught me to write with a pen as well as with chalk, and one day he taught me numbers—not the marks I already knew, but Sidosian numerals.

The Return of the Thief (vol 1 ch 8)

Not since Nussam led his forces across the isthmus to conquer the Sidosian empire had the world seen an army that size.

The Return of the Thief (vol 2 ch 1)

From these, we know that the Sidosians controlled Ianna-Ir before the Medes did, and that they invented the number system currently used in the Little Peninsula. That's pretty much it.

However, I get the impression from the books that the area around Ianna-Ir has a history very similar to that of ancient Mesopotamia: a region inhabited for thousands of years and controlled by various culturally-related empires. The Mede Empire seems to be the most recent of these, though it is clearly very well-established and has been around for a long time. Kamet's map from Thick as Thieves gives us a hint that the aforementioned Nussam from the other side of the isthmus was also the Mede ruler who conquered the Sidosians:

On this map, there is a city called Sidusia on the river, between Ianna-Ir and Iannis. If we assume that Sidusia is related somehow to the Sidosians, they probably originated in this general area. On the other hand, there is only one region labeled "Mede," on the opposite side of the isthmus from Ianna-Ir and Sidusia. This makes me think that the Medes originally came from the other side of the isthmus, and that the area around Ianna-Ir was not originally part of the Mede homeland.

(Note that Gitta's map does label the Ianna River region "Mede," as well as the region to the west of the isthmus, but it's a later map made by someone who is probably much less familiar with Mede history and geography than Kamet. I'm guessing that the label is meant to indicate that the area has been part of the Mede Empire for a long time. Gitta's map also has a smaller regional label of "Sidosia" to the southeast of Ianna-Ir, but there is no city called either Sidosia or Sidusia. The scale and orientation Gitta's map is also different enough from Kamet's that it can be difficult to compare the two.)

Kamet has also added a parenthetical label beneath Sidusia that reads "The New Palace." There is no reference made to this palace in the book itself, or anywhere else in the series that I know of, and it's obviously not the primary palace of the Mede emperor, which we know is in Ianna-Ir. The New Palace might be an ongoing contruction project of the emperor's, or a smaller palace that was completed more recently where he sometimes stays. My silly pet theory is that the New Palace was the name of the Sidosian ruler's residence at the time of the Mede conquest, and everyone just kept calling it the New Palace even after the Medes built their own palace in their new capital city.

While the emperor's palace in Ianna-Ir may be relatively new, the city itself is much older. The region around the current Mede capital of Ianna-Ir has a cultural continuity that predates the Medes, and possibly also the Sidosians. Kamet tells us in Thick as Thieves that Immakuk was the king of Ianna-Ir, and the stories about him and Ennikar appear in a number of ancient texts:

"You said you were reciting from the first tablet," said the Attolian. "There are more than a hundred in the temple of Anet alone," I said. "No one knows how many there are altogether. Scholars argue about it. Some of the tablets are retellings of other tablets, only differing in style. Sometimes parts of the story change."

The current Mede gods are also much older than the empire: Anet, Shesmegah, Tenep, Ne Malia, Prokip and the Queen of the Night all appear or are mentioned in the Immakuk and Ennikar stories, and all of them are worshipped by the present-day Medes.

The tablets were written in Ensur, a language that is still studied but no longer seems to be spoken. Kamet says that Ensur is "from before the Mede," but doesn't specify whether or not there were other dominant languages in between. It's possible that Ensur was the language of the Sidosians, but the words sound unrelated enough that the speakers of Ensur might have belonged to a group that controlled the region before the Sidosians.

Immakuk is a fairly a clear parallel to Gilgamesh, who was king of the Sumerian city of Uruk, and the in-universe history of the Immakuk stories maps very closely onto what we know about Gilgamesh. The oldest stories about him are written in Sumerian, but the first combined version of the Epic of Gilgamesh is written in Akkadian, the language of the Akkadian, Babylonian, and Assyrian empires that controlled Mesopotamia (including Sumer) at various times. Sumer, Akkad, Assyria, and Babylonia all had a great deal of cultural overlap with each other, including gods and writing systems. Perhaps Ianna-Ir and Sidusia were once ancient city-states like Uruk and Akkad, and it was the Sidosians who happened to be in power when the Medes arrived.

Even though the Medes are likely not the original inhabitants of the city, it seems clear to me that Ianna-Ir, its gods, and its heroes are deeply entrenched in Mede culture by the events of the series, even if the Medes had to cross the isthmus to get there. They might have had different gods when they conquered the Sidosians, and gradually adopted the religion of their new empire's heartland. It's also possible that Mede culture had long been influenced by the ancient stories of their neighbors and that they already worshipped some of the same gods. Given the history of ancient Mesopotamian religion, the second option might even be more likely.

[puppyeared]

filipina miku!! my mom helped me with her outfit ^_^

[housederiva]

Gaby Soto is a gift

Edit: I missed one!

[psymachine]

the code-switching kills me

[chloesimaginationthings]

This could be a kart if FLAF wasn't fucking around..

[ferociouslycreativemystery]

En såndär bockjävel eller vad fan det heter

↳ sytråd och virknål 0,6 mm + bonus: biblically accurate julbock

Note: I moved this under a read more since donations can no longer be made here. Feel free to make some to a charity of your choice though!

Did you know it used to be the Christmas goat that brought you your presents in Sweden?

To keep the spirit alive, you can officially make a donation in the name of this little crochet goat to support everyone's right to survive their pregnancy! Just go to this link and follow these steps:

Please note that this collection only remains active until 15 Dec 2024! More information about the organisers can be found at the bottom of this post.

On the right hand side/top of the linked page, you can see the current sum of donations. Below that are some options we need to fill out to make a donation of our own.

First we need to disclose whether the donation is being made by a private individual (Privatperson) or a business (Företag). I'm assuming you're a private individual, so leave the first option selected (on the left).

Next we choose the method of payment. "Swish" is a Swedish payment service that won't work for foreigners, and if you're Swedish I'm assuming you already know how it works. Foreigners, please choose the second option to pay by card (Kort).

Now for the fun bit! How much do you want to donate? The standard options are presented in Swedish krona (kr). I have put the rough exchange rates to US dollars for each option below:

50 kr ≈ $4.56 | 100 kr ≈ $9.13 | 300 kr ≈ $27.38

You can convert from your currency to Swedish krona using this tool. Just choose your own currency in the first drop-down menu ("from").

In the final field you have the option to instead enter your own amount, if you want to give less or more or in between any of the previous options. Note that the amount you enter is in Swedish krona, so look up the exchange rates so that you know how much you are giving if you choose this option!!

The final two check boxes are options that relate to the public display of your donation (see the bottom of the page). If you don't check either option, your donation amount will be visible but your name will not be.

Check the first box if you want your name to show up in the public list of donations, leave it unchecked to remain anonymous. Check the second box if you want to hide the amount you've donated, leave it unchecked to show the world your donation amount.

Finally, hit the red button to be taken to the payment page. Fulfil the payment, and be sure to double check the amount you're donating. Note that we use commas instead of dots to separate decimals in Swedish, so 50,00 kr means simply 50 kr.

And that's it! Thank you so much for your donation!! 🥳🐐

Please reblog this post so that more people will hopefully donate, or at least get to enjoy a tiny Gävlebock!

What is this charity thing?

Musikhjälpen is an annual charity event organised by the Swedish public broadcasters. Every year in December, 3 hosts are locked in a glass cage for a week and they broadcast in shifts, nonstop for 144 hours (6 days, 24 hours per day) to create an occasion for charity donations. They are visited by various music artist, celebrities, and talk to people who have special knowledge about the donation theme of the year or who organise initiatives for donations. You can watch clips of previous performances on their youtube channel here.

The event's official donations website also allows the public to set up their own "initiatives", to which donations can be made. This is what I have done! The money goes directly to the event organisers (the public broadcasters' aid agency, Radiohjälpen), who then pool all the money that is collected during the week. After the week is done they will begin portioning it out to trusted charities that are relevant to this year's theme. This year's theme is Alla har rätt att överleva sin graviditet, or in English: Everyone Has a Right to Survive Their Pregnancy.

Learn more about musikhjälpen on English Wikipedia or on Sveriges radio's website (in Swedish).

Or

If you prefer, the goat will be just as happy if you make a donation to a charity of your choice. You'll have to find links to other causes on your own though! 😊

I should probably also mention that I am in no way officially affiliated with Gävlebocken, I just crocheted a little guy and thought it would be nice to spread some constructive spirit among all the calls for arson. 😇

[saradiation]

Hey it's that time of the year again :D

HAPPY 413! 🎂

[menlove]

can't do this one as a poll bc there's endless choices but if you're in college/university or went to college/university what's been the most fun/enriching class you've had?

[chiptrillino-art]

(ID in ALT text)

Howl!AU zukka = me going all out with zukos outfit, and shiny silver sokka hair! you perhaps already saw the first part of it in this post here LINK and like past me predicted... the day to post what i have has finally come...

[anbaisai]

The girlies are fighting… (featuring mentions of a friend’s OC)

Textless version can be interpreted as POV you're being bullied by mean girls or something

Hypothetical exchange based on Leona giving Jamil this ⬇️ piece of advice during Book 6

If this statement doesn’t literally also apply to Jamiyuu ships if Leona knew about things in universe… he’s a Jamiyuu shipper and he’s getting impatient (/j).

And instead of defending himself, I believe Jamil’d just pick something to fire back about because he’s like that. Men who can’t be direct or honest for their lives, sigh.

[saltedbiscuiit]

Apple Zai

[wuntrum]

2025 horror pin up calendar!!

print version | digital (/print it yourself) version

a labor of love, truly <3 prepare for the new year with 12 suggestive (and silly) horror characters :) featuring characters from: american psycho, bride of re-animator, the evil dead, hannibal, jason x, frankenhooker, alien, an american werewolf in london, jennifer's body, saw, the thing, and scream! to see the full specs of the calendar, check out the pages above!

[cup-o-stars]

All Straw Hats!

(New Images: Chopper, Franky, Brook, Jinbei)

This was ultimately quite fun and made me push my colors harder than I have in a very long while! This last batch was definitely my favorite.

[chalkrub]

kajsa my latest nefarious girlie, sporting the latest fashion (wearing her family members' pelts and carrying around her enemy's head on a stick)