#i mean obviously the info page would be hosted there but i feel like if i got an entire site i could do more than that
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OOC: in theory, if i got a website for cometcare alongside this blog, what do you guys think i should use it for?
#i mean obviously the info page would be hosted there but i feel like if i got an entire site i could do more than that#this blog would continue to be where its uploaded so i couldnt exactly host it there#and i use the toyhouse folder for all the character stuff#if i did get this... what would i do with it?#ooc
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Quick guide to SAVING LIVEJOURNAL/OTHER FAN CONTENT with THE WAYBACK MACHINE:
(quick note: Tumblr content is honestly much more at risk, so if you have the stomach to try finding things on Tumblr, you can also use this method on that and do some good work)
Uhhh this got long, so look for the bolded parts if you’re not here for a long read lol.
Okay so, at some point, LJ is going under. Or at least all the gay stuff they can find on there. More to the point, PHOTOBUCKET, TINYPIC, IMAGESHACK.... all of those have left huge scars in the records of LJ fandom. So I’ve been using the fact that the Wayback Machine lets you save outlinks if you sign up with the Internet Archive! (Free!)
There’s a Save Page Now function! Good places to use it on include:
Rec lists
People’s masterlists of their own fics/art/meta
Somebody’s well-organized LJ Memories (the page you save needs to contain direct links to the posts you want to save, so if there are sublevels in the Memories you need to go as deep as possible)
community profiles
Every page of a community, if you really feel like it--I’ve been doing this with some small comms, but it’s.... less than feasible with big communities.
Check the “Save Outlinks” button, and the WB will also save links from the page you enter! You can get a lot of stuff at once. Unfortunately there’s a limit on the number of links it’ll grab, but it’s better than nothing. You’ll also see a lot of ERROR!s and it’s annoying. When it’s a Job Failed you can try the page again later.
I don’t know yet how it picks the outlinks to save, so maybe it’s random and you could eventually get all of them by Saving repeatedly??? I’m pretty sure it tries to start at the top, though, because communities with a huge list of tags in their layout are probably not worth your time: I’ve been trying to get stuff from the KKM Fanfic Challenge comm, but.... well, look at it. Trying to save any page with outlinks just picks up a whooooole bunch of those tags on the sidebar, and barely any actual posts. No matter what kind of URL you put in, that sidebar’s always there. You’d have to save each post individually to get every fic. Hope LJ’s not going anywhere fast!
Community profiles are among the most important, because that gives us a lot of info like how many members are left (after years of bleeding users) and how many comments and posts there were in the community! Unfortunately this method is REALLY BAD for art and icons--lots of them are just gone with tinypic and people’s personal LJ albums. Also the WB isn’t good with images in general and there’s no real alternative. But the profiles of icon communities, plus fanfics, meta, stuff like that: a lot of it left to be grabbed! Big main community profiles are best, because they often listed other smaller communities for the same fandom. Saving the big profile with Outlinks will pick up the profile links of all those smaller communities!
Sometimes the big community profiles will just make you sad. Try to soldier on. (If you’re really committing to this, don’t forget that smaller comms will also have even smaller comms listed as affiliates that never made it into the Big Fandom Community’s profile. You can come back later and Save their profiles directly. Sometimes they also have links to fanlistings and other rare things that are also useful to have saved!)
If you can think of a small community, you can also use the method of saving every page, which takes some work and time: you have to save the skip=10 URL, and after that skip=30, skip=50, etc. Then come back later and do skip=20, skip=40, skip=60, etc. The reason for this is that the Wayback Machine will only save one single URL every 30 minutes. So if you’re saving outlinks from skip=30, you’ll also get an incomplete snapshot of skip=20 and skip=40, minus all the important links on skip=20 and skip=40. Obviously, this isn’t much fun and works only with small comms. But it does save a lot of text.
Here’s the type of stuff you’ll get:
a saved PROFILE url: This is good! It saves info about how active a user or community was. In this case it was a user, but the profile is info they chose to put front and center, and the WB isn’t gonna crawl any deeper and grab personal posts from 2004 or anything. (You’ll get a lot of user profiles that aren’t really necessary when using this method.)
a modified POST url: Also good, but you’re gonna get a ton of duplicates on these due to how many different ways LJ would link to a single post. The style=mine doesn’t alter the content. You’ll also see lots of “#cutid1″, which of course is the link left by an LJ-cut. That’s fine, it gets the post. The content of posts 82379 is safe! (but NOT all the nested comments!)
a comment link (in this case dreamwidth which isn’t in danger, but the same format): This saved both the post itself (79392) and a comment thread (131360). You probably can’t get every comment thread just because the WB is bad at unfolding LJ threads, but this does contain the post itself. If you don’t see the plain post URL itself in the list of saved URLS once WB is done saving outlinks, but you do see a comment link: that comment link also has the original post! You don’t need to keep trying!
a journal’s tag link: This is less useful. It saves a snapshot of the tag page itself, but nothing deeper. Any content under an LJ cut or in the comments is not saved. There’s no way to keep these from saving, though. Just keep in mind, that tag in the picture doesn’t mean that the fics this person linked to have been saved. You’ll have to enter the tag link URL itself into the Wayback Machine’s SAVE page for that.
ERROR! JOB FAILED.: These are annoying! Most likely nothing was saved. Unless a comment link was successfully saved, you’ll have to copy-paste the URL that failed and put it into the SAVE page.
LIVE PAGE IS NOT AVAILABLE: There’s nothing you can do unless this URL was already saved somewhere.
BUT WHAT ABOUT IMAGES????
The passage of time means it’s probably too late. Imageshack and Tinypic took out a huge chunk of images on LJ, and PhotoBucket tried to make people pay them by putting big ol’ watermarks on all pictures except those hosted by premium users. It didn’t work and they said sorry, but the watermarks are still there. Lol. If you right-click +Open image in new tab, the watermark goes away, but who wants to do that with every single image? Also, the Wayback Machine sucks with big images and there’s no alternative at the moment.
If you’re lucky enough to find some holy grail like a big post of 1000 icons hosted on someone’s premium Photobucket, you could save a snapshot of the page. Wayback Machine lets you check that as an option, but IF YOU SAVE A SNAPSHOT WITH A TOOL LIKE “GoFullPage”: I find that GoFullPage, at least, will save you a big long image with no Photobucket watermarks! But you’ll have to save that image yourself, or store it somewhere, so keep that in mind.
Also, the snapshot means no animated gifs--although if you want to save those, they’ll be tiny little LJ icon gifs, so pretty easy to store on your own computer.
#fanlore#fandom preservation#is that a tag#livejournal#wayback machine#just gonna add as a tag that i'm trying to avoid doing this with comms where everyone was clearly about 13#let's let them have the privacy of vanishing into the ether someday
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A Little About Hazel
Answered this bunch of questions about Hazel because I intend to hopefully participate in the “Echoes of the Past” event hosted by @arcana-echoes
You can find Hazel’s “official” bio here! And links to more info about them are on my main page!
Which character(s) is your apprentice romancing? What attracts your apprentice to them?
Julian! Hazel loves that he’s so sociable and seems to be friends with everyone. He’s very considerate and attentive as well and genuinely cares about others. He’s also very sweet and VERY into physical affection, which Hazel is as well. They’ve got a lot in common and have quite similar personalities, so they understand each other well!
If your apprentice was a romanceable character in The Arcana, what would their route be like?
Hazel’s route would probably involve getting them out of their shell and showing them how to be more confident and assertive. (Honestly probably similar to, but less extreme than, Muriel’s route ngl.)
How does your apprentice take their coffee? Do they even drink coffee? If not, what do they drink instead to put pep in their step?
They don’t like coffee! It’s too bitter and they hate the taste. No amount of cream, sugar, and/or flavoring can make it drinkable to them. They usually won’t drink anything of the sort, but if they’re desperate and need to stay awake / wake up they’ll brew their own pep-up potion and flavor it to their liking.
If your apprentice was attending a potluck, what would they take as their contribution?
They’d probably check what everyone else was bringing and make something according to that, but if told to pick whatever:
They love to bake, so they’d prefer to bring dessert – perhaps a strawberry shortcake, but they’re happy to make anything.
If they brought an entrée, it would probably be a shredded potato casserole – shredded potatoes, ground beef, cheese, and cream of mushroom soup baked in the oven.
What are some of your apprentice’s minor and major fears? What’s the best way to comfort them when afraid?
They have a fear of abandonment, fear of loved ones being hurt or killed, and fear of general horror/spooky things and jump-scares.
Generally, being present with them and distracting them with something else is most helpful. Depending on how close they are to whoever they’re with, being held/letting them hold on to you is great. However, sometimes they won’t want to be touched, or may not be close enough with the person to want to touch/be touched. In that case, talking to them about something they like can be good. But you have to make sure you have their attention first or they may not hear it if they’re spoken to.
Does your apprentice enjoy dressing up or would they prefer to just wear what’s comfortable?
They much prefer to just wear whatever is most comfortable. If they do have to dress up for an event, they will prefer something elegant, but not too ornate. They generally prefer to not stand out, so they tend to dress relatively plainly.
Is your apprentice happy with their physical appearance? If so, do they flaunt it? If not, what do they want to change?
Hazel is quite happy with how they look, but has no desire to flaunt it (until they start dating Julian and then want to show off for him, because they know he likes it).
[Before being revived, they wanted to get top surgery. They were pretty flat-chested, but still… noticeable. That became unnecessary post revival as their new body automatically took the form they wanted – hence why they don’t have any scars from it. They don’t realize this is the case as they don’t remember how they were before.]
What would your apprentice want as a birthday gift?
Hazel isn’t too picky, honestly. Anything that shows them the other person was thinking about them is great! Handmade or store-bought, all gifts are equal before them. All they really want is for people to show them they remember things they like. Simple jewelry is usually a safe bet, and/or anything wolf-related.
What is your apprentice’s natural stress response (fight, flight, or freeze) and how does that influence their actions when confronted with a stressful situation? Do they recover from stress quickly or does it affect them for hours afterward?
Their natural stress response is freeze then flight. When confronted with a stressful situation they will freeze to analyze the situation, looking for escape routes and assessing their chances of success. If possible, they will run as fast as possible to put as much distance as necessary between them and the source of the stress. If running isn’t possible or practical, they will still move as quickly as is acceptable until they feel like they’re far enough away to be safe.
How quickly they recover is entirely dependent on whether they have access to a trusted person to help them unwind. They recover most quickly if they can be around Julian even if they just sit in the same room as him while he works. Secondary preference would be Asra or Portia. If forced to deal with things alone, it can take hours for them to recover.
What’s the first thing someone is likely to notice about your apprentice when meeting them for the first time? Do they have any other quirks that set them apart?
They are very socially awkward and this comes across very clearly.
Their face isn’t usually very expressive, and this is often mistaken for disinterest. Unfortunately, this is actually because they experience emotions on a scale of 1-2-3-8-9-10 so anything that falls in the middle ground is unlikely to affect their facial expression.
When they’re happy, they tend to jump and run around as a means of stimming, to burn off some of the excessive emotion they’re feeling. If they’re around people they trust, they may also spontaneously burst into song – something that expresses what they’re currently feeling.
How does your apprentice act when meeting new people? Are they outgoing, shy, awkward, aloof? Do they like being the center of attention?
They’re usually very quiet and withdrawn and their neutral expression and closed off body language can and does come across as standoffish and unapproachable. If you get past that, they’re usually shy and awkward, not saying much unless necessary. They feel very uncomfortable being the center of attention and can get really stressed out if the focus is on them.
How does your apprentice treat people in positions of authority? Does your apprentice believe they deserve respect just because of their position/status?
They’re usually nervous around people in positions of power, but that’s mostly because they’re not very knowledgeable about proper social conventions and are afraid of doing something wrong/inappropriate. They do not, however, believe people in positions of power deserve respect just for their status. If they feel like someone in power is shitty and or not suited for the role, they aren’t inclined to be nice to them. They usually prefer to avoid conflict, however, so they won’t usually confront the person unless pushed.
Your apprentice sees someone who is very obviously wealthy accidentally drop a small pouch of coins. What do they do?
If they think no one else noticed, they’ll keep it and use whatever money is inside to buy food or clothing for some of the street kids in the city. They know Asra grew up like that, and they like to help the kids whenever they can.
What was your apprentice’s reaction to Julian’s speech on the docks in Book VII? How did they deal with it afterwards?
“Achievement Unlocked: Hazel would now DIE for you.” They were honestly over the moon that he genuinely wanted to be with them, and that feeling kind of bled into everything else at the time. It hurt to see how much he cared about everyone but himself, but the knowledge that he was just trying to protect them and did want to be with them despite that he was “breaking up” with them made it possible for Hazel to resolve to pursue a relationship with him anyway. They can be stubborn and very determined when they set their mind to something. They were a bit overwhelmed and thus couldn’t properly voice their thoughts immediately, but they intended to make a plan and go after him at a later time.
How does your apprentice feel about sharing a bed with Asra in the shop?
They don’t mind at all. In fact, they like curling up with him at the end of the day. They sleep better when holding something or someone – they will cling in their sleep – and Asra got them a plush toy wolf to sleep with when he’s not around. They see Asra as a sibling and have zero qualms about platonic physical affection. This has, however, had the consequence of completely desensitizing them to being physically affectionate with anyone they consider a friend further impacting their already questionable grasp on common social etiquette…
Does your apprentice enjoy the luxury of the palace and Nadia’s gifts or do they find it overwhelming?
They do not. They’re super overwhelmed with all of it. The food is too fancy, the clothes Nadia gave them were far too extravagant for their tastes, and they absolutely hate feeling like anyone is going out of their way for them.
They do like the baths and the bed and the gardens, but for the most part that kind of ostentatious living is not for them.
How does your apprentice react when confronted with the creature from the abandoned wing in Asra and/or Nadia’s routes in Book VII? What’s going through their head at the time?
Hazel only caught a glimpse of it on their first night at the palace, when they were dragged up the stairs by Mercedes and Melchior when Portia left them alone with the dogs. They were absolutely terrified and tried to leave as quickly as possible seeing it only for an instant just before they made it back to the steps. They are… not a fan.
How does your apprentice feel about Consul Valerius?
They hate him immensely. He’s arrogant and so infuriatingly dismissive of them, they can’t stand it. He honestly made them so mad at their first meeting, that they retaliated against him – consequences be damned.
Is there a song or songs that you associate with your apprentice?
SO MANY (god I love music) but for now, the most important ones imo and personal favorites of mine are “I Believe in You” by Michael Bublé and "No Matter What" from the Steven Universe Movie!
Is your apprentice friends with any other fan apprentices?
Not at the moment, but they’re certainly open to it!
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Captive Love 5
UF!Sans x Reader (or Frisk if you wanna)
Summary: (Y/n)'s day at the skelebro's house, Sans' day out.
A/N: So, in this chapter, we find out that (Y/n)'s soul trait is integrity; honesty and strong morals. The only problem with having integrity as a main soul trate is that, because you're so honest, even if you don't want to trust people, you can have the tendency to believe people easier, because you expect others to mean what they say as much as you do. Even extremely smart beings with the trait can second guess their instincts or have them overwritten because the person lying is someone they (want to) trust or have positive feelings about/ for. Based on the note... can you guess what's going to happen in this chapter... lol Also, sorry, guys! I kept trying to get this to post all day, but I guess that tumblr hates long posts...? Or me... Might just be me... lol.
Masterlist Series Masterlist
Story
Little lies never hurt anyone.
Sans leaned on the counter of the odd and ends shop, though it should rightfully be called a thrift shop, since most of its contents had come from other people and not “sources” like a normal store.
“You got a friend you’re buyin’ all this stuff for?” The bunny on the other side asked suggestively.
Sans gave her a smirk. “what’d make ya think that?”
“Well, you haven’t flirted with me once since you walked in the door,” she hinted.
“ah, sorry, doll. jus’ a lil distracted fer a sec, thinkin’ a comin’ in... did ya want ta hop on th’ sans express an’ ride it ta th’ bone zone?” He asked with a heavy handed lewdness.
Honestly, he’d rather spend the time with his sweetheart, but he had to keep up appearances so that no one got suspicious.
Plus, awkward sexual tension filled innuendos were easier to deal in than talking about feelings and shit.
The bunny gave a giggle and continued to lean over the counter toward him instead of going to get his requested items. “Still as charming as ever, I see.”
Sans flashed his smirk again. “so, can i get my stuff?”
The bunny giggled again and with a wiggle of tail asked, “so, does that mean that you’re thinking of getting a pet? Going to go out and take one?”
He let out an annoyed sound. “can i jus’ get my fuckin' stuff?”
She looked a little startled by the suddenness of the change, but took it in stride as it wasn’t really so strange for the former Underground citizens to be testy, and turned to go to the back.
"So," the bunny’s brother asked as he brought the requested items out a moment later, "you gonna wear these, then?"
Sans sneered at him. "you wish ya freak."
"A little too much denial…?" The bunny suggested with a smirk.
Sans gave a disgusted face. "go fuck yerself." He turned, flicking his fingers and letting his magic tug on the piles of stuff on the shelves above the bunny's head. "get dunked on, ya ass hat," he called back over his shoulder.
.
“aww, ya ain’t seen nothin’ at all?” Sans asked with a suggestive grin to the small cluster of spider ladies selling their baked goods in the corner of the bar. "'s a human, hard ta miss..."
“Ooooh, no,” one hummed.
“No, not anything… Do you wanna buy a croissant, Sans? It tastes soooo good with mustard…” another tempted.
“heh. ‘d rather have somethin' a lil sweeter on my tongue,” he insinuated, thinking of (Y/n) at home, spread across his bed, his tongue tasting all sorts of things…
Drool was slowly pooling between his sharp teeth, and he quickly wiped it, giving an internal groan at how fast his cock had risen to attention at the thought.
He needed to get with his sweetheart quick, even just enough to curb the appetite growing inside of him.
The spider girls giggling brought him back to the present. He flashed a grin and went to the bar, getting a mustard to drink as he continued around, checking everyone for info.
After the rest of his rounds, he headed to his last few information gathering contacts. The ones he knew couldn't keep their mouths shut.
.
(Y/n) didn’t know what to do. She was stuck in this house, not able to leave, not much to do, nowhere to go.
Sans’ room was messy, her clothes were dirty, it wasn’t even lunch time…
First, she went to the bathroom and washed her clothes in the tub the best she could, cleaning herself as much as possible in the process, hanging them to dry so she could have something clean to go home in.
Then, she went back to Sans’ room, looking around. She couldn’t read any of the books on the shelf, seeing that the words were all written in a strange sort of glyph, and remembered that Sans had told her he couldn't read human language, but as she put all the books on the shelves, she saw the covers had various strange pictures, outerspace, numbers, shapes, most of them looked like school books, but, like they’d be for some advanced courses. She flipped through the pages of a few of them and saw all sorts of charts and formulas that looked reminiscent of something she’d seen on a tv show with Neil deGrasse Tyson as the host. Very smart… and science-y…
(Y/n) put them on the shelves, trying to keep them together as best she could. Some of the books were obviously not… string theory… or whatever the hell the others were… but, novels or something, a few of them she had only a vague idea, having to make a guess that one with a simple cover of a monster laughing at a casket and a crowd laughing at the two was either a black comedy novel, or a book of dark jokes.
She leaned toward the dark jokes.
Under his desk, she found a folded up paper and opened it, trying to see if it was important, though she'd really have no idea, and saw that it looked like some sort of congratulatory certificate. High school diploma, maybe?
After she got everything sorted, she tried to put it with other things that looked the same.
She went out into the rest of the house and found a garbage can under the extra tall sink cabinet, and took it up Sans' room, only throwing away things that were obviously trash; food wrappers, crumpled up bits of paper, other strange little things that might have been dried lava, or eternally frozen snow… any way, they were things that looked like they had fallen from his shoes.
When she took the garbage can back down, she found something that looked like it might be a vacuum, and she looked at it, turning it around and pressing the buttons to see how they worked without any power, before sticking it back in the closet and pulling out the broom and dust pan.
Sweeping was better than nothing… and also better than blowing up the house.
The next task (Y/n) tackled was sorting out the laundry, though she couldn’t find any washer or dryer to clean them in. Maybe they made laundromat trips?
After that she figured it was about lunch time, so she dug through the fridge and ate a small portion of the lasagna from the night before. It wasn’t the worst she’d ever had, but it was far from the best. Maybe if she hid some of the spices he’d used that should have stayed out of the mix, like sage, paprika, cinnamon, nutmeg… really, she thought maybe he’d just put some of everything in the spice rack in there.
She tried turning on the tv and entertaining herself, but the only channels they seemed to get all had the same robotic actor on them, overdramatically giving monologues, "hosting" or cooking things- awful things… that’s probably where Sans’ brother had gotten the recipe for the lasagna…
She turned it back off, and decided to look through the windows to try to get an idea of the area she was in. Knowing that she was at least supposedly in danger, and most likely truly could be, she only peeped from the edges of the window for the first few minutes, but after noticing that there didn't seem to be anyone or anything outside but tall grass and flowers, she just looked through it normally.
I thought they said we were in monster territory…?
(Y/n) put a hand over her face. What if they were all the way on the other side of the monster territory? She certainly couldn't find any landmarks that looked familiar, and the tall buildings usually on the horizon seemed to be missing.
Only more support for her 'Sans is actually a nice, though perverted, guy' theory…
She sighed and decided to go look out the windows in Sans' room, thinking that maybe she'd see something familiar from higher up.
(Y/n) was standing at the window, wondering what kind of flowers were in the field, when the door opened. She, of course, expected it to be Sans, this being his room and all, but the blood drained from her face was she saw the tall skeleton in the doorway.
"HUMAN, I THOUGHT YOU WOULD PROBABLY GET HUNGRY, AND I DIDN'T THINK YOU'D BE ABLE TO FEND FOR YOURSELF," he shouted, sounding extremely put upon. "AND I KNEW SANS WOULD BE TOO LAZY TO REMEMBER TO FEED YOU, SO I- WHAT ARE YOU DOING OVER THERE?" He asked suspiciously, cutting himself off before getting to his point about how much of a hassle it would be if she died from starvation.
Her color had gotten paler when she'd seen him, and her eyes had started darting around the room, as though taking stock of what she could use as a weapon. Papyrus automatically did a check and found that not only did she have a blue soul, denoting her strong integrity, but it seemed to have a bit of a purple glow around the edges showing her perseverance, looking a bit like blue velvet; blue, but purple in the shadows caused by the texture, and she had an extremely low LOVE, around that of a child's, and was surprised that her desire to find a weapon went so against her stats.
It must be a survival tactic, then. Probably to defend against any oncoming attacks.
She posed no threat to him, but he applauded her instinct to be ready to fight if necessary.
She swallowed harshly and managed to rasp out a broken whisper. "Loo-n- ou-si-." She pointed out the window to try to help him understand what she was saying.
He seemed to have dismissed her, though, looking around the room. "OH MY GOD!!"
She jumped at his exclamation. Did she do something wrong by cleaning?
"THIS IS THE CLEANEST I'VE SEEN MY LAZY BROTHER'S ROOM SINCE WE MOVED IN!! BUT, WHY DIDN'T YOU DO THE LAUNDRY? IT'S JUST SITTING HERE IN PILES."
"C-ou-... cou-n't fi-d," she rasped, shaking her head nervously apologetic. Her hand went to her throat, and the way she winced showed how hard on her throat just getting that much out was.
Papyrus hummed, his fingers lifting to his chin. It would make sense that she wouldn't wash them if she couldn't find anything to do it with. "FEAR NOT, HUMAN! I, THE GREAT AND TERRIBLE PAPYRUS, WILL SHOW YOU WHERE THE WASHING MACHINE IS! AND HOW TO USE IT!!"
(Y/n) opened her mouth to object that she did know how a washer worked, but it didn't matter, because he had just turned and started out the door with, "COME, HUMAN, AND BRING A PILE OF LAUNDRY!!"
After having the instructions on how to use the machine yelled at her, for no particular reason, she was glad that it had been Sans that had found her, and that Papyrus had only come to check on her and would be leaving soon. She didn’t know how long she’d be able to stay in his presence without constantly being on the edge of a panic attack.
When she came back into the front room from where the laundry room was, behind a hidden door in the kitchen, Papyrus was standing a little awkwardly near the door.
"W-WELL… I CAN'T SPEND ALL DAY MAKING SURE THAT YOU DON'T DIE! I HAVE TO GO! …" He stood silently for another moment, then announced, "I'M GOING."
(Y/n) gave a smile and waved, the most she could do without hurting her throat further or risking offending him, and had to hold back a laugh as the start of a red glow touched his cheeks and he looked flustered for a millisecond before he gave a tug to straighten his outfit before he turned and walked out through the door.
After Papyrus left, (Y/n) mostly just hung around and did laundry, looking through things, but not finding much for her to do until she found a deck of cards, then she sat on the floor and played solitaire, pausing only when the laundry was done, to fold it and put it on the desk chair, not wanting to dig around in Sans’ drawers.
He was a guy… guys had… stuff … that she’d rather not stumble across… especially due to the strange things that had apparently turned him on before. Also, being a skeleton monster made him different from every other guy she'd known, and the thought of finding super weird fetish stuff that she'd inevitably be morbidly curious about gave her pause.
She wasn't a "freak" but… curiosity was something that had gotten the better of her before, and some things in life, you just didn't need to know.
.
(Y/n) had finished the few loads of laundry, folded them, and turned to just playing card games by herself on Sans’ bed by the time the door opened and Sans walked in, looking tired and sweating a weird sort of translucent, but red tinged, perspiration.
He stepped in and closed the door behind him before looking up, but then froze in place and swept his shocked and slightly horrified gaze around the room.
For the second time that day, she wondered if she'd done something wrong by cleaning Sans' room.
He stiffly walked to the chair and pushed the laundry off onto the floor.
(Y/n) made an indignant noise from the bed, but heard him mutter, "too clean…"
Ahh, so he's one of those people who need a little disorder to feel comfortable , she noted, feeling the anxiety leaving her as he tossed his coat on the chair and turned to her.
He smiled and lifted a bag onto the bed. "i, uh- i uh- gotcha some stuff…" His expression shifted to that angry sort of flustered look he'd had before, paying close attention to how his other hand was fiddling with the edge of his red sweater. "somethin' ta wear, s-so ya don't have ta keep wearin' dirty clothes…"
Sans glanced over at her and felt another pang in his chest at the beautiful smile she was giving him.
fuck-! so adorable! an'... why d'i feel disappointed that she's not wearing my clothes, now?
(Y/n) smiled at him, mouthing thank you . She hesitated before nervousness seemed to grow over her a little and her gaze focused on the bed.
“wassup, sweetheart?” He asks, feeling a bit nervous about what was on her mind.
She gestured, asking, can I go home? She immediately winced and glanced up at him then back to the bed, as though she were worried he was going to hit her.
Sans felt his soul throb painfully at the thought of her leaving, and his hand automatically went to it. He realized what he was doing, and changed the movement to scratching his sternum through his sweater. Luckily, he had a reason for her to stay. He move the bag onto the floor, then sat on the mattress and laid back with his shoulders about even with her, making himself comfortable as he told her, “i talked ta alla my contacts, an’ it sounds like no one knows ‘xactly where ya are, but they definitely know that there’s a human on monster turf.”
Her brow dipped in confusion and she asked, how?
Sans shrugged as he put his arms behind his head, his fingers running over a crack on the back of his skull. “dunno fer sure-” ok, it might have been from his asking so blatantly if anyone had seen a human around- “but i hadda getcha here somehow. coulda jus’ been spotted on th’ way. tough luck, but, should be good in two or three days. ‘f we wait fer three, they’ll most likely ferget ta be lookin’ fer ya.”
(Y/n) eyed him, and he was glad that he’d already been sweating so that she hopefully didn’t notice the fresh round of perspiration beading on his skull. Finally, she seemed to accept it, and he let out an internal sigh of relief.
“so, you, uh, ya have an ok day?” She gave a half nod half shrug. “noticed ya cleaned up ‘round here… an’ i appreciate th’ thought behind it, sweetheart, ‘s real sweet a ya, but, i gotta ask ya; please don’t. kinda wigs me out when ‘s too clean. like it’s a fake fuckin’ storybook,” he muttered.
She put a hand on his arm, and it felt like Sans’ soul tumbled around his rib cage. He looked up to see the apologetic look on her face. Sorry...
Apologies? Yeah… Those were something that never happened in the Underground.
In a kill or be killed world, any sign of niceness was seen as a form of weakness, so niceties had been dropped long ago.
The way his sweetheart was so nice, showing kindness and caring was definitely something he liked about her, but… it also made him uncomfortable.
Sans would never turn away from her for her weakness, he wanted to protect her, keep her with him and safe. But… he didn't know how to react to this kindness. So he again took it to a place he was more comfortable with.
“ah, dollface, don’t worry ‘bout it…” He turned and his thumb went out to run down her cheek, trying not to let the tiny flinch get to him. “if it’d make ya feel better, i know somthin’ ya could do ta make it up ta me…” He gave her a smirky grin and took his hand back, putting a fingertip on his cheek. “how ‘bouta kiss?” He watched her gaze turn wary, her body stiffening like she was getting ready to bolt.
False, flirty affection and innuendo was so much easier to handle than real affection, even if he wanted her affection like a starving man wanted food. It seemed, though, that she knew how to take flirting about as well as he knew how to take a compliment, so he again changed directions.
“kiddin’- ‘m kiddin’, doll,” he assured quickly, feeling a prick of pain in his soul. He was not kidding. He'd probably do anything to get her to willingly kiss him again. “heya, knock knock.”
She looked at him uncertainly, but lifted a brow and tilted her head. Who’s there?
“sherlock,” he told her, watching as she puzzled over it.
Sherlock who…? Seemed to be what she asked with her confused expression after a moment.
“ sherlock yer door tight, sweetheart,” he told her, watching as her eyes closed as she took it in, then her posture changed as she silently chuckled.
Sans’ smile widened in satisfaction that she enjoyed his joke. “knock knock, doll.”
She lifted her brow to ask who's there, but it was the cute little smile on her face that made his soul throb.
“mustache,” he told her, watching her expression contort in confusion.
Mustache? Can skeleton monsters even grow mustaches? What the hell? She thought and tilted her head inquiringly.
“ mustache ya a question, but i’ll shave it fer later,” he told her with a blow off expression, watching her giggle as squeaks and huffs left her.
There… that adorable expression on her face was a much better look than her being worried that he was going to do something unpleasant to her. Even if the worry was justifiable, given his track record concerning her…
He just watched her giggling for a moment, red spreading over the bridge of his nose.
She tapped her hand to his arm and managed to ask, you know a lot of knock knock jokes?
“knock knock,” he told her in answer, and she lifted a brow immediately in question. “rhino,” he told her.
Oh, this one had to be good. She tilted her head and lifted her brow again.
“ rhino every knock knock joke there is,” he told her, his grin getting a bit goofier at her reaction. Stars she was cute! “so, what else d’ja do?”
(Y/n) wondered if it was something normal for monsters to talk so comfortably with someone they’d only really just met the day before. It really seemed like some ideal relationship situation from some rom-com; he got home from work, told her about his day, asked about hers… The only thing missing was an actual relationship…
She masked the feelings her internal musings brought up with the ease of practice and gestured around the room. She was good at ‘don’t rock the boat.’
“jus’ this, huh?” He asked and she nodded before pointing at the cards, indicating that she'd also played cards. “sounds like a good day ta me, but maybe ‘m jus’ lazy,” he said as he closed his eye sockets. A contented smile tilting his normal grin up. “‘m gonna try ta get a nap in before dinner. feel like joinin’ me?”
(Y/n) shook her head to answer him, knowing he could see her though his slightly open socket.
“suit yerself, sweetheart,” he told her, shifting his shoulders as he got comfortable.
He seemed to almost immediately fall asleep, soft snores coming from him, and not even reacting when she’d waved her hand in front of his face.
She went back to her card game, the weird feeling of being so comfortable around a strange man (one that had pushed her against the wall and basically rubbed against her, no less!) struck her as wrong, but she couldn't bring herself to be truly uncomfortable.
Uneasy and worried from his actions sometimes?
For sure.
Uncomfortable?
Nope.
Something brushed against and down her back, laying against her butt.
(Y/n) looked over her shoulder, seeing Sans' arm laid out behind her. She watched him closely, not wanting to miss any tell in his expression, but other than slightly rolling toward her, he still seemed asleep.
She gave a doubtful glance, but it fell to the back of her mind as she continued her game.
After a few minutes, she felt Sans rolling toward her more, his hand sliding over the bed, snaking over her thigh, wrapping around her waist and burying his face against her thigh.
Oh, yeah. He's asleep, my ass, she mentally grumbled.
She rolled her eyes and went back to her game, not entirely comfortable with this extent of touching, but she knew that some good friends got touchy and cuddled, so it wasn't some insanely strange concept to her, even if they weren't that close.
Halfway through the next round of her game, (Y/n) felt Sans' arms tighten around her, and she looked down to see him rolling over onto his stomach, putting him on the cards and into her lap, his head awkwardly pressing against her.
She tried to shift around to get rid of the discomfort of his skull pressing against her hip, and the weird kink he'd put in his neck vertebrae to do so.
Of course, with all of her edging around his head, and their shifting around, she ended up laying back with him in her lap, his skull laying on her stomach. How could this end any other possible way with her luck?
Honestly, though, with all the terrible things he could possibly do to her, that she knew of and worried about, laying with his head on her stomach hadn't even made the list.
She gave a shattered, huffing sigh that made her cough a little, but it cleared quickly.
She kept herself ready in case she was going to have to defend herself from the skeleton, but folded her arms over her chest to feel like she had at least a little cover, and resigned herself to laying there until either he "woke up," or she had to convince him to move so she could use the bathroom.
Sans tightened his arms around his sweetheart as she coughed, hating that he didn't have green magic to try and fix it instantly, but, thankfully, it quickly ended.
He tried to be subtle, not wanting to give away that he was awake, but it was so hard when all he wanted to do was nuzzle into the soft squishiness of her belly. Especially when some of her squishiest bits were against his clavicle and were tempting him to rub against them… and give them a sniff…
fuck- ya smell so fuckin' good, sweetheart… He mentally groaned to himself.
(Y/n) shifted under him, but he didn't let it disturb him; he was an expert at pretending to sleep.
"SANS-"
The skeleton on her belly jumped at the loud voice, giving a grunt of surprise.
"YOU BETTER BE DOWN HERE IN FIVE MINUTES TO EAT DINNER!!"
"paps, you fuckin' sonuvabitch," he grumbled to himself, not quite audible to (Y/n).
"welp. dinner time, doll. you joinin' us downstairs 'gain t'night?" He asked as he sat up, not leaving the bed, or her pile of cards, but off of her.
She gave him a nervous look, not wanting to be afraid, but also very afraid of the tall, loud skeleton downstairs.
"aww, c'mon sweetheart, he ain't that bad. i mean, don't get me wrong, 'e's bad, but not that kind a bad."
As strange as it was for her to trust anyone so quickly, his words kind of made her feel better about being in the same room as the taller skeleton.
She followed him downstairs, deciding that she was misreading the look on his face and posture as content and proud, as though she trusted him to be her knight in a red sweater; it was probably just self confidence.
God knew she'd never felt that much of it to know.
Sans pulled out a chair for her, but instead of waiting to push her in, he sat in the chair next to it and shifted the seat, pulling it closer to him when she sat.
(Y/n) would protest, but she really did feel safer being closer to him, and farther away from the other skeleton.
He served her a small slice of lasagna, and she knew that it was because he knew it was going to taste awful, and he didn't want to stick her with too much to eat instead of a plot to starve her.
It was a quiet dinner, much the same as the night before, with the toe of Sans' sneaker hitting the leg of her chair he was so close, and Papyrus giving her not at all hidden suspicious glares, as though he didn't think it was safe to hold a conversation in front of her.
(Y/n) took another bite of the lasagna and hid her wince.
She really should have hidden those spices earlier…
A/N: Oh Sans... there's a difference between telling Paps that he's an amazing cook and telling (Y/n) she has to stay there because there's no possible way she can get home. Also, I recently got a message from someone who had made fanart of another story I wrote and asked if I wanted to see it- uh, fuck yeah, I do! You kidding?! You were inspired by something I wrote?! I'm gonna fangirl... I love it even more because I can't draw... I guess what I'm saying is that if you do anything inspired from something I've written (art, stories, drabbles), you don't have to ask, there's a 100% chance I want to see it. And that I'll squeal.
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callout for @nyadmin
this callout is best read on desktop.
this callout contains: racefaking, blackfacing/brownfacing, pedophilia, incest, grooming, systemfaking, antisemitism, nazism, cult jokes, and more.
his current url is nyadmin. his twitter is adminpowers. his discord is ROMY O NO#6477. click here for a list of past names. click here for a list of his past urls. his other blogs are: amblyopic, racefakery, todayphobe, exadmin, askmychampion, and supercrushhighschool.
tords past callouts: one, two, three.
the rest of the callout is under the cut.
racefaking:
tord claims his mom is white and native and that his father is half black and half white. people who have known tord irl in the past say that his dad is not half black and those who’ve known him online say tord has never mentioned it before or joined in when they discussed issues related to being black. he also refuses to ask his dad for any photos of his grandmother who he says is black.
in the past tord has tried to claim that he doesn’t benefit from white passing privilege despite being extremely pale.
photos of his parents found on facebook show that neither his mom or dad have anything resembling ethnic features. his mom’s hair is dyed blond but regardless they both have basic white features:
below is proof that the woman shown is tords mom:
tords own blood related brother, felix, claims he doesn’t know where tord is getting their black heritage from:
below is a screenshot of an anon on mikas blog asking if tord has ever said the n word in front of him:
on 8/23/18, tord made this post. in the post he says this:
if it isn’t clear, he basically just said that he is white.
there’s also this screenshot from an older blog of his:
and if that wasn’t enough proof that tord’s racefaking he has also done both blackface and brownface. however, before we get to that here’s some more:
tord wondering if he could participate in the black men smiling tag and blackout.
now for the moment you’ve all been waiting for. tords blackface and brownface.
the first image is the brownface, the second is blackface.
on the left tord has obviously edited his skin to appear darker. in his blackface cosplay he claimed he wasn’t actually painted black and that the snapchat filters were making him darker. this is clearly a lie considering nearly all snapchat filters lighten your skin and this filter is no exception:
here is the filter applied to a white person, and as you can see, her skin is smoothed out but it is no where near dark the way tord appears in his selfie.
adding onto this, if you look closely at tords selfie you can tell the outside of his lips have a very pale ring around it. this is obviously because he didnt do very well coloring in his skin. you can also tell there is a grainy texture on tords skin but not anywhere else in this image, more evidence the image was edited.
more info on the blackface cosplay selfie can be read here and here.
you must either be on desktop or reading this post through a chrome browser to view this part, apologies. in these posts tord has a conversation with someone named frost about his callouts and being mixed. please keep in mind that the conversation in that link took place on may 7th of 2018. meaning, that in the past tord agreed to stop claiming to be mixed black and native but then threw that all out the window and began to reclaim it again.
grooming, incest, and pedophilia:
i was very hesitant to include this however, many people have said they feel the same way about this so it felt important enough to have its own part. multiple people believe that the relationship between tord and his brother felix is extremely inappropriate. the way he interacts with his brother is really something he needs to re-evaluate.
this isn’t meant to be about kin drama or anything of the sort, i’m only stating this because of the way tord and felix take kin so seriously. he and felix often match kins which isn’t an issue in itself, however, the only kins they typically match are those of which have a canon romantic relationship; and if not canon tord will still tag felix in ship art of their kins, as seen here.
when you visit the op of that post, you will see that it is tagged as both “shipsworld” and “tordedd”. the art is very obviously ship art anyways.
tord is obviously one of his main ids, so to tag your own sibling in ship art of your main id with one of theirs seems incredibly off. not to mention the very large age gap between tord and felix in the first place.
this isn’t a recent thing of theirs either, they’ve been doing this for years now. couples they’ve kinmatched have been: greg and rose from steven universe, eliza and alexander from hamilton, and penny and billy from dr. horribles sing a-long blog. along with tord and edd from eddsworld and romeo/admin and jesse from minecraft story mode who are not canonly dating. there are most likely even more than those listed above.
there aren’t screenshots of them both being kin with these characters, but the hamilton one isn’t hard to believe considering tords main id used to be alexander hamilton from the hamilton musical.
to add onto this, felix apparently had a set of ocs and a persona oc at one point. his oc skit, was to represent himself, and his oc aiko, was implied to be skits romantic interest.
here is a photo of skit, as you can see skit represents felix. you can also clearly see that aiko is labeled as skits “enemy and crush”, confirming that these two characters are supposed to have a sort of romantic relationship.
now here is a photo of aiko. as you can see from the relationship box, it is 100% that skit and aiko are supposed to be in a romantic relationship or something similar to that.
now the reason this i’m telling you all of this is because of on tords old deviantart, he has a folder of art of his kins. in that folder you could find images of skit and aiko along with one of aiko on her own, implying that tord kins her.
to make things even weirder, the photos added to this folder of skit and aiko are incredibly romantic in nature, hugs with hearts around them and a photo where the two of them are basically kissing with a heart above the two. the folder also includes more romantic tordedd art as well.
back to their matching kins however, as stated before, tord and felix kinmatch jesse and romeo/admin from minecraft story mode. i know little to nothing about this game, however, i do know that tord ships these two characters together. felix kins jesse and tord kins romeo.
UPDATE: i have been informed that the ages previously listed here were a mcsm fans headcanon ages for the characters and that they do not have canonical ages. however, it does prove that there are fans that would see the ship as a pedophilic one due to hcs of romeo being 30+ and jesse being >20.
now, here is a disgusting screenshot of tord saying he’s going to show his brother porn. i’m sure this was meant to be taken as a joke but i find it highly disturbing due to the fact that at the time of this screenshot being taken felix would only be 12 years old and tord would’ve been 16 years old.
i am in no way trying to say tord is a full on pedophile, not am i accusing him of having romantic or sexual feelings for his brother, however, i am saying the way he interacts with his brother is not okay and that he needs to learn how to separate friend interaction from sibling interaction.
cult jokes:
tord previously had a cult joke in his about: “mixed but i drank the racefaker koolaid”. when told about this, he refused to remove the joke and tried to hide it under the guise of the phrase being “aave” (his explaination was that black people like to drink koolaid). he was messaged by someone on his blog @/racefakery who asked for him to remove the joke from his about, as it is incredibly insensitive to joke about something like that where everyone can see.
in the conversation, tord doesn’t take the person who messaged him seriously at all and says “i don’t see why i should care?” about cult victims. i don’t think i have to explain how horrible and insensitive that is to say.
the joke continued to stay in his about for nearly a month after this conversation. on top of that, tord never apologized nor admitted that cult jokes are just as serious as jokes as any other traumatizing kind of event.
UPDATE: after doing a little digging, i found an older blog of his. in the links of this blog there is this: “thanks for reading and welcome to the lonely hearts cult” at the end of his links. so there’s another cult joke made by tord.
nazism:
tord has had multiple accounts of him being antisemetic, however, for this we are going to focus on the fact that tord is kin with habit and kinned eridan.
archive of this page.
habit from everymanhybrid is a canonical nazi. this was displayed on tords “alters” blog. now even if were going to pretend tord is a system here, unless tord is comfortable with antisemitism there is no reason for his “alter” to kin a nazi. all alters share similarities with their hosts, this mainly includes moral standpoints, saying tords “alter” is okay with kinning a nazi but not tord is the same as saying you can have one alter be a terf but the host isn’t. it isn’t simply isn’t possible. anyways, here’s evidence of habit being a nazi:
the person he claimed to have possessed was josef mengele. i don’t want to repeat the things he did but you can google it if you’d really like to know of it.
on top of habit being a nazi, here is a list of his “hobbies” & crimes he’s commit:
as for eridan, his main goal from what i’ve been told was to “wipe out the landwellers”, as he is a “seadweller”. his whole character is a metaphot for nazism, eridan being hitler and the “landwellers” being jewish people. if you want more info on this it can be found here. not sure why you would though.
tord was also briefly friends with ethan, a known nazi & rapist, for a while. there’s a lot of screenshots and information on that. you can read it on this google doc.
systemfaking:
this one isn’t going to take very long to explain because of how blatantly obvious it is but tord is systemfaking. from what i and quite a few others can tell, one of the biggest implications is that tords “alters” would reblog one anothers posts and talk to each other via the posts. there a many reasons this makes no sense:
if his alters are conscious enough to have their own blogs and set up themes similar to tords, why do they need to reblog one another’s posts to communicate? at that point, they should be able to speak via headspace.
these posts of his alters interacting with each other are made just seconds apart from each other, it is literally impossible for anyone to shift this fast, the average shifting time is 5-15 minutes. however, these posts aren’t even made a full minute apart from one another.
this is a post where tords “alters” habit and cora are interacting on a post.
if you look into the source code of these two posts you will find that they were made literally not even a full two minutes apart from one another. the original was posted at 8:10:46 and coras was posted at 8:11:10. like i already stated, this isn’t possible in systems.
tord and his “alter” gem do this again. gems first reblog of this post was at 17:51:49. and their second reblog of the post was at 17:53:48. under 5 minutes apart from one another, meaning tords reblog must’ve been around 17:52. but it just isn’t possible either way.
you may think that this is all that tord has done, but it really isn’t. despite all the information in this callout there is still a lot here that isn’t shown. this was thrown together as a sort of “birthday gift” for tord. i hope you appreciate your gift, tord.
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Chapter 9 - The Writing on the Wall
Harry Potter and the Sacred Text word of the day: Innocence
To pick up when Harry hears the voice, I gotta give a hand to Ron and Hermione who were like we have zero idea what’s going on but our boy needs us. All I could think about was them being like this
But all jokes aside, it must’ve been pretty scary on their end to have their friend hear a voice they can’t, saying it’s going to kill, and have said friend run after it. And then they find a cat hanging from the wall with a creepy message next to her. Pretty sketchy.
I first interpreted “innocence” to refer to naivety and purity and it took me until Dumbledore said “innocent until proven guilty” that I realized the intended definition was probably guiltless lol. But I decided to read the chapter with both interpretations! To start with “guiltless,” the big situation regarding this is the rumor that Harry opened the Chamber of Secrets or at least the assumption that he attacked Mrs. Norris. Filch and Snape are quick on the bandwagon that Harry is guilty, but it’s Dumbledore who gives Harry the benefit of the doubt. It’s interesting seeing this in comparison to how the justice system works in the US, because while we claim and act like it’s “innocent first,” the system always assumes you’re guilty unless evidence states otherwise (unless you’re a poc and then you’re just guilty period). I think it’s really important that people in power exercise “innocent first” and appreciate that Dumbledore assumes that Harry is guiltless, even though he was found at the scene of the crime and when others think otherwise. The hosts made a really good point that in western culture, we perpetually live like every bad thing that happens as deserving, like there was one thing we did wrong in the past and now we’re getting punished for it, we internalize it, and similarly, we think that the punishment of a flawed person is deserving even if their innocent of a crime. Just food for thought bc I can go on and on about the justice system.
On the reading of “naivety,” I also looked at moments that are the opposite: cynicism and corruption. I saw this with Filch and Snape respectively. Snape fully knows that Harry couldn’t have petrified Mrs. Norris, but he jumps at the opportunity to punish him in some way. Filch assumes that Harry is attacking him for being a squib, something that Filch is obviously very insecure about. He thinks everyone is against him or out to get him, most likely due to past experiences.
Speaking of naivety, it’s interesting that Harry chose not to share the information about him hearing the voice. That info would exonerate him from blame and put more context on what happened, but he doesn’t bc of a gut feeling (someone who’s completely ignorant would probably delve that info). I liked the discussion in the podcast of how Harry doesn’t trust himself, or at least parts of himself. He has yet to tell Ron and Hermione, his closest friends, about almost being sorted into Slytherin bc of the implications that brings up, that maybe he’s a bad person or could become one. Maybe it’s from his upbringing, but it’s also a part of himself that he doesn’t understand yet, something he can’t control like hearing creepy voices no one else can. It's interesting to think about how this part of him is from Voldemort. He's unaware of this currently, but also doesn’t know what to do about it and his automatic response is to keep it to himself. Bc Harry Potter cannot Trust Adults.
Ron is so goddamn loyal to Harry, because even though he’s hesitant about the voice and very worried about Harry, he still trusts that Harry heard something. As soon as Harry says “yes I know this is fucking weird but it happened,” Ron doesn’t question it further. And this habitually happens throughout the books, like something weird and unexplainable happens to Harry and Ron will be on board with it. I know that in their 4th year this doesn’t happen, but I’ll put a hold on that when I get there since there are claims that it was out of character for Ron. We’ll see.
I also saw Hermione having that pure innocence in that scene with Binns. Another synonym of innocence is “inexperience” or a lack of knowledge, and when Hermione doesn’t know something, she goes to books. And when that fails her, she asks questions! She’s definitely not afraid to do so even with a professor like Binns.
You know, for as much as Ginny is mentioned, in reality she gets no screen time. Every little detail we hear about her is second hand like, hey Harry, this happened to Ginny! It could be that she’s still avoiding any interaction with him because of her crush. I think there’s one small paragraph of Ron talking to Ginny, but she never says anything. But on the topic of innocence, as non-first time readers we know that she not guiltless. She’s the one who opened the chamber and is fully aware of it, though she wasn’t in control of her actions. And it’s terrible that her brothers are like they’ll catch that maniac and expel him. And it distresses her more that Ron, Harry, and Hermione are blamed for what she did.
I forgot that the corridor where Mrs. Norris was attacked was right outside Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom. Does that mean Harry heard the basilisk coming out of the chamber?? Also I’ve always wondered where in the heck those openings in the pipes are that can fit a giant ass snake. Bc unless it can change its size and fit through facets, idk how it could just pop up anywhere in the castle. If someone knows the answer pls enlighten me.
Small things:
I know this has been mentioned a lot since Hogwarts Mystery came out, but I wonder if Rowling had the idea of the cursed vaults early so early on
Tfw you’re just short of your page minimum for your essay
How is it with how meticulous Britain is with its historical record that they don’t even know the date when Hogwarts was founded. Like we know the date when Oxford was founded. Did they lose those documents sometime in the past? But even then you’d think there would still be oral histories about it. We don’t even get an approximate date?? The historian in me is unsatisfied.
I wonder if the Gryffindors have History of Magic with Hufflepuffs bc only Gryffindors were speaking up in class. If there were Ravenclaws in that room they’d also jump in lol
Man, Colin has said “hiya Harry!” so much that Harry now has an automated response to him
Something tells me Harry would love being with the Scooby Doo gang
Previous: Chapter 8 - The Deathday Party
Next: Chapter 10 - The Rogue Bludger
#hp#hp meta#hp analysis#chamber of secrets#cos meta#harry potter#hermione granger#ron weasley#argus filch#severus snape#albus dumbledore#ginny weasley
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Between the Lines - Part 1
How Varric Tethras fell in love with his editor: a story in letters.
Bioware wont let me romance the dwarf, so I’ll do it myself Read on Ao3
9:28 Dragon
To Ser Tethras,
As you have been informed, your previous editor has parted ways with Kirkwall Publishing, leaving the production of your popular serial, Hard in Hightown, on hiatus. I am writing to introduce myself as Serah Lawfield's replacement, and to inform you that we shall re-commence publishing your serial by the end of this month.
My name is Y/N Y/L/N, and I am very excited to begin working with you on developing your story. I have personally enjoyed reading your work, and believe we can work well together. Whilst I have looked over your previous edits with Lawfield, if you have any requests or person preferences for the editing process, please let me know and I shall attempt to adjust my process to suit you.
If I do not hear back from you within the next week, I shall begin edits on your most recent manuscript as per the in-house style manual.
Thank you again for choosing to work with Kirkwall Publishing. We are honoured to help share your stories.
Hope to hear from you soon, Regards Y/N Y/L/N Editor at Kirkwall Publishing
…...
Here is the information you requested on New editor. Had 3 men tail her. Notes are attached
(a collection of papers, written in three different hands. One page had scratchy drawings of flying books and quills in the margins.)
Y/N Y/L/N Employed at MP for approx 18 months. Human. Free-Marcher. Originally from starkhaven. Low-born. Educated.Young Resided above Hightown markets. Small apartment. Well kept. 6pin double key lock. Well-liked at MP. Professional. Friendly. Considered hardworking and talented. Has a rep for being good at dealing with difficult writers. Arrives late. Stays late. Takes her work home. Drinks 5-8 coffees a day. Strong ties to Coterie. More info incoming.
Coterie ties extend back years. Potential child recruit.
Currently information broker for Kirkwall faction Respected, feared. Background in smuggling and forgery. Negotiated trade deals with Carta.
Left home later than should have , looked tired but was smiling. Carrying large stack of manuscripts. Was greeted with smiles and waves at office. Two men rose to help her carry her things. Another woman brought her coffee without being asked. Wears slim-framed glasses when working. Nibbled on the end of her quill. Many messengers stop by her desk. Cannot all be publishing related. Some notes are placed directly into her bag. Some belligerent author just showed up. Did not interrupt until author started insulting other staff members. Only took her two minutes to calm him down. Author just left. Not only agreed to changes, but seems to think the changes are his idea. Stayed back late to finish work. Took home three manuscripts. Dead dropped letter exchange under lower left paved outside blooming rose. Added to Coterie watch list. Seems to have a preference for sitting on her windowsill at home to work. Doesn't wear pants at home. Legs for days.
……
(A letter, attached to a well-bound and heavily annotated copy of chapter 5 of Hard in Hightown)
To Ser Tethras,
Since you are, unfortunately, too busy to respond to my last message, I kept to my word and have completed a standard but thorough edit of the latest chapter of Hard in Hightown.
I have used industry standard mark ups, and left my annotations in the margins for your perusal. I have also included a detailed list of suggestion changes that I feel will help streamline the story and reduce unnecessary clutter. Whilst I thoroughly enjoyed your imagery, some of your metaphors boarded on purple prose and I felt best to remove to maintain the tension.
If you have any questions, or you would like to discuss my suggestions further, I would be happy to arrange a personal meet up at the location of your choice.
If all is well, please send your approved changes to the Kirkwall Publishing office byclose of business Friday.
Kind Regards, Y/N Y/L/N Editor at Kirkwall Publishing.
…….
(A note, hastily written and torn roughly from a notebook)
Dear Serah Y/N
You can bet your sweet Starkhaven ass I want to discuss your suggestions. I don't know how you've conned your other authors into dancing your jig, but I'm not about to rework my entire story to suit your whims.
Since you we're so generous as to offer to meet at a location I choose, I'll see you at the Hanged Man this evening. Unless, you've grown accustomed to life up in Hightown?
Yours reluctantly, V. Tethras
……
Mr. Tethras,
Looking forward to meeting you.
Y/N
……
(a note attached to the second draft of chapter 5 of Hard in Hightown)
As requested, here is the edited manuscript; well before Friday you may notice. All agreed upon changes have been made, and grammar corrected. No need to get all antsy over commas again.
V. Tethras.
P.S. where did you learn to play Diamondback like that? ….
Thank you for getting those edits back to me so promptly Tethras. I'm so glad you agree to cut those flashbacks in the middle, they dragged the whole pace to a crawl. The tension is just perfect now!
As for your enquiry about my gambling skills, I shall only state that I am a mystery and an enigma, one you cannot hope to solve. Bow before my beginners luck.
…….
Tone it down, you silver-tongued brat.
V.
……............................................................................................................
Ser Tethras,
I understand that you and your brother are knee deep in preparations for your Deep Roads expedition, but that does NOT excuse you from submitting your latest drafts on time.
If the latest draft of Chapter Eleven is not on my desk by tomorrow morning, I will come down there and drag it from your ink-stained fingers myself.
Sincerely,
Y/N Y/L/N
Editor at Kirkwall Publishing.
……
Why Silver, formal sign-off and everything. You are mad at me.
Would you forgive your favourite dwarf if I said I was assisting a young and devilishly handsome Fereldan refugee to turn his life around? And that, through working with this strapping lad, I am gathering a whole host of new ideas for later chapters, a perhaps… that second serial you’ve been asking for?
Your humble wordsmith,
V. Tethras
…….
Have the damn manuscript to me by next week.
You owe me V.
Silver
P.S. Stay out of trouble.
……
Dearest Silver,
Stay out of trouble? Why, I am an upstanding and law-abiding citizen of this fine city. I wouldn’t dream of creating trouble in our fair Kirkwall.
Hawke on the other hand…
You’ll break us out of prison, right?
……
(a letter attached to a manuscript, delivered within hours of close-of-business the following week.)
Chapter Eleven, as promised Silver.
And if my courier is as fast as she claims, with a good half-a-day to spare.
Now let me have a few solid nights of drinking before you bombard me with your inevitable critiques. After the week I’ve had. I deserve it.
Your favourite Dwarf,
V. Tethras
……
No rest for the wicked V.
…..
Slave driver.
……
You're the one sending (and likely paying) this young boy to run between my office and the Hanged Man to deliver scathing quips.
Are you so desperate to have the final word?
……
Well yes; but you keep responding, don't you?
…….....................................................................................................................
So I noticed you seem a bit fixated on my latest romance scene. There have to be at least twice as many notes on those pages than the rest of the manuscript combined (what do you have against the humble ellipses? Did it kill your father, insult your mother’s honour? Cheat you in cards?).
Something there must have really caught your attention.
……
If by caught my attention, you mean had me scoffing into my coffee, then yes -- there was plenty to work with.
I don’t know who you’re paying at the Blooming Rose, but no one has ever lasted that long, or had a woman orgasming that many times, without the aid of some very potent potions. Anyone who claims otherwise is better at lying than you are.
Try to be a bit more realistic when penning your explicit material.
Your readers aren’t that stupid.
By the way, I have no qualms with the ellipses. But they are not sugar V, don’t sprinkle them about like the scene is an Orlesian sweet.
……
Obviously you’ve never slept with a dwarf...
What we lack in size, we make up for in … stamina.
Surely you’ve heard the saying... “Just the right height to give a human girl a good time.”
… V
P.S… sweet enough for you Silver?
…............................................................................................................................
Kirkwall Publishing; in association with the Noble Literary Society of Kirkwall,
extend their cordial invitation to
Ser Varric Tethras
to our
Annual Satinalia Award Ceremony
To be held at the De Launcet Estate 10th Harvestmere
Dinner will be served at 6 bells Award Ceremony to begin at 8 bells.
Please contact Kirkwall Publishing to RSVP.
( scribbled in the bottom corner of the invitation)
Yes you have to come! You won an award for Viper’s Nest
- Silver
……
My Dearest Silver,
I regret to inform you that I will be unable to attend this award shindig, as I will be busy doing literally anything else. As it if Satinalia and the entirety of Kirkwall will be pissed-up and cavorting around in masks, I’m sure no one will miss me.
Be a dear and collect my award for me. I want to send it to the Merchants Guild next time they try and involve Bartrand and me in their latest drivel. And when you finally grow tired of the snooty bastards up in Hightown, come join us at the Hanged Man. Hawke and I are having a little get together.
Yours, without regrets
Varric Tethras
……
Dear V.
Fine, but you better get your clever merchant hands on a bottle of the honey mead I like.
Try not to pass out before I get there.
- Silver
......
( a message, written on the back of a letter from the Merchants Guild and left on the beside of one Varric Tethras )
I stand correct. Dwarven stamina is a thing of beauty.
You still owe me 3 sovereigns.
Silver
……
Where the all of Thedas did you get that dress! That neckline should be illegal.
You can’t possibly have found it in a store, even I wouldn’t believe that kind of coincidence. Did you show a tailor my author portrait? You must have! Which means you had that outfit planned well before I rejected your precious awards night invite.
So you were planning to what, attend that ceremony with me dressed in a pin up version of my usual clothes? I don’t know whether to be flattered or insulted.
This is punishment for all those ellipses isn’t it?
Or were you just trying to catch my attention? I've been called a narcissist before, but never by intelligent company.
Your exceedingly bemused author,
V. Tethras
……
You didn’t seem to mind the dress last night, when I stopped by to deliver your award.
Or did it only cause offence once it landed on the floor of your room?
I didn’t think you noticed, you were very… distracted.
You’ll note my accurate and well placed use of an ellipses.
Your exceedingly well-dressed editor,
Silver
By the way; your pretty elven friend, the one who’s always sneaking into the Hightown gardens. Is she seeing anyone?
……
Hands of Silver. Hawke’s been making doe-eyes at Daisy since he saw her.
Furthermore, asking about my friends the day after you sleep with me! I feel so used.
Your tragically offended friend,
V. Tethras
……
As usual, you force me to repeat myself V.
You didn’t mind being used last night.
Your surprisingly flexible friend,
Silver
……
No fair, now you’ve got me thinking about humans and their long, bendy limbs.
You’d think all that leg of yours would get in the way.
Next time, remind me to hook them over my shoulders. I like the way it makes your back arch.
……
Tempting.
But you still need to send me the redraft of chapter eleven by next fortnight.
- Silver
#between the lines#varric tethras fanfic#fanfiction#da2 fanfiction#varric tethras#varric x reader#varric x oc#self indulgent nonsense#let me romance varric you cowards#story in letters#letters#dragon age#dragon age 2#dragon age fanfiction#Silvarric
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Commission Status (on hold)
Hey! I wanted to make this post since I sometimes get inquiries about commissions but have not been consistently available. Hopefully it'll clear things up a bit.
Without getting too personal, I've been working through a lot of stuff, mostly looking for work outside of art to have greater stability. For the time being I'm in that in-between space of unscheduled time that can't be dedicated to (paid) drawing, so my productivity level is at its lowest. Because of this, I don't feel comfortable taking work from anyone other than close friends where deadlines and expectations are lenient and already well communicated.
Further, there's many things I'd like to improve and have readily available. While I feel I handle business interactions well, I don't think I can provide the level of professionalism that I should, such as having an up to date example sheet and a predetermined and well practiced method for each type of work that I can offer. My current method leads to slight experimentation, uncertainty, and a degree of inconsistency that some might appreciate but also isn't something I'm comfortable offering at the moment. I also need to update my ToS and host it on a platform that isn’t Tumblr. Once these are all sorted, I'll feel a lot more comfortable taking work.
I'm honestly more comfortable "working" as a hobbyist for the time being, as such I'm also not opposed to requests (ideally from familiar faces, mutuals, and friends). If you'd like to donate in return then I do have a ko-fi page as well (link below), though I would appreciate it more as a thank-you as opposed to a pre-payment; money sent my way will not guarantee I draw anything for you, so doing so afterward optionally is better! Please understand this does not mean I will accept requests from everyone. If you’d like to negotiate a PWYW sketch then I may consider it, but nothing more complicated.
https://ko-fi.com/videobun
I know this doesn't really affect too many of you but I find this easier to say in a post than to explain directly to anyone who asks about my commission status. I'll obviously let you all know once I'm in a state where I've settled into a job, have proper examples/info, and feel comfortable scheduling in commission work. Thanks for understanding!
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Mystic Party
I previously made a post about the invitations, and in this post I’m going to literally go through everything I remember about the party while it’s still fresh in my mind! ;)
A bit of a warning that this will be one heck of a long and detailed post with lots of information and images and links! This post is also going to include a lot more of my personal experiences and feelings rather than the more neutral info dumping, because this event was so major and I’m treating this a bit like a “diary entry” for myself ^___^
I’ve used subheadings to organise everything so that you can skip what you don’t care about or just read the specific part you’re interested in. *If you only want to read about the Rika and Vanderwood Route, it’s in the “SPECIAL GUEST SUJIN RI” section!
But if you’re in for the whole experience, it’s gonna be a LONG ride. So buckle up and let’s go! ;)
ARRIVING
The party was held on 23rd August from 1pm to 4pm, on the 5th floor of a fancy place that’s usually reserved for wedding receptions and other formal occasions, so we were told to dress decently :) No need to go all-out and wear a formal gown or anything (though some people really did!), but you needed to be well-dressed xD Oh, and cosplays weren’t allowed!
Lining up to enter the banquet hall!
Once you get in, the staff members will verify your identity to make sure you’re the person registered (so strict!). They also ask you to draw a card with a character on it for the “game” and give you a bunch of forms/cards needed for later and an RFA paper bag with your gifts.
Lining up to have your identity verified and to collect all the prizes and information you’ll need. Hello there, V.
Each table has a character emoji, which is also the emoji printed on your seat number card. My card had Zen’s emoji (YASSS), and my seat was in the very front row and right at the edge.
Our table. (My seat is no. 16)
A good thing because I can see things clearly and eavesdrop on the hosts/staff members/cosplayers when they’re waiting to go onstage, but a bad thing because sometimes the official photographers and news journalists try to take pictures or film stuff and block my view >.<” (Yes, there were news journalists from actual TV broadcasting stations because the event was such a big deal! :O)
GAMES
The first 50 minutes were for people to arrive, settle, buy merch, and most importantly, do the little “game” thing they prepared.
Seat card with Zen’s sparkly emoji, form for if you want to buy merch, and the card that lists the rules of the game. (Forgot to take a close-up... >.<)
Basically there are five “official cosplayers” playing the RFA members. They’ll be on the stage, and you go to the character you drew at the beginning for a short “game”. If you pass/win the game, they’ll stamp your card, and you can then go and put your card into the box corresponding to your favourite character (not necessarily the one you played the game with). The boxes will be used for raffles later where they’ll draw out names for prizes or for people to go up onstage for more “intimate” character interactions.
People playing their game with the character they got.
If you win your game, you come and put your stamped card in one of these boxes!
The card I picked out was Jaehee’s. I won’t deny that I was a bit disappointed (I DO LOVE BAEHEE I JUST LOVE THE MEN MORE DON’T KILL ME PLEASE), but after reading the instruction card and going through the game, I’m kind of glad I got her xD All characters have different games (win at paper-scissors-rock against Jumin, correctly answer a random times table question from Seven, draw a card and hope your number is bigger than Zen’s, beat Yoosung at “seaweed paper-scissors-rock”, or correctly answer Jaehee’s question about a random RFA member’s eye colour). 707′s and Jaehee’s are the only ones that weren’t left up to chance and the questions were easy, so you’re pretty much guaranteed to pass. Also, the male characters were pretty... “touchy”? For the fanservice, if you get what I mean? Like they might put their hands on your waist or bend down and talk to you really “intimately” xD
There are a bunch of standees on the right side of the stage. You line up in front of the character you’ll be playing your game with, and when they’re done with a player, you’ll be called up for your turn.
You line up like this for your turn at the mini game (which I didn’t have to do ;D)
To be honest, the “interaction with the cosplayers” thing was the part I cared for the least before coming; these characters are 2D, and no matter how good the cosplayers are, I’d personally prefer to keep them 2D in my mind xD
But then the Jaehee cosplayer personally came down the stage and approached me to ask if I needed assistance! I have no idea why or how she was allowed to leave her post and come to me? Maybe because I looked very confused, since my Chinese isn’t SUPER GOOD and the staff member explained the game rules to me very quickly and concisely ^^;; And when Jaehee saw that my card had her emoji on it, she was like, “Oh, then you’ll be interacting with me!” and explained the rules of the game to me again more slowly. By then I was pretty much like, “Eh, may as well” xD I didn’t go up the “normal” way by lining up on the right in front of the standees, because Baehee was already with me, so she literally took my hand and walked back up on the stage with me from the left side ahahaha I’m special :P The cosplayer was really nice and had a “big sister” feel, so it really was kind of like how I imagined Jaehee to be ^^
This is only a small detail, but I found it quite interesting that the cosplayer didn’t touch me until I explicitly said “Okay” to the game/interaction. I guess maybe there really are people who are uncomfortable with doing lovey-dovey and touchy stuff with strangers (since the characters are just regular people cosplaying). I found it quite nice that they were careful to respect people’s boundaries and only proceeded to touch you in any way when you’ve explicitly said yes :)
The games take place on the stage, but everyone’s doing their own thing, so it’s not like anyone was watching. Anyway, after leading me onto the stage and her position/place, Jaehee asked me who my favourite character was. Obviously Saeran isn’t an option here, so I said 707. Then she goes, “Okay, I’m going to test you! Can you tell me the colour of 707′s eyes?” And I’m like “yellow” (man, is it gold or yellow), and since the 707 cosplayer wasn’t doing their game with someone at the time, Jaehee goes, “707, come here,” points to their eyes (coloured contacts LOL) and says, “Yes, yellow! Okay, you pass!” She then leads me to the side of the stage (we were meant to leave ourselves ajksfh;asj why is Jaehee so niceee) and tells a staff member that I passed so I get my card stamped.
Then you come to this box area, and after you’ve written your in-game name and phone number on the card, you’re asked to put it into the box corresponding to the character of your choice. I knew that putting it in 707′s box would be an unwise decision, since that box would be filled with cards and you’d get a lower chance of winning anything, but Zen, my next-favourite, is almost just as popular in Taiwan xD So I went ahead and shoved my card into the 707 box anyway ahaha :P (A decision I would later regret as I didn’t win a single thing ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)
The adorable emoji boxes! You put your stamped card into the box corresponding to your favourite character.
There were also a lot of small interactions between the cosplayers when they were idly waiting for their next player, and they were super in-character <3 Jumin brushed the huge paw-shaped cardboard sign he was holding against Zen’s hair and Zen literally flinched, patted down his hair, and turned around to glare at him xD Seven pulled at Yoosung’s suspenders and even stuck his head in to annoy and eavesdrop on Jumin when he was trying to have a serious conversation with Jaehee xD These cosplayers really know their characters well haha :D
FOOD
They also served food and drinks :) The highlight was obviously the original HONEY BUDDHA (TECHNICALLY “BUTTER”) CHIPS. I was pretty excited to finally try actual HBCs in real life, and I must say that the taste was... very oily and buttery? xD I mean, they are Honey Butter Chips, so I’m not sure what I was expecting, but the butter taste was a lot stronger than I thought it would be xD It’s nice, but I can’t imagine myself eating more than half a bag at once before I start feeling a bit gross/sick xD Seriously, how does Seven eat so much O___O
Finished my game with Baehee, and now settled with my juice and cake and Honey Buddha Chips.
OFFICIALLY STARTING
Waiting for the hosts to officially start the party!
The two hosts (more like MCs, but we all know that “MC” has a whole different meaning for MM fans, so I’m going to stick with “host” xD) are pretty popular among the Taiwanese MM fandom. They do weekly live streams/videos on the official Facebook page, where they talk about MM, upcoming events, joke around, and do raffles for MM merch. They’ve sort of become the unofficial “faces” of MM in Taiwan, and most of the Taiwanese MM fans (myself included) love them, so it was a real treat to see them in person! For this post, I’m going to call the female host “Cuby” and the male host “Fatty”, since that’s a direct translation of their Chinese nicknames (meaning “cube/square” and “fat”) and they’ve used these translations themselves at some point.
At 2pm, the lobby theme (“Mystic Chat”) finally stops playing and is replaced by Yoosung’s second theme, “Silly Smile Again”. Cuby goes onstage, talks a bit, and officially starts the party.
She then tells everyone that because this party is supposed to be “full of mysteries and surprises”, we should all check under our chairs! The chairs were covered in fancy silky fabric, so we had to dig under that. And SURPRISE! Each seat had a random sticker sheet stuck inside (the ones that come with the emoticon cushions), and it’s yours to keep! Cue intense screaming and fangirling throughout the whole room, to the point where the host had to put her mic down because she couldn’t talk over the screaming and she failed at getting us to calm down xD I got a 707 sticker sheet YASSSSS!!! (I could feel the envious stares of other people on my table hur hur nope not trading with any of you :P) And I just got the Ray stickers with my Ray emoticon cushion a few days ago ;___; Come with me, Saeyoung, I have your brother at home and I will reunite the two of you <3
The 707 stickers hidden under my chair!
After that, the opening video was played to signal the start of the party! I’ve watched that video countless times by now, but seeing it blasted through huge speakers and played on a giant screen gave me all the feels, and it was cute when Cuby cued everyone to sing along haha <3
The feelsssss ;___;
And when you think the next segment is officially starting, the lights dim again, the intro of the OP comes on once more, Cuby goes “Wth is going on?”, the big screen splits and opens, and Fatty enters with much fanfare, singing the Chinese version of the song xD
So much LOL (and yes, I will always snap a picture when Saeran shows up on the screen)
Cue everyone screaming and cheering for him (because this guy is so hilarious and therefore super popular). He even had a rose, which he threw to the girl sitting next to me. Guess I’m too close to the edge for him to bother reaching LOL
SPECIAL GUEST SUJIN RI (RIKA AND VANDERWOOD ROUTE INFO IN THIS SECTION)
They then played an exclusive video that featured all the VAs (minus Saeran, Rika, and Vanderwood), Han (the singer of the theme songs), some Cheritz staff members and Sujin Ri (founder of Cheritz and creator of Mystic Messenger) greeting and thanking Taiwanese fans. They’d teased that there would be a special guest coming to this party from Korea, and it was none other than Sujin Ri herself!!!
Sujin Ri in her adorable cherry dress <3
Sujin Ri is so cute! xD She spoke a bit of English, but most of her longer speeches and answers were in Korean, so she had a translator with her. The event planners had put together a list of questions that they knew everyone would be curious to know, and the hosts read out the questions one by one while Sujin Ri answered them onstage!
Q: “Why did you create this game? How did you come up with the script?” A: It was a long answer, but she basically said that she took a long break after her first two games and was wondering if she should continue. She then decided to make a mobile game, and wanted it to be more “relatable” for players, so came up with the idea of a messaging app! She also said something about how she really likes watching American shows and dramas, so a lot of her inspiration came from those. One of the hosts joked that American movies often have hackers, so maybe that’s why MM has a hacker (or two) :P
Q: Will there be a chance to release a Rika Route? A: She basically said something like (paraphrased), “The Taiwanese version hasn’t released V’s and Unknown’s stories yet, but they have been released in Korea [she didn’t say internationally, for some reason] and lots of Rika’s secrets were revealed. There will be more in the future, so please look forward to it.” The reactions were mixed, just like with the international fandom. Some people were frowning and shaking their heads, but there were definitely some people who cheered and clapped lol. Guess Rika is a controversial character in every country xD (Fatty revealed in the Facebook Live After Party that when he asked her, “Yes? Or no?” she replied, “Maybe!”) But yeah, her answer was vague and her words in no way confirm a Rika Route. But to me, just the fact that the party planners chose and put this question in the script seems to be a pretty clear indication that it’s probably going to happen...? Like, why tease something that isn’t going to be an actual thing? I dunno, maybe it’s just me reading too much into it and trying to be smart, so don’t quote me on an official confirmation for a Rika Route; I’m just relaying what I heard and sharing my own interpretation ^^;;
Q: Will there be a chance for the VAs to come to Taiwan? A: “Yes!” Short and sweet, so I take that as a sign that there might be more official MM events in Taiwan in the future! (My poor wallet...)
Q: Will there be plushie merchandise released in the future? A: Possibly! Again, not a direct confirmation, but just like with the Rika Route question, I take that as a pretty good sign that it might happen since they bothered to mention it! Dunno if it will be released internationally or be another Taiwan-only merch, though... (Either way, my wallet is crying again.)
Q: Please release LINE stickers with sound! A: “Good idea!” (in English!) Taiwanese people use the messaging app LINE a lot, and although there’s been two official MM sticker sets released, a lot of people have been wanting a version that has the characters’ voices (like how it is in the game).
Then they said there was time for ONE question from ONE fan in the audience, and a girl’s arm shot up so quickly that she was picked before I even had a chance to move my hand lmao xD But no worries, because it turns out that her question is exactly what I was going to ask! She takes the mic and speaks the holy words, “Will you consider making a Vanderwood Route?” CUE THE INSANE SCREAMS OF A BANQUET HALL-FULL OF THIRSTY MCS. INCLUDING ME. Seriously, the reaction was IMMEDIATE and the screams were RIDICULOUSLY LOUD. I hope the volume and intensity was enough to convince Sujin Ri that Vanderwood really is that popular and how much we really would love to have his route ;___; And her answer was basically (again, paraphrased), “Vanderwood wasn’t even meant to be an official character, but we ended up adding him into the game. I never expected him to get so popular, and since everyone loves him so much, I will take note of this and discuss with the company the possibility of making a route for him in the future.” NO OTHER WORDS NEEDED. EXCUSE ME WHILE I GO CRY TEARS OF JOY. THERE IS HOPE. And it’s even better because we now know for sure that the creator herself is the one who heard us and said those words ;___;
They then drew out some names for fans to go up and receive a gift and take a group photo with Sujin Ri. Two fans got a set of cards (game CGs) with the VAs’ autographs, and three fans got the official RFA badge set!
COSPLAYERS
So the official cosplayers had left the room after the games and were away during all this. After Sujin Ri left the stage and took her seat at her table, the hosts “officially” welcomed the cosplayers in for the first time!
(They’re just cosplayers and they’re actually all female, but for the purpose of this post, I’m just going to use the pronoun of the character they’re portraying and use the characters’ names as though they really are the character.)
They enter one by one with a rose and give it to a random fan. No chance for me because they entered through the aisle in the middle of the hall and I’m right at the edge at the front xD Jumin gave his rose normally, Jaehee didn’t give hers away (I’ll explain why later), Seven and Yoosung threw theirs to reach fans that were further back (still not far enough for me T_T), and Zen got down on his knee Zen-style and handed it to a lucky fan.
The RFA members (well, cosplayers) are formally introduced for the first time!
Once they’re all onstage, the members introduce themselves one by one (which was when I found out that they were all women as soon as they spoke xD) and answer some quick questions from the hosts. While it wasn’t top-notch acting or anything, the cosplayers were very much in character the whole time. The way they stood, their expressions, their manner of speech, their interactions with each other, everything was just like the character they were supposed to be, so props to them for that!
Jumin was asked why he didn’t bring Elizabeth the 3rd! Just as he was about to start talking, 707 cuts in and says, “Yeah, where’s Elly? Why didn’t you bring my Elly? She’s mine!” xD Jumin basically brushed him off (”She’s not yours!”) and said it’s because there’s a flu going around and he didn’t want her to get sick =^.^= The hosts kept jokingly begging him to please not purchase and merge their company with C&R xDDD Jumin also said that he’d like Zen to model for his cat food commercial, and the look on Zen’s face was priceless LOL xD (Zen said only if either the cat is put in plastic wrap or they just get a fake 3D cat instead xD)
Jaehee was asked why she still had her rose with her, and she said it’s because she wants to give it to Zen!!! It was super cute, and Yoosung and Seven were making love heart gestures behind them when she gave the rose to him xD But then Zen asked if he could give the rose to “one of the ladies down there” LOL WAY TO SHATTER BAEHEE’S HEART ZEN YOU AKSDJFHA;SKJ XDDD
Zen asking to give Jaehee’s rose to a fan. ZEN WHY XD
They chose a Jaehee fan from the crowd (a middle-aged man!!!) and Jaehee and Zen handed the rose to him together, which was really cute :) Jaehee also complained about her boss’ cat’s fur getting everywhere, that she was still using tape to get rid of them before coming in xD The hosts asked her if she realised her boss was standing right beside her, and she asked him for a raise. Jumin said, “For what you said just then, no.” xDDD They also asked her if she recommends any cafes. Jaehee said that while she enjoys Starbucks, the cafe she recommends is “The Who”, which is the one that has the MM collaboration going on right now lololol not-so-subtle advertising ;)
707 teased Fatty and said that he knows everything about him, and started listing his personal info, like his job, his height etc. But when he was about to reveal his weight, Fatty apologised for teasing and questioning “God Seven’s” abilities as a hacker and begged for forgiveness LOL xD
Yoosung was asked about his future plans, like whether or not he was planning to continue working for Jumin’s company. Yoosung said that rather than a career, he’s more interested in being a good husband ;) He wants to find a kind and pretty wife and have three kids, and even revealed the names he wants to give them xD (They’re all to do with stars, since Yoosung’s name means “Shooting Star” ^^) Such a cutie, and very Yoosung-like <3
Zen was last, and they asked him what he thought about Jumin LOL xD He admitted that he used to hate him, but now he thinks he’s actually a pretty nice guy ^^ The hosts then asked the two to “hug and make up” OMG. Cue the fangirl screams xD I feel like they know about the JuZen ship and are fueling it a bit xD Jumin walked towards Zen with his arms out, and Zen reluctantly went in for the hug xD They literally twirled around on the spot, with Zen keeping his hands OFF Jumin’s back despite having his arms around him, and the hug ended when Seven tried to put their heads together and make them kiss LOLLL. Seven and Yoosung were cheering and making love heart gestures (THEY SHIP IT), while Jaehee was filming it on her phone xD
JuZen huggles!!! (featuring shippy YooSeven and fangirl Jaehee)
After that, they basically had all the characters draw cards from those five emoji boxes, and the people chosen would go up onstage and draw a random ball with a number on it. Each number comes with some cheesy/romantic interaction (e.g. a romantic dance, holding hands and gazing into each other’s eyes for 10 seconds, a hug and a pat on the head, being fed Pocky etc.), and the player would then do this with their character while everyone watches in envy. I won’t upload any photos of these moments to respect the privacy of the fans, but I will and have cropped out YooSeven in the background mirroring the romantic moments with each other! It’s like they’re all aware of the fandom’s main ships and are fueling them xD
YooSeven dances and snuggles!!!
One of Seven’s fans picked out “being fed Pocky”, but being God Seven, he immediately said, “I don’t want any of that! *signals a staff member* Could you bring that over for me? The one I brought myself!” What else could he be talking about xD
707 awkwardly struggling to open a Honey Buddha Chip bag onstage xD
They also get to take a polaroid pic with the cosplayer at the end. And since Fatty is known to be really generous and is always “adding more” to raffles and games, he allowed like at least another 10 or so fans to be drawn for a polaroid with a character of their choice :)
And Jaehee herself also asked if she could have a polaroid with Zen! xD
Zen and Jaehee posing for a polaroid, featuring an unamused Jumin.
By the way, Cuby is a HUGE Jumin fangirl and she got a turn with the Jumin, too! xD
"Ju-Jumin... I... I’m willing to raise Elizabeth the 3rd with you—KYAAAAHHH~~~” (That’s exactly what she said ;D)
They then got Sujin Ri to come onstage again and draw more lucky winners who’ll receive the card set with the VAs’ autographs. Fatty also drew a bunch of people to win a Taiwan-exclusive cushion (or the space cushion for 707 because they ran out of his Taiwan cushions). Amazing that there were so many things drawn at random and I didn’t manage to get a single one LOLLL XD
I managed to snap a picture of the cosplayers as they were leaving the stage for a break. They literally walked right by me (because of the convenient position of my seat), and Jumin and Yoosung even waved and posed xD
CHARITY AUCTION
It was later revealed that a part of the money they raised for this party would be donated to an official animal protection association in Taiwan, just like how the RFA parties are for a good cause ^^ They even played a video about the association we were donating to (lots of sad and abandoned puppies ;___;) complete with “I Miss Happy Rika” as background music.
Additionally, they bring on three extra standees for auction, and all the money from the auction would be donated to charity, too! I love MM but I don’t want a standee LOL so I just sat back and watched xD They only had Yoosung, Jumin, and Zen, and I got a picture of the prices they were each sold for (all in NTD):
I’m still shook that the Zen standee was able to sell for NT$9900!!!!! That’s like... *throws it into Google to convert* $322-ish USD!!!!! Insane but also very impressive! :D (Wonder how much a 707 standee could have gone for if they offered one haha)
Sujin Ri was so happy, and said that they would be sending them some kind of official donator’s badge from Korea for contributing to a good cause <3 The host even said that it’s amazing and really beautiful how a simple mobile game can grow to the point where so many people come together and do things to make the world a better place ^^ <333
ENDING
After the auctions, the party came to an end ;___; They played “Like the Sun in the Sky” as the ED and listed all the people who helped to make the party happen. But then they said that “special thanks” go to the fans who attended, and literally typed out ALL of our names in the credits! <3 The hosts picked out random names to read, like “Thank you _____! Thank you _____!” including mine, so I guess that was the only thing I got picked for today LOL XD
Cuby reading out my name!
After that, they have an ending screen with the SNSplus and Cheritz logos, and when you think it’s all over, Fatty enters from the right of the screen (turns out to be a video) and tells us that they’re going to be releasing a big confetti ball to signify the end (one of those giant balls that explode and then confetti falls out).
A wild Fatty appears!
I was expecting a huge ball to explode in the middle of the hall or on the screen, but when the Fatty in the video says “GO!” instead we get “I just got your messages!” again. Turns out he TROLLED US, and instead, they played a self-made, absolutely hilarious and utterly stupid but amazing “music video” of Fatty himself singing the OP XDDD Needless to say, the entire room was a laughing MESS XDDDDD
(Not sure how interested the international fandom would be because Fatty really is more of a Taiwanese MM fandom favourite, but if you are, there will be a link at the end of this post with appropriate timestamps for anyone who would like to witness this... glorious mistake of a video xDDD)
They also ended the event by taking a big group photo together! I managed to get pretty close to the front because my seat was so close to the photo spot already xD
All hosts, cosplayers, important guests, and 150-ish attendees! (Credits to the official Taiwanese Mystic Messenger Facebook Page.)
PHOTO TIME
After that, they said that they would allow a few minuets for people to take pictures with cosplayers, with each other, of the venue, basically anything. But unlike almost everyone who immediately STAMPEDED to line up for the cosplayers (especially 707), I raced to look for Sujin Ri!!! There were quite a few other people going for her, too, and she was taking photos with fans and signing people’s merch and stuff. I was able to speak to her in English, and simply asked, “Can I please take a photo with you?” She was super nice, and so was her translator, who ended up taking all the pictures for everyone who lined up xD Before I left, she told me, “Thank you for playing!” Ahhh she’s so cute <333
Major fangirling!!! (Yes, that is me in the white dress. I have officially revealed my face >_<)
I then went and selfie-d with the two hosts (because why not? :D), and then selfie-d with the standees for a second time. Yes, I am literally more interested in standees than cosplayers... To me, the standees were more “like” the characters? They’re 2D anyway, so I prefer to keep them that way rather than pretending that a person who isn’t them, is xD
And even after I was done with the standees there was still time. On my way back to my seat to clean up my belongings, I literally JUST SO HAPPENED to walk past the place that was the end of 707′s line. At this point, I kinda thought to myself, “I already paid for this party and I’m literally already standing in the queue, so may as well.” xDDD I did end up taking a selfie with the 707 cosplayer! I even decided to just go with it and asked him for a hug, too, and he told me to be careful on my way home :) Two possible responses: “Awww what a nice cosplayer she is ^^” and “OMGGGG I TOOK A SELFIE WITH SEVEN AND HUGGED HIM AND HE TOLD ME TO BE CAREFUL ASD;KFJAHS;KJDA” May as well fully immerse myself in the experience and choose the latter ahahaha :P
After that, you were free to leave or make any final purchases at the merchandise section. The merch didn’t really appeal to me, so I only took pictures.
Cup holders and washi tape! They’re cute, but not really things I need or particularly want. I’m happy with just my Ray emoticon cushion and rubber keychain for now ^^
The RFA members are also standing at the exit and seeing everyone off!
Jumin even helped the fan who bid for his standee to bring it out of the hall. What a gentleman <3
Jumin waved goodbye to me as I was leaving, and 707 waved back when I turned for one last look ^^
GIFTS
I only really opened the paper bag once I got home, and inside were the gifts they promised!
The bag is huge!
You get a random big cookie with an RFA member’s face on it! I got a Jumin, and I would like to ask how anyone thinks I will be okay with eating this ;___;
My Juju cookie <3 You will eventually end up in my tummy ;~;
You also get a poster set that’s limited to this party only (there is no other way to get them)! I thought we would be getting one poster with all the characters, but no, they gave us five posters, one character each, separately :O
This is basically all the stuff I came home with haha <3
Overall, was it worth it? Yes, I think so ^^
The ticket was pretty expensive and the purchasing process was crazy and stressful, but I think it was worth the money and effort spent. The party was a lot more grand and fancy than I expected, and you could tell that they really did put a lot of effort into making it a really extravagant event. I did not come in expecting to meet Sujin Ri, and revealing that a lot of the money would be going to charity also made the party so much more meaningful <3 (I’m sure the RFA would be proud ;D) Of course, the experience would probably have been more unforgettable and rewarding if I had actually gotten drawn for just ONE of the many lucky draws they had LOL but I still had a great time and I’m just thankful that I got to attend such a fun and wonderful event <333
Not sure if they’ll be holding another one of these parties in other cities in Taiwan (or maybe in Hong Kong and Macau), but I’m pretty sure that this isn’t the last of these MM Taiwan events xD I hope my wallet can take it :P
Here is the official compilation video with footage from the party (featuring my embarrassing self being filmed selfie-ing with a 707 standee OH GOD WHY.) The caption on the video post also has a link to a Google Drive where you can look at some clearer photos taken by their staff members!
And here’s the “Mystic After Party” live video hosted by Cuby and Fatty. (Go to 2:20 [as in 2:20 REMAINING of the video, so about 40:35 minutes in] if you’re interested in watching Fatty’s music video xD Please imagine this video coming on with the shook-ness of a troll surprise when you’re expecting a confetti ball to pop out instead >.>)
If you’re still reading, I APPLAUD YOU :O LET’S BE FRIENDS! No, seriously, thank you for taking interest and reading until the end; I am so sorry that it’s so insanely long ^^;;
All posts on Mystic Messenger events in Taiwan can be found under my #mmtaiwan tag!
Check out my Saeran x MC fic: Waiting for Spring And my Choi Brothers fic: Of Roses and Resets
*All photos belong to me unless otherwise stated. Please do not repost without my permission!
#mystic messenger#mysme#mysmes#mmtaiwan#707#luciel choi#saeyoung choi#jumin#jumin han#jaehee#jaehee kang#zen#hyun ryu#yoosung#yoosung kim#v#jihyun kim#unknown#ray#saeran choi#rika#vanderwood#mine#fandom
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Let’s Talk About Novae!
Before we continue, please be sure you’ve read Ye Olde Disclaimer so you know what exactly is going on here!
And beware… SPOILERS AHEAD!
Let me tell you, I had to shorten what I originally wrote by a lot because I couldn’t shut up about it.
I wanted to start off this series with a webcomic very dear to my heart, which is the wonderful Novae by @kaixju, a duo of artists with a solid comics resume behind them. KaiJu have collaborated in the past on The Ring of Saturn, Mahou Josei Chimaka, and Inhabitant of Another Planet, which is the prequel to Novae. All are hosted on Sparkler Monthly, and I highly recommend reading them all. Not just because Sulvain and Raziol cameo in The Ring of Saturn as well as Mahou Josei Chimaka, which I thought was so good.
Novae follows the tale of two men in 17th century France, at the height of the scientific revolution. One is Raziol Qamar, the apprentice of the esteemed scientist Christiaan Huygens. Raziol is the son of a translator, and has a boundless love of astronomy. The other is Sulvain. Yep, just Sulvain, no last name so far. He’s a mysterious traveler that we know very little about yet, other than the fact that he is curious, lonely, and loves the stars just as much as Raziol does. You can see where this is going.
We get a number of strong visual hints as to Sulvain’s past or the truth of his existence, and surely more info will be revealed very soon. Novae has just completed Chapter 4, which very neatly contains the blossoming of a relationship between Sulvain and Raziol. I won’t summarize the story thus far, because I would much rather you go read the comic for yourself! Instead, let’s start looking at some of the key themes Novae gives us:
Loneliness
Belonging
Grief
The powerful multifaceted-ness of love
In Inhabitant from Another Planet, we are introduced to many of these key themes through a look into Raziol’s past- namely, his last intimate relationship. This, in addition to Sulvain’s flashbacks from Chapter Four, brings me to one of my favorite things about Novae: it is not afraid to be absolutely open with the character’s past loves. Novae is a story primarily about the love between Raziol and Sulvain, but it is just as much about the love that, inevitably, brings them together. Something I see often in the Romance genre is this idea that giving positive and meaningful context to a character’s past relationship(s) is somehow de-valuing their present one. Past relationships are sometimes treated as a stepping stone to get to the ‘one true love’, or a device to create hurt comfort. As if the current relationship needs to be the only good one the characters have ever had, and that’s what makes it meaningful. It’s not. And I’m not saying that stories where that happens are inherently bad, because that’s not true either. It needs to be handled delicately.
What Novae does is provide us with insight into the past relationships that built Raziol and Sulvain into the people they are now. That they have loved before, they love now, and they absolutely can love again. Romance is not devalued by the presence of other loves. And I love the insight into that. It tells us so much about them. Raziol’s relationship with Bevan provided a moment in time where he felt considerably understood and happy- temporarily, yes, but that temporalness led him to reconnect with his father. The feeling of otherness has not left Raziol in Novae, and it’s a pivotal part of why he connects with Sulvain. Raziol gravitates towards people that help relieve that. As for Sulvain, at this point we can only guess. I have my theories about his condition. There are many hints that he practices Necromancy, and even more hints that he’s either undead or immortal or something of that nature. Immortality and loneliness are inseparable from each other, classically. Raziol gives him something he can easily give back: familiarity and nostalgia, and the delight in learning new things.
But with immortality (or whatever it is that plagues him) comes the other classic issue: the fear of intimacy and, you know… getting attached. How many times can one obviously sensitive guy handle burying the people he loves? And yet, intimacy and comfort is all too enticing. Who can blame him? I’m interested in seeing where that goes once we know more.
Side note, I appreciate that this is the first time they see each other. Nothing is better than main couples having an embarrassing first interaction.
And Sulvain is just kinda like [nods] “Yes, understandable. I, too, have that reaction to myself.”
Another one of my favorite aspects of Novae is the attention to detail. So many tiny bits of the world are so carefully researched and considered, it makes my history-loving heart sing. Objects in a room can do so much in developing a character, and it’s so nice to see that so thought out for both Sulvain and Raziol’s father’s apartments. It is believable that a person lives there, and the word feels so tangibly like 17th century France. This makes is so easy to become immersed in the world these characters inhabit. We are not simply following their story on its surface, but becoming part of the environment that drives that story. Not only that, but the comic places such a loving emphasis on tiny, quiet moments.
Every small gesture, every silent look they give each other means something so visceral and signifies a huge step forward. Soft and so often silent, but that’s what forces you to pay attention. The limited color palette deftly assists in this, every single page dominated by either a rich blue or yellow or a mix of the two. Blue, the historical color of divinity, cosmos and magic, and yellow, the historical color of happiness and knowledge.
I want to bookend this with a look at my favorite scene so far, which is related to my earlier point about Sulvain’s past love: the final scene of Chapter Four, in which we see a flashback showing Sulvain burying the mystery woman from his memory (Ohhhoh whooo could she be??). The color palette transforms stunningly. It’s not easy to show flashbacks without being heavy-handed and direct (or alternately, not being clear enough), but this color palette change does it in such a nice way that sits well with the feeling of the rest of the story. The burial shown is a traditional burning-pyre one, and this is the first time we get to see Sulvain displaying extreme emotions. He weeps for her, wailing, but silently due to his inability to speak. And it’s beautiful, not only because of the stunning imagery but also because it handles quick, simply addressed death within a story pretty fantastically.
Sulvain’s relationship with this woman is powerful and meaningful. Her death is not the end of his story, but it does lastingly impact it. And he is allowed to mourn, and feel vivid emotions, and still grieve however many years into the future when these feelings affect the new connections he builds, and that is okay. Sulvain is not shamed for having complicated feelings, or not being completely ready to dive in headfirst into a new romance, but instead go slowly. Don’t forget, in the Novae timeline, Raziol and Sulvain have only known each other a few days (which is just my guess). It just makes me unbelievably happy that that understanding is there in the formative moments of their relationship, and it’s not used as a miscommunication drama fodder (a big pet peeve of mine). Each of them knows that they are both going into this with a lot of baggage, and part of a strong relationship is working through that together, and giving it time.
To briefly address another technical aspect, suffice to say dialogue is one of the most difficult parts of comic writing. There is a fine line between too much dialogue and just enough. Novae stays within this line wonderfully. As a reader, I never feel like the story is unnecessarily being explained to me. It takes advantage of the beauty of a visual medium and allows visuals to tell the story clearly and concisely, and all dialogue serves to enhance the story. It never feels too wordy, and everything is so astoundingly poetic that the dialogue itself works perfectly in tandem with the environment.
In conclusion, Novae deserves serious props for handling a slow, quiet narrative so well. It’s really difficult to manage that, especially in webcomic time when you generally update a page at a time. With longform webcomics, it’s easy to lose the reader’s attention from update to update if it feels like nothing is happening. But here, with every page, something huge is happening. It’s just a quieter, more contemplative something, and I look forward to it every time. I know whenever a Novae page goes up, it’s going to be gorgeous and I’m already completely invested in the complexities of these characters. Reading this comic, you can feel the love and care the creators have put into developing it. I can’t wait to see what happens next.
PLEASE go read Novae, leave many comments, and support KaiJu! You can do so by:
Following them on Twitter
Becoming a Patron
Sharing their Portfolio
Follow them on Tumblr
And tell your friends about Novae!
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8 Tips For Successful Link Blitz Management
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How Do I Choose a Responsive Website Design?
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Hey, now that we're touching on the subject in your writing, want to tell us more about Sunnie and the gang? You know, personalities and who is playing host to which spirit? That kind of thing?
Yeah, I touched on them in THIS post, but admittedly that was very superficial information, and some of the information is slightly outdated too.
To be fair, I thought I’d have more time to introduce you to each spirit and host one at a time, since they weren’t supposed to appear in my works yet. “This Is Halloween” was originally going to be about the mirror caves throughout Anti-Pixie Isle for ~foreshadowing~ reasons that you’ll see later, but then this happened instead. Sorry for the info-dump. But not very.
Okay, so let’s talk about the zodiac spirits again. Luckily for me, I can just steal some of this stuff out of the Anti-Fairy worldbuilding dump I’m posting on the 7th since there’s no fanfic update that day, and link back to this post.
Be aware that this post is massive. But when you’re ready to learn, here you go.
NATURE SPIRITS AND ZODIACS
What is the point of you creating nature spirits for your fanfics?
Giving Anti-Fairies culture that doesn’t totally revolve around evil. Don’t get me wrong- this is definitely a ‘fic about Anti-Cosmo’s rise to power. It’s an “innocence to corruption” type of story.
However, I see canon Anti-Cosmo as a guy striking out mostly because his people are majorly discriminated against by the Fairies. I needed reasons for him to believe his people deserved to not be discriminated against, and reasons for the Anti-Fairies not to think, “Well gee, maybe if we stopped attacking people, they would accept us!” So, the way Anti-Fairies appear in my works is, many of them are good, cultured people who just happen to feel the urge to make mischief and deal with bad luck.
They’re bearers of bad news, but you shouldn’t kill the messenger, so to speak. Many of them are offended at being called evil. We’ll watch Anti-Cosmo get past the point of caring and embrace the evil title. That was one of the harder things for me in writing Frayed Knots, but I think I did okay.
Anti-Fairies are creatures of bad luck, so I started by giving them a zodiac and major beliefs in astrology, fate, destiny, horoscopes, and I built out from there. This was also my way of explaining things that appear in canon, like the Darkness, or the temple to the chicken seen in “Chicken Poofs”. Additionally, many Fairies believe the stars are Fairy warriors. Anti-Fairies believe they’re stars. H.P. belongs to a religion that believes fairy dogs can die. In the show, Sparky stated that they can’t, so the Zodii believe they can’t. Different stuff like that so I can encompass as many bits of canon in the show as possible.
Finally, it was nice to create an entire culture so starkly different from H.P.’s, who grew up in Fairy World in my fanfic Origin of the Pixies. Considering the mixed feelings between Fairies and Anti-Fairies, it seemed appropriate to give them drastically different cultures and beliefs. Additionally, many fans love the Anti-Fairies and wanted to hear more about them in the show, so I wanted to have fun with this. I also wanted to keep my readers engaged since Frayed Knots is my second fanfic and has to cover some of the same worldbuilding stuff we already saw in Origin. I wanted to keep some unexplored territory.
AND, I wanted Anti-Cosmo and Anti-Wanda to be kept busy a lot of the time, which is why we don’t see them with Foop in the later seasons. I didn’t want them to be purely working on evil plans, since it seems their son would have wanted to get in on that action. Instead, I gave them a culture that has super strong traditions and beliefs, and made Foop the oddball who still has loyalty to his culture and reacts badly when he sees Fairies mock it and the Anti-Fairies, but he still thinks most of it is dumb and doesn’t want to get in too deep, so therefore pulls away from his parents and does his own thing.
I knew I’d be writing an extensive ‘fic that would probably take me years to finish, so I needed to have fun.
Don’t worry- while Knots does include a lot of nature spirit stuff, the zodiac still just Anti-Fairy culture and isn’t what I would call “the main plot”. This is still an FOP fanfic that tries to stay close to canon without veering the story into tons of OCs. Anti-Cosmo will be doing a lot of things in this story that have nothing to do with the nature spirits. We don’t even meet Sunnie until the war over godchildren is over. Then we get a big burst of nature spirit stuff before it fades out and we pick up the other plotlines again.
What are the levels of nature spirits?
Wise Ancients - Major deities; for all intents and purposes, they’re gods. I prefer using the terms “nature spirits” and “Ancients”, but they’re basically gods.
Ex: Mother Nature (Space), Father Time (Time), Tarrow (Reality), The Hocus Poconos (Unreality), The Grim Reaper (Death), The Cycling Hen (Life), Prince Morn (Light), Princess Eve (Dark)…
Those are all the Wise Ancients I’ve thought up at this time. More might come later. They’re the overarching set, and the other spirits are their children.
The way I see it, space and time existed and mixed together. From this union, Reality was created. Reality gathered the sentience to take on solid, sentient form, and taught Space and Time how to take shape like him (Mother Nature and Father Time; Tarrow’s name obviously comes from tarot since he’s also viewed as the influencer of luck). Others followed suit.
Spirit Bears - Also considered Ancients, although they are always spirits of the land. They’re a subset of the Ancients who can only kiff-tie (I’m using that term to suggest reproduction in this sense) with other spirit bears. They’re basically personifications of different lands rather than aspects of nature. In Origin, we see H.P. doing paperwork and political things to get Pixie World recognized as an official World. In Knots, we see Anti-Cosmo dealing with the birth of the new spirit bear cub who represents Pixie World. Same timeline of events, but they play on different fields.
Ex: Fairy World (Tír Ildáthach), Anti-Fairy World (Hy-Brasil), Pixie World (Sprigganhame), Anti-Pixie World (Solis Infinitum), and what I suppose we would call Fairy Refract World (Avalon).
Things like Patio World and Mattress World are small towns that don’t have bears. I’m not sure about Hairy World and Scary World yet, but I’m leaning towards those just being nicknames for different planes of existence, so they don’t get bears either.
I drew a comic that I plan to color and upload about H.P.’s interpretation of the spirit bears vs. Anti-Cosmo’s. I also drew H.P. holding Sprigganhame in one of my Inktobers.
Demigods - The children of the Ancients. The term “demigod” is meant to be all-encompassing, so it always refers to the children of the Ancients, exception being people like Tarrow who are considered major deities and therefore Ancients. As far as you’re concerned, I have listed the Ancients above, and their children are the demigods.
Ex: Dayfry (Love; Friday), Saturn (Fire; Saturday), Sunnie (Water; Sunday), Munn (Sky; Monday), Twis (Soil; Tuesday), Winni (Breath; Wednesday), Thurmondo (Leaves; Thursday)
They’re major spirits. Imagine it like, Tarrow is Zeus, and the demigods seen here are the other major gods on Olympus.
There are other demigods (Ex: spirits that symbolize good harvests, good fortune, friendship, patience, travel, wood, stone, certain types of animals) who have similar powers to our gang, but while they might have small shrines, they don’t have official Temples. I mean, maybe some do, but that sounds complicated for my worldbuilding, so let’s not get into that.
Proper ways to address them would be as “the Seven” or “the zodiac spirits”. “Deity” is another acceptable term, as is “nature spirits”, though nature spirits refers to nature spirits as a whole, and zodiac spirits refers only to the Seven.
Minor Spirits - The children of the demigods. Some of them might have the same masteries as actual demigods, but if they aren’t born of the Ancients, they aren’t called demigods. Powers get watered down through the generations.
Ex: Multiple spirits of mist, clouds, lightning, mud, oxygen, etc.
Anything you get when two aspects of nature combine. Periodic table level and stuff. Also known as lesser spirits. There are hundreds if not thousands of them, but they’re not as important . Like I said, they tend to be combinations.
I feel like it’s also worth pointing out that Fergus Mór mac Eirc’s Wikipedia page lists his mother as “the mist”. Literally the mist. Thus, I decided that H.P.’s namesake here (H.P.’s name is Fergus in my headcanon) is the grandson of Sunnie. This gets increasingly interesting when you do further research and find out that Fergus the Great died in a “freak storm”. Apparently, Sunnie had a temper tantrum and he got caught in it. H.P. is terrified of Sunnie as a result. Considering that I dropped Anti-Cosmo in the Water Year at random when I originally decided he was born in the Year of the Black Lake, this is very interesting to me.
Additionally, when minor spirits have kids, you go even smaller. This is where you get guardians of individual rivers, mountains, or particular forest groves.
Nature spirits are “everywhere and everything”, but they all have a single manifested form that embodies their sentience, heart, and that they use to communicate. If they want to talk to you with words, they have to haul their manifested form all the way to where you are, which is often inconvenient if they’re light-years away. Even they can only travel so fast. Otherwise, the most they can do is mess around with their aspect of nature (their “mastery”). For example, by making streams bubble or leaves fall or wind blow.
So, all those signs you think you see in nature in answer to your pleas? Pure laziness. They usually only get up when they have really important messages to deliver, or they’re on the run. If you pray to them, they might be interested enough to respond, but they’re not going to get up to do it and tell you directly. They just shake branches and stuff to signal that they’re paying attention. Super simple stuff that is easily waved off as coincidence by those who don’t believe.
It’s a whole network of spirits, but don’t try to keep them all straight. Focus on the main seven.
Who are the zodiac spirits?
Seven nature spirits who are the grandsons of Mother Nature and Father Time. They each represent a different element on the Fairy zodiac, and are named after the days of the week, which was my way of excusing why the days of the week were called such in the cloudlands long ago. I cared.
Each of the zodiac spirits is a son of a deity called Tarrow the Luck-Twister (also called “the cosmic jellyfish”). He’s basically the deity of fate, and since Anti-Fairies are obsessed with luck, you can see why they like him.
However, each of the zodiac spirits has a different other parent (whom they tend to draw their element from), so they’re all technically half-brothers. Since nature spirits can produce children with either sex, some have a mother and some have two dads. Sunnie is an exception who was created asexually; he’s the water spirit and was formed from Tarrow’s tears after he got dumped by the Hocus Poconos.
I mean, the zodiac spirits are basically major region Legendary Pokémon, and then the minor spirits are each region’s lesser Legendaries. The Ancients would be Mew, Arceus, Rayquaza, etc. They’re above the main region Legendaries.
How does sex/gender work with the nature spirits?
Any nature spirit can deliver an “energy manifestation” (“child”) after they pair. The less dominant spirit will be the one to do so (*Dramatic music* The Fairy zodiac is organized according to age/dominance of the zodiac spirits). The “parent” who is “pregnant” with the spirit can decide the spirit’s sex, because some animals like insect queens can do that but I didn’t get to use that on the actual Fairies, so I gave it to the nature spirits instead because I don’t know.
My favorite dumb joke is that Tarrow is the ultimate dominant spirit against every spirit except for one, The Hocus Poconos, and this is actually the reason why he’s head over heels for her, because she’s the one that’s different. He only had one kid with her - Dayfry - who is his obvious favorite. The other kids were borne by their other parents. Nature spirit pregnancy only lasts for like thirty seconds after the spirits separate, I feel like I should point out.
Nature spirits have “true forms” and “projected forms”, as I will explain later in this post. While their true form would be their biological sex, the gender of their projected form may be different. Everyone interprets the spirits differently, remember? So if you interpret a biologically male water spirit as female, then the projected form you see would be a female water spirit. The nature spirit still interprets himself as male, and while he is aware of your interpretation, it doesn’t change the way he himself sees himself, which is his true form.
What are the Zodiac Temples?
Buildings in the cloudlands that are open places of worship for anyone who wishes to come, regardless of race. Anti-Fairies are by far the most frequent visitors. Aliens aren’t common since this is the Fairy zodiac here.
Each Temple has a public area that’s all decorated. That’s where most people visit. You can also visit one of a few more private side rooms so that you can meditate in peace and place your offerings in the provided dish.
The most important room in the Temple is the echo chamber, and only camarilla members and anyone of their zodiac who have been given explicit permission can visit there to meditate.
The Temples were created during the Sealing War, when the zodiac spirits were considered too powerful and imprisoned. Their manifested forms are inside the echo chambers of their Temples, bound with magical golden chains. As such, while they can still communicate by creating aspects of nature, they can’t go anywhere except inside their Temples.
Sometimes when you’re in their Temples, they’ll appear to speak with you, but only when they want to and their advice should always be taken with a grain of salt- they generally have their own agendas in mind, and even when trying to help, they struggle to comprehend mortal affairs.
As a general rule:
Dayfry (Love) - Knows his name carries a lot of weight and doesn’t like to throw that weight around. So, he rarely reveals himself. However, if you appear to be desperate and crying, you can probably bring him out; he hates seeing anyone miserable.
Saturn (Fire) - You can win him over with impressive offerings and displays. He’s a sucker for flattery, but probably won’t show up if there’s nothing in it for him.
Sunnie (Water) - Sometimes appears if you seek his advice and he finds you interesting, which usually means intellectual. If he doesn’t think you’re worth his time, then you aren’t and there’s nothing you can do about it.
Munn (Sky) - Will reveal himself to almost any Sky year who asks, as long as he’s impressed. He rarely gives out advice, good or otherwise. Mostly he just listens to people while he eats the offerings they brought, and cracks jokes.
Twis (Soil) - Reveals himself next to never, even to his own camarilla representatives. Mostly, he only approaches a Soil High Count or Countess. No one beneath them has enough power to interest him. He’s a stubborn butt.
Winni (Breath) - Doesn’t always appear, but when he does, he’s nosy and likes to tell you what to do. Likely to get offended when you reject his advice, even when it’s terrible.
Thurmondo (Leaves) - Might appear if you push him hard enough, though he’s pretty nervous and spacy and doesn’t like offering suggestions. Not too helpful.
A nature spirit who gets “killed” while out and about will wake up again in their echo chamber. Like the shaman’s reincarnation site in Populous: The Beginning, though I don’t think many of you know that computer game. I was raised on it. No Temple means no reincarnation, so any Temple lost will send the camarilla into an immediate frenzy to rebuild it.
On the subject of Populous, your mana charges faster when you have a higher population. I borrowed that idea for the zodiac spirits too. More people born in their year on the zodiac boosts their power. People of their zodiac actively practicing in their name (namely, visiting a Temple) boosts their power further- no matter what race those visitors are, or which Temple they’re in.
So yeah, if you’ve ever wondered why they refuse to strike their own people, it’s because it hurts them. They have more fun knocking each other’s forces down and cutting each other’s powers supply than they do actually paying attention to the political and moral skirmishes going on. You probably shouldn’t ask them to help you out in times of war. They’d just as easily wipe out your allies who were born under different zodiacs. They play for their own team.
What do the zodiac spirits do?
Act as impartial votes on matters that concern multiple races, mostly (like the Bake-Off and the Olympics). We saw Mother Nature in “Balance of Flour”, but her children and grandchildren sometimes take the role of judge instead. They’re all in agreement that Nana’s brownies are delicious, much to Anti-Fairy irritation.
Mostly they chill at their Temples, snack on their offerings, and badger people to make monuments of them. It’s more complicated than this, but this is all you need to know for now. Just realize that the nature spirits have their own agendas and don’t like sacrificing their wants for mortals, and you’re good.
Yes, they are very powerful and they could snap their fingers and grant you a miracle as long as it falls within their zodiac influence, but that would be bad storytelling. Their powers are what got them into their high positions. They’re considered deities for a reason. But nowadays, their powers are limited due to being bound to their Temples. Mostly they just talk to you and give advice instead of solving all your problems.
What do the zodiac spirits NOT do?
Don’t worry - No major quests in the name of the spirits, no cryptic prophecies, and no manipulating anybody’s life without their knowledge. No major cosmic games that we’ll see Anti-Cosmo get dragged into.
The spirits definitely have their own agendas and sometimes use mortals as means to achieve an end, but the “cosmic game” they’re playing right now is ~mostly~ a competition about who can get the most worshipers and monuments. Like I said, it’s more complicated than this and there are rules that I as the author need to know to keep them in check. We can go into that one day if you want, but let’s get deeper into Knots first. These are the basics. All you really need to know is that Sunnie is a sore loser and he rage-quit a long time ago, so he doesn’t join the current play until he gets his hands on Anti-Cosmo.
But the “cosmic game” isn’t some major world-shattering thing. It just gives the spirits something to do to play with each other. Everyone’s gotta have something to work towards, especially when imprisoned.
The spirits are minor gods who are easily bored and need the camarilla to play card games with them and read bedtime stories more than anything else. Anything that keeps them entertained. A bored or angry spirit is the kind of spirit who will mess around with nature to the point that it’s annoying (Ex: Sunnie might dry up a river, whereas Saturn may make a volcano erupt).
What are true forms, projected forms, and manifested forms?
Manifested form - The single being that basically holds the brain and heart of the element or aspect of nature in question. Ex: Death is a huge thing. The Grim Reaper is Death’s manifested form. This is his soul, his brain, his mouthpiece, etc.
True form - The form a nature spirit was born into. The spirit sees himself in this form. For example, Sunnie’s true form is as a creature made of black crystal, with lynx-like ears. He has turquoise eyes and wears a turquoise cloak. He has really long white hair. That’s how he sees himself. That’s the way Anti-Cosmo sees him when they kiff-tie. It’s taboo to discuss or make monuments in the shape of a nature spirit’s true form. Immortals, however, can’t see projected forms, and only see true forms.
Projected form - The way a mortal interprets a nature spirit. This would be Sunnie’s water genie form. The Darkness projects the black and red vortex we saw in “Wishology”. Tarrow projects his jellyfish. Their true forms show very obvious weak points on their bodies, typically their chests. I mean really, really obvious. Flashing and glowing kind of obvious. Projected forms don’t show those weak points. Anti-Cosmo interprets Sunnie as a water genie, but Sunnie can’t see what Anti-Cosmo interprets him as; that’s his projected form. Sunnie only sees himself in his true form.
What does it mean to host / take a nature spirit’s favor?
A favor (spelled “favour” in Knots) is a piece of jewelry in a zodiac color. It can be any small token or piece of clothing. The spirits generally have a form they prefer (listed by spirit below), though shapes and sizes may differ, especially based on the personal preference of the one carrying it. The spirits are not technically the favors, though sometimes it’s believed that they are.
It’s very important to note that the spirits ONLY take members of the Unseelie Court as their hosts. Namely Anti-Fairies. This is because Anti-Fairies turn to smoke if they’re “killed”, and automatically regenerate within a few seconds or minutes. This means that if another member of the Unseelie Court, like another Anti-Fairy, turns to smoke near them, their particles might get mixed together when they reform. The same is true for the nature spirits, who turn to steam. Their particles combine as they regenerate. That’s kiff-tying.
So this is all… sort of a cross between “Miraculous Ladybug” and “Steven Universe”, apparently. But also Populous: The Beginning. Listen, I already had to drop my original plan of Anti-Cosmo’s accidental influence over bad luck when I discovered “Milo Murphy’s Law”. I refuse to drop the nature spirit stuff too.
As of now, 4 of 7 favors are held by the camarilla. Twis is extremely picky about who he gives his to, and Dayfry’s favor was lost a long time ago and hasn’t yet been found. Which spirits have active hosts depends on the camarilla at the time. When a new High Count / High Countess takes power, their old camarilla shifts out and a new one is called.
If you’re carrying a zodiac spirit’s favor but you’re not on the camarilla, you have to return to the Temple and return the favor to the spirit. That spirit then chooses if he wants to take a new host or take a break for awhile instead. Sometimes the break-ups can be difficult and a spirit will refuse to accept the new camarilla member, and instead throw a fit until the High Count or Countess reluctantly reinstates the old. Sometimes the extinction burst can’t be endured /shot
If a spirit has a host, they can split their awareness between their manifested form, their Temple, and as many hosts as they have, viewing all locations simultaneously. A spirit with no host is limited to viewing only their immediate surroundings and their Temple.
Rogue spirits can take hosts too, but rogue spirits usually avoid the cloudlands because that’s the territory of the main spirits and they don’t want to infringe. They hang out on Earth or other planets in the universe where their parents or older cousins won’t boss them around. Rogue nature spirits can only manifest their favors as simple beads on a simple string. You may have noticed none of the zodiac spirits has a necklace design. Those are considered “simple” and are for rogues. The zodiac spirits are too haughty for that nonsense.
There could be a few Anti-Fairies who’ve met rogue spirits and have agreed to carry their favors, but that’s something they’d likely want to keep to themselves. I don’t imagine rogue spirits are looked on very favorably. But it probably depends. A small town might worship a particular rogue who sticks around their area and always selects hosts in that town. Who knows.
The seven zodiac spirits mutually agreed to only have one host at a time for quote-unquote “cosmic game” purposes to cut down on power-playing. Thus, as a rule, they default to one of the two camarilla members for their zodiac. Because it’s Anti-Fairy culture to hold the camarilla position and retire with dignity if replaced, that creates a regular turnover rate and prevents the spirits from being stuck with someone who refuses to give their favor back and dies alone with it somewhere.
I mean, there’s no rule saying they HAVE to pick from the camarilla. But that generally gives them the most influence over politics, and it would certainly cause a stir among the Anti-Fairies if a random commoner was running around representing them and attracting attention.
What does it mean to be bound to a Temple?
First, I want to point out that the chains binding the zodiac spirits are gold. On the mural in the Blue Castle, the chains are painted on with inrita, the chemical that drains Fairykind magic. Touching the chains in the mural makes an Anti-Fairy’s skin tingle, and their fingertips will go numb for about two minutes. Inrita has no effect on the nature spirits, but inrita is painted on the mural to remind the Anti-Fairies that gold has a similar, painful effect on the nature spirits that inrita has on them. That probably won’t ever come up in Knots. We’ll see.
Being bound to the Temple means the zodiac spirits have a manifestation of themselves chained within their Temple. However, this is a bit difficult to explain, so I’ll do my best. Technically, the zodiac spirits still exist on Plane 23. Plane 23 isn’t physically “higher up” than the other planes. It overlaps every plane. Passing into Plane 23 puts you on the spirit level, and the spirits can wander around and see people, even if they can’t directly interact by touching them or anything. They’re like ghosts.
The zodiac spirits are bound to the Plane 23 version of their Temple. Therefore, you won’t see them every time you visit the echo chamber, although they can see you. They can choose if they want to create a manifestation of themselves within their echo chamber, which is pretty draining, but they can do that and will if they want to talk to you. It’ll knock them out for a week afterwards, though, so they can’t do it with everyone.
Okay, so then we get this:
Sunnie’s manifestation there is what Sunnie can use to communicate with Anti-Cosmo directly, using his mouth and words. That’s the aspect of Sunnie that Anti-Cosmo kiff-ties with. What this means is, this Sunnie turns to steam and Anti-Cosmo turns to smoke through a special ceremony where Anti-Cosmo agrees to carry and care for Sunnie’s favor, and then, well… knives are involved.
You’ll just have to watch things unfold in Knots to see how that goes down: All you really need to know is, Anti-Cosmo is basically Sunnie’s yoo-doo doll when they’re kiff-tied. Sunnie can feel everything Anti-Cosmo feels, as well as see the world through his eyes and hear through his ears. Sunnie used to be able to see the universe without a host, but he can’t do that while he’s bound. When Sunnie broke his tie with Anti-Cosmo in “This Is Halloween”, we saw Sunnie’s manifestation again. That’s the little Sunnie. The Prince of Water is still at the Water Temple, and has the ability to vaporize his manifestation at any time. However, if he did that, he wouldn’t have any other manifestation, and would completely cut off his awareness of what was going on in the Castle.
The Prince of Water can continue creating manifestations to talk to other people in the echo chamber even while kiff-tied with a host. As I believe I mentioned, the zodiac spirits can create lots of manifestations of themselves. However, it’ll knock them out for a week, and the manifestation will disappear if it isn’t tied to a mortal host. And, for “cosmic game” reasons, the zodiac spirits all agreed that they’re each allowed only one host.
Technically, because Sunnie quit, he’s not bound to that rule. He can have as many hosts as he wants as long as he’s not playing, but he would have to rescind all but one to enter the current play. However, that would be out of character for him and then he wouldn’t be Sunnie. When Anti-Cosmo meets Sunnie, Sunnie explains that he hasn’t had a host for… I think it was nine hundred thousand years. He’s a sulker.
Okay, are you following? This is where it gets trickier. The Princely forms of the nature spirits can still interact with one another despite being bound. Imagine that Plane 23 is an empty white void, except the zodiac spirits can see all the Temples. If they weren’t bound, they could see everything. So, the Prince of Water can basically go as far away from his Temple as he wants, floating in an empty white void, until he meets another spirit. Probably the Prince of Soil.
They can hang out, talk, picnic on food from their offering dishes, kiff-tie, whatever they want. They’re just in a white void that occasionally has floating Temples. The golden chains stretch forever. Like I said, if they weren’t bound, they could see all of Plane 23. But while they’re chained, it’s a void for them.
That’s what it means to be bound. The kids are grounded from playing outside unless they’re supervised by a host, but they can still play with each other inside and hang out in their rooms. So obviously, Winni and Thurmondo are together like, all the time.
Don’t really know how much we’ll get into this in Knots. We’ll see hints of Anti-Cosmo floating in the white void when he kiff-ties with Sunnie the first time.
OKAY! That was the encompassing overview that I was going to share in the worldbuilding post next week, but it’s fine, you can have it now.
Now, let’s look at each zodiac spirit in more detail. Their powers were mentioned in a previous post. Now we’ll look at them more as people and demigods.
TARROW: The Cosmic Jellyfish
Deity of creation, fate, and destiny. Not technically represented on the camarilla. His color is red, and the First General wears a magical red cloak with a jellyfish clasp. The First General does not host Tarrow or carry his favor, but only strives to act impartially and make the final call if the camarilla get locked in a debate. He is meant to act impartially.
The cloak is mostly only worn when appearing before the public, especially during ceremonial events. Anti-Buster, the First General before Anti-Cosmo whom we see in Knots, adores it and wears it almost everywhere, except when he’s sleeping. He thinks it makes him look dramatic and you will see him constantly swishing and flicking it during this story.
DAYFRY: The Hummingbird, Leader, and Peacemaker
Love Years: 1989, 1996, 2003, 2010, 2017; Fairy New Year starts March 15th)
Mastery: Love, balance, loyalty, duty, politeness, gentleness, sacrifice, honor
Parentage: Reality (Tarrow) x Unreality (The Hocus Poconos)
Preferred Favor: Amethyst ring, usually worn on left middle finger
Modern Medium: None (Would probably be Anti-Kanin (Caden))
Overview: Dayfry is the King Solomon archetype- the wise leader of the zodiac spirits… or at least that’s what he tries to be. In reality, he’s a social creature who loves getting his family together to play games and enjoy the holidays. He tries to balance them all out by rushing around and soothing everyone, and keeping them from strangling one another.
All the zodiac spirits gave their names to the day of the week they were imprisoned in their Temple. Coincidentally, they were all imprisoned on different days, in the order of their birth. Wow! Amazing mythology coincidence! Dayfry, of course, gave his name to Friday. Friday is the first day of the week in the Fairy calendar. The work day starts Friday afternoon, and it goes until Wednesday afternoon. People get Thursday off, since the Big Wand gets recharged on Friday morning as we learned in “The Big Fairy Share Scare”, so obviously it must be running at its dregs on Thursday, and people don’t want to use magic or go out and about too much. Friday is a late start day every week. Nice. Additionally, Friday the 13th obviously occurs on Friday. Thus, Dayfry is a very respected deity in Anti-Fairy culture.
Because of this, Dayfry doesn’t get out much. He may be social with his brothers, but he’s shy around mortals because he’s a huge celebrity. Also, he doesn’t like kiff-tying much. I’m sure he’s done it with a host before, but it’s just not interesting to him. We’ll only see him once in Knots, briefly, when he arrives to visit at the new Water Temple with all his brothers before it gets consecrated with Anti-Cosmo’s blood.
As previously mentioned, Dayfry is the only child Tarrow had with the Hocus Poconos, and is his dad’s obvious favorite. He’s present in spirit at a lot of ceremonial events, but he likes to stay out of the limelight. Like I said, shy celebrity archetype.
Note that Munn is the spirit of kindness and caring for others, whereas Dayfry is more the spirit of acting professional even when you have to work with someone you don’t like. Dayfry is the spirit of swallowing your pride “for the greater good”, of loving the people and prizing the community as a whole above yourself. Additionally, Dayfry is more the spirit of thoughtfulness and wisdom whereas Sunnie is education, logic, and hard facts.
Everyone is always shocked to hear that Dayfry is single and possibly aromantic asexual. But, well. Spirit of youth and virginity, I guess. I figured that a spirit of Love should either be completely asexual or completely pansexual, and since we’ve already got Tarrow running around… yeah, I went with asexual. Also, he’s purple. That’s obvious. He’s the spirit of balance, after all, so it just makes sense that if all his brothers are paired up, he just hangs out by himself as the odd one out. Not that he really minds. You could say that he gave his gift of love to mortals.
Temple: High South (Navy) Region - Plane 4 - Crowfeld, Anti-Fairy World
The Love Temple isn’t far inside the border of Anti-Fairy World, as it’s one of the places that non-Zodii Fairies frequently visit too. It’s actually the church-like building where Cosmo and Wanda were married as we saw in “School’s Out: The Musical”. I mean, come on, guys. It’s purple and people get married there. That was obvious.
Dayfry’s Temple is mostly your stereotypical place of worship. It’s a reverent, quiet area that allows peace and self-reflection and whatnot. It’s shaped like a circle and his echo chamber is in the very middle of it.
Bonds:
Dayfry is on decent terms with all his brothers. They mutually respect him. As the spirit of Balance, he has healthy purple bonds with all of them. However, he has no interest in kiff-tying. He just kind of does his own thing.
SATURN: The Lizard, Warrior, and Team Dad
Fire Years: 1990, 1997, 2004, 2011, 2018
Mastery: Fire, energy, comfort, emotional strength, passion, family, justice
Parentage: Reality (Tarrow) x Light (Prince Morn)
Preferred Favor: Ruby bracelet
Modern Medium: Anti-Julian (Electro) (Note- I pronounce his name with the ‘H’ sound. I… I don’t know. He’s just always been that way for me.)
Overview: Saturn is the energetic, passionate warrior always willing to take up arms and fight to defend his loved ones. If you mess with his family, you mess with him. He’s even willing to deliver the first blow if he suspects you might mess with his family, though he’s not quite as paranoid about everything as Sunnie is.
Saturn is short-tempered, but as the embodiment of Energy, he’s also super productive. This guy gets things done, and fast. Quality may be questionable sometimes. You can perhaps see why he doesn’t get along well with Twis, who prefers to take things slow and do them right. In mythology, Saturn is the guy who cuts corners, and always has to be humbled by going back and doing them over again more carefully. Though when he doesn’t want to, sometimes he gets frustrated enough to set things on fire. Obviously, when volcanoes erupt, Anti-Fairies panic that someone has horribly offended Saturn.
Saturn is also said to have created the first genies, on level with the creation of Adam and Eve. These genies are called Asja and Galeras, and were mentioned in THIS post awhile back. As a genie breeder, Anti-Cosmo obviously has an interest in Saturn, and visits his Temple when facing major decisions regarding his genies.
So, Saturn is the warrior who cares deeply for his family. That’s probably his main personality trait: His passion. He stands up for what he loves and acts as a brave captain leading the armies of the nature spirits in battle in mythology. He’s easily irritated and revenge-seeking, definitely not someone you want to upset. He tends to devise sick and twisted tortures for those who offend him. He’s not exactly sly and subtle- he’s just the unstoppable, terrifying force, and if you engage him in battle, you will almost certainly lose.
However, he’s not so hot-headed that he’ll forgo logic to fight you. His military training always takes priority. Saturn isn’t the rash enemy who charges you when he’s taunted. He’s the brilliant battle captain who will organize his troops, calculate your weak points, and destroy you. He relies heavily on his faithful strategist, Sunnie, to help him organize his forces, although Sunnie usually tries to calculate plans that result in the least amount of people getting hurt, whereas Saturn is the guy who does care about casualties, but considers them a necessary evil to be sacrificed to win the war if need be.
Previously, I pointed out that the Fairykind don’t have important beliefs about solar or lunar eclipses, because they can’t see those events from the cloudlands. Though, they do have the Fairy-Clipse. Anyway, it seems appropriate to state this again seeing as Saturn is the child of the sun / light / day god and Munn the child of the moon / dark / night goddess. There aren’t any myths about Saturn, Munn, or their parents in regards to solar or lunar eclipses.
Temple: Far West (Maroon) Region - Plane 6 - Shadeblink, Anti-Fairy World
The Fire Temple is shaped like a chocolate chip. It’s all black, smooth, and shiny, with colorful windows where different flames burn behind the glass. There’s a transparent column in the center of the Temple where waves of fire flicker from the bottom and head up towards the top, and burst out occasionally like a colorful volcano. The echo chamber is at the base of this column (not transparent).
This Temple will most likely appear in Knots, probably more than once, but I haven’t gotten to that point yet.
Bonds: (Ordered from “best(?)” relationship to worst. Note that the Anti-Fairies took note of the bonds that the nature spirits share, and believe that similar relationships extend to those born in their year. For example, Saturn and Munn have a close bond, a “yellow” bond, so therefore they believe that Fire and Sky years are naturally compatible.)
Yellow - See Munn’s yellow section
Blue -See Sunnie’s blue section
Pink -See Winni’s pink section
Purple - See Thurmondo’s purple section
Green -See Twis’ yellow section
SUNNIE: The Turtle, Scholar, and Strategist
Water Years: 1991, 1998, 2005, 2012, 2019
Mastery: Water (+ ice), focus, tact, introspection, education, logic, tranquility
Parentage: Born of the tears of a god
Preferred Favor: Turquoise brooch, clasp, or badge
Modern Medium: Anti-Cosmo (Julius)
Overview: Sunnie is basically a self-serving conspiracy nut who takes advantage of Anti-Cosmo for his own gain, but only when he wants to. He doesn’t like going out of way for things like that. That’s wasted energy, and isn’t practical. It took he and Anti-Cosmo a while to warm up to each other, but they’re usually a good team who work well in sync, especially when studying and making plans. It’s just… they have opposite attitudes about a lot of things. Sunnie will always prioritize survival, especially of himself, whereas Anti-Cosmo prioritizes things like protecting or helping others, even if it puts him at risk.
Sunnie doesn’t really get the concept of honor, and will frequently take the coward’s way out by running off when things get tough. He doesn’t like to get involved, and when he does, it’s out of necessity. He can be very blunt and calculating, not afraid of stepping on people’s feelings in order to relay accurate information. However, he has low self-esteem and gets panicky and flustered in the face of criticism. He’s easily offended when holes in his plans are pointed out. He’s a scholar and a strategist. Book-smart, but not people-smart.
As previously mentioned, Sunnie is a strategist who puts his all into thinking, and so he’s also a very sore loser. While he doesn’t yell, he pouts and sulks a lot, and will often vent to Twis as Twis plows his fields. Captive audience, right? Sunnie is a complainer, but as a strategist, he does like to try and fix things. But only after complaining and sulking and having his feelings soothed. He likes having his back stroked and patted while he sprawls across your lap.
Sunnie is the scholar who loves to learn. He’s the guy you’d make offerings to when you have major exams coming up. He also has some stereotypical cat-like behaviors, such as sitting on your keyboard when he wants attention and knocking things off desks and cabinets just because he can. You can scold him, but he’ll give you that, “Try me” look and try to stare you down.
In addition to the liquid form of water, Sunnie is also the demigod of snow and ice. Technically he can also be the demigod of boiling water and steam, and he is, so long as we’re talking about steam from water. Fairies turn to dust and Anti-Fairies turn to smoke, but the nature spirits turn to steam. Sunnie has nothing to do with that.
Despite his sacred animal being the turtle, Sunnie is a very agile creature, and this gift extends to those who carry his favor. He’s quick on his toes and capable of rebounding off walls and ceilings with ease in a fight. One of the highlights of Anti-Wanda’s life is the time she convinced Anti-Cosmo to dress up as one of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and take advantage of Sunnie’s agility field bonus. He denies this ever happened.
Temple: Central Star (Purple) Region - Plane 3 - Inkblot City, Pixie World
After H.P. knocked the old Water Temple down because of reasons, Sunnie’s bonds broke and he escaped. Anti-Cosmo chased him down and ordered H.P. to build Sunnie a new Temple. As such, the modern Water Temple was rebuilt in Pixie World, coincidentally also fulfilling the requirement of the law that in order to be legally called a city in the cloudlands, a place must have a Temple on the premises. Funny how things work out sometimes.
The modern Temple is square and very fancy. H.P. spared no expense, much to Anti-Cosmo’s horror at the over-the-top tackiness of the place. It makes its first (fully-built) appearance in “Sunnie Rise”.
The echo chamber is in the “undercloud” area, in the basement.
Bonds:
Yellow - See Twis’ yellow bond section
Blue - Saturn is Energy, Sunnie is Focus. Together, as Stone, they act as though hyped up on coffee and energy drinks.It’s worth pointing out that when I say, “as Stone”, we’re not talking about Gem-like fusion here. No. The Prince of Stone has two forms- either Saturn wearing Sunnie’s favor, or Sunnie wearing Saturn’s favor. It’s usually the first way around, Saturn being more dominant by nature. It’s the same title, even though the two are different.
The personality, mannerisms, agenda, and speech pattern of the more dominant spirit will remain intact, with just a bit of influence from the lesser spirit creeping in (for example, Sunnie’s agility bonus, or Saturn’s battle training); it’s not quite as harmonious a union as Gem fusion. It’s just one spirit borrowing the other one’s powers for a boost. The other spirit is essentially along for the ride, with no ability to control the body- they merely observe the outside world from a passive standpoint while the dominant spirit draws from their energy.
Basically, imagine Saturn wearing Sunnie’s brooch, his personality intact, but hyped up on energy drinks and with the grace of a dancer. The personality is the same, but the physical condition here (energy drink influence) and level of ability (agility) are different. The Prince of Stone will work ceaselessly on whatever task you set him too, usually without getting too distracted.
And of course, when they come apart (the more dominant spirit takes off the less dominant one’s favor), the less dominant spirit will be “pregnant” for about thirty seconds before giving birth to - you guessed it - a spirit of Stone with a personality and interests similar to whatever was just going on with its “parents”. The title of prince is reserved purely for when two demigods wear each other’s favors, though, and isn’t passed on to the energy manifestation. The “child” is simply called a minor spirit of Stone.
Pink - See Thurmondo’s pink section
Purple - See Munn’s purple section
Green - See Winni’s green section
MUNN: The Albatross, Prankster, and Traveler
Sky Years: 1992, 1999, 2006, 2013, 2020
Mastery: Sky, acceptance, compassion, hope, faith, cheer, speed, safe travel
Parentage: Reality (Tarrow) x Dark (Princess Eve)
Preferred Favor: Sapphire piercings (usually earrings), but for those uncomfortable with piercings, his favor can even manifest as headphones
Modern Medium: Anti-Wanda (Venus)
Overview: Munn has a cheery disposition, quick to joke and look at the bright side, though he does have his nervous moments. However, he would rarely be described as “sad”. He gets disappointed at times, but he usually shakes those feelings off without dwelling on them much. He’s just a naturally happy guy, even in very stressful situations.
Munn plays the antagonistic role in much of Anti-Fairy mythology, as he’s viewed as a prankster who often taunts other spirits and creatures and gets into trouble. As the spirit of compassion, he’s a bit backwards in Anti-Fairy society. Anti-Fairies are often kind towards each other because they’re a social species who gather in colonies, but Munn takes things too far by suggesting they make friends even with people who have wronged them, like the Fairies. Gross.
As I mentioned, his prankster nature tends to get him into trouble. He’s a spirit of scouting, stealth, and the arts of escape, and loves to learn people’s secrets. He’s not the blabbermouth that Winni is, though they have been known to team up on occasion to gather information (and do things like set up the Wind Wand on the blue moon in the Vegon system while embodying the Prince of Wind).
Munn may play the antagonistic role in much of Anti-Fairy myth, but he’s still a very nice guy. He just gets excited and puts silly plans into action that usually result in stealing someone’s sacred item and realizing as he runs off with it that yeah, he probably shouldn’t have done that. His brothers generally catch and scold him, and he gets punished for his offenses, but no one’s ever upset enough with him that they would go as far as destroying his Temple and then hunting him down and killing him. They’re still family, after all.
Still, Munn’s adventures aren’t limited to the zodiac spirits, and he appears in mythology as the guy who pulls crazy stunts such as taunting Death and opening the gates of the spirit world into the living realm. Munn is the guy who would stumble across an ancient scroll about how to resurrect the dead and then follow it because, “That would be hilarious if this actually worked”. But, being Munn, he’ll probably mix at least one of the ingredients up, and end up with more than he bargained for.
Sometimes he tries to solve problems on his own, though most of the time when he knows he’s in trouble, he’ll flee to Saturn for protection, to which Saturn’s deadpan response when his half-brother comes skidding in is, “What stupid thing did you do this time?” But, those two are very close. Most people don’t like to mess with Saturn, and will let Munn off with a warning. Most of Munn’s punishments involve Munn helping to clean up the mess he made and return anything he may have stolen, and grovel his apologies. Saturn lets them do that. He just doesn’t like people hurting his family and will step in if they’re punishments entail lots of violence, is all.
Munn is also the demigod of fast, safe, and enjoyable travel, and the guy you would want to make an offering to, perhaps along with a copy of your planned route, if you’re seeking his blessing before a journey. His field bonus is Speed. Anti-Wanda, you see, was a brilliant choice for the Anti-Fairy to sprint during the Fairy World Games. Munn’s speed bonus extends much more to flying than it does to the ground, but Anti-Wanda is still a fast little gal.
Temple: Far East (Pink) Region - Plane 7 - Comet Falls, Fairy World
The Sky Temple is hardly the place you think of first when you think “temple”. Munn cares less about being worshiped directly than he does making people happy and enjoying himself. His place tends to be a wild party all the time, and a lot of sketchy things go on here. Comet Falls is a party town as it is- it’s the place where they had the clock tower that we saw in “School’s Out: The Musical”, when all the godparents were thrilled about the change of the season for their godkids. Anti-Wanda has been able to navigate it without getting into too much trouble, though.
The echo chamber is in the upper, dome-shaped part of the building. The Sky Temple is not scheduled to make any appearances at this time, though I have a loose Prompt about Anti-Wanda planned that will probably end up there.
Bonds:
Yellow - Saturn is Energy, Munn is Acceptance. Together, as Lightning, they are the embodiment of fun and new discovery in a relationship, and their bond is viewed as one of pleasure, exploration, playfulness, excitement, and perhaps a bit of lust. Together they’re seen as spirits who represent the honeymoon phase of a relationship.
Blue -See Winni’s blue section
Pink -See Twis’ pink section
Purple - Sunnie is Focus. As Cloud, they embody everything between playful teasing and deadpan sarcasm. You basically get Sunnie with speed powers and punk piercings, never missing a beat as he roasts you. It’s worth noting that Anti-Wanda carries Munn’s favor and Anti-Cosmo carries Sunnie’s, so these two could take on their Prince of Cloud state every time their hosts decide to be intimate.
In case you haven’t figured it out by now, this is the joke from that one Inktober piece I drew about Foop saying he just got “the talk about where clouds come from” as he stares accusingly at his parents. It’s also a very funny joke about the giant cloud that accompanied Foop’s birth.
Green - See Thurmondo’s green section
TWIS: The Donkey, Farmer, and Merchant
Soil Years: 1993, 2000, 2007, 2014, 2021
Mastery: Soil, dedication, work, ambition, planning, harvest, physical strength
Parentage: Reality (Tarrow) x Some random gravity spirit Tarrow took an interest in, but whom Twis never really knew seeing as he was abandoned after
Preferred Favor: Thick brown belt with a citrine buckle
Modern Medium: None
Overview: Twis is the “solid as a rock” archetype in Anti-Fairy myth, stubborn and proud. He’ll usually be polite, if a bit gruff, unless you offend him, in which case he’ll probably leave and not come back. He holds long grudges, even if he doesn’t act on them quite as much as Saturn. For the most part, Sunnie is the only one who can sway his mind when he’s being an especially irritable grump.
He’s a dedicated worker who doesn’t cut corners and will get the job done and get it done well, but at his own pace. Don’t rush him. He hates to be rushed. He doesn’t like criticism, or people in general, and is reluctant to reveal himself to anyone of less authority than a High Count or High Countess born in the Soil year. With exception of relying on the sunlight and water to grow crops, he prefers to work alone and will be extremely frustrated if you try to help but you don’t measure up to his standards. He doesn’t see working with young kids as a way of teaching or bonding with them, and instead will send them off anywhere to get them out of his way. He takes pride in his work and doesn’t like it when his stuff is messed with.
Twis is the spirit of harvest too. He works in tandem with Sunnie to grow crops. He’s also a spirit of bartering, as Anti-Fairies believe that all land has life which is represented by a spirit bear. Twis, then, is the helpful spirit who carries messages to the spirit bears if someone is too embarrassed to pray to them directly. He’s the spirit who gives you strength to stand in front of a crowd, even if Winni is the spirit of communication and memory who helps you find your words and speak clearly.
Twis recognizes what people want and is always willing to put forth the effort to ensure all parties are happy. He’s the merchant spirit who is there when you strike up deals in the marketplace. He’s the careful planner who is there when you are struggling with funds and trying to stick to your budget. He’s a spirit of making deals and keeping loyal to your promises above all else. If you remember, H.P. was born in a Soil year. I think that’s fitting for the Head Pixie.
However, while Twis may be a spirit of work, budgets, and planning, he’s not so much a spirit of charity. He’s very much the ant in “The Ant and the Grasshopper”, a believer that you reap what you sow. He doesn’t enjoy straying from his plans or making sacrifices for someone he can’t prove has put forth their best effort. Of course, he doesn’t like watching these people work either, because he has things to do, nor does he like them working with him. It’s a complicated feeling. The guy just doesn’t like social interaction much, and only Sunnie seems really able to get through to him. Even that’s because Sunnie is helpful and practical, and emotionally distant.
You would think he would be a brony or something, having an affiliation with equines and all, but ain’t nobody got time for that when they live in a paradise with temperate climates year-round. There’s so much to plant and harvest! Also did I mention that he will completely work himself to exhaustion, because he will.
Temple: Lower East (Teal) Region - Plane 5 - Mudhale
The Soil Temple is built straight into a mountain, and it’s the entrance to many cave systems throughout Anti-Fairy World. It collapsed during the early years of the War of the Sunset Divide. H.P. was actually born in the year it collapsed, which is appropriately named the Year of the Fallen Mountain.
After the war, the Temple was restored to its former state. It’s in the same location and is more stable and less likely to collapse now. The echo chamber is deep in the back, among caverns of glowing mushrooms and interesting fauna. Twis doesn’t like visitors and wanted his chamber out of the way.
H.P. and Anti-Cosmo visit the Soil Temple in “Dust to Dirt”.
Bonds:
Yellow - Sunnie is Focus and Twis is Devotion. Together, as Mud, they are the embodiment of loyalty in a relationship, and their bond is viewed as one of tenderness, sweetness, warmth, and pure affection. Together they’re seen as spirits who represent companionate love (the post-honeymoon phase of a long-term relationship).
Blue - See Thurmondo’s blue section
Pink - Munn is Acceptance. As Sand, they embody peace and friendship.
Purple - See Winni’s purple section
Green - Saturn is Energy. As Ash, they embody instability and resistance. Saturn is a creature of passion, and Twis isn’t much for emotions. Saturn likes to rush, Twis likes to take things slow. Twis sees Saturn as sloppy, and Saturn sees Twis as slow. They wouldn’t kiff-tie willingly unless there was a huge emergency. They just don’t get along.
WINNI: The Leopard, Teacher, and Healer
Breath Years: 1994, 2001, 2008, 2015, 2022
Mastery: Breath, communication, health, teaching, sewing, rest, self-care
(Note: Anti-Fairies don’t believe in medicine, because it doesn’t work on them like it works on Fairies. They believe in either praying for miracles or in herbal remedies to soothe pain even if they don’t cure sickness. So instead of being the “spirit of medicine”, they consider Winni the spirit of “remedies”.)
Parentage: Reality (Tarrow) x Life (The Cycling Hen)
Preferred Favor: Beryl button or pin (Anti-Bryndin wears the button on his scarf, Foop / Hiccup would wear it on a vest or coat were they to take Winni’s favor)
Modern Medium: None (Anti-Bryndin hosts him in Knots)
Overview: Winni is the neat-freak homemaker of the family, who cleans his echo chamber obsessively. Between his nosiness, big mouth, his obsession with cleanliness, and living in a very frequented Temple, he’s the most likely to manifest himself, but you’ll probably get a tongue bath or preening in the process. For someone who so despises dirt, it’s a little surprising that he gets along much better with Twis than he does with Sunnie. Then again, it’s mostly Sunnie that finds Winni annoying rather than the other way around. Winni is still somewhat young for a spirit, and looks up to his elder half-brothers greatly.
Even so, Winni embodies the bossy mentor archetype. What he wants done, he wants done his way, and soon. He’s a bit of a jack-of-all trades, which means that many things come easily to him, which means he struggles to understand why other people can’t seem to measure up to his standards. Though he easily gets frustrated, he tries his best to shrug things off, put on a happy smile, and once again go over his instructions in careful detail. He doesn’t mind repeating himself, but he does get upset if you don’t want to listen to him.
As the spirit of medicine and herbal remedies, Winni obviously knows what he’s doing there. However, he has his set mindset about what helps what, and isn’t good at keeping up with the allergies of individuals, or even noticing if he’s just given them a deadly poison that wouldn’t kill a nature spirit. He means well.
Winni is basically the demigod of teamwork. Sunnie much prefers to work alone. Thus, the two of them are opposites, and because Anti-Cosmo plays on Sunnie’s team, Winni is a bit of an antagonist in Knots. Doesn’t help that he’s the spirit of Communication, and he’s a people-reader and a bit of a manipulator. He’s also horribly impatient, nosy as I mentioned, and a massive blabbermouth. In his free time, he enjoys all types of knitting, weaving, sewing, and embroidery. Most of the zodiac spirits prefer offerings of food, but Winni enjoys offerings of newspapers that keep him updated on the goings-on of the outside world, and he becomes super flattered if you make cross-stitches or sew plushies for him.
His inability to keep his mouth shut most of the time may have something to do with the fact that he screams every morning like a rooster, despite the fact that the rooster is Thurmondo’s sacred animal and Winni’s is the leopard. Maybe his mom and the little Leaves spirit rubbed off on him. The way I see it, Winni’s true form is actually heavily based off a rooster because of his mom, but because he spends so much time with Thurmondo, the rooster became associated with Thurmondo instead of him.
Temple: Lower West (Green) Region - Plane 3 - Godscress, Fairy World
The Breath Temple is also known by the name Temple of Healing. It’s a place of rest and strengthening, and rapidly speeds up the healing rate of all inside it- especially for magical creatures like the Fairykind. It contains a magical fountain, because in addition to being Populous trash, I am also confirmed Age of Mythology trash and I had to reference the Healing Spring.
Winni’s echo chamber is in the middle of the giant fountain. It’s like a volcano, but with healing water.
Bonds:
Yellow - See Thurmondo’s yellow section
Blue - Munn is Acceptance. As Wind, they embody politeness and structure.
Pink - Saturn is Energy. As Lava, they embody laughter and joy.
Purple - Twis is Devotion. As Roots, they embody oaths and fierce loyalty.
Green - Sunnie is Focus. As Blood, they embody sorrow and anxiety.
THURMONDO: The Rooster, Inventor, and Caretaker
Leaves Years: 1995, 2002, 2009, 2016, 2023
Parentage: Reality (Tarrow) x Death (The Grim Reaper)
Mastery: Leaves, curiosity, courage, initiative, understanding, mercy, humility
Preferred Favor: Jade circlet or tiara, usually of overlapping metal leaves
Modern Medium: Anti-Kyler (Rufus)
Overview: Thurmondo is absentminded, tending to get lost in his own thoughts as he thinks up new inventions, or wanders off after an interesting falling leaf. He’s the type who doesn’t mind being alone to work, though he does love people, and talking to them, as he finds them fascinating and loves to hear stories. He’s generally low-maintenance, though he’s nitpicky about special ceremonies and insulted when they aren’t done to his specifications.
Namely, Thurmondo knows his place as the youngest and submissive. He and those born in his zodiac are often followers rather than leaders. A stickler for tradition, Thurmondo becomes upset when, for example, someone born in his year attempts to lead someone of another zodiac through a ceremonial dance. Traditions like that. He’s paranoid about getting in the way and a bit superstitious that if doesn’t play his part, order and structure will collapse.
He has a shy nature, though if pushed far enough, he will make an effort to stand up for himself. Of course, the results of that effort depend on the reaction of whomever he’s standing up to. Thurmondo has a brave heart, but also a humble one, which can lead him to second-guess himself. This prevents him from rushing into battle like hot-headed Saturn, but the more Thurmondo starts to second-guess himself, the more nervous he becomes.
He used to be bolder in his younger years, but Winni’s really done a number on him; now, Thurmondo is viewed as more of an awkward and cowardly spirit than the clever inventor he once was. He still picks at his projects, but he doesn’t spend as much time on his research as he’d like to. His 24/7 relationship with Winni keeps his mind pretty busy. He’s easily distracted and can’t split his attention between separate tasks like Sunnie can.
Thurmondo may not be the one you would seek out for advice most of the time, but he would be the one you pray to when you don’t think you can go on any longer, especially when in unpleasant circumstances like abusive relationships (not even romantic ones necessarily). Thurmondo is the spirit of pulling through, the one who wants you to succeed and escape even if he can’t.
I wrote a potential Prompt about him and Winni, but because of the nature of abuse and coercion, I’m still deciding if I ever want to share it. If I do, it will be towards the end of the project, where only those with the determination to make it through the rest are likely to find it.
He’s basically given birth zillions of time and has oodles of children. The little guys never seem to last long, though. They often get… eaten.
Temple: High North (Blue) Region - Plane 4 - Near the FGP, Fairy World
The Leaves Temple is a quiet museum at its back, and the area at the front is full of puzzles, games, toys, and stuff to experiment and play with. Lots of fun for kids. the echo chamber is on the top floor.
Thurmondo’s Temple first appears in the distance during “Cotton Candy Oatmeal”, and is later visited in “Letters and Numbers”.
Bonds:
Yellow - Winni is Communication and Thurmondo is Curiosity. Thurmondo is also the spirit of change, especially the seasons. His spring form is one of innocence and discovery, of tentativeness and losing virginity. His summer form is one full of passion and delight. His autumn form is one of uncertainty, shame, passive-aggression, and reluctance. Finally, his winter form is one of fear and struggle, the relationship between him and Winni a drastic power imbalance of lust and abuse. Every winter, Thurmondo swears he’ll keep his memories and remember what Winni is like in winter and avoid falling back into his trap, but he loses his memories on March 14th every year, and with the new year, Winni patiently teaches him that he’s a nature spirit all over again.
Together, as Oxygen, they are the embodiment of uncertainty and hope in a relationship, and their bond is viewed as one of development, learning, realization, adaptation, and teamwork. It’s worth pointing out that from Winni’s perspective, the pair are literally creating oxygen when they’re together, so when Thurmondo resists him, Thurmondo is literally strangling people who need oxygen to breathe. Additionally, as a spirit with the ability to heal at an extremely rapid rate himself, Winni has some difficulty comprehending physical pain in others. Due to the oxygen thing, he’ll freak out when Thurmondo isn’t around, and is willing to use his powers of Communication for dirty manipulative tricks to make Thurmondo feel selfish and worthless when he wants to take a break.
Winni’s winter form has a better understanding that what he’s doing is wrong and might even feel guilty for it if you press him, though he’ll still shrug it off because he thinks he’s just doing his duty. In his autumn form, he is completely 100% convinced that he’s doing the right thing and that the people need them. In his spring form, like Thurmondo, he can also be viewed as a spirit of losing virginity, though he’s the “rite of passage” and “coming into adulthood” type of losing virginity as opposed to Thurmondo’s “wanting to give it to someone you love” or “the time just feels right”, because of course he is.
Together they’re seen as spirits who represent staying together out of necessity for the benefit of their children. Abusive relationships aren’t good from a human point of view, but for Anti-Fairies, who end up in relationships with those their counterparts do, it’s comforting to know that Thurmondo is sticking it out. When they remember the abuse Thurmondo takes from Winni every winter, suddenly the faults in their own partner don’t seem so bad.
Blue - Twis is Devotion. The weirdest thing is, Thurmondo’s field bonus is Copycat. Despite being the automatically submissive spirit, he actually can influence the mindset of those he kiff-ties with. As the Prince of Mulch, Twis’ Devotion combined with Thurmondo’s Curiosity would give you Twis’ body and personality, but instead of being devoted to farming, Twis would suddenly find himself super interested in Thurmondo’s inventions and research projects. Good luck dragging him away from those.
Pink - Sunnie is Focus. Again, Thurmondo has the power to influence the spirit in control, though whether he knows he’s doing it or not is up to debate. The Prince of Dew will lose Thurmondo’s spaciness, and is instead a brilliant mastermind who will rapidly learn anything and everything about whatever you give him to study.
Purple - Saturn is Energy. The Prince of Nitrogen is fast and furious, easily distracted, and prone to running off after anything that catches his attention and tackling it into submission. He’s super touchy-feely and will poke your face.
Green - Munn is Acceptance, but he’s also the spirit of compassion. Munn is a spirit of consent and joy, and when he and Thurmondo aren’t kiff-tied, he views his youngest half-brother in his hormonal summer form. However, when they are together, the Prince of Fungus gets slammed with all of Thurmondo’s burdens and self-doubts, and becomes overwhelmed with grief and shame. Munn doesn’t know how to deal with Thurmondo’s emotions, so the Prince of Fungus shuts down, withdrawing into himself and being mostly unresponsive, apart from the occasional snarky comment. He’s not too helpful and has a scathing outlook on the world at all times.
It’s super rare for Thurmondo to kiff-tie with other nature spirits, though, considering the hold Winni has on him. I can’t imagine any situation in my works when it would come up. Thurmondo’s fate is pretty set, and this post is simply here for you to think about the different possibilities that could result. But you shouldn’t really expect to see them in practice.
Here’s an overview zodiac kiff-tie chart. The background color of each box shows the color of the bond. The color of the text is the default dominant spirit.
There you go! That basically covers everything you could possibly need to know about the zodiac spirits! Whom you won’t be seeing until like Act 3, but okay, you do your thing and I’ll do mine.
#asks#Anon#ridwriting#FAIRIES!#Tiny Love prince#Fire lizard prince#Water genie prince#Sky monkey prince#Soil centaur prince#Breath moose prince#Chained Leaves prince#Frayed Knots#Bat cube and associates#The bat with the hat#The best bat queen#Nerdy blue bat son#Origin of the Pixies#Nature spirit ref#Long post
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Fantastic Tips And Techniques For Compelling And Successful Website Design
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Some Random 5-star Reads!
These are all books that i have rated 5 stars in recent years, and I adore all of them to bits (obviously, since I gave them a full 5-star rating!), but for some reason I don’t talk about them very much! Some of these I’ve never talked about! So I thought I’d share some of them, and give a bit of info on why I love them so much.
My Name Is Memory by Ann Brashares
Written by the author of the Sisterhood of the Traveling pants series, this book tells the story of Daniel & Sophia, who have fallen in love time after time over hundreds of years of time. Daniel remembers all of their past lives, but Sophia does not. He manages to find her every time they are reincarnated though.
Basically this book is a good version of “Fallen” by Lauren Kate (minus the fallen angels). It is romantic, magical, emotional, and beautiful. The words are written lyrically and the story is inter-woven at the highest quality - which is impressive considering it’s a time-travel-esque book. Because of the nature of the story - what with it spanning hundreds of years and involving reincarnation - this book could have been cheesy or convoluted or many other negative things. But it’s not. it’s just beautiful and I LOVE it!
The Host by Stephenie Meyer
DO NOT JUDGE THIS BOOK BY TWILIGHT. This is in my top 20 favorite books of all time. For sure. It also contains one of my all-time favorite ships. It blends science fiction, romance, and great character building (of every single character too btw, like goddamn) in a young adult book and is just so freaking impressive. Stephenie Meyer takes her time with this book, not just building the scenery so that it is painted perfectly in your head as you read it, but also in the intricacies of her characters’ relationships & personalities. I am so in love with every aspect of this book. I re-read it all the time, and still swoon over so many lines and scenes. And Wanderer & Ian O’Shea are baes. (PS I don’t hate the movie adaptation of this books...)
The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly by Stephanie Oakes
This was the best book I read in 2016 hands down. If you want proof, check out my video here. Or my full review on Goodreads here. But seriously. This book is EVERYTHING. It is supremely well done, it is absolutely unique, and surprising in so many ways. I remember when I first picked it out from the library, I knew nothing about it at all and had no expectations; I just recognized the cover from Instagram. But boy am I happy I ended up reading it!
This book is technically a retelling of a Brothers Grimm fairy tale, but it just is so much more than that! It takes the original story and makes it better and poignant and fantastic. The plot, storytelling techniques, emotions, and writing will all take you by surprise, i guarantee it!
Vengeance Road by Erin Bowman
This book was my second favorite read of 2016! Similarly to “Minnow,” I went into this book with no expectations and bought it solely because of the cover, which is just so striking!
“Vengeance Road” is a YA western (the only ya western that I’m aware of at that, so if you guys know of any others please let me know!) that wayyyyy delivers! It is action-packed and the backdrop of the story is in the desert heat during the 1800′s. AND the MC is a female... and a badass heroine female at that yaaaaaas. I highly recommend this book, it’s just so fun and full of adventure and unputdownable.
Confess by Colleen Hoover
The only Colleen Hoover book I am a fan of out of the ones I’ve read so far. “Confess doesn’t have any problematic tropes or characters. It has a couple of evil (SO evil) characters, but they aren’t written as heroes. So they aren’t romanticized as good people. *cough*november9*cough*
This book is so addicting and angsty, and one of the only books I’ve ever actually physically cried while reading it. I just swoon over the love story and had all of the feels over the dramatic plot and gahhhh. Also the web series adaption of this is 10/10 would recommend.
Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys
Why why why why aren’t more people reading this book? I mean, I know a significant number of people are, but not nearly enough! “Out of the Easy” made me want to read more historical fiction that takes place in New Orleans... but I can’t find any others for the life of me!
So first of all, this book has a 4.09 rating on goodreads with nearly 29,000 ratings... that’s awesome in and of itself. This story is crafted so well with impeccable writing. I really think that Ruta Sepetys is one of the best authors I’ve ever read, she’s just so damn good at it. And this one in particular has just no bad qualities at all. It tugs at your heart and has real depth. But yeah, Ruta has an incredible gift. She does a fantastic job of writing dialogue, descriptions, and interior monologue. They blend together perfectly to make a very readable, deep, and touching book.
Red Rising by Pierce Brown
MAJOR AUTHOR SWOON ALERT. B/C PIERCE IS FINE AS HELL. Additionally, he is an absolute nerd, has an incredible vocabulary, is so well-spoken, and is such a freaking bookworm himself.
ANYWAY. His passion for science fiction and literature itself is so evident in “Red Rising.” He writes very carefully and every line has a purpose. The imagination of this novel is simply astounding. And the fact that this is his first publish work... is just... I cannot.
I have seen blurbs about this book that compare it to Hunger Games... NO. This is nothing like Hunger Games. imho it’s better.
This Lullaby by Sarah Dessen
The YA queen! <3 I have read all of Sarah Dessen’s books except her newest release “Once and For All,” but “This Lullaby” is my favorite of hers. To the point where if I ever have a daughter, I want to name her Remy.
All of Sarah’s books are realistic and ground themselves in ordinary characters who are dealing with hardships that are yes difficult, but not crazy dramatic or out of the realm of possibility. They just feel like real life. With this book specifically, I personally felt like the focus was on the characters even more than her other works - which is saying something! but Remy and Dexter and all of their friends just jump out of the page for me. And I just really like how Remy in particular changes over the course of this novel; her story arc is a great one.
#my recommendations#book recommendations#book recs#books#reading#novels#bookworm#favorite books#book blog#booklr#book list#book lists#sarah dessen#pierce brown#ruta sepetys#colleen hoover#erin bowman#stephanie oakes#stephenie meyer#ann brashares#favs#sparky speaks#sparky reads#reading recommendations#reading recs
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The Days of Elijah (Part 1)
The days of Elijah are a season of time referred to that announce the coming of the Messiah. John the Baptist filled that role at the first coming of our Lord and we will revisit that same season before the Second Coming. So, are we there yet? It’s beginning to look like it. We seeing a confrontation with the Spirit of Jezebel like nothing the world has ever known. It is mindboggling the number of books regarding the Spirit of Jezebel. There are some very good teachings and also some misleading teachings out there. And that is what Jezebel really was all about -deception. So let’s examine first who she really was and breakdown her end result as we compare it to what’s going on with the Church at large today. Just like in the days of Elijah’s confrontation with House of Israel’s Ahab, who was controlled by his evil wife, Jezebel, the Church of this Age is currently battling and some are actually controlled by this principality. Her goal is to control the Church by influencing it through misleading doctrines and people following their own will rather than God’s will. I give more detail on these issues in my blog: church culture. The Jezebel spirit is not feminine in actuality, but feminine in nature. As long as she’s in control she’ll show forth her beauty and good manners. She absolutely hates confrontation. To Jezebel, confrontation is rude and exposure is a lack of good manners. She is subtle and controlling. She moves very slowly and softly with a beautiful face. She hated Elijah because she hated the truth. She was not transparent, but a deceiver. All of her false prophets loved her and were mesmerized her. Like the Pharisees of Jesus’ day she had impeccable manners but when confronted with their evil intentions, their evil became exposed. On the other hand, Elijah was labeled a troublemaker by King Ahab for his confrontational method. Elijah walked in the truth while Ahab was a dreamer. He hated the truth, he couldn’t even face it when it came to his own wife. Take notice that I mentioned her false prophets. Take notice they were prophets. What is clear from the Bible is that they definitely believed whole-heartedly what they believed. Even to the point of cutting themselves while crying out to their god. Obviously these false prophets were religious. These false prophets had prophetic words or they wouldn’t have had the title. These false prophets had piety and a strong definition of good and evil or they would have had no religion. You can’t have a prophet without a religion. Perhaps some of these false prophets were formerly true prophets? Did some of them turn away and became an enemy of Jehovah? It happens. Even in the Church and a confrontation is coming soon. Just like the first time Jesus showed up and dealt with the phony religious leaders so will Elijah deal with those false prophets and Jezebels running churches. Count on it. If God doesn’t judge them he’ll have to apologize to Jezebel and her false prophets that Elijah confronted. But judgment always comes to the House of God first. Just like it was when Elijah was on the earth so is it today. The church is filled with carnal pride and ambition to be famous and sitting the high seats not having ears to hear, nor eyes of their understanding being truly enlightened. The table these false prophets were seeking to sit at was the table of Jezebel. They served the god of this world. They were filled with jealousy and envy. The environment was rife with competition. Good was evil and evil was good. They exchanged good with evil. Remember, Elijah looked evil to them and was labeled a troublemaker. But the fire fell from the sky that day for Elijah because God only honors those who are truly honoring Him and being obedient to Him. When church leaders get back to preaching truth, fear of God and His definition of good and evil we’ll see a revival. God does not compromise truth – ever. He doesn’t water it down with euphemisms. Remember, the Word of God is a sharper than a two-edged sword. It pierces and divides truth from lies. It’s not a butter knife. One of the biggest mistakes leaders of the church has made is the mistake of not preaching solidly the Bible. By that I mean that the Bible backs up the Bible so we must take stories from the Bible to back up our preaching. That’s what those stories are there for. Instead, we have ministers relying on today’s personal stories and that gets stale. But the Word never gets stale. And it is the ears of the listeners that get stale because their hearts are hardened from the trials and tribulations of life. When trials and tribulations came, they rode through it without digging deep into the Word to spiritually sustain them. A lack of prayer life has its consequences. But Elijah restored the fear of God to House of Israel. No doubt about it. When that fire fell from the sky everyone hit the ground and the reality check arrived. The House of Israel was rife with suspicion and everyone had a word they relied on. Many were mistaken. So is it with the church today. I can’t tell you how many people in the church are completely misled by their own soulical suspicions and deem it the word of knowledge concerning someone. Friends, this is wrong! How do I know it? Because it directly contradicts the Word of God which says that the golden rule (do unto others and you would have them do unto you) is what all the law and the prophets hang on. So when it really is the Holy Spirit telling someone it will always be delivered in line with the Word. The gifts of the spirit (word of knowledge, word of wisdom) will always be expressed with the fruits of the spirit (love, joy, peace, meekness, patience, temperance, longsuffering). Slandering someone’s character (especially without even knowing them) is never the work of the Holy Spirit. The church is rife with these misguided people and they need to be called out. They are way overdue. In fact, the Word instructs us that if we see a brother in a fault to “consider ourselves in the spirit of meekness” first, before we approach to correct. Is that going on in the church? I don’t see it. Neither is promoting mature Christians. The Bible warns of promoting a novice. A lot of what I see are spiritual babies getting promoted. No wonder the church is in the state she is in. Jesus is looking for a beautiful bride but now she’s not beautiful. She’s ugly. She’s full of jealousy and envy, competition, self-promotion and self-glory. She’s totally gone Hollywood. That’s kissing up to Jezebel. We can’t blend with the world. If we’re blending with the culture of this world, Jesus will consider us lukewarm and spit us out. While it is God’s expectation for us to walk in love with sinners we must also hate the culture that promotes their sin because that’s what separates them now and eternally from God. It’s up to us to show those walking without a relationship with God who He really is versus the definition presented by false prophets. It’s our responsibility as Christians to carry the flames of love that only Jesus Christ can place in our hearts. The church needs a huge wake up call right now! People are deceived by the evil one and the church has fallen asleep here. We must wake up! We must wake up to warnings in the Word: At the end of time every member of the human race will walk past the evil one, Satan, and look to each other with shock and say something like “THAT’s who deceived the whole world?” They will be so shocked when they see the horrible sight of Satan. They will be forced with the truth that they were outsmarted by what looks to them like an idiot. All who knew you among the peoples are astonished at you; you have become a horror; and shall be no more forever. Ezekial 28:19 We’re not really fighting against ourselves! The Church really needs to wake up here and stop the infighting. There’s fighting over the most trivial issues in many churches and it’s proof they are led by the spiritually immature. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rules of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts or wickedness in the heavenly places. Ephesians 3:4 If you’re in ministry and reading my blogs, please stop and evaluate how you’re leading your flock. Remember, you’re NOT the shepherd, you’re the under-shepherd. If you think you won’t be accountable for the flock you're leading you’re deceiving yourself. If you want to know how the Lord thinks you’re doing, evaluate your flock. Is it healthy? Are they handling their lives well? Are you preaching the Word of God? Or are you preaching just to get by? Can you go deep in the Word with them? Are they a bunch of babies? Are you walking in love with them? That’s huge with the Lord. If you don’t walk in the love with them they won’t get a healthy definition of love. It’s that simple. Are you praying for your congregation? Are you seeing answers to those prayers? If not, go back to square one and reevaluate your ministry. Remember, you will answer to Jesus in the end. You have no one to please but Jesus. He is the one who gives the mandate for your ministry. If you’re really looking to Him, you’ll face difficulties but continue on without compromising His orders. Write them down and carry them out. He will sustain you. If you fall – repent and get back up! Keep in the Word and in prayer. Again, a lack of prayer has consequences. Never let the enemy win - no matter what! Finally, I need to send out a word to my readers. I see your visits on a daily basis. I hope you're reading because you're hungry for the rightly divided Word of God. In that I must add, I see how long you stay on a page so please don't bounce the pages. Read and get fed. If you would like to send me your comments, feel free to do so at [email protected]. Be blessed and remember - God loves you and His love rejoices in His truth. Join me next time in the discussion of The Days of Elijah, Part 2 - https://vyzyn.org/the-days-of-elijah-part-2/ when we discuss how Jezebel controls through emotions. Read the full article
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