#i tried to be as concise as possible D:

[cerastes]

As someone who hasn't touched it yet- how does IS4 stack up? How's first impressions been?

Ok, let me give my thoughts on IS4, now that it's been a week!

TL;DR -> This Rocks, I love it.

IS4 is far, far more polished than IS3. I feel a bit bad blasting and slamming IS3 so much, but the bottom line with it is that it's just very very flawed in ways that really make it hard to revisit it in the same way IS2 is always a fun romp.

If I had to point out flaws with IS4, it'd be that, on a personal level, I wish it had a few more Normal Arknights Maps. The vast majority of maps in IS4 are pranks and checks of some sort. This isn't necessarily a negative, but I do like playing some Tower Defense more frequently than what IS4 allows, since it's always got me worried about "oh god my team lacks X, Floor Y's Map Z checks X, if I get it, I'll D I E " so I try to go for my super tried and true team instead of daring to experiment all that much. This will eventually pass, but it's been a Thing for me.

Besides that, though? I just have a lot of good things to say about it. The systems feel like they were thought out this time: The Fordartals (sp?) system allows for a lot of player expression, agency, and just in general fun in a way the Light system of IS3 can simply never hope to compare to. About the only thing the Light system did right was the way it worked thematically: If you wish to confront The Corrupting Heart, you really, really gotta go in the dark, and for the best possible chance against, Izumik, Mizuki must find the Light again and be filled with hope. Yeah ok sure, thematically, these work, but the gameplay component sucks ass, because Light exists almost exclusively as a form of punishment and in basically no way as something you can use. It opens some roads, sure, but that Rogue Trader and Wish Fulfilled node are not worth having 9 out of you 11 Operators with Metastatic. Speaking of Metastatic, the single worst thing Arknights has done, even if you are maxed out on Collapse in IS4 and are packing four fully upgraded maluses, THAT STILL DOESN'T COMPARE to how bad Metastatic was. Let that sink in.

The endings are no longer RNG! Absolutely wonderful!

Eik is the first IS 2nd Boss I can say I think is good! Frozen Monstrosity was just annoying, Big Sad Lock is incredibly static, and The Last Knight, in my opinion, is the single worst and most boring boss in the entire game, not even just the game mode. Eik is like if The Last Knight didn't suck: Same principle, but done in a way that is actually not snooze-inducing. Mind you, the principle of the fight is still not something I enjoy, but unlike The Last Knight, that's wholly a me thing, as opposed to being an objectively awful and boring fight (like The Last Knight, the worst and most boring boss in Arknights).

Even though I said I'd like some more normal maps, the maps are good, to be honest! I can't think of any Fire and Water Unions or Out of Controls.

IS4 is the Smash of Arknights: (Almost) Everyone Is Here! Brush up on your gimmicks from various events, because they WILL appear.

The Midboss philosophy in IS4 is lovely, in my opinion: It's low HP bosses who can quickly fuck you up in their own way, be it stun, immense conditional damage, or simply supporting their team so well that you get overwhelmed. The Variant stages for the bosses are entire new maps, so that's also cool.

Collapsal enemies are congruent with the map design: Collapsals can be very quick, with a caveat: Normal Collapsal mobs speed up after they get hit, Casters speed up after not attacking for a bit, Aerials are fast but always have many loops and never directly go to the point until after a while. Shattered Champions are the exception, and they can either loop a while or just go straight for the jugular, making them apt Elite units for the faction.

There's much more I could say more concisely, but really, just try the game mode, get your ass kicked a bit, learn it, and then you'll see how coherent the design of IS4 is in terms of systems, maps, enemies, and features. Sorry, IS3, but you got your ass absolutely kicked like I did on my Waves 15 runs when you'd give my 2 main DPS units Metastatic on Floor 5.

[ableism]

Okay as promised to my instagram followers: My Review Of The Substance 2024 ❇️ Spoilers ahead! Tread carefully!

To qualify myself… I’m a body horror buff. If you ask me to list my favorite movies, 80% of them will be about people experiencing horrific transformations and acts of fantastical violence. Body horror is kind of my whole thing! I love French New Extremity, I’ve seen every Cronenberg, I can only get off if something nauseating happens to somebody’s body. I’m very drawn to body horror as a vessel for visualizing experiences of sexual violence and desire(re: Crash 1996, Titane, Hellraiser) or dysphoria/dysmorphia (also Titane, Being John Malkovich ((I will fight you to death, it IS body horror, die mad)), Tusk) but I think a lot of the genre leans into the ways our lives and bodies are altered by technology and the possible consequences of these extremes (The Fly, Crimes of the Future 2022, Tetsuo the Iron Man, and you guessed it, Titane AGAIN).

Immediately I’m thrilled by how The Substance hits every single one of these genre concepts. It makes the concept feel more suffocating and inescapable than other films that deal singularly with their messaging. Elisabeth is trapped by perceptions of her body on all sides; she takes the drug because she’s been deemed undesirable and devoid of value by the same people who made her famous in the first place. To escape this, she creates (through a disfiguring and grotesque process) a conventionally desirable vessel. The chase to obtain beauty is worth the most violent of undertakings. For her prime self, it generates more self loathing and degradation of her self image. For the secondary self, she continues to experience profound amounts of objectification, still valued only for her desirability, her youth, her performance of childlike naïveté. I saw an excellent review that stated The Substance holds the viewers accountable through the scenes of full nudity and salacious dancing to interpret the way we’ve been trained to default to a sexual view of bodies, physical movement, behavior. We’re made complicit in Elisa/Sue’s dehumanization.

The Substance depicts dysmorphia through body horror in the most articulate way I’ve ever seen. Logically, the viewer knows; This is not how aging works. This woman is not decrepit and wasting away, she’s just middle age. But in the digital age, youth is capital, and youth is sexually desirable and attractive. It may not be the reality of aging, but this is how we’ve been conditioned to feel about the natural course of our lives. The solution is not self acceptance. It is products, procedures, adapting diets rooted in a culture of systemically encouraging disordered eating. Elisabeth’s body becomes worthless, just a source to be used as a fountain of eternal youth. Her pain, deformity, depression, are all irrelevant if it means she can temporarily experience youth. When she tries to stop the procedure, deformed into a funhouse mirror of what an elderly person actually looks like, Sue beats her to death in a blind rage. Her appearance makes her worthless. Her perversely obtained youth is the “only good part” of her. The metaphor frankly could not be clearer and Im not… shocked per se to see people not getting it online, because I know media literacy just isn’t for everybody, but it’s straightforward and concise. That isn’t to say that The Substance isn’t full of other commentary and room for interpretation.

A lot of people in me and D’s screening were laughing during the Mostro section of the film. I spent a decent chunk of it crying! Again, media literacy isn’t for everybody, and I’m the ideal audience for this one with the existing body of knowledge to appreciate what was done here, but we still found it quite distasteful. It’s terrible and grotesque and is the most robust and “bashing you over the head” part of the metaphor. To make it abundantly clear what was being said: The best version of yourself that you could ever be is the person you are, and the person you have always been, exactly where you’re at.

At her most fantastically deformed (HUGE credit to the practical effect work in this movie, which we’ll talk about a little more in a second), she wishes she could just go back to who she was before any of this happened. None of it was worth the terror, and now she’s trapped in a monstrous body, with the same soul and character she had the entire time. It offers the sense that her body is simply something that is now happening to her, rather than just existing, or being contended over, as previously seen. It’s a level of constant infliction she could not have imagined. Loss of control is a large theme of The Substance, the point being clearly that you cannot stop the natural progression of your body’s changing, and intervention only worsens your ability to perceive your body as your own. She dresses up to perform anyways. She tries to curl her few strands of hair. She stabs earrings through her almost inconceivable skull. She just cannot stop trying to be beautiful. It’s all she’s ever been allowed to be. When she goes to perform, she is screamed at in horror by the audience, while calling out “It’s still me! It’s still me!” to no avail. Nobody ever cared who she was or how she felt, only what her body could do for them.

That’s my general plot analysis but for Other Bullshit… I cannot gush enough about the homages paid to Cronenberg in this film, and the follow through on visual language borrowed from Carrie and The Shining. It was viscerally satisfying and just a lot of fun for horror enthusiasts. The director spends so much time being totally original, while still occupying the sandbox Built by other pioneers of the genre, and I absolutely loved seeing a female director in body horror taking up the space to say “You did this, it was incredible, and here is the fresh and enthralling ideas I’m bringing to the table.” It was a body horror movie my beloved Cronenberg could not have made. That’s not to decry his skill and vision, but to praise The Substance for its bold direction and fierce representation of uniquely woman-centered body horror. To hype up my favorite little things, I adored all the flies buzzing around in the beginning of the movie before she undergoes any transformation, I love that the catalyst for her taking the drug is getting into a car crash, I love that all the sets full of evil male directors are stylized after Kubrick’s Shining (because FUCK that guy! I piss on his grave!), I love love love that the beheading at the end is the same as the head pop scene from the beginning of Scanners, and I just cannot get over the Mostro suit. It’s sublime, and the actresses deserve joint best actress Oscar’s for what they accomplished in them. Holy fucking shit! Oh my gd! Wow!!!! It’s the same feeling at the end of The Fly, but with such a fresh take, the same sharp attention and reverence for practical FX work, and drawn out for much longer, with much more modern capability to enjoy the suit for longer, from more angles, with more gritty detail. It’s not trying to emulate or elevate anything. It’s just a perfectly present and challenging addition to the genre at large.

I love that none of the men in this movie were fully formed human beings. They’re the most uncanny and robotic part of the whole film. They question and belittle the personhood of the women they encounter, so the director takes the time to strip them of theirs. It’s really not about the men here. Hell yeah! I’m also glad that there was no sexual assault scene in this film. I don’t mind this content at all and I’ve seen many done in an incredibly visceral way, I’m pro-depiction of everything and anything, but The Substance didn’t need one. The whole thing is an act of sexual violence. It’s stronger that way and was the perfect decision. And since you knew it was coming… The Substance is one of the best , if not the best, addiction allegory I’ve ever seen. The other you, the real you, is just a life source for the impostor, It takes and it takes until there’s nothing left. I felt it strong and will definitely be looking for more readings on the same page so I can expand more at some point, but I found it very clear through the visual language of IV drug use, tooth loss, aging, etc. that there was a strong point on addiction being posited in The Substance.

So that’s my enthusiasts review!!! If i was unclear: Go see this movie. If you’re a sensitive soul or new to/unsure about body horror and specific types of gore, Please check online for trigger warnings, because it is a very graphic and brutal piece of film. I’ve seen pretty much every indie horror released in 2024 and as much as I did enjoy Longlegs and Cuckoo, The Substance blows them both out of the water. We’re in the age of women in horror and I love it!! It’s fucking awesome!!!! Go watch The Substance and then eat a bug. Stay vigilant I love you 🦩

[sanest-bsd-delegate]

Hi! I just saw your recent dazai x reader post and saw that the request is open soooo I want to request something.

Uhh if by any chance you know Tokyo revengers could you do Reader as Emma Sano? Dazai as Draken and Ranpo as Mikey like the scenario takes place during the prison arc and the vampire thingy and during that time Reader died the same way Emma Sano died and she was killed by Fukuchi in order to weaken the ADA and Dazai was informed by Ango about her death , you know just some good ol angst ehehehehe. I hope this request somehow makes sense and Thank you in advance! 🥰(⁠｡⁠･⁠ω⁠･⁠｡⁠)⁠ﾉ⁠♡

Last Soul

Summary: They swear as they see, she will be the last soul they will sacrifice for the battle. Dazai x Fem!Reader ft Ranpo's SisterMasterlist Tysm for the request! I have watched tr a little and I mainly surfed the web, Hope this doesn't disappoint you, I tried to co-relate both the scenarios as close as possible! Hope this fulfill your request

Atsushi and Y/N were on the way escaping Fukuchi, Akutagawa helped them escape, but on a cost of what? His life.

Everything was spinning and going to fast. They merely escaped the attacks by Fukuchi. Y/N couldn't help out much except for the fact she didn't contribute much of defense and combat skills.

She was didn't own any ability, just like her brother Ranpo, who was too denial to say he didn't own one too.

They were running through the forest with Poe's book in hand which had her brother trapped.

This was going to much for her, she wanted to live normally for god sake.

It happened so fast.

One moment she was beside Atsushi running away, and the next moment her body lied on the ground beside where Atsushi stood.

She was injured by Fukuchi's sword.

It came ripping through the thin air, and before either of those two could react, the sword pierced through her body and Y/N could react nothing but cough blood as she fell down in the pool of blood that was hers.

Ranpo didn't know what to say

He came out of the book solving the mystery to see his sister, lying on the ground as Atsushi stood still. He caught the light of the sword that reflected in his eyes, knowing damn well what had happened. He dropped on his knees as his body weakened to see his sister's body on the ground.

"Atsushi What happened...?"

"I AM SORRY RANPO-SAN THE SWORD JUS-JUST CAME THROUG-GH AND-D"

"ATSUSHI PICK HER UP WE NEED TO REACH YOSANO......DONT WORRY Y/N"

Ranpo was beyond angry.

Y/N seemed to gain conciseness when they reached near the base, and Ranpo was relieved a little, but his happiness didn't seemed to last long as she took her last breathe almost saying 'take care' right at the entrance, smiling.

Silence.

That was what could they all hear. Eyes diluting, tears streaming down as a silence scream escaped Ranpo, as he stared at his sister, who's soul completely slipped her body, which now was dropped on the ground, where Atsushi regained his human form.

" Tell me this a sick joke you pull Y/N, You know Dazai Loves you back right? Y/N-" Ranpo said, his voice cracking as he spoke.

"Y/N please, wake up you wanted to start a family right? With Dazai, and you even thought so far on picking the colours of the walls for your kid, Please Y/N, you cant throw away all of this you cant-" Ranpo's voice cracked, as he held his sister's body in denial.

Atsushi could only place a hand on ranpo's shoulder as a sign of comfort, unsure of the next motive of either parties.

Ango, Who watched the scene unfold, didn't say much but still shed a tear, knowing well he had to be professional in the battlefield.

Now the problem for Ango was, to convey this message to Dazai.

As the usual time passed, Ango sat once again to decode and code the messages between him and Dazai

Sending the coded Message to Dazai, Ango could only hope that this doesn't change the direction of the war.

Dazai didn't know how to react.

Y/N L/N was dead. The Y/N who he spent time with, who actually cared for him other than his late friend Odasaku , and The Y/N who he never confessed his love to.

"Say Dazai, didn't you hear it yet?" Fyodor smiled, who sat across him in another cube smiling wickedly seeing his enemy in denial.

"If this didn't exist, I would have made sure you didn't see another day" Dazai announced as his head slowly raised up and you could see the maniac beast he held close rise up, little by little just like it had when he made his first kill.

"I will make sure you pay the prize of this act Fyodor Dostoevsky, she will be the last soul sacrificed for this battle."

Help i went through my notes the other day for this request and

Welcome Dazai Sazai

[ninyard]

Hey Nin! Tell me about your ABC Pinterest board? Or one of the others, I'm interested in all of them! Have a lovely day 🧡

omg the abc board is like kind of the ~cringiest~ one because it’s a story I’ve had since I was like 13/14 maybe, I’ve tried to write it so many times and honestly I got pretty far into it and then one of my friends was like “so it’s like xmen? that’s so overdone?” when I was like 16 and it killed me ngl like I know it’s cliche and overdone I guess but I have SO much lore and story and full notebooks of notes about it it’s like my lil child I can never give up on. the working title of it is “detached” but I’ve never been super set on that

it’s set in this universe where some people are born with kinetic abilities called ‘mystics’ (that’s the one word im still not super set on but it’s been so long that that’s just what they are now) and there’s a huge war and rebellion that happened in the 70’s that led to this call for reform of the mystic folks living normally and mixed in society and these “hospitals” are set up and it becomes essentially illegal to exist if you have these powers because the world believes you’re a danger to society. the hospitals are divided up into “blocks” based on your powers and how strong/developed any one person is with them. in as short and concise a way as possible there’s four main characters:

fionn, the main character, it’s always been set from mostly his POV: he’s on the A block, “double green”, essentially the least powerful of the least powerful. he’s a chlorokinetic, powers involving nature I guess, and he got caught by his parents who’ve always been very anti-mystic because his aunt had pyrokinesis and that’s considered one of the most dangerous powers, and she found herself caught up in the war/rebellion, and was basically disowned by her entire family. The story always starts with him waking up in the hospital to find he has two/three days missing from the time he got caught to the time he woke up, and it all follows him as he gets comfortable in the hospital (he doesn’t know he has fire powers, either - nobody does, and it’s only something he finds out thanks to two of the other characters)

there’s toby, who’s name has changed a million times, who’s in the A block with half green half yellow bands - he’s not very powerful, but he has a little control over his powers, and because it’s water powers, he’s considered a little higher on the ranks. he has a really rough time in the hospital, and he misses his family, but he’s fionn’s roommate from his first day there.

there’s bella, who as far as I remember was in the B block, but she’s really powerful. she’s clairvoyant, for a start, and she can know everything about anyone just from one touch. she is kind of a mystery sometimes, but she’s very, very useful. the guys don’t know it about her, but she is used by the higher ups in the hospital when they’re intaking new people to find out their powers. she was the one who found out fionn had fire powers, so she was also the one who kept that a secret a) because she knew it would have him put in the D block - away from the general population and locked in segregation for as long as it took for them to make him disappear - and b) because she knew how useful he would be to her best friend ares. she doesn’t talk about her powers, and nobody other than ares (and harold, the villain of the story) knows what she can do

ares, another C ward kid. he has control over time, and telekinetic powers. he’s so strong, that he’s bordering on double red bands, quite close to being moved to the d ward. he’s kind of the ‘bad boy’ to everyone, because of his background. most kids who are there were caught because of their families, whereas his family were enthusiasts who wanted him to have powers. they named his ares, and wanted him to perform and be special. he’s the one who tells fionn about his powers and trains him in secret, and his other closest friend is the most powerful of them all, and that’s pax

phoenix, also known as pax, is the quiet almost double red from the C block who really is only not in the D block because of their social skills and lack of proper, dangerous control over their powers. they can read and control minds, as well as healing powers, and control over light. they’re autistic and ares is one of the only people who understands them on a deeper level and knows how to keep them comfortable and safe. pax finds themself in segregation quite a lot because of their meltdowns that happen when things get too loud, and they’re in segregation when fionn first arrives.

then there’s dr. harold hawkins, the famous anti-mystic doctor who runs the hospital. he knew bella before she was sent to the hospital, and he’s the one that kept her out of a higher block and made the agreement that she would work for him in secret. as far as I remember in the last version he was young when he campaigned a while after the war, and his father opened the hospital with him as his assistant. each of the patients have “therapy” a certain amount of times a week, and he’s bella and fionns doctor. he has powers that nobody knows about, while he pioneers a lot of the propaganda against the folks who have powers.

idk! this isn’t a good or full or detailed explanation of them all at all because there’s SO much I can’t fit into an ask that isn’t gonna be 100000 words long lmao of course this is just the characters and not the actual story or plot or anything but yes thank you for asking <33

here’s a part of one of ares and fionns first meetings from the most recent draft I’ve written!!

[fraterfalls]

Hi, I'm new to Blood Brothers AU and I was curious about it. Can you explain about it or show me where I can see the best explanation about it?

ohhh, dear asker, the rabbit hole i'm about to send you down... >:)

alright let me try and explain it in the most coherent way possible, it's late at night BUT i will try my best!!!

explanation under the cut!

(in general, if you're new to the bb au like this asker and trying to find your way around this overwhelming hell of an au i've concocted, i recommend you start here :D)

wow. i tried SO HARD to make this a semi-concise explanation and YET it somehow turned into a mini-fic in itself towards the end there. sighhh... (lol even still, have fun reading!)

first thing's first i need to tell you aboutttt

The Parallel World / "Better World".

in journal 3, ford mentions visiting a parallel dimension in which stan never pushed him into the portal, and instead took his journal and hid it as ford had requested.

^ some screenshots to give you the basic gist of what's going on in that dimension, everything you need to know for the time being. you can read more about it on internet archive if you like

at some point in august i reread this part of journal 3 and became obsessed with the idea of a parallel dimension. i also noticed that apart from mentioning how he never pushed ford into the portal and took the journal in this world, parallel stan is just... not really brought up. at all. ...which opens up some interesting possibilities.

as you can probably guess, this dimension features in the blood brothers au! in my interpretation, the reason stan was never mentioned is because after leaving with ford's journal, he never came back, just seemingly disappeared off the planet. parallel ford... has not been handling this well (and a certain bastard triangle only serves to play up his worst fears!), and because he has such a large student body to attend to and take care of and protect, he represses his issues, buries them under layers and layers of work and responsibilities. nobody even knows he has a brother...

not even his nephew and niece, dipper and mabel. however, they're observant as all hell. as secretive as ford is, they see past his little white lies, they see how he doesn't eat properly and falls asleep at his desk and laughs nervously when someone asks if he's alright. (i haven't talked much about the role they play in this au on tumblr, but rest assured i'll be elaborating more on it in my upcoming fic that may come out sometime within... um... the next few months to the next few decades. they're still the same old mystery twins we know and love, except now they've set their sights on figuring out what their grunkle ford is hiding. very Not What He Seems reminiscent)

alright, now that i've mostly covered the parallel world, time to move on to:

The Portal Stan AU

while i was obsessing over the Better World, a parallel dimension/"alternate universe" which already exists in canon, i started thinking about another AU which is fairly popular in the gravity falls fandom: the portal stan AU. in which stan, rather than ford, gets sent into the portal. thought it was a fantastic concept ever since i first saw it, because it opens so many doors for interesting characterization and also some good ol' angst (and later a healing arc, of course). portal stan has, after all, spent 40 or so years without a solid family base or anyone to care for him. and i can imagine that in those 30 years he spent dimension-hopping, his only thought was to return to his home dimension and see ford again. yes, he was furious and frustrated when they had that last argument, but surely in hindsight he saw how paranoid and jittery ford had been throughout their meeting. he would want to get back and make sure his brother was safe as soon as possible.

and then i had the thought which kicked off this entire au:

what if portal stan fucked up and somehow stumbled upon the parallel dimension while searching for a way home? what if portal stan and parallel ford... MET?

portal stan sees parallel ford and his situation and comes to the conclusion that, without him in the way, ford would flourish. parallel ford sees portal stan and comes to the conclusion that no matter the universe, he somehow manages to destroy stan's life just by being in it. even just knowing that the other exists exacerbates their own insecurities. IT'S SO AWFUL AND SO PERFECT.

also, portal stan couldn't be more desperate to get out of the parallel dimension- partly because he hates the reminder that ford would be better off without him, but mostly because he wants to see his real brother again. however, parallel ford has other plans for him. he's been in denial about the true fate of his own brother for a long time now, but he sees this version of stan and decides he can't afford to let go of him. (his own mental state is too fragile to accept the idea of losing stan again, even if this isn't his own stan. he already let go of him once after the WCT fiasco, and again after the journal incident. thrice is... thrice is too much.)

you may also be thinking "hey, smart guy, i actually DID read that screenshot you posted above while explaining the parallel dimension. it said parallel ford and fiddleford constructed a little something called a Vortex Neutralizer which allows for safe, bill-free multiversal travel. couldn't portal stan just use that to get out of there?"

yeaaah, parallel ford doesn't tell him about that!

he will do almost anything to keep stan with him. he is sinking his claws into that man begging him not to leave-

and stan hates him for it. tears into him with insult after insult. he can't stand this ford, why's he acting like he doesn't have everything he could ever want? (except, of course, he doesn't really hate him. after all, this is still stanford pines, maybe not his ford but he's certainly a ford. same old easily excitable nerd he used to tease back in high school. but stan still has his own ford to attend to, one who needs him more than anything... probably... hopefully, so he shuts out the part of him which is growing fond of parallel ford. tells himself not to think too much about this one. he hardly even knows him. he shouldn't have to bother.)

-

and yeah that's. i think that's enough information to take in in a single post. there's still plenty more going on with the au that i haven't touched on here, but hey that's just the premise! i would link you to more specific posts which will help you further acquaint yourself with the au, but it's. it's 2am and i am incredibly sleepy, so instead i will simply provide you with the link to the blog archive, where you can look at all the posts on here without having to scroll endlessly trying to find specific things. enjoy!!!

if you have any more questions DON'T BE AFRAID TO COME BOTHER ME ABOUT IT !!! i loved answering this ask... <3 been meaning to rewrite a better AU Premise Post than the one i made back in august anyway lol

[stormcloudrising]

I was wondering if you have any metas discussing the white walker threat. Or maybe know of any that you like? There’s so much content about Dany and the Fire threat and what GRRM is saying with it. But most of what I’ve seen about the Ice/white walkers is like “oh, it’s global warming” and then nothing deeper really.

Hi Nonny,

Thanks for the interesting ask. I tried to answer a couple of nights ago and accidentally deleted my response, which I think was much better than this one. I tried to remember everything I wrote but no doubt, I forgot some things and my second response is not as concise.

I have not written any in-depth metas on the White Walkers/Others yet. I add that caveat because the topic of the Others will play a big role in the final two parts of my Florian and Jonquil series.

The Others and their motivation are the great mystery that’s been hanging over the series since the opening prologue of AGOT. What do they want? Why are they back? Basically, what’s their motivation?

I will say that I don’t think it’s that they want to extinguish all known life to get rid of memory as was D&D’s BS explanation on the show. However, I do think that it’s possible they want to prevent humans from entering the weirwoods, and so on some level, their motivation maybe about wanting to get rid of the memory of the trees. It isn’t, as the show suggested to arbitrarily kill all living men. 

Nonetheless, even though D&D’s writing was atrocious once they moved past the books, and their explanation for the Others made no sense, I do think that they dropped many hints on the show about actual upcoming events in the books. This is what made their writing doubly horrible. They knew the actual outcome of the books but didn’t have the interest in putting in the effort and time to do the story justice simply because they wanted to move on to another project. 

I think that when TWOW comes out, fans will look back on the show and say, oh, that’s why D&D did that nonsense that made no sense. And yes, I do think that there is a very strong chance we get TWOW, but unless George is lying to us and he’s writing both books before making the publication announcement, I don’t think that we will ever get ADOS. 

However, there will likely be enough in TWOW to allow fans to extrapolate the ending of the series. The funny thing is that Dan and Dave may think and hope that fans may look more positively upon the things they did on the show, but, if possible, it will be even worse for them as fans will call them out even more for not following through on all the beats in George’s story.

George doesn’t write evil for evil’s sake ala Sauron and the Orcs. He also doesn’t write characters that are purely good like the Hobbits and the Elves who purpose is simply to oppose the evil villains. He, as he has said on multiple occasions, writes about the human heart in conflict. 

This says to me that there is much more to the story of the NK, the Others, and their motivation than is currently suggested on the page or from the mouths of characters. I suspect that their motivation will be more like that of Ineluki and the Sithi from Tad Williams’ Memory Sorrow and Thorn that George has said inspired him to write ASOIAF.

My other reason for thinking that there is more to the Others than meets the eyes is because their legend is closely connected to House Stark, and let’s face it, the Starks are the central protagonists of the story. 

This is not to say that past, current, and future Starks have not done, and will not do some arguably dark deeds that may surprise fans. They certainly will.  This is more obviously foreshadowed in Arya’s arc, but it’s there for Bran, and strongly for Jon and Sansa as well. Revenge is a dish best served cold after all.  

If you have read any of my essays, particularly my Florian and Jonquil series, you know that I’ve proposed that those two ancient characters were the NK and CQ and leader of the Others, and that the same will be true of Jon and Sansa. This may sound as sacrilegious to some as saying Dany will be the major villain at the end sounds to other parts of the fandom. Nevertheless, I think both will be the case.

I’ll be going into this idea in more detail in my last two chapters of the Florian and Jonquil series, but I propose that George has been setting up Jon and Sansa as the NK/CQ since the first book. Originally, I think the plan was for Jon and Arya to play those roles, but somewhere in the writing of AGOT, he switched it to be Jon and Sansa.

In my opinion, he’s been dropping clues since AGOT and has up the quotient in AFFC and ADWD, as well as the Alayne preview chapter from TWOW. These clues include Jon’s murder at the Wall; placing Sansa in the Vale; her coming up with the idea of Winged Knights to protect Sweet Robin to mirror the Kingsguard, and the little boy’s request that there be 8 instead of 7; the fact that Jon and Sansa are the only two starklings referred to as the Blood of Winterfell; Ghost and Shade; making them both bastards; and Harry asking for Sansa’s favor to name just a few.

George is an expert at wordplay as is the case with any good writer. He uses play on words throughout the text in most interesting ways where a sentence or passage can have double meaning. He does this in the Alayne preview chapter for TWOW when Harry the Heir asks Sansa for her favor the night before the Tourney begins.

He has good teeth, she thought, straight and white. And when he smiles, he has the nicest dimples. She ran one finger down his cheek. "Should we ever wed, you'll have to send Saffron back to her father. I'll be all the spice you'll want."

He grinned. "I will hold you to that promise, my lady. Until that day, may I wear your favor in the tourney?"

"You may not. It is promised to...another." She was not sure who as yet, but she knew she would find someone. —TWOW, Alayne I

George loves to use ellipses to indicate information is missing and to make the reader wonder what he might be hiding. Sansa tells Harry that her favor and all that implies is promised to another, or in other words…pun fully intended, her favor is promised to *an Other. *

There is another bit of wordplay in the same chapter that tips to Sansa being the CQ as well and this time it comes from Petyr.  Sansa the Chthonic Persephone character of the story descends to the underground granary, a symbolic underworld where the wheat is being stored for the winter. Here she meets with the pseudo-Hades and we get this dialogue.

“Yes," she said, "but he thinks that I'm a bastard."

"A beautiful bastard, and the Lord Protector's daughter." Petyr drew her close and kissed her on both cheeks. "The night belongs to you, sweetling, Remember that, always."—TWOW, Alayne I

The night belongs to Sansa. Interesting wordplay when you consider the tale Old Nan told the kids about the Night King. More importantly for this brief analysis is a certain part of her tale Bran remembers when at the Nightfort.

No, Bran thought, but he walked in this castle, where we'll sleep tonight. He did not like that notion very much at all. Night's King was only a man by light of day, Old Nan would always say, but the night was his to rule. And it's getting dark. —ASOS, Bran IV

When you consider all the clues tying Sansa to the CQ, one can see how the comment by Petyr, just as the new Long Night is about to fall mirrors the one Old Nan told to Bran. The NK was a man by day, but the night was his to rule…suggesting as LML and others have proposed, the night he ruled was the Long Night. And he did not rule alone, he had a queen by his side.

So, the night belongs to Sansa, and the night is also destined to be ruled by the NK who was also the Lord Commander of the Nights Watch, and the brother of the man who brought him down. See where I’m going.

Old Nan is right. It is getting dark, because winter is coming and the king and queen of the Long Night shall rule.

Regarding other metas about the Others, LML has a few theories, which you can find on his YouTube channel here. Sweetsunray is another person who has put forth some interesting hypothesis on her blog. LML’s theories are based on mythological symbolism, while Sweetsunray is partially centered around George’s previous writings in his Thousand World universe. I don’t necessarily agree with all their theories, but they are certainly thought provoking and worth a listen and or read.

Again, thanks for the ask.

[nriacc]

NRIACC: Chapter Summaries

🚨 SPOILERS 🚨 SPOILERS 🚨 SPOILERS 🚨 

!DO NOT READ IF YOU’VE NOT READ THE FULL FIC!

I realise that not everyone is as sad as me and remembers every tiny detail of this rollercoaster of a fic, so I’ve put together chapters summaries that I've tried to make as concise as possible. Hope this helps with those rereading, love you all. Thanks for reading x

Part 1: Only Ones Who Know ~ The walk home. The night. The morning after.

Part 2: House is a Circus ~ Matt’s house party. Spin the bottle, shots, saucy times in Matt’s room. Fuck Josh.  

Part 3: The City ~ Wheels goes to Manchester and meets boys. Pool antics. They teach Wheels how to skate over the summer. Matty is a simp.

Part 4: Despair in the Departure Lounge ~ Wheels gets her fishnets and she takes her skateboard back home. Everyone’s at the park, Alex led her on, Wheels’ spot in the park. Peter is a gem and cheers her up but Josh is a dickhead.

Part 5: Heart Out ~ 2004: Wheels’ 18th birthday. 2005: Skating and Wheels gets her nickname. 2006: Never have I ever, club night where Matty takes wheels home early. 2007: Matty’s 18th, his house party where he and Wheels kiss. Matty drives her back to Sheffield.

Part 6: Hiding Tonight ~ Alex and Bestie comfort Wheels at Alex’s birthday party. The Fab Four (Wheels, Bestie, Al, Matt) night in, Wheels and Alex kiss just after midnight on her birthday. Matty turns up at Wheels uni flat with her birthday present and they agree to spend their summer together.

Part 7: Sex ~ Matty and her have their summer fling. Alex isn’t happy about it. Wheels and Matty have their fair ground date. Get tattoos and Wheels goes back to Sheffield.

Part 8: Dance Little Liar ~ Wheels starts to like Alex as more than a friend and they start dating but don’t address it. Favourite Worst Nightmare tour. Alex is a cheater. Wheels leaves and Matty comes to get her and comforts her.

Part 9: An Encounter ~ Wheels memories of her and Alex in her house make her move out into her flat. Both bands meet each other, bar antics, Alex tells Wheels he’s moving to NYC with Alexa.

Part 10: Do I Wanna Know? ~ Alex and Alexa split, he comes to live with Wheels. She shows him her spot in the park, he catches feelings, has a wet dream, and moves out. Alex and Matty both show up at Wheels flat and they chat whilst making her show them her dress for the wedding. The wedding.

Part 11: Settle Down ~ Movie night with Alex. Night in at Wheels flat, Alex wants to ask Wheels out properly but realise she already really likes Matty. Wheels back in Manchester and her and Matty are getting closer, Matty plans to ask her out and gets the boys to help him with grand ideas. The gig, Matty and Wheels are official. Alex cuts his hair then finds out about the new couple. Wheels does everyone’s eyebrows. MCU marathon. Matty’s parents divorce, his nana dies. Alex takes Wheels to the 2012 Olympic opening ceremony. The 1975 get the green light for releasing their album.

Part 12: Head.Cars.Bending ~ The 1975 release EPs, Matty asks Wheels to be in a music video but she turns it down. Wheels and Alex talking album release dates, Wheels goes to catch the end of the Girls music video. Matty and Wheels argue. The accident, the hospital, and chapter ends with Alex finding Matty taking him to the hospital.

Part 13: Do Me A Favour ~ Wheels recovering. Matty’s a cheater. Alex looks after Wheels, AM gets number 1 album dethroning The 1975. Matty changed his number, Adam collecting Matty’s things. Alex and Arielle split up. Ben D*tto being a bellend, 75 boys come to save the day, Matty ends up ruining it.

Part 14: R U Mine? ~ Christmas flashback, Wheels gets upset at Matty’s presents, she smokes, Matty leaves and she brings him back. 2014 Brit Awards with Alex and the Monkeys. Brits afterparty.

Part 15: Separate And Ever Deadly ~ Andy’s wedding. Start of the AM tour. Wheels finds out about Matty and Alexa, Alex takes her around Perth to cheer her up. Matty and Arielle, Wheels leaves him a drunk voicemail. Wheels goes to see The 1975, Adam tells her about Matty and Halsey.

Part 16: One For The Road ~ Wheels has nightmares, Alex helps her. Wheels tries to draw and can’t, Alex comforts and talks to her, cosy bunk morning. Jealousy at the festival, Alex being cute on stage. Pick out new perfume. One For The Road music video and Wheels and Alex kiss. Breana loses Wheels bikini in the sea, Alex is the cutest.

Part 17: Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High? ~ Alex and Wheels get high and it gets heated, they go to the beach and they both reflect on the past, bunk antics. Wheels shows Alex her skating. Alex takes her around Vegas and they get their tattoos.

Part 18: Somebody Else ~ Alex and Wheels watch the sunset on the decking as she writes a poem. Wheels extra happy and Alex knows why. Wheels’ brain jumps to wrong conclusions about pictures of Alex and his ex. Starry night with the Monkeys, shoulder tap happens here. Leeds Fest 2014 with The 1975 and Arctic Monkeys, afterparty disaster.

Part 19: How to draw / Petrichor ~ Back home from tour, The Fab Four have a drunk night in. Fun times but then the phone rings and Alex reveals he’s moving to LA. Time skip to 2015 Wheels having a boyfriend and her first gallery that Matty crashes. Alex tells Wheels to dump her boyfriend. Wheels reconciles with Matty.

Part 20: UGH! ~ Wheels baking at 75 boy’s flat, Matty sees her bracelet, Matty names their second album. Wheels goes to LA and listens to ILIWYS and misinterprets songs and watches the videos. Alex lets Wheels listen to EYCTE.

Part 21: The Birthday Party ~ Wheels’ 30th birthday party… Aftermath with Alex at the park, then at the flat with Matty.

Part 22: Settle For A Draw ~ Redo of 30th at a bar and both bands attend. Wheels kisses everyone. Adam’s house warming where Wheels gets very drunk and George carries her to bed. The day after where there’s an Alex v Matty ceasefire and Wheels and Bestie threesome reveal, Jamaica NDA reveal, and lots of band banter.

Part 23: What Should I Say ~ Wheels drunk on twitter, baiting Alex into phone sex, hangs up to chat to Matty. Everything revealed to her the next day, and George takes her out for Valentine’s Day. 2017 Brits with The 1975, and afterparty. Never Have I Ever at Wheels’ flat.

Part 24: Be My Mistake ~ Alex comforts Wheels about Matty being in rehab. During her trip to London, Adam gives her the letter from Matty. Wheels and Matty talk everything through and he tells her to give Alex a shot. Bestie’s boyfriend reveal. Wheels joins the Monkeys on tour and after listening to Only Angel they reveal how they feel and decide to try again.

Part 25: D is for Dangerous ~ Alex lets George take her out for Valentines so he can set up a cute date. Wheels and Bestie’s wine night with Alex ends with spice. Bestie teasing them the following morning. Wheels flat hunting in London with Alex. Wheels attends George’s sisters party with the 75 boys, meeting Matty’s girlfriend. Alex stands Wheels up and he says obscene things because he’s a drunk jealous twat. Wheels finishes things with him.

Part 26: It’s Not Living (If It’s Not With You) ~ Wheels’ gallery, 75 boys are there and Alex shows up. Matty is single again. New Years with Alex and the Monkeys. Decorating gingerbread houses at Christmas with Matty. Matt Helders is a cheater. Wheels drives with Alex from London to Sheffield for the last date of The 1975’s UK tour. Matty’s a little shit on stage and Wheels leaves to go McDonalds with Alex, arrangements are agreed upon. After gig drinking in a bar, bathroom antics, Wheels and Alex leave together.

Part 27: Star Treatment ~ Wheels receives star treatment from Alex. The day after they talk, Wheels shaves Alex’s head, Alex cuts Wheels’ hair on Instagram live.

Part 28: From The Ritz To The Rubble ~ Another George and Wheels Valentines date. Matty says the wrong thing at the 2019 Brits, he and Wheels argue, Adam and Bestie end the arguing. Alex has a girlfriend, Wheels and Bestie go to Paris to see them, Alex’s girlfriend is a fucking bitch, Wheels is a bilingual legend. Ross and Wheels heart to heart, he makes her see sense. Alex doesn’t show up to Wheels’ birthday. Wheels tells Alex about what his girlfriend said, he doesn’t believe her so he gaslights her.

Part 29: Playing On My Mind ~ Leeds Fest 2019, Matty and Wheels reconcile, amazing afterparty. Matt Helders’ redemption arc, Alex listens into his and Wheels phone call and doesn’t apologise so he puts Alex in his place and tells him to fuck off. Wheels on US tour with The 1975. Matty and Wheels talk about love and they’re adorable. Wheels and Matty in Tennessee and they meet Ella and Matty buys cowboy boots and a hat. When back in London, Alex turns up at Wheels’ flat and apologises.

Part 30: Frail State Of Mind ~ Wheels and Bestie in Me & You Together Song music video. Wheels and Alex go to jazz club, end up dancing, get coffee afterwards before walking home. The 1975 O2 show where Wheels, Bestie, and Alex are in the crowd, they dance to Too Shy and cry at Guys. Back in Whee’s old flat, mystery caller turns out to be Peter, Party games and Bestie gets engaged. UK lockdown starts, Wheels is really struggling with it and she makes her decision and calls the man she can’t live without.

I Wanna Be Yours ~ Alex’s ending.

Me & You Together Song ~ Matty’s ending.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Happy reading besties, love you all x

[nithiyanantha]

How to Manage Time in IAS Mains Examination

The most challenging quality that an examinee has to absorb is time management, and that holds true for the Mains test as well. Since descriptive in nature, the IAS Mains demands that a person not only knows thoroughly but is also able to put that knowledge into words under a sort of constraint. Most are going through comprehensive preparation but do not really complete their answers within time; hence they are prone to missing the cut.

In this blog, we would look at successful time management strategies during the IAS Mains exam so that you can do your best on D-Day. The techniques we will discuss have been tried and tested on successful candidates. With proper implementation of these techniques, you could enhance your writing speed and accuracy substantially.

Understanding the IAS Mains Exam Pattern A few words about the IAS Mains exam structure before one dives into the details of the time management strategies for Mains exam. The Mains exam consists of nine papers, testing everything from different angles. Paper 1: Essay (250 marks) Paper 2: General Studies I (250 marks) Paper 3: General Studies II (250 marks) Paper 4: General Studies III (250 marks) Paper 5: General Studies IV (250 marks) Paper 6 & 7: Optional Subject Paper I & II (250 marks each) Paper 8 & 9: Language Papers (Qualifying, 300 marks) Each paper has 3 hours duration and the number of words that needs to be written may vary, but it shall always seek detailed, reflective answers. As you are to answer the maximum number of questions that could possibly come within that timeframe, do take time well in hand.

Answer Writing Every Day Most important to time management in IAS Mains is the concept of ideal answer writing practice. Answer writing requires some skilled intervention under strict time limits, and this can take place only through regular practice.

Start with writing solutions to previous year's IAS Mains question papers. Set a timer and make an attempt within the stipulated three hours. You might not be able to finish all questions initially, but gradually you will improve in this aspect too.

It will also enable you to estimate how much time to devote to each question. For example, for a 20-mark question, you should schedule enough time to complete your answer within 8 to 10 minutes. Further practice will strengthen your mind to be more critical and get all your thoughts sorted out as soon as possible when you sit for an actual examination.

Time Allocation for Each Section The biggest mistake candidates commit during the Mains exam is that they do not spend the given time proportionally to all questions. For example, assume that you have a total time of, say, 30 minutes for each paper. Equally distribute this time across all questions in the paper. So if you have a 20-mark question, spend an equal amount of time proportionally to that question as you would on a 10-mark question.

So roughly, it can be said that,

For 10-mark questions: Should not be more than 7-8 minutes For 15-mark questions: About 11-12 minutes should be given. 20-mark questions: 15-16 minutes Allocate time limits to each question, so you do not spend too much time over a question and ignore other ones

Limit your Word Count UPSC has specified word limit for each question. Stick strictly to it. Writing beyond what is required wastes valuable time as well as dilutes the quality of your answer. Try presenting answers that are as concise and to the point as possible. If you are given 200 words, try presenting all your points in that limit and, while so doing, be answering all parts of the question.

The bullet points are only effective in certain questions, especially those which pertain to General Studies papers. Clarity and structure it contributes, but saves time as well. All you need to do is note the type of question. For example, if the questions are basically factual-based, then the use of bullet points would be applicable. On the other hand, essay questions and those of the same nature require a more elaborate and systematic order.

Start answering the toughest questions first. You will get to spend the first 5 minutes looking at all the questions when you receive a paper. This would help you pick up on the ones you are confident about and start with them first. You'd be getting moving and growing in confidence as you cruise through the paper, and you could also write faster through questions that you are sure of now, making some time for tougher ones later on.

Another is that you should not stall on a particular question when you do not know the answer. If you do not know how to answer a question, it is safer to leave it and bring up the subject once you have a little more time.

Use the 1-2-3 Formula for Answer Structure One of the most effective strategies for saving time and answering in a structured manner is the 1-2-3 formula:

1: Briefly introduce the question or context. 2: Body- Make your answer in two or three big points supported by relevant facts or examples. 3: Conclusion Briefly summarize your points and you can provide a concluding statement or suggestion. This structure helps to create a quick plan in your mind so that you can write down the answers quickly without sacrificing your quality of writing. Even the best IAS academy in Coimbatore teaches one this formula to manage their time during the exam while scoring high-quality answers.

Avoid Overthinking – Be Decisive Time management entails not only about writing fast but also quick decision-making. Many candidates waste precious time by overthinking answers or taking too much time deciding which questions to answer. One way of countering that is relying on your preparation and trust in your instincts. Once you have decided on an approach, don't deviate from it and proceed as planned. Overthinking will only push you back into a corner, dashing your hopes when you have spent too much time in calculating.

Emphasis on Speed and Accuracy through Mock Tests Mock tests can help you best simulate the real exam environment along with practicing time management. Try as many full-length mock tests as you can before the actual Mains exam. Time yourself strictly and work on improving your speed without compromising the quality of the answers.

Analyze your performance in each test in terms of where you are losing time. Is it in the planning stage? Are you taking too much time on a particular section? It is on such gaps that you would refine your time management strategies before the actual exam. In fact, the best IAS academy in Coimbatore offers regular mock tests under actual exam conditions to help you develop both speed and accuracy.

Health and Mind Care: Never Forget About Your Self In keeping aside the things that truly matter, such as IAS preparation, it's easy to forget about your mental and physical well-being. These are, however, of paramount importance to how you will be able to handle the examination. If you are tired, stressed or anxious, you aren't going to think clearly or write anything to the best of your abilities.

Maintain proper sleep, a balanced diet, and regular exercise. This will help you sustain concentration and energy levels for the 3-hour exam. Meditate or practice relaxation techniques to keep your mind composed and concentrated in high pressure situations. A clam and focused mind is essential for the efficient usage of time while answering IAS Mains questions. Nine weeks before exams: Revision over New Learning It's better to revise whatever you have so far studied in the past few weeks leading up to the IAS Mains exam than going through new material. Revision is actually the process that cements a thought in your head so that it does not drift away; it keeps it fresh, and there will be no problems in remembering while sitting for the exam.

Take some sample papers under time conditions and revisit your weaker areas; but do not attempt to cram new information in. The revision will build your confidence so you can write better and at a relatively good speed when the real exam comes.

Conclusion Effective Time Management in IAS Mains Exam As a student appears for an IAS Mains exam, he or she can work themselves to become a good performer only if they take consistent practice and smartly planned strategies. Hence, to stick to the tips through this blog- daily answer writing, not exceeding the word limit, adopting structured answer formats, and taking enough care for the health you can perform much better on the day of an exam.

The best IAS academy in Coimbatore will give the aspirants customized guidance, regular mock tests, and time management mastermind strategies to make a maximum utilization of the hidden potentiality of students and perform well in their IAS exam.

IASPreparation #TimeManagementForIAS #CrackIASMains

[sayaka-mga2024mi4017]

Final Draft of Essay for Submission

I had managed to finish the essay within a span of 2 days and tried my best to keep it concise as possible with the appropriate amount of detail needed.

the below link is the google document of the essay which then I converted into a pdf.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1A9DQTuZquXiKLQ-IQCK8sfzQhNQVXxtob3jLkR5v4H8/edit

[hottakehoulihan]

@simurghed said (I tried to reblog but something's not working)

"Please oh please gush at me randomly about Wormpowers!" Okay! Hope you didn't mean concisely! Heck, this could be a good tournament of sorts; comparing not the folk who HAD the powers but how great the powers themselves are.

"Please oh please gush at me randomly about Wormpowers!"

Okay! Hope you didn't mean concisely!

Heck, this could be a good tournament of sorts; comparing not the folk who HAD the powers but how great the powers themselves are.

You'd have to specify whether the tournament was about 1: Cool. 2: Desirable. 3: Scary. 4: Would win in a fight (boring)

A: Grey Boy is depressingly(?) close to a childhood OC of mine, though far more OP since I didn't have that "invincible and also eternally young and clean" aspect to it.

B: Circus is a great magical girl that only needs a mascot and I'd love to know what they're like when in civilian form.

C: Mouse Protector is a lot of enthusiastic cringe about much of my childhood and the childhoods of some of my contemporaries, and also Droopy Dog--a cartoon character I hate.

D: Night. I love the synergy between Night and Fog/Purity, and just the way Night fights in general.

E: There's a member of maybe the fallen--can't remember who or whether it came up in PRT Quest or in Ward--that when they speak people listen. That's it; the words compel attention above and beyond all else. I feel like this would be a nightmare power for me to have and would both "solve" my problems and also do so in the worst possible way and so it's probably the one I'd get.

F: I think about Coil a lot. Remember that crappy-but-fun Nicholas Cage movie "Next"? It's kind of Coil.

G: I should bring up Taylor but…do you like the color of the sky? Which Taylor? Her powerset evolves and grows so much. At the start? It takes her seven or more arcs to realize she can disguise herself with bugs, and she STILL isn't using them to track where the bullies are (or who is around her) on a 24/7 basis and this is silly of her. Side note: If I ever write a Taylor/Sophia it'll be called "Nosee'um" probably. Not sure I'd do that, but I know how it starts. (And ends.) Anyway, it's really the administration and surveyal part of her power I particularly envy. I can't chase two rabbits at once and sometimes not even one, but she could herd billions.

H: (heh) Grue is actually amazing and especially after his second trigger. There's a fanfic out there where he goes solo and grimdark and he captures evil capes and saps their power, slowly making himself a very strong grab-bag cape. He had Viktor chained up in his basement to facilitate this. Speaking of H.

I: Screamer is amazing. Imitating voices perfectly and making them seem to come from anywhere? A whole nonviolent origin story just for her would be fun.

J: Accord. I want more Cenotaph, and it's half because I want more Accord.

K: Edict. Edict has a mystery power where if you don't do what she says you get a minor temporary curse? Someone with a weak unremarkable power having to make it work and maybe figuring out how to make it super good actually? Sounds familiar in a good way. I want more.

L: Mama Mathers is a nightmare villain; one of those things that make you wonder how they could ever lose even more than Coil does.

M: Roulette's power is great for something I might give someone in a TTRPG. Useful, game-directing, but not gamebreaking. …super frustrating, though.

N: Alexandria's memory, tho…

O: Weld. Weld's powers, with someone else at the helm? Could be so gender. SO gender.

P: Golem. But only in a lewd way. Or home decoration. Or both at the same time.

Q: Sanguine could apparently look great in red, dish out damage to Behemoth, and just walk around and cure people of bloodborne illnesses, sort of like Panacea could do, if she'd just cut loose a bit (there's no reason she couldn't make a steady stream of non-self-replicating cancerphage/virii emitters with finite lifespans. She could walk into a hospital, focus for a bit, then relax and read a book while her creations did all the work.

R: Myrrdin because it really feels like he had to study and scheme to build his "spells" and maybe in a way indistinguishable from

S: Big Picture can stop and think about someone as long as they want.

T: Semiramis. With that power someone could keep a car, house, or a rare book in good condition. Not to mention people.

U: Engel? I mean, supernaturally pretty and compelling?

V: Flor is hilarious.

W: Horizon's power includes Xray vision? And the rest is just some punchy-boom? That's the kind of weak powerset I'd love to see get explored.

X: Blindside (Even more fun than Nice Guy!)

Y: I love Regent. Hijack is fun too, but Regent's power was great and he used it so effectively!

Z: Tattletale, of course.

But my favorite is like I said at the top before I got started.

[humanmorph]

so I DID manage to set a new sorting key for the Seasons because the alphabetical order for those isn't the chronological one (aside from C/W being the first one it just doesn't work. for a bit there I lived in a world where T came before P in the alphabet but I've since realized that this is not true. irrelevant either way). you have to sort by Divines first and then Seasons to see my efforts because the original order i made the table with is the season one (I just went down the List of Divines pages and picked a few).

my problem is that this doesn't work with the "importance" column... because of the rowspan i used for Asepsis (one of multiple Divines that appear in multiple seasons, so this would continue to be a problem. Most of the PAL Divines appeared in PZN!). I'd usually put

data-sort-value="xyz" |

in front of the thing I want to be sorted, like so:

data-sort-value="a" |''COUNTER/Weight''

but with the Asepsis line looking like THIS

| rowspan="2" |'''[[Asepsis]]'''|| rowspan="2" | || rowspan="2" |Major Divines|| data-sort-value="d" |''PARTIZAN''

it just doesn't work. I've tried it all (I think). it always messes it up! A kind of cheat idea here would be to come up with different names that DO sort correctly & alphabetically, but I honestly think "Major Divines/Mentioned only/Extracanonical" are pretty good/concise. It's kind of annoying, because the rowspan vanishes as soon as you sort anyways:

before:

after:

which imo looks fine here but probably kinda bad if you get to like, Integrity, who's listed in /4/ seasons (PZN is "Mentioned Only"). - Yeah ok after trying it out: this sucks. it doesn't have a description as a Major Divine (just click on the page I guess) (though you could put something there if you wanted to spend some time coming up with one sentence descriptions/summaries). but it DOES as a Mentioned Only (says when it was mentioned. smart). Which. I guess I COULD work with since the description column doesn't need to be sortable, but... it's annoying...

Writing this post was real time problem solving and I've arrived at: key parts of this would not work IF you use rowspan, which makes tables look cleaner. and what is the point of a table if it's not easy to access and find information you are searching for. Also, probably more pressing than anything else, if you add to the table from the normal edit page it shows up differently in the source edit than what I'm used to (I can't figure out where to put the data sort value. which like, that's on me. it's gotta be possible). And most people would just use the regular table editing tools instead of a source edit to add a row if like, idk, the Divine Transparency shows up next episode or something.

tl;dr This Is Probably Not Worth It (but i really really wish it was)

take a look at my sortable wiki table (test) ..............

[notetaeker]

October 28, 2022 - Friday | Fall challenges 15-18/30 + 11-14/30

3 days behind on challenges 😬! I fell into the usual 'teach + class + sleep + survive' grind and didn’t post 💔 I did however manage to: clean out my vanity drawer + bag and actually start using products I own, take walks, read books, write stuff and complete the best still life i have ever painted in my life so far 😌

🎯 Are you closer to accomplishing the goal you set for the challenge? Yes! I’ve definitely been appreciating the beauty, colors and aesthetic of fall 🍁🍂 thank you for your enthusiasm for autumn it’s contagious 💓 📃article you've enjoyed recently: 7 types of storytelling structures 🤝favorite thing abt having a studyblr the solidarity honestly. It always makes me feel less alone in my struggles lol also the need to make the most of everyday or else what am i gonna tell the ppl in my phone 🤧 📺YouTube channel/podcast that inspires you: art/sewing youtubers in general inspire me so much especially to try new mediums~ to mention specific ppl qalbcalligraphy, sarahburnsstudio, alexandralouise

🖥current study space as it looks right now pic is above! a bit messy also I got a laptop stand to save my poor neck and it's been amazing so far 🤝last person you held hands with? my mom 💪most productive thing you did today + why updating all assignments for all of my classes + planned their exams. 🔥passions that led you to studying what you're studying i had too many passions that was my problem. I chose what was supposedly the most stable of my passions but ironically it lead to instability lmao anyway my main passions I would say is art (all forms), science, and languages.

[pirateheir]

2, 6, 15, 26, 44, & 47 for the salty ouat asks (i got a lot of saltiness towards ouat myself and i am curious to hear/see others)

salty like the sea: ouat edition // @brokenheartstm​

wow, that’s a lot of numbers! okay so i mostly pretend that most storylines never happened, like i said in this ask. which also ties into the bad writing: i truly don’t understand why snow and charming would steal an egg? it’s weird. also, i don’t really like that they sacrificed the connections characters had with each other to prop up other characters. i think that really hurt the show in the long run. 

i don’t know which side characters were unnecessary. or forced. i’d have to continue my rewatch and get back to you with that answer.

there were a lot of events, i think, but what happened to graham and robin takes the cake, really. anyone who’s ever watched ouat probably knows what i’m talking about here. i feel like the writers should have consulted professionals, because the way they went about it now still feels really disrespectful and still leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

i also didn’t like the way they just swept the dynamic of henry and the evil queen underneath the rug; while, yes, their relationship was mended as the seasons progressed, it doesn’t take away that in the beginning, she was a horrible woman. she abused him, and i feel like he never really got to deal with that, he never got to express - albeit once or twice in, like, season two or something. do correct me if i’m wrong, though, as my memory regarding ouat is foggy at best and muddy at worst. their early season dynamic hit close to home and it was at times uncomfortable to watch for me. and that’s all i’ll say.

i think that it’s silly that for all the magic in the show, they never did anything with witch hunters (uh, hello, it would have been the perfect opportunity to showcase the zimmer twins!) and they never did bring back grace and her dad. i think grace, ava, nicholas and henry - along with alexandra and/or violet, maybe - could have been a cute next gen hero team or something. like, an episode in which all the adults were frozen, and it’d be up to them to save the day.

they never did use red / ruby’s pack either (or if they did, i forgot about it) and i wanted to know more about them; i also feel like they should have done better with tying ouat in wonderland to the main show because now we have two anastasia’s and emma rigby truly did a wonderful job. (i was one of the few people who actually loved ouat in wonderland).

the lore of the show got so hard to follow at one point that i just quit. and that’s a shame. they could have introduced other fairy tales from other parts of the world after they name dropped a german snow white or something in s7. personally, i would have loved to see, like, an indian sleeping beauty for instance. but they never did. and that sucks.

it’s just that, the premise of this show is so good, and while i do like the show, i feel like it could have been so much better than what it became. and i think that’s partially because they threw their own rules out of the window at some point in order to please themselves (and a vocal part of their fanbase). 

look, i’m not gonna pretend to know how all of those processes work like i said in my tags, but i do think that - as an aspiring writer - you should write the story of your heart that you want to write and stick with it from start to finish and the writers did the complete opposite.

ps: at the end, the evil queen became the good queen, and while i understand why they did what they did, i’m still so very sorry to all the people - seen or unseen - whose lives she touched in a negative way and whose lives she ruined. i bet that they just love having to live with the woman who caused them so much pain as their reigning monarch now. 

pps: i don’t blame the aforementioned character, by the way, just the writers and the actress and the way they used everyone as a prop for her. i went from loving her to hating her to loving the rp’ers on this site more because they actually seem to love and understand (every facet of) her.

ppps: i would have given anything to see multiple princesses from multiple timelines briefly come together to defeat the ultimate big bad - whether that’s the dark one, the evil queen or the dark fairy queen whose name escapes me at the moment, but she was a big player in season 6 or something - infinity war style.

[the-insomniac-emporium]

Mia Deserved Better: An Analysis of RE8's Themes/Symbolism

Foreword: I would like to thank @lepusrufus for posting about both Mia and Miranda, and at one point directly saying that Mia deserved better, which is a large part of what caused me to start examining her role in the canon story. Now, I will say that this post, like some of my previous explorations of Village (such as my attempt to determine Donna's age), will not be the best organized. My ADHD makes such things rather difficult for me. However, I have tried more than usual, and have broken up this "essay" into several distinct sections. Still, I am worried that my thoughts will not be as concise or coherent as they were inside my head.

Under read-more for length and spoilers for RE8: Village.

Introduction:

Village is, inarguably, about parenthood. Is it a horror game? Yes. Is it also science fiction? Also yes. But is it still, at its core, a story, and therefore contains imagery, symbolism, and themes? Yes. Now, you may be wondering what this has to do with Mia deserving better. My proposal is as follows: While Village is overall about parenthood, it is more about motherhood than fatherhood. Furthermore, Mia's background + actions from the previous game tie her story directly with Mother Miranda's, making their potential interactions massively important to the story... and could have served the theme beautifully. The missed potential in her involvement in the story is honestly a little bit absurd.

Now, let's examine each of the Four Lords + their sections, as the beginning of analyzing the game's theme.

Lady Dimitrescu + Castle:

Ah, perhaps the clearest (albeit unimportant) bits of theme within the whole game. We are immediately presented with another parent, with three daughters she loves very, very much. Initially they work as a team to capture Ethan, easily overpowering him. When they do split up, each still has dialogue regarding their family members. Each of the daughters expresses a desire to be like their mother/make their mother proud. Lady Dimitrescu herself gets very upset every time one of her daughters perishes, and delivers some important dialogue about this in her final confrontation with Ethan.

To paraphrase, Lady D says that Ethan has done something unforgiveable, caused damage that can never heal, and deserves to die before his daughter. That last part is interesting, in the sense that Lady D seems to believe that outlasting your own child is a fate so terrible that she would not wish it upon anyone, including the person who killed her daughters.

Throughout her dialogue and actions, Lady D serves as an important figure of a living mother. What do I mean by that? Well, the only other mothers we see in game are Mia and Miranda. The former doesn't show up until almost the end of the game (seeing as the "Mia" at the start is not actually the real Mia), while the latter does not have a living child, and her behavior has (presumably) changed quite a bit since that loss. As Ethan goes through Castle Dimitrescu, he watches (he causes) Lady D to go through what Miranda did all those decades ago. When we see her loss, when we experience her loss, it is something we connect with, even comparing it (as Lady D does) to Ethan's loss of Rose.

For the more visual side of symbolism, we can turn to Lady Dimitrescu herself. She is very tall, is visibly older than the majority of the Village cast, and has a fairly classic (old-school) motherly look. Everything about her reinforces her position as an example of a mother, especially when she's with her daughters and becomes such a strong figure of protection. Her height allows her to seem the caretaker for her children, even though they are scary/intimidating in their own right.

Donna Beneviento + Waterfall House:

Yes, the baby/fetus/monstrosity is part of this. No, it is not the only bit of thematic work in this section of the game.

To begin, you can find out that Donna is officially the adopted daughter of Mother Miranda. Her birth parents are dead, implied to be from especially tragic causes (more than is the norm when it comes to "orphan making"), and she has suffered greatly from it. We see that she has been seemingly neglected by Miranda, and is incredibly isolated. The tragedy of her loss, along with the consequences presented by it, are something to keep in mind further down the road, when we inevitably deal with Ethan's own death.

One of the consequences of the environment Donna was raised in is, arguably, her reliance on Angie. While interpretations of their exact relationship (aka how much control Donna actually has at any given point) vary, the two very clearly have something akin to a mother/daughter vibe. Alternatively an older sister/younger sister sort of thing. This shows in the way that Donna holds/carries Angie, as well as the contrast in their demeanors. Moreso, the fact that Donna gave a part of herself to create Angie is almost enough to make the symbolism nonnegotiable.

We also see that Donna has a strong understanding of family/family dynamics, through the way that she uses her powers to manipulate Ethan. She dissects his connections to Mia and Rose, taunts him with the lengths he's willing to go to save his child, then shows him a grotesque version of parenthood: The aforementioned fetus monster. Does the monster represent Ethan's fears, or Donna's?

What if the monster is how Donna sees herself, in some way, perhaps thinking that it's her fault her parents died? Bit of a stretch, but it's not a keystone of my theory, so I'm just throwing it out there. We could, however, go a step further and ask ourselves if Donna has noticed the way Miranda neglects her, and the fetus monster is how Donna thinks Miranda sees her. A baby, true, but grotesque, so terribly imperfect compared to her "real daughter" (Eva, obvs).

Regardless, the monster presents an ugly side of parenthood. It shows us the blood, the hunger (with the way it repeatedly attempts to swallow Ethan whole), the wailing. If Lady D shows us the love of parenthood, the bond, Donna in turn shows us the hate, the misery. Everything that one must endure to reap the rewards of family.

Lastly, we get one last bit of symbolism with Donna's death: We play a game with Angie. A childhood classic, hide and seek. Ethan chases her down repeatedly, stabbing away, seemingly only hurting the doll. But what happens when he kills Angie? It turns out that he killed Donna. You kill the child, you kill the parent. A reinforcement of the connection that comes with parenthood, along with another notch in Ethan's family-murdering belt (not saying that he's the "true antagonist" or anything, just keeping track for one of my later points).

Moreau + The Reservoir

Let's get the worst possibility out of the way: Moreau, weakest and sickest of the four lords, lives in a reservoir, where he is relatively safe. To defeat him, you have to drain the water, forcing him onto dry(ish) land. Paired with the main ideas of his section (which I will detail after this nightmare), one could theorize that he's meant to represent birth itself. Again, he's safe in his ("womb") water, and becomes vulnerable when he leaves (like a fragile newborn). Kinda gross, in my opinion, and also not a strong enough connection for me to care much about. It was merely an interesting (albeit horrifying) enough thought that I felt it warranted sharing.

Moving on to the big stuff with Moreau: He's a baby. Evidence: Whiny, has difficulty moving around, struggles to adapt to his growth, throws up a bunch, loves his mother very much, cries for his mother when he's in trouble, etc. Although Mother Miranda does not care for him, he clearly cares for her, and plays yet another role of an abandoned child (like Donna). Without Miranda there to protect him, he perishes terribly, crying out for someone who does not care to answer.

Hearing him cry out for Miranda, over and over, only for her to continue ignoring him is a key piece in the build-up to our confrontation between Ethan and Miranda. The game, in many ways, centers around the comparison between the two. In my humble opinion, Mia should have been involved in this comparison, as opposed to supplying the solution to the result of said comparison. Yes, I know that was a lot of words that don't mean much yet, but trust me, I'm getting there.

Heisenberg + The Factory

Ironically, of the four lords, Heisenberg is the most similar to Mother Miranda. In his massive factory, he is alone except for his numerous experiments, the results of decades of playing God. In comparison to Ethan + Mia, Heisenberg represents artificial parentage, or more accurately, the artificial creation of "life". While the others Lords also performed experiments, they used living subjects. Heisenberg instead chose to use corpses, which he then "brought back to life" with cybernetics + his powers, a somewhat futuristic version of Dr. Frankenstein.

Together, Miranda and him show a rotten side of parenthood (whereas Donna + Moreau showed us the uglier side of the children themselves). To put it simply, they are bad parents. They throw their "children"/experiments into the fray, uncaring, using them as pawns for their own greater gain. The most important part of this is that Heisenberg offers to "help" Ethan: By using Rose as a weapon. In his act of refusal, Ethan demonstrates one of several important distinctions between himself and Mother Miranda. Where she is willing to use her "children" (read: lives that she is responsible for) as tools, he is not.

Miscellaneous Symbolism/Imagery:

The old hag is one of my favorite parts of Village. She's seemingly nuts, has a crazy old lady laugh, wears bones that make soothing bone noises when she moves, and she draws lots of symbols in the dirt. If you look closely (I can provide screenshots if anyone desires, but it will take a bit of work to get them onto my computer), she's drawing one of the most iconic images in the titular village: The winged unborn. This symbol acts as the key you build up after every fight with a Lord, understandably called the Unborn Key (which turns into the Winged Unborn Key). Whether this counts as foreshadowing towards the hag's identity reveal is technically irrelevant, but I like to think it does.

In essence, you build up the key, this depiction of an infant, to progress in the game. The more wings it gains, the closer you are to your goal of rescuing your child.

The cadou itself is very clearly fetus-shaped. Furthermore, the only place within the human body that we know it ever gets implanted is in the "tummy" (thanks Moreau), aka roughly where someone's womb is/would be. Every infected person we see presumably had the Cadou implanted there (though I think it would be interesting if implanting it in different spots caused different mutations. of course, that is a discussion for another day). To become immortal, you have to "bear" a "child". Does it get more direct than that?

Mother Miranda gained her immortality in part for her grief at the loss of her child. She embodied the despair that Lady D spoke of, becoming an eternal source of anguish. Just as the loss of a child is a wound that lasts forever, so too would Miranda last forever (well, until Ethan comes along).

Mia is a loving mother, who puts up with the BSAA making her move across the world, deals with the complications of having a mold husband and mold baby, and has proved herself (see her section in RE7) to be an immense badass. Previously I had forgotten that, and even embarrassed myself in the comments of another person's post by implying she wasn't a tough, ass-kicking machine. Y'all remember feral Mia? People talk about "poor Ethan's arms", but sometimes we forget that Mia was one of the people who did a number on them. Furthermore, she's one of the only living people (from outside the village) to have any connections (pun intended) to Mother Miranda. They worked together, although possibly not directly, on Evelyn. If anyone in Village has a chance of really understanding Miranda's plight, or knowing the truth behind it, it would be Mia. Yet we don't see them interact a single time. Which leads me to the next section...

Conclusion On Theme + Missed Potential:

Okay, okay, so it's pretty obvious at this point that, as previously stated, the game's theme is parenthood. Every section has its symbolism, the story is very obviously about a man trying to rescue his daughter, etc, etc, but what's the point? Is there a lesson, or a more focused interpretation of the central theme? Let's take one last step back, and focus on something I've mentioned a few times now: The comparison between Ethan and Mother Miranda.

Recurring dialogue from Ethan, Alcina, and Mother Miranda all point towards the developers acknowledging that the characters are similar, but there's nowhere near as much conversation about it as I would like. Several times we have the antagonists ask Ethan how he's so willing to kill someone else's child, or prevent them from (essentially) doing what he's doing (aka saving his daughter). While Ethan responds with a mix of "well you started it" and "aghhh fuck-a-you, bitch", there's a much more solid, unspoken difference: Mother Miranda sends her underlings to kill, so that she may revive her daughter. Ethan kills (read: does the work himself) to get his daughter. The difference is much bigger, and more important, at the end of the game, when we realize just how far it goes. Ethan dies to save his daughter. Time and time again Mother Miranda has killed others for her work, but in the end she is stopped when someone willingly dies to stop her.

Where does Mia come in? Mia, the badass mother, the one who once worked alongside Mother Miranda, should have been the nail in the coffin. She is the one who survives, who lives on to raise Rose, she is the silent solution to Ethan's sacrifice. Miranda, you fool, what could you have accomplished if you had held onto your makeshift family? Through Mia (and Chris, to a lesser degree), his "loss" becomes a victory. There's a certain poetic justice that comes with Rose's full family being instrumental in saving her, when Miranda so readily spurned her own family.

Mia could have had an actual conversation with Miranda, their history giving the latter a reason to actually listen. I'm not saying that Miranda would have changed her mind/plans, but the conversation would have been a well-needed contrast to Ethan's "arggg what the fuck is happening, I only have two reactions to things. agg fuck you". Additionally, I feel that Mia (who was captured and had to endure who-knows-what) deserves the opportunity to be the one who points out Miranda's mistakes, who delivers the final "fuck you" to her. More than that, she's the one at the end who can say that hey, maybe she can understand some of what Miranda did. Was there anything her and Ethan wouldn't have done to save Rose? As much as Ethan is a foil to Miranda, Mia could (and should) have played a similar role.

When so much of the story and symbolism revolves around Miranda's experience as a mother, it only would have been fair to shine a light on her equivalent. Her better.

There's more I wanted to say/feel like I didn't properly get across, and I might add more to this at some point, but it's 5:40 AM right now, and I'm starting to feel like my brain is slowing down, so... Feel free to reblog/comment and add your own thoughts!

[dernarrleid]

badheart​:

What kind of illness, did she need to get, to become his hottest patient? She had yet to learn, what exactly his position was and in which kind of field he worked at (on what he had specialized himself), but a doctor title was always good. Shame, that he did not wear that white coat outside of work as well. Fang had a slight medical fetish. She did not mind any pain, though she had her limits too, but she certainly was not scared by needles, quite the opposite. And it was not just that, but being cared after, the attention she received during medical examinations. The soft, gentle touches. A good doctor, would of course try to make her feel as comfortable as possible. It felt like yet another love language for her, something she had been deprived of far too long, so it came with no surprise for those who knew her, that she would cling to this particular man and welcome his heavy head on her lap.  

Darn, he was awake but she smiled nonetheless, when he tried to keep it casual.  “I think it would be rather unethical to punch a defenseless man, who is even a doctor,”  Fang pointed out, either trying to amuse him or magically meet his taste in women, if she tried to sound smarter. Despite her libido, flirting was not her forte, more often than not it backfired, depending on her luck or the kind of men, she tried to win over.  “Also, I’m usually more awake at night.”  Doing the peace-sign with her hand as she grinned for a second, before looking back, when his arm came around her, well almost, her seat was luckier. There was a small pout, he sure could dare a bit more, but of course, he was a good man, with no dirty thoughts whatsoever on his tired mind.  “Hah, don’t worry. I will protect you, Dr. Tenma.”  And it was her perfect excuse to lean closer, with one arm around his waist, the other placed on his stomach, giving it a soft pat, while her head leaned against his chest.  “No one would dare to do something so inhumane, right?”  Robbing a doctor in the presence of a wheelchair-bound woman, that is. 

“Can’t I come with you?”  she suddenly suggested, before he could continue his desired nap.  “I have nothing to eat at home and the streets are quite scary.”  Which was not even a lie, as she was prone to order everything, which did her finances no good.  “Or would I be interrupting something?”  Looking up at him, while drawing circles on his stomach with her finger. She wondered if he had any family, especially a wife. There was a small pause, before she leaned away from him again.  “Ah, that was probably pretty rude of me to ask, … sorry.”  She was almost a stranger for him, was she not? Demanding so much from him. Nothing, she felt bad for now, just trying to possibly guilt trip him a little bit, making him feel bad, for making her feel bad for asking such simple things.  

He feels the press of her body against him and wants to fall asleep immediately. There, shockingly, isn't a lot of touching within his everyday life; with being a surgeon he's definitely had his fair share of meddling inside a person's chest, ministrations careful and concise. Most of his staff, custodial included were in relationships either extremely serious, between or casual so Kenzou chalks his touch starved nature with the issues surrounding his anxiety. It was different being in a headspace where he was comfortable enough to drown in a sea of patients that all needed the warmth of the aftercare nurses provided and occasional physicals from him with respect to how they felt in recovery. He's sure Fang doesn't have this problem; with how forward the woman seemed, aside from her physician who knows of where her meter is being fulfilled. Still Kenzou lightly entertains the thought, peering down at the vision of someone oddly cute despite knowing her rough nature, wondering if his sleepiness would give him the smoothness in his voice.

"Interrupting?" He smiles, eyes barely open. "I don't have time for interruption on a daily basis, so my home is probably boring to someone of the arts." He felt the gentle motion of finger, aware of how painfully domestic they appeared. It wasn't unwelcome however, as not many people took the night train on a weekday to begin with and Fang's encouragement further goaded his need to drop dead. Perhaps is wouldn't be so bad to take her with him... if only to make sure he didn't fall asleep on the way back from hers or possibly at her place, invading major privacy. "You'd probably call it a bachelor pad, but I don't have anything for you to play with or read that'll make much sense." He says dejectedly, humming as he begin to wane. "I have food. Not a lot of junk though. If you're okay with that arrangement I don't see the harm..." Kenzou slides his outstretched arm down the seat behind her, firmly holding her shoulder before she leaned too far away. It wasn't irresponsible, he managed to reconcile with himself, not when she's coming over for convenience.

The train rattles on while he tried to piece together how had would fit the both of them for the night. He didn't have a change of clothing for her, no ounce of the place in all the square foot of his room was appealing to a coworker, much less Fang. Kenzou figures it might all fall into place when they arrive, gearing mostly towards the fact of her non-discreet cuteness and the only other furniture item being at least decently comfortable. "Maybe one day you can return the favor and make me something to decorate my wall with. I’ve never seen them but your art must be incredible."

[athena-is-a-chaotic-lil-shit]

Hey hey hey!! It's Athena here! How are you today? Hope you're doing well!

So— I decided to open my goddamn doors and take up

✨REQUESTS✨

because I feel like, I need to challenge myself somewhat and keep me busy (an excuse to multitask, my mind would spiral out to new ideas and I need to keep me well-fed...in order to make progress and improve) and so here we go!

I tried to be short and concise as possible but here are my request rules and conditions:

— For now, I will focus on character x fem!reader and monster x fem!reader. Maybe in the future I would be good enough to write for other genders! Stay tuned until then♥

— I will mostly accept exophilia (I'm a monster lover, they hold a huge place in my heart)

— send them in my ask box please!

I will accept and write (for):

— Monsters/Non-human race

Which include:

Orcs (top one spot woohoo)

Werewolves/Were-animals (mhm)

Minotaurs (love me taurs)

S-Shark mermen (talking sharks with legs and arms yes)

Aliens (Y E S)

Gnolls (I'll try! I love their cackling)

Dragons ( I swear this list ain't ranked—)

Lizardfolk/Dragonborns

Golems (works about them are pretty rare and I've only read one or two about them and they're pretty 🔥 I love them)

Robots (they're not monsters but they're non-human)

What else hm — oh and Eldritch horrors!

There are others but my memories' foggy right now so just send them in and I'll answer if I'll do them or not!

— Cryptids

— Slashers (I'm still new to the fandom but I'll write for Jason Voorhees and Pyramid Head <3 )

I will:

— Write smut; just be nice... idk how good I am at it. Though I must admit I did write smut for my first fanfic lmao (and it was sum heavy steamy stuff woo!)

— accept anonymous requests <3

— write romantic and fluffy scenarios

— ...do headcannons? I'll try. Depends on what you request, either I'm comfortable with it or not. Just send em!

— write for any time period and au

—do headcanons to an extent of my knowledge :D

I will absolutely not:

— write anything that has to do with incest, r*pe, s**cide, eating disorders, ab*se (any kind), yandere and s3lf h4rm

— do anything heavy on angst

— write p*dophilia!

— write about extreme kinks (I don't feel like naming them, I totally respect if you're into them, but if I don't answer your asks then you'll know why)

— write about degradation (please, I respect if you're into that, but in this safe bubble of mine, we praise the fuck out of our babes)

Additional stuff:

It will seriously depend on my mood and what I'm comfortable with writing. I will try to post as soon as possible, but if it falls down into one of my hyper-fixations then I might get carried away and take longer than expected (tis a secret, it's up to you guys to find that out).

Please be detailed as possible if you want something specific.

Oh, or you can just send in some prompts! You can find a lot of prompt lists in other Tumblr blogs (they specifically post prompts for writers) or when I reblog some!

Other than that anything is welcome!