#ill actually make an effort to interact

[musical-chick-13]

*sigh* While this wouldn't be the RAREST pair I've written for, it would certainly be close.

[milo-is-rambling]

Me when I want to be wanted more than anything else

[skitskatdacat63]

Its basically to keep track of what characterization notes I want to push but. Why am I writing myself comments on my wip that read like comments I would leave on ao3 😭😭 would this be considered egotism

[hezuart]

Character rewrite: Maria Robotnik is taken to the ARK with her grandfather when she is young. Initially, there are no other children on the ARK, and most of the people there are older scientists too busy to interact with her. Half of them don't even believe her disease is real, while the other half treat her like a fragile doll. Maria, severely lacking interaction and attention, starts acting out, getting into trouble around the space station, and pushing herself to her limits when doing so. She becomes a nihilist and falls into a depression, realizing her situation is hopeless, that she may never see the Earth again. Gerald doesn't know how to console her, and tries to keep her focused on her studies. She's very smart, but feels like applying herself is a fruitless effort.

When Abraham is born, while excited to finally have a possible friend, Abraham is too young to play with for several years, so she still feels a disconnect to him. (And the parents aren't too thrilled about Maria's behavior to let her spend too much time with him unattended anyway) But when Shadow is born, as the ultimate life form with immediate intelligence and zero fragility, Maria immediately takes a liking to him, which makes Abraham jealous and lonely in the later years. Shadow is actually the voice of reason at the start, reserved, but curious. Maria's rebellious, juvenile nature inspires him as a semi-bad influence. Both he and Maria get into a lot of trouble on the ARK; Gerald leaves them be, seeing how happy and hopeful Maria is now. As the years pass, Shadow became a great inspiration to Maria. She started helping her grandfather design and build machines as well as shoes for Shadow. Maria matured as she grew up, even as her illness got worse; becoming more optimistic, kinder, and sweeter. After the stories of Earth, the time together as well as exchanged promises for a hopeful future... When Shadow witnesses his best friend die, sacrificing herself for him... it's no wonder he became who he is today.

[benihana-circumcision]

Per primary sources (reassembled digital zines[¹], screenshotted facebook posts kept on flash drive archives[²], pastel Tumblr art[³],) the "Punk" was a mythological or archetypal "underdog" figure in late-anthropocene technophile civilization, believed by its followers and devotees to be situated in abstract spiritual opposition to the "Nazi" - similar parallels in history can be seen within Zoroastrian conceptions of Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu, though Ahura Mazda lacks the plucky, downtrodden connotation of "Punk"

Devotees would claim that certain things are "Punk" in an effort to lend their activities moral and political weight and contrast them against the dark spiritual figure of "The Nazi" in order to find solace in the notoriously meaning-deprived Anthropocene. The "Punk" as depicted by our incomplete primary source material was associated with patronizing Hot Topic (a pre-Starfish Incident minor religious franchise), guitars (We are unsure if the Punk was actually associated with any sort of musical motif due to none of the sources providing any artists or audio files), going to the public library, wearing unpainted denim jackets with embedded pyramidal studs, and "respecting pronouns." We are unsure why such a figure would lend outsized veneration to simple parts of speech, but the phrasing keeps cropping up in the research.

Punkist rituals included: Posting online, posting online about not posting online in an attempt to enact some sort of spiritual leverage against the world's ills, getting mad online, posting about how to make a makeshift incendiary munition / ritual object referred to as a "molotov cocktail" (worth noting that in all the archaeological sites in which we found records of such posts, we have yet to find any trace evidence of gelled gasoline, paraffin, or soaked textiles), making ornamental fabric patches with minimal and rudimentary effort, and getting mad online.

We are unaware of the nature of typical Punkist patterns of spiritual gathering, ritual music, or mass social interaction, as the sect seemed largely to be isolated from any larger non-digital social flow, with most of the available evidence being data mined from pre-Collapse smartphones found alongside the remains of people found in their bedrooms.

[pressplay-if]

To think I was worried about this IF ending up too short for anyone to be interested.

The hospital section in this Chapter alone is only getting longer and longer. I keep thinking of new important details and little extra scenes to add just to complete the psych ward experience (TM).

Some interesting details about Zima and MC's past mental state below cut (might be important):

Zima has now had their first interview section, mainly determining the details of the nature of their past involvement with MC. There's a total of four options. If you enjoyed the choice of Stevie having a crush on MC, you're gonna love this.

MC can be hospitalized due to either depression or social anxiety, as these are the only conditions that I feel wholly comfortable writing. I considered also offering a combination of the two, but ultimately decided against it, as the MC's oast mental illness will eventually influence the future of the story and I want those paths to be very distinct and different.

Please mind that, while everyone who suffers from mental illness of any kind has their own totally subjective and individual experience with it, I'm writing social phobic and depressive MCs with certain "set" symptoms. Here are some set elements:

Social phobia MCs experience physical symptoms and selective mutism. They are nervous and quiet, so all their interactions, especially in the beginning of their hospitalization (even when picking the antagonistic options) will reflect that. So if you're wondering why MC seems to be acting meek or "submissive", it's bc of their affliction not allowing them to be as outspoken as they might like to be. Social phobia MCs have a general exhaustion of life, given they live in constant stress, but they do not self-harm. They are prone to sleep disturbances.

Depressive MCs experience listlessness, irritation (which can makes them more prone to acting aggressively), feelings of self-loathing and dissatisfaction. They have a heightened need for sleep and will report not wanting to get out of bed. They can, in fact, choose to be currently practicing self-harm, or to have done so in the past. However, even if they choose to have never self-harmed, they will report thoughts of suicide.

Either MC will be medicated during their time in the clinic. It's a small text section and a slight bit vague as my medical knowledge, despite my research efforts, is limited. The MC will get to choose how to feel about the drugs and the potential side effects, though.

Either MC will be able to additionally describe symptoms indicating neurodivergence.

Either MC can choose to be underage smoking, drinking or both during this time. Or neither, of course.

So thanks for reading all that! Small disclaimer: I know very well that the depression and social phobia symptoms I chose to write about are NOT universally representative. This all might sound like the routes are very set, but there's actually a ton of customization going on in this chapter, so don't you worry! (Also it's gonna be rly important for the future of the band)

[olderthannetfic]

I accidentally killed my own desire to write, and I need some advice. To be really blunt about it, what's the point of writing? When I would spend lots of time laboring over making a good story with a plot and characters who were in-character and connecting all the dots narratively so payoffs were satisfying, my reward was dead silence and virtually no clicks. I posted some mindless smut to my side account one day and got more hits in a day than most of my other works combined got in a year. I know, I know. "Write for ~*~yourself~*~" is the common response. It's the "be yourself!" of writing. It's supposed to be a magical phrase that'll make everything okay. But... I don't like knowing that something I spend months working on won't be read by anyone while something I write in a car while bored got thousands of clicks. I don't like making something I'm proud of and then no one ever looks at it. That's not fun for me. It's not fulfilling.

For a solid decade, I've tried to ignore how the level of interactivity in fandom is falling. Fewer comments. Fewer kudos. No comments in the bookmarks. You put your tumblr and Discord in the AN and get a handful of asks and one person who adds you, talks to you twice and then ghosts you. Most of the comments are "well, actuallys", made even more annoying by them being wrong as opposed to actually correcting an error. I avoid fandom drama, wank, and infighting. I don't engage with things I know will make me unhappy. I try to be happy over in my own little corner. I comment on every single work I read. I want people to enjoy fandom. I used to.

Some dumb smut I wrote in 40 minutes gets five times the hits of the writing I'm most proud of, and it gets it in just under three months. I am not a great smut writer. I haven't stumbled onto an incredible talent I had that makes it so the issue is that I'm so amazing my smut brings all the boys to the yard. People just don't like what I write and put effort into. It's very likely that despite 20 years of writing fic, I suck at writing. And people enjoy my writing most when they don't have to put up with anything substantial and can just skip to the sex.

So for the last eight months, when I write, I just sort of give up. Close the Word doc without saving. No one will read this. No one cares about this. There is no fan eagerly awaiting every update like I await updates from my favorite authors. There's not even someone saying, "update soon!" Close the Word doc. Delete old WIPs. There's no point. I do not tell stories worth reading. I used to. In the FFN days people genuinely enjoyed my work. I'd never have had an opportunity to do the 'I won't update until I get 3 reviews' thing because getting that many on a chapter was usually something I'd do overnight. Post before bed. Wake up. Read the reviews before school. I peaked in high school, I guess.

And now I'm just sort of lost. I still have lots of ideas. Ideas for fics fall into my head all the time. That's never been a problem. What I don't have is any motivation to write them. What's the point of writing? If no one else is reading, I guess the point would be so I could go back and read my own story and have fun with it. Write for myself. But I can review the story and have fun with it in my head without writing it down. It's substantially faster and more importantly, isn't incredibly depressing.

So, at the risk of definitely being calld the second-coming of True Art Anon or a troll or validation-seeking or haha mentally ill haha... what's the point of writing?

--

Okay, so write porn in a car while you're bored.

Look, you can whine all you want about my response, but what you've written here is blatantly about depression.

Lots of people in fandom are still interacting. And no, it isn't just on fics that are objectively written to some pro fiction standard or whatever. Teenagers still breathlessly review poorly spelled cracky masterpieces about this year's big anime and so forth.

Yes, there may be reasons why you in particular are in a slump when it comes to fandom friendships or "plz update" comments. We can talk about that. But this ask is all gloom about fandom in general. That's not realism: that's you having a problem.

--

As for why a person should write: because the actual hours you spend doing the writing are fun.

If they aren't pleasurable in some way, find another hobby.

--

But if you want an answer to the age old "Why did my 5 minute fic get 1000000x more asspats", I've seen meta about this for literally decades.

The most likely reason is that the fic we write quickly and without much thought often feels fresher and more fun. The things we labor over endlessly can feel overworked. Even in cases where they don't, they're often heavier subject matter or more niche subject matter. On top of all that, we just care more, so even a high level of feedback doesn't really feel like enough for the effort and care we put in.

--

Do you really need me to tell you why you don't feel the same as in high school when things were fresh and new?

Go read up on combatting burnout or dealing with post-college anxiety or managing stress in a dead-end job in your 30s or finding meaning in your 40s or whatever is going on.

Everyone goes through fallow periods in fandom and in life.

Feeling reinvigorated has to do with internal factors and some general life circumstance stuff. It doesn't have that much to do with number of kudos. That's just the surface trigger for a mood that was already there.

[oh-no-its-bird]

Please tell me more about force fem Minato being made the shinigami's wife

From this ask meme

I fucking knew someone would single that one out. Anyways, from my notesapp:

Force fem Minato being made the shinigami's wife as punishment for his hubris He and Kushia used to joke about Minato being the wife between the two of them, so he's eventually able to cope w his situation and dissociate by relying on the "I'm Kushina's wife" joke as a crutch to make it all feel slightly less awful The shinigami sends him on errands as his wife (collecting souls lmao) and Minato uses it as an excuse to watch Naruto and Kakashi from affar,, Umm maybe some of the errands involved Minato baiting people into making deals with and summoning his shinigami husband? He is the lure and the shinigami is the stick lmao The shinigami can't actually do things or manifest in the real world without someone first inviting them into their lives, so, like, that's part of what Minato's wife duties are. To get people to open the door to the shinigami. Among other things

+ Bonus which is kind of unrelated but was on the same notes page:

I like Minato for the take that there's something fr wrong w him and he makes a concious effort to appear normal and kind

He's like. Somewhere on the spectrum of sociopathy or has severe borderline personality or just some genuine mental illness and he works very hard, borrowing the mannerisms of those around him, to be charming and nice n stuff

I forget what fic I saw that in but like THATS the fic that made me care ab him

Hashirama 🤝 Minato

'Being friendly to the point that there's smthn genuinley wrong with them'

Minato !! I think he has a lot of untapped potential specifically in the market of fucking w shinigami. Like, what's even up with that? Let's play with that a little.

The man who would kill a thousand people in a day and return home happy to his wife,,, now turned into the wife who the shinigami who would kills thousands in a day returns home to,,, is this karma?

There's a few different directions this could go in tbh— both from the angle of like. How Minato is feeling / what he's going through but also like. Shinigami and yokai lore. What kind of shinigami / yokai lore are we playing with here.

The question isn't just what Minato is going through but also where the fuck is he. Is he in the Shinigami's personal little death dimension? Stuck inside the shinigami mask with him? Or is there some sort of broader shinigami world he's now living in? Is it only the shinigami, who Minato has to deal with? Or does he watch over any of the (no doubt countless) souls the shinigami has in its collection? Does he interact with any other yokai? Are the yokai he meets inside of whatever death dimension he's in or is it that he meets them when he leaves it to run errands? Or in some other, third place? Is Minato even human anymore or does he classify as some sort of yokai now too?

So many fun thoughts!

Anyways ummm. Thinking. Having thoughts. Specifically having abstract thoughts ab some sort of enraged Uzu fox ghost Kushina and new yokai shinigami wife Minato

Kushina's ghost is an Uzumaki one,, she grew up in Uzu where they just kind of have death god shrines n shit, apparently, she was never going to become a normal spirit. And that's not even counting the fox in her + all that weird yin/yang stuff w kurama. She is an angry, angry fox ghost with Uzumaki roots and she wants her wife back !!!

Umm Romeo and Juliet style forbidden love in the afterlife of Minato one day running back into Kushina's spirit (probably while they're both taking a moment to watch over Naruto / check in on Kakashi)

And they like. Do the spider man pointing meme bc HOLY SHIT OMG MY SPOUSE YOURE ALSO TRAPPED IN THIS AFTERLIFE LIMBO and also make out and like tell eachother what they've been doing (Kushina w her cool Uzumaki spirit lore and Minato w his much less cool "yeah so the shinigami um. Turned me into his wife. So.") but then they're forced to separate bc Minato can only leave the shinigami's domain for so long

Forbidden romance under the eye of the shinigami,,, if Minato gets caught the shinigami threatens to make him reap Kushina's soul to add to his collection

Idk but there's just a lot of potential here.

Naruto not from the POV of anyone living but instead from shinigami wife Minato trying to slip in time to see his fox ghost wife again as the plot of Naruto happens in the bg, could be fun

Then the Uchiha massacre happens and suddenly so many more angry spirits are getting added to the mess, oh boy

But yeah thank u for participating in the ask game here is a much longer than I meant for it to be tumblr post as ur payment

[dot-png]

PLEASE TALK MORE ABOUT AUTISTIC CODED BRYCE PLS PLEASE its so fun to read ur thoughts abt him/hfjone characters in general :33/nf

i went a little over this on my mini analysis of him:

since im not good at organizing my thoughts (very apparent in this image tbh) ill pick some of the asd diagnosis criteria and elaborate based on how i see it fitting bryce

Difficulties in social emotional reciprocity, including trouble with social approach, back and forth conversation, sharing interests with others, and expressing/understanding emotions.

again, bryce's monotone, he has a lot of trouble expressing himself. i think it's also interesting to bring up how he's sarcastic, people tend to think most if not all autistic people don't understand irony and while that's the case for a lot of us we can still understand and be sarcastic we're just bad at it most of the time . he has a hard time expressing himself so he chooses to be obnoxiously sarcastic. maybe to fit in who knows

for the trouble with social approach i can think of how in onei 4 kylie talks about bryce snapping at their boss, but specifically the visual part because like they were just talking to him and he snapped out of nowhere. you can argue that kylie said he was acting unusually but, what if its unusual because he couldn't make an effort to mask because of how much one was bothering him. a workplace is a very common place to mask. he wasn't acting unusually, screaming at people is very common for bryce, kylie just doesn't know about it because she only sees him at work and he'd like to maintain his job. do you get what im saying probably not

i'll go on a tangent actually, this scene with oscar also feels like masking to me... notice how he's carefully picking his words and putting on a character so that they can leave already because oscar was not collaborating. even if he seems to be communicative while trying to find a way out of the conversation hes still trying to find a way out of the conversation like, he doesn't know how to approach it so he makes something up. he even forces a smile

this sounds a little dumb considering how he was just trying to prevent liam from dropping a bombshell to oscar but if you squint it does makes sense and im one hundred percent right

Difficulties in nonverbal communication used for social interaction including abnormal eye-contact and body language and difficulty with understanding the use of nonverbal communication like facial expressions or gestures for communication.

i can think of this scene:

(transcript bc tumblr wont let me add two videos)

but you can argue that everyone has a hard time understanding stone lol

i just think it's interesting that when stone resorted to pushing bryce he immediately took it personally, like, he didn't try connecting the dots based on what he was gesticulating before. and thats because bryce is very defensive - which is also an autistic trait.....! it mainly relates to the frustration we feel when someone is annoyed that don't understand them, but to us they were clearly not being clarificatory at all. even if we don't intend to sound confrontational when contesting them, we end up doing so

i kinda wish we got a bryce interview so we could see how he acted. i like how cheesy portrayed the characters' mannerisms in the investigations like, how most of them act really awkward, and that's enhaced by the fact that we're viewing it from ava's perspective

Deficits in developing and maintaining relationships with other people (other than with caregivers), including lack of interest in others, difficulties responding to different social contexts, and difficulties in sharing imaginative play with others.

i dont think i need to explain this one that much like bryce's not very social, he doesn't talk to anyone at work, his only friend is bradley and the police thought one of the best people to interview for his disappearance was a co-worker. bryce's closest relationship ever aside for liam and amelia seems to have been stella (a caregiver) and that's it

even with liam and amelia he has some problems with communication

getting into headcanon territory i wanna expand on that last part with imaginative play, it's obviously referring to children but like we saw bryce as a child so i can come up with something

to me it always seemed like bryce and stella had a big age difference for siblings, like by looking at that image alone you can deduce that bryce's a small child while stella's already a teenager. and as someone with just one sibling really older than me it really affects our mannerisms when playing, like a child would want their sibling to play with them but they're already a teenager so they don't find interest in it. it can demotivate the child and how they interact with people their age, specially if they're autistic, since they already feel left out so not knowing how to engage in playing with other children makes that feeling even worse

but that's at least how it was for me and again its just a headcanon .... i make up a lot of headcanons based on that flashback sequence alone for some reason

Rigid adherence to routines, ritualized patterns of verbal or nonverbal behaviors, and extreme resistance to change (such as insistence on taking the same route to school, eating the same food because of color or texture, repeating the same questions); the individual may become greatly distressed at small changes in these routines.

when bryce gets sent to the plane he shows this a lot. everyone talks about how they want to go back to their lives but bryce specifically talks about his routine . he's so pretentious about it its funny

when liam wants him to go to bradley with him he does this again also

most of the confronts bryce has with liam in s2 can be linked back to his resistance to change

Increased or decreased reactivity to sensory input or unusual interest in sensory aspects of the environment, such as not reacting to pain, strong dislike to specific sounds, excessive touching or smelling objects, or fascination with spinning objects.

i went over this one on the analysis, bryce gets stimulated very easily by sensory inputs and the smallest things startle him (ill include the gifs i used again because i find them silly

(ik on the second one he was like mutilated or whatever but compare his reaction to liam's . and also to amelia's after literally shattering to death)

he also has a sensory related phobia so

kinda unrelated but i think it would be funny if the "not reacting to pain" bit was attributed to humanized bryce based on how object bryce is like. made out of plastic. and he was ok after falling from a pole since that makes his resistant

cheesy said he didnt intend to write any of the characters as autistic (but doesnt mind if people see them that way) but bryce is still very coded to me..... maybe its just because i always try to find a way to relate my favorite characters' experiences to my experiences lol

[spacexfucker]

when I worked at a call center for a large retailer of hunting/camping/etc goods. I'd get multiple calls daily from people who had bought something off the website and just not read anything about it besides the product name and price.

We sold recliners (usually camo or some other flavor) as part of the home goods line. And on the website and at three separate points of the purchasing process, told people that our delivery drivers would not take it inside a home and would leave them at the end of a driveway. It was an insurance issue. They had to agree to those terms when they bought it. And yet every day I would get a call about how the driver just left it at the end of a driveway and they'd bitch and moan about it, demanding a refund or for someone to go out and do it. And every time I had to tell them that it says clearly on the site that it works that way and that they had to agree to it to purchase and every time they'd say some version of "well, I didn't read that!"

Most people don't read. Most people cherry pick phrases they think they understand and use it like an independent fact. Most people don't do anything more than a casual glance with their brain turned off when they do just about anything. And when they get bit in the ass for it, they make it everyone else's problem.

This experience told me years ago that most people you interact with have likely not actually looked into half the things they fight you tooth and nail over. That the same people sending you articles or videos about stuff to prove you wrong have, likely, not even actually read the article or watched the video all the way through. And if they have, probably didn't make an effort to understand it and just read it to find key points they think supports their narrative.

And I still get reminded of this!

My parents are MAGA. I've been trying for years to get them out of that cult. Recently, we had a fight about the autism/adhd mental illness ssri bad vaccine bullshit the white house put out in an executive order. I talked to them about it and instead of listening to what I had to say, they just sent me a video of the press release from rfk jr. And told me to watch that so I didn't have "media bias". And I lost it. Because the whole conversation was happening BECAUSE I watched the press release and read the executive order. And when I told them that, they admitted they hadn't actually watched or read either thing! Because their whole belief system is built on barely knowing anything but what tik toks and fox news say.

[finisnihil]

Some people need to learn the difference between like/disliking a character on a personal level v. a writing level. I dislike some characters on a personal level but I do love their writing and characterization on a meta level and any of my bullying of them is mostly for jokes. Meanwhile there's also characters who I adore on a personal level but abhor the writing of because it feels like their concepts or potential as a character were squandered.

I've said it before i'll say it again when you let your personal bias on a character infect your analysis of them you get mischaracterization. Part of media literacy is seperating authoral intention from reader response and thinking about if anything about the character or their interactions can cloud your judgement of them on a surface level.

For example, in the 2.1 quest of HSR I saw some Aventurine lovers absolutely jump on a hate train for Sunday because in their eyes, Sunday was villainous for his actions against Aventurine and deserved to be put down for it. But, when you stop bastardizing Sunday in an effort to validate and sanitize Aventurine's motives you see the two are actually equally complicit in hurting the other. Sunday did try to turn Ratio against Aventurine and he did cast the whole Truth or Die spell but when you actually critically analyze Sunday and his role in the interaction he is more sympathetic and he makes more sense.

Aventurine was going into the interaction, an interaction regarding the IPC's increasingly aggressive attempts to recolonize Penacony after losing it as a prison planet, bragging about using the horrific murder of Sunday's sister to exploit him. Aventurine has never once hid his intentions, he's sympathetic but that doesn't change the fact he's trying to rip Penacony's freedom away for the IPC. We've seen what the IPC does to planets, no matter how corrupt the Family is, the IPC will be worse without a doubt. Aventurine is a morally grey character, he took the gamble of lying under the spell and he understood the stakes when he did it. Trying to bastardize Sunday in order to try and act like Aventurine didn’t have the autonomy to fuck around and find out is really disingenuous to both characters.

As for Sunday, Sunday is incredibly sympathetic too. We know he’s under crushing pressure by everyone around him to hide things for the sake of public image and we know he’s sacrificed a ton for his sister. Sunday is reverential of Xipe but we see him being actively wary of the Family. He knows there’s a traitor, he knows the Family is rotting with ill intent, he knows Death is on the loose. Robin and him are doing their damndest to handle these problems within their circumstances and we’ve seen their notes! They aren’t ignoring the problem, they’re even trying to get outside help from both the Astral Express and Aventurine. We see the Lightcone of their childhood in an otherwise clinical and impersonal office, one where he built her a toy stage and became her first audience. He cares about Robin more than anything and you see his rage and grief being suppressed yet slipping here and there and causing him to make sloppy mistakes, such as using the Truth or Die spell to lash out at Aventurine when he feels cornered with no control over the situation. When he confronts Gallagher he finally cracks and just… breaks. You see him lose it to the point he doesn’t even notice Death behind him until it’s too late. Despite being likened to songbirds, Robin and Sunday both died quietly in their gilded cages. They are the canaries in the coal mine.

Sunday and Aventurine are meant to parallel each other, they both lost their sister in a gruesome event outside of their control because they couldn’t protect her. Sunday couldn’t protect her from the cage he let himself be trapped in so she could fly free and Aventurine couldn’t protect her because he was too small and too young and too lucky. One is a younger brother and one is an elder brother.

The only major difference between them is who we experience the story through. Aventurine is our eyes for most of 2.1 so therefore Sunday is the one put in the antagonistic role. Antagonists are characters who’s motives and goals oppose the protagonists. Because of this, we have to flesh out Sunday’s character via subtext because we don’t have the luxury of his POV to be blatant like with Aventurine. If the roles reversed, if Sunday was our eyes, I bet Aventurine would be the one getting the flack instead.

[analyticalstarz]

I think we should talk about Leo/Need more

During middle school, Ichika had to deal with Saki being hospitalized then having a falling out with Honami and Shiho directly after due to Shiho and Honami both becoming victims of bullying and not wanting to drag Ichika down with them. Ichika didn't even get an explanation as to why Honami and Shiho were leaving her either, she just got told "I don't want to be your friend anymore." and it got left at that. Even though Ichika still attempted to reach out, she got little in response and became extremely lonely as a result. Ichika blamed herself for the groups falling out and carried a lot of guilt about it for years; she felt listless and empty. She felt even guiltier since she was hiding the fact from Saki, who was already lonely and isolated enough as it was due to being hospitalized. Ichika spent 2 years all alone, no other friends, trying to get Shiho and Honami to talk to her, but all her efforts were fruitless. All she wanted were her childhood friends back During middle school, Honami was a big people-pleaser due to the overwhelming fear of being hated by other people. She was bullied because she had the tendency to befriend and show sympathy for people in different friend groups and avoided picking sides, to the point that she was accused of sucking up to others to avoid being hated and was called two-faced. She was treated as an outcast in her class. Once the next school year rolled around, she was afraid of being bullied again by her new classmates and only hung out with a small group of people, and subsequently, she started avoided Ichika and Shiho. Even after she started hanging out with that small group of people, Honami became wary that she'd be ostracized and hated all over again if she even made one small mistake. In one of Kanade's side stories, Honami admitted that she had the desire to "disappear" before. During middle school, Shiho preferred solitude and being by herself. She'd reject her classmates invitations to hang out, and ultimately, people started talking bad about her due to her aloof demeanor. Shiho didn't mind the gossip or rumors, but once people started talking bad about Ichika as well by default since she hung out with Shiho, Shiho pushed Ichika away and distanced herself from her in order to protect her. Since Honami was being bullied as well during that time, the two gradually grew apart once they both decided to stop interacting with the friend group. Shiho was in the light music club during middle school, and got frustrated due to the members lack of work and dedication. Once she brought it up, the club got into an argument which subsequently caused them to split up, only further worsening Shiho's reputation. She didn't mean to hurt either Ichika or Honami, all she wanted to do was protect them from getting hurt by her bad reputation. During middle school, Saki was hospitalized all throughout the duration of it due to her weak body and chronic illness. She was bedridden for days on end, and was extremely isolated and lonely. She questioned why she was the way she was, and was extremely jealous of people who could experience life normally. She never got to experience things like playing tennis, travelling or even going to school due to her poor health. Outside of immediate family, Ichika was the only one to visit her in the hospital, which she deeply appreciated. Whenever anyone visited her, Saki put on a brave face and smile so she wouldn't further upset anybody, despite how empty and hurt she was deep down inside. She'd spend her days crying without anyone there to comfort her, and often worried that she'd never get better. While in the hospital, she was completely oblivious to the groups falling out since nobody ever told her, and she only realized after being discharged from the hospital. Instead of making fun of Leo/Need for not being the most visually striking and having "boring" personalities, I think you should actually read their group stories, cause all of their lore is really interesting

[geekgirles]

Since all I ask for now is that Amalia gets to call the Osamodas out on their hypocrisy and betrayal, I think it's important to point out Armand never wanted Aurora to rule.

I say this in light of her father claiming she is the rightful heir to the throne when we all know she's actually not.

And I don't just mean her claim on the throne isn't legitimate because a) she's not even a Sadida, or b) she was Armand's Osamodas wife, not even his daughter, which would give her claim some credibility, but because it's clear to see she was never meant to truly be the Sadidas' queen, not even their regent.

I know this all sounds contradictory with the fact that, by virtue of marrying Armand, the Crown Prince, she eventually became his queen, but the thing is, it's plain to see not even Armand wanted her to rule the kingdom on her own, which is what her family is trying to accomplish—although there's also a very high chance they intend to rule through her, rather than let her make her own decisions.

As @vinillain and I have discussed through reblogs, it seems to be implied Aurora was never really meant to rule: not only wasn't she a candidate for becoming her own people's queen, but it is clear to see she was only meant to be given an important position in court but with none of the responsibilities expected from such duty.

This can be seen in her role in seasons 3 and 4; despite being Armand's wife and loving him, she never really acted like a true queen. In season 3 she acted conniving and pretended to have Amalia and the kingdom's best interests in mind when, deep down, all she cared about was strengthening her and her family's power over Sadida politics. And in season 4 she remained passive, aloof, and emotionless throughout. At no point was she shown to feel genuine concern for her husband's people even in the face of an imminent threat.

The most active role she's taken ever since she debuted was playing matchmaker for an unwilling Amalia and trying to find more about the Eliaculus.

From what we've seen so far it's easy to conclude she was always meant to be Armand's consort, but never his actual partner. She was essentially sent to the Sadidas to act as their king's arm candy. Whatever power gap was between them, she never made any efforts to breach it and show her worth.

For all she and her family look down on Amalia, Aurora herself never matured enough to become a suitable ruler, whereas Amalia eventually grew into her mother's mantle; even when his father was still alive, she had already become Queen of the Sadidas.

And I think despite his love for her, Armand knew this. He knew she could never rule the kingdom without him; knew she never should rule his kingdom without him.

Despite his many flaws and not-so-stellar moments, Armand was raised to be king. He was never stupid. He knew the inner workings of politics in and out and how to navigate them.

This is apparent in his interactions with the Osamodas King.

While he maintained a cool head throughout, it was clear to see Armand saw right through his father-in-law's ill-veiled condescension towards his people and his desire to control his kingdom. Which is why I wouldn't be surprised if he had never truly trusted Aurora despite coming to love her.

Because of everything his people had gone through, Armand was perfectly aware his kingdom was practically of no importance to the other races, for they never sent their support when they needed it most. So it wouldn't be far-fetched to assume Armand knew all along the Osamodas' intentions behind marrying him to Aurora went beyond simply providing him with a queen.

Which is why I believe he never intended to let Aurora become regent if he was no longer around.

But my greatest evidence are his last words to Amalia as he was about to sacrifice himself and he put her to safety. I don't have the screenshots for it (so I'd appreciate if anyone could provide them), but he essentially told Amalia she would be their next queen.

That's it. That's all he said. He never said, "Please, help Aurora out", or "You two are co-rulers now", or even "You have my permission to fuck Yugo senseless". He told his sister it was up to her to rule their people, not his wife.

Meaning, between her being the last remaining Sheran Sharm, the second in line when her brother was still alive, and Armand's words, Amalia is the kingdom's rightful ruler, not Aurora. It was never Aurora.  

[iamnmbr3]

Alternative reading: what if the locket was a decoy?

So I was thinking about the locket Horcrux and I suddenly thought of a really interesting alternative, against-the grain-reading. I think an argument could be made that it was never a Horcrux and that Tom intended Kreacher to escape and the whole thing was a trap to catch a spy and undermine the Order that went slightly sideways. I'm not saying this is what I necessarily actually headcanon, but I think it's a really cool concept. Let me explain.

It's really interesting to me that according to Kreacher's account, the locket wasn't placed in the cave till shortly before Voldemort was destroyed the first time. In Kreacher's story, Voldemort didn't use him to test the defenses. He has the locket with him and places it in the basin after Kreacher drinks the potion. So...where was it before?

Either he moved it from another location (which has some concerning implications of its own since that would mean there could theoretically be some other undiscovered Horcrux in the old location) or he didn't acquire it till much later than suggested in canon OR it was a setup.

Tom may have suspected that Regulus was a spy. Regulus had a brother in the Order after all. And he also may have already started having doubts about Tom and The Death Eaters (and Tom is a powerful Legilimens and may have detected this). Furthermore, depending on exactly when Lily & James went into hiding relative to Regulus's death, Snape may have already been spying for the Order so Tom may have been made further suspicious by the fact that information about some of his plans seemed to be leaking. He may have devised the locket as a test and a trap.

Maybe it wasn't a Horcrux at all, but rather an object designed to corrupt people and sow discord in a group and Tom's plan was that Regulus would recover it and bring it back to the Order where it would cause conflict and friction. This could explain why it behaves differently from the diary Horcrux and also why it doesn't have the level of protections on it that the Gaunt ring did.

In the beginning of book 7 Hermione says that it is emotional closeness that puts you at risk from a Horcrux, not physical proximity, but we then see that wearing the locket has an effect on the Golden Trio members and that taking it off alleviates the effect. Furthermore, the locket does not seem to be as sentient or communicative as the diary.

Additionally, the locket is protected in a way that makes it challenging but possible to retrieve and even the potion that protects it, while unpleasant, is not poisoned (given that Kreacher survived drinking it with no ill effect). It's a perfect setup for a witness to make a "lucky" escape and for a determined outsider to then be able to retrieve the object based on the witness's information.

In contrast, the Gaunt ring was clearly something Tom did not want anyone touching or interacting with in any way. In addition to other protections, it had a curse on it that was meant to instantly kill anyone who touched it - a curse so powerful that even Dumbledore was not able to detect it before he put the ring on. The combined efforts of Dumbledore and Snape, two of the most accomplished and talented wizards ever, were not enough to counter this curse and the most they were able to do was just slow down its effects a little. (Also the fact that Dumbledore put the ring on so hastily suggests that there was a secondary curse that urged anyone who penetrated the other defenses to be tempted to put on the ring, which again used magic so sophisticated that he was not able to detect and disarm it). The ring's protections were so powerful and so deadly that they resulted in Dumbledore's death and would have probably killed any lesser wizard immediately.

Compared to that, the locket's defenses seem suspiciously easy to penetrate. And there is notably no fatal effects from handling the locket. In this context it is also possible that the fact that Kreacher could apparate out of the cave was not an oversight. Instead it could have been a plan to make the locket look like a Horcrux and make it seem as though Kreacher only escaped by chance. Tom may have presumed that Kreacher would tell Regulus and if Regulus was disloyal he would go after it because surely an object like that would be of great interest to the Order. Even the location he chose is a place that would peak the Order's interest since he might know that Dumbledore heard the story of that cave from Mrs. Cole.

If Regulus brought it to the Order to study it could then start sowing discord among them (just as it did with the Golden Trio) and interrupting their unity and operations. Furthermore, Regulus would be exposed as a spy.

Of course it goes a bit wrong because Regulus dies by suicide. However, Tom may have still assumed he was a spy, or at the very least disloyal and not bothered to retrieve the locket since Regulus's faithlessness plus Tom's general resentment against powerful pureblood families who once disdained him may have turned him against the Black family and he may have felt leaving it with them was a good punishment. (And then of course he lost his body shortly thereafter).

It could also explain why even after he realizes Harry is hunting Horcruxes he makes no attempt to retrieve the locket even though he doesn't know whether it's destroyed. (Of course, he may have simply assumed that Harry was using Fiendfyre to destroy any Horcruxes he found but this is a viable alternative). This could also mean that he still had other Horcruxes out there that were not identified.

(I am also entertained by the fact that the locket behaving kind of like the One Ring even works in-universe since given when LOTR was written Tom could've read it and been inspired lol.)

Anyway, I think it's a really fun alternate concept to think about.

[redditreceipts]

I think your views come from a lack of experience. I am a transgender woman and my mental illness has caused me to attempt suicide twice. Ive known i was a woman since age 4 and I didnt only want to conform to the social aspect of womanhood ive always wanted to live as a woman in the body of one. severe disconnect and hatred of my flesh and manhood drove me to insanity, which is not an isolated case in the community. i think you should make an effort to communicate with actual real trans people with no ulterior motives beyond presenting as their transitioned gender. even if we were in a genderless society with no such thing as a woman class id still be dysphoric

Hey :) Thank you for that explanation!

First of all, I would like to say that I'm glad that the suicide attempts didn't work out and you're still with us :)

Also, I think that it is important to recognise that I am not against people choosing to medically transition. If you now live happier while looking like a woman, that is totally good for you! Nobody should be forced to live in a body that they hate.

l also don't think that most trans people have ulterior motives for their transition or that they are dishonest when saying that they suffer from gender dysphoria. I myself have gender dysphoria and I know that it's no joke. I also don't think that trans people are "making it up" when they say that they wish to be a part of the opposite sex. (And I honestly don't know where you got that from, since I've never said that)

However, even if you want to live your life as a woman and have a woman's body, that doesn't mean that therefore, it is true. If you had a woman's body, you wouldn't be dysphoric.

And I really don't get where you got it that I don't interact with trans people or that I don't know what it's like to be trans. I myself have identified as trans for quite some while, and I have a ton of trans acquaintances (and some friends). I know that they are not categorically evil people. I just disagree with a claim they make about reality. I don't even say that anyone is wrong to transition, if they are an adult and have adequate mental health care. I just think that they cannot change sex.