#is it a coincidence that those are the two stories that are based on real events maybe it makes the writing better

[whump-queen]

Bite was so so so so soososo amazing!!!!!!!

it would be so cool if you felt like doing a part 2 where Whumper actually gives Whumpee a tongue piercing

Bite and Spine are tied for 1st place in my Whump stories that circulate in my brain went free 👀💞

aahhh thank you!!! so glad you liked them <3

Bite and Spine are definitely my most requested stories for continuations, and i’ve had a part 2 for both planned out in my head for a while (spine part 2 has been in the drafts forever 💀) i’ve been in a weird writing block lately but I do intend on finishing part 2’s for both!

[mage-of-mip]

Half-Foots and Ainu Culture in Dungeon Meshi

It sometimes feels like I might be grasping at straws with this, but I do feel like it's not completely unfounded. Please note, I am a white woman living in the USA, I am by no means an expert on Japanese culture in general, much less a marginalized subculture. I have simply made limited attempts to educate myself out of genuine interest born from exposure to media about Ainu characters and culture. I am always hoping to learn more.

I think it's fairly obvious that many parallels can be drawn between Ryoko Kui's Half-Foot race, and more than one ethnicity or subculture in real life. Romani, Irish, and Jewish stereotypes come to mind immediately.

But I think there's another one that may be explored less in the text, and much harder to catch by a western reader, but nonetheless could be intended by Kui, or perhaps was at one point. That of the Ainu people of Hokkaido, Japan.

There's not a lot of translated information about the Ainu online, so please bear with my limited knowledge. In short, the Ainu are the indigenous people of Northern Japan. For generations, their way of life has been taken from them and they were forced to assimilate to the wider Japanese culture. There are not many who still fully practice the cultural heritage in this day, but there are movements to bring the Ainu culture back.

In Delicious in Dungeon, there are two instances that reference the Ainu, both relating to Chilchuck. This could, of course, be a coincidence, especially if there are more references that I missed. It may be flimsy, but it still feels significant that this is the case, and that Half-Foots are or were meant to be an allusion to the Ainu.

This is the first instance. A significant panel in the context of the story. To my knowledge, this is the only specifically Ainu dish that's referenced in the text. On it's own, its just an interesting factoid, and the same dark humor that's being used for all the other character deaths in this fight against Thistle.

This is the second instance. From the supplemental material rather than the main story, Chilchuck is discussing what Half-Foots are called across the languages. The one that caught my eye here is the one in the top corner. Korpokkur.

The Korpokkur are a race of small people in Ainu folklore, their name meaning "those who live under the butterbur leaves".

Again, in a vacuum, this could just be a Japanese person using a Japanese word [Edit: Correction; An Ainu word] in her manga. But I think it's interesting that the two instances of Ainu culture being referenced have to do with Chilchuck and Half-Foots as a whole. It could warrant a deeper read-through looking for other references, perhaps by someone more educated than myself.

I think this could have some interesting implications in the wider worldbuilding. Perhaps the Half-Foots have faced similar cultural erasure and assimilation attempts, which is why a lot of their customs and clothing are just "Tallman but smaller", and why other races regularly mistake them for the children of tallmen, despite having pretty noticeable differences in how they look other than just their height(their disproportionately large ears, for example).

This idea might be a tad more indulgent, but I also like the idea that Half-Foot children don't receive a permanent name until they are toddlers. At one point, in Ainu culture(this may not be practiced today, I could not find information on that), the Ainu would give their children "vulgar" placeholder names until they started forming personalities, as a ward against evil spirits. Perhaps the same is done for Half-Foot children, and their two part names are selected when they are a little older.

Again, these are just the observations of an outsider looking in, please feel free to correct any mistakes I may have made! And if I'm completely off-base or have said something offensive, I apologize and will delete or amend the post as necessary.

[cheapshrimpysheep]

Hello OP! Hope u don’t mind this request for the demon bros

So just earlier i saw the “raising a pet together” game on tiktok, and i was on a freenzy, IT’S JUST TOO CUTE 🥹 and i’m too single to have anybody to do it with me lol.

What would be their reaction when the MC got them to downloaded the app and raise the virtual pet together?

COMMENTS: Well, I didn't know about this game, so I asked Gemini (Bard) about it to find out a little more about this type of game. Long story short: I told some of my friends about this game and now we are taking care of a virtual kitten together 😊 Thank you so much for the request 😉

What I wrote is based on my little experience playing the game called Pokipet. I hope you and all enjoy 🐶🐱

CHARACTERS: Demon Brothers (Lucifer; Mammon; Leviathan; Satan; Asmodeus; Beelzebub & Belphegor)

TAGS: Fluff; GN Reader; Bullet Points

WORD COUNT: An average of 390 words per character.

CONTEXT - According to Gemini (formerly "Bard"): The "Raising a Pet Together" game is a concept where you and someone else, like a friend, family member, or significant other, work together to raise a virtual pet.

The core idea is to work together to raise a virtual pet, which can be a fun way to: Simulate pet ownership and its responsibilities. Test your teamwork and communication skills. Have a cute and engaging way to interact with someone else.

“Why would we take care of a virtual pet together if we can already do it with Cerberus?” He will ask you.

Well, maybe you just want to try it out and see how it goes.

“Of course everything would be fine. The two of us would be its caretakers. How could anything go if not perfectly?” he sighs and chuckles “Fine. If you really want to do this, then I can accommodate your whims.”

According to Lucifer's traditional Devildom profile, when asked "Cats or Dogs" he answers "Cerberus". So he would choose to take care of a dog and name it Cerberus.

Whenever you open the app to take care of the little virtual Cerberus, Lucifer has already taken care of everything. Feed it? He already did. Give it a bath? He already did it. Pet it? The happiness bar is already maxed out, but you can still do it.

You would probably do more of the decorating of the room and give it clothes and accessories. He'll probably be stupidly good at the minigames and earn a lot of money so you can spend it freely on those things.

Whenever he has a lot of work and opens the app as if it were another of his responsibilities and sees that the virtual Cerebrus is fed and well taken care of by you, he will smile in relief. It's so wonderful to have another person he can rely on and share responsibilities with. You're so good at taking the weight off his shoulders and making him feel at ease.

He will definitely try to use this game to convince you to take care of the real Cerebrus with him instead of a virtual pet.

If the app has a chat and, at night, you both open the app at the same time to put your pet to bed:

Lucifer: Good evening (Y/N)

Lucifer: Are you here to put Cerberus to bed too?

Lucifer: What a pleasant coincidence.

The two of you cuddle your pet until it falls asleep.

Lucifer: Now, you should go to sleep too.

Lucifer: The same applies to me.

Lucifer: But now I want to fall asleep with you by my side.

Lucifer: Come to my room.

Lucifer: I can cuddle you until you fall asleep too.

Lucifer: If what you want is to sleep, of course.

“Raising a pet together?! Do you think I have money to support a pet? I can barely stay out of debt!” Mammon panics and speaks as if you were talking about a child.

But then you explain that it's a virtual pet, on your D.D.D.s.

“Oh...” He blushes a lot. “W-why didn't you say that from the beginning, you dummy?” He thinks for a second and then smiles widely. “Well, if it's free, I guess we can try it.”

According to Mammon's traditional Devildom profile, when asked "Cats or Dogs"  he answers "Cats". If you were surprised, so was I. For a name? Maybe Goldie, like his credit card. A yellow kitten named Goldie.

He'll blush a little when he thinks that you're taking care of a pet together, like a real close couple.

You are the one who will take care of Goldie the most. Giving it food and bath. And there will be many times when you almost don't have the money for it because Mammon will spend it all on toys, clothes and decoration. Even though it's a virtual pet, he will spoil it.

In terms of the pet's needs, he will probably just play with it. And give it treats. He will try to do the minigames to earn more money, but regardless of whether he is good at these minigames or not, he will continue to spend more money than he can earn.

But despite everything, he will try to be as helpful as possible and genuinely try to take care of Goldie so you don't have to do all the work. Sometimes he will even surprise you by taking really ood care of it.

If the app has a chat and, at night, you both open the app at the same time to put your pet to bed:

Mammoney: Oi! What are ya doin' here?

Mammoney: Oh. Ya here to put Goldie to bed too?

Mammoney: Ok. You can do it tonight

You cuddle your pet until it falls asleep.

Mammoney: Aww look at our baby~

Mammoney: PET! I MEAN PET!

Mammoney: hey... if you're still not sleepy either

Mammoney: why don't ya come to my room?

Mammoney: I always feel more relaxed with you by my side

Mammoney: Maybe we can help each other sleep?

Mammoney: Or... do something else if ya want...

“A VIRTUAL PET TO TAKE CARE OF TOGETHER?!?!” Levi is overjoyed with the idea! His eyes were sparkling! You don't need to say anything else, he's already downloading the app. Could this be a test to find out if you would be good parents to a real pet? Or maybe... No! NO LEVI! TOO EARLY!! One step at a time.

According to Levi's traditional Devildom profile, when asked "Cats or Dogs"  he answers "Henry". But since he could only choose between dog and cat, he would probably choose dog, because cats are known to eat fish.

For a name? “Maybe Henry 3.0?” He starts to suggest “Hum... no... Ah! Can I try something?” he writes a name that is accepted and shows it to you so you can confirm or deny the suggestion, with his cheeks slightly flushed. Henry <3 When he sees you smile in confirmation, his smile and enthusiasm only increase.

He's a dedicated gamer, so you don't have to worry about anything at all! He will get so many coins that you will practically be rich in that game. And he will buy everything. EVERYTHING! Decoration, food, toys, clothes, accessories, literally everything that is possible to buy in the game. And you can do whatever you want.

If you show that you would like to contribute more to your pet's care, he will apologize and promise to play less so you can have the opportunity to take care of Henry <3 too. But of course he will continue to open the app almost constantly, even if it's just to see you taking care of Henry <3.

Don't be surprised if he one day shows up with a Henry <3 plush so that the two of you can cuddle your baby whenever you want.

If the app has a chat and, at night, you both open the app at the same time to put your pet to bed:

L3V1: HEYYYYY ^.^

L3V1: Are you here to put Henry <3 to bed too?

L3V1: Let’s do it together!

The two of you cuddle your pet until it falls asleep.

L3V1: Hey... um... are you sleepy?

L3V1: The thing is I'm not sleepy yet

L3V1: Actually I'm now wide awake

L3V1: Could you keep me company for a little while?

L3V1: You know, I always feel sleepier when I'm with you

L3V1: I feel safe and calm

L3V1: If by chance you also feel this way about me

L3V1: Would you like to keep each other company in my room?

L3V1: But it could also be in yours

L3V1: Or not. It's okay if you don't want to

Take care of a virtual pet together? Where one of the options is a cat? Sign him up! And since he can't have a real pet cat, this is the best thing you could have propose to him! (*cough* besides marriage *cough*)

We don't even need the Devildom profile for this one, do we?

For a name? Probably the name of one of his favorite writers. Or... how about the name of one of your (you two) favorite writers? Christopher from Christopher Peugeot ;)

He's not that much into games, but since we're talking about taking care of a kitten, he can reach your level of experience. Or at least he will try. And to do this, he will do two things: 1st - Ask you for help. Which will make you two learn together how the game works. And 2nd - Do a lot of research on the internet about the best ways to play and the best strategies to get lots of coins so that your cat doesn't lack any care.

That game will be one of the main apps on his D.D.D. In addition to apps about books and the chat where he talks to you and the others.

Maybe he'll even find a way to change the background on his phone to a screen shot of your virtual pet.

If the app has a chat and, at night, you both open the app at the same time to put your pet to bed:

stn: Hello.

stn: I see you're here to put Christopher to bed as well.

stn: Why don't we do the honors together?

The two of you cuddle your pet until it falls asleep.

stn: Now we both should go to sleep too.

stn: If you are having trouble falling asleep, you can come to my room.

stn: I will be happy to read with you until you fall asleep.

stn: Your company will also help me rest.

stn: So feel free to come see me.

“Take care of a virtual pet together? That sounds so cute! Oh, but it's not as demanding as taking care of a real pet, is it? I'm not ready for that kind of commitment. I still need my ME time.~”

According to Asmo's traditional Devildom profile, when asked "Cats or Dogs" he answers "Me <3". But you need to choose between a dog and a cat. So you suggest a cat.In real life, cats are generally not as dependent as dogs. And, lets say that they are more likely to take "beauty more seriously" than a dog.

For a name? “OH! Can it be Asmodeus II? Pretty pleeeeease~”

You will be Asmodeus II's main caretaker. Since Asmo will be more interested in spoiling it with toys, clothes and affection. And if he wants to buy something and doesn't have coins for it, he'll try to convince you to play more mini-games to get more coins for him to spend. “Ow, don't be mad at me hon. It's for our little baby. What if I spoil you in real life as a thanks~?”

When he tells his followers about this new virtual pet, eventually, more and more fans will ask him to tell them more and more about how it's going. Which mean that your pet will end up becoming part of his content. But it also ends up making Asmo pay more attention and care for it more.

And don't be surprised if, for a person who didn't want to commit to a pet, he ends up being the one trying to convince you to get a real pet. After all, if a virtual pet is already so good, imagine how much better a real pet would be! How cute would that be! And how much more engagement and new followers his social media would have! But despite this last one, what he really wants is to share a new love with you.

If the app has a chat and, at night, you both open the app at the same time to put your pet to bed:

AsmoBaby: Hey hon~ <3

AsmoBaby: I just wanted to come put our baby to bed~

AsmoBaby: Sorry for always being you the one to do this

AsmoBaby: What if you let me do this tonight? ;)

He cuddles your pet until it falls asleep.

AsmoBaby: Awwww! IT’S SO CUTE!

AsmoBaby: I have to take a screenshot to show my followers!

AsmoBaby: Give me a second~

AsmoBaby: I could see this cute little thing sleeping for hours~

AsmoBaby: But we both need our beauty sleep

AsmoBaby: Oh, that gives me an idea!

AsmoBaby: Why don't you come to my room?

AsmoBaby: We can do our nighttime beauty routines together

AsmoBaby: And we can sleep together if you want to stay with me

AsmoBaby: You deserve some spoiling for taking such good care of our baby <3

“A virtual pet?” Beel wouldn't understand the proposal well at first. “Isn't the point of having a pet to have a true companion by your side? You know, to take care of each other and play together?”

You tell him yes, but that it's just a little experience for you to share. Seeing how much you really want to do that with him, he will smile. “Okay, if you really want it that much, I'll take care of a pet with you. It'll be fun. Anything with you is.”

According to Beel's traditional Devildom profile, when asked "Cats or Dogs" he answers "Dogs". So, a dog will be.

For a name? You're asking a lot of him. Could you choose one for him? But try to keep it from being a food-related name, this will make Beel hungry. (And in the worst possible scenario, he wanting to bite your virtual pet. This is before he becomes attached to it)

He won't care much about aesthetics, you can take care of that if you want. You are free to dress your pet and get it as many toys as you want. Beel will be more interested in feeding it well and exercising.

In terms of playing mini-games to get coins, it would be very balanced, none of you would get many more coins than the other. Unless you're crazy about those mini-games. In that case, you would get more coins than Beel.

You also shouldn't be surprised when he starts talking about the two of you getting a real dog as a pet. Yes, it's true that Lucifer has Cerberus and that he would let you take care of him from time to time, but Beel wants a puppy of both of you. He wants to have a little furry baby with you.

If the app has a chat and, at night, you both open the app at the same time to put your pet to bed:

Beelzeburger: Hey

Beelzeburger: You're also here to put our dog to bed?

Beelzeburger: Being here with you makes me very happy

Beelzeburger: We can do this together

The two of you cuddle your pet until it falls asleep.

Beelzeburger: I'm going to get a snack before going to bed

Beelzeburger: Do you want one too?

Beelzeburger: We can have a midnight snack together

Beelzeburger: I'm going to the kitchen now

Beelzeburger: Do you want to meet me there?

Beelzeburger: Or do you want me to bring a snack to your room?

Beelzeburger: Oh wait!

Beelzeburger: I can eat your snack on the way

Beelzeburger: Sorry, it would be better if you come meet me in the kitchen

“A virtual pet? Well, it's not as demanding as having a real pet. And it would be fun to take care of a pet with you. Okay, we can do it.”

According to Belphie's traditional Devildom profile, when asked "Cats or Dogs" he answers "Dogs". So, a dog will be.

For a name? Well, Belphie would have a little idea. “You know, Beel has always reminded me of a happy dog, especially when he smiles. Ha ha. What do you think about calling it Beel?” That and when you two talk about your pet without giving context, the reactions of the brothers would be fun to watch.

You'll probably realize that taking care of that pet with Belphie is a rollercoaster. One moment he takes care of all the pet's needs and even buys one or two little things for it. And the next, the pet has all its needs at a minimum and needs a lot of care. Those last one usually happens because Belphie has fallen asleep and has been sleeping for a long time. But apart from those times, your care would be quite balanced.

You would probably be more in charge of playing the mini-games to earn coins. That's because Belphie doesn't really like to have that much work, although he tries to do it from time to time so it doesn't always have to be you.

He wouldn't start trying to convince you to get a real pet. Especially a dog. Because he knows it would be a responsibility he's not prepared for and he knows it would end up giving you more work and he doesn't want that. That virtual pet is perfect. At least for now.

If the app has a chat and, at night, you both open the app at the same time to put your pet to bed:

Belphie: Hi

Belphie: You're here too

Belphie: Do you want to put it to sleep?

Belphie:��Be my guest :)

You cuddle your pet until it falls asleep.

Belphie: Thanks <3

Belphie: Hey, since you're still awake too

Belphie: Come join me

Belphie: Let's cuddle until we fall asleep

Belphie: I always sleep better when I'm with you

Belphie: I also have the best dreams

Belphie: Come sleep with me~

If you dropped in here out of the blue and want to read more from me, you can find it in my pinned post: INDEX

[bettsfic]

Venting-

When I hear people give the advice that writing is never a waste of time if you’re having fun or you should never feel like a story was a waste of time, you should enjoy the process. This advice I believe is real and true and works for some writers. But at the same time, there are writers who are very stressed when writing and feel better about their work when it’s finished. Not the “I enjoy having written.” But the “I have crippling anxiety and can only tell if my time, effort, and semi-breakdowns were worth something if I complete what I set out to do.”

Not to diminish anyone who agrees or resonates with the first statement, I admire those people a lot and wish I was calm enough to feel the same.

in my years of teaching and coaching, i've noticed there are two kinds of writers: "process" writers and "product" writers. rather, there exists a spectrum from one to the other.

on the process side, you have writers who reach a flow state fairly easily, who can become immersed in a world or idea of their own invention, and they write in large part to seek that immersive state. the end of a project seems more like a tragedy than an achievement because it marks the loss of the immersive state, and it will take energy and discipline and happenstance to find the next. i've also noticed that it becomes harder rather than easier to find that state over time; the more projects you finish, the fewer ideas appeal to you in the same way.

conversely, product writers get to feel that sense of achievement upon completing a project that process writers may lack, and that pleasure is worth the pain and turmoil of the act of creating something. product writing takes a lot of strength, patience, and discipline i think, to do something hard for the reward of having done it. it's the difference between an athlete and a surgeon. a person becomes an athlete for love of the sport, the act of playing. winning is important, but they wouldn't be able to win without first finding joy in the game. a surgeon, on the other hand, probably doesn't get into the job for the fun of operating. the fulfillment is in the operation's success; it's hard work with high risk. but the reward of saving or improving lives is worth it.

admittedly as a process writer it's always been hard for me to wrap my head around product writers. not only do i not have the patience to seek a sense of achievement, i think i'm mostly incapable of relishing any reward at all unless the reward is in the pursuit itself. looking back, i can't think of any single moment i've ever felt a sense of success. but also i've always struggled with concepts like ambition and competition. i've never had any drive to win anything, but also i've never felt much when i lose or fail. sometimes i wish those things mattered more to me, because then i would be a more driven and decisive person, and i'd be more successful in my career.

i know i'm on the extreme end of the process-product divide, and that colors a lot of my perspective of teaching and mentoring. but i think writers can shift on the spectrum depending on where they're at in their writing life or even with whatever project they're working on. i've been trying to have a more product-based mentality recently to at least develop the skill of shifting to the other side when i need to, so that i can get the patience and focus to write a novel that is not just me plopping my heart onto the page and hoping somebody out there cares. product writers have an easier time convincing other people of the value of their story, because the value of the story is a big reason why they write it. a purely product writer, like the surgeon, writes something because they feel that thing needs to exist in the world. meanwhile the only way for a purely process writer to be professionally successful is to happen by sheer coincidence to find an immersive state that also crosses with the interests of the current market. like the athlete, success involves training, hard work, and being at the right place at the right time. sure, churning out 100k words in a couple months and having a blast while doing it is great, but it comes from this wild inner place that can't really be controlled; meanwhile product writers can take that wildness and intentionally shape it into something. when you're feeling jealous of the other side, though, it's important to remember that both the meadow and the garden are equally beautiful.

[cursedvida]

Saw a tweet saying mae is the real villain with 23k likes and how noa will make her pay in the next one for her betrayal and is crazy bc the ones saying that are men! Like, them hating mae is misogyny at this point idc. bc what do they mean when they say they wanted noa to beat her to death???

Lots of fictional male characters share traits with mae (and have even done worse) actual villains are loved by them, but as soon as they see a woman not being the number one supporter of their male lead they lose it.

It's the same old story: morally questionable and complex gray characters are fan favorites as long as they're men. If the character is a woman and, on top of that, has the AUDACITY not to be the protagonist's number one supporter, unconditional girlfriend or caring mother then she's practically the reincarnation of Beelzebub.

Just yesterday Iwas thinking the same thing you mentioned because I was watching a bunch of Mae haters on TikTok, and it's no coincidence that THEY WERE ALL men, and precisely those who defended her were women. The hate was based on totally absurd arguments typical of someone with the argumentative comprehension capacity of an amoeba. Special mention to the macho of Reddit for having the same two malfunctioning neurons that lead them to hate Mae with zero coherence because then they are the biggest fans of Koba, for example, excusing his actions with the argument that "he suffered a lot because of humans" when, in fact, Mae has also suffered a lot because of the apes.

But in the end, it's as you say: the problem isn't the actions but the character's gender. Women in fiction are relegated to being lovers, unconditional friends or self-sacrificing mothers. Anyone who deviates from that role, especially in such male-dominated franchises, is condemned to bear all the male misogyny of the internet.

[extrastranszanepropaganda]

OKAY SO!

Diares Rewrite - Divine Relics And Their Warriors

I (added one) AND REDESIGNED THE DIVINE RELICS!!!

This was mainly done for one because I don’t really like the many of the original designs tbh- AND TWO! I wanted to put effort into the symbolism behind the shapes and gems, because symbolism makes me happy, and I like over analyzing things 😌

This one is going to be a long one, so I’m gonna go ahead and put a cut here, lol

FIRST OFF!

Irene (Aphmau)- Purple Diamond

Irene’s relic is based off of the purple diamond! One of the most rare gemstones and a sign for nobility. Irene, being the head of the warriors, slides into this role, as well as the theming of pride and spirituality, for, obvious reasons.

This one didn’t really get a redesign since it’s so iconic

Enki (Travis) - Lapis

Besides wisdom being a key tenant of Enki’s divinity, I thought this worked a lot with Travis and the storyline I’m planning to put him through.

From someone who flirts to hide their their own feelings and thoughts, to someone who is more open and an advisor of sorts. I view Travis as someone who is genuinely very smart and always listening and adapting his actions and words to what people want. The conclusion to his story would be to put a focus on him learning to do what he wants, and to being more genuine and open. To learn that his not just what he can do for others, he’s not just his fathers jailer. That these things are great and all, but that him just being himself is all that really matters

I kept this pretty much the same as the old design again since it looks cool and also I think having the two little gems bracketed leans into the “keeper” title. Especially with the people of their line being all about keeping the demon warlock/evil forces sealed away.

Shad (Aaron) - Ruby

Lets be soooo for real, the story tells itself. From the past hurts, to martyrdom, all the way to being protective of family and having a distorted veiw of one’s self. Shad and Aaron both fit all of these to a T

Annnndddd for the shape I took inspiration from this Slavic symbol!

Like…. Fire…… war……… going through shit….….. also the whole “child” thing!? What started his whole downfall was his daughter being turned into a relic. This relic. To be exact.

I get to be a little devious. As a treat >:3c

Esmund (Garroth) - Pink Garnet

Ok so, the name obviously matches but omg I swear I didn’t realize until much later XDDD

Funny coincidences aside, I thought the themes of loyalty, devotion, consistency, etc. really match him and the stability that he brings to those around him. Not to mention the whole “used to ward off evil“ blah blah blah. AS WELL AS the part where it says that it’s believed through being cut and polished (put through hard times) are when a garnets ability truly shines through. Showing how before he was nothing but a cog in his father’s wheel until he went through adversity and re made himself!

I wanted this to have the general shape shield as well as include the reoccurring shape I put in Garroth’s redesign!

AND I CANT PUT MORE THEN 10 PICTURES PER POST SO ILL REBLOG WITH THE REST RIGHT HERE

[fancifulplaguerat]

Particularly fascinated with Yulia this fine evening. How her character deals with applying logic to the illogical, and her “Tripwires of Fate” theory presents an almost rational counterpart to the Mistress’ prophetic abilities. @shriika said it best, that Yulia’s character poses the question, can you accept the existence of all the miraculous and unearthly and assign it reason and logic, which Imo first subtly appears in how Yulia treats twyre and disease. She claims that despite twyre’s supposed preternatural properties are “superstitions and remarkably little else. It has psychoactive properties, after a fashion, but then so does simple wormwood.” She likewise claims that the shabnak is no less a “real” than bacteria as a plague-source; that the shabnak and microbes are two understandings of reality. I.e. she says, “You amaze me, Bachelor. Did you not make fun of the shabnak rumours yesterday? […] Still, you don’t hesitate a moment to accept a rumour of an epidemic as veritable truth. Is the concept of the disease that much more familiar to you than that of a maneating abomination made of clay?” To me, these rationalizations introduce how she is a crossroads between the fantastical elements in the story, particularly how Patho Classic treats fate.

Yulia’s character concept best clarifies her Tripwires of Fate theory; that she kept a diary in Town which allowed her to recognize “a rather symmetrical conclusion about the reaction between the movements of those people in town and the seemingly random events happen afterwards. […] Now Yulia is preoccupied with the question whether these patterns are just a coincidence.” She herself says, “The world is defined by a plethora of causal relationships. These causalities, however, are located at different tiers of human perception.” This outlines the foundations of Yulia’s construction of fate, which leads directly into discussion of the Mistresses: “Take my own death, for instance. In our town, such coincidences have put together several women whose inexplicable aptitude allows them to see the whole chain of cause-effect connections. They also see where the chain would lead; which is to my death.” Daniil can then ask how Mistresses predict the future, or whether people can affect the “course of causes and consequences.” Yulia caveats her answer, but clarifies that a Mistress “would not hesitate to reveal the future” only if she “were to intuit that there is not man or woman capable of breaking—or mending—these kinds of connections.” This explanation is based in Yulia’s vocabulary: she uses these cause-and-effect chains of likelihood to foresee events, such as anticipating Clara’s visits. But Yulia’s explanation is one of the most explicit insights the game offers on the mechanisms of the Mistress’ clairvoyance, so I’m inclined to treat it as more than just Yulia applying her own vocabulary to the phenomenon. Rather, as one way the game might want us to see how foretelling works here; especially since this explanation is remarkably close to how Simon describes magic in some game material. 

Simon claims that he does not practice magic, but manipulates “an invisible combination of causes, leading to moderately predictable consequences.” He specifically claims, “To produce a magical construct sometimes requires tens of even hundreds of people. They must be close at hand, and they must be predictable. To take their life line, read them, learn to make a match: that’s an art that you call magic.” Simon’s ‘magic’ appears to parallel the Mistress’ clairvoyance, as it rests within predictable or assured cause-and-effect. It also apparently allows for human action alongside some kind of predetermination, because as the Mistress apparently only foretell futures that individuals’ actions will not change, human will and predetermination are put aside one another, but not apparently conflated. This also recalls Yulia to me in that Simon ‘explains’ his magic through patterns and order—constructs which can be placed on the irrational to rationalize it. With regards to Yulia, Simon’s statement is most similar to when Yulia explains her apparent loss of sense to Daniil in their first dialogue; that she has “lost [her] ability to make distinctive events coincide.”

Another parallel between Yulia and Simon/the Mistresses is their role in constructing the Town. Simon/the Mistresses are its metaphysical architects, while Yulia played a role in its construction or design, having come to town with an engineering team “when the town was being rebuilt.” Yulia also joins her understanding of fate to the Town proper, as her character concept contextualises her theory thus: “there are invisible strings that cross every road in town (collectively — a Path); cutting them will result in a series of harmful accidents.” So to me, Yulia ultimately offers a “rational” equivalent to the Mistresses and Simon in a way, where she helped design the Town and is capable of perceiving the connections between events which grant one the ability to prophesy in-universe. She is logical rather than in the fantastical domain of the Mistresses, characterizing her foretelling through the scientific. She states, “[…] I base my speculations on rigorous research, even though it may not look veritable enough to you. You see, in order to calculate the probability of either outcome, I had to extrapolate the two mathematical functions, which you may find to be somewhat... esoteric” or “Oh, the joy I feel when everything falls well in line with what I have predicated—by which I don’t mean the brute probabilism your mother would sort to, but a watertight, well-ground calculation of likelihood!”  

Yulia also poses an interesting counterpart to Daniil; both are rationalists with a tendency towards the fantastic, yet Yulia is a fatalist and Daniil consistently refutes fate’s existence. Both characters’ theories foreground imminence and inevitability—Yulia literally theorizes over inevitable fate, while Daniil’s fight against death is sometimes framed as one against inevitability. Daniil even tells her, “You wouldn’t believe it, but some of my theories are quire similar to yours” and “The story of my life, believe it or not. Trying desperately to draw their attention to what seems to be painfully obvious, offering any conceivable proof that these ‘coincidences’ must be studied! To no avail.” But what really makes me want to bury myself in the floorboards is Daniil’s claim that, “I would have told you that I’d been brought here by the hand of fate not so long ago, naïve man that I was…” That is. Both Yulia and Daniil appear as people who have, to an extent, distanced themselves in different ways from aspects of Utopian doctrine, but Daniil remains a Utopian while Yulia obviously does not, and instead founded the Humble ideology. Lara’s portrait quote address this somewhat: “This fatalism of hers is depressing and crushing, and it’s appalling to see a mind that bright base its theories upon a false foundation. I believe that any predetermination is an insult to the freedom of choice. I guess it all goes back to the past, when she worked with the Dream Party.” This is my speculation, but I think Yulia’s fatalism and according view of human nature explains her potential broken alignment with the Utopians, as it is incompatible with their ideology.

For one, Yulia’s theory is ultimately about the necessity of death, which is framed as her “crime.” When Clara claims that Yulia isn’t evil, Artemy rebuts her specifically by saying that “Yulia is the ideologist of humility. She came up with a scientific justification of necessary death.” Yulia says of herself, “I don’t qualify as wicked, but you can call me a criminal… in a way. Just don’t conflate the two. You see, I am of the opinion that it was your duty to end us.” Both dialogues suggest that Yulia believed—presumably on account of her dabbles in Fate—that the Plague could only end with Clara’s sacrifice, that the only way out was through death. Besides Yulia’s general we’re doomed talk, she tells Clara, “I get the feeling that every move you make may be reliable predicted. This is not an opportunity I would ever miss for it feeds remarkably well into one of my theories… perhaps, the most pessimistic of them all.” That latter sentence feels like proof, to me, that her theory of “necessary death” is about Clara’s ending. Yulia’s conclusions thus feel antithetical with the Utopians,’ not just narratively, but that the Utopians are all about possibility.

I also want to look at this dialogue between Yulia and Daniil:

Yulia Lyuricheva: Is this so? If I die, the universe would not notice my passing. But what if there are people who are the walking embodiment of the law by which events are connected to each other? What would happen to the universe if any one of these people were to die? Bachelor: Do you think you are such a person? Yulia Lyuricheva: When I was a child I took enormous pleasure in thinking I was one. Later in my life, as a student, I rather saw it as an honour of which I was not necessarily deserving. Today, however, I treat it as a somewhat scornful affliction. Bachelor: Why? Yulia Lyuricheva: People like these are a natural hazard. Their mission exists as long as they believe in it, and others suffer from its consequences.

The dialogue trees point to Yulia speaking about Simon here, and in that sense it provides more possible internal logic for why Yulia became disaffected with Utopianism. Yet Yulia’s portrayal of Simon feels very Clara-esque to me as well. As I have mentioned before, there is a consistent idea to Clara’s character that her faith in herself is what manifests her miracle-working abilities, as according to Rat Prophet, “everything she believes in comes true.” This dialogue with Daniil then seemingly underlies Yulia’s gradual disaffection with Utopian values and subtly introduces her dynamic and view of Clara. Yulia is certainly intrigued and fascinated by Clara, but not particularly warm or empathetic to her. When Clara speaks of being a saint, Yulia is fairly harsh with her, she says, “You? A saint? What kind of imbecile would call you that? Is there even a God that you believe in? You are a changeling, and your sainthood is the lamest kind of mimetic apery.” Yulia appears interested in Clara only insofar as she is convinced that Clara is destined to end her and others in the Town, and in doing prove Yulia’s theories. On the Clara note, I think another element to Yulia’s incompatibility with Utopianism is how Yulia views humanity, since she professes to believe that human nature is evil, telling Clara “Let me remind you how intrinsically evil people are.”

Of course, that might be an exception, but caveats aside: the Utopians believe emphatically in the “power of the human spirit and the infinitive scope of creativity,” a sentiment reinforced by Daniil’s “The point is that in this case, the winner will be […] mere humanity. Any kind of it—even malicious, and yet still a living one.” Humanity appears central to Utopian doctrine, and so someone who considers humanity evil feels necessarily opposed with this to me. I also have no conclusions to this, but cannot stop chewing on how in this game, which so heavily lambasts utopia, Yulia’s conviction in inevitable death is a wicked thing, particularly since she created the philosophy of the healer who manages to break free from fate. I *cannot* stop thinking of it in context of that Saburov quote, that, “A desire for miracles, an endeavour to achieve the impossible... are inherent to humans. However ugly the particular form they might take. Who can dare deprive humans of a dream?” Yet maybe Yulia has some lingering Utopian sentiments? Particularly in her affection for Eva, someone who Imo epitomizes Utopian ideology yet whom Victor describes as “enamored of death so bizarrely and persistently” and resolves her aspiration for the miraculous through her own death. There is just smth about Yulia being in love with someone who for better and worse seemingly embodies Yulia’s potential old ideals alongside her present conclusions about inevitable damning fate...

[aihoshiino]

chapter 155 thoughts

Thanks for your patience! I had some stuff crop up IRL this week that kept getting in the way of my chapter review but we're so oshi no back

Chapters Since The 143 Kiss Happened And Went Entirely Unacknowledged And Unaddressed Count: 12

Aqua Hoshigan Status: White

i can't believe toxic yuri was the real core theme of this manga all along

With the long road to revenge seemingly conquered, Oshi no Ko eases us into a bit of a false high before the real finale comes barrelling in. As with 152, it feels like we're tying off a number of arcs that have lasted through the series, with certain characters getting what is clearly supposed to be their big emotional resolutions… and unfortunately, as with 153-4, while a lot of these beats are satisfying on paper, they suffer a lack of buildup that makes them ring a bit hollow. OnK's clumsy handling of certain characters during the Movie Arc has really come back to bite it during the finale, leaving me feeling like a lot of the emotional payoffs for them are undercut and the character work they're doing doesn't have the groundwork it needs to properly resonate. I defo didn't hate this chapter like some folks seemed to, but it has some pretty substantial issues in terms of micro and macro storytelling I am compelled to talk about. This is one of those chapter reviews I think comes across way more negative than it necessarily is lol but man did this one give me a headache…

To start things off, the thing that initially delayed this review: page fucking one!!! By total coincidence, this was the first chapter in basically forever where I didn't get a chance to look at the JP raws until like two days after it dropped and as such I was ripping my hair out trying to figure out who the narrator was on page one - the use of 'Mama' made me wonder if it was Ruby, but the visual flow of the page is much more biased in favor of Aqua and I probably don't need to tell you how fucking huge it would be for Aqua to have called Ai that for the first time!!! However, based on the speech patterns of the speaker in Japanese and the way subsequent pages flow from this intro, I'm pretty settled on it being Ruby - this chapter is a sort of closing of the book on her involvement in the revenge play or as my friend Mala put it, it's Ruby's homecoming so to speak. And like… honestly, thank god lol.

I get a lot of Ruby fans have wanted her to be more involved in this side of the story for a good while but I think the Black Hoshigan Ruby arc playing out like it did made it pretty clear that Ruby as a character is not super well suited to playing a role in the revenge half of OnK in the way that Akasaka wants it to be written. Not just that, but her actual post-BH characterization in relation to this arc has been such a wet fart that I really think it has taken away a lot more than it has added to her arc.

Not only that but… most of it didn't even happen onscreen lol! Not only did we get that absolutely baffling speech in 147 where she literally looked into the camera and Explained With Her Words the character arc she was supposedly having this whole time (just offscreen and nowhere the reader could see) but we now get Aqua going "well ruby decided to forgive him so it is what it is i guess". It feels so limp as a reason for him to have flipped on a dime like he did, especially when we still haven't fucking seen this supposedly lifechanging performance of Ruby's!!!! SO many characters have the resolutions to their Ai-adjacent arcs connected to how Ruby chose to play Ai in the movie but we're not actually seeing it. We're just sort of talking around it and having it exposited to us. I want to assume this is setup for us eventually seeing it ourselves but like… at this point, IS there any point to us revisiting the movie's content? Everything we might have learned from it has already been addressed by characters Telling Us To Our Faces How It Made Them Feel And Gave Them Therapy so it would ultimately be superfluous.

God. I hate still bitching about the Movie Arc now we're out of it, but it really is the albatross around the neck of this finale. So many of the issues littered through these last ten or so chapters are the result of the Movie Arc's fumbling and misuse of the cast and its failure to establish the emotional throughlines that should have been tied off by these chapters. I keep feeling like I'm repeating myself when I talk about XYZ Narrative Beat not being bad on paper but being less effective than it should do because of lacking underlying foundation but it really is the one central thing plaguing this arc right now.

i get what you guys are going for but. seeing aqua just let kamiki walk away when he has definitely killed people is really funny.

The twins' return to Miyako is another moment that I like in theory but honestly just feels frustrating. It's been over 25 chapters - a week short of an entire year since 125 came out where Miyako lamented her inability to reach the twins like a 'real' mother would and this thread was immediately dropped like a rock. She had zero involvement in the Movie Arc even during parts it was straight up absurd that she was not at least reacting to the events going on, didn't have any reaction to the movie or like… anything going on that could have more organically lead to this development.

I also have to say. The twins returning to Miyako performing this Snapshot of Aesthetic Motherhood (as u/DeliSoupItExplodes on the OnK sub put it) felt kind of. Weird and even a little icky to me in a way I've been struggling to articulate. Just that it felt extremely on the nose and kind of. eeeh.

that said. i won't pretend i'm not 4x critically weak to an 'okaeri' / 'tadaima' exchange at the end of a long quest or journey…

For all my complaints about the surrounding context, this scene in isolation is pretty much the one part of this chapter that just uncritically works. It's hard not to read it as a parallel to Miyako offering to adopt the kids in chapter 10 - except there, Aqua refuses to step into his new family. Here, Miyako pulls him into the embrace and the two of them finally engage not as peers but as a mother and son, as they've needed to do all this time. Her words here are so lovely and so, so sincere that it's really no wonder Aqua breaks down in tears. As much as I've bitched about the lacking work in his arc across the last major chunk of chapters, it's nevertheless been incredibly cathartic to see Aqua finally start letting down his walls, believing in his future and letting people love him. I just wish it had the buildup to really land.

also the twins just… still have not had a real conversation or interaction about literally anything lol.

Ichigo's back…! I already aired my major complaint about this scene vis-a-vis Ruby but I imagine this is the last time we're going to get a real Moment with Ichigo so I might as well get this off my chest now: it was and continues to be utterly bonkers to me that of the characters we saw having Feelings about the 15 Year Lie cast screening, Ichigo was not one of them. And it's even more bonkers that we got this whole bit waxing poetic about fucking Kaburagi and how he feels soooo bad about Ai when like… I'm sorry, but Kaburagi's feelings about Ai are so low on my list of priorities as to be functionally irrelevant. Quite frankly, he does not matter and it's INSANE that the story gave this misty-eyed moment to him and not Ichigo - you know, the agent of the industry that went on to exploit and kill her, her literal, actual dad whose guilt over what happened to her made him ghost his family for nearly twenty years? Can you imagine what an insanely powerful moment of resolution it would've been for that moment of Kaburagi addressing Ai through the 15YL poster to have gone to Ichigo instead?

I also have to note this weird ongoing thread of 'the Dome' being framed as Ai's dream that Ruby is inheriting when it, uh, patently was not! I'm sure she felt some pride in her success but all she herself said on the matter back when it came up was that she didn't get what a big deal it was but that since everyone else was happy, she'd be happy too. I initially took this to be laying the groundwork to disprove this idea and make the characters work out what Ai really wanted in her heart of hearts but now the narrative seems to just be uncritically treating this as a value neutral fact. So… who even knows lol.

Short hair Akane returns…! I don't imagine it was planned, but it's a cute coincidence that she cut her hair in the manga right around the time anime Akane grew hers out for season 2. I've always liked short hair Akane best so this was a nice surprise…

I have to say it was uh, really funny to see so many people get so shocked and mad when Akane talked about 'imitating Hoshino Ai' and screaming that this was a retcon or ruining Akane's character when like… was this really news to you guys??? Even before she grew her hair out, she flipped her bangs to go in the same direction as Ai's as soon as she started acting as her and she was popping hoshigans all over the place when she was getting her career off the ground… like, seriously, was this really a shock to people???

Anyway uh. Vindication for me from this scene!!! I've been pointing out for over a year now that we should be very cautious about taking it at face value that Hikaru killed Gorou and Yura because the story has been very delicately implying that to be the case while avoiding confirming it outright in a way that reeked of a red herring to me. That combined with his failure to even mention these two victims while 'fessing up to Aqua really raised some additional red flags for me and finally, we see Aqua confirming that no, Hikaru was not the one person behind everything, Light Yagami style and the final boss of the series seems set to be B-Komachi's former Queen of Smiles. Fuyuko Niino.

And Iiiiiiiii… feel very uneasy about this twist!

First of all; I have to acknowledge that nope, we have no fuckin clue how either Aqua or Akane figured this out but we'll probably get the exposition in that regard over and done with next chapter. Also something a lot of people caught is that Ryosuke is referred to with a different name here - Sugano vs Kaihara, which was used during the Movie Arc. I've heard this called out as a mistake/retcon and it could be, but tbh I'm inclined to think it's just that Ryosuke's name was changed for the movie, since a point is made about needing everyone's permission to include them in the movie and they, uh… can't exactly ask Ryosuke!

But… back to the real point here.

Nino has been one of my favourite OnK characters since I first read 45510 and every subsequent expansion on her character and her relationship with Ai has only made me more invested in her. But the story setting her up as the final villain here is… it leaves me feeling a little cold and very uncertain about how it'll go.

First off, the framing of Nino on these last two pages is just so overwrought that it's a little ridiculous lol. The image of her squatting in her filthy room, listening to old B-Komachi tracks and staring at a poster of the old group with all the other members but her and Ai aggressively scribbled out… it feels downright parodic to an extent that I think honestly makes Nino that much less nuanced and human by its inclusion alone.

Like… a big part of what I loved about Nino's inclusion in the story and how her relationship with Ai was framed was that it was messy and honest in a way that felt like it wasn't judging Nino herself or making her out to be a villain. Her and Ai's relationship breakdown was a two-sided failure of communication spurred on in large part by Ai's own avoidance and inability to have frank, sincere discussions with the people who cared about her. Nino's tangled up feelings of admiration and desire, envy and resentment, love and hate were not flattering but they felt so real and so human. She was a young girl put into an impossible situation and without the power to change the invisible dynamics of the systems around her, she lashed out at the person in front of her that she could see. The impression I always got was that part of what so deeply fucked up her feelings about Ai was her lack of closure - that she had never gotten to say sorry or patch things up. That she had screamed I wish you'd die at someone she loved and then she fucking died. No wonder she was a mess.

All this though… maybe I'm overreacting when we're just a page and a half into this reveal but again, the framing here really does feel so exaggerated and shallow. It feels like it's falling into the trap OnK previously fell into with the GRSR relationship where it attempts to amp up the drama by massively overexagerrating the emotions at play, blowing them up to their hugest possible extreme and letting all nuance and subtlety get lost in the noise. Ultimately, this will all come down to execution and while it's possible for AkaMengo to get us back on track with the Nino I already liked… idk. Like I said. I'm uneasy.

I also can't let it go unsaid - accidentally or otherwise, the framing of Nino here leans extremely hard into the stereotype of the 'psycho'/predatory lesbian and I don't think I need to explain why that sucks donkey nuts, especially in the midst of a manga that is so insufferably hetero at all other times.

at least she has good taste in b-komachi tracks.

[loganthrives]

RimWorld: Anomaly

I want to tell y'all a story.

So. RimWorld's fourth DLC Anomaly released this week, and for the past two days I've been playing it almost non-stop. I'll put it below the cut because its obviously a crapton of spoilers, but I'm just kind of blown away at how much story this DLC adds to the infamous story generator game.

Like, I have over 4,000 hours in this game and this is the first time that its felt like its telling me an actual story.

Spoilers ahead! TW: child death in the context of this cruel cruel video game:

I had this colonist join named Bristle who was described as a "leathery stranger" with a unique ability - he can blow up animals (and people, presumably) with his mind into hunks of twisted flesh. I said, sure, why not! Join my colony, what's the worst that could happen?!

Well, the worst that could happen is he went and studied a monolith on the beach outside of my base and it teleported him into a strange grey labyrinth. Pretty much just as soon as he got here, he's now trapped in some kinda void maze. Great!

It took me a couple of rooms before I noticed the markings on the floor, so once I realized I could read them I examined every single one I could find.

The messages are... Evocative, but they start giving me names. I'm wondering this whole time, who is Raisa? And who is Tom? I checked all of my colonists - I don't have anyone by either name. Are they people I should know? Or... People I haven't met yet?

Fortunately, because Bristle had literally just joined my colony, he came with his own rifle and 12x fine meals, so he could actually bum around and hang out in the labyrinth for a pretty long time. I ended up mapping out the entire thing before his last 6 meals disappeared from his inventory.

I found a couple rooms with fleshspikes - those are these pink little flesh monsters with a giant protruding spike coming out of their heads? - but thanks to Bristle's ability to explode creatures with his mind, I just... Exploded it.

I also found a couple groves of trees underground, a couple of horses randomly, and some bottomless pits. I was tempted to walk over one just to see what would happen (and savescum out of it ofc), but I didn't end up doing it.

I'm really concerned about Tom and Raisa though. Are they okay? Did they make it out?

I'm especially concerned about Tom. That... Doesn't sound okay.

And then I push through yet another door.

This is Raisa... And Tom.

I gasped out loud in real life. Nora came over to check on me because holy shit, that's so sad. Suddenly their notes makes sense. The obelisk abducted a woman and her child, and they got stuck in here for who knows how long. The wounds they had indicated that a fleshspike had done this to them.

I went to the exit - I had found it earlier, I just wanted to keep exploring. Thankfully, everything that had been left behind was kicked out of the labyrinth with Bristle when it collapsed on itself and the obelisk itself vanished from sight.

Including Raisa and Tom. I had to give them a proper burial. Wish I could've done more.

The messages were all from Raisa after she lost her son Tom.

I had done the two researchers one ghoul story start because I wanted to dive right into the DLC, and one of those researchers, Rose, arrived pregnant. Baby Thorn is almost three years old and still doesn't have a name.

Its kind of funny, because when I first landed she idly wandered near the monument, and I had one of those gamer coincidences where she walked by it right at the same time I got the notification that she was pregnant.

So I wound up continuing this colony even though it was a crap start, thinking I'd get some kind of void baby out of the deal? Nope, normal baby, normal birth. He's just chilling in his crib being looked after by the whole community as happy as can be. She must've been pregnant on the screen where I selected her for my colony and I just missed that detail.

Another funny thing about this kid, is that his father is Unknown, and apparently Rose's ex was the ghoul Kaito that I also started with. So, presumably, it was her ghoul (ex) husband's son, but the game's code doesn't seem to be able to link him as the other parent, either because he's a ghoul or because it happened as part of the game's starting conditions. Also she's actually gay on her character sheet, so I dunno how that worked for them? Ehh, I'm not gunna judge.

Anyways, I'm thinking about naming him Tom.

Here's hoping he has a long and full life.

[lovetogether]

here i will send an ask to inquire because perhaps you would like to share a bit about them on your blog .... what oc's have you been workshopping!!! i would like to know the secrets. what has tumblr user lovetogether been cooking

Hello hello our dear friend allister! Rubs hands together… eheheh, since T:MLs (last big oc story we did) we’ve been mostly working on tiny oc “drabbles”? I guess you could call them. We have bursts of scenes and whatnot but that’s about it. They mostly exist to . Have fun . We’re a writer at heart though so they do have a bit of narrative set up - anyhow! Come with us down here into this wine cellar,

First one is this ^

This is “Humanity”, a man made passion project of sorts. It’s mostly based off glados, portal two in general, and our own alienation from people and tendency for “escape” but not in a manner close to usual “fandomites” (Is that a word..? I just made it up…) Humanity’s deal is it was maybe a “human” (used loosely as you know we draw most people as kemono) at one point but was then wiped and given many mechanical enhancements. Its essentially and a i trained off only human made media like films and tv shows, it’s connected to tons of TVs in its main sorta “lab” (shown in the tiny drawing) nd these screens will reflect snippets of movies and tv shows which coincide with whatever emotion Humanity is mimicking at the moment. Despite the heavy media training though Humanity remains mostly emotionless, only mimicking what it’s been fed. It’s never actually been given field training. And it never will. The lab in a portal two type situation was abandoned for one reason or another, the place only inhabits machines now, including Humanity. The place is overgrown and lonely. We have this idea that a girl ends up there, maybe Chell style (can you tell we like portal lolol) but she’s like, a child. This child is Humanity’s first like experience with a real person and it’s confused by her lack of - what was on the screen. It learns from here, we think at first it rejects the truth of humans, opting to believe what it was trained on, but it eventually learns.

Next is Persimmon :-) !! Or Persi (per-see) for short ! He’s a young chipper business man who died and ended up in the afterlife, he’s kinda comparable to a zombie? His premise is sorta dark humor-ish, apologies to viewers out there-! He was a very upbeat businessman and then one day a slight inconvenience happened at work and so he went home and offed himself in the tub. He resides in the afterlife now and is pretty chill with this. He often greets new comers and whatnot, his excited energy towards everything is sorta welcoming..? He’s extremely open about the fact he ended his life and is very chill about this, when questioned about his life and he goes on to say it was fine which then spawns the question “why’d you do it?” He sorta just smiles and shrugs. Admittedly a very dark humor type concept but we just wanted to make something which made harder topics like that a bit easier to stomach as those kinds of things have always left us numb rather than offended. We’d want people to feel okay with themselves, nd in a weird way his optimism is sorta a..? “It could happen to anyone” type thing, through the dark humor we create something earnest. As always.

Finally here’s Donut! She’s a coworker alongside our other workshopped oc Delilah “Dell” Coordinates . They’re “fbi agents” cause well they’re based off twin peaks characters. We don’t really care about fbi type junk though so they’ll just be defunct detectives or something funny like that. Donut is chill for the most part, bringing the sorta straight man edge to a case but with a kind demeanor. She waves off supernatural but in no way undermines believers. But don’t let her lax attitude fool you! She’s extremely skilled. She doesn’t linger but she also doesn’t rush yknow? She’s maybe a lowkey daydreamer but a realistic one, she enjoys the simpler things…

Oh my god we forgot to say, Persi is a stoat and Donut is a white tailed mongoose. Yus 👍 oh and, Persi + Humanity are sorta “us-based” ocs which means we don’t reeally? Have set pronouns? They’re agender. Yuuup. You can use he or she for them . We defaulted to it for Humanity cause it felt right. And he for Persi cause of the businessman title. But really we don’t care. Thank youu ~!

[imbecominggayer]

Illogical Ranting About Writing

I have an irrational hatred of randomness in stories. By that, I don't mean I hate coincidences or "fate" or anything like that. NO!

I hate when I can physically feel the hand of the author push this event to happen or force these two characters to get together.

For example, you know how many times in an angst-based story the love interest of the angsty character will "just so happen" to walk past the character when they're describing their trauma in-detail.

It makes me scream everytime since it feels so artificial. Like the plot is just dragging these people along for the ride instead of the characters acting on their own terms. It would be so easy to have the angsty character choose to confide in this love interest.

Another example is when a character is just casually walking along and "just so happens" to hear a super-secret goverment conspiracy plot! Again, why couldn't you have this character have a super cool and interesting backstory which makes them suspicious of the government so the character is always trying to spy on political officials?

Why couldn't you have a character be naturally paranoid of others so they always try to spy on others?

I hate coincidences in stories that single-handedly move the plot along. You could have done so many far more interesting things!

And it's not like this is real-world "OMG, coincidence!" type of shit because YOU ARE THE AUTHOR! There is no such thing as "just so happen". You literally wrote those words, agonized over the diction of the scene, and had a stroke over these plot points!

It just feels like lazy writing. Similar to love at first sight and other types of things

[writingquestionsanswered]

Character is Believed to Be Fae (But Are They?

Anonymous asked: I'm writing about a french man from the past with albinism, as well as autism, who is treated like a fae by the people in his village. I based this on a hypothesis that a lot of "fae folk" were just people with obvious outlying conditions. The villagers think he deals in "healing magic" when he's merely a herbalist, though he also believes in some fae lore, such as avoiding iron or salt, since all his life he was told he was fae. I want it to be up to reader's interpretation whether he's actually fae or not, with a few moments where he seems to perform real magic but could be explained as a trick or coincidence. How should I go about doing this?

[Ask edited for length]

This is an interesting idea! Here are some things to keep in mind before you start writing:

1 - Research will be essential... Not only will it be important for you to research the period and location of your setting, but also autism and albinism. It would be a good idea to focus some of your research on how things like albinism were regarded in Europe during that era. You'll also need to do some research on herbalism and healers of the period so that you'll know what treatments would be common.

2 - Consider and plan your themes carefully... Part of how you'll tell this story is through the exploration of themes related to how people treat others based on their misconceptions, superstitions, etc. So, you'll want to be very careful about those themes and how you explore them so as not to do anything potentially offensive or harmful to autistic people and people with albinism.

3 - Planning and Plotting - You will need to figure out a conflict, either internal, external, or both, to serve as a framework for this story. This conflict will relate to the question of whether or not this man is actually fae, and could be anything from him trying to get to the bottom of his own truth (internal conflict), to some antagonist causing trouble for him or a quest to find some herb or heal some person (external), or some combination of those (both internal and external). This is going to help you figure out who this character will be treating (whereas the research will help you with the specific treatment), at which point you can think about things like how this treatment might appear to be magic to others, or how it could even appear to be magic to the reader thanks to some trick or coincidence. In which case, you would want to hint at the alternative (did he cure this person due to fae magic, or was it because some explainable thing actually caused them to be healed?) Ultimately, by understanding the conflict, and fleshing out the plot, you'll give yourself a better understanding of what needs to happen and where you can fit these moments in.

4 - Figure Out Your Message - Finally, it's important to think about what you're trying to say with this story. We know the topic you want to explore and how you want to explore it, but what truth or feeling do you want the reader to come away with? Do you want them to come away understanding the importance of seeking science over superstition? Or being open to the magic of the universe even when it seems to go against science? Or something about how we treat people we perceive as being different from us? Or something else? Knowing exactly what you're trying to say, and/or what you want the reader to take away from the story is going to help you fine tune what needs to happen in the story.

Happy writing!

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[linkspooky]

Jujutsu Kaisen, Chapter 210 Thoughts Part Two.

Yuji goes out of his way to both antagonize Hana, and remind the audience of how much he mourns Nobara in this most recent chapter. Rather than being a ship tease moment (actually this post is neutral to any kind of ships) this moment establishes the foiling on a deeper level between Yuji and Nobara. The reason Yuji cannot stand the idea of Nobara being replaced to the point where he acts almost out of character from his usual behavior is because his bond with her is special (once again this is not about shipping) in a way I'll elaborate on under the cut. PART ONE OF THIS POST HERE. 

Anima and Animus Part Two

My entire last post elaborated on how Megumi and Hana might serve as a pair of Anima / Animus archetypes in Jujutsu Kaisen, a story that is rife with Jungian symbolism. The post is RIGHT HERE and serves as the first half of this meta, but if you want a TLDR version. The anima and animus are a syzgzy (pair of complentary opposites) of dualistic jungian archetype that make of the self. The anima is the unconscious feminine side of a man. The animus is the unconscious masculine side of a woman.

Warning, this is talking about gender in binary terms. The gender binary is invented, but also most cultures have things they would consider to be feminine or masculine traits. Also, everyone is a mix of those feminine or masculine traits no matter what gender they are. Jung's theory is often a Male's sensitivity is lesser or repressed and therefore for healthy psychological development there has to be a reconciliation in both a person's attitude towards masculinity and femininity, and also how they interact with femininity in other people.

Jung divides ego between conscious mind and shadow, but he further divides the traits of a person's attitudes between feminine and masculine as another part of the ego and just as key as accepting your shadow / unconscious. Just as a quick example if you're familiar with the concept of "Toxic Masculinity" Jung would consider that a person who overexpresses his masculine side, and represses his anima to much to the point where they develop an unhealthy relationship with that masculinity, and an underdeveloped ego. If a healthy balance with one's anima/animus is needed for a person's growth and development, then someone who is toxically masculine would show a stunted growth. Similiarly many toxically masculine individuals are considered to be immature.

Now to explain some broader terminology before going ahead and connecting these ideas to Jujutsu Kaisen, Jung's theory is the division of "self" or "personality" into distinct parts, the conscious ego, the shadow, and then animus and anima.

"Clearly, then, the personality as a total phenomenon does not coincide with the ego, that is, with the conscious personality, but forms an entity that has to be distinguished from the ego. Naturally the need to do this is incumbent only on a psychology that reckons with the fact of the unconscious, but for such a psychology the distinction is of paramount importance." The Syzygy: Anima and Animus, C. G. Jung, Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self,

Ego is a part of personality but not the whole of it, and makes up the conscious mind. The part of their personality they are aware of. The parts we are unaware of, and are out of our control, the unconscious mind Jung refers to as the shadow.

The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of It involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. The Syzygy: Anima and Animus, C. G. Jung, Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self,

Yuji as the main character of the story more than anyone else, exhibits this divided self. His shadow is an entity entirely seperate from him with his own consciousness that he cannot control, Sukuna who is made up of baser instincts, a desire for power, and also mostly negative flaws. Things that would be repressed in the shining, boyscout, that is Yuji. Yuji is the only character we ever get a peak of their symbolic inner world, and in that world Yuji stands on water (a symbol of the subconscious, because the subconscious is something which lies underneath the surface of the water).

Yuji has an extremely unhealthy relationship with his shadow. They are literally at war with each other. Sukuna at moments can possess Yuji's body and make him do things he wold not normally do, be violent in a way he is not normally violent. Sukuna even refers to Yuji being unable to switch back during his possession happening because "he was too greedy."

Yuji of all characters is someone who tries to present himself as a savior with a higher moral imperative, and he carries around Sukuna in his whole someone who has no value for human life, and no regard for anyone except himself. Someone who seems at first brush to be the complete and total opposite of Yuji and yet is bonded to his soul.

Although, with insight and good will, the shadow can to some extent be assimilated into the conscious personality, experience shows that there are certain features which offer the most obstinate resistance to moral control and prove almost impossible to influence. These resistances are usually bound up with projections,, which are not recognized as such, and their recognition is a moral achievement beyond the ordinary. The Syzygy: Anima and Animus, C. G. Jung, Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self,

Yuji's negative traits are not assimilated into his personality at all, nor is he aware of them, his relationship with his shadow is so distant that he quite literally goes into the supernatural equivalent of what would be dissociative fugue states where he loses all control of his body in a period he is not aware of.

With a little self-criticism one can see through the shadow so far as its nature is personal. But when it appears as an archetype, one encounters the same difficulties as with anima and animus. In other words, it is quite within the bounds of possibility for a man to recognize the relative evil of his nature, but it is a rare and shattering experience for him to gaze into the face of absolute evil. The Syzygy: Anima and Animus, C. G. Jung, Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self,

Sukuna representing the absolute evil that Yuji cannot bear to look into the face of, or understand. Even though there are times where Yuji demonstrates the same kind of primal dominance that makes up Sukuna's entire personality. There are times where rather than the savior he is the predator.

If his relationship with Sukuna embodies the divide between conscious mind and Shadow, then Nobara serves as the symbol of his Anima. Anima appears in archetypes as well. Archetypes are often repeated characters and symbols in mythology, the hero, the mentor, the mother, etc. etc. Yuji's external relationship with Nobara, relates to his own internal relationship with his anima, the feminine side of his personality. Nobara is nothing if not feminity personified.

Why Nobara of all characters? It's because she is the woman with the most longstanding relationship with Yuji in the manga. In fact since I have too much free time, let's do summary of the many ways they parallel one another in their journey up until Shibuya. Yuji and Nobaraare also a pair of Anima / Animus in regards to one another. Women are also defined as having a "Animus" side that reflects their repressed masculinity.

The projection-making factor is the anima, or rather the unconscious as represented by the anima. Whenever she appears, in dreams, visions, and fantasies, she takes on personified form, thus demonstrating that the factor she embodies possesses all the outstanding characteristics of a feminine being. She is not an invention of the conscious, but a spontaneous product of the unconscios. The Syzygy: Anima and Animus, C. G. Jung, Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self,

Nobara's introduction is called girl of Steel. Nobara's feminity is put right on dispaly first and foremost, the first thing she does is interrogate a man about recruiting her as a model because obviously she's such a pretty woman. She has also no regard for the men she meets up with seeing them as crude doodles.

Just like Sukuna and Yuji are at war with each other, Nobara and Yuji start out completely combative to one another. This is par the course for the first encounter of Anima / Animus. This is also once again not really a romantic connection.

This singular fact is due to the following circumstance: when animus and anima meet, the animus draws his sword of power and the anima ejects her poison of illusion and seduction.  In both its positive and its negative aspects the anima/animus relationship is always full of “animosity”, i.e., it is emotional, and hence collective. Affects lower the level of the relationship and bring it closer to the common instinctual basis, which no longer has anything individual about it.  The Syzygy: Anima and Animus, C. G. Jung, Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self,

IE: Both start out in opposition to each other, but need to form a relationship and work together in order to slay the curse. Megumi is also left out of the mission, further solidifying Yuji and Nobara from introduction as a pair.

I would say rather Anima and Animus characters are not primed to understand each other especially with underdeveloped characters at the beginning of their arcs. That's essentially what Yuji remarks he can't read or understand Nobara at all, she's a mystery to him. Nobara also does not really want to accept Yuji's cooperation or coordinate with him at all.

Right away though, Gojo draws a parallel between the two of them. Gojo establishes that Yuji is crazy like many Jujutsu Sorcerers, and he's trying to test Nobara for that same craziness. (Needless to say Nobara passes).

I've already made reference to the fact that Yuji's whole sense of self is continually at war with himself, his unhealthy self-image first explodes in the fearsome womb arc. An arc where ironically Nobara and Yuji are separated from each other right away. (I mention this only because it's paralleled in the Origin of Obeidence arc, in this arc they work together and its a culmination of their long developed relationship).

Nobara even falls deep into a literal shadow. She is transported into a dark place where she cannot see. Rather than being aware of his anima, his anima is once again pushed to the deepest parts of Yuji's mind. This is also the first time he loses control of himself to Sukuna.

Nobara weeps over his first death and being left alone. Something that will be paralleled once again when it is Nobara's time to die and leave Yuji alone. I would argue they are both shown to be deeply affected by the loss, because they are essentially losing what is essentially the masculine / feminine halves of themselves. If they are a pair, then without one another they are symbolically incomplete.

I'm not underplaying Megumi's mourning, just that attention is drawn to Nobara's mourning, just like in this week's chapter Yuji moreso than Megumi fears that after Nobara's "death" she may lose that special place in his heart.

FLash forward to the Kyoto Battle arc, Nobara's reason for being angry at Mai is not only her insulting of Maki, but the way she dismisses Yuji as a curse, and tries to kill him with the rest of the Kyoto students without getting to know him. You could also say this is a point where Nobara overexpresses her feminine traits, and neglects her masculine ones. SHe basically yells at the top of her lungs she doesn't really care about the misogyny Mai faces under the Zenin Clan, she is compeltely unaware of her own harmful prejudices.

While not to the same extent as Yuji because she's not running around with a demon in her head, I'd argue that Nobara is also someone who is not in harmony with her feminine and masculine sides.

Nobara is, unconscious of her more amoral traits like her lack of guilt for killing Choso's brothers, she's someone who just like Yuji embraces the "might makes right" and "getting stronger solves everything" of the Jujutusu World. In fact since she's not out to save people you could say she embraces it more than Yuji. Violence is something typically considered a masculine trait. She also worships the stronger of the Zenin twins Maki, while despising Mai for her weakness.

Origin of Obedince which is basically the last big development arc of the relationships of the main character trio together, Nobara and Yuji's cooperation is shown to come full circle from their introduction and they are in near perfect harmony with one another. They even Black Flash together.

This may be an overreach but Yuji and Nobara are also fighting the Death Painting Sibs, their philosophy is "we three are one" but the fact that Yuji and Nobara triumps means at this moment their harmony with one another is stronger than that.

Nobara and Yuji go through an arc where they are essential to one another's growth, just as for Animus and Anima there are stages of development known as Eros and Logos.

Just as the anima becomes, through integration, the Eros of consciousness, so the animus becomes a Logos; and in the same way that the anima gives relationship and relatedness to a man's consciousness, the animus gives to woman's consciousness a capacity for reflection, deliberation, and self knowledge. The Syzygy: Anima and Animus, C. G. Jung, Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self,

Eros and Logos are four stages of development where the respective Anima and Animus are developed as people become more conscious of their opposite sides. A man at the first stage with an underdeveloped Anima, does not only make an object of love or desire out of women they see both women and feminine traits as completely unintegrated and seperate from themselves. At the fourth stage a man's anima is fully integrated into their personality and they are able to be seen as particular individuals as both positive and negative qualities. As for Logos, ironically enough their first level is an animus that first appears as a personification of mere physical power, for instance an athletic champion a muscle man. And in its fourth manifestation an animus is the incarnation of meaning. At this stage there's mediation between the conscious and unconscious mind.

For example, Yuji learns cooperation with Nobara at the peak of his development where he didn't understand her at all to begin with. For example, Nobara is an extremely brutal and conflict oriented character to begin with, at the end of their relationship arc so far she is working in harmony with Yuji.

Further parallels between the two of them. They both have plant names. Translated by @kaibutsushidousha right here. That's not as strong as a character because a lot of characters have names associated with plants. However, Yuji's plant is named for a medicinal herb.

Japanese Knotweed: There are a lot of ways to tie this to Itadori’s two sides as himself and Sukuna, but in Akutami’s interview on Mandou Kobayashi, they explained that they simply picked the name of a medicinal herb because Itadori was a protagonist who saves people, so I’m not sure if any deeper meaning was intended on this one specifically. Japanese knotweeds are really nice as medicinal herbs, but on the flip side, the Japanese knotweed is one of the most invasive species in the world, so I think the plant choice also doubles as a nod to Itadori’s (or rather Sukuna’s) status as a plague to curser society. Nobara was named for a wild Rose, because "I wanted to make it thorny" this is from the databook.

Flower symbolism wise Nobara's also means recovery from a grave wound, just as Yuji's means medicine.

WILD ROSE In flower language, the wild rose means “unpretentious love” and “recovery from a grave wound”.

Unpretentious love refers to how Kugisaki very openly loves her friends, and how her love for people completely disregards social decorum, as her backstory is about her relationship with a person deemed an outcast, whose negative social status never made Kugisaki stop caring for her. Recovery from a grave wound refers to how Kugisaki absolutely survived having her face blasted by Mahito in the Shibuya Incident. I believe it. She’ll come back with the coolest eyepatch.

This is a bit of a stretch but I just found it neat.

Nobara is referred to as a natural enemy to Mahito, just like Yuji was.

Yuji and Nobara have parallel deaths in the cursed womb arc, and then Shibuya arc where the two of them are separated from each other. Yuji's resolve is even similiarly brought to tears.

They are both influenced by their same sex grandparents, Nobara's grandmother taught her in sorcery, Yuji's grandfather taught him some martial arts and was his only guardian. Yuji is the one who continually brings up Nobara's death, even to this chapter, and the same way Nobara gets angry at Mai for mocking Yuji's memory, Yuji unreasonably gets mad at Hana because he's afraid she might replace Nobara who is singularly important to him.

Which as I said once again for both of them goes a step above friendship (not necessarily romance) because they are essentially symbolic of each other's male/female sides. At this point, Yuji's personality becomes even more out of balance than it was before. He embraces his hypermasculine hunter side in his fight with Mahito. Nobara's death also comes just after Yuji's loss of control to Sukuna. Once again, his repressed side taking him completely over and making him go into the magical version of a fugue state.

From this point on, Yuji also begins to extremely loathe his own weakness. Weakness can be seen as a feminine trait for someone who has an unhealthy relationship with masculinity and overexpresses it. All people are equal parts strong and weak, and have many strenghs and weaknesses but Yuji believes now he must be continually punished for his weakness. Which again makes Yuji's personality even more disordered.

Which makes Yuji's personality as a whole even more disordered. Jung emphasizes that integration of all parts of the personality, requires healthy relationships with members of the opposite sex (which is you know true, men who loathe femininity aren't going to form healthy relationships with women).

Recapitulating, I should like to emphasize that the integration of the shadow, or the realization of the personal unconscious, marks the first stage in the analytic process, and that without it a recognition of anima and animus is impossible. The shadow can be realized only through a relation to a partner, and anima and animus only through a relation to the opposite sex, because only in such a relation do their projections become operative. The Syzygy: Anima and Animus, C. G. Jung, Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self,

Yuji, deprived of his anima is therefore all out of whack.

Yuji's unhealthy relationship with his Anima can even be traced back to his complete lack of a mother figure. Typically developmental-wise, our first interaction with a feminine force in our life is our mothers. In Jungian logic, the definition of femininity is sourced with their mothers in boys, and their fathers in girls.

The enveloping, embracing, and devouring element points unmistakably to the mother, 2 that is, to the son's relation to the real mother, to her imago, and to the woman who is to become a mother for him. His Eros is passive like a child's; he hopes to be caught, sucked in, enveloped, and devoured. He seeks, as it were, the protecting, nourishing, charmed circle of the mother, the condition of the infant released from every care, in which the outside world bends over him and even forces happiness upon him. No wonder the real world vanishes from sight! The Syzygy: Anima and Animus, C. G. Jung, Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self,

Yuji is at war with his mother figure the same way he is at war with his shadow, considering that his biological mom is quite literally the main antagonist of the story Kenjaku, who possessed his mother's body in order to give birth to him.

Jung even notes that a person with an underdeveloped anima will become possessed by it, and therefore lose their agency over themselves and lose sight and control. Which mirrors in a way the fact Kenjaku considers Yuji nothing more than a pawn in his scheme, and endeavors to control his life.

If this situation is dramatized, as the unconscious usually dramatizes it, then there appears before you on the psychological stage a man living regressively, seeking his childhood and his mother, fleeing from a cold cruel world which denies him understanding. Often a mother appears beside him who apparently shows not the slightest concern that her little son should become a man, but who, with tireless and self-immolating effort, neglectsnothing that might hinder him from growing up and marrying. You behold the secret conspiracy between mother and son, and how each helps the other to betray life. The Syzygy: Anima and Animus, C. G. Jung, Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self,

Yuji posseses a mother figure which is completely hostile to him, and an anima which is currently either missing or dead to the story, so under such conditions no wonder Yuji's deviating from his normal personality and acting with no self awareness whatsoever to the point of becoming hostile to Hana. He is most likely insecure about his own feelings for Nobara whatever they may be if he thinks he a girl he's known for about five minutes could replace her so easily, which relates to all of Yuji's 9,000 other insecurities.

Basically, the end of this long diatribe is Nobara is someone who could help Yuji grow and find balance within himself were she to return to the story, and in her absence Yuji is psychologically speaking...a big mess.

[ihaveforgortoomany]

Theory on *that* character based on 2.2 story spoilers.

Major spoilers for CN servers, 1.9 and beyond: I think I have enough pieces and delulu to create this theory.

May Vertin Nui block this spoilers

Idk to call this theory: uh Urd theory I guess?

Summary: If it is confirmed that people do not die physically in the Storm, Mr Duncan confirms that like places people are flung into different time periods and eras, then what if this is happening to Urd? Whatever she did has led to partial memory erasure of sorts that becoming a biographer has become a method to ensure part of her memory is retained.

(I would call this theory Generation Loss based ok the what happens to tapes maybe?)

This theory hopes to explain why multiple names are tied to the same pale blued haired blind woman who seems to appear everywhere in the game. More specifically explain the existence of Martha.

Heres a list of the different identities and their appearances:

Urd/ A friend from Afar/ Dolores: 100% confirmed to be the same individual, appeared in Brazil Sao Paulo, mentioned in both Rayashki and London (Rimet Cup). The Friend from Afar also makes frequent appearances in ingame email. Noted to be a doctor.

Besmert: appears in the 1.6 Notes on Shori, travelled for a while with Yensei to Pei City, had enough influence to recomend Yensei to join Team Timekeeper.

Martha: appears in 1.4,1.7 and 1.9 on the island of Aperion. She is hinted to be a recent member of the island and seemingly disappears in the 1914 Storm. Also acts as a doctor.

It is easy to connect Urd to Bessmert but harder to connect Martha to these identities since we explictly see her disappear into the Storm in 1.9. Yet suddenly shes back in 2.2 in Sao Paulo as a doctor (Maybe White Rum may have more info on Urd but until someone uploads her voicelines I cannot say).

My current running theory is that all of these are the same person, from Igor likely her true name (or in arcanist fashion this is the one she commonly goes by) is Urd and that she is Vertin's mother since mannerisms and appearances are so close to be just a coincidence.

But the real problem is her memory, Igor knows her, know she has done something that she changed her in some way and now in the eyes of Igor and the Manus has become someone that can change the fate of the world. She must have held a significant position in the Foundation to receive the marble chair as we know even individuals like Lucy as the head of Laplace and even Constantine do not directly speak to the White Marble House instead communicate through the doves sent to them.

The only info we have on Vertin's mother is the hostpital bed and the fact that the Foundation denies her existence.

Heres the theory:

What if when the Foundation says she doesn't exist this is quite literal as in they don't know she exists at all? But Igor knows? Lets remember Joe in 2.0 and the seemingly two Paulinas, the Storm erasure has a weird effect on how a person might be remembered, going back to my Mandela theory maybe Urd's existence from whatever happened to the white chair caused a swipe of her existence especially since she may as well been the epicentre of the first Storm. Characters like Greta Hoffman do note the foggy recollection of the Storm by those present and not taken by the Storm itself.

But what does that mean for Urd? I speculate Urd likely was a war or field medic if she was working closely with Zeno, evident in 2.2 she is caring for war veterans in Sao Paulo. If Urd is anything like Vertin, which in small ways alr we can say she is, whatever she did using the chair literally involved huges risks she believed necessary to end whatever conflict or goal she and Igor pursued, regardless of what happened to her.

Small hints suggest that: Urd pressed the button on the chair, nothing or something happened and afterwards she walked into the white house and that was the last Igor saw of her. What if this "white house" contained the hospital bed she and her mother were separated by? What if this all happened somewhere within the White Marble House that seemingly is well guarded and very high access is needed to enter?

What about Bessmert and Martha? If the Storm js capable of throwing people into different eras and completely overriding their current existence to change slightly like Mr Duncan, what if this is what happens to Urd? But she might be immune like Vertin? I predict that whatever happened with the white house has cause something to damage or alter her memory that recording everything is crucial?

What if Urd knew that her memory would be affected so greatly that becoming a biographer and writer for UTTU was a means to retain her identity and experiences. Maybe whether current her knows or not, as the Friend From Afar is her directly talking to Vertin. Maybe not fully aware of who exactly she is writing to but nevertheless compelled to write to Vertin?

Another theory or maybe this is adding on but Urd is directly responsible for the creation of the Storm, potentially as a means to resolve whatever conflict she and Zeno found themselves fighting and losing by 1999, a solution that would backfire so greatly now for 8 years the world constantly is faced with time going haywire? And if thats the case then Igor and Manus seeking and kidnapping her would make sense, they see her as the creator of the Storm (whether she remembers or not) and potentially want her tl create them at will.

(Throwing alots of ideas here)

[scarlet--wiccan]

Is it just me, or is there like, a pointedness to the centering of whitewashed Romani characters’ nationalities (at least in marvel)? This occurred to me while playing Fortnite of all things, so perhaps I’m off base, but I can’t stop thinking about it

I genuinely don't know what you're talking about. I don't play Fortnite and I really, really don't want to have to sift through youtube videos and poorly-compiled wikis to find whatever sparse story content they've put into the playable Marvel characters.

I know that there was a lot of new content centered around Doctor Doom earlier this year. I feel like it bears repeating that the nation of Latveria is, and always has been, central to Doom's character. You could argue that it's the main subject of his narrative. Obviously, his race and ethnicity are also central to the character, but it's all part of the same package. Also, I don't know if Fortnite's portrayal of Doom is actually whitewashed? Obviously, any depiction which glosses over that part of his backstory is a problem, but I don't know how much story or character content is actually in the game. If he's just there, and they don't mention it, that's not technically ereasure...

In American pop culture, "gypsies" and Romani people are most often associated with central and eastern Europe, even though we have diverse communities all over the continent. In turn, central and eastern Europe frequently take on many of the exotic stereotypes that are associated with Roma, and I think the two ideas are sometimes employed, or broadly gestured towards, with similar intent in a lot of our media. They're weirdly interechangeable in a lot of people's minds. In the M C U, it does sometimes feel like Wanda being European is a stand-in for her being a racialized minority-- it's used to convey the same connotations and stereotypes.

That said, I really don't feel like Wanda's nationality is given undue focus after Age of Ultron. If anything, it's kind of the opposite-- she loses her accent at a shocking pace, and the bulk of Wanda//Vision plays out like a deranged assimilation fantasy. They really only mention her being from Sokovia when it's most relevant-- outside of the Halloween costume thing, of course, which gets back to what I was saying about misattributed stereotypes.

There's a lot to be said about how Sokovia, as a cipher for various central and eastern European nations, is portrayed in the M C U. It's no coincidence that, in the absence of both her canon racial and mutant identities, Wanda's origin story has been shifted to focus entirely on the vulnerability of her war-torn country. In the comics, her story is an American imagination of Romani struggles in a pastoral, old-timey fantasy version of Eastern Europe. The movies have updated that setting-- although I think it's no less reductive and objectifying of the region-- but they have removed its most vulnerable minority. You could say that this is a form of historical distortion-- we're meant to draw parallels to real-life countries and conflicts, but the Roma, who are often disproportionately affected by those conflicts, have been edited out of the narrative. Compared to the X-Men films' Holocaust distortion, it's less cut and dry, but it still bothers me. I wish people talked about this sort of thing more often, rather focusing on token identities as the be-all and end-all of the conversation.

[coralinnii]

Sebek Zigvolt (soldier!Sebek x ghost based on Mae Nak!Yuu)

genre: angst, tragedy, horror

note: AFAB reader or capable of childbirth, mentions of w*r but no references to real life events, mentions of d*ath, inspired by the Thai legend of Mae Nak but not directly following the common telling, can be considered in-universe with other Diasomnia boys’ stories.

summary: He was a devoted man through and through. He promised he would return to you and in return, you promised to be here when he does, no matter what.

series index

Be it coincidence or fate, Sebek thanked the heavens for the chance he had to meet you in his lifetime.

A soldier that had his share of travels, he met you in your hometown while he was stationed there to patrol the area. He was standoffish and somewhat stiff when he first arrived but he managed to find comfort and even a home in this land different from his own native town, all because of you.

You took the first step in your budding friendship as you offered to show him around your homeland and even invited him to taste the local cuisine made by yours truly. He was irreversibly smitten by your kindness and loving nature that he took any off- duty time he had to court you and by some miracle, the green-haired soldier’s awkward attempts to woo you, he succeeded.

Laughing and in absolute joy, you agreed and soon, the two of you were dating and eventually married with a bundle of joy on the way.

Soon, the topic of following Sebek to his homeland to meet his family was discussed. You were pensive as you weren’t sure if you could leave your hometown like this. You were the stubbornly loyal type, Sebek knew very well.

The war took a turn for the worse and all the soldiers, including Sebek, were called to the front lines to push back the opposing side. The dedicated man he was, Sebek was quick to respond. But, he had his conflicted feelings in leaving his pregnant partner but you knew your husband just as well as he did you.

“Go, my dear” you smiled as he gently caress the bump of your stomach “we will be just fine”

“I will return, this I promise” Sebek pledged to you which you respond the same

“And I will be here when you do”

With a final kiss, Sebek was sent off to fulfill his duties to his country. While it felt like an eternity, it was almost a year since Sebek left you to fight for his land. The war settled and soon he was approved to leave his station and Sebek was quick to make his way to your hometown, even bringing his commander Vanrouge as the older man expressed his intrigue over your native land.

But their expectations differ from what they saw when they reached the shores of your land. The once bustling and noisy community was gone and the village he once knew was akin to a ghost town. While Sebek was scratching his head over the seemingly abandoned town, Lilia sensed an invisible wave of death and fear that remained in the air. He feared that something terrible happened to this village and its people.

“What could I say to the young child?” Lilia muttered under his breath as he looked over to the younger soldier that was frantically calling the names of those he once knew on this island.

“Sebek, I’m sorry but-“ Lilia began to share his assumptions when Sebek suddenly yelled out in relief.

“My love!”

Looking at the direction which held Sebek’s attention, he noticed a figure slowly walking out from one of the homes. The human-like entity was dressed in what Lilia assumed was the garbs of the culture and holding a bundle in its arms, reminiscent of a parent holding their young child. Though it was not easy to determine as the said bundle was quiet since your appearance, not a peep to be heard nor a nudge to be seen.

Lilia could tell, what was walking towards them was not human. At least, not anymore.

Sebek was blind to the eeriness of it all though, because when he recognized your figure as you wore your favourite attire and you were using the blanket Sebek made to wrap what he excitedly determined to his child. He was oblivious to the cold sensation in the wind, despite the blazing mid-day sun, nor did he notice how your footsteps left no imprints in the sand as you stepped closer and closer to him.

“Sebek” you called out to him, smiling like how you used to the last time he saw you, a smile of love and sadness. “I’m here, just as I promised”