#it means shes under the influence lmaooo

[mistercakerz]

Hey Chat! Meet my wife~

[eye-may]

Could you do Etcetera and Electra now pretty please? The besties

Your drawing style is so cool and pleasant to look at💕💕

Also, Happy Christmas and new year!✨🐱

ty for the kind words! I hope yall had a good holiday!

disclaimer, this is my first time trying to draw etcetera and electra so Im sure my designs for them will change in the future, but that's par for the course with me lol. I draw mistoffelees probably the most and even now I wouldn't say that I'm 100% on even his design. usually when I go about transliterating the costumes I'm looking at the napier concepts and the '98 designs (if only bc they're the easiest to find clear images of lol) but sometimes those leotards and wigs are damn hard to recreate in my style lmaooo

not that anybody asked about all that lmao ANYWAY,

in terms of backstories, these are another pair of kittens that I'm not too decisive about yet lol. I can at least start with surmising that neither were, or are, domesticated, as neither wear collars. I entertained the idea of them knowing each other prior to arriving at the Junkyard, but now I'm leaning more towards them actually having met there instead.

I see Etcetera as very outgoing, sociable, trusting, and so on, with humans and cats alike, so I'm actually thinking that maybe she had been briefly domesticated, but then was abandoned for whatever reason by her humans, maybe discarded somewhere near the entrance to the Yard. I feel like she would have naively thought it was all a game, taking a while to realize that she was left purposefully and her humans weren't coming back from her, nor where they looking to be found. Probably one of the older cats would have spotted her and invited led her back to the Yard to be looked after.

For Electra...personality-wise, I see her as similar in personality/energy levels to Ectetera, but kind of "edgier." She's more bold, brash, and curious, whereas Ectetera is persuadable, impressionable, credulous, etc (heh). she's a little goofier and lighthearted. that's not to say that Electra isn't also fun and goofy, but I think she's more of a "thinker," and more independent. Electra may be a more itinerant member of the tribe, despite being so young. Nobody, after all, is a prisoner there; cats and kittens alike can come and go as they see fit, and Electra is a little too insatiably curious, and a little too courageous, to be confined.

Her backstory is ehhhh...very nebulous to me yet. It's probably something similar to Pouncival and Plato; born to a stray, maybe in an alley, and eventually ended up separated from her family. I'm going to have to think more extensively about where she comes from and how she ended up a member of the tribe. Honestly her and Etcetera both lol.

I think Electra, sort of like Tumblebrutus, is likely to be a ringleader when it comes to mischief among kittens in and out of the Junkyard. Tumbebrutus, though, is always looking to impress and appear tough, whereas Electra operates under no such pretenses; she doesn't care nearly as much about what others think of her. Her concerns lie more in the greater unknown. She's the epitome of a curious feline, wanting to know more about the world, about history, and about what it means to be a Jellicle Cat. Others like Victoria and Jemima more often intuit such things, more likely to allow themselves to be governed by the influences of the Jellicle Moon and their own varieties of mysticism. Electra is a bit more literal, more salt-of-the-earth. She usually convinces the other kittens to accompany her on her sojourns and escapades, but she'll go it alone too; I'd peg her as one of the most organically independent kittens...and also, I think, one of the most leaderly and protective.

She gets along with everyone, but is most often accompanied probably by Etcetera. She probably butts heads the most with Tumblebrutus, although the two of them can be quite a pair when it comes to working together towards a common goal.

Etcetera is less so those things, although she's sort of "daring" like Electra, insofar as she's not prone to fits of pragmatism that make her cower in the face of adversity, real or perceived. she's simply all to happy to be along for the ride. extroverted and containing boundless energy, she feels the need to enjoy the company of others and to be the center of attention almost constantly. I think her and Electra get along so well partly because Electra is so restless, and Etcetera lacks inhibitions, all too happy to be included; she's pretty much the only one of the younger cats who will never play devil's advocate, who will never express doubt, who will never try to talk another cat out of an impending adventure. her only reservation, really, may be getting in trouble with the older cats; but it's not too hard to talk her into disregarding such concerns.

More meaningfully, I think the two go well together because of their polarized approaches to viewing the world and construing more difficult lessons and concepts. Electra is prone to getting too much in her head and overthinking; so it's a good thing Etcetera is there to dumb things down for her, to simplify those more challenging queries in a way that is comfortingly sensible and potent. I.e., when Electra finds herself pondering why is such-and-such right? Etcetera will remind her that right is right, and there's no need to look further. Or in other words, she reminds Electra that sometimes it's time to mind your heart and your intuition, rather than get tangled up in endless cerebral complexities. in her view, sometimes you truly don't need all the answers.

all together the two of them enjoy a very balanced and close friendship, and are jointly the source of a lot of energy and mischief that takes place in the Yard!

[lalune9x]

S-Classes ‘Side Story’ chapter 124 spoilers under the cut…

god I love this novel so much, it’s so funny and ridiculously endearing lmaooo 😭 (sorry I’m on mobile and don’t know how to format indented text)

—-

“Normally, I shouldn’t interfere. But since my partner has requested it…”

With those words, Sung Hyunje appeared.

“I have no choice but to comply.”

He was tiny, small enough to fit in the palm of my hand, and had fairy wings. It was a form I had seen once before, but still…

“…Why are you in this state again?”

Aren’t you about to turn forty? Actually, at this point, aren’t you already in your mid-forties? A man nearing fifty was fluttering around with shiny wings, claiming ‘I’m the Sesung Guild Leader~’ If he were a complete stranger, I would’ve said that people in this world had all sorts of preferences and left it at that. But unfortunately, this person happened to be my partner.

Amidst everyone’s gaze, Sung Hyunje-ssi landed on my palm. For a moment, I had the urge to clench my fist and shake it. Would sparks fly if I grabbed him?

[…]

“So that’s why you came with wings,” I said.

“The wings are because I felt Han Yoojin-gun’s interest in me has been waning a bit. I just spruced myself up a little.”

… What nonsense. When people said they wanted to spruce up, they usually changed their hairstyle, put on nice clothes, or added accessories. Why on earth would you suddenly add wings?

“… Anyway, we can explain publicly that the Sesung Guildmaster shrank due to a curse. As long as we get cooperation from the current Sesung Guildmaster, Hunter Kang Soyoung, it shouldn’t be too hard to bring Sesung Guild in line with its current state.”

“Um, excuse me.”

At that moment, Soyoung-ssi raised one arm with a serious expression. She glanced between the tiny Sung Hyunje in my palm and me before speaking.

“I’ve been thinking about it for a while, but… in the end, the person who was a mermaid, then a captain, and now a fairy—is my boss?”

“Uh… yes? I suppose so.”

“And that thing… I mean, this person, needs to become the Sesung Guildmaster? No, wait, the original Guildmaster was… Why did I even join Sesung Guild under this person in the first place? Director Han Yoojin raised my dragon, didn’t he? And more importantly… Is that person really the Sesung Guildmaster?”

Soyoung-ssi clutched her head, looking confused. It seemed like her gradually returning memories were clashing with her current reality. Or maybe she just couldn’t accept that Sung Hyunje was her boss.

“Kang Soyoung-gun,” Sung Hyunje spoke softly to the bewildered Soyoung.

Since he was the guildmaster, maybe he would give some comforting advice to his young guild member…

“I’m a fairy dragon,” he said.

But no—he lied without even batting an eye. Had he lost his mind?

Kang Soyoung’s eyes widened as she stared at him. “You’re a dragon? For real?”

“Yes. Gyeol was born due to my influence as a fairy dragon. Don’t we even look alike?”

The self-proclaimed fairy dragon spun slowly once in my palm to display himself. Appearance-wise… he clearly did look like Gyeol. I felt sorry for Gyeol, but what Sung Hyunje-ssi said wasn’t entirely wrong. And now that he had fairy wings, his nonsense actually sounded somewhat plausible.

“So that’s…!”

Kang Soyoung cried out in awe and astonishment. Her expression went through a number of complex changes for a moment, but then she quickly calmed down and nodded firmly.

“I understand everything now.”

…Really? That was all it took?

“It all makes sense. It’s perfect. Yes! I love Sesung Guild and our Guildmaster!” Soyoung-ssi shouted with eyes full of guild pride…

Was this really okay? Sung Hyunje-ssi, didn’t you feel guilty at all? We did need to finish this mission and get out quickly, but this seemed too shameless.

[m1ckeyb3rry]

LMAOOO “let’s not be hateful” I could never because I’m sorry to say but some people deserve the hate..!!! Let’s just say I’ll never gossip or shit talk without good reason….

And FR its not like you can’t enjoy a villain without acknowledging the actual. Yk. Villain parts…like let’s not ignore the pile of corpses Sukuna left behind (as an example)!!! And bro those yuki haters<<<<<< like if you’re thinking that then literally any convo could’ve swayed geto..? I mean those types of topics are bound to pop up someway or another in jujutsu society like it could’ve been anyone….if anything I’d also say that Gojo had more influence on him than yuki like?? But you don’t see people blaming gojo??? Getos character has a lot of potential fs but yeah ugh some parts of the fandom…..

LMFOAOAOA WAIT I WOULD DIE FOR A POV SWITCH MOMENT THATD BE SO FUNNY HAHAHAHA im actually crying the “hot but scary neighbor” is too funny

All the other bllkers being like haha wtf and y/n just face palming….imagine he also comes up with more ridiculous excuses like the high quality honey excuse…”oh sorry my cockatiel needs a root canal” “sorry I need to go drive my sister to an appointment halfway across the country” etc OR he keeps using the same lame excuse like “oh sorry gotta take a shit” and at some point the bllkers convene like damn that man really is full of shit…LMAO I guess he’d only be able to pull that off on the more oblivious members/people who don’t care like Nagi Bachira and Isagi though HAHA I can imagine the moment yuki losing it would make me laugh so hard like calm mature soft spoken yuki finally being like “NO!!! SHE LIKES YOU DUMBASS!!! IS YOUR BRAIN FILLED WITH HAIRWAX???? ITS YOU MF!!!”

Omg wait that’s so annoying…I hope your symptoms get better!!!! Actually I mean you probably don’t have any on you but I’ve found that ginger based candy is really helpful for nauseousness!! I’m not a huge fan of ginger myself but I can usually live with ginger candy!! And it helps with any queasy feelings so if you ever wanna give that a shot…but YAY SWITZERLAND!!! Have fun and enjoy the flight!!! See you on the flip side LMAO

-Karasu anon

i fear i AM a shit talker at heart like i’m super nice 99% of the time but the second someone crosses me or my friends i let loose (although not in public and only w people i trust because i’m not trying to start drama!!) 🤫 it truly is part of the human condition but it has to be done properly…some people go crazy with it and just are plain mean

LITERALLY WHAT I’M SAYING like anything could’ve made him snap at that point ☝🏻 it just so happened to be yuki because she was there but it’s not her fault as such because he was already way too far gone atp…people are always like “she shouldn’t have talked abt something so sensitive when he was obviously spiraling 🥺” HOW TF WOULD SHE KNOW?? maybe he just looks like that all of the time she literally has never met this kid plus i’m sure he’s not the first sorcerer to be depressed 😭 just the first to go crazy

no because IMAGINEEE like reader is all blushy because barou keeps visiting to yell at her and she’s like “oh my god he definitely has a crush on me oh my god he’s so fine he lowkey looks kinda murderous but it’s really attractive actually 😳🤤” meanwhile barou is like “you have 13 minutes to clear that snow off of my driveway before i kill you myself”

PLEASEEE KARASU IS NOTTT ESCAPING THE IBS ALLEGATIONS 😭😭😭 i think the first would def be otoya because karasu wouldn’t even need to make anything up to get that date to happen LMAO and as it goes on the excuses get progressively weirder…like with reo he just says smth like “oh sorry i’m feeling a bit under the weather i can’t make it” but by the time we get to nagi he straight up is just like “bro i’ve been kidnapped let’s do smth another time” and nagi is like “okay 👍” HFKSJSJ yuki is a patient guy but he has his limits 😔 one can only take so much two way pining and ridiculous mishaps before they snap ���

THANK YOUU 🥹 i have been dealing w reproductive system issues for like foreverrrr my periods are so bad 😩💔 apparently it takes abt three months for your body to adjust to birth control and i’m on like month 3.25 so hoping to see some improvements soon 🫦 the flight wasn’t horrible!! def could’ve been worse…excited to be here finally though!! even if i’m super nauseous still 😓

[butwhatifidothis]

I think a big misconception in the fandom regarding Edelgard and Claude is that, because they say that some of their beliefs (mostly regarding the Church) are (initially) the same, that means that they think that they believe they themselves aren’t that different from each other. And this misconception goes on into the infamous “Claude would have joined Edelgard if they only talked” take (note I say Claude joining Edelgard, never Edelgard joining Claude. We all know the latter just doesn’t exist lmao).

This idea tends to overlook just how much both 1) Claude vehemently does not agree with Edelgard’s methods - which she adamantly refuses to budge on, even when facing death - and 2) how much Edelgard herself finds Claude incompetent as a ruler. It believes that because they both don’t like the Church, they can overcome all of the other things they differ greatly on. 

Claude could not make it any clearer: he does not believe war to be a sufficient way to actually change people’s minds about anything. He finds excessive violence to be completely unnecessary. He even says as much to Edelgard herself, to her face:

Nor does he find forcing people to submit to anyone’s whims to be a good thing either:

None of this makes any sense for him if it were the case that he believes Edelgard’s methods of, y’know, forceful and violent domination of all of Fodlan would be beneficial. But people tend to overlook this in favor of this scene: 

See! He says what he and Edelgard wanted is very similar! And before this he says he wonders what a world without Rhea is like - you gain support points if you ask him if he wants Rhea dead! So if he had talked with Edelgard, he would have joined her!

Well... this leaves out a few very important details. The first being that Claude still believes the Church important enough that it should have a ruler at all. Note that he just wants Rhea out of the position of archbishop, not the entire Church gone. This is distinctly different from Edelgard, who in no uncertain terms wants the Church in its entirety gone, not just Rhea:

It is Rhea, the people of the Church, and the Church as an entity that Edelgard wants gone - note that Edelgard only has one ending that has the Church stay standing at all, and it is still under her direct supervision (unlike AM, where Dimitri is king and Byleth is archbishop, and with it not being the case that there’s only one person who can rule at all like in SS and VW).

Another detail this leaves out is that immediately after that scene where Claude says ~similar,~ he says this:

Oh hey! Look at that! It’s him making it absolutely 100% crystal clear AGAIN that he does not agree with Edelgard’s methods. That it’s not only something he himself doesn’t believe, but is something he thinks - and is proven right in believing - the world can’t get behind either. Faerghus’ citizens wouldn’t be cheering on the killer of Imperial soldiers as a hero if they loved the treatment they were receiving from them. Edelgard wouldn’t need an information campaign to calm down the unrest from her citizens - directly because of her attacking the Church - if they were behind her methods. The people she conquered wouldn’t have to be put down in secret if they stood by her means of going about things.

And hey, that whole “hear what she has to say” bit? Leads to this, in his S support:

He compares Byleth leading Fodlan as something like Rhea did in an explicitly positive context. The first thing Claude says to reassure Byleth when they show a lack in confidence in their ability to rule is to point out that Rhea appointed them as their successor. After getting to genuinely hear Rhea’s side of things, Claude can recognize that she - and the Church - was a positive influence (pst pst, just like Jeralt who also came to this conclusion for Byleth specifically pst pst), who can lead those who have lose everything in the war to peace. Which is. Uh. Very much not the conclusion Edelgard comes to lmaooo.

The game makes a point to compare Claude and Edelgard’s ideals, but it makes a less focused-on point of showing Claude eventually arriving at the near exact opposite conclusion than Edelgard; through working with the Church and hearing the truth of the context of Rhea’s actions, he sees that hey! Maybe Church... isn’t Bad! And is in fact a very positive and necessary aspect of the lives of the people of Fodlan! 

But on top of all of that, like I said, Edelgard herself finds Claude to be lacking as a ruler. Partially because he’s Not Empire and he’s from a pale offshoot of the glorious Adrestian Empire, but she also makes it clear that Claude specifically is someone she doesn’t want to be a ruler. As in, she spells it out explicitly directly to the audience:

“Yeah you might have basically the same ideals as me and you don’t like the Church like me and you might have bested and back me in a literal corner, but you don’t know this history of Fodlan that I could just tell you about but deliberately choose not to, so that means you’re not fit to rule Fodlan in my eyes sorry bestie :/”

Also, compare this sentiment towards Claude:

versus her sentiment towards Dimitri:

Thinking that Dimitri could have been a benevolent ruler and that he had a set path as king that he lost sight of (which totally has nothing to do with her but that’s not the focus here lol moving on) vs. admitting to never thinking of Claude as any sort of king at all. Note that the other two options you have for Claude - schemer and jokester, the latter especially being a rather insulting way of phrasing Claude’s intellect - are both things Edelgard readily agrees Claude to be as well. Later on in that scene, should you pick the more confident “Let’s go” option over the more cautious “That seems difficult” one regarding taking on Claude, it’s not Edelgard that tells you to take Claude more seriously as a threat, but fuckin’ Hubert. Almost like he understands more than Edelgard how much of a threat someone as intelligent and cunning as Claude can be even without brute force behind him.

Edelgard will acknowledge that Claude has his dangers, yes, but she clearly views him as someone who isn’t that much of a priority. She takes his scheming and jokester facades at face value and judges him as less dangerous - and capable - because of it. He’s a danger to keep around in Fodlan not because of him himself, but because of others who would look to him as a symbol to keep fighting should he stick around. He certainly can’t stay around, killing him is preferable, but it isn’t necessary since she doesn’t view him as a threat by himself, unlike Dimitri who must always die because he is a threat by himself. It’s fine to just exile this extremely intelligent man who has shown connections to a powerful military force that Fodlan has been in a feud with for centuries and who could possibly bear a personal grudge for the whole forceful and violent subjugation of the country he was trying to protect from war for five years thing, because in her eyes he’s just not that capable. Because note, again, it’s not Edelgard who asks Claude to lend her his strength, but Byleth. Because he’s just not worth it.

So like, yeah. It’s really hard to buy that these two would get along that well should they just talk, just from looking at the trajectory their character arcs go on and how they view the other as a terrible ruler. And, mind you, this doesn’t even touch a hair on the gargantuan elephant in the room that is “Most if not all of Claude’s trauma comes from others’ preconceived notions on race/culture horribly affecting his upbringing, and Edelgard literally thinks that all Nabateans are evil and must be destroyed in order to save all of humanity.” That cute lil’ difference between the two of them that they could totally definitely work out, because Edelgard is just so open-minded about the idea of Nabateans being good that’s why she was literally willing to murder Byleth should they try to stop her from killing the Nabateans amiright guys? Just give ‘em the ol’ sit down that’ll fix everything! 

Or even just a watered down version of that, where Mr. I Want Everyone To Be Friends can talk to the one Dagdan and the one person from Brigid and the one other Almyran and at least one person from every class (and with one of his default-class support chains relating - at least partially - directly to discussing the religious faith he doesn’t personally believe in) and can only not talk to the one Duscurian because of gameplay restrictions making it to where they can literally never support even potentially, and Ms. Pale Offshoots can talk to exactly two people not from the Empire and one of them - the only one not from Fodlan - is the literal one person in her entire support roster that she can’t get to A support with (who also happens to be her political hostage) and the other person literally just so happens to be the exact one person in the entire cast to go through Crest experiments like her. Where in Claude’s supports you can see him being challenged and you see him enjoy it and take to it extremely well (even with ones that are especially eye-opening for him, like Cyril’s), whereas Edelgard shows far more reluctance to the idea of being wrong. 

Or in other areas as well! Yeah, sure, Claude “I will make myself a shield for my people IN TWO DIFFERENT ROUTES WITH NEITHER EVEN BEING THE ONE WITH THE PLAYER INSERT ‘GUIDING’ ME as I leave the rest of the Alliance out of the fighting as much as possible while making sure the people of Derdriu are also caught up in it as minimally as possible DESPITE my Actually Existent sense of self-preservation” von Riegan and Edelgard “But what if, in all routes but my own where I’m never backed in a corner, I hide behind my citizens in my throne room when I’m backed in a corner” von Hresvelg - BFF’s of the year, right there. Claude mourning the fact that nobles start wars that throw commoners’ lives away during Lonato vs. Edelgard readily admitting to being willing to literally doing exactly that? EHHHH what’s a little difference in opinion between buds?

Like seriously!! These two are about the perfect encapsulation of comparing apples and oranges just because they’re both fruit: just because Claude and Edelgard initially have similar opinions about the Church (which Claude LITERALLY CHANGES HIS MIND ON, from thinking that Rhea’s a bad influence as said before to thinking that the doctrine of the Church causes isolationism as shown in his doubt of the idea present in the link) does not in any way mean that they are - or even think they are - similar to each other in personality. They have very clear, very distinct differences, the majority of which very easily stops them from being able to be buddy buddy best pals, and I wish the fandom would acknowledge that more often

[zettaiunmeis]

HI THANKS TO @raventrigonsdaughter LETTING ME KNOW THAT OG GAME CARMEN AND JULIA USED TO BE PARTNERS BEFORE CARMEN WENT ROGUE, LET ME PROPOSE: VILE!JULIA.

details under the cut because this got Long

jules is part of the either the same class the ~infamous~ black sheep

and they don’t? really like each other? like julia is still kinda Serious and she doesnt really appreciate the vile squad goofing around and tossing water balloons or whatever and black sheep finds julia a little too uptight even if she’s interested in a lot of the same things (history, etc.)

black sheep’s speciality is Being SLick, as we know, but julia’s is patterns (and also historical artifacts)

ok but the important part of this is that bc julia’s is patterns, she ends up being like a scout or smth along those lines bc she can analyse patterns and report back to help plan the caper

and that basically means that when she graduates, she ends up in far more long cons than any of the others

anyway, after black sheep gets in trouble for the water balloon thing, the faculty decide she’s far too mischievous, and so, they assign her a partner — julia

(side note: its kind of the same thing that ends up happening to jean-luc and antonio a bit later on, but thats more because they work well together, and less bc either one of them needed a grounding influence)

anyway black sheep and jules again. do not like each other. but that doesnt mean they dont work well together — julia’s got an eye for patterns, and black sheep has every thieving trick in the book ready and waiting up her sleeves (alongside an instinct for thievery)

slowly, as they are forced to work together more and more, they kind of reach a less tense partnership and then one day black sheep makes a history joke and thats how they become friends

like julia is still very pointedly Not friends with the rest of the vile squad bc they’re still very reckless and immature, etc

but shes sort of seen black sheep when she’s been more grounded and less hyper/feral and she?? kind of doesnt mind??

bc grounded black sheep isnt constantly trying to prove that she’s The Best and grounded black sheep isnt trying to prove that she’s more than just the teacher’s pet — she’s kind of just having fun with julia and julia’s been so serious about her training that she hasnt really made any other friends and…. its nice

its nice to have black sheep loudly slip into the seat next to her and and tease julia about whatever recent historical discovery she’s researching and pull her out of her own head once in a while

and its nice to have black sheep glance over in the middle of class when sheena — sorry tigress — whines about something or the other and roll her eyes in the same way julia feels like doing, even if something strange sticks in her throat when carmen does the same with gray

she can’t pinpoint the exact moment, but at some point, she starts thinking of black sheep as her friend and it’s an exciting enough thought that she’s got a little smile on her face next time black sheep slips into the seat next to her in professor maelstrom’s class

and at some point julia stops being just julia to black sheep, and starts being jules because we’re in a school for thieves, but we’ve already got plenty of ~jules~ right here and thats sincerely the worst joke i’ve ever heard and oh really ~jules~? bet i could find an even worse one

and like all the usual stuff is still happening in the background — shadowsan-black sheep rivalry, gray and the Squad being black sheep’s friends, the phone and player, etc.

its just that now, black sheep has a bit of a calming influence and that does help!

and they work well enough that most people assume that julia and black sheep will be partners after graduation 

even crackle acknowledges it — despite the jealousy he feels at the knowledge

so things continue and all this happens, but then comes finals.

things go the same. black sheep gets perfect scores in all of her exams, except stealth 101

julia — now the historian — can’t help but check for whether black sheep graduated too and just as she does, she hears crackle say it: she didn’t pass

and she wants to go to black sheep and ask if she’s okay because everyone knows how much black sheep’s wanted this, how much she’s been working for it, but by the time gray’s been dragged off by tigress, black sheep has disappeared and julia has no idea where she’s gone

so she waits for a bit in the cafeteria and in the dorms and anywhere else she thinks that black sheep would be and she sees… nothing

and about twelve hours after the results, the faculty pulls her for her first mission (for context, this is before the whole,,, hear the true name of vile thing) which is basically being a plant for the morocco mission, by pretending to be an archaeology phd student from oxford who’s come to study the findings in the excavation

and she’s busy enough with that that she barely gets to think about black sheep or graduation or anything other than the near-overwhelming anxiety that comes with the horrifying ordeal of potentially being Known but she just manages to figure out like,,, guard rotations, as well as the exact objects that are at the site for the vile squad to steal

and then she’s out before they even get there — julia’s pattern recognition and historical knowledge made her pretty useful when it comes to planning capers so it meant that she’s always travelling around the world ahead of each caper, but would also make her a pretty invaluable asset to vile, so they can’t afford to get her caught

julia doesnt hear about black sheep nearly messing up morocco until much later, and even then, she doesn’t have all the info

all she can do is wonder why the hell the faculty would fail someone who somehow managed to sneak out of vile island without anyone realising until much later

and yes, maybe a part of her misses her old partner, but she knows that it wouldn’t matter anyway — she was the mole, and she’d barely get to work directly with carmen so.

but then cut to a year later, when a vile counterfeit operation in boston is suddenly sabotaged

cut to the moment when, julia, despite not having seen her in a year, is still able to somehow recognise black sheep’s work

its Slick. its the Slickness that tips her off, and part of her is reluctant to tell the faculty who it is, but her allegiance demands it and she tells the faculty and she hates herself for it when she sees the murderous rage on each of their faces

and somehow, that — her ability to recognise this carmen sandiego — gets her in a new position, as a mole in interpol, passing on the information they get as they try to track the scarlet super thief as well

and then one day, in poitiers, julia sees her

its black sheep. it’s undeniably black sheep under that red trench coat and julia wants to go and talk to her capture her and bring her in to vile but her new partner ~chase devineaux~ is everything that once made her turn away from her interest in law enforcement and he orders her to call for backup while he tries to stroke his own ego

she does, of course, but maybe she delays it a bit, if only because she’d rather let carmen sandiego get away than have devineaux’s ego get any bigger

and the rest of the season goes much the same except after julia ends up in acme, she reports to vile about everything that’s going on, and they no longer suspect devineaux of helping carmen etc etc

and she can’t help but somewhat sympathise with what carmen’s doing — she’s returning invaluable historical artefacts and julia’s always loved history and- it’s just… altruistic. and that’s admirable. and that’s the only reason i feel so torn about helping vile. that’s it, that’s the only reason.

and then comes the chasing paper caper

what was originally the first real conversation between julia and carmen goes completely differently

(note that most vile operative outside of jules’ graduating class do not know of her existence bc she barely interacts with most of them since she’s more a spy/mole who’s out of the picture by the time anyone else gets on the scene)

carmen still needs to be able to spy on paper star without anyone noticing, so she still goes for the seat right in front of the cute short-haired girl sitting alo- and oh my god jules?

and its the first time julia has heard that nickname in over a year and oh God they were just friends this should Not hit this hard what the Heck

and carmen still sits down and just quietly grills her as to what the hell is going on bc she Knows that jules is a always a mole and never an active part of a caper and she doesn’t?? understand??

and jules is kind of in a daze, but she’s been Trained so she feeds carmen her cover story:

she defected from vile when she saw how they were treating historical artefacts — melting down gold, selling priceless works of art to the highest bidder, etc. etc. — and that since then she’s been silently helping interpol with taking down vile ops, etc.

and it takes a bit but carmen kind of starts to believe it — she knows julia loves history with all her heart, and she’s… well, she’s never been the kind of recruit that carmen’s expected to see in vile anyway, so. it’s not out of the realm of possibility, is it, for julia to be a defector working against vile? after all, isn’t she the same?

so she starts looking around, while waiting for paper star to make a move, and she ends up noticing the briefcase in the seat next to her, and for some reason, those initials — clearly chase devineaux — make her want to scowl

“new partner?” “oh… its… well, work. work... partner” “oh.”

uhhh anyway i might actually. write this? idk don’t count on anything lmaooo.

[ayzrules]

✶ 𝐇𝐗𝐇 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐌𝐄𝐒: 𝐋𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 & 𝐇𝐎𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐒𝐒, 𝐃𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐇 & 𝐃𝐀𝐌𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍   Long story short, I have been thinking about this for wayyyyy too long now and wanted to get some ~thoughts~ & analysis written down! This post is going to be...fairly long, lol. Apologies in advance :D

  Also, if you can’t see the last gif (the one for ‘holy’), click here. Tumblr keeps fucking up the image when i try to upload it :////

  This post is probably going to be about 2/3 yorknew & phantom troupe/kurapika focused, 1/3 chimera ants, maybe with some references to other arcs (including manga-only arcs) mixed in. so, ofc, tons of spoilers ahead! also, i realize that my blog theme is hard to read (and i’m p sure clicking ‘keep reading’ sends you to the og post itself), so i’m linking the post w/ full text copy/pasted in on my art backup side blog (which has a more legible font) here. 

✶ 𝐃𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐇   I’m sure absolutely nobody is surprised with me starting here - there is just. SO. MUCH. DEATH. in hxh. & right from the start, one thing I noticed that togashi really emphasized was the #4 and its connection to death. in japanese, chinese, and im p sure some other asian cultures the number 4 is pronounced like the word for death so it’s associated with death in general, and boy oh boy does the ‘deadly number 4′ thing show up E V E R Y W H E R E. we get to the hunter exam, and hisoka is applicant #44. kurapika is #404. i didn’t notice it at first, but this was so intentional holy shit. togashi is NOT SUBTLE.

  So pika & hisoka are, right off the bat, associated with death. okay. and then there are even more clues to drive the point home: hisoka is member #4 in the phantom troupe, kurapika’s birthday is april 4th (aka 4/4). 100% not a coincidence (!!). with hisoka, it’s pretty obvious why togashi’s throwing all this death 444444 stuff around - dude is a psycho murder pedo clown, literally gets off on killing people (and there’s also the fact that judas sits 4th from the left in the last supper painting, and he’s sort of the judas equivalent for the phantom troupe). with kurapika, though, it’s a bit more subtle and woven deeper into his characterization, which i LOVE. togashi puts the mans in blue & gold & white (traditionally ‘pure’ or ‘heavenly’ colors), makes him so fucking kind & so good-hearted.....when he’s not relentlessly pursuing his revenge, ofc. more on this in the next section, but pika = death. togashi has made that v v v clear.

  Backtracking a bit to hisoka, though, I also just wanted to point out the 4 is death symbolism in the fortunes too (GOD i love the fortunes): in one translation, he’s the false fourth moon, and in the og japanese (i think), he’s the false hare (4th in the lunar zodiac or w/e it’s called. i don’t know the japanese cultural influences here, but in the chinese legend that established the zodiac animals, they race across the heavenly river & the top 12 animals got zodiac slots. the hare finished 4th, so it’s #4 in the cycle). 

  And just as a final note, Tserriednich is the fourth prince of the kakin empire, and also another dude who has a hard-on for murder & other gory shit. again: togashi is not subtle with this, lmfao

✶ 𝐇𝐎𝐋𝐘, 𝐔𝐍𝐇𝐎𝐋𝐘   As probably everyone who’s gotten to yorknew knows, togashi is so 0 fucks given when he wants to be. I mean there’s the whole thing where he just. took New York and decided, Yorknew. LMFAO, but also, he made the main antag of that arc be named chrollo lucilfer, sit around in a ruined church, have a reversed cross coat, pale & dark-haired/dark-eyed, generally dressed in dark colors, very terrible murder guy. liiiike......chrollo x devil symbolism game is 1000/10 at this point lmaooo

  And i know absolutely nothing about christianity in general, but pt/kurapika & yorknew arc is just so full of christian imagery/symbolism! one thing that i L O O O O O O V E though is how togashi really blurs the traditional christian-coded good/evil, holy/damned boundaries.

  Back to kurapika: he wears gold and blue, his coloring is very stereotypically ‘angelic’, he’s precious and good and kind. his chains are all about ~judgment~ and ~healing~ - some of the chains are also in literal cross shapes, aren’t they? And the chain dagger in his own heart...the imagery is very startlingly similar to the immaculate heart of mary, where the swords stabbing thru the heart apparently represent seven sorrows. IDK much about this stuff other than the visual similarities; literally had to google ‘daggers through heart christianity?’ to even get the name of that thing LOL. anyway, at first, it seems like togashi establishes him as the ‘angel’, the ‘good’, the ‘holy’ in the angel/devil, good/evil, holy/damned dichotomy between him and chrollo.

  But that’s not the end of the story. his entire storyline is driven by a huuuuuuuge giant desire for vengeance, first of all, and then there’s the scarlet eyes, which canonically are seen as demonic/cursed/what have you (according to one of the movies or smth? where they show pika as a 10 y/o?), and then we also have red eyes in modern culture being associated w pretty much the same thing (vampires, anyone?). the fight scene with uvo has everything in b&w besides the blood on his face & his red eyes & the moon (<<< more fortune foreshadowing & symbolism, i love to see it), and there are tonssss of scenes where he has to suppress his rage. so all of that is obviously not very angelic of him i would say LOL. in fact, what i find super interesting is that the scarlet/red eyes (which are ‘demonic’) is actually the driving factor behind his super powerful nen abilities; this ties in so well with the fortunes & death associations imo! the fortunes call him the ‘death-bringer’ in one translation, or ‘half-angel, half-death’, so that’s one side of pika = red eyes = death, but there’s also the fact that emperor time is literally draining his life force. so pika = death for both himself and others namely the pt, question mark?

  Now for chrollo: togashi’s devil symbolism is EXTREMELY overt with him, but i love the subtler jesus references too. the church thing, obviously, and the st. peters cross which is cuz st peter respected jesus too much & didn’t think he was worthy to die in the same way as him (or something like that, i am the most atheist person in the world & hxh is literally my entire christian education pls) but is also used as an anti-christianity symbol these days. bandit’s secret looks like a bible, lbr, and mans has a cross tattoo.

  Other things beyond visuals - 12 spiders, 12 apostles; hisoka’s betrayal, where member #4 can be thought to correspond to judas sitting 4th from left at last supper. and this miiiiight be a bit of a stretch, but i think the meteor city being the place of origin may also play into the blurred line between angel/devil and holy/damned here; meteors are defined as space rocks that are in earth’s atmosphere, becoming incandescent in the process. meteorites are for the kinds that actually reach the ground. and idk, lucifer was cast out of heaven / sky too right? so i think there might be some subtle fallen angel imagery/symbolism playing into the pt as well

✶ 𝐋𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 (𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐊𝐍𝐄𝐒𝐒)   Last section yay! i don’t have as much to say about this, besides when i was making chimera ant arc edits & realized that there might have been some subtle gon/meruem parallels???

  So obviously, everyone knows that line killua says to gon - “you are light” - and then i was just remembering that meruem’s name means.... “light that illuminates all” (!!!!). maybe it’s a coincidence, but knowing togashi, i’m leaning towards nahhhh. there HAS TO be some kinda meaning there (!!).

  Going back to the events of the chimera ant arc....ooh boy. let’s see: gon is optimistic & hopeful even in the face of kite potentially being dead, killua says he’s light, they find kite & dude is fucked up, gon is pissed. gets all angry & ~dark~, especially during the palace invasion when he’s staring pitou down as she fixes up komugi. then the actual fight against pitou: more darkness, more anger, but through it all there’s still light, namely his jajanken being very orange & fiery lookin.....and that final sequence, where he puts all his possible nen he’d ever have into his ~final form~ or wahtever & turns into a male version of true form!bisky but dressed in a crop top & short-shorts (i am SCARRED, btw. s c a r r e d !). there’s just huuuge flashes of light as that’s going on, and it reminded me of supernovas or dying stars when i was thinking about it, where the star is like, collapsing under its own weight? & burning thru its own fuel, until there’s nothing left except a dwarf or black hole or what have you. one final, extremely deadly burst of light & energy before death.

  On the meruem side of things: born into a dark cave, exhibits a traditionally evil/cruel/wicked/whatever personality/traits so that has ppl associating him with darkness. then he gets to know komugi, starts to appreciate other aspects of humanity, seems like he could have actually turned into a decent person who doesn’t want to eat everyone - so that’s a ‘path to light’, maybe? - and then the extermination team yeets themselves into the palace, netero takes him out to bumfuck nowhere, they fight. netero’s fighting is just ALL light, from his giant ass golden 100-type guanyin bodhisattva to the poor man’s rose. again, there’s the sense of finality to it all, in a similar vein to dying stars: netero comes in determined to kill meruem no matter what, and we all know netero doesn’t flake. then we see netero get destroyed after the zero hand, and he triggers the rose, and everything is burning & on fire before the flames are put out and all turns dark again.

  But wait!!! pouf & youpi revive meruem and all he does is play gungi with komugi, even with the poison of the rose. he eventually dies, and the gungi pieces in that final shot of them together (i am BAWLING just thinking about it holy shit) has one that’s all white, one that’s a black ring and white inside. i assume all white is for komugi, who has never done ANYTHING wrong in her LIFE, so i like to think that the 2nd one is for meruem - born “into darkness”, literally & figuratively, but he turns something like ‘good’ by the end. it’s interesting how togashi has sort of gone for a bit of a subversion here: the hero going from light to darkness, and the main antag from darkness to light.

✶ 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐂𝐋𝐔𝐒𝐈𝐎𝐍   AahhhhHHHHHhhh so if you read all the way down here through my LONG rambles, tysm! i would LOVE LOVE LOVE to hear what other people think about all this, and i’ve FOR SURE missed tons and tons of stuff - chimera ants is just. SO MUCH. and i don’t know it as well as yorknew eeek.

  I’m not sure if i’m really ~knowledgeable~ in any other areas relating to hxh, so this might be the only one of these that i do, but i definitely think about some of this - esp all the religious symbolism & #4 stuff - a ton! so in the meantime, if it’s of any interest, i’m just going to shamelessly plug my hxh x religious beliefs/superstitions edit series :D lots of love to all!!!

[wellextrudemeprincess]

Sitting here in nostalgia hell thinking about how my old PGMD OCs would fit into FFXIV setting simply because I miss them and I’m currently obsessed lmaooo

I already have Naira as a Xaela Au ra from the Azim Steppe, part of the Gharl clan (the tiny tidbit of clan lore we get for them fits for her with the bonus of Gharl being very similar to Gorral) She still has the bad history with Besnik but uh, things ended earlier and not near as tragically so she’s only bitter about the betrayal, and not the whole. Loss of the baby thing too.

Aubrey would absolutely be an Ishgardian Elezen, son of some minor noble house that is just high enough in society for there to be a good bit of gossip when word gets out he ran off to join his bastard half-breed cousin as an adventurer, completely dropping his training to join the clergy. And then coming back with a foreign commoner that he announces he is formally courting. Likely headed straight to Limsa Lominsa because the Arcanist guild sounds like a good fit to build on the skills he has, and it being a port city means that if he decides the area isn’t a good fit, he has access to many other options.

Oliver would be that bastard half-breed cousin. Lominsan born, and likely only as acceptable as he was amongst Ishgardian “polite” society because it got out he spent a lot of his time before being brought to Ishgard running errands and doing work for a convent (lmao). Aubrey’s father kept him around out of love for his younger sister and a desire to keep some part of her alive, and because his late wife adored her nephew. He would have known the truth about the “convent” and desperately wished the boy had been less an influence on his sickly son (even if Oliver was actually the one tagging along for the ride.)

Maggie and Adri would both definitely be Viera, likely sticking together when Maggie spots this young AF boy dressed in garb like that of the village she left behind so long ago, who is...distressingly naive and about to get scammed out of what little gil he has, and she ends up intervening and then taking him under her wing, maybe even helping him pick out his new name.

Solita is ????? I’m not sure but there’s a part of me that is torn between her being a Raen Au ra for looks alone, moonkeeper miqo’te who was part of a very secluded, now mostly extinct tribe, or possibly part of that one Xaela tribe that worshipped Dalamud. She is still a big sad and might be carrying around her brother and mother’s bones still. Might be extra haunted. Might be dabbling in necromancy.

[faerielleart]

who is here for a really bad and random high school au that is completely self indulgent yo

in which levi loses a bet with erwin and mike and is forced to audition for their school’s production of les misérables, he tries to mess up the audition but somehow he still sucks less than everyone so he ends up getting the part of marius??? and he can’t quit because it will influence negatively on his grades??? idk imagine levi reading the script without knowing shit about the play and reading all the cheesy lines for the first time and him hating every single thing about this situation until the first day of rehearsal where he meets the person who will play cosette, his weird schoolmate hanji who shares some classes with him who is always spending time in the school laboratory to do experiments and shit and oh. Oh.

at first dude wants to Scream because he just can’t bear the thought of acting like a booby who is madly in love (quoting old les mis memes from years ago here) with this wEiRdO who somehow has a pretty fucking amazing voice and wow maybe this weirdo,,,,, isn’t a bad weirdo. how bizzarre

Maybe just maybe as the days go by they start spending time together because hey! Looks like they are polar opposites but at the same time they have SO! MANY! things in common!!! and they eventually use rehearsing as an excuse to spend even more time together! and they bond over the fact that they’re supposed to play characters who are SO distant and different from how they are irl and levi finds out that hanji tried to audition as a joke but got the part bc she can actually S I N G like an angel and has a really solid head voice and range despite being a mezzo and cosette needing a soprano bc her parents forced her to take lessons, while levi despite having a decent singing voice actually had to have the songs lowered a lil bc bby is a baritone in a tenor role and has never had lessons and can’t support all the notes but fear not! Hanji offers to teach him some tips and tricks and whoops now they’re spending even more time together

And maybe just maybe it becomes easier for levi to sing “in my life she has burst like the music of angels, the light of the sun, and my life seems to stop as if something is over and something has scarcely begun”, maybe it comes natural for levi to stutter his line in “a heart full of love, a heart full of song, i’m doing everything all wrong” because?? he is looking right at hanji’s really pretty brown eyes and he can’t concentrate?? and he hates feeling like this lmaooo like sweaty palms butterflies fast heartbeat,,,,, boi is in love and he doesn’t realize it he just thinks he’s constipated

anyway let’s spice shit up and add erwin to the mix! erwin knows hanji, they’re childhood friends and they actually met through their singing lessons, the dude who was going to play enjolras gets idk chicken pox and the director is frantically looking for a substitute, levi wants to get back at erwin for making him audition in the first place (it’s all in good faith tho it’s a joke and they’re best friends dw he just wants to have a lil revenge) and suggests erwin, not knowing that he and hanji know each other and that he actually has been trained in singing so yeah erwin gets called for a last-minute audition and dude SMASHES it the director’s crying tears of joy they found their authentic tall hot blonde enjolras who looks like he’d be a great commander and people would die for him (;DDDDD) and during rehearsal levi finds erwin and hanji chatting like old friends!! and dude’s like wtf do u know each other??? and hanji says hell yes we studied together since we were children :D and just because i am huge huge erumike trash lemme say that mike got a lil part bc they needed ensemble members and he got to play grantaire so yeah enjoy both e/R and erumike there we go erwin gets to act with his boyfriend!! and they both watch levi and hanji during rehearsal and see how they obviously pine for each other but are far too oblivious for their own good so they decide here and there that they must get those two together bc it’s exHAUSTING to watch them stare lovingly into each other’s eyes and hold hands and kiss and then brush it off saying “it’s just acting we literally have to play a couple”

anyway the day of the show is here ladies and gentlemen levi is nervous af but doesn’t show it, he has to act like a lovesick fool in front of the whole school, the students, the teachers, the parents, EVERYONE and oh my god i hate it here might become his gratuation quote but all he needs is hanji backstage who squeezes his hand and whispers “can’t wait for you to sweep me off my feet shorty” which is extremely cringy but hanji did it on purpose just to see levi get embarassed and he does lmao so yeah the show goes amazingly! levi went flat a few times on the higher parts but it’s totally normal bby’s not trained and he did great everyone praise the birthday boy he deserves it

it’s after the show that things get a lil sad for our boi bc now he doesn’t have to rehearse anymore and is afraid that hanji won’t spend time with him anymore bc the show’s over :(( but fear NOT hanji plans on glueing herself to his side for the rest of the schoolyear and until they graduate and even after that and years later they’ve graduated college they’ve been living together for a while and they go to see the actual show on bway done by professionals and hanji acts weird all evening and OH as they’re going home she stops in the middle of the streets and whips out two lil matching rings,,,,,,, and says the cringiest cheesiest fucking thing in the world that has levi groaning and facepalming,,,,,, hanji says “will u be the marius to my cosette” and yeah levi just sighs and puts the ring on his finger and they smooch under the moonlight aw isn’t that CUTE and they lived happily ever after victor hugo is smiling down at them from the afterlife and patting himself on the back for helping them get together

NOW THERE’S TOO MUCH FLUFF AND I NEED ANGST TO BALANCE IT OUT so imagine this is also a reincarnation au and whenever levi sings ��empty chairs at empty tables” he gets a weird feeling in his stomach and he gets really emotional singing “oh my friends my friends forgive me that i live and you are gone, there’s a grief that can’t be spoken, there’s a pain goes on and on” and “oh my friends my friends don’t ask me what your sacrifice was for, empty chairs at empty tables where my friends will sing no more”?? He blames it on the character getting to him too much but then he sees the scene where the students sing drink with me and the lyrics “drink with me to days gone by, can it be you fear to die, will the world remember you when you fall, could it be your death means nothing at all, is your life just one more lie” sound really familiar and resonate with him somehow as if he heard similar words somewhere else already, he sees erwin playing enjolras and being a commander giving orders and singing “let others rise to take our place until the earth is free”, he sees the scene where all the students get shot at the barricade and die one by one and he feels his head pulse and he has the strongest feeling of deja-vu and suddenly everything goes black and he wakes up in the infirmary with a very worried hanji sitting on a chair beside him and he really can’t explain what happened except that he feels like he just woke up from a very long dream and he feels like he fought through a battle and hanji just waves it off as him taking the stanislavski technique a bit too seriously for a high school play but the feeling doesn’t really ever go away and sticks with him even years later whenever he hears les mis being mentioned

[leondaltons]

hello I am back once again with this, I warned you.

If your kotsam mcs were empaths but didn’t know about it until they went to NMC, would their personalities still be the same? If not, how different would it be?

I’m sorry it took me this long to answer this one! I kept going to “when I have time” and then i forget lol, so so sorry 💕 This ask is super interesting and i’ll be trying not to talk too much hahahaha

I think that in a way, all of them would be at least a little affected by it:

Aubrey: She is naturally shy and soft, so might get more into her own shell after this. Too afraid to speak more than necessary in fear of influencing someone with her powers, as she is a really emotional girl. Aubrey would probably have a hard time controlling what she feels and not having it influence others, but would try her best. Might result in her repressing a lot of her feelings

Irina: One of Irina's main personality aspects is that she can be pushy and bossy (she is the mum friend, so she sometimes can be intense). So, I think that the revelation would be a shock but she trusts her emotions enough to be under control and not influence others, however she would need to turn down her intensity when caring for others a little, so it doesn't affect them hahah

Jenna: Probably the least affected by this! Jenna might act like a fucking brat but she is someone who has an easy time keeping her emotions in check and being cold when necessary (after all, she was the only one of my girls who didn't snap when killing Reyna lmaooo). So yeah, would pretty much stay the same hahaha. The totally opposite of Roxanna hahah

Josephine: ufff boy. If someone would take advantage of this, that would be Josephine and even for the stupidest thing lol. Like, was someone being too annoying? Too bad, now that person is going to feel at the verge of crying for the rest of the day. Literal abuse of power hahaha. Idk if her personality would change much because she is already a mean bitch lmaooo

Nina: How does the saying go? "Birds of the same feather flock together"? This is Nina spiralling the same way Leon did lololol. She questions her every interaction and reality. Did she force someone to make them believe they loved her? (Which is kind of clown behavior on her part as she is conscious about how manipulative she can be with words and body language).

I think that for her the problem becomes worse when you mix her mummy issues with the fact that Roxana was also an empath and what we already talked about she being too similar in certain ways to her mum without noticing it (who she hates).

Nina would deal with this the same way she deals with everything "I pretend I do not see it" until it becomes too big to ignore; her mask and shoving her emotions at the back of the wardrobe even more prominent than before

But...she would find herself using her powers from time to time. More than necessary? Who knows

Aksjsk if you read all of this please know that I love you aksjsk

[surveys-at-your-service]

Survey #401

“my love is just waiting to turn your tears to roses”

Do you typically do your makeup the same each time? Or do you like to change it up often? IF I wear makeup, it's essentially always the same. Who is the last person you were in a room with just the two of you? What were you doing? Yesterday with Mom. We were trying to find the best deal on Eco Earth, a substrate we're getting for Venus. What was the last really good book you read, and what was it about? If we're talking REALLY good book, then The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. In short summary, it's a dystopian future novel where women are now basically just objects used only for repopulation, even having their names stripped from them. They follow very strict rules as society has returned to horrible misogyny. As a woman, the "oh my god, this is possible" aspect of it is terrifying, and it causes such a sense of disgust and urge to ensure women rights always continue to be fought for. Do you feel safe in your country? For the most part, I'd say. I guess. There are places I'd feel safer, though. How many meals do you eat a day? Three. Have you ever performed a solo dance in front of a crowd? No, but I was supposed to my senior year in high school; the seniors at my dance studio were always welcome to do a solo in celebration. Mine was a modern dance to "Coma White" by Marilyn Manson, wanting to tell a story about depression and how being medicated could feel, but I eventually decided like halfway through learning the choreography that I was just too nervous to do a solo. Have you ever sung a solo? No. When you go to McDonalds, what drink do you usually get? Coke. Have you ever had to call and complain about a product you bought? No. Do you own a designer purse? Definitely not. I'm not wasting that much money on something like that. What’s the weirdest rumor you’ve ever heard about yourself? Apparently, Jason and I had a baby in high school even though I was obviously never pregnant. To my knowledge, it was started by his ex. Who is now a good friend of mine lmaooo. Life is funny. What was your favorite Saturday morning cartoon growing up? Pokemon, of course. Would you ever have an affair? Nope. Would you ever have a one night stand? Nope. Where you present at any major historical events (e.g. 9/11)? No. What are your opinions on marijuana legalization? Legalize it, but treat it similarly to alcohol in that driving under the influence is illegal and punishable, and I believe you should be of a certain age. How about abortion? I am pro-choice. I was pro-life most of my own life, but now I am very firm about a mother being able to choose if she wants to endure a pregnancy or not. Like, that is a MASSIVE life event that almost inevitably changes - and sometimes traumatizes - people. I do believe a fetus is its own body and not part of the mother's, but rather in the mother's, but the belief that a woman decides what she wants in her body is her choice, too. I'm not very fond of people treating abortion as a simple, regular form of birth control, like it's nothing but an "lol whoops," but I still believe it is ultimately her decision, and she should always be free of judgment for doing what is best for her. Do you wear skirts or dresses more often? Neither. I wouldn't dare wear a skirt more so, though. What do you think about tipping at restaurants? There should always be an expected minimum, imo, unless the person was truly, sincerely, genuinely fucking awful. Waiters do not have an easy job, fight me about it, and they're just trying to survive while putting on a happy, jovial face, all the while dealing with hungry people who can be such assholes. I believe the actual tip should relate to actual service, but again, give them something. Would you ever get back together with any of your exes? One, absolutely. The other would take a shitload of consideration and proper communication on his part. Do you have a preferred coffee brand? No, because I don't like coffee. Do you usually befriend your coworkers, or do you prefer to keep work separate from your personal life? IF I had a job, I'd like to build a friendship with those I have to engage with almost every day. What is something you frequently forget? Dates, ages, names, what I was about to do five seconds before I forgot... Pretty much everything. My memory is frightfully poor. Is there any drama currently going on with your family? No. When you take a nap, do you nap in bed or on the couch? In my bed. Were you raised by both of your parents? If not, then who raised you? Both; my parents split when I was somewhere around 17, though, but I'd say there wasn't much more "raising" to do at that age. Have you ever stolen anything? If so, why? No. Have you ever plagiarized someone else's work? Hell no. What's your most-used mode of transportation? My mom's car. Have you ever taught someone else a useful skill? Not to my recollection. Does seeing everyone else's 'perfect lives' posted on social media ever bring you down or affect how you feel about yourself? It actually does, honestly. Not ALWAYS, but if I'm being honest, it does most of the time. I've contemplated deleting Facebook for that reason, but with is also comes things that make me happy, and I think I'd feel even more isolated without it. What is your favorite Hostess/Little Debbie snack? This is SO impossible for me to answer. I loooove Hostess and Little Debbie treats. I want to say honeybuns, but I also love those chocolate cupcakes with the white swirls on top, as well as Twinkies. Very few exist that I don't like. Do you/your family buy loafs from the bakery or bagged on the shelf? We just buy bagged bread. What’s the best news you’ve gotten lately? My APAP mask is definitively WORKING!!!!! :') Mom got an app that connects to the machine via Bluetooth that monitors the effectiveness of the mask, evaluating many factors of your sleep, and it's detecting a definite decrease in disruptive behaviors or something like that. It is so, SO encouraging to know that. ^And, the worst? Hm. Oh, probably some news on something serious a good friend is going through, but I don't feel it's my right to disclose what. It's just a very worrying and potentially dangerous issue that I wish I could help her with. Would you rather receive (or give) flowers, chocolates or jewelry? I'd appreciate any, but my fat ass is drawn to the chocolate, ha ha. What *I* would give would vary depending on what the person liked. How do you feel about coconut? Smells lovely, but is otherwise gross. ^ Ever cracked one open? No, but omg I've always wanted to, haha. What’s the best thing about being your gender? I guess the fact it's more "normal" and "accepted" to show our emotions. Fuck that generalization, though. I don't give a shit what your gender is, you experiencing emotions is NORMAL and welcomed to be expressed. ^ And the worst thing? The ability to be raped and impregnated by it. Do you do your part to save the earth? I don't do nearly enough. :/ We recycle, but that's about it. Well, none of us DARE to litter either, but I still don't feel like it's as much as the earth deserves from its denizens. Who do you think should have their portrait on a bill? I don't know or care. Why did you last feel exhausted? Yesterday was my niece's birthday, and I spent essentially ALL day playing with her and her brother. I have a very limited battery when it comes to kids, and I was running on empty for hours. My anxiety was SO high and I really needed a break from them, but they're too young to really understand that Aunt Britt can only socially run for so long before I'm completely burnt out, and TRUST ME, I was there for sure. I didn't want them to think they did something wrong, you know? I just had to keep going. I slept like a baby last night though for sure, haha. Have you ever used emotional blackmail to get your own way? Wow, no. Has anybody ever used emotional blackmail on you? No. Who did you last worry about and why? Sara for health reasons. Are you currently looking for a new place to live? Not actively, but Mom and I definitely want to move. We feel very out-of-place here in the suburbs. Which would you prefer as a view; mountains or the sea? Mountains. Do you have a mouse for your laptop? (Assuming you have a laptop) Yes. I canNOT play games with a trackpad. Do you apologize a lot? Extremely excessively. When you get married what do you think you’ll put most of your focus and money into? Do you mean like, for the wedding? In that case, probably the venue. Being a photography buff, I want a place I think is really pretty to have pictures taken. What’s something you complain about frequently? My legs hurting, my weight, and being hot. Do you have anything planned for the summer? Nope, and that's fine with me. I'd rather stay inside away from the heat. Who usually makes dinner in your household? My ma. Do you have a blog? Just on Tumblr. Does anyone in your family snore loudly? My mother does because of gerd, and at least when my father still lived with us, he snored super loud, too. Do you want to fix anything with anyone? Yeah, a few people. What shows do you watch? Right now, only Meerkat Manor: Rise of the Dynasty. Whenever The Edge of Sleep comes out, I will 110% be watching that, too, because Mark is a key actor in it. :') Plus the concept seems super cool. Have you ever broken someone’s heart? I don't know. Who was the last person you had a conversation with on the phone? Me mum. Does the song you’re currently listening to remind you of anyone specific? No, given it has like... one lyric, haha. Do you own any TV show soundtracks? No. Last thing you did that made you feel like an adult? I mean I guess sign myself in at the doctor's. What’s your favorite picture of your mom? Dad? Oh my god, there's a candid one I got of Mom laughing when she was posing as my subject for a photography assignment, and I cherish it with ALL my heart. I want to share it with essentially the whole world, but yeah, I'm not gonna put my mom's picture here. As for my dad, I like this one I took of us at Red Lobster for his birthday a year or two back. Last TV show series you finished? Fullmetal Alchemist with Sara. Favorite flavor of cream cheese? Regular. What US state would you like to visit? Alaska. Last meal you made yourself? I put a chicken pesto thing in the microwave earlier for dinner.

[denerims-archive]

29 - 39 + athena ✨

How did OC meet their significant other? If OC does not have a SO, do they want one? Damon was rude as per usual and Athena yelled at him for not having manners so they were destined from the start. Damon said I AM going to annoy this woman for the rest of my life and Athena said Who the hell is this douchebag?

How does OC get along with their parents? Athena very rarely ever saw her father - usually on holidays or at important events that required her to be there. He usually asked her how her studies were, if she was being taken care of properly, etc but that’s about as far as their relationship went. Seeing what he did to the people under his rule? She...really does not like him now. Her mother...was around a little more than her father especially when she was younger but that didn’t mean they particularly got on well. Athena had the distinct feeling of being a doll for her mother to dress up and play with. Once Athena started becoming her own person, her mother lost interest.

Does OC have siblings? Do they get along if they do? Do they wish they had some if they don’t? Yes, she had ten older siblings. Nerissa was the only one she was ever close to. Due to their age difference and lack of a mother figure, the older sister-younger sister relationship was more of a mother-daughter relationship tbh. Nerissa encouraged Athena in pursuing her passions and is probably responsible for Athena not turning out to be a selfish POS. She encouraged Athena to be worldly, well-read and well-intentioned. 

Her older siblings Auberon and Ecko as well as Celeste and Arlo enjoyed tormenting Athena and they didn’t get along at ALL. Celeste and Arlo were more childish while Auberon and Ecko just treated Athena like dirt and rarely spoke directly to her. Ven’dela and Athena might have gotten along if Ven’s mother and brother weren’t so adamant against the other kids. They’re both smart and I like to think maybe on rare occasions they played chess together. Noa and Sorenn were always polite to Athena but they weren’t close like Nerissa was.

Does OC have or want kids? She does and is very eager to be a better mother than her own. I don’t think she would have considered it if she was still involved with her family/on Goldis. The first time she thought about kids were in her fantasies where her and Vexx moved to some remote place on Orion and raised a family there. At the moment? It’s not really on her mind much since the future is up in the air.

Is OC/Would OC be a good parent? I think so! She’d spoil and love those kids to bits. Stay up teaching them about the stars, telling stories of her travels on the Andromeda, reading them bedtime stories. She’d be fiercely, almost terrifying in protecting them. Athena would want to make each of her kids feel special and would include herself in all of their hobbies.

What is something unusual OC has bonded with someone over? The entire Andromeda Six crew + having a shitty childhood lmaooo

What is the most important relationship in OC’s life? It used to be Nerissa and Vexx. Vexx is still important to her just in a different way? Things shifted...after everything and she’s still a little confused about how she feels about him. In general, the Andromeda crew has become the most important people to Athena. She feels like she finally found a family and in some of her darkest hours too. It’s sappy and she would never tell anyone besides like...Ryona and Aya but she feels like it was destiny they found her.

How has OC been affected by their friendships? WELL. Kinda negatively thanks a lot VEXX. He was a positive force in her life originally though and the Andromeda Six crew has also become important in her evolution. She’s less naive and more thoughtful and aware of how others grew up and what situations affected them. Her worldview has been widened by all of them and it’s great for her.

How has OC been affected by their family relationships? Oh ya know. Just made her cling to every kind person who gave her the time of day in her life. Made her prone to loneliness that she both loathes and feels comfort in. Made her feel like she was never important or good enough. The usual.

How has OC been affected by their romantic relationship(s) or lack thereof? Athena is touch-starved and needs affection ALWAYS. She’s also super insecure in relationships because she’s only had...one in her life and he keeps saying he never cared for her so. Thanks again, Vexx. She WILL wake Damon up in the middle of the night to ask if he likes her ksjldgg. Honestly, her attraction to Damon who is so aloof and not forthcoming with his feelings is her absolutely going after the least available person because she thinks she’s not worthy of love anyway. There’s obviously other things she likes about Damon eventually but that first initial attraction was her going “Cool! Let’s hurt myself again!”

Who does OC consider they have learned their most important life lesson from? Nerissa! She always told Athena to take the high road/focus on the things that matter when it came to her siblings. It gave her a focus and drove her in her studies and made sure that she became a kind person despite her tunnel-vision/lack of worldview/experience. She really does mean well and that’s thanks to Nerissa’s influence.

[bloodfcst-a]

the last few mornings i’ve had hanging out with @sailorrmood​ have been absolutely incredible for my self-esteem and energy. thank you always for being ready to hang out to dismantle sexism, ableism, racism, and all the other shenanigans we see on the internet in the name of virtue signaling and performance activism.

i’m attempting to return to tumblr, but one of the things that really grinds my gears is the pseudo-authenticity and one-time performance activism via a reblog of a semi-relatable post. i say semi because while there are good intentions in many of these posts, people often just click like or reblog without considering the lack of intersectionality that was in the main post, or figure “i did my part” and expect everyone else to move on without recognizing that the situation lies beyond your simple text post. just because you moved on from knowing people are being unfairly incarcerated and dying at the hands of actual criminals weaponized by the ‘ justice system ’ doesn’t mean i have, or will.

today i really read someone with their whole chest say “i just learned about racism this week. wow. i’m white and i should do something about things.” and i can’t even imagine what it’s like to live in a world with so much privilege that you can really go 20+ years of living without recognizing the world around you and without noticing inequality or injustice. caucasity is a hell of a thing. meanwhile i’m an afab nb black & native so truly there’s never a time i’m not reminded of all the privileges i don’t have. i get so annoyed seeing people on tumblr say something completely ignorant and then use an excuse.

just two days ago i saw someone say “it’s sexist to ship clerith and not cloti, i’d know, i’m a womanist.” << which is not womanism, this is truly white feminism at its peak. i’ve also seen “this is my opinion and to critique me and my opinion is transphobic because i’m trans and you’re missing my good intentions.” this is both fragility and performativity to overrule an actual discussion, claiming bc of some label they know to be a haute keyword that their opinion is right. if you were truly an ally, you’d be willing to accept that your opinion is lacking the inclusivity you claim to hold. for womanism was birthed from the lack of intersectionality and critical thinking, for those outspoken or overruled or considered inferior by radical “feminists.”

( if someone were truly womanist, for example, both aerith and tifa would both be validated as women, because they both have worth inherently because they were born, and it cannot be invalidated based on a perceived gender role that they may or may not fall into. they inherently have the right to comfortable in the position that suits them best and that they have chosen of their own accord. to consider aerith inferior because she is ‘feminine’ or tifa inferior because she is ‘masculine’ or any other adjectives which could stereotypically fall into either of those categories is an explicit rejection of the acceptance ‘feminism’ claims to advocate for. )

and being trans is a valid identity but it is not a suitable response if you use that as a way to silence others or invalidate any other person’s experiences.

i recognize june is considered pride month, but it’s also juneteenth... ironic, given that this month is supposed to be celebrating the  proclamation the emanicaption of slavery to the remainder of those who were still held in captivity six months after the declaration had been legally issued... and yet here we are, 150+ years after the fact and still fighting for the right to live under the same oppressors by a system created to capture the slaves freed by the emancipation proclamation.... but y’all aren’t ready to see the big picture. but you need to be. black people have been. and that’s why they’re fighting for their lives now.

we all still have plenty of work to do, myself included, with dismantling biases taught to us by society and the social spheres we interact in. there should never be a time where you think “ah, i’ve learned enough about this subject” or “i’ve heard enough stories.” even when something is presented to you, you should possess critical thinking skills and learn to take nothing at face-value. raise questions to everything you see, especially presented by the media, and prepare to be made uncomfortable if your assumptions are wrong ( because more than likely, they will be ). who is the person mentioning the subject? what other opinions do they have? are there people presenting counter-arguments? how does their identity influence the way they interact with the information mentioned? to who is their audience? for what purpose are they interacting with said audience? if that seems like too much work... congratulations! you’re quite privileged to acknowledge the inconvenience of having to look at someone’s words and think more than 0.5 seconds about it. and if that’s hard for you to do with one post, imagine someone having to do that with literally every interaction for their entire lives. that’s the reality of black people, and other people of color, and any person that has a label that has defined them as “other.” remember, too, that these labels do not exist independently of one another, that they stack, and that a person can easily have multiple privileges, or on the flip side, things to be persecuted over, multiple injustices to face.

is it hard? yes. scary? certainly. but you should bravely face it head-on, as i am and my ancestors have before me. for those of you who claim to herald truth and freedom and the equality of all humans, who recognize there is no place in a just world for superiority and supremacy, you should invoke your strength as well. use it in times where you may need to be corrected for your decisions. do not hide behind one of your identities to prevent yourself from doing the hard work of re-evaluating yourselves and the information you share. if you’re to claim you’re an ally of anyone, that first and foremost means to listen to other’s stories and to provide them the platform to be heard, to not erase their voices when they are the most affected by it. learn about new perspectives and then dare to journey into a new world with those ideals you claim to hold together.

i have the honor of leading anti-racism workshops this week at my job, but you don’t have to be an anti-oppression coordinator to do this important work. you just need to actually put some real effort into what you’re saying, thinking, believing. remember to be inclusive. remember to listen. and remember to love. and if you can’t do that, you can certainly unfollow me so i can get you the hell off my dash lmaooo. thank you mutual checker!!

so in conclusion... just do better, y’all. i’m tired of seeing fake woke folks. everyone can learn to be a better ally to each other. and most importantly... CLICK THE LINK BELOW.

https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/

kay thanks!!!

[favvnsongs]

ok i'm interested on Aden and Clarke's relationship in faithverse. how does it change? is there any relationship to start with?

lmaoo I Love the dynamic that Clarke and Aden have in faithverse. bc holy shit they are not fans of one another lmaooo.

like I think that of course Clarke had heard of Aden while she was with lexa and co. traipsing across the country?? but it was in a vague sort of way? she just kinda got this image of him in her head of a slightly younger lexa who was still sort of... green? less intense than lexa maybe? not burdened down and stressed out and haunted by loss and all the things she's had to do since she became heda? not that he was Eventirely idealistic and foolishly optimistic when compared to lexa, but that he was that way at least a little bit??

and like... she doesnt meet him at all until like twoish months after the end of Pt. 1 of faith verse? a delegation from arkadia in the Capitol to hold talks with the new commander? and you know that Clarke had prolly been under the initial impression that she could just, ask lexa for favors and have her sorta like, influence aden into fulfilling them?

and then when Clarke actually meets him in her head she's just like "wtf this is a child -"

but when lexa is like "lmao no, you gotta ask him yourself" because that's how things work?? I just imagine the general political world of faithverse (at least where trikru is concerned) is rather bureaucratic?? just like, I at least mean semi-bureaucratic.

(I think of clarkes habit of barging into rooms and shit like she owns the place and demanding a favor or policy change and expecting full well for lexa to grant it?)

and aden is like "lmao no. take a number and wait in line, and then you can make your request and it has to be valid enough for me to send it down to the appropriate committees who will then decide whether or not it would be in our best interests to grant it, and to what extent and with what limitations and what we want in return. you can expect an answer within one to two weeks"

and clarke and co are just kinda "wut" bc clarke was used to the "lemme talk to lexa" route when it came to getting shit done and stuff. and while lexa eventually replaces Titus as flamekeeper, she absolutely refuses to put her finger on the scales? she'll advise aden when it comes to things, obviously, since she has more personal experience governing? but she wont say outright "do/dont do this or that" bc she wants him to like, be able to make his own choices? and have his own like, voice and shit?

and Clarke does NOT like him, because he seems to take such petty enjoyment in making her and the rest of the council in arkadia jump through hoops and deal with red tape in order to get anything done?

aden just constantly >:3 about shit? bc he doesnt like clarke (and tbh the sky people in general) at aaaaaall. but he especially doesnt like clarke. and that's for a whole ass list of reasons tbh. like for one he doesnt like that clarke thinks she has any right in trying to influence lexa into getting him to do things? he doesnt like that clarke used lexa's fondness and attraction to her to her political advantage? he reaaaally doesnt like her "you owe me for mount weather" bullshit.

but also hes just sorta >:T over like. clarke constantly trying to hog lexa to herself? aden such a jelly resentful disdainful little bby? that's his lexa, thank you very much. and his dislike of the sky people in general def feeds his dislike of clarke specifically. bc how d a r e.

and clarke, beyond her bewilderment that aden is v much a CHILD, doesnt appreciate his constant 🙃🗡🗡 attitude towards her? how he seems determined to give her a headache from pure frustration? but also clarke jealous in her own right?? bc of how close lexa and aden are? their shared history? how things between them arent tainted by the blood in the water like they are with lexa and herself? how they seem to almost always be on the same page??? how she never really gets lexa to herself anymore?? bc mentoring and comforting aden through his whole "I feel unworthy and invalid in my position as heda and because of that the Spirit and I are incompatible and it's slowly killing me" drama is massively limiting the amount of time or private moments that she gets to spend with lexa? she's resentful that aden takes priority???

and like, while eventually they learn to be civil towards each other and come to a begrudging acceptance - they're never really like. friends.

[terraforged]

How does Wrathuon recruit and treat his Blacktalons? How many are there? Does he scout them, or do they come to him? What skills does he look for? What would make him fire or refuse to hire someone? Are certain races and classes overrepresented? Underrepresented? Are the Blacktalons paid fairly and equally? Are there ranks? Does he know all their names? How much do they know about him? Does he interact with them individually? How does Wrathion assign them tasks? Asking for a friend...

Valeera has no friends so should just admit she wants to be a blacktalon :^)

How does Wrathion recruit and treat his Blacktalons?

I mean the fact he’s still able to recruit them after what he did is a bit of a mystery all things considered. I assume what mostly happens is people either don’t think their factions are doing enough and have nowhere but him to turn as an alternative, or other Blacktalons sorta wink wink nudge nudge people into it at which point he’ll go through the motions of dealing with that person himself.

He’s, you know, he’s their boss. He treats them like an employer because that’s what he is. When he was younger he was probably a goddamn nightmare to work for given how volatile he was, but as he is now he’s not too bad. His Blacktalons are his, so whilst he’s an employer he’s also possessive and he will go out of his way to support them if he can and they need it. He does generally have their backs with things even if he doesn’t care for them on an individual personal level like you might a friend– he’s probably more empathetic with them than you’d think, which I think goes a long way to how he’s managed to retain his own lil faction and grow it despite the dumb shit he did.

How many are there?

Man, I dunno. A lot. Not as many as the Horde or Alliance obviously, but his network is vast and there’s going to be a hell of a lot of them spread out through the factions and other neutral groups.

Does he scout them, or do they come to him?

If he sees someone talented he’ll try and scout/headhunt them if he can, and like he does know talent when he sees it. However, if he realises he’s going to get nowhere (like with Valeera lmaooo) he won’t bother or push too hard. Likewise though I think people do also approach him, and I think that this tends to be the primary way people become Blacktalons other than existing Blacktalons generally being like ‘yo have you considered’.

What skills does he look for?

Anything that might be of benefit. I think the game only ever really shows him as having rogues but I think this is massively narrow-minded and not actually the case at all– he’d have people from all classes, and people who aren’t actually any class at all. Wrathion would hire a bar keeper in an area where having someone placed that centrally would be a boon, so it’s like not all Blacktalons are actually people who can fight or heal. Some are nobles, some are seemingly random civilians. If they can offer something of benefit to him he’ll take them. Being able to fight well is one of the last things he actually looks for because whilst useful you can train a farmhand to fight decently. He more looks for the things you can’t train.

What would make him fire or refuse to hire someone?

If you get ‘fired’ you’re dead. You don’t get fired from the Blacktalons, though you could quit or retire naturally. If you do something to the point you need to be fired though he’ll just fucking kill you, he’s really not about that life when actions like that have a lot of potential to shred his already shitty reputation. 

He’d refuse to hire someone if they were a genuine asshole, and like I know that probably sounds hypocritical but Wrathion does have his own moral code and if someone’s was too far removed from his own they wouldn’t be suitable and he wouldn’t hire them.

Criminals who’ve done things like petty theft or something in retaliation to something done to them are fine? If they’ve done something he can morally account for and deem acceptable they’re still fair game to him, so it really just depends on how he views them and their past as a whole.

Are certain races and classes overrepresented? Underrepresented?

Rogues and shamans are both pretty overrepresented, with druids also being higher in numbers. Rogues are the most abundant because, you know, he’s a rogue himself and ended up with quite a few to begin with from Ravenholdt so for a while that’d have been what he was known for.

Paladins and priests are probably the least represented, though he does have some. Ironically he’d probably have primarily shadow priests, though again there’d be some disc and holy in there too.

Race wise nothing is over or under represented. Wrathion doesn’t give a shit what you are, and I absolutely think he has individuals from none playable races in the Blacktalon ranks too including things like the mogu and arakoa etcetc.

Are the Blacktalons paid fairly and equally?

They’d be paid a set base salary, and like they’re well paid even in the basic lowest end salary a Blacktalon could have. Over and above this though bonuses are a pretty, uh, big thing. Skilled Blacktalons make fucking bank out of it, which I think is a very deliberate thing on his end because it’s way harder to convince someone to to betray an employer who’s already paying them very, very well and offering them benefits both financial and otherwise probably not generally found in Azeroth.

Everyone’s paid equally in relation to their position. Race and/or class mean nothing in relation to this.

Are there ranks?

There are. Left and Right are the highest ranked Blacktalons beyond himself, but under them there are individuals of higher and lower rank with more or less responsibility than others. It is possible to work up through ranks depending on what you’re bringing to the table and what you’re actively accomplishing for him.

Does he know all their names?

He does. He also knows basic information about all of them such as family ties and prior affiliations etc.

How much do they know about him?

Anything that’s public knowledge. Beyond that they really know little more than anyone else, until you get into higher ranked individuals like Left and Right who he’s personally close with. Even they though rarely know what he’s actually doing as we see in his journal questline.

Does he interact with them individually?

He’s met all of them at least once, but after that he doesn’t personally interact with them directly. What he actually uses, and what makes him and his network so fucking hard to find anything on, are things like the gems we see him give players in MoP which allowed him to directly talk with the player and see what they’re seeing. Every Blacktalon has one and this is an absolutely mandatory part of being a Blacktalon. They’re tied specifically to Wrathion and the Blacktalon in question. Killing the Blacktalon breaks the gem, and whilst someone particularly gifted might be able to essentially ‘hack’ one of them that hasn’t happened yet so. Shrug on that one I guess!

Wrathion does issue orders directly to his Blacktalons, but never really by meeting them face to face. I think this is part of what’s made his network so fucking effective despite being managed by one person even though it’s so spread out.

How does Wrathion assign them tasks?

It depends on the strengths of the person in question. As aforementioned a Blacktalon which is someone like a bar keep or a noble isn’t going to be given a combat mission, as their primary role as a Blacktalon is to gather information and/or use their influence as needed to the benefit of Wrathion and his goals.

He’ll give people tasks suited to their skills. Wrathion doesn’t really set his Blacktalons up to fail by sending them to do something he isn’t certain they can accomplish, he has the player Champions for that.

[femslashy]

2018 fic year in review

thank you so much for tagging me @homosociallyyours !! this was really fun (and also a bit hard haha) to do ^__^

1. number of stories (including drabbles) posted to ao3: 19 (6 100 word seasonal drabbles, and out of the rest 4 are under 1k and 2 are chaptered but one of those is still a WIP)

2. word count posted for the year: 142,383 which is def more than i’ve written in previous years but my initial goal for this year was 200k and then i lowered it to 150k and then decided i should focus less on word count and more on actually finishing the fics lmaooo

3. list of works posted this year in order of posting:

the tesco fic (although i didn’t make the tumblr post until recently)

three spring drabbles (100 words each)

begin again [timestamp] (my only snowbaz fic in 2018)

we’re swimming with the sharks until we drown

SPHERICAL

got me an appetite, now i can taste it

Take a Chance on Me

Getting Naked on Camera (NOT CLICKBAIT)

my favourite colour is you

louis tomlinson’s completely 100% foolproof guide to snagging the fit bloke next door (3 100 word drabbles)

no better place than right by your side

days gone by (WIP)

love the cronch

zero to sixty

where the love light gleams

4. fandoms i wrote for: mostly one direction and by that i mean i posted a timestamp for a carry on fic from 2017 and the rest was one direction lol

5. pairings: harry/louis, simon/baz (ONCE)

6. story with the most hits: Take a Chance on Me with 10975 hits :o

7. story with the most kudos: Take a Chance on Me with 426 kudos

8. story with the most comments: Take a Chance on Me with 52 comments threads

9. work i’m most proud of and why: well Take a Chance on Me was both my first time doing a big bang as well as the longest thing i’ve ever written (twice the length of the previous longest!) and i’m still completely in love with the art for it courtesy of @vulpixlou and i def don’t go back to stare at it ever nope 👀👀

10. work i’m least proud of and why: i mean i could nitpick the hell out of my stuff and i know there are certain bits i would write differently now but at the same time i created something with my brain that didn’t exist before and that’s just too cool not to be proud of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

11. a favorite excerpt of your writing:

this is from Take a Chance on Me (shocker) and i was having trouble thinking of my fave but then i was skimming through all of my fics and ngl i had forgotten about this bit but y’all i’ve been trying to work a Dramatic Airport Reunion into a fic FOR FUCKING EVER and i finally did it and i actually don’t hate it? (spoiler for the ending of Take a Chance on Me)

“See…” Louis starts. “See, there’s this guy. And, oh god, he’s an absolute twat. Wanna know what he did to me?” Harry nods faintly, and Louis, emboldened now, goes on. “So, I already knew who he was, right? I knew him, because he’d been in this god-awful boy band for years, and even if me bloody sisters hadn’t been so bloody in love with him, I’d still have known him, because he was just that famous.”

“I wasn’t that famous.”

“Don’t interrupt,” Louis chastises, and Harry mimics zipping his lips. “So this guy, I knew him, but he didn’t know me, but, fucking hell, I think someone forgot to tell him that, because there I was, minding my own business, when this kid just…” Louis giggles then, because the memory is just so ridiculous, “he just starts fucking singing to me, can you believe it?”

Harry shakes his head. “What a weirdo.”

“Right? The weirdest.”

“What happened next?”

“I fell in love with him.”

“What? That soon?”

“Of course not, Jesus, Harold. I’m not that pathetic. I waited the appropriate amount of time to fall in love, thank you very much.”

“Is that why you’re here, then?” Harry whispers. “Is it because you love him?”

“That’s part of it, yeah. I love him, and I love the way we just fit, and I adore his daughter, and our pets are friends now, and I think our sisters are best friends now, so they didn’t actually give me a choice, but do you want to know the biggest, most important reason?”

Harry nods quickly, so hard his chin bumps his chest, and Louis’ so fucking in love with him at that moment that these are the easiest words he’s ever said.

“I’m here,” he tells Harry, “because I was lying in my own bed, in my own house, surrounded by all my things, and all I wanted to do was go home.”

He’s yanked forward then, Harry’s fingers digging into his shoulders, and he barely feels the pain because it’s Harry, and everything’s good when it’s Harry. He’s babbling into Louis’ neck, and the only words he can make out are his name and “love you” and he shivers with the feeling.

Harry’s hair has grown out enough since the night Louis snuck in to see him that he can tangle his fingers in the strands. So he does, pulling Harry’s face away from his neck and pressing their lips together. Every kiss feels like an apology. Every kiss feels like home.

12. share or describe a favorite review you recieved: so this miiiiight be cheating but i received two comments on a fic i wrote in 2015 and it was kind of a surprise that something that old still held up and people still enjoy it? def made me feel better about my current writing and also anyone who quotes my fics back to me has earned my undying love and affection

13. a time when writing was really, really hard: i have adhd so p much always ahahaha

14. a scene or character you wrote that most surprised you: the entirety of “we’re swimming with the sharks until we drown” ngl because i struggled with the like… morally gray criminal-y elements? and portraying the two of them in such a different way while still staying in character which i like to think i nailed? hopefully lol

15. how did you grow as a writer this year? i don’t feel like a i have? but i’m also bias and hypercritical so maybe i did and just didn’t realize ahaha

16. how do you hope to grow next (this?) year: i want to enjoy writing again and i want to finish more fics and not let them rot in my docs because of self-doubt

who was your greatest positive influence this year as a writer: okay so first @amandaisnotwriting is the real MVP as she bears the brunt of my whining/complaining/drama queen moments as well as the fact that she listens (some would argue is forced to :p) and reads over fic for a pairing she doesn’t ship for a fandom she doesn’t care about 😂😂😂

@rainbowbaz always makes time to look over my fics even when she’s crazy busy and is honestly amazing and saves my fics from americanisms ahahaha

and FINALLY we met p late in the year but but @livingatthelairport ‘s comment on “the tesco fic” helped me out of a writing slump and now she’s become my cheerleader (and friend 💜) and that’s make a huge difference in my attitude towards writing! it’s also easier to write a fic for a specific person than worry about the opinion of a crowd which is def something i’ve been missing in this fandom rip

also to everyone else who has read my fics, listened to me rant about them or just helped the process along in any way at all this is a GIANT thank you!!

18. anything from your real life show up in your writing this year? i mean i can’t think of anything off the top of my head but a lot of my inspo comes from the world around me so probably lol

19. any wisdom you can share with other writers: there’s nothing wrong with feeling jealous of other writers because i’m not a fan of hiding feelings just because they’re ugly as long as you don’t let it fester and turn into resentment or make you bitter. there are a lot of factors that go into a fic becoming “big” in a fandom but honestly most of it is just random chance so don’t beat yourself up because someone else’s success is not your failure and it’s nice to get recognition for your hard work but if you’re writing solely for the feedback then you’re writing for the wrong reason and that will lead to the resentment and bitterness mentioned earlier

also if you compliment someone you say you like their outfit but if you complement someone then you complete them

20. any projects you’re looking forward to starting (or finishing) in the new year:

I’M GLAD YOU ASKED

these are all the things i didn’t start and/or finish in 2018 that WILL be completed this year

the cat fic

the doctor fic

the final three chapters of days gone by

penpal AU

Space. Florist.

teenage fanboys who are also best friends

baking blog fic

a short follow up to tacom

twitter drama fic

80’s/’high school’/secret admirer!AU

something based on yawning grave by lord huron

part three of the alien harry series

chocolate orange holiday fic

LA fic (wtwm)

70’s fic

monkey fic

i’m also planning to do the @larryabroad challenge again because i had so much fun with it last time :D

21. tag some writers whose answers you’d like to read:

p sure everyone has done this but if you haven’t then do it now! and also tagging @cosyblack k bc you’ve had a really good year even if i have beta bias 😂

this took waaay longer than i thought it would omg but it was nice to take a look back!!