#it’s fun trying to fit more world building into an already existing society

[the-worms-in-your-bones]

I want more lore about gallifrey and how time lord society works, but at the same time I love making shit up about it

[edge-oftheworld]

hiii my friend just told me that if I sent you the 5sos member i think I'm most like, and permission to look at my blog you would psychoanalyze me? i thought that might be fun.

I'm not a huge 5sos fan, but I think I'm most like Calum. I think Michael is my favorite.

omg! i saw your dilithium post too and I hope that's going well, senior (?) chemistry can be brutal. and yeah absolutely!

you're naturally curious and easygoing, and you love novelty and diversity and learning about different ways to do things, different ways to exist, until you find something that comfortably fits you and then the peace you feel about that is so much better than trying to conform with what people say you should be. you get bored and start to feel uncomfortable when things are all the same all the time or when the same handful of people are telling everyone else what to do. part of that comes from being in a minority group, but part of it is just who you naturally are and even if you were white, cis and straight you think you'd still be drawn to people who break the mold.

you're drawn to anyone who's unashamedly themselves, and that's not because you're not yourself but sometimes you're quiet and people overlook you, or you're overlooked because you're well behaved according to their standards, but their standards are made up anyway, so who gave them the authority to judge you using things that don't even exist? it's a common aspec experience--people find reasons to judge who people are with, but when you're not with anyone they scramble for reasons to accuse you of wrongdoing, only to find none and infantilise you instead, focusing instead on the things you're good at, calling you 'career oriented' for not having a partner, not realising that binary is just as false as everything else.

there are things you're good at that you don't really care for, and things you love that you could be good at, and probably will be because you love them, so you're automatically going to spend more time on them. it's common sense, you don't understand why people don't get it.

you're observant and you notice a lot of trends as well as the ways that the world COULD be if people didn't just go through the same motions that this colonial society recommends. you're a dreamer and an idealist. you love philosophy, but only to a point, when it stops having practical applications it starts to go over your head sometimes because when it does that, it stops opening the doors to building community and family and instead starts to feel exclusionary, like that age-old trolley argument that totally disregards ANY sort of creativity and creates a false binary, something you hate.

your curiosity and love for complexity is one reason you're studying chemistry, and you're in so many fandoms! don't let people take that away from you: these things can be wonderous and joyful and you can look at ionic and covalent bonds and think to yourself: I'm most drawn to people who some say are opposite to me (loud, sometimes 'rude' but who makes these social rules anyway) but in other ways are exactly the same. lithium and oxygen are opposites, or are they? how about sodium and chlorine? aren't they more alike than you think? you don't appear like an outcast on the surface but you're committed to authenticity and you're going to go wherever that is, and it sure isn't with the mainstream people trying to hide their whole selves to be cool. they'll learn eventually. you already have.

[eirikrjs]

Your Pazuzu example is interesting. While the Exorcist's depiction is a departure for Pazuzu, it fits well within the Christian myth that non-Christian deities, especially those of ancient North Africa and the Near East, are malevolent demons. This myth seems to be a favorite of Atlus's, but becomes an obstacle for coherent world building and story telling when it come to depicting Mesopotamian gods. SMT V's Lahmu takes as much influence from the Exorcist's Pazuzu as it does Sumerian Lahmu.

So the ultimate questions here are, what is genuine demonology and what is cultural ignorance or fear? This is a topic I could talk about forever but I'll try and be as succinct as I can. Where I generally stand re: demonized gods:

Sticking to a Christian worldview, no other gods should actually exist, thus demons couldn't have possibly been gods

The famous demonized gods of the Hebrew Bible like Baal, Moloch, Chemosh, Astarte, Milcom, etc. are suspiciously localized around the general Levantine area

Later demon grimoires generally did not add to demon lists names of deities not already named in the Bible

So basically, I reject as authentic demonized gods that have not already been incorporated into the fabric of the Christian worldview in the distant past. Pazuzu was never considered to be relevant in Christianity's development, so a later pop culture association does not alter the definition of what Pazuzu is. Sanat Kumara is not a demon just because of Christian polemic. And so on and so forth.

And here's a great example of this. Everyone's favorite Dictionnaire Infernal isn't just a fun romp with our demon friends, it's got its fair share of colonial-era racism in it, too. Take its entry on Kali, who appears in it as a "demon":

You'll have to click through

This... isn't a good look, is it? Understatement. It's even one of the select woodblock prints by Louis Le Breton, though this one is far less reproduced for obvious reasons. But how can Kali be an "authentic" demon with this flagrant show of ignorance?

To build on that, one of my earliest exposures to monsters and myths came from the toyline Monster in My Pocket. While it featured typical scary things for kids like vampires, werewolves, Medusa, and the like, these three maybe didn't quite fit the same mold:

What makes it worse is that this line was conceived by Matchbox, a British toy company. Kali, Ganesha, and Hanuman were placed in the same category as Bigfoot, goblins, and zombies. It generated controversy at the time and is just as culturally ignorant as the Dictionnaire.

But to answer the question posed at the top, all demonization of another society's deities likely begins with ignorance or fear, and then as it morphs into tradition it becomes demonology. By my same metric Beelzebub shouldn't be a legitimate demon because it's merely a polemic against Baal, but it happened long ago when the line between ignorance and demon was thin; and like I said in the previous ask about the legitimacy of modern myth, modern additions can be dubious because we're so much more aware of their original context and meaning, which widen that line. Birthing demons was an activity best accomplished by the mists of time.

[memento-morri-writes]

wbw!!!! what is/was your favourite wip to world build? how does genre/character/other impact that? [@rodentwrites]

Oof, okay, so the only "real" WIP I have atm is ATQH, since WOKNFC is a short story, and set on Earth, and also not really a WIP at all. And all my other projects/stories were things I started on or worked on when I was litearlly in middle school, at most 9th grade, and then depression and ADHD burnout and high school shit hit hard, so um, yeah, we've only got ATQH.

BUT!! I will say that I really, really wanna write a *real* fantasy story someday (like, very fantasy. with magic.), as well as a superhero story (though I'm afraid I'll never be able to come up with a good explanation, and I need one of those or else I will die.)

Anyways, to answer the question, the worldbuidling for ATQH was generally influenced by my need for conflict. I came up with Fallon and her backstory before anything else about the story, so I created the Continent to fill in the gaps.

Rambling answers under the cut!! (I talk about all three kingdoms quite a bit, so that's why it's so long)

Map for Reference (X)

Anvia came about because I needed a place for Fallon to rule, and I wanted to put pressure on her. So I made Anvia the least wealthy and generally least powerful kingdom on the continent. Their agricultural basis came about because A) I live in the midwest, so I'm sure there was subconcious bias, and B) it made sense that as a nation of farmers they wouldn't have a very powerful military or be very wealthy. I needed an "enemy kingdom", or at least former enemy, so boom, there we got Oryn. They came to exist as the exact opposite of Anvia, so I took everything I knew about Anvia and basically flipped it on it's head. (Small, rural, agricultural society, okay so now we have a society with very concentrated population centers, a largely inhospitable terrain, and a Not Great treament of their people.) The idea of Oryn being mountainous then led to the fact that they can't produce much of their own food, so they're still semi-dependant on Anvia, no matter how much they hate that. That then gave me a reason they had been at war. Oryn got about 30 layers added to it when I started working on Kris, though. Because of his backstory, I suddenly had a lot more information about how Oryn worked as a country, and that was really interesting. What I needed/wanted for Kris combined really well with what I already had for Oryn, without me even trying!! It was very nice.

Oraine came about because I didn't want Anvia and Oryn to be alone on the Continent, and because I wanted more interest for the story. So, Oraine arrived. Oraine's Empress is there only for fun and profit, and I do mean only. Oraine also serves as a kind of mediary between Anvia and Oryn in terms of trade, since neither kingdom wants to talk to the other. So Oraine helps things alone, and charges an exorbitant fee. (Not gonna lie, Oraine is the most like the U.S., and not in a good way.)

Aurania (which is a distant island nation) only cropped up because I needed somewhere for Nina to come from, and none of the existing locations fit.

[cupidcreates]

akdsfjkdksj I wasn’t expecting you to churn all this content out so quick (´∀｀)♡ omgosh you went above and beyond with the love language ask!! I love to see your interpretation of these characters so what do the cast consider the perfect date to be? low key vs high key? local vs out of town? -😌✨

Thank you! I’m glad you liked the love language post, sorry it took so long lol. As for their favorite dates I think I’ll do the same characters here:

Katsuki Bakugou

Rock Climbing/Hiking Dates

Canonically one of Katsuki’s favorite things to do is go rock climbing so he’d definitely want to bring a SO along every so often. If you’re an athletic person and enjoy being outdoors this will be a very fun date! If you’re not a very athletic person (as many of us aren’t) Katsuki will settle for just going for a short hike along a trail. Katsuki gets super talkative on hikes as well, as you’re walking he’ll just be talking about literally anything! From Hero work to his friends/family, to things that have been bothering him lately. Whatever is on his mind he’ll share with you while you’re both out, which is incredibly helpful as he doesn’t ever discuss his feelings at any other point in time. Plus it gives him a chance to show off how fit he is in front of you, which you both always consider a plus.

Izuku Midoriya

Movie Dates

A Classic, perhaps a little plain even, but Izuku absolutely loves to take you to the movies. He loves everything about the date, from discussing what you’re about to watch, to getting the snacks, to whispering in the back row (if you’re the type to get annoyed by talking during a movie he’ll keep this to a bare minimum). He loves being able to snuggle up next to you and hold your hand while discussing the finer points of the plot (If you’ll tolerate talking of course). Don’t think he’s being innocent here though, he definitely uses the darkness surrounding you as cover as he runs his hands up your thighs. Unbeknownst to most, Izuku is actually very much a horndog. He conceals it very well but he’s only barely capable of keeping his hands to himself when it comes to his SO. Any chance he gets to touch you he’ll take it, more than likely this is why his second favorite type of date is usually a stay-in date...

Shoto Todoroki

Dinner Dates

Another Classic, Shoto loves to treat his SO to expensive treats with his favorite being food-related dates at lavish restaurants. Not a week goes by that he doesn’t take you out on the town for the night at some place you’re sure you couldn’t even afford a glass of water at. It’s almost never the same place twice either, Shoto is actually a foodie and enjoys trying new types of cuisine whenever he can. He’s got a whole list of places he wants to take you, and if they require reservations he’s already got them locked down. If you love eating Shoto is your man, he’ll make sure you’re set with a wide variety of foods to choose from and always remembers any place you happen to be partial to.

Denki Kaminari

Amusement/Water Park Dates

Denki is a fun-loving guy through and through, he knows how to have a good time and wherever you happen to go he makes sure you do too. That being said, his absolute favorite place to take you is to an amusement or water park. It’s not often you two get to go, as you’re both very busy with your respective hero work most days, but when you do it’s a day-long affair. You’re there from the minute the park opens to the second it shuts down, riding as many rides as you can manage, eating greasy garbage food, and making sure to strike the dumbest poses for any rides that take pictures. You’ve got a whole scrapbook of these photos by now, their ridiculousness increasing with each new one added.

Eijirou Kirishima

Beach Dates

You wouldn’t expect Eijirou Kirishima to be a Thalassophile (Def. Person who loves the ocean) but he is. He adores being on the beach and it’s his preferred location for a date. You’ve spent many a sunny afternoon seaside with Eijirou, building sandcastles, chasing crabs, and just enjoying the ocean. One memorable afternoon you found yourselves right next to a sea turtles nest and you got to watch the babies pop out of the sand and scurry towards the ocean, assisted by Eijirou as he chased off the seagulls looking to make them a meal. Eijirou also enjoys surfing, and if you know how to do so he’ll get you matching boards so you can ride the waves together. If you’re not partial to surfing he’ll be sure to pull out all his tricks while you watch him, he’ll even let you onto his board with him so you two can just float together by the shore. Of course you two can’t go to the beach year round, but when you can you’re both sure to make the most of these sunny days, even if he does get an awful sunburn by the end of it. 

Hitoshi Shinsou

Gaming Dates

Hitoshi isn’t what one would call ‘social’ when given the choice between going out for a night and staying home he’ll almost always choose the latter. So it’s expected that his favorite type of date is one where you two can stay inside and enjoy each others company. You both work so hard as Heros, why not spend your days off relaxing with one another? He can spend hours alone with you, preferably kicking your ass at Mario Party or some other multiplayer game. He doesn’t need anything except you, his consoles, and a pile of your favorite snacks to have a good time. That being said, if you want him to go out for a date the best way to convince him is to take him to some kind of arcade, especially if it’s a VR arcade. He feels a kind of nostalgic joy for these places and won’t hesitate to return and feel like a kid again. Plus it’s always nice to repeatedly prove to you that yes he is the champion of Dance Dance Revolution and you will never usurp this title from him.

Tamaki Amajiki

Park/Picnic Dates

As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, Tamaki loves spending time outdoors; surrounded by and in awe of nature and it’s complex inner workings. He enjoys just taking time to appreciate the world around him, so dates where you can both relax outside and enjoy each other’s company are his favorite kind. He has a specific hill at his favorite park he likes to take you, bringing a lunch of all your favorite foods he sets you both up under the biggest shade tree for an afternoon. You both lay back on your worn picnic blanket and just cloudgaze, talking for hours about anything and everything. Much like Bakugou, Tamaki gets very talkative on these dates, discussing his week with you and anything new he might have learned over the course of it. He’s so very endearing on these dates its easy to fall silent and just listen to him for hours.

Mirio Togata

Crafting Dates

Mirio likes to have memorabilia from your dates, so you can expect a lot of dates to center around making things. More than just your average painting classes Mirio has also taken you to sculpting, woodworking, and glass blowing classes to name a few. At the end of your dates you both exchange what you’ve made and Mirio absolutely adores anything you craft, regardless of its quality in your eyes. He puts his heart and soul into making you something and more often than not it turns out spectacularly. Mirio wasn’t as good with the ceramics class, but you love the warped vase he made (even if it was technically supposed to be a cup at the start, we’ve all been there). Mirio’s kept everything you made him and even has a shelf in his house just dedicated to what you’ve made, it makes him so happy to come home after a hard day of work and see physical memories of his time with you.

Keigo Takami

Aquarium/Zoo Dates

Underneath Keigo’s charming and charismatically upbeat personality lies a bitter and broken man, drained by his role in Hero Society and left an empty shell of his former self. Underneath that personality lies a kid who never got to have a proper childhood and desperately wants to make up for it. He now uses his dates with you to do just that; not that you mind of course, dates with Keigo are always fun and lighthearted and you love to see him truly enjoy himself for once. Keigo’s favorite places to go are definitely large and intricately designed Zoos and Aquariums. He loves to look at the painstakingly accurate and detailed natural habitats, make fun of the stranger animal names you find, and learn new information about foreign bird species. Loves to mimic their calls too, much to the irritation of the birds and the zoo employees. He makes it a point to always get you a stuffed animal at the end of the date, ensuring that you now have a massive collection of them sitting all around your room. You’re always kept up to date on any Zoo or Aquarium events thanks to Keigo, as he has a calendar dedicated to all the unique events they have going on throughout the year.

Touya Todoroki

Crash Dates

Dabi is...well he’s unpredictable at the best of times and it’s very rare that you two have time for anything even resembling a date (being an S class villain does make it hard to exist normally in society and do normal couple things but it ees what it ees). However, when he can take you one a date --well the term “date” is generous here- it’s never a dull one. You’re not sure how he does it but when you go out you always manage to end up somewhere Dabi could never get into naturally. From sold-out concerts, to stand up shows, to parties at lavish houses belonging to people you’ve never even heard of let alone met before; dates with Dabi are always somewhere you two definitely shouldn’t be. One memorable morning he took you to a country club where you got to each fancy exclusive rich people food and play a horrible facsimile of golf before you were eventually found and chased out. It’s always fun to see how long you two can crash an even before being found out.

Tomura Shigaraki

Cemetery/Haunted Places Dates

Tomura Shigaraki is a man who enjoys his space from other people, in his opinion the only good person is a dead one (unless he’s talking about you, of course). So it’s not abnormal for your dates to be in a place far away from others. Again the term “date” is being very generous, more often than not he’ll approach you, tell you to follow him, and you’ll wind up in some abandoned building or graveyard. Normally this would be cause for concern, as this is exactly what happens in horror movies before someone gets killed, but Tomura has a soft spot for you so your safety is ensured. Tomura loves to see a place reclaimed by nature, vines growing over a run down house or worn out gravestones breaking apart into chunks of marble with barely legible words on them. He doesn’t talk much on your dates, but will often give you a random bit of insight about him; like on one date where you both walked alongside abandoned train tracks at dusk and he told you about the dog he had as a child. He seeks no pity from you, and these dates are not the conventionally romantic type, but you enjoy being able to be with Tomura in a way no one else ever has or ever will.

[bullshittierlists]

Spoilers for DR1, obviously. I decided to remake this list because my opinions on all of the characters have changed significantly since the last time. I’m honestly not even super happy about this one.

I see no god up here other than me:

Kiyotaka Ishimaru - Oh my lord, he’s perfect in every way (except for the thing, which I’ll get to). He’s funny, he doesn’t feel entirely insignificant, and he’s got a cool, sad backstory to dive into if you like him enough, but it isn’t required to do so throughout the main game. Everything about his genius/hard-working motif is brilliant. I think it’s incredible how he’s actually the opposing force to Komaeda rather than Junko, even though no one talks about it and the game doesn’t really use it that much. His whole backstory with his grandfather and father is so sad and I’m so proud of him for getting to be where he is today, even if it didn’t quite happen how he wanted it to. The one exception to this practically perfect prefect is, of course, the elephant in the room, Kiyondo Ishida. Here’s the thing: I think Kiyondo could’ve worked really well. However, as far as I know, Taka was swapped out last minute with Hiro and had to die in chapter 3. I honestly think this was the worst decision the franchise made after making Mikan... the way that she was. The only reason people hate Hiro is that he survived the first game. I’ll get to this more later, but I honestly really enjoyed his character for the first three chapters. After that, though, he got a little stale and even a bit annoying, especially the Kyoko being a ghost bit. I feel like Hiro really overstayed his welcome and his presence could’ve been more than made up for by the comedic duo of Hina and Taka. I understand that choosing the survivors of each game is difficult and a very meticulous process, but let’s just consider the interactions with other characters for now. To start with, Hiro hardly had any positive interactions with any of the other characters in the back half of the game outside of Hina calling him out for being an idiot. If we put Taka in his place, he could’ve had serious moments with Kyoko and Makoto, helping them to solve some of the mysteries. He also could’ve played off of Byakuya and Toko’s relationship in telling them that PDA is “not welcome in a school environment.” And the crowning jewel of missed opportunities, his interactions with Hina. They’ve both lost their best friends in the whole world and have no one to rely on. In canon, Hina had to do a character 180 just to keep up with Hiro’s idiocy and not break down about losing Sakura. However, if we had Taka, he could’ve helped her to get through it because he would’ve already gotten over Mondo with the help of Ishida. See? I brought it back around. If Taka had been able to resolve his issues with Ishida in chapter 3, he would’ve been able to help Hina to develop her character through the loss of Sakura in chapter 4. I think this would’ve been so much better for both of their characters and I weep for what could’ve been. But for some reason, Hiro just had to stick around.

Mondo Owada - I’m honestly surprised I talked about Taka for that long without mentioning Mondo. I don’t actually have a lot to say about Mondo that I won’t get to with Chihiro, but this is basically your warning to be ready for another rant and it also serves as a break from the last one. Mondo and Taka are perfect for each other, Mondo is the most sympathetic killer, bar none, and even though I’m not a huge fan of dogs, Chuck is so precious.

You’re the best:

Celestia Ludenberg - Pretty goth lady. That’s about it. She could’ve been better in chapter 3, but I honestly still really liked her plan and her breakdown was phenomenal. My favorite thing about her though is her execution. Her execution fits into the thin category of executions that include the element of specific despair, basically meaning that Monokuma made it specifically to make her sad apart from the fact that she was dying. She was ready and honestly excited to be burned at the stake because it would guarantee her an interesting death and therefore an interesting life. But then, she ends up just dying in another boring old car accident, many of which happen every day. It’s fun to watch her expression and demeanor change throughout her execution, it’s one of my favorites.

Chihiro Fujisaki - Oh boy, it’s the one I expect to get hate for. Buckle up, lovely people, it’s time to get personal. I personally headcanon Chihiro to be a cisgender male; however, I also believe that you can headcanon anyone to be anything you want. There is an exception and it’s when that headcanon specifically derails something the character was trying to present. In this case, it’s toxic masculinity and the importance of appearances in society. I’ll preface this whole section with a statement: I’m not trying to be transphobic. I could see Chihiro being a trans male, but cis or trans female just feels counterproductive to me. Let me explain. Chihiro’s entire existence is used to parallel Mondo’s. Chihiro has a strong will with a weak body, while Mondo has a strong body with a weak will. Mondo is seen, in canon, as a super manly character who is strong in both heart and body, but he doesn’t believe himself to be this way. The only strength he’s ever seen is through aggressive violence, and that’s how he shows his strength. This is proven in the fact that when he felt weak against Chihiro’s strong will, he killed him out of fear, which he had grown to believe was strength. However, since Chihiro had a weak body, people treated him as unmanly, even though he was strong-willed, so he believed that everything about him was weak and learned to be submissive to everyone else’s desires. This is proven in the fact that he dressed and acted the way he did specifically to please others, not himself. It’s shown in multiple free time events that he hates the way that he looks and that he hates dressing to appease other people. It’s not even necessary to turn to the FTEs to gain this information, it’s obvious from the fact that he goes to Mondo specifically to get stronger in what he thinks is both mind and body, as he’s been known to think that the two are connected. It can also be understood from his dialogue that he wasn’t trying to get physically stronger for himself, he was perfectly comfortable with his body, he wanted to get physically stronger so that other people would leave him alone. These are the effects that bullying had on him. Maybe I’m misunderstanding, but whenever I see Chihiro as female, trans or otherwise, it feels as though those people want Chihiro to subject to the bullying because it more closely fits their ideal. It just feels like evidence of toxic masculinity because since Chihiro is feminine, he must be female, even if he says otherwise. The difference to me between this and say, trans Gundham headcanons is that with Gundham, there’s nothing in his character that goes either way, so it’s fine to headcanon him however you want. But when Chihiro explicitly states that he wants to be seen as male, he’s ignored and pushed aside as “another missed opportunity for trans representation.” But he’s not a missed opportunity for representation, he’s just representing something else, toxic masculinity. It’s obvious that it goes over people’s heads because they don’t seem to understand this at all. I’m not trying to be rude, I just want people to understand that just because the representation isn’t specifically for the group you want, doesn’t mean that it isn’t good representation. I can talk about this more if anyone wants me to, but it’s almost 1 AM and I’m not sure how much longer and I can form cohesive sentences and I’m not sure this is the best argument to test that on.

Genocide Jack - Idk, she’s funny. I’ve already gotten past most of the characters I have strong opinions on. Whereas in the second game, I have strong feelings about my favorites *and* my least favorites, I really only have favorites in this game and everyone else is pretty neutral.

Byakuya Togami - He was actually originally my second favorite character, but I realized a good way into the series that I didn’t actually like him that much. He’s not as smart as he claims to be and he isn’t as well written as Komaeda or Kokichi. However, he does have one truly fantastic moment in the first game and that is during chapter 4. When it’s revealed that Sakura killed herself, he shuts down. It’s impossible for something to have happened that he didn’t predict and he truly believes that. It’s incredible to see his complete shift in character (at least for this trial) and I absolutely adore that moment. Everything else with him is still kinda meh.

Hey, I think you’re really cool, I like you a lot:

Sakura Ogami - There’s literally nothing about her that I can say that hasn’t been said already. She’s perfect and I love her for it.

Aoi Asahina - Like I said during my Taka rant, I think she would’ve been much better if she didn’t have to accommodate Hiro. The first game had a much darker tone than the second and Toko/Genocide Jack already had the comedic relief role covered. She and Taka could’ve still had their fair share of funny moments together, but I feel like she could’ve gone through Akane’s arc during the second game, but better because she would’ve been able to build off of Taka, who already went through the same thing. Either way, she’s cute and I adore her and Sakura’s friendship.

Sayaka Maizono - So I actually made this list back in January (it’s currently the middle of April) and just never got around to making it and since then, I’ve fallen in love with Sayaka. It may or may not have to do with me being cast as her in a secret project that I’ll announce later, but she has my heart regardless. Now, I’d probably put her behind Chihiro and ahead of Genocide Jack. She’s just such an interesting character and while it’s a shame that she died so early, I still think she wouldn’t have been as good if she didn’t die so soon. For the record, I think both Sayaka and Leon were morally in the wrong. However, Sayaka was doing it for her friends, while Leon could’ve stopped at any time and really only went back for himself. Sayaka is not a snake. Thank you, goodnight.

Mukuro Ikusaba - She’s definitely my neutral point. I have one of these in every DR game, even if I don’t realize it. I just don’t really have any opinions on her and it’s not even because she wasn’t in the game for very long. I just don’t know how to feel about her. I just finished Danganronpa: Zero and that boosted Junko way up in my book, but it didn’t really change my opinion on Mukuro at all.

Kyoko Kirigiri - I get the hype, I really do, but I just can’t get into her. For starters, I don’t like Naegi all that much, so of course I’m not going to like the people that hang around him all the time. The most I’ve ever liked her is while watching videos of her along with “Not So Bad A Dad” from Phineas and Ferb. Other than that, she’s extremely neutral for me.

Toko Fukawa - I’m including her appearance in Ultra Despair Girls, but it didn’t really help her much. I liked her in the first game, but it was only because I was going through a weird phase of obsessing over people and now I just think it’s weird because it is. I went into Ultra Despair Girls knowing that she got character development and then completely forgot to pay attention to it because I was so enraptured by the Warriors of Hope. So, I don’t know, she’s just kinda creepy and I didn’t really notice her (or Komaru, for that matter) in UDG.

I remember you:

Junko Enoshima - Like I mentioned during Mukuro’s segment, I just finished Danganronpa: Zero and it was a wild ride. I made this list before I had even started the book and I was mostly just confused by Junko. I didn’t understand her motivations or any of her plans, much less how she was able to achieve anything she was. But once I finished DR0, it all made sense. I won’t spoil it here, but she was incredible in that book and I wish I had caught on to everything earlier.

Makoto Naegi - I feel bad, but I have to compare him to the other protagonists. He’s just so boring, and I know that that’s the point of a protagonist, but Hajime proves that it doesn’t have to be that way. Makoto’s just kinda there all of the time. For example, in DR0, he shows up for one scene, but he literally doesn’t even do anything. He stands there, talks to Ryoko, is scared during a fight scene, and is never seen again. It’s really frustrating to know that he’s only there because he was the protagonist of the first game and it’s like “Wow, you know this character!”

Yasuhiro Hagakure - My only opinion on him is that he should’ve died in chapter 3. My only explanation for why he was so high on the original list is because I watched this one hysterical panel for DR1 and Hiro was by far the best character there. In the game itself, I liked him until he overstayed his welcome and cost Taka his shot to be memorable.

Leon Kuwata - I honestly can’t explain why I dislike him so much, I just really, genuinely do. He’s just kind of annoying, but that’s about it. Like I said before, I don’t really hate many of the characters from this game, they’re mostly all loved or neutral and he’s just the most negative neutral.

You are literally the worst. Actual scum. Leave this planet and never return:

Monokuma - You know the drill by now if you’ve seen my other DR tier lists, it’s kind of an obligation at this point.

Hifumi Yamada - Why. Why is he like this? Why is he this way? Honestly, he’s not nearly as bad as Teruteru or Kazuichi in the perv department, but I just hate him so much. I don’t understand why he is the way that he is, but I do understand that I’m happy he died in chapter 3. Honestly, I could’ve done with him dying earlier, but it is what it is.

It’s 1:15 AM and I am done writing. I’ve been putting this off for months and I figured it was finally time to get it over with and it definitely didn’t have anything to do with the fact that I can’t sleep. I hope you enjoy all of this and if you would like me to elaborate on anything, just drop me an ask and let me know. I’m always happy to explain any of my opinions and want to make sure I’m as clear as possible. Please do not spread hate about me until you’ve made sure you understand my point. Then go to town.

[eroticcannibal]

Common myths and misconceptions about home education

So in case anyone has somehow missed it, I have recently become a Big supporter of home education in a very lefty way, which has meant I have had to challenge a lot of views I have previously held about home education and that I know a lot of other lefties hold too. I am of the opinion that embracing home education, not as a last resort, but as the primary form of education for as many children as possible, is a vital part of achieving the required shifts in society needed to meet the goals of most leftists. So I am taking it on myself to convince you all that it is a very good thing, and also to clear up some misconceptions people have about home education that may make them feel they are unable to do it.

(A note, I am from the UK and shall be using UK terminology and specifics regarding law, policy and other such things will be from a UK perspective. I shall be using the term home education, as that is the legal term in the UK and is distinct from home schooling, which is the term for what school children have been doing during the pandemic.)

And I would also like to extend a quick thanks to Education Otherwise and the mods at Home education and your local authority for teaching me A LOT.

Have any questions about anything I’ve not covered here? Just let me know!

1. “Home education is illegal.”

- Sadly, home education is illegal or restricted to the point of inaccessibility in most of the world. From the research I have done, it seems that only the US and the UK have reasonable laws around home education (if I am using a very broad definition of reasonable, it is still not great). I do hope I can change this section soon, and I would *heavily* encourage people to campaign for the right to home educate post pandemic, perhaps cite any benefits learning at home has provided to children, perhaps???

2. “Home education is a tool used by religious fundamentalists to brainwash children!”

- This is a view many hold, and for good reason. For many of us, when we think of home education, we think of christian fundamentalists in the deep south of America, pulling their children out of school to avoid the liberal agenda. The truth is, anything can be used as a tool of indoctrination. This can happen in home education, and it can happen and has happened in schools too. In my own communities we have had instances of schools being a site of religious radicalization of children. The reality is this is far too complex and deep an issue to be solved by deeming any particular form of education as “bad”. I am not an expert on how best to deal with such issues, but I do feel that things like outreach and building a healthy community with otherwise more isolated religious groups would be a better way to address these issues.

3. “You need to have x qualification to home educate.”

- Again, a reasonable view to hold, given that state run and private education does require educators to hold certain qualifications, but in practice it quickly becomes evident the same does not necessarily have to apply with home education. Educational qualifications are very much focused on delivering an education in a classroom, which is a far cry from home education. During our home education of our child, my partner, who is a qualified SEN TA, has struggled far more than I have with educating our SEN child, despite the fact I hold no qualifications.

We live in amazing times when it comes to education. There are many things that parents and communities have to teach a child, and there are many things a child can teach to themself if given the tools to do so. You can even learn together! Their are endless resources available, books and games and documentaries, and even home education groups and private tutors if you feel that is the right fit for your child. You don’t need a piece of paper for your child to spend a day with their nose buried in a book, or to help the neighbor with his vegetable patch, or to cuddle up on the sofa while watching Planet Earth.

4. “You are required to follow the national curriculum.”

- This does vary by country (that allows home education). As a general rule, the stricter a country is about who can home educate, the stricter they are about what must be taught. In the UK, you are not required to follow the national curriculum. Education must be “efficient” and suited to the child’s “age, aptitude and ability”, and LAs do require that english and maths are covered. Other than that, you are allowed to tailor the content of education to the child and their interests. We have recently dropped geography for now and are only just picking up history again. It has also given us the freedom to focus on areas our child needs that would not be covered in mainstream education, such as anxiety management, trauma processing, self care and hygiene.

5. “Home education looks like school/is just filling out workbooks/etc”

- The thing you will always hear from experienced home educators when you begin home education is “home education doesn’t need to be school at home”. Much like you can tailor the content of the learning to the child, you can also tailor the delivery to the child. Some child need structure, timetable, instructions. Some need freedom and to bounce between topics. Some need to have an hour learning maths and only maths, some need to go dig up your garden “for science”. Some want to learn every day, some will need extended breaks.

Learning happens all the time, from the moment they wake to the moment they sleep. As an example, at home we have some workbooks, as both me and my child have ADHD and need someone to go “ok learn this” rather than us having to work out for ourselves what we need to cover for core subjects like english and maths. For the rest of most days my child is left to their own devices to binge youtube and netflix and work on their art. We try and go for a woodland walk every few days, where we have Deep Discussions about all kinds of topics, and we are also working on growing edible plants and baking cakes from around the world. We are more hands-off at the moment, due to the current bout of anxiety, but when that settles again we will get back to history themed crafts and STEM activities. Post-pandemic, we will be signing our kid up for swimming classes and “after school” clubs, and looking at sending them down to my mum for the home ed groups where she lives, like the forest school. A lot of home education outside of a pandemic is in groups and community based, or will make use of libraries and museums and other public learning opportunities. Frequently very little will happen at home.

In fact many home educators will advise new families to “deschool” for a while before jumping in to learning. This is a period where you “get school out of your system”, and just exist. Learning does not have to be intentional, you will be surprised how much you can achieve by just having fun.

6. “Home education is expensive.”

- It can be, ask my bank account. However, it is perfectly possible to deliver a quality education with little to no money. I’m not saying it’s easy, but it’s doable. Their are many online resources for free (check out oak academy), and libraries have plenty available too. Even paid resources can be very cheap if you know where to look. (psst, if your kid thrives with worksheets and powerpoints, get yourself a twinkl subscription, download everything you need for a year then cancel it.)

(This does not apply to exams. Get saving!)

7. “Home educated children are not properly socialised.”

- This is only really true during the pandemic. The rest of the time, home educated children are free to socialise whenever they want, with whoever they want, in whatever setting they choose. Socialisation while home educating is in the opinions of many of a higher quality, as they are not limited to groups of a similar age and background. Many home educating families form groups for their children to socialise together too. For ND children especially, socialising while home educated can be far less stressful and far more fulfilling than in school.

8. “Home educated children won’t get qualifications.”

- Just plain not true. Arranging qualifications can be costly and time consuming, but it is possible and regularly done. Some children may return to school or college to access exams for free, and I have heard of a handful of cases where individuals were able to secure prestigious university places without any qualifications. Home education also allows for more freedom with how exams and qualifications are approached, for example, many home educated children will pick one GCSE to focus on at a time, rather than covering numerous topics over 2 years and having exams for all of them at once like children in school will.

9. “Home education is a safeguarding risk/is used to cover up abuse/home educated children are not seen.”

- In the UK at least, home education is not considered a safeguarding risk, no matter what authorities may tell you, nor are home educated “not seen”. They still visit medical professionals, they still engage with their communities.

Now I shall add the relevant paper here should I find it again, but the idea that home education is used to cover up abuse to a statistically significant degree, or that home educated children are at more risk of abuse, is false. Home educating families do face a significantly higher risk of social services involvement than other families, but far less abuse is found in comparison to other families. It is also worth considering, when talking about social services involvement, that many families pursue home education due to failures by schools regarding a child’s vulnerabilities. In most cases, especially the Big Ones, where a home educated child is abused, the child was already known to authorities as a victim of abuse, therefore home educating did nothing to hide said abuse.

Children are also routinely abused in schools, which is another common reason for home educating.

10. “Home education has to be monitored or approved.”

- Depends on the country, I know in Japan home education is monitored by schools, however in the UK, monitoring is not lawful. Local authorities may make informal enquiries to ensure a suitable education is being facilitated (keep EVERYTHING in writing and please go straight to “home education and your local authority” group on FB for advice, you WILL need it!). In England, if your child is in mainstream education, you can deregister at will, from a special school will require LA approval. In Scotland deregistering requires LA approval. (Again, head to the aforementioned group for advice).

11. “You can’t work/get an education while home educating”

- It is hard to balance work, education and educating your child, but it is possible, people do it every day. Obviously, having at least one parent free to educate unhindered at all times is an ideal situation, but in the real world it often does not work that way. Parents may have to home educate regardless of their other commitments if a child truly needs to escape the school system. Many parents work or learn from home, and sometimes it is even possible to combine these activities with home education. Professional artists and crafters can pass down their skills while working, distance learners can invite their children to sit in on lectures. The really great thing about home education is it is flexible. Do you have a whole day of meetings? Let the kid play minecraft all day! Going to be in the office all day? Drop the kid off at the local forest school or something else they can do all day. Drop them with the grandparents to help with the gardening!

12. “Home educated are behind/achieve less than school children.”

- Their is no evidence that home education is of a lower quality than school education. Many children are home educated specifically because the school environment was detrimental to their education, and thrive with home education. Plenty of children are able to learn more simply by having 1-to-1 attention, without the distraction of an entire class. And others may well be “behind”, and are educated at home because of their specific needs that mean they will never thrive in an academic setting, so they are allowed to focus on learning skills that will allow them to live independently.

[ravnicaforgoblins]

Ravnica for Goblins

Exciting Planeswalker Visitors

(Caution: Before we begin, this post is going to be much more opinion-based than previous ones. These are my own homebrew ideas, use them as/if you wish, discard/dismiss them if you prefer.)

Planeswalkers are an integral part of MTG Lore, as well as several of its most iconic characters. Put simply, a Planeswalker is an individual with an inherent gift for traveling between planes, or worlds. The gift does not appear at birth, but is usually triggered by some manner of incredibly emotional (usually traumatizing) event. In addition, each Planeswalker displays a unique aptitude for a particular style of magic; be it plant growth, transformation, becoming transparent, illusions, invulnerability, summoning beasts, structural analysis, setting things on fire, etc. Whatever their specific brand of magic is, it’s usually on a higher level than an ordinary person can hope to achieve.

Planeswalkers, as a general rule, are wanderers by nature. They may have a home plane, or even an adopted home plane, but being able to traverse the multiverse leads many towards lives of constant adventuring/shenanigans. Add in the fact that Planeswalkers cannot bring anyone else with them on these travels (except in very rare cases), and you end up with a special breed of super-powerful magical loner. They show up, make a name for themselves with their big magic, and depart when they feel like it. Did you say, “Instant Adventure”?

Ravnica has a few native Planeswalkers among its citizens; Ral Zarek, Vraska, and Domri Rade. In addition, it has several Planeswalkers who have at some point or another (depending on your timeline) devoted enough time & energy to be effectively considered citizens; Azor, Tezzeret, Kaya, Dack Fayden, Dovin Baan, Gideon Jura, and Jace Beleren. Some of these are currently dead, missing, or magically barred from ever returning. At one point, Ravnica had more Planeswalkers on it at one time than any plane in the multiverse has ever or will ever see. If you are going the War of the Spark direction, good luck. You'll need it and so will your players. For everyone else, which Planeswalkers you choose to include in your campaign (if any), should be based on who will work the best for the story you’re trying to tell. A recommendation; if you find their lore too distracting and complicated, stick to the main beats. A lot of these figures can be boiled down to simple ideas, and you don’t want to bore your party with the entire novel of these usually dramatic/tragic lives. Trust me, the base concepts are enough.

With that in mind, here are four Planeswalkers that I, a random person on the internet, believe would work great for a Ravnica campaign. My choices are not based on who has canonically already spent time in Ravnica, or who would be the most powerful/dangerous to suddenly appear in the city. Several Planeswalkers have their own prior commitments on other planes that are pretty central to their character, and BAMFing them to Ravnica for a quick Bad Guy to take down wouldn’t do them justice. These four characters would slide into various aspects of Ravnica beautifully. These four would be the most exciting visitors to Ravnica.

Ashiok, Dream Render

I don’t think any MTG character could be as good a fit for a Ravnican Guild as Ashiok is for House Dimir. Ashiok is almost literally a walking shadow of secrets and intrigue. Their origins, their age, their motives, their face; hell, their gender is a secret yet unrevealed. Ashiok’s power is creating living beings born of the greatest fears stolen from people’s nightmares. Literally.

It’s like if the Dimir stopped half-assing the art of stealing thoughts and turned it into a weapon of mass destruction. Because even the mightiest of Ravnicans are afraid of things. Ask Niv-Mizzet about the Nephilim sometime, see how quickly he changes the subject. What’s better, for a Guild that prides itself on always having the up & up on everyone, Ashiok is inscrutable. They have no past that can be divined, no secrets that can be stolen, no previous encounters to prepare any for their arrival. Neither Lazav nor Etrata can claim such anonymity, despite their best efforts. Ashiok is a true enigma and a dangerous new weapon for House Dimir.

Ashiok also comes with the ability to create minions and NPCs from out of any PC’s worst nightmares, making encounters a great combination of roleplaying & combat. Fighting them is specifically facing one’s deepest & darkest fears made real. Can you say, “character development”?

Ashiok’s arrival could spread this new magical art to other Dimir Agents for a longer campaign, but it might be best to confine it to Ashiok in order to allow for a cleaner victory. Ashiok is not a fighter, cornering them into a direct confrontation should be enough to make the Nightmare Sculptor run for the hills. The mind is powerful, but also very squishy.

Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded

You know how the Cult of Rakdos are technically Chaotic Evil but generally just a bunch of artsy hedonistic nuisances? Tibalt is to them what a gallon of gasoline would be to a lit stove. Good for fire, bad for everything else. Tibalt is an empath specializing in Pain Magic. Quite literally, he loves hurting people for fun. Drawn to pain like a magnet; physical, emotional, spiritual, psychological, etc, he is sadism personified.

His brief time on Ravnica during War of the Spark was enough to make a strong impression on the Rakdos.

“I like this one’s energy.”

This is because they do not realize how bad Tibalt would be for the Cult. There is a fundamental difference between the Chaotic Evil the Cult practices and the Chaotic Evil Tibalt delights in. The Rakdos have survived 10,000 years by taking in the freaks, the rejects, and the crazies, and giving them a place where they can live out their most depraved hedonistic fantasies. They are the voice of the outsiders bringing all figures of power & authority down a peg. They always punch up, never down. Tibalt is a young man with no home, no friends, no job, and no interests or hobbies beyond inflicting pain in as many people as possible. Tibalt punches everyone. The most important distinction between the two is that the Cult of Rakdos is a culture, a way of life for people to embrace; it might be crazy, but it welcomes & accepts people no matter how insane the world says they are. Tibalt does not care about anyone but himself. Following his example would see the city turned into the largest, bloodiest, and most destructive riot in its history; with Tibalt inciting and sicking every monstrosity he can find onto the city at once. He will burn the Rakdos candle at both ends and leave them to suffer the consequences of his fun. The aftermath being the city in ruins, the Cult wiped from the face of existence, and him moving on to his next project. In short, Tibalt will hurt the Cult of Rakdos as much, if not more, than the rest of Ravnica. Because that’s how he gets his kicks.

The one thing standing in his way will be Rakdos himself. As the single largest diva on the entire plane, Rakdos does not tolerate anyone who tries to steal his spotlight. As a 10,000+ year-old Demon Lord, Rakdos is in a league of his own, and Tibalt is just a hotshit little pain mage with a few tricks. It’s not a fight, it’s either an exit or a curtain call for the Planeswalker. If Rakdos is around, Tibalt’s spree will be very short-lived. If, however, Rakdos is doing his usual thing of hibernating for weeks, months, or years at a time, that’s a different story. Tibalt is good for if your campaign wants to bypass politics & intrigue and go straight to killing Cultists & Demons. He’s bad for anyone he comes in contact with.

Garruk Wildspeaker

In case I haven’t made my contempt for Domri Rade clear, I hold Domri Rade in utter contempt. As a character, as a Planeswalker, and most of all as a Gruul, he’s a failure. Scrawny, weak, gullible, and stupid. My chief grievance with Domri is that he fell short in all the areas the Gruul Clans idolize. He couldn’t survive in the wilderness on his own without his Planeswalker abilities, he couldn’t fight for himself except against weaker opponents or with herds of animals as backup, and he acted on orders from someone else who wasn’t Gruul. For a Guild built on independence and survival of the fittest, he failed both completely.

Garruk is the real deal. Gigantic, strong, savage, and cunning. Here is a man who, on a fundamental level, has embraced animal savagery as a way of life. He lives like a predator on the hunt, an alpha of any pack, and a fierce threat to all who intrude upon his territory. On a plane like Ravnica, where civilization has encroached on the untamed wilds almost completely, Garruk would be a gamechanger. Not only could he feasibly fight Borborygmos for leadership of the Gruul, he could win, and he could unite the Gruul under his howl of reclaiming the wilds from so-called “civilization”. Garruk would bring animal strength to the Gruul in ways they’ve only begun to tap into, and he’d do it in their language. Because Garruk understands the Gruul, and they understand him. They have so much in common with each other that it’s hard to think of any Planeswalker who could be welcomed so readily into a Guild. They would become so much more than rock-smashers and anarchists, they would become Ravnica’s reminder that nature will survive when all traces of society have crumbled away.

As if taking on the city itself wasn’t big enough already, Garruk has also taken to hunting other Planeswalkers, and can actually track them across the Multiverse. Meaning a few high-ranking members of Guilds and even the Living Guildpact have to take his threat seriously. He’s got a particular grudge against necromancers, dislikes talking, and has a special gift with animals of all varieties. All of which provides plenty of ideas to build from. He’s an 8ft tall Human Druid/Barbarian who willingly chooses animal savagery over intellectual reasoning, can there be anyone more perfect for the Gruul?

Did I say Ashiok was the most perfect fit for an MTG character in a Ravnican Guild? Yeah, scratch that. Garruk is.

Sarkhan Vol

Most Planeswalkers have a theme to their abilities. For some, that theme extends to their personalities as well. And then there are Planeswalkers who can be adequately summed up in a single word. For Sarkhan, that word would be “dragons”. Sarkhan sees dragons as nature’s purest & most destructive form, and carries a fascination with them that is perfectly healthy for anything with wings and scales that breathes fire, but generally less healthy for everything & everyone else.

One of the things that makes Ravnica unique is the distinct lack of dragons (emphasis on the plural). Ravnica has a dragon, Niv-Mizzet the Firemind, who made the executive decision thousands of years ago that he alone was sufficient to represent his entire species. Ravnican dragons are considered more intelligent than dragons on other planes, Niv himself being a prime example of this. Around the original signing of the Guildpact, Ravnica’s Godlike dragons were hunted to extinction, with Niv leading the hunt against his own kind. They were not entirely successful in this endeavor, but what few dragons do remain in the present day survive by staying as far off Niv’s radar as possible. Some dragons live by carrying out Niv’s will under constant supervision, or by hunting in the untamed wilds outside the city, or as sideshow attractions for the Rakdos (usually with their wings cut off to prevent escape). They are effectively stripped of anything that would identify them as “dragons” for the sake of their own existence. Since dragons are such a notoriously touchy subject for the Firemind, few have the nerve or fire immunity necessary to speak out against it.

Sarkhan would be horrified. If he thought the extinction of dragons on his home plane of Tarkir was bad, seeing them living like this would infuriate him beyond words. What would Sarkhan do once the initial shock of seeing his spirit animal (in more ways than one) reduced to pitiful scraps of life as lab rats, scared prey, and freak shows wears off? Let’s make it a game! Do you think Sarkhan will:

A. Cry.

B. Throw up.

C. Embrace this as a plane’s reality that he has no right to get involved with.

D. Scream.

E. Set something on fire.

F. Set everything on fire.

G. Bring back the dragons.

H. Burn the city to the ground with dragons.

I. Kill Niv-Mizzet.

J. All the above except “C”.

If you selected Answer “J”, then congratulations! You’ve just won a free trip to a BURNING METROPOLIS! Sarkhan will absolutely make it his life’s goal to bring dragons back to Ravnica and destroy the whole wretched city down to the last brick. How he would do it is up to you, but it’s a solid bet that even if every other Guild treats him like an apocalyptic madman, the Gruul might side with him over some shared beliefs in smashing the city apart with ferocious animal savagery. They tend to lean towards such ideas with uncharacteristic willful compliance. Ravnican dragons are primarily red, with the most prominent breed still remaining being the Utvara Hellkites beyond the city limits.

Oh, and Sarkhan can turn into a dragon, too. Have fun with that.

[the-wiresmarvelau]

T.H.E. W.I.R.E.S

Peter and his Friends are allowed to design the compound and couldn't help but riddle it with secret tunels and hallways. While Peter installs said hallways he makes some new acquaintences who he has to help and gets help from.

chapter 2

Chapter 1:  Set up

Peter let his mind wander, only barely noticing the scenery passing by behind the car window.

He was thinking back to the events of the past one and a half years.

It had been soo much.

Somehow Tony fricking Stark had ended up in his living room to recruit him for an Avengers infight, and ended up mentoring him in not only superheroing, but also all things science related and even normal everyday stuff.

The rest of the consequences from this so-called civil war however hadn’t been as awesome.

Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist, owner of one of if not THE most successful companies in the world and, not to forget, Iron man himself, came home beaten, and in shock. Nobody really knew what happened over in Siberia, apart from those who were there when it all went down.

Back then Iron man hat hated Captain America and, by extension, his team.

Now, Tony was convinced he would be able to get them back in a few weeks; it ‘had taken long enough’ according to him.

Not even four months after the whole Civil War thing went down Mr. Stark had decided to get over himself and begun to consider what would be best in the grand picture; and in his opinion: The world needed the Avengers.

Anytime something like the Chitauri invasion could happen again, a mutant could decide to use their powers for their own gain or organisations like HYDRA could manage to create another super solider.

Not to mention the personal attacks aimed for specific Avengers. Those often included less casualties but if said Avenger isn’t there to react, those people tended to lash out.

So, he had put his personal quarrels with the rogues aside and doubled his efforts to alter the accords in a way that every party could agree and to get the ex-Avengers pardoned.

Before that Tony had already worked hard to mend them in a way that Peter didn’t have to reveal his identity as Spiderman and he was eternally grateful for it; Peter didn’t want this kind of attention, he cherished his anonymity.

And that wasn’t even everything. Tony wanted to make sure everyone felt and was safe.

Safety. Something that the Tower wasn’t entirely fit to provide anymore.

It had been built in a time when more or less everyone had agreed that the Avengers were a good thing or at least no danger for the immediate vicinity.

Nowadays not everyone agreed with Tony on whether the rogues should come back or not.

The general consensus of the public was that the Winter Solider was a threat to society as a whole and their opinions in Wanda weren’t much better.

At least with these two there was a consensus. That couldn’t be said for the rest if the Avengers, team Cap as well as team Ironman.

If the Avengers were to move back to the Tower, everyone in New York would feel threatened and protests were sure to break out, which in turn would bring down the already almost non-existent moral of the team (if you could call them that).

Peter couldn’t help the tiny smile creeping on his face.

As extra as Mr. Stark was he had deemed the already existing compound as too small and unwelcoming.

Without further ado he had ordered to tear the old Structures down and build everything new.

The younger of the two geniuses would never forget the day on which he had found Mr. Stark in his lab, loudly ranting to F.R.I.D.A.Y. about how little time he had; Between the accords, SI and planning the new Compound he was stretched thin as a paper.

As a joke Peter had offered to design the compound for him, stunned when the man paused and decided that, yeah, why not; Let a 17-year-old and his friends go wild with near unlimited resources to plan a living facility for a bunch of spies, mutates, super soldiers and people who could keep up with those.

On the other hand, said teenager should have seen this coming. It was incredibly on brand for the billionaire to forward the most ridiculous tasks to the most unfit to do them (in Peter’s opinion).

At first, he had been horrified to hear what he was asked to do but after some time – and three best friends positively freaking out about the idea of becoming one-time-architects for THE Avengers- the boy relaxed a bit.

Especially Shuri’s assertion, that this wouldn’t be her first time devising such a structure helped.

That was why, the next day, the boy had told his mentor that he had changed his mind and would plan the compound.

How hard can it be, right?

Turns out: it was harder in ways he didn’t expect to become problems and easier when it came to the rest. Overall: feasible.

They had finished the layout about four months ago and by now it was ready to get furnished and finished.

Exactly that was what Peter was gonna do over the next few weeks.

It was summer and he was done with his finals; Not wanting to go stir-crazy with so much time on his hands he had insisted on furnishing the compound by himself.

It was much but manageable. For him at least.

The last year had taught the young hero much, especially about himself and his limits.

For example: Peter had not known that his spider powers included that he needed much less sleep than normal humans, given that he was relatively uninjured.

How had he found out? Well between school, studying for finals, going out as Spiderman and going to the tower to tinker with his mentor he had found himself sleeping only about four hours a day and after a short adjustment period, he was more energetic than ever.

He had also realised just how much his pattern recognition had improved since the bite; and to what extent that helped with learning, for example new languages.

Shuri had taught him a little Wakandan ever since they met which had made him aware that learning languages could actually be fun, if done correctly.

His friends, of course, encouraged him to try for other languages too.

Bevor he just couldn’t decide which one to learn first. There were too many interesting ones

Now that the Avengers were about to reunite, he wanted to make them feel welcome and especially Wanda could probably use someone her age speaking a language more familiar to her than English; so Sokovian would be ideal.

On the other hand, Peter knew that both Black Widow and Mr. Barnes spoke Russian and he really liked the idea of impressing them by speaking a language so different from his native one; he liked that almost as much as he disliked the possibility that the two spies could talk about him or Mr. Stark without them understanding, right in front of them.

Then he had found out that Hawkeye was almost completely deaf and that this had caused some tension in the past whenever Natasha wasn’t around to translate.

Like that, ASL got added to his list.

Three languages were ambitious but at least more manageable than the original list of over a dozen.

Peter was still a bit apprehensive about learning them all at once. That was, until MJ and Shuri began to bet on whether and if: how fast the boy would give up on it.

He knew that if he decided to start learning, he would have to see this through.

But his friends’ gentle bullying and a short motivational speech from Ned gave him the push he needed to take on this challenge.

That was how he found himself practicing every day.

With KAREN it was much easier to practice casually over the day. while he was on patrol, in the lab or at home

She began by telling him random words, in either Sokovian or Russian, apposite to what he was doing at the moment, and also describing the sign in ASL, providing animations of the gestures if needed.

Whenever he had nothing to do, she would quiz him on the learned vocabulary, encouraging him to sign along, and once he had a reasonable basis, she began stating sentences he was supposed to translate or ask questions which he had to answer.

To avoid him mixing up Sokovian and Russian, he always practiced one language for a week, and then the other for another week.

Following Shuri’s advice, he also made sure to have a physical “marker” associated with each language.

On the days he practiced Russian, he put on a watch on his right wrist, when he learned Sokovian he wore a soft fabric bracelet on his left.

According to the princess that would help his brain connect the different lectures within a language.

At first, this process was tedious; Sometimes he just didn’t have the nerves for another lesson or he got frustrated if he didn’t get the words right.

It didn’t help that KAREN sometimes misjudged how much he had to concentrate on different things and began quizzing him at inconvenient times.

But as time went by KAREN got better at knowing when she could distract him and the young genius settled into the routine; to a point where he started to randomly sign words along as he spoke.

It helped him focus on what he was saying, but it also distracted others sometimes. Especially Happy had a hard time following what the boy said when his hands were moving all the time.

Being reminded of the head of security, Peter chanced a glance at said man, who was currently driving.

He was irritable as ever, scowling at him through the rear-view mirror every so often.

Peter flashed him a blinding smile, the next time he looked, before turning his head back to the window and his attention to thinking about the last few weeks.

Distinctly, the new… acquaintance he had made.

About two weeks ago, during an otherwise normal patrol he had found himself further outside of Queens than he usually went.

In the outskirts of hell’s kitchen to be exact.

The spider-powered vigilante hadn’t thought much of it at first and began swinging his way back in the general direction of the tower when a twinge of his spider-sense and curious soundscape in one of the smaller alleys caught his attention.

More specifically the sound of a pretty intense fight going on.

Peter, of course, promptly changed direction to find out what was going on.

Now, he hadn’t expected anything in particular; Peter had learned that having expectations means it is likely that he will be surprised. And that being surprised only paved the way for getting punched, cut or shot, depending on the situation he stumbled into.

Still. He couldn’t help but be confounded when what he saw was a young to middle-aged man, clad in a deep red suit including a helmet with tiny horns, fighting a hoard of.. freakishly soundless … ninjas?

Fortunately for the wall-crawling-superhero the ninjas hadn’t noticed him yet, giving him time to compose himself.

While he had no idea who he should be rooting for, a general rule was that the one fighting alone against a group was usually not the one who picked the fight and would be more cooperative.

Additionally, the man in red seemed somehow familiar; he had probably seen a picture of him once, but he wasn’t sure.

Still. He looked like he needed some help and helping was what the mutate was there for.

“Hey Mr. Red, need a hand dealing with these guys?” Peter asked, already webbing up the first few Ninjas. Completely oblivious to the pun* he just made.

The man scoffed slightly. “Just when I thought you wouldn’t join in on the fun” He huffed out.

“How could I not” Peter replied, delighted that the other quipped back despite his clearly visible exhaustion.

After that the fight didn’t last too long. The horned stranger asked Peter to web all of them up because he neither wanted to be followed by them nor did he kill, which, again, counted as a win in the younger one’s eyes.

They talked a bit afterwards. The man introduced himself as Daredevil aka the Devil of Hell’s kitchen. Peter answered that he was Spiderman and then started to ramble about the article he had read, about the other bringing down this renowned mob boss.

The whole time Daredevil seemed a bit irritated, or confused by something. But he didn’t ask the boy anything and the teenager wasn’t sure if it was rude to ask; after all, vigilantes relied on secrecy, so Peter didn’t comment on it.

Looking back, he kind of regretted it. He would have loved to know what had been on the other one’s mind. But he didn’t have time to sulk about it much, because they arrived just then.

Giddy excitement surged through Peter as he got out of the car and found himself standing before the massive building, that was soon to become the new Avengers compound.

Another reason for why he wanted to furnish everything was, that Mr. Stark had allowed Peter to include secret passageways, which he wasn’t forced to reveal to anyone. He was even allowed to include his own AI in them, which Ned and him had been coding for what felt like forever.

They still had to follow some rules though.

For one: the secret hallways weren’t allowed to contain any clearly dangerous contraptions or traps like great heights, spikes, or an Indiana Jones stile Stone-ball-trap. Ned had been a bit disappointed at the last one but got over it quickly enough.

A secret lab was equally off limits, because “accidents are inevitable” as Tony put it.

Another rule: he had to be able to communicate with F.R.I.D.A.Y., one way or the other, at all times.

He was permitted to veil his exact position as long as the AI could always check whether he was inside the passage ways or not.

FRIDAY also wasn’t allowed to disclose the entries to anyone in any way - unless there was an emergency that is. Most emergency protocols included giving away the entrances to the secret passageways on request of any inhabitant; as either hideout or escape routes.

A tap on the shoulder from Happy brought him back to the present and he hurried to help his driver getting his luggage out of the car.

He would spend his whole summer at the compound, half of it almost alone; with only Tony, Pepper, Vision and Happy checking in occasionally.

For the nights he could decide whether to stay at the Tower after patrolling or go back to the compound, depending on what he felt like.

He’ll still patrol of course.

He had planned to spend most of his daytime putting everything in place. Getting furniture where it belonged, disguising his secret passages, ordering final decorations and equipment, making sure everything was in place.

In the evenings he would swing his way to Queens and fulfil his responsibilities as Spider-Man.

He had to report back to either Tony or Pepper at least every two or three days, because May was on a trip for Doctors without borders and therefore not available all the time; but he had promised to call May every day.

Happy bid the Yong hero goodbye and, with a last good look back at the kid, drove off. He wasn’t convinced that letting the kid go nuts with designing and furnishing the entire compound alone was that good of an idea.

On the other hand: it was by far not the most questionable thing Tony had done -or had allowed to be done for that matter- and he didn’t have a say in the decision anyways.

Peter, energetic as ever, went straight to work, deciding that he should start by setting up his room, so he had a place to sleep for the night. For convenience.

Then he would set up his lap before furnishing Tony and Peppers room as well as Vision’s, and Happy’s, since those four would probably be his only visitors for the next five or so weeks.

Whenever he got bored of moving stuff around -or he just wanted to tinker for a bit- he could prepare the entrance mechanisms for his secret pathways, which he and his friends had begun to call “T.H.E. W.I.R.E.S.”; Short for “The Hidden Entry’s Will Indefinitely Remain an Elaborate Secret”, a sarcastic remark from MJ which Shuri proposed to send as cryptic letter to one of the Avengers, in case they didn’t notice the pathways for long enough that it got boring.

As Peter wrote the phrase down, he realised what a perfect acronym it was, since the small hallways and crawlspaces connected the rooms like wires the different parts of a machine. And just like that - the new name was born.

As he stepped inside, the boy couldn't help the chills running down his spine at the emptiness of the building.

For some reason it reminded him of the abandoned warehouse that the Vulture dropped on him.

Huge.

And empty

And. . . MASSIVE.

'No!' he reprimanded himself in his thoughts.

’This is different. These walls could withstand such a silly. Little .. sharp clawed wingsuit.

Probably...’

And besides! He was not as helpless as he had been back then.

‘I have my suit; I'm more experienced and I have Karen. I’m not on my own.’

With that in mind he began to make his way up to his new room to deposit his luggage.

The elevator was already working and connected to Karen for the time being. Tony had agreed that it would be easier to keep THE WIRES a secret if Peter were to set up the entries before FRIDAY was installed.

Additionally, Tony had more time to code the update he had planned for her; it would have been an unnecessary hustle to upload FRIDAY only to get her shut down for the update a week or so later.

"KAREN? Up to the first floor please" Peter asked; ever politely.

'of course, Peter' his AI replied.

"Where did Mr. Stark say the furniture was delivered to again?" the young hero inquired, just as the elevator came to a stop and he headed over to what would soon be his room;

Designed by himself for himself.

'Mostly in the Garage and the adjoining lap.' Karen’s melodic voice answered.' The furniture for your room and the kitchen on the ground floor are closest to the lifts entrance. For easy access. Oven, fridge and other kitchen machinery on both floors is already installed.'

"I knew I forgot something." he mumbled under his breath; then, louder: "Thanks’ Karen. What would I do without you?"

‘Starve; as it seems' Came Karen’s answer - cocky and with an almost human level of amusement.

‘Or you would have long since bleed out in some ally; refusing to call Mr Stark because „it’s just a little stab wound".'

They continued to banter back and forth like that, while Peter began furnishing his room.

His super-strength combined with his intuition for, and knowledge of physics made it fairly easy for him to manoeuvre all the stuff in and out of the, fortunately, large elevator... or maybe less fortunate and more designed that way.

‘By myself!!!’, he couldn’t help but think, as a spark of pride and excitement surged through him, while thinking about it.

He finished to set up his room and unpack rather quickly.

The carpets and wallpaper had luckily already been put up, which made the whole ordeal at least ten times easier.

Afterwards, at the insistence of Karen, he went on to get the kitchen ready for use while a Pizza was already in the oven.

Everything worked out as planned. There was no furniture missing, nothing broke and he got all the things done that he planned for the day.

It went fairly similar the day after.

And the day after that.

And the day after that and so on for about three weeks.

Patrolling seemed to go smoother lately; he got injured less, most likely because he actually went to sleep regularly; for once in his teenage years; and Peter felt the days fly by in a fulfilling blur.

But as relaxing and comfortable as these past weeks had been, Peter couldn’t help but wish for something interesting to happen. Especially as he swung through the city one night, elated from the adrenalin coursing through his veins with every twipp of his webs, every fall he caught in the last second.

He let his mind wander - through the compound, which looked more and more like a home with every shelf he installed, every painting he hung up – to Daredevil, who he hadn’t seen again even though he went near Hell’s kitchen more and more often, -to his friends, Ned and MJ, who had come over to help him for a few days, Shuri, sadly, hadn’t been allowed to come over, but at least they facetimed almost every day.

Just as his thoughts meandered to the special guestroom Mr. Stark had requested for some mysterious person who might move to the compound, according to Tony, in the not so near future; the boys attention got caught by a strange, greenish-gold light on one of the higher roofs.

It seemed so unnaturally... natural.

Too natural to belong in the middle of a city.

Nothing like the artificial neon lights and light up adds.

But it didn’t trigger his Spidey-sense, which was curious.

The spider themed hero landed on a roof not far away to inspect that strange source of light.

Now that he got a proper look at it, he realised that it was humanoid figure surrounded by something like an .. aura? in gold and a deep green. The person had about shoulder-long, black hair and wore a long, dark, leather looking coat with green accents.

They looked somewhat familiar but Peter wasn’t quite able to place them; that is, until they turned their head around, ever so slightly.

“Karen..? activate ’don’t tell mom Protocol’ please”

chapter 2

[alyasalias]

Dabi Theory

I have a theory that Dabi is secretly on the Hero-side of things...or at least not 100% on the Villain's side. Spoilers for the Training Camp Arc as well as for the latest fights in the manga. You have been warned.

I've been re-reading HeroAca lately and I'm currently at the Summer Training Camp arc. I just got to the point where Eraserhead is fighting the Dabi clone and I noticed something odd: what Dabi said. Dabi tipped them off to the fact that the students were the target. Sure, what he said could have been a jab at the heroes...but I wonder if perhaps it was a veiled message like what Hawks did with Endeavor and the book.

Magne was quick to figure out the fact that someone spilled the beans on "Bakugo Katsuki" being their target and she/they seemed really panicked that it had been found out. Through the process of elimination, she/they deduced that Izuku must have fought Muscular, 'cuz there were only a couple of people on their team that she/they believed could have been the leak. It seemed like secrecy was a big deal for this band of villains.

Dabi's a smart guy as well. We've seen very little of him, and know even less about him...but we know he's calculating. We know he's not impulsive or whatever. He was the one in charge of recruiting Hawks when recruitment was usually Twice's job. He was the one that had the most contact with Hawks and also the one that trusted Hawks the least out of all of the Villains. He even lied to Hawks about the Nomu attack. "It was supposed to be tomorrow--in a different location"--Hawks said to him. Through his actions, we can kind of infer that Dabi is a cunning and calculating sort of person. I don't think he's done anything on impulse. He doesn't seem like some for-laughs villain that'll spill the beans for fun.

So...yeah, what the Dabi-clone said to Eraserhead got me thinking: what if Dabi has been on their side all along...or at least he's not 100% on All For One's side. He joined the League claiming to be inspired by Stain or whatnot...so the whole "punish the 'Heroes' that aren't selfless enough" sort of thing. We know that Twice doesn't control what the clones think, know, or feel. The clones know everything that the originals know at the point they were cloned, so the Dabi-clone wasn't saying all of that because it was Twice's words...they were Dabi-prime's words/thoughts/actions.

Dabi's a smart guy--he always has been. He had know way of knowing what Eraserhead and the teachers/adults knew. It was a chaotic situation--the teachers were panicking, trying to corral all of the students to the building. The students were scattered over a large area. There was mass confusion--that would have been clear. It would have been safe to assume the teachers didn't know what the Villains were after or even if they had a goal in mind for this particular attack. For USJ they had a clear objective: they wanted to kill All Might but All Might wasn't there when they got there--they admitted that much. Hosu and the Hero-Killer incident(s) were a bit more of an unknown for the side of the Heroes, and the way everyone talked about it made it seem like they believed Stain had joined the League and that's why the Nomu were there...so as far as the Villains know, the Heroes believed that Hosu was a coordinated attack with the Hero-Killer simply to attack things. Then we come to the training camp..."the students are the target" wouldn't be their first thought, I'm pretty sure. If I were one of the teachers I'd be thinking, "crap--do they think All Might's at this camp?" or even "damn...they found us somehow. Is there a traitor in our midst that leaked the information or is it just a coincidence that the Villains are here now and they decided to attack for no reason like in Hosu?" Officially, to the characters within the HeroAca universe at least, the students haven't been the target of Villain attacks. They were involved, but they weren't the primary targets at any point up to the present.

Dabi's a smart guy, so I don't think he'd leak information even in jest. He seems like the type to keep his mouth shut rather than go for a way to rile up his opponent. He had nothing to gain from tipping off Eraserhead to the fact that the students were their target. Sure, it'd cause a panic and it'd take a while for the teachers to narrow down which student they were after...and maybe Dabi hoped to capitalize on the confusion that sort of panic would spread...or on the despair aspect if they failed to realize it was Katsuki until the last moment. However...I just don't think Dabi's that sort of person.

I think Dabi intentionally leaked the information to Eraserhead and disguised it as a jest. He intentionally waited until the clone was dying before he said it too and we've already established that the clones think/feel/know/act independently from Twice. Twice doesn't control the clones.

So...yeah...why leak the information, right? I have two theories on that. It's possible that Dabi's a secret agent--like Hawks--sent by some Hero commission or agency or whatever to infiltrate the League. Maybe a group realized that the whole "inspired by Stain and he was working with the League" rationale was a good cover and they sent Dabi in. Personally, I don't see too much support for this theory as of yet. We don't have anything on Dabi's backstory. Even his reveal to Hawks on what his real name was or whatever was blacked out in the manga. It's only fan theories that suggest he's Todoroki Touya. My second theory, and the one I think is more probable at this point with the evidence we have: Dabi is very much like Spinner--he's not on the Hero's side or the Villain's side, he's a man who was inspired by Stain and wants to do something about the plague of undeserving 'Heroes'. We see that sort of story play out in other media too--in the Doctor Strange movie they portrayed pre-mystic-arts-Strange as a pompous doctor that chose his cases based on the fame it would awarrd him rather than on saving lives. Heroes in it for the fame or for the money exist in HeroAca too and Stain hated them--All Might and Deku are currently the only people he believes worthy of the title of 'Hero'. Spinner held fast to those ideals, stopping Magne from killing Izuku during the training camp. It proved to me that Spinner, at the very least, isn't fully aligned with the League. He's following what he believes are Stain's ideals. He'll go along with their plans and whatever so long as All Might and Izuku aren't harmed (from what we've seen so far). I wonder if Dabi's the same way...but slightly more cunning. We know Spinner was a NEET and whatever before joining the League and at times he seems kind of lost or like he's being indoctrinated more and more into the League. If I assume Dabi's "smarter" than Spinner and that he did his homework on Stain...I believe that it's possible Dabi tipped off Eraserhead to the students being the target because of his beliefs. Stain wouldn't want to harm the children. The children aren't Heroes. Sure, they're Heroes-in-training and some of them have motivations that Stain would detest...but Stain did try to spare Tenya when he first saw him and realized that he was just a student. Maybe Dabi decided that an attack on students at a training camp wasn't in-line with Stain's ideals. They brought the fight to the students without provocation. Nobody said "well, this will be a hit to Hero society and All Might if we were to kill/kidnap a few students at camp". Their objective was to capture Bakugo Katsuki because they believed him to have the ideals of a Villain due to what they saw of him at the Sport's Festival. Stain wasn't interested in making Villains. In his own way, Stain was trying to create a better society. He was trying to get Heroes to wake up to the heart of the matter--to be altruistic and all. He wanted to create a world where Heroes did things for the sake of the people--not for fame, Hero-points, or money.

The more I think about this, the more I'm thinking that Dabi's tip-off that the students were the target was deliberate. He may not have been on the side of the Heroes, but he didn't want to see kids get kidnapped or killed. He didn't engage any of the students directly either. Their task was to capture Katsuki and go away and he recalled the Nomu just in time--preventing it from killing some students (potentially unknowingly). Also, there's that scene where he's clearly staring at the bushes that Aoyama was hiding behind. It's likely that he saw Aoyama and chose not to fight/kill a cowering student.

This theory also fits in with the latest fight we saw with Dabi too. Dabi vs. Hawks and Tsukuyomi. Hawks is number 2 on the Hero charts--the chart that Stain would have disapproved of. Hawks is a super popular Hero--he's famous--that's something else Stain would hate. Saving people's lives shouldn't become a spectacle or something that makes someone famous or whatever in their eyes. So...I think that Dabi wasn't just wary of Hawks joining the League...I think that if Dabi's an avid Stain-follower he never trusted Hawks in the first place because he disliked what Hawks represented in Hero society--#2 Hero of a broken system and basically the face of what hero-fame looks like. Stain wouldn't approve of Hawks being some super popular symbol. He can save people and make it look effortless with his feathers and whatever...Stain would probably be angry that Hawks gets paid to do it and that he gets all the fame and whatever...like "if it's gonna be that effortless for you and whatnot, then do it and move on...you should be doing it and you shouldn't be basking in the praise and glory--just save the people without stopping to be thanked and praised." It also fits with Tsukuyomi being able to run away with Hawks too. Lights are Dark Shadow's weakness and Dabi's is a fire Quirk--it would have been a really bad match up. Maybe they only got away because Dabi realized a couple of things: 1) Tsukuyomi was a student and 2) Tsukuyomi was acting like a true Hero in that moment. He wasn't just following orders or saving Hawks for the fame and glory. He saw his mentor up there and he moved without thinking to protect someone he saw needed help. He stood up to face Dabi, putting himself between the one that needed saving (Hawks) and the threat (Dabi) despite the fact that they were a poor match up. Stain would probably approve of Tsukuyomi's actions here--staring death in the face for no reason other than "I saw someone that needed help and I came to give them help".

[fanworldbuildingfun]

Misinterpreting Earth stories for fun and profit: Thedas

Earth stories and songs don’t often translate well when you are a lone Erathling is new, barely familiar world

Some may work: just don’t get too specific. And drop the modern slang. References to electronics? Forget it. Also mind where you tell or sing – you don’t want to be accused of trying to instigate a revolt… Or to actually instigate a revolt by singing about anacondas too close to the local Chantry

Of course, that is assuming you are not out to deliberately troll the entirety of the world you are in. For this one moment, I shall attempt to imagine just how such an attempt shall go. Presenting:

Song of Durin, misinterpreted

The world was young, the mountains green,

No stain yet on the Moon was seen,

No words were laid on stream or stone

When Durin woke and walked alone.

He named the nameless hills and dells;

He drank from yet untasted wells;

He stooped and looked in Mirrormere,

And saw a crown of stars appear,

As gems upon a silver thread,

Above the shadows of his head.

With the release of Descent DLV, the fandom got deep into the Titan theories. Granted, we work with extremely limited amount of information. But in context of Thedas? That just gives us a lot of leeway.

In above verse, we see presume to see the titan wake up for the first time, and, curious as it is about what goes on in the world above, it creates the first dwarf. Not too farfetched yet – we do have proof that Titans react to external stimuli, and that reaction can get extremely unpleasant for those who live above the Titans. The first dwarf explores his Underground realm, untouched by any (tiny) living being. With exploration comes need for names and sustenance: and so Durin gives names to what he sees. Perhaps the words were even shaped into stone. The Mirrormere becomes the sea we have seen churn within the underground in Descend; and the starts, reflection of lyrium veins in its depths

The world was fair, the mountains tall,

In Elder Days before the fall

Of mighty kings in Nargothrond

And Gondolin, who now beyond

The Western Seas have passed away:

The world was fair in Durin's Day.

Assuming we are talking about early days of dwarves, they have not yet encountered the elvhen. They are too busy building their own society – and the reach of aboveground elvhen has not yet reached the dwarven realms. Yet the stone already echoes the stories of their existence: it begins with the creation of underground elvhen city of Nargothrond, and Gongolin. The Stone gossips, surely And to top it off, let’s place Durin’s Kingdom somewhere near Frostbanks, possibly under the modern Lake Calenhad. Let the home of Durin be Belenas, let Korth be the name of Durin remembered into the present day Thedas. Or maybe not – let those who hear the song figure this out. People are creative

That would place Nargothrond and Gondolin beyond the waking sea, and considering that’s where popular opinion places Arlathan… It would fit

A king he was on carven throne

In many-pillared halls of stone

With golden roof and silver floor,

And runes of power upon the door.

The light of sun and star and moon

In shining lamps of crystal hewn

Undimmed by cloud or shade of night

There shone for ever fair and bright.

This is where we can see the first thaigs being carved. The Deep Roads begin being built. A great civilization growing down below. Lyrium is being used for more than sustenance – enchantment is developed and widely used in fortification and utility.

There hammer on the anvil smote,

There chisel clove, and graver wrote;

There forged was blade, and bound was hilt;

The delver mined, the mason built.

There beryl, pearl, and opal pale,

And metal wrought like fishes' mail,

Buckler and corslet, axe and sword,

And shining spears were laid in hoard.

Formation of what will in the future develop into cast systems; For now, it's based mostly over the dwarf's predisposition and ability to perform a certain task. Perhaps something akin to family trades or guilds.  

Unwearied then were Durin's folk;

Beneath the mountains music woke:

The harpers harped, the minstrels sang,

And at the gates the trumpets rang.

The Golden Age of Dwarrow is coming to an end. They grow complacent, but plentiful; the Titan Song that unites them out rings louder than ever - and in doing so, attracts unwanted attention. The Evanuris take notice. The warning of their coming came too late

The world is grey, the mountains old,

The forge's fire is ashen-cold;

No harp is wrung, no hammer falls:

The darkness dwells in Durin's halls;

The shadow lies upon his tomb

In Moria, in Khazad-dûm.

But still the sunken stars appear

In dark and windless Mirrormere;

There lies his crown in water deep,

Till Durin wakes again from sleep.

This is the result of the complacency. This is the moment where the heart of the titan is taken to become one of the foci. The mountains, with the heart removed, starts sinking and Mirrormere lake slowly overtakes the space that was once occupied by it. Lake Calenhad is formed

Still, deep below it... The remains of the thaig remain, submerged in water.

[goodtimingz]

dreaming you would come true

intro. pt1. pt2. pt3. pt4. pt5.

AN: check the intro out^, as usual, if jae ever hunts for fic again i’ll cry. btw stream zombie!!!!!! sorry if it’s boring ;-; i have mundane relationship goals and i want to ask my future bf about psychology so if u study psych hmu lol

tags: studentlife, jae day6, fluff, college!au

: the one where you meet jae in your second year of college and it’s basically love at first sight. just little excerpts of what i think a relationship w jae would be like c: 

1.4k words

What can I do? I just like being with you.

Studying Psychology was great, when you were stressed you just pulled out your notes and cried into them. Which is exactly what you felt like doing at that moment, 10pm in the corner of the library. The library was reasonably packed, as it always was during finals. Just a bunch of students trying to cram a semesters worth of knowledge, some successful and others crying in the corner. You weren’t sure which group you fit into, but you were definitely questioning your existence in that moment.

The lanky boy from last week had been meeting you every night since you first met, an unspoken commitment but a consistent one nevertheless. Infact, he should be arriving about… now.

His ruffled hair and tired eyes met yours almost immediately. It had been only a few days but you were smiling at him like he already owned your heart, the smile he sent back making it harder to breathe.

“Yo y/n, what’s with the raccoon eyes, next time I see you are you gonna be in the trash?” No hello, just Jae as usual. You breathed out a sarcastic laugh wondering how he managed to look so casual? His grey hoodie had to be made from a very special material… boyfriend material.

“Ha. Ha, I actually might be though if I drop out and become homeless. Would you still hang out with me if I was a raccoon?” Jae rests his chin in his hands pretending to think it over.

“Well, raccoon’s are cute. I think having a raccoon friend would be pretty fun.” 

“Of course your logic is spot on, good to know I have a home if I really do drop out.”

,

Jae laughs, he wants to reach out and touch your face, brush his hands through your hair and jab you in your sides until you can’t stop laughing. He would do a lot to keep that smile on your face. 

The past few days you two had formed a routine without words, it kind of just happened. Bonding over your love for food, deep conversations and jokes, you two hit it off harder than Brian hitting Wonpil’s cup over in Music class.  Even though Jae had felt like a total simp at first, going to the library with the sole purpose of meeting you the day after the phone drop, he was pleasantly surprised when you swiped half of your stuff to one side of the desk and waved him over.

Every time you smiled at him, he reminded himself to breathe. He had to be alive if he wanted to take you out, so breathing was important even when you made it so damn hard. He wasn’t super affectionate romantically but boy did he want to be now. You plagued his thoughts, at night he craved the feeling of you in his arms, in the day he wondered what it would be like to walk around with your hand in his. At lunch his thoughts drew back to you. One week had been the best torture ever.

“Jae, what are your thoughts on labels?” You perked up from his side, interrupting his thoughts of you as he pretended to scroll through his Ebook.

“Labels? Like boyfriend and girlfriend?” He asked, turning to face you with a teasing grin.

,

“Hmm... similar concept!” You couldn’t help but smile in his direction. I mean… if you would be my boyfriend? You had to physically shake the thought out as Jae watched you with amusement in his eyes. “I mean, for my exam we have to discuss labelling in society, how would you label me?”

“I would label you a panda. You’re cute, you’re clumsy and you’re tired.”

“Jae, I am not clumsy, you can’t say that when you literally tripped up the stairs yesterday!” You pointed, laughing at the image. Had Jae called you cute just then? You tried to overlook it. Cute was something people called pets and small things, maybe he just seen you as small.

“How can you forget that you literally dropped your phone 8 times since we’ve met, and we only hang at night time in one place. You have butter fingers!” He had a point but you shot him a childish glare. So your phone had gone through some hard times, but Jae had literally dropped his when you first met so who was the real butter fingers?

“Don’t you think it’s time for a boba run?” Changing the topic was the only way you’d escape, or it’d be a roast about who was clumsier which would end in you both laughing until everyone around you hated your souls.

“Definitely what I needed to hear.”

And just like that you both packed up your stuff and exited the warm building. With Jae things were exciting even when life felt mundane. You’d catch yourself smiling through your day just thinking about him, and the frequency of that happening just kept increasing.

The night was cold, but you refused to shiver. If you did Jae would probably tease you and say, “I ain’t giving you my hood, equal rights!”. You would then shove him and then he’d shove you. Gosh, he was so childish sometimes and yet you loved it. He knew how to act, he carried himself as this chill guy who never let life get to him, but you knew it did. Sometimes you would hear a groan, a sigh, and you knew life just wasn’t going how he wanted it to. Whenever you asked him questions he would think them over thoroughly, even if his initial response was a joke.

An idle thought crossed your mind. “Jae, what time does the boba shop close?”  You both glanced  as he pulled out his phone, his eyes widening as it read 10:45pm. 

“11pm.” 15minutes till closing and a 20 minute walk? You watched as he tucked his phone away, but you did not expect him to grab your wrist and run. This meant you were literally being dragged along with him, and by the time you arrived at the store (receiving weird glances from the owner), you two were laughing your asses off out of sheer adrenaline. It felt good to run in the cold night together and despite you being out of breath, you managed to squeeze in a few chicken running jokes on the way.

��You’re so short it’s like watching a baby pig run.” Jae teased, poking your cheek and heading to the counter to order.

“Sorry we aren’t all lanky giraffes, Jae.”

“Don’t hate the player hate the game Y/n!” Jae held his hands up in defence with the cutest grin. “What game! Life?” You shoved him gently with a smile, leaning around him to pay for your drink. His hand quickly pushed yours away, tapping his card to pay.

“Hey! We’re both broke what are you doing?” You had no idea what he was thinking. Last time you heard he was complaining about having only $3.20 in his account.

Jae simply smiled in an sickly sweet way, shrugging his shoulders and walking to a seat.

,

He was broke. But he felt rich in soul. Okay, that was extremely cheesy. It’s just the way you laughed while running beside him, it made him feel so alive.

 He cared about you now, no take backs!

You planted a tiny seed in his heart and he was watering it everyday, it grew so fast and he knew it would be hard to get out. You sat across from him gazing around at the decorations of the store mindlessly and he couldn’t stop thinking about how he didn’t want to lose the image of you.

Life had been plain, last week he couldn’t even remember. It all felt the same. Study, play, sleep, eat and repeat. Everyday he was one step closer to stepping out of college, and he really tried hard to enjoy the mundane times of his life. But after a whole year of playing catch up with college work and performing, he thoroughly enjoyed the idea of finally having someone to share it with.

“Jae, you should let me dye your hair.” You looked genuinely excited and slightly evil, hands reaching over to touch Jae’s hair. “It’s kind of dead. That definitely means pink next.” Jae feigned annoyance but he won’t admit he leaned into your touch a liiiiittle.

“What in the world is going through your head to think I would trust you with such a special job. My hair is my image!” He could feel the tips of his ears giving away his chill image.

“Do we need to talk Jae? You know you’re more than your hair. You have a great personality too. I can book you in tomorrow at 9pm.” Your teasing made him reach over and scruff up your hair sending you into giggles.

“We get it Y/N, you’re gonna be a crazy psychologist though.” He laughed, hoping he could be there to see the day you graduate. 

BRO.

Jae needed a good slap. He’d fallen too hard in such a short time, maybe he was just stressed.

(It definitely wasn’t that.)

[tanadrin]

So all the terrible retcons and geographic inconsistency (Kul Tiras wtf) and the time travel and the bullshit with the night elves is bad (Illidan is the worst character ever, don't @ me), but the most frustrating part of WoW lore to me is its failure to explore certain complex emotional themes in a really satisfying way--like, the people who expound and expand on Warcraft lore are canny enough to notice that these emotional themes *exist*, but not clever enough to actually work with them or build them out, and so the whole thing collapses into rule-of-cool melodrama. There's nothing wrong with rule-of-cool melodrama; I love rule-of-cool melodrama. But Warcraft lore is *begging* to combine that rule of cool melodrama with some really rich and interesting emotions and character interpretations, it sets them up and is all ready to knock them down, and just... doesn't.

Take the conversation between Saurfang and Garrosh in the Borean Tundra, in WotLK, the one that ends with Saurfang saying "I don't eat pork." I think that's emblamatic of the big theme that unites the Horde, that makes it make sense as a faction. The Alliance, after all, started as a defensive association in the face of the Orc invasion; its renaissance after the creation of Durotar and the invasion of the Scourge is only natural. But what is the theme of the Horde? Is it honor? Strength? Sheer brutality? Well, none of those things. Orcs claim to value honor and strength; the Forsaken are certainly various shades of very dark gray at best, the Tauren and the Orcs *do* seem like natural allies of a sort, but all the races of the Horde have something even deeper in common: trauma. The Orcs are still (cf. Saurfang) dealing with the emotional turmoil of having been both forced and partially complicit in the atrocities of the First and Second War--after which their homeworld was destroyed, they were forced into concentration camps, and they had to rebuild their culture and their identity from the ground up. They have to find a new place in a new world, and there's this tension between the younger generation that doesn't have firsthand experience with any of this and just remembers that the Horde used to be a name that struck fear into the hearts of their enemies (Garrosh Hellscream, for instance) and the older generation that remembers how awful that time really was, and doesn't want to see the old ways revived because it might just destroy their people for good this time. Then there's the Darkspear Trolls and the Tauren, who were both driven out of their old homelands, and fell in with the Horde as natural allies with similar cultural points of reference; and the Blood Elves, whose suffering in the Third War was severe enough to radically alter their culture, coupled with being betrayed by their ruler who decided that joining the Burning Legion and abandoning them sounded like a better time than rebuilding Quel'Thalas.

And then there's the Forsaken. Oh, man, the Forsaken. The Forsaken and Sylvanas are some of my favorite characters in all of WoW, because sure, you could look at it and say, "okay, creepy undead who like green things that go plop and mad science = evil, bad guys." But you'd really be missing what makes the Forsaken interesting. They're not the Scourge--they explicitly broke away from the Scourge when Arthas left Lordaeron. They're not invaders, either. They're in fact mostly the human population of the destroyed kingdom of Lordaeron, the inheritors of that land, but who are treated by the Alliance as interlopers with no right to the very towns and villages they have *always* called home. They're treated as monsters by every living person who ever knew them, and they can't help but regard themselves that way, too. "What are we, if not slaves to this torment?" is one of the casual interaction lines you get when you click on Sylvanas: they do not *like* being dead. But Sylvanas is ruthless and cruel and after Arthas is killed, wins the Val'kyr over to her side so she can keep making more Forsaken. Why?

Simple. Let us imagine: you are an ordinary person, of no unusually great or poor moral virtue. You are hurt, badly. Grieviously. In a way you will never recover from. And everyone you love, all of your friends and your family, the whole society you come from, now sees you as an unredeemable monster that should, no, must be destroyed. How long must you be called a monster before you decide--fuck it, I *will* be the monster they call me. Because, at least that way, no one can ever hurt me again.

The overpowering motivation for the Forsaken is not power or bloodlust; it's not money, or forbidden knowledge. It's making sure no one in the whole world is ever able to make slaves of them again. To make sure they will not be hurt. And the biggest misstep the Alliance ever made was not reaching out to Sylvanas with overtures of friendship as soon as she established her kingdom--because like it or not, she has the support of the people of Lordaeron, and thus a damn good claim to her position. Maybe, if they had, they could have influenced the Forsaken, shown them that they had friends and didn't need to resort to amoral methods to defend themselves. But as it stands, they only have allies of convenience in the Horde (at least until Sylvanas becomes Warchief), and they know that no one in Azeroth is quite happy to see them continue to exist and be free. Everything else about the Forsaken--their use of dark magic, their development of a new, even more destructive plague, their recruiting former servants of the Lich King and raising new Forsaken from among the dead of the ongoing wars--makes perfect sense from the standpoint of a people that knows they are under threat from all sides, and will do anything to survive.

(The Draenei could have been something like this, too, FWIW. Like, a broken people, a people of exiles who are most comfortable in the shadows and with moral ambiguity. But then Metzen had to go make them Righteous Space Goats. I mean, come on. They're just boring now. They were never going to be Horde-aligned--there's too much history with the Orcs  there!--but having a group like that on the side of the Alliance, to help drive home the point that there is not a clear good guys/bad guys distinction here, would have been really nice.)

That actually makes them a pretty damn good fit for the Horde. Moreover, it creates an interesting point of tension with the Alliance, which is clearly *not* always the good guys. I mean, there's the matter of orc concentration camps, but also consider the refusal of leaders like Daelin Proudmoore to contemplate peace (and the subsequent, somewhat... forced turn of Jaina Proudmoore from dove to hawk) and the steadfast refusal of many on that side to deal fairly with the races of the Horde just because they appear monstrous. And arrogance, hoo boy. Dalaran, Gilneas, the Night Elves--huge swathes of the Alliance are characterized by being arrogant and not a little cruel.

And what of Sylvanas becoming Warchief? I don't know where the BFA lore is going (I'm not playing retail anyway), but right now it looks like they're setting up another Garrosh type situation, and preparing for Thrall to retake the Warchief-ship, but if they do that it would be a real pity. First of all, because, well, we saw that already in Mists of Pandaria! What, are we going to besiege Orgrimmar again? Second of all--Sylvanas and Garrosh are *very* different people. Garrosh was, well, Proud; hence the Sha of Pride. He wanted glory and power, he wanted war for war's sake, so he could live up to his father's reputation as a warrior. He was willing to sacrifice everything else that made the Horde the Horde for that. Sylvanas, though, has one overriding motivation: Keep Her People Safe. Punish the people who hurt her is a strong secondary motivation--but it's part of that first one, because if she can make her enemies' victories painful enough, she might discourage them from trying to press their advantage. And her people *trust* her on this: "Dark Lady watch over you," they say when you take your leave. She is not an autocrat--she is their beloved protector. So, she makes the ruins of Lordaeron uninhabitable. She annihilates Teldrassil. Does she spend very many Orc and Troll and Tauren lives doing so? Very well. They aren't *her* people.

I don't think this has to be a tragic flaw leading to her downfall. It sure doesn't make her a good leader for the rest of the Horde, though (even though, on an emotional and aesthetic level, I am 3000% here for Warchief Sylvanas, even more than Warchief Vol'jin, who also had a lot of the creepy threatening vibe that made him a much more interesting choice than either Thrall or Garrosh). But you could make it one, and you could do it very well--they've already mentioned in the tie-ins that Calia Menethil, Arthas's sister, teeeechnically has a claim to the throne of Lordaeron. And, even more interesting, is no longer quite among the living, even if the mechanism of that unlife is happy fun magic instead of evil death magic. Moreover, she has some sympathy for the Forsaken. You could have a squaring-off between them, and you could have a Queen Calia--maybe. If you could bridge that gap and make her understand that the Forsaken feel fundamentally apart from the other human kingdoms now, if she could come to understand just how much evil the Alliance has done to them, if she could really grok what it's like to be them. Then you could have a leader who understands their trauma--but also wants to heal it, rather than lash out at anyone and everyone that might conceivably be a threat. That, too, would be very interesting.

(There’s a reason that, while I loved the Alliance as a kid, I only play Horde toons as an adult. It’s not just that the Horde feel more interesting and vivid to me. It’s that the hypocrisy and the arrogance of the Alliance stands out in much greater relief now. The Horde aren’t good guys--nobody’s the good guys, here--but they don’t lie about their motivations, and they don’t act with cruelty and then play the victim in response. Jaina was an important exception, but they badly mishandled her character in the runup to MoP, which I find very hard to forgive.)

But knowing Blizz, even if they go vaguely that route, they won't stick the emotional landing. There is a very good, if very OTT and melodramatic (in the best possible way), series of fantasy novels or games lurking *behind*, or perhaps parallel, to Warcraft's lore. It is a shame that Blizzard has done so much to obscure it with obnoxious cruft, retcons and timeline compression, repetitive use of the same handful of characters, stupid-ass time-travel plots that create ten thousand plot holes and inconsistencies, shitty tie-in novels (cf. everything by Richard Knaak), and a total failure to make half the world's characters (i.e., everyone in the Alliance) at all interesting. I have a daydream of doing my own version of WoW lore and posting it somewhere like on AO3, but one of the things that makes WoW lore simultaneously so interesting and disappointing to me is that it's embedded in the explorable, realized space of video game worlds. Hard to reproduce that in print, I think. Might be worth it to try.

[violetsystems]

#personal

As promised, I am projecting less frustration this morning.  I think maybe just because the rhythm of things in my life.  I read that ritual during the pandemic has been a reliable coping mechanism for many.  I have very small rituals.  I get a bowl of Yukejang from down the street on Sundays.  Same order.  Same price.  I tap it into a spreadsheet somewhere in the cloud and plan around it.  All the way back in September, I chiseled out a budget for myself to figure out how to weather out this situation.  The situation as it is continues to morph and shift towards the edges of chaos.  This is why I try to keep things normal through planning and maybe a little ritual.  I’ve been writing the same three paragraphs here for too many years for me to count.  There are actually people out there who get what I’m saying.  Sometimes people just like to read them.  Other people just like to skim them.  But these rituals kind of keep the element of control over your life in focus.  Some rituals can go a little overboard.  And sometimes some pandemics can go longer than a year.  I try to plan for the future all the same without having much to go on.  I know that a vaccine needs to happen first.  At this point I won’t see that until earliest June.  I’ve been seeing jobs in my salary range but nothing I want to spend the rest of my life doing.  I’ve made enough money by myself this year to worry about paying taxes.  But it isn’t something I really feel is sustainable.  And this is where thoughts start to spiral out of control.  Which is what brings me back to rituals.  I make it through week to week in probably one of the most bullshit situations by looking forward to things.  Broadcasting on Fridays is fun even if nobody watches it live.  I’ve learned that creating content for output is more important than worrying about the results.  For all the intelligent words I write, a lot of the things that come out of my actual mouth on the fly are incredibly stupid and funny to me.  I like that that brings me down to earth somehow.  Because most of the time I’m wondering if I’m even visible to the naked eye.  You can fade away into your own self doubt even if you seem the most confident and together person.  This can happen because the world ceaselessly throws shade.  People don’t want you to succeed because it complicates things.  Doesn’t fit into whatever plan or main questline you haven’t been briefed on.  These days I’ve grown less sensitive to suggestion.  I follow my own path and rules no matter what feelings it evokes.  And yes I feel a sense of dread more often than not.  I feel actual mental pain quite often.  And that pain doesn’t come from inside of me or the result of things I do other than work out or ride my bike.  The pain is the pressure from society to put it all on you.  People out there are just as confused, lost and fearful.  To have some sort of closure or something to blame lifts that temporarily.  It’s not always true.  Paranoia and isolation does that to people.  Even to me.  So I like to focus on the sacred parts of my life that I’ve kept to myself.  And ritual keeps me in a predictable mood.  That you keep going on week to week because you’ve created space that you and you alone value.  

Sometimes other people value it too.  And that gets tricky to manage.  It isn’t really in my best interest to be at odds with society all the time.  I am a loner mostly because I grew up an only child.  But I’ve become a lot less sensitive as a result of whatever crucible of destiny I’ve been forged in.  I think sometimes when you walk the path of ritual, it’s easy to stay in your lane.  For me, for all these years I’ve been doing pretty much the same exact thing in real life often.  Mostly to not cause anyone cognitive dissonance enough to fuck with me.  Society is a nightmare anywhere you are it seems.  Chicago can be batshit insane.  It makes me project that like a mirror sometimes when I’m exhausted.  And the things that keep me going aren’t always there front and center to hold my hand.  I’m tough enough at this point to take it.  But it’s a lot of disappointment to live with.  The ritual of having a salaried job working with people who seemed pretty much like they were your friends was disrupted by all this a year ago.  I got ghosted.  I never really understood why.  Over the months, I blamed myself over and over again.  And then I started to realize people were hopelessly locked within themselves.  They couldn’t communicate anything meaningful so they just decided to let it go entirely.  Or I did.  Communication to me over the years is funny.  Sometimes people say the most to me without saying any words.  If you walk away from a job after twenty years and everyone you work with pretends you never existed that’s a message.  The opposite is true.  If you wake up every morning to cryptic interactions on your phone that probably means something too.  If you write three paragraphs every week for three years on the internet to nobody in particular, it’s true somebody will read it.  Maybe somebody will even have the reading comprehension to enjoy it.  The ritual of it is pretty sacred to me.  I think people know me well enough to realize I err on the side of authenticity.  I don’t like to betray the things that keep me going.  I know how it feels to be betrayed.  It sounds so cold saying that.  But I’m sure we all know it to a certain degree.  Some people get so abandoned that they have no choice but to move forward.  And how you keep yourself moving at a regular pace in these times is anybody’s guess.  Sanctuary is something more than ritual.  It’s a space where you feel safe enough to protect the things that keep you alive.  A safe spot to pursue your life, liberty and happiness despite the world’s encroaching bullshit around you.  After years of pacing the streets here people have varying opinions of me and my rituals.  It’s not the most ideal situation by far.  But if anyone knows anything about maintaining sanctuary in one of the world’s most in your face cities, it is me.  I’ve been to New York enough to know.  Chicago is some sort of nightmare zone mix of both coasts.  It’s also still fairly affordable to live.  It’s also fairly free enough to go about your business with more than a few stares.  People are bored, hungry, and anxious.  People are looking for rituals and ideas for their own.  And sometimes people cross the line of sanctuary and the holy ground gets smaller.  I can’t even take out my trash without a dirty look sometimes.  And I have to manage it just the same.  When I shut the door and mutter to myself about politics and the government or whatever, nobody comes knocking.  Or I’m over it quick enough so nobody does.  Kind of like here.  The good news is spring is here.  I can open up the windows and listen to music alone.  I can continue to work on my search for meaningful employment wherever that may take me.  I honestly think after all this time someone has better ideas on where I belong.  

That somebody has most always had to be me.  I had to take the initiative in this entire situation.  And it’s become something else entirely.  I build rituals around that.  Some outdated rituals I retire.  Kind of like how I was.  I used to travel to New York every couple of months before this all went to shit.  I think I may go back this summer for a few days.  I don’t really have a solid answer for the future in my head.  I’ve had more time to enjoy things.  I spend way more time learning how to block in Tekken and it actually becomes a whole new game.  I could be harassing people in public and on the internet but I’d rather just keep to myself.  I am lonely just like anyone would be in this situation.  But people communicate with me just the same.  And it’s on me to value it enough to interpret whether it’s worth my time.  I keep hearing the president proclaim that July will mark our independence from the virus.  It’s ironic.  I was let go two days before the fourth last year.  Still nursing those wounds as you would expect.  Simply because there’s no closure.  No acknowledgement of anything.  And this is what I’ve had to read into.  I’m on my own in this.  And then again I’m not.  I’ve led myself through an absolute shit show daily.  And I’ve maintained sanctuary enough to keep doing it.  The rituals and sacred things I hold dear are protected by the reputations I uphold.  The moral capital I reserve is the real hard work.  Because often I would like nothing other than to go apeshit in the face of all this misunderstanding and hallucinatory bullshit.  It’s like being a celebrity and a pariah at the same time.  Banging your head against the wall trying to read into everybody’s sudden interest in whatever it is you represent in real time.  I don’t really know what people want from me at all.  And in some ways it doesn’t matter here in America.  This is what I’ve come to realize in some respects about freedom.  It’s complex, messy and not easily managed efficiently.  And yet no other country in the world has this many layers to navigate.  If you hold your ground long enough, nobody dares cross the line.  I mean nobody.  For as funny, sardonic and self deprecating as I can be, people are still ultimately scared shitless of me.  I’ve grown to understand that and work on that as best I can in a bullshit situation.  And through that I’ve found that staying true to the things you love and care about require meditation.  Self awareness and self care are the only weapons to guide you through a process that is meant to break your individual will.  I could blame capitalism.  I could blame the government.  I could unite and tear down the very fabric of society that has kept me invisible and be forgotten all over again.  And then I realize both sides are to blame mostly because nobody is really talking to anyone.  Entire political parties acting like they meet you eye to eye on the street when everyone has their head slung down low at every moment of the day.  And I’m not exactly interested in inviting more people into my life to violate my already questionable boundaries of privacy.  Rituals give us the focus to concentrate on the things that really matter to us.  Maybe they help us define what is sacred to us.  If people respect that the sanctuary grows.  If people challenge, question or hijack the narrative, you write them out of the story.  It’s definitely easier to control the pen when nobody is on your back to tell you how to write your dreams.  I wholeheartedly want that for everybody.  A real sanctuary for people to be themselves.  It’s not easy to manage.  But where ever I end up I know want thing is true.  I will always keep things sacred when it comes to you. <3 Tim

[aquietwritingcorner]

Moms Made Fullmetal 2020 Day 2

Word Count: 3101 Author: Katie/Ally; RealityBreakGirl Rating: G Characters: Genevieve Armstrong (Mrs. Armstrong). Philip Armstrong, Olivier Armstrong, Amue Armstrong, Strongine Armstrong, Catherine Armstrong Prompt: Growth or School or First Steps Summary: Being a mother of five, especially of children so varied, is not an easy thing. Harder still is watching them grow, watching them learn, and watching them take their first steps along the journey of life.

Growth/School/First Steps

Being a mother of five was not an easy job, no matter your social status. That was what Genevieve Marie Tallmound Armstrong was sure of. Oh, certainly, she had grown up in the lap of luxury, and her children had too, and while that made certain aspects easier, it was still no easy job. Children would still run you through every emotion that existed, challenge you, and leave you feeling bittersweet as you watched all of the firsts they had, especially those first steps into adulthood.

And it was especially when you married into a family as boisterous as the Armstrong family.

Genevieve was not a stupid woman by any means. While the Tallmounds had their eccentricities, everyone knew that Armstrongs had more. They were a powerful and well-respected old family, with ties that dated back to Amestris’s formation. They had always come through in a crisis or when there was need. No one could deny this. And the Armstrongs carried on their tradition proudly. It was what gave them a pass in a lot of the higher societal circles, honestly. And it was something that Genevieve respected.

Oh, certainly a lot of the newer high society families liked to twitter behind their fans and their hands, and mumble behind their glasses and mustaches about the Armstrongs and how unusual they were, but what did they truly understand? They didn’t understand the proud and noble history behind the old families. They didn’t understand how, yes, they were eccentric, but it was borne of centuries of service to the country and instilling the stories and their morals into their children, preparing them for the day that they would be in service to Amestris. No, the new families did not understand this, but the old ones did.

Genevieve Tallmound was from one of the old families herself, and she understood it well. She saw the way that the new families talked, heard what they said when they thought no one was listening, and understood the way they viewed society—and the way they viewed the ones that didn’t fit in with their view of what it should be, be it in actions, expectations, or looks. And then she discarded it for what she felt to be more true and honorable.

(and, perhaps, had used her height and her scowl to her advantage from time to time. She knew what they thought of her and her stature)

Perhaps that was why Philp Gargantos Armstrong had taken notice of her. She understood. They had, of course, taken the proper steps to courting and waited the appropriate amount of time, but they had been in love after the first few months of their courtship.

So, she supposed it really shouldn’t be a surprise that they had ended up with five children. Although Catherine was a bit of surprise.

But what a pleasure it had been over the years watching them grow, watching them learn, and helping send them off on their first steps into the world. It wasn’t easy, and it often made her heart hurt, but it was an honor. Holding each of them for the first time, their first steps, their first words, their first training sessions, the first time they were on horseback, the first time that they won a fight—she was always so proud of her children. But some moments stuck out more to a mother then others. Some moments felt more defining, as if they were marking the beginnings of her children moving on from needing her, to being independent.

She could still remember each of their first days of school clearly. It was their first steps beyond the Armstrong estate by themselves. It was the first time they would be without her or Philip for an extended period of time. She had always done her best to be reassuring. She had made sure that they were dressed properly in their uniforms, each one of them, that they were prepared, that they knew that they could face and handle this. And they had, even if each on had handled it a bit differently.

Olivier had been nervous, and hadn’t wanted to go, trying to insist that she needed to stay home and help her mother with Amue and Strongine and new baby Alex.

“Mama, you need me. I’m supposed to help. It’s my duty as the eldest.” Genevieve could still hear the fear but also the sincerity behind those words.

She had knelt down and kissed her daughter on the head. “Olivier, you are a wonderful help to me. But our duties do change over time. Right now your duty is to go to school and learn all you can so that you can help out country. The maids will help me at home.” Olivier had still looked unconvinced, and so Genevieve had continued. “You want to make sure the Armstrong family name carries on strong and proud, don’t you?”

“Yes, Mama! I do!”

“The hold your head up high, go in there, and learn all you can. And bring it back to help teach your sisters and brother. If you do that, you’ll help them learn more and more as they get older.”

Olivier’s eyes had shown with determination at those words, at this new mission and responsibility, and she had held her head high and marched into the school like she owned it on her first day. She had come home that afternoon chattering and full of information to share with her siblings. And she had continued that, her duty-bound daughter, until she left the estate all together.

Amue was the next to go, and, sensitive soul that she was, she had been nervous. She had already known that she didn’t look like the other girls—she didn’t even look like her oldest sister!—but Genevieve had done all that she could to try to encourage sweet Amue to be proud of herself.

“Do I have to go?” she had said tearfully as she and Olivier stood, waiting to go in.

“Yes,” Genevieve had replied. “You’ll like school, Amue. There’s so much to learn in there.”

“Can’t I just learn from the library at home?”

“No, darling, you must go to school.”

Olivier had reached down then, and grabbed Amue’s hand, holding it protectively, even though her younger sister was already as tall as she was.

“I’ll take care of you, Amue,” Olivier had said. “I’ll protect you, and I’ll show you all of the best places.”

That had seemed to do the trick and, even though she had clearly been nervous, Amue had trusted her big sister to take care of her. And if Genevieve and Philip had been called into a few meetings with the principal about fights Olivier had gotten into after that, well, so be it. Amue had clearly been starting to enjoy school, and Olivier was protecting the family.  Neither Genevieve nor Philip had seen any dishonor in that.

Strongine, had been the third to go to school, and she had been ready ever since she had heard Olivier’s stories. She had heard all about it from her two older sisters, and she was ready to meet people and talk and play. She was as social thing, always had been, and Genevieve had been certain that this would be good for Strongine, even if her own heart twisted a bit at the thought of her then-last daughter starting to become even more independent.

“Remember your strength,” Genevieve had reminded her.

“Yes, Mama.” It had been impatiently said as Strongine looked at the other children going in.

“And remember your manners.”

“Yes, Mama.”

Olivier’s hand had snaked down then and had taken Strongine’s. “I’ll help her,” she had said. “I’ll help her understand how school works. Amue and I both will.”

And that had been that. Her three children had gone into the building with Strongine practically bounding in, and Olivier reminding her how to behave. Strongine had seemed to adapt to school well, as Olivier had got in fewer fights that year.

By the time Alex’s first day had rolled around, the girls had all been clearly comfortable at school. Alex had faced his first day with enthusiasm, eager to learn, although a bit nervous as well.

“You’ll do well,” Genevieve had said to him. “You’re a good boy, very studious.”

“I’ll do my best, Mama. I’ll make the Armstrong family name proud!”

“I’m sure you will. And your sisters will be there to help you.”

“Of course we will!” “We’ll show you all of the best places!” Amue and Strongine had been doting on their brother’s enthusiasm.

Olivier had not been as enthused. “I’ll make sure he stays out of trouble,” was all she had said to her mother, although Genevieve could read the truth of the promise in her eyes, beyond the attitude that she held.

Alex had come home that day happy and excited, with Amuse and Strongine doting over him while Olivier nursed bruised knuckles. Somehow, Genevieve had not been the least bit surprised at any of this.

By the time Catherine, her surprise baby, had come along, Olivier had been at the Military Academy, Amue and Strongine in the upper grades focusing on their studies, and Alex beginning to specialize in his.

Catherine had been shy, clinging to her mother as they stood near the walk to the school, nervous and afraid. Alex had held his hand out to her.

“It’s alright,” he had said. “There’s lots of fun stuff and fun people inside, you’ll make friends. And I’ll show you all the best places.”

“You can trust Alex,” Genevieve had said, proud of her son for this. “He and your sisters will look out for you.”

And shy, trusting Catherine had gone, only to come home with shy smiles about her day. Alex had come home with dirt smudged in his collar. Genevieve had thought that Olivier, had she been around, might have been proud of him for that, in her own way.

Those were good memories, of their first steps into a bigger but still very much protected world. Genevieve had worried over them then, but she had a measure of control. They were still her children, under her and Philip’s care, and she was still able to stand up for them and take up for them. It was hard watching them grow and knowing that her control over their lives, her ability to protect them, was waning with each year.

Harder still were their first steps out into the world on their own.

Olivier’s first steps into the adult world were much different then the first ones she took into her school. She was not nervous at all, but determined, fully committing to the path of the military. But it was not the happy day that was expected and there was no coming home to tell her mother how her time was going. Her send off to adulthood started with a relationship breaking fight with her father, and to an extent, her whole family, over who would get to carry the family sword.

“Your brother will carry it when he is of age,” Philip had said. “It’s tradition for the heir to carry it.”

“But I am the eldest, Father,” Olivier had responded. “It is mine by birthright.”

“No, it is the heir’s by right of succession,” Philip had insisted. “And he will carry it.”

Olivier had not taken that well, and finally exploded with years of pent up frustration. “Alex has already taken away heirship from me, by the simple reasoning of being male! And now you will give him my sword—the sword I have worked all my life to be worthy to hold! Alex doesn’t even know how to use it properly!”

“He can be taught—”

“I’m ready now!”

“It is not yours to carry.”

In the end, Olivier had ended up leaving with the sword in hand, but it would be many, many years before she would speak to her father or communicate well with the rest of her family. It had broken Genevieve’s heart, and it was a wound that was still healing. The years of no contact, of not knowing if she had been alright, or if she had been injured until after the fact, of only hearing of her though rumor and reports, it had been hard on Genevieve’s soul. She remained steadfastly proud of her daughter, though, and all that she had accomplished, on her own, and for the family honor.

Amue’s send off into the world had been much easier, although with Olivier missing and not even a letter from her, it had been a little bittersweet. Amue was going to go to school for diplomacy, and her education was going to start with a tour of different nearby countries, or as close as she could get.

“Be safe,” Genevieve had told her.

“I will, Mother. I’ve been well trained.”

Genevieve had still worried about Amue, but she was traveling with a good family friend who worked in diplomacy and would show her the ins and outs. After that year of travel was over, Amue had gone to the university to study the cultures around them, although she had returned for a brief time home, bringing gifts and talking about the places she had visited. She had many good conversations with her father after that on the state of political affairs, and Genevieve had been proud to hear her daughter’s desire to help their country.

Strongine had been a true middle child, with no clear path in what she wanted to do. She had traveled around a bit, stayed home a bit, and tried various things. But eventually she did settle on what she wanted to do, and started right in on it, with little discussion, but full of enthusiasm.

Strongine had a drive to help those in need. On top of that, she was personable, fun, and could capture attention easily. She had found an organization that went into poor areas and helped people learn new skills and had needed help with both the application of it and gaining support. She had come home bubbling over with excitement about this and had resolved immediately to join. She had known that she could do both of those things, and she had been eager to help out. It had only been a couple of weeks before she had been taking her first steps into the adult world.

“You have all you’ll need?” Genevieve had asked her.

“Yes, Mother,” Strongine had replied, amused. “I don’t need much—the point is to help others, not carry my bedroom with me.”

“A mother is allowed to worry. Write to us.”

“I will.”

And just like that, in a whirlwind, she had been off, ready to help whoever she could in this world. They had heard from her often, and soon the organization she had been working for was coming into notice more and more. Genevieve could not have been prouder of her middle daughter.

Alex’s first steps into the world had been much more grandiose, at least to Philip. Amue and Strongine had come back to see him off the Academy, and Catherine was there of course. Genevieve had read the disappointment in her son’s eyes that Olivier wasn’t there, that she hadn’t even sent a letter, but it was what it was. Philip had boasted and bragged about how proud he was of Alex. Genevieve’s words were more of a mother’s worries.

“Be safe,” she had said.

“I will, mother.”

“Guard yourself.”

“I will, mother.”

“Remember the honor you bear.”

“Always, mother.”

And like that, he had headed off. Oh, but she had wished later that her son’s first steps into adulthood wouldn’t lead to such tragedy, but she couldn’t have predicted the future. All she could do was be there for him as much as possible. She had been proud at his certification as a State Alchemist and had been aghast when he was sent home and he spoke of what he had seen there. She had supported him as best she could, and she was proud of him even if he wasn’t of himself.

Catherine had yet to take her first full steps into the adult world, but she was toeing the line with a promising musical career. Several schools and groups were looking at her already, and Genevieve was sure that it wouldn’t be long until she was saying goodbye to her youngest as she watched her take her first steps into her own future. It would be difficult to send off her youngest into adulthood, but wasn’t that what motherhood was about? Helping your children grow and become good people, good adults, that you could be proud of?

Voices caught her ear as she drew closer to the dining room, drawing her out of her musings, and she couldn’t help my smile at them all. She recognized each voice, echoes of their childhood in them in ways that only a mother could hear.

“Alex would you stop crying!” Olivier.

“I’m sorry, Sister, I’m just so overjoyed that we’re all here!” Alex.

“If he doesn’t stop crying, and dad starts crying, do you think we’ll need to build a canoe to keep us from drowning?” Strongine.

“You know, they have a saying about this sort of thing down in Aerugo.” Amue.

“Here you go, Alex. Take this tablecloth for a hankie.” Catherine.

“Very good thinking, Catherine.” Philip.

Genevieve couldn’t suppress the smile that graced her lips as she walked towards the dining room, nor did she want to. For the first time in around twenty years, all of her children were under one roof, and getting along relatively well. She had watched them grow from small children taking their first steps towards a guided independence, to men and women taking their first steps into true independence. It had been full of ups and downs and struggles, but at this moment she wouldn’t trade it for all the tea in Xing. She had her children and her husband all together. Perhaps now there would be some new growth and new first steps for them all—this time, together.

“I see you are all as boisterous as ever.”

“Ah, Genevieve, my dear! I’m glad you’re here now!”

“Yes. And I’m pleased to see all of you here, as well.”

Yes, her children may have grown up, and may have taken their steps into adulthood, but they were still her little ones, and her heart swelled with pride and love at them.

This would be another cherished memory.

[comicbookuniversity]

How Black Lagoon Begins Attacking Gender Norms

by Bunnypwn Gold

Rei Hiroe’s Black Lagoon is one of the most intelligent, fun, and kinetic action-crime dramas around. The entire series looks and feels like an action movie; even the way it’s structured feels more akin to a series of movies, with different self-contained arcs building off of the previous installments. While many action movies include philosophical elements and dialogue in an attempt to make the festival of blood and explosions seem more intelligent without exploring the issues, Black Lagoon actively builds its themes and the substance of its plot and character arcs around its stellar action-hero philosophy quotes. One of its strongest points is how integral all the characters’ social identities are to the way the story is told. Chief among these is the way gender is explored and examined. Looking through the first five stories of the series, a powerful message about breaking out of the toxic gender binary is developed, creating an argument that drives the rest of the series. This argument is never made explicitly, but instead through the pattern of behaviors exhibited by Japanese salaryman Rock, as the feminine, and hotshot gunslinger Revy, as the masculine.

For anyone who has not read the series, a little catch-up is in order. At the beginning, Okajima Rokuro, a generic Japanese salaryman, is kidnapped by Revy, the gunhand of Lagoon Traders, a company of underworld couriers. Rokuro was in possession of a disc the Lagoon Traders were hired to steal, and Revy wanted to sweeten the pay with some ransom. During a shootout with mercenaries hired by Rokuro’s company and a chase to certain death, Rokuro goes from wanting to return to his ordinary life, to finding out his bosses are planning to let him die, and finally to diving into the underworld as a crewman aboard the Black Lagoon, taking up the nickname Rock. He then spends the first few stories of the series being taught how to perform basic duties and tasks aboard the torpedo boat by Revy until they have a falling out and make up after a dramatic argument. It is this series of events that sets up the larger dialogue on gender in the rest of the series.  

In an interview published for Sunday GX magazine and printed in volume 8, series author Rei Hiroe and Gen Urobuchi, author of the Black Lagoon novelization, discuss their views on gender in light of the series’ myriad badass women. In it, Urobuchi is quoted as saying,

“I naturally have this idea that women are strong or tough. Like men are just male bees—creatures that should die after they ejaculate…In that sense men are weak. Whereas the battle begins for women once they get pregnant…Women have to keep fighting. I don’t see that kind of strength as cute. I can’t dote on it.”

Later on, when discussing the final scene of The Wild Bunch, in which the heroic cowboys go off to their deaths trying to save their friends, Hiroe and Urobuchi have the following exchange:

Hiroe: “They’re already dead at that point. That’s what’s so cool. They have no intention of getting out alive.”

Urobuchi: “That’s really the only moment men can compete with women, I think. There’d have to be a third world war for men to shine. Like a Mad Max type of world. Maybe only when there’s a real danger of extinction will men have a role. Right now this society could exist only with women.”

This lays out the core of the series’ argument about gender: women are strong because they fight to live and make life, whereas men place all their value on their own deaths and the deaths of others, and the current gender binary denies women their strength and forces them into submission with the violence of death-based masculinity. This is somewhat familiar, since associations between the genders and life and death in this vein are common across cultures. What is particularly instructive for how the series is constructed is how the machismo, male-dominant view of gender is embedded in action movies, particularly cowboy movies. For anyone who has read Black Lagoon, it’s clear how powerful an influence cowboy and other action movies have on the series.

Rock spent his life as a low-level employee in a large Japanese company. Like most companies around the world, large Japanese corporations like the one Rock worked for are male-dominated and are typified by traditional ideals of masculinity, with the CEO and board of directors, among others, working in the role of powerful, great men, and everyone under them working their way closer to that great ideal of manhood. Rock, being so low in the company, is far from manhood, in that sense; he describes his job as mostly consisting of bowing to superiors, and his general conciliatory, subservient attitude throughout the early part of the series can easily be read as traditionally feminine. From that perspective, his time at that company can be read as emasculating (for more on the idea of emasculating corporate culture and men trying to take back their manhood with violence, see Fight Club). Rock even reveals that he would blow off steam at a batting cage, which is a notably phallic activity, with bats and balls, and, being a sport-based hobby, is more traditionally masculine by nature; in a sense, after constantly kissing ass and being forced to get drunk to keep his bosses happy, he recharged his masculinity by knocking his stress into the far end of the cage.

Revy, on the other hand, fits perfectly into macho-violent cowboy movie masculinity during the first set of stories. If she had been replaced by a man, then superficially the story could have been told the same way, with the only difference being that Rock would likely have been a little less shocked to see Two Hand smile while he killed all those mercenaries. She’s short-tempered, mean, constantly looks out for herself before anyone else, and is just so indignant that she has to take orders from anyone. She’s greedy and aggressive and takes great joy in both risking her life and taking the lives of others. Throughout the first few stories, Revy often complains that every little thing Rock does wrong costs her money, and she’s not particularly generous with her own. Though she continues this throughout the rest of the series, and so it isn’t specific to this period, the fact that Revy is most often seen in her downtime looking at porno magazines promising the largest-breasted women around drives home the kind of macho, hypermasculine role she fills. We later learn that she grew up on the streets of NYC, having to run from street criminals and violent police officers. She would take up the gun at age 11 and begin emulating the only kind of power she knew up to that point: the violent men who terrorized her. Her worldview is defined by this dog-eat-dog attitude, with people being nothing more than dead bodies waiting to happen and profit from. She’s so scared of showing vulnerability and anything that could be seen as feminine because the last time she was vulnerable and feminine, she was nearly killed in the gutter by dirty cops.

The pilot chapter of the series sets out to demonstrate the gendered positions of Rock and Revy. Revy starts off the chapter by messing up her boss Dutch’s plan by kidnapping Rock for extra cash. She is then indignant when Dutch reprimands her for this, because she was trying to take initiative and be independent, masculine qualities often praised at companies such as the one Rock worked for. Rock spends all his time whining, or as Revy calls it, “bitching,” about what’s going on, being very demanding, and wanting everyone to take care of everything for him, all of which puts him in a stereotypically feminine role, and a negative one at that. At the bar, Revy belittles Rock’s manhood for drinking beer, saying rum “is what a real man drinks,” and ends up in a drinking contest, because Rock has to prove he’s a man despite his feminine role and Revy, as a “real man,” can’t back down. Revy then demonstrates her penchant for and love of violence as she kills a bunch of the EO mercenaries hired by Rock’s company to kill them and retrieve the disc, just living her best life. The turn for Rock in this chapter is when he talks to his boss and finds out he plans to let Rock die; the company leaders will reward his death with their presence at his funeral, showing the masculine value of death and the power of the executives’ masculinity that their presence is meant to be that great a reward. As the mercenaries chase the Lagoon into the straits, Revy demonstrates her masculine lack of regard for her own life by nonchalantly resigning herself to death. Rock, on the other hand, embraces the opportunity to take up the masculinity his company denied him by devising an insane plan to win the day. After coming out on top and choosing to join the Lagoon, however, that masculinity starts to change for Rock. By choosing to join the Lagoon, Rock was choosing that as his way of life, not simply the place he was willing to die. For Revy’s part, it’s easy to read the way she relishes her part in Rock’s plan as a cowboy choosing to die how she lived, but it can also be read as her accepting a way to fight to stay alive in the way she sees best, which is itself an important turn for Revy. These points are developed further in the rest of the opening of the series.

Throughout the next four stories, Rock remains at the low end of the totem pole, still receiving his training and unsure of how he will actually make his living on the Lagoon, placing him in a similarly feminine position as he was in as the errand boy in a large corporation. Revy emphasizes this with her masculine sense of inherent authority, constantly bossing Rock around and belittling him for failing to learn sailing knots faster or not checking his scuba gear thoroughly. Revy also buys Rock a Hawaiian shirt, which is never seen because Rock refuses to wear it. While buying clothes for a man may be seen as feminine, it more resembles Revy trying to institute a work uniform, since she got it to replace the semi-formal work clothes Rock still wears; it should be noted that Benny, the Lagoon’s engineer and another man who takes a passive position in the crew, wears a Hawaiian shirt. Revy’s masculine position is further solidified in Ring-Ding Ship Chase, the second story, when she single-handedly took out several motorboats filled with heavily-armed men and mounted with machine guns. Rasta-Blasta, the third story, pushes in another direction, with Revy taking a masculine approach to watching over Garcia, the young boy they’re transporting for sale, by threatening to beat and kill him when he won’t comply with orders. Revy’s role can be read as either paternal disciplinarian or like a cowboy angry because kids, which she never wanted, cramp her style. Rock takes on the maternal role in how he deals with Garcia in that story, being more gentle and nurturing. Later on, Rock tries to stop Revy and ass-kicking terrorist-turned-maid Roberta from fighting to the death partly in an attempt to protect them as women, because he still thinks like how things work in Japan. But of course, Revy has to fight Roberta, because, as a “real man,” she can’t stop before things are settled.

Die Rückkehr des Alders, the fourth story, represents the major turning point in this opening arc. During their mission to salvage a Nazi painting from a sunken German sub, Revy leaves Rock behind for a moment to take medals and things from the dead soldiers so she can make a little extra money on the side. Rock takes a stand, saying she should leave them behind. While taking a stand can be read as masculine, Rock does so in defense of what the medals meant to the soldiers, and how those sentiments are more valuable than whatever money can be made from them, essentially taking a feminine position in support of life and love. The fact that Rock backs down by the end is what really does in any hope of this being a masculine moment for Rock. Revy, on the other hand, lays out the bare bones of her cowboy “we’re dead men walking” mentality, pushing herself further into the macho corner. Here is where she reveals what her childhood was like and argues that the bones in the sub and the medals were essentially the same: just things. There’s no value in things like sentiment, which people build lives around. She’s literally placing monetary value on the deaths of Nazi soldiers, the starkest version of her masculinity. She continues when raiding the neo-Nazi ship by killing everyone she sees, including the hired staff who were unaffiliated with the neo-Nazis. When she kills them, she doesn’t have her usual smile, a sign of how her desire to remain in this powerful role is stressing her, how it’s not really bringing her a happy life.

The big conclusion happens in the follow-up story Calm Down Two Men, which sees Revy and Rock going on a simple errand run and then getting lunch. During the errand run, both demonstrate their typical patterns of behavior. Rock is more submissive, just trying to get along, and Revy is aggressive and angry, using violence as her way of handling business. Their roles here play out fine enough with the first two errands, but Revy nearly gets them into a shootout at the Rip-Off Church before Rock saves the day with some diplomacy. Revy is put on edge as Sister Yolanda tells Revy to learn from Rock, which would disrupt her status and position in multiple ways. At lunch, they get into an argument which ultimately dispels the tension left between them after their time in the sub. It is instigated by Rock, who is taking a stand for his principles, a stand that demonstrates his new masculinity. Revy tries to take control back quickly by threatening to shoot Rock dead, since she refuses to be put onto the defensive, which she would interpret as a weak, vulnerable feminine position. Rock redirects the gun and later takes a punch without flinching to show that he can’t be stopped with violence. Rock speaks here about how he got by at work before, and how Revy inspired him by showing how much more he could have in life. This scares Revy, putting her on the defensive, to hear someone demonstrate how hollow and insignificant the power she was wielding truly was. Eventually, Revy sees that Rock is actually offering her something more powerful in exchange and takes him up on it. To sum up Rock’s offer, “Well, if there aren’t any Robin Hoods…then BE a Robin Hood,” meaning take a stand for the principles you want to uphold in life. Before the chapter is out, Revy asks Rock if he’s with her or against her, just like in the sub, in an attempt to place her new path near her familiar ground. Rock doesn’t allow her that simplicity.

In this way, the two switch places in their gender roles by the conclusion of this opening arc, but do so in a way that breaks them free from the stereotypical gender binary. Just as Urobuchi put it, Rock has fully formed his new, life-affirming masculinity by the end of the argument, while Revy is only just starting to chart the course of her new, powerful femininity; to complete the parallel to sex described by Urobuchi, Revy and Rock smoke after their fight and “kiss” their cigarettes to light Revy’s. The argument fully demonstrates how the old gender binary our heroes left behind was damaging to each of them, with Rock left emasculated and, more importantly, unable to live life his own way because of how he always came up short of expectations, and Revy being a tightly-wound ball of self-destructive anger and violence doomed to leave this world without having really gotten anything out of it. Overall, it’s a clever, subtle, and effective way to demonstrate why traditional gender roles are harmful and degrading to all involved. While, as a nonbinary person, I have to point out it still is based on a binary view of gender, it’s still an interesting way to demonstrate how breaking free from the traditional gender binary is empowering and can redefine the course of a person’s life for the better.