#its long its rambly its incomplete but as complete as i can make it at this point in my thought train

[torao-chan]

My Rantings On

Card appearances through out MeMe with minimal inferences from card meanings [at this stage].

Please note this is more of a word vomit, and external processing examination, on the topic, rather then a fully fleshed out analysis. Apologies in advance for typos, disjointed thought trails, and the like.

For ease of differentiation through out the thought vomit, I have referred to the two Mikoto's as Ore and Boku.

EDIT: Please note this reads like shit on the tumblr dash due to the formatting not maintaining the layers of the bullet points. Please read from the .tumblr.com link (as linked in this sentence) format for easiest following of multiple thought trains.

The two different spreads are by/for the two different alters; mostly easily distinguished by the different current problem cards and their ties to the different alters.

Both cards are represented, side by side, right at the beginning of the song at 0:10; the reversed Hanged Man on one canvas, and the upright Fool on another canvas.

The Fool canvas appears in their apartment memory during Ore's first verse.

The fool card appears around the apartment during Ore's verse, and the Hanged Man is blatantly obvious on their shirt during Boku's verse.

It is worth noting that both alters share the same impression of their appearance(1), and wear the same clothes while out in public, but the shirt is most clear and obvious during Boku's verses and then during their blended section at the end of the song.

The hanged man is upright on Ore's shirt during the first verse, but very blurry and often out of clear view. Once he changes out of the 'going outside' outfit, however, he is wearing a blank shirt in the one clear shot we get of his shirt- not the hanged man shirt.

The hanged man shirt is upright on Boku as well, but is far more clear and obvious and distinguishable during these periods. Additionally, the Fool canvas is not in sight here.

The hanged man shirt is clear when tying up the bloody bag during Ore's second verse, but it's worth noting again that they are outside here; not in the apartment where the pair become distinct.

I wonder if this loops back to the line " It’s like what’s wrong isn’t wrong "; in that the two blend well together to make a cohesive singular entity when interacting with the people in their life, but are well aware that they are separate and this becomes most obvious when they're not putting on a facade and are left in their own company.

This would suggest that Mikoto is aware that he has DID / OSDD

This may get support from both spreads if they suggest that both are aware that Ore is guilty of murder while Boku is not, and that is the path that this is taking; are all alters guilty of another alters crime.

This is supported by Ore's line " "I" will save "me" " which indicates, at the very least, he is fully aware that he is in a system

His line " I'm probably not to blame, It's probably nothing " also suggests that he knows that it is his fault that they are here, not Boku's

IMO Boku has two lines that suggest he's pretty aware that he is in a system too.*

" Take a good look at me, until you find me The truth will come to reveal itself " and

" I'm already the fake one "

A blank card is drawn after the first spread is shown, during the line " I won't forgive you if this is happening to me even though I'm right "

This line is the divider between Boku and Ore's sections, and is one repeated by both at separate points in the video. Even when Ore takes over Boku's melody after Boku steals his, his lines are all fairly different, this one remains about the same

There are no other blank cards through out the entirety of the MV. Any cards that are insignificant are shown with their backs facing the camera; no interpretation there.

Even when Ore is holding a card between the Five of Wands and the Chariot, it is the back of a card we see- not a blank card, nor either of the cards drawn on either side of the shot. The back of a card.

Personally, I suspect the card is blank due to two reasons

First, It's representative of the spread we just saw take place, since we've seen the result but haven't seen it drawn yet. It is an action we have already seen the result of- but also, this would be the first card. The one representative of the present self- which, on the spread we've seen, is the Hanged Man... However.

The fact that the pair are switching between themselves as we hear the line means that the present self is not set in stone. We've seen Boku's spread, and now they're switching to Ore- and this reading we've just seen is not for Ore.

During Boku's second chorus, it's the Devil card that lands on him- The Outcome(2) from his spread [last card drawn]. This is something that rattles him, blatantly, and switches the tone of his chorus-verse switch- setting him aggressive. I query if Boku was present for the crime, but it's clear that the outcome had a strong effect on him and his life, and made him angry and frustrated.

This added to the fact that his present problem [or self | first card drawn] is The Hanged Man (Reversed) [forced into a new perspective | change has come and you are not ready]; I firmly believe that Boku is aware of and dealing with the consequences of Ore's actions, regardless of whether he believes himself guilty of the action itself or not.

The fact that this comes after the first clear shot of the hanged man shirt out in the irl memory world suggests that he is aware of the consequences/outcome at this point in their journey, and struggling with it.

This is when his world bleeds red, as the devil card drops and reveals itself and the system. This may be Boku's awakening to the system, in fact, that we are seeing in this video

I remember my own awakening to the system. It was a haze, and blurry, and it's a moment [read: several months] of going 'I am not who I thought I was at all. All this time, people have been saying things about me and I'd dismissed it as them not knowing me, or me being a very flip-floppy person, but the reality is I have never known myself at all.' and this. This is most vividly reflected for me in Mikoto's verse here; in the lines that hit hardest for me, as a host of a system myself.

" Ahhh, it's the same anywhere I go It's like what's wrong isn't wrong I'm already the fake one "

The flip back to Ore's turn at a chorus doesn't reveal any cards(3).

Boku flips back to take the chorus again, however he doesn't keep grip on it for long. Once again, no new cards are revealed.

This could simply be for convenience, allowing Ore a go at drawing cards.

Alternatively, it could be demonstrative of Boku's reduced grip on the system, on himself, as he struggled to come to terms with the system life he is now stuck in acknowledging and understanding.

The word bleeds red, and we see Ore's expression clearly, and we see the clear revealing of the Fool card [which has only been tied to Ore (and never Boku) before now] before the second spread is drawn. This leads me to the conclusion that

Ore is the alter to pull the second spread of cards. This is reinforced by the Fool becoming representative of the present self, instead of the reversed Hanged Man.

Some people have claimed that the second spread was a threat and a fake spread, perhaps due to the prominence and threatening display of the Death card at the end before Ore attempts to punch the observer of their inner world(4). I can understand how people came to this conclusion; the Death card often gets the rep as a bad card to draw, and Ore proceeds to punch the screen of the MV as a 'get out of my head' motion, however I disagree with this perspective.

The Death card means change, an end to the old and a fresh start, and can be easily taken as a relieving card to draw to anyone who feels trapped in their current life.

The two spreads are so different due to the fact that they are being drawn by different alters with different issues with the current situation the system is trapped in.(5)

But even dismissing the previous two points, and if you decide you completely want to throw away the dissociative disorder theory entirely, the final card is offered out to another hand. This is a spread to display the situation, and who's hand it is is unclear.

The only way I can think of this working, however, is if it's a change in spread due to a change in time. If the earlier spread was one drawn before the events that lead to Mikoto landing in Milgram, and this is the spread they pulled afterwards.

It could be Boku's hand (Ore going 'this is my stance on our situation.') or it could be Es' hand (Ore going 'this is our stance now that I am in prison and trapped here with you.')

 On a slight side note, if this is an established system that is aware of itself, I wonder how Milgram has summoned and restrained the wrong alter(5), and how this is affecting system communication. In my own experience as an alter in a system, our communication can range from good on good days to bad on bad days, and being thrown in a situation would cause an upset in that ability from stress alone, let alone with unknown magical means in play.

If Milgram is conducted on individuals that are still alive, then the are the bodies inside Milgram, or are they comatose back on Earth. If Milgram is conducted on individuals that are dead, then the individuals appear to be missing significant memories that lead to their demise if it wasn't relevant to their death.

Either would result in a fugue like state, which would explain Ore's refusal to take the situation seriously, writing it up as a " bad dream " that they'll wake up from. This is not a situation, in his mind, that needs to be taken seriously- so why should he treat this situation as a serious threat to the system?

 Footnotes from above:

(1) Due to the lack of differentiation [currently presented as of 28/01/23] between the two Mikotos, I query if this is a case of DID or OSDD 1a [partial dissociative identity disorder]. OSDD 1a has significant amnesia present between parts, but less distinction between the various parts (same name/same visual perception of self).

(2) The strength of emphasis on the two outcome cards [Devil and Death] make me believe that (while the other cards shouldn't be ignored) it's the outcome cards that we need to be focusing the most of our attention on second, along with the present problem cards [Hanged Man and Fool] first.

(3) I am curious about what he's smoking though. I know Mikoto stated they gave up real cigarettes for e cigarettes / vapes [source needed], but I wonder if only Boku switched over, and Ore remained on proper cigarettes. Just a side thought.

(4) I'm also curious about the awareness of the subjects and the extractor of the MVs. Others look at the camera during verses, but never address it directly without directing their address to Es themself, rather than the device used for viewing the internal dialogue. However Ore Mikoto, who is also unrestrained by Milgram [I can't emphasis enough how significant this fact is to me(5)], is able to identify the view point enough to punch it and attempt to remove it from the internal world of his system.

(5) Again, cannot emphasis enough, how important it is to me that Milgram managed to restrain Boku but not Ore. This lands as solid evidence of a dissociative system, whatever lies Mikoto may or may not be telling us, in my books. It also caters into my other belief, that Milgram is trapping souls not individuals- but that's a rant for another post.

  Again, this is purely an interpretation on how the cards were presented and not the content of the cards themselves yet. It is incomplete, and rough around the edges. But I needed to get my thoughts out- and my friend has literally begged me not to keep all the analysis in my head alone T__T

Please take with a grain of salt, and a note of the brief biases noted below.

 Biases notes: this is written by an aware host of a DID system with notably good internal communication, with the system as a whole strongly relating to the song. We've dabbled in tarot, but not too far, and our understanding is very basic. Prone to existential questions, and big picture viewpoints, while tending to miss smaller details and facts.

 It is not a question, in our brain, whether Mikoto has some version of dissociative disorder. Between the switches uncontrolled by the host, the titling of the song, the symbolism within the song- it's not a question in our minds.

Our current belief is that the purpose of each of Milgram's prisoners is to pose an existential (or perhaps moral?) question to the consumers. We believe the question behind Mikoto's trial is to question "should all alters be held accountable for the beliefs of an individual alter". Our current stance is that the body should be held responsible and accountable for the consequences, and all alters while in the body should do so as well, but on a soul-evaluation level all alters are not responsible for the other alters actions.

The system is currently favouring theorising and interpreting the trials of Haruka, Fuuka, Mikoto, Kotoko, and Milgram as a whole.

This wouldn't be relevant information almost anywhere else, but it's worth saying in relation to MeMe. The system favours the Death card as a positive card; it heralds change, new beginnings, the end of an old cycle.

We have run with the assumption that this is a Celtic Cross spread.

The version of the song we listen to most is Candace’s English Cover cause we can listen to it while working lmao.

Thank you for reading and sorry for taking so much of your time aldskjglkfdjsg

[nerdykorgi]

GRIMWALKER BIOLOGY & ANATOMY STUDIES [pt 1 / ?? ]

(aka, my ideas and thoughts on how these bad but sad boys work!)

with pictures :D !

ok for starters! I tried my best to make real life connections with actual biological stuff and yeah but there are some things ima have to bullshit lol

i hope yall like rambling

[ ^ Basic ideas ]

Lets talk about anatomy!

From what i can tell from the grim walker ingredient book they have some pretty ... interesting ingredients...

GALDORSTONE:

Heart and Power apparently. What i can make of this is that the Galderstone not only powers and animates the non-organic materials but acts as a circulatory system, flowing blood and nutrients to keep the body stable by creating magical pulses of pressure that makes the blood flow. Blood is kind of ideal for homeostasis and living and om pretty sure we've seen hunter bleed at least once... Perhaps the Galderston can create an artificial vascular system to carry oxygen, magic, and nutrients throughout the growing body instead of just making veins from scratch. I want to say the Galderstone can generate energy for the grimwalker but that would mean they wouldn't need to eat, and I don't think that's true. I think its main purpose is just activate the magic materials and is like the generator to a car, keeping it running. If the Galderstone were to break or fail, the grimwalker probably come unglued and fall apart to its components (which would be pretty horrifying)

ORTET BONE:

Very key component! The ortet bone kind of helps form the blueprint for the species of the grimwalker, as well as supplying blood, a skeletal system, and components of DNA. The most basic definition of the word ORTET is as follows: the original plant from which the members of a clone have descended. Fun fact: since were using cloning terms, Hunter is to Caleb as Ramet is to Ortet (Ramet is an individual clone) I did research for cloning and as it turns out you kinda need a complete genome for cloning but for bullshitting reasons (which will be explained) we can clone with incomplete DNA and make synthetic dna from scratch! I hypothesis that the reason grims can look different from the ortet instead of just straight carbon copies is due to the bone that is used and how much of i there is. Like example a grimwalker made using just a toe phalange is going to look A LOT less like the ortet compared to a grimwalker made from something like the cranium and bigger bones and such. Basically smaller bones dont carry as much dna info and leads for room to fill in the blanks. Sadly this means alot of Grimwalkers had A LOT of health problems (this can range anywhere from immune system problems to liver failure which is quiet typical in clones, that and it is often that clones appear different from the ortet due to enviromental factors and influences)

[ As the image above shows, subject #103 has a very close resemblance to the ortet due to the bones that are used ] There are pros and cons to using bones! Pros being that they can hold DNA for much longer than tissue, but the thing is bones can degrade really easy if not preserved, and i don't think belos had a bottle of hydrogen peroxide laying around that he could dunk Caleb in, so let's just assume he made sure his brother's corpse was well cleaned and kept. Biggest con is the human body only has so many bones (about 206) I believe that the reason Grimwalker can generate organs is by using the ortet and making the stem cells created from bone marrow. Stem cells are very important because they can turn into different types of cells like blood and tissue cells as well as repair tissue. I believe the process of growing grimwalkers is kind of like "Self-renewal" the process in which stem cells divide and make more of the body

STONESLEEPER LUNGS:

Im just gonna assume stone sleeper had very small lungs because aint no way those t rex lungs fit in a teenage boy. I originally thought The reason that Grimwalkers can stay underground for so long is because the lungs, similar to how a stonesleeper hibernates for centuries (kind of like how wood frogs can basically cryo-hibernate) by petrifying but a grimwalker IS growing and therefore needs resources to grow, like how a baby does in the womb. So it has to be actively getting said resources so it cant be petrified. I now think the reason that grimwalkers have these lungs is because theyre easily compatible to the galderstone, which needs oxygen for the blood and that they can be easily harvested and stored in stone form. But that does give room for cool adaptations like self-petrification! (which i will get into next time :D )

PALISTROM WOOD:

Ok its says that the wood is used for keratin, which is a fiberous protein which can make all kinds of things like scales, hair, nails, feathers, horns, claws, hooves, and skin! And since its also a plant means it can grow 4 times as fast as normal keratin can! This explains why hunters hair grew so ridiculously fast in season 3, was because his hair can produce its own carbohydrates and nutrients on its own... This means his skin and surface wounds can heal quite fast! (down side is it might give him something similar to PSS (Peeling Skin Syndrome ) ...) I think Palisman is very important becasue of several reason! 1 Like palisman, it can "animate" if you will, more or less help pull off the illusion that he is alive. 2 Like mentioned before, Grimwalkers need nutrients to grow and I believe the palistrom wood aids in that! Using a process called cellular diffusion, the grimwalker can take in nutrients from the ground around them (which i theorize to be highly fertilized) through THEIR SKIN! and into the veins and flesh of the grims 3 I believe that in the process of forming, the galderstone "activates" the palistrom wood, forming into skin or hair but this process of rapid growth leaves the skin all undone and fragile because a proper cutaneous barrier was not formed yet (which is useful for being malleable. This is why Hunter's ears are so 1 .god blessed big because they are fake and molded to look like that. Its also why The grimwalker Belos possessed fell apart so easily, like he said "It wasnt ready")

SELKIEDOMUS SCALES:

This one kind of confused me because... well why do we need the seal flesh when the ortet can just regenerate it?? I think its kind of like the stuffing if you will, it also speeds up the process of producing flesh by a lot! Especially if you want to make grown grimwalkers! Im thinking that Grimwalkers don't have a set "age" theyre just as big as however many materials they are given to work with. Even though the book says they can start as babies, if you look closely there is a check mark towards the more adolescent figure, so im thinking that they are not ready to be unearthed until they reach a certain growth ima guess around the age of over 10-ish?? We don't know how young Hunter was pulled out of the floor but it seems like he was fairly young, or atleast younger. This means while Hunter appears to be 16, he might have only been living for around 5 years or so.

Now typically normal seals have a lot of blubber which is a thick layer of fat, also called adipose tissue, directly under the skin of a marine mammals. Its used for insulation. The thing is tho, it says Selkiedomus Scales, not flesh... Dont worry there are mammals that have scales like Pangolins but i dont know if these scales are like thick plated or small and stretchy. Magic bullshitting time, Im goin to assume Selkiedomus scales refers to a layer of scale-like flesh that protect the creature from boiling but is also highly malleable and easy to work with. Maybe the reason they can withstand such heat is due to unsaturated bonds of butadiene molecules mixed into the blubber that are highly heat resistant Selkie domus flesh is molded and into the relative shape of desired body and using the DNA of the ortet the flesh is reshaped and reused into the desired muscles shapes. The vascular system created by the galderstone spreads throughout the flesh and binds with it. healing together and becoming flesh, kind of like a speed up version of skin graft maturation! This is useful for growing them quickly because they don't have to grow an entire adult body from scratch so this speed up the process by eeeerrm 20 years or so lol

Thats only the basics for now, sooner or later i shall get into the more fun stuff, like adaptaions of Grim walker, the growing process, ad more!

Hope you guys enjoyed my ideas, if i got anything incorrect let me know, my research isnt exremly searched through.

last question ill leave you all with, it kind of stumped me while i was working...

i have a theory but i wanna know your thoughts...

(i worked hard on all this btw, i really hope people read it lol /lh.)

[leggerefiore]

Of Wishes and the Sun

cw: Volo is being a homewrecker and manipulative, long, established relationship with Cyrus, a little angsty at points, endings are WIP,

pairings: Cyrus/Reader, Volo/Reader

summary: You meet a strange man who claims that you look like someone he knows. His words strike too close to home after a conversation. Madness follows this meeting.

~

You felt lost in thought as you entered the temporary Galactic hideout on Pasio. That was a strange fellow that you had encountered… A claim that you looked like someone he knew remained in your mind. His words were spoken with confidence and clear knowledge. It was almost a bit too loud, as well, but he was certainly a character. The way his hand rested a hand on your shoulder and the expression in his eyes when he thought that you were not looking simply baffled you. You almost swore that he seemed infatuated.

But, what had stricken you to your core was his words…

“And what tickled my curiosity more strongly than anything were the mysteries to be found in legends, in history, in ruins. You see, I fancied that by unravelling these mysteries, I could find out how the world itself came to be… and with that knowledge, maybe even forge a new, better world!”

He smiled when he said those words, but when paired with his mentions of facing things unfair or painful. You felt a strange sense of familiarity with the language in your heart. Not one paired with a smile. One paired with adoring people in uniforms watching a single man give an emboldened speech.

“Because we are all so lacking, we fight, we maim… It is ugly. I hate the incompleteness. That we are all incomplete, I hate it with my entire body and being. The world should be complete. The world must change.”

You entered the deepest part of the hideout to see a familiar face. The blue-haired man typed away on his computer with little thought, likely thinking of ways to either accomplish his original goals or alternatives that would give the same result. Completeness. What did that even mean? You had tried to understand his ramblings many times, but you failed to grasp the concept entirely. Your understanding was his hatred of pain and dislike of aggression. He wanted to create a world where such things could not exist, but his blame laid solely upon spirit. Emotions were the issue to him. That blond man's scapegoat had yet to be understood by you.

Cyrus gazed up when you came to stand by his side. His expression clearly spoke the words he would have said. “… Can we talk?” You managed to get out finally. Nervousness had suddenly consumed your mind at the thought of telling him about that merchant. You needed to, however. Something in your mind told you that it was far from the last time you would see him. Cyrus wordlessly closed out of whatever he had been doing and nodded. You let out a shaky breath. Where to start with this?

You unconsciously reached out to grab one of his hands and squeeze it in your own. It was warm. Soft. Alive. “… A guy said I looked like someone he knew and then started a long conversation with me today,” you began, trying to think of how to lead into his words. The Galactic Boss's hand tightened its grip on your own. His expression shifted slightly.

“Are you attempting to make me 'jealous'?” he questioned, clearly unsure as to why you were telling him this. You shook your head. No, and that felt almost impossible at the best of times. Clearing your head, you debated how best to explain the odd feeling that the man had given you to Cyrus. There was a genuine worry in your mind that he may simply dismiss them as nothing more than pointless conjecture.

“No, nothing like that,” you pulled your hand away from his and took in a breath, “He just said something that made me think of you…” His expression shifted from the usual sternness it held. Perhaps he would be more inclined to hear you out now. “Something he said… Learning through history to create a new world…” You mumbled as you struggled to recall his exact wording. The rambling conversation felt mildly out of place. A heavy familiarity came from him. It was as if he knew you, despite it seeming impossible. The only person you thought even partially came to mind when you considered his appearance was Cynthia.

“… Did he, now?” Cyrus's gaze met your own with an oddly harsh look, “And he approached you specifically, stating that you were familiar?” A nod was your reply to the question. Something sceptical came across his face as his eyes closed. “He could be attempting to gain Palkia for his goals then, should that be his intention…” his hand fell onto a Master Ball on his desk. “You are likely somehow a part of his plan, whatever that may be. Please be on more alert.” His eyes closed. You wanted to be upset by his accusation, but that did seem logical. A plan to make a new world… That was also Cyrus's own, was it not? Who better to understand that mentality than him?

Though… You still were not convinced that was it. Something about Volo was different from Cyrus. Besides, why would he tell you about his plans when you so easily could tell people? No… You doubted that his intentions included taking Palkia. Swallowing, you felt something twist in your stomach. All of this felt much larger than you. It was almost the exact same feeling as when you had learnt of Cyrus's plans. Your hand clenched. There was not a chance that you were going to let that happen again.

“… Are you still focusing on completing spirit?” you decided to check something before you fully dedicated yourself to it. He nodded before finally returning to whatever he had been doing before you came in. You gave a quiet parting and headed back out of the hideout.

For a moment, you swore Cyrus seemed to wear a concerned gaze.

~

It had been harder to encounter Volo than you had originally thought. Pasio was large. Forests, mountains, deserts, caves — You swore that you had wandered through nearly every sight the island had to offer before you finally ended up in the ruins after a few days of fruitless searching. Sitting down on some debris, you began to debate why you were doing all this. It was a one-off comment by a complete stranger. Why did it make you more stressed than when your boyfriend had done the same thing and kept it from you? Maybe it was because Cyrus said things that simply did not align with your memories. His inability to recall the Distortion World was the oddest of them all. It had been the last place you had seen him until recently, after all.

It almost seemed as if he came from right before his actions on Spear Pillar. Hoopa did pull people from all over, but none of them had stricken you as stranger than him. Still, he recognised you. His words to you were the same as they had always been, while he clearly knew you as a lover. It hurt sometimes. The pain you felt after he refused to leave that impossible dimension. How he tossed away everything for a horrible solution to his problems. You sniffled a bit as tears burned your eyes. There was not a chance that you would allow something similar to happen again.

“My, don't you look glum?” a familiar voice called out to you, disrupting your train of thoughts. Volo appeared to have come right out of nowhere as he stood before you. A small, friendly smile was on his face. “Did something happen? Relationship troubles?” His questions were much too accurate. Not exactly troubles in the fighting sense, but something more complicated. Something that you were not entirely sure that you were ready to confront. You shook your head. It seemed that he remembered your reply about being in a relationship from your first meeting, however.

“… I was thinking about some things,” you simply told him, “I was looking for you, actually.” The blond appeared to perk up at your words. His smile grew wider, and his eyes closed. Seeing him again, his odd similarities to Cynthia only appeared more obvious. Was he a relative? It did not seem out of the realm of possibility. You offered a seat on the pillar under you. His heavy backpack was slipped off his shoulders as he joined you.

“Me?” he asked, “Ah, did you need to buy something?” You shook your head. There were more than enough stores on Pasio if you truly desired anything. “Then, how may I be at your service?” His grey eye met yours carefully. Something seemed to be brewing behind them. You wished that you could have a peek into his mind.

“… What did you mean by a new world?” pleasantries could be skipped, as you needed answers to calm your distraught mind. Volo was taken aback by your bold question. He blinked once or twice as he clearly debated it in his own head. You wondered if he was going to answer your question, truly.

“I meant a new world that is better than this one,” he replied, voice lower than before — quieter in volume. Your stomach twisted at his words. “… You seem distressed. Why is that?” His hand came to rest on his chin. You bit your tongue. How did you respond to that? A new, better world… Cyrus thought he was doing the same, but even Saturn was disillusioned with Cyrus's plans after learning what this supposed world would entail. You feared what Volo's ideals would be. Could it truly be any worse than a world without spirit?

“How would it be better?” you replied slowly, afraid to make him run off. Volo hummed to himself. His smile felt different when it spread across his face.

“Before I answer,” his hand grasped your shoulder firmly, “May I ask for why you seem so intrigued?” You froze. Replying truthfully to that would certainly make him leave. There was no way he would stay if you stated your intentions to sway him from that path. You averted your gaze to the dirt. Volo took note. “… You truly did not change,” his hand suddenly cupped your face as he seemed to force your attention back onto him, “Do you want the truth about your lover?”

You froze. He gave a chuckle. How could he have possibly known that? You had not mentioned anything about Cyrus to him outside of claiming to be in a relationship. His name had not even been said in that conversation, yet… His confidence in his words was undeniable. “… You suspect the truth already, do you not? That he is not the same man you loved.” You moved away from him in a panic. Shaking your head, you attempted to deny his words. That was impossible. Cyrus's oddities had to hold some other reason. Maybe he hit his in the Distortion World before Hoopa pulled him here, and that was why he was missing a gap in his memories.

“Ah, see?” Volo's tone became sympathetic, “This world is cruel.”

“You… You can't be sure!” you tried to argue back, terrified at how much sense his explanation made. Cyrus truly did seem frozen right as he summoned the legendary pokemon of Sinnoh... But, you wanted so desperately to believe that it was something else. You loved him all the same. It had to be him. Volo's expression became something soft.

“I am certain,” he sighed, “I would not lie to you. That 'Hoopa' has pulled quite a few people here from other worlds. It is simply unfortunate that Cyrus was one of them.” You felt completely tormented. Volo had so easily pressed your buttons. “… If it is any comfort, I am not of the time period, myself,” he offered. You took another look at him. Well, that should have been more obvious to you. Especially when he tried to offer you a pokeball made of an apricorn. “Will you be alright?”

You nodded as you forced your racing thoughts down. Okay. Fine. The Cyrus here on Pasio was not the same one as the one that you knew. But, it seemed that everyone else, including his own commanders, had accepted him just the same. He had never rejected you, either. Even if he was aware that he was in an alternate world, it seemed that his feelings for you remained no matter what. You could accept that. If anything, seeing how this one could have his perspective shifted from his decision to make a new world to completing spirit reinvigorated you. Your Cyrus could still be saved. You believed that truly.

“What time period are you from then?” you decided to ask. Anything to steer the topic away from something so sensitive. Volo thought on it for a moment.

“The… industrial period, I suppose, is what you modernly call it,” he responded, “Well, industrialisation had barely come to Hisui, but it was happening elsewhere.” You blinked. Hisui? That was… before it had even been given its modern name of Sinnoh. It was a bit startling how well he was able to conceal something like that. Suddenly, it was more obvious that Volo was capable of keeping many things close to his chest. Cyrus's warning to be more on alert likely should have been heeded. You decided to keep going, however.

After all, Volo seemed more than happy to answer any questions related to his time period.

~

The trek back to the hideout after your second conversation with Volo felt much less urgent. You had learnt many common historical information. Well, at least in relation to the Galaxy Team. The emblem for the organisation had been a bit startling, but you did recall that Cyrus's family had connections leading back to the original founding of Jubilife. Everything else about the Diamond Clan and Pearl Clan was interesting, but not exactly the most relevant. When asking about where Volo himself originated from, he simply said that he had always been in Hisui. You debated asking Cynthia about her family's origin the next time you saw her.

The mood was oddly tense as you entered the Galactic hideout. Grunts seemed to try to avoid you while Mars shot you a glare when you had passed her. It was far too easy to just assume that something had happened with an experiment and move along to Cyrus's office area. The boss himself was waiting for you as you opened the door. His arms here crossed, and he glared harshly. You shut the door.

“Where have you been?” he questioned with a serious tone. You were taken aback for a moment, not used to this sort of behaviour from Cyrus. Especially in relation to where you had gone out to. Usually, he preferred if you left since he often said that you distracted him unintentionally.

“I was exploring Pasio,” you replied, “I wanted to see more of the island.” His remarks about it being astonishing that the region was man-made… You hoped that it would sway whatever bad mood he was into something more manageable. Truthfully, you were not too attuned to handling his anger, but rather, his sadness. He seemed unmoved, however.

“I am aware that you were,” he replied, “… But for what reason? I asked you to be more careful.” Annoyance pounded at your brain. Why was he suddenly pretending to be so worried about you when he had rarely cared previously? “… You met with that man again,” he suddenly said, “I had a grunt trail you as a precautionary measure. The idea of you being used against me was one I would rather not face.”

First, offence ate at your heart that he had someone following you around Pasio, but you supposed it was not that irrational if he thought you were actually in danger. Though, you much would have preferred that he simply speak with you normally, but Cyrus was himself even if it was not your Cyrus. You sighed. Should you really even bother with any of this? The man you loved was still away in that far-off dimension and clearly did not care enough about you to return. The one in front of you would probably do the same thing eventually. What was the point of all this? It all felt useless. Completely useless.

“… Would you really care that much?” the words left you with little thought about the effect they might have. Cyrus tensed up. His eyes narrowed on you. “You are not the Cyrus of this world. You know that, right?” He went quiet and still. Tension was almost palpable in the air as you two sat in a wordless staring contest, wondering who would break it first. He seemed genuinely frozen by your words.

Cyrus walked around the desk to sit down in his chair. His elbows rested on the metallic surface as he seemed to let out something inside him. “Correct,” eventually, he broke the silence, “I am not. I was forced here by that Hoopa pokemon for some unknown reason.” You felt mortified that he had been aware this whole time. Something inside you wanted to curl up and die. Why had he not said anything prior? You felt hurt that it took an outsider to you both finally to force this conversation. Silence permeated again as you debated what to say. Words felt pointless at this point.

You sat in one of the chairs in the room and found yourself lost in thought. Your relationship with Cyrus was deeply important to you. There was not anything that you would not have done to get him back. Yet, when you finally did, it was not exactly him. When you left Pasio, he would likely not follow. It was a matter of how long until he was returned back to the world that he was pulled from. Placing your face in your hands, you could only debate the situation more and more. It felt like a cruel and twisted form of torture.

“… Beloved,” the endearment felt strange to hear after having gone so long without it, “I may not be the Cyrus of this world, but I do genuinely care for you.” He had moved over to you while you were lost in your own head. A hand moved to brush a few stray strands of hair out of your face. “This Volo... I have struggled to find information on him. The only remarkable thing about his is his resemblance to the Sinnohan champion…” his thumb stroked your cheek, “His intentions are unknown. Please, be careful.”

You nodded. His words… You desperately wanted to find comfort in them, but it felt as if you only would have him for so long. The idea of losing him for a second time felt like you had been burned by a Houndoom.

~

The following days were a mess.

Time moved slowly and quickly. Nothing seemed to make sense. Cyrus went back to his work but was making a noticeable effort to spend more time with you. It was nice; something that you had wanted, but… You felt terrified to get too close to him again. So, you took to trying to find a certain champion and speak to about your feelings. She had, after all, been there for you after everything. It was her kindness that gave you some small comfort in this mad world. The task should have been easy, yet it somehow proved impossible. With so many trainers around, you expected to hear something about her location. There had been nothing.

You sat at a café's veranda while thinking more. No one else was bothered by Cyrus being of an alternate world. Cynthia had been trying to aid him as if he were the one of your world all the same. Dawn and Lucas followed behind just the same. The Galactic commanders were unbothered, too. Why could you not be the same? He loved you. The words would rarely leave his mouth, but his ability to tolerate you being around during his vulnerable states remained all the same. But… Losing him. It would happen eventually. Lear would order the legendary to return those displaced, certainly. You hated the idea of that time coming.

The sound of a chair being pulled back took you out of your thoughts. A familiar face had taken a seat across from you. It was not the blonde that you had been looking for, certainly. Volo smiled at you playfully. His Togepi was out, too, sitting in his lap happily. Her gentle expression almost soothed your stressed mind. You sighed. Where had he come from this time?

“Stressed again?” he asked, “Let me help you! Togepi is great at calming people.” For some reason, you felt that there was more than just that to his actions. Still, you did feel a bit better. Apparently, the pokedex entries about it having a calming effect were true.

“So… If you're from the past,” you decided to ask something, “And you claimed that I looked like someone you knew… Was that my ancestor?” It made the most logical sense, you supposed. Who really knew? It could have been a completely disconnected person who just so happened to look like you. Volo shook his head.

“Ah… Not at all,” he explained with no details. It was frustrating. Had he used that simply as an opener to speak with you? Volo did not appear to be the flirty type, so you felt unsure. The words almost felt purposeful. Those two clan leaders had mistaken the Galactic commanders for people of the past, too, but you felt more inclined to believe that they had been ancestors. Volo himself was likely Cynthia's own… Which was an odd thought. Though, in the case he was… Perhaps he could help you with your complicated feelings.

“Hey, Volo,” you called out to him. His attention shifted entirely onto you from the nearby walking street. Passers-by were all over. Pasio was truly full of people. “… Can I ask you about something?” His expression was nothing but genuine cheerfulness. You did feel a bit more at ease. Any concerns that you might have had otherwise about the blond seemed to vanish. “I… I don't know how to feel about Cyrus any more,” you plainly spoke, “He's not the one I knew… And I'm scared that I'll lose him again at any point.”

“Ah…” Volo appeared to think on it for a moment, grabbing his chin. It was quite an odd thing to say to someone who was still an acquaintance at best and concerning at worst. “Well, that is a very real concern, I think,” he nodded, “What do you want to do about it?” That question was the exact one you did not want to face. Your heart raced. What did you want to do? Leave Cyrus? What options were there? Your mood shift was noticeable to Volo, who reached a hand out to hold your own resting on the table. His hand was much larger than your own and covered with callouses. “… You must truly care for him.” There was something lurking just beneath those words that you just missed in your distress.

You nodded. Volo's hand tightened around your own. It brought you back to reality. “Why not spend awhile away from him? It might allow you to make your decision easier,” he offered. You felt a bit uncertain of doing that. Sure, you had your own hotel room on Pasio from when you had originally come here, but you had been staying in the Galactic hideout with Cyrus for a while. Your eyes went to his hand. But… You definitely needed to clear your head.

“Maybe, I'll give that a try,” you replied, “Thank you for listening, Volo.”

He only smiled again.

~

The smell of the ocean was both a nostalgic and haunting scent to the blue-haired man. Waves lapped against the artificial shores of Pasio. He stood watching them. Everything had been oddly chaotic in his personal life lately. Did it truly matter that his origin was not in this world? You had apparently thought so. It was beyond his understanding. Even if he could acknowledge that you were not the same version of yourself from his world, you were clearly still something similar enough. When or if he would even be able to return to his own was impossible to ascertain. Besides, his bond with you was more than enough.

Even during the events with Darkrai, his foolish feelings led to him keeping you by his side. An isolated world of darkness with you in his arms simply felt close enough to his idea of perfection that he was happy to remain like that. Your sudden avoidance of him had brought out more unwanted feelings. Had he upset you in some way? Nothing came to his mind when he forced himself to consider his actions. You had come suddenly a few days ago and packed your things. The only words you had said to him were something about needing a break. He attempted to speak, but you had gone before the chance had been given.

A sigh left him as he took a step closer to the ocean. The port city he had grown up in… How many times had he stood on a beach like this? It was difficult to recall alongside many things during that period of his life. His hand clenched. He would speak to you soon. It was desperately needed. Things simply could not carry on as they were. Working had become impossible as the days grew larger in number.

“Oh? You seem lost in thought,” a voice called out to him. He turned his head to see a blond man with a familiar style to someone else that he knew. Cyrus stiffened. This appeared to be the 'Volo' that he had heard so much about. Someone who shared his intentions of making a new world. Could he have finally come to try to claim Palkia as he had expected. His hand went for Darkrai's pokeball, fully aware that he should not take this strange man lightly. “… I was going to say that you looked lonely,” his tone turned to something mocking.

“And?” Cyrus replied, voice suppressing whatever feelings wish to reveal themselves, “Is that truly any of your business?” There was little interest in dealing with him for any longer than necessary. He had only stepped out to get some fresh air and clear his mind. It was now having the complete opposite effect on him.

“They are quite lovely, are they not?” Volo suddenly said, gazing out at the moon, “You certainly left them in a state, though. How cruel of you.” Cyrus's eyes grew wide. “They were effortless to win over to me,” his hands readjusted the heavy pack on his back, “Just as they are now, too. They will be perfect at my side in a perfect world.”

Stepping away from him, Cyrus felt his stomach twist. What had this man done? Did he cause you to end up in the state that you were? He swallowed. Something told him that engaging him here would end badly. Turning his head, he let out a shaky breath. The beach was abandoned as he began his walk back to the hideout. A message was quickly sent to Saturn to order grunts to keep an eye on the blond. Cyrus felt as if he had a true rival for once in his life.

~

Volo stood on the beach in silence. Cyrus… Well, he certainly had his ancestor's expression down. The Captain of the Survey Corps would surely be happy to see her bloodline was going well. The waves washed around his boots as he stared at the night sky in wonder. So much could change in the world, yet the sky remained exactly the same. He felt oddly smug. How easy it was to place a wedge in what was an otherwise normal relationship. The merchant usually would not bother interfering in such a way.

But… It was you. Well, a version of yourself that had yet to end up in Hisui, but you nonetheless. You were so easy to approach. Volo had been genuinely surprised when you had mentioned a boyfriend, however. In Hisui, you had said he simply had abandoned you, yet here he was on Pasio. A different version of himself. Just like you were a different version of the you that he knew. But, in the end, you were still the same. He had lost you in Hisui after you learnt of his goals and what happened with Rei. Here, however, you had no clue of anything. It was so easy to just speak with you. When you asked about his time period, it delighted him to explain it to you.

It felt far too easy to use the certainty and fear related to the apparent temporary nature of Pasio to cause conflict with you and Cyrus. You had listened to him, too. Volo wanted to sigh. Soon, he would force Arceus out and subjugate it. Then, you both could be together in his new world. Just as you should be.

Volo felt disgusted at the thought of Cyrus holding you as he did. The more intimate the mental images became; the more upset Volo grew. He truly loved you. That was why he had helped you in Hisui. You had been just like him. Rejected by all the groups around the region. All alone and left to the mercy of nature. How could he not want to show you kindness and help you? Your company made things more pleasant as he investigated ruins and artefacts.

Why had you been so upset when he explained his plans to you? That question had haunted him ever since you had run from in Hisui. Now, of course, he understood. Cyrus. He had attempted something similar, yet more foolishly. Only using Dialga and Palkia to remake the world… Arceus simply would not allow that. Volo knew better.

He turned away from the beach.

Well, it was time to go see you again.

[spoodlebat]

DAY 5 - REDESIGNED

Day 5 - Redesigned OC Still playing catchup; no further forward but no further back aha. At least I'm staying consistently far behind :'D Cmon spuddy, these were meant to be simple...!

Rather than like last year where, for this prompt, I took an old character and updated them, I chose to interpret it as being a character that has changed physically over time. With it being relevant to their species and lore as a whole, I think Knoop fits this bill quite well.

Character ramblings, as well as their other forms, below the cut <3

Knoop's species (known as voidlings) can reformat their bodies in times of dire need, ejecting their inner core from the outer shell and laying dormant until danger passes. By then absorbing biomass from the surroundings, voidlings can forge a new, armour-like hollow construct that the darkness within then operates to move around. It's an instinctive process that occurs whilst unconscious; shaped by the sleeping mind within, these forms tend to grow more complex as a voidling ages and matures, reflecting their worldly experience as well as one's own character traits.

Knoop themselves has reformed many times in their long life, but they have had 3 main forms over the course of their story.

Their first form predates their original 'death' and subsequent entanglement with the Divines; its main traits were dexterity and resiliance, useful in their role as a Galactic Federation Patrol officer.

Following their Divine Quest, Knoop was rewarded with knowledge of their origins, and a planet to call their homeworld. Despite the comfort of Elysium, however, something called them back into adventure. Attacked by creatures of darkness, their reformation was poorly supplied and woefully incomplete; Knoop's physical shell was corrupted by raw void, and their fragmented soul was irreversibly altered. With exposed flesh, unintentionally-embedded objects, and weakened armour, this form was made for desperate survival above all else. It took a great length of time for them to learn how best to use its unique strengths, as well as to become numb to its chronic pain.

The final form Knoop took before their eventual death, this shell is a great many things; a much overdue understanding, the relief of long-awaited completeness, a thousand years worth of forgiveness. Above all else, it is a physical manifestation of the love they now hold for themselves. A being now of two halves, those that call themselves Well and Scribe now co-exist within Knoop's body and mind, wrapped endlessly in the sheer joy that is their own existence.

Their core is no longer hidden away, burning brightly through the raw void that makes up parts of their body. Knoop can now repair themselves at a level far surpassing that of their fellow voidlings, able to manipulate the very matter that makes up most of reality, in order to break it down into material for their body. This power also grants them several abilities, such as manifesting hardlight digits or weaponry on command, as well as energy attacks and shadow tendrils.

And, just for fun ;w;

After their death, Knoop ascends to the Divine Realms. They finally shed their shell, free to exist as they truly are. Their form is typically quite nebulous, light and dark orbitting their core. However, they can take on a slightly more humanoid form if desired. Regardless of their shape, their two halves are ever winding around one another~

[littlegeecko]

Has Faker ever made his own connections to EXEs in your au? Besides his origins with Lord X

You absolute fool i will take this chance to ramble so sit down on the strapped chair

Short answer: No, not many at least

Long Answer:

Faker is a creation of Lord X that, at least in my own interpretation and AU, he was made from the core of his existence, the darkness of the void itself, all the hate, the negative feelings, the power, the emotions deep within Lord X's being about humanity aside from seeing them as his little game. Faker has been in this box comfortably since forever and technically there was no issue with that, not even when he tried to attack Lord X in multiple ocassions.

Until he realized that, unlike Lord X, he cannot adapt to new emotions that arent the ones previously mentioned, which makes him, in theory, "inperfect" and "incomplete". He's selfish, hes evil, he doesnt care about others much unless they're ones he can control and use in his favor.

Hes not physically capable of understanding nor feeling normal emotions such as platonic/romantic love or form interpersonal meaningful connections, or even develop normal hobbies like Lord X does with the piano and singing, he sees them as unnecessary and meaningless for him to exist.

He can feel something tho, and its resentment, at Lord X.

And because of that resentment, he has tried to NOT be like him, specially after seeing how "weak" and "soft" he has become because of Sunky and that blue thing (Majin) Is this what a connection with another living being does to you? he wants nothing to do with that.

However, getting to be outside the void from time to time and being exposed to his creator/father's odd, new behaviour, and the way he treats others around him, his new Creation included (Sunky) Faker has found himself...longing

Longing for what? he's rather X himself than be treated by Lord X the same as Sunky, and he finds the actions with the blue thing disgusting at best, so what is he longing for exactly?

In my AU, since most complicated situations such as these ones can be turned into some little funny thing (Such as Faker's complicated feelings about Sunky being funnily summed up to him suffering Only Child Syndrome all of the sudden), you could say Faker's longing for Companionship, he feels lonely and it makes him feel stupid and weak, so he ignores it

But he has found himself hanging by other living creatures in a calmer manner more times than he'd like to admit, like his barebones attempt and having a sonic-like team with Wechidna and Vulpes (The latter being a faker-so Tails my s/o made) and ending in complete desaster since Faker just likes the idea of them being like a team of sorts, even if he hates Wech's guts and Vulpes tries to stay away from him/them in general

The rest of the characters are just treated dismissively or like inferior beings by Faker; Sanic, Majin, Fleet and Sunky and other people they'd consider friends. And Then

There's Scorched.

But, thats an story for another inbox message nah? haha

[missyastreiaaa]

Wedding Dress || T. Mitsuya

A young man hums along with the radio, a measuring tape around his neck a bright pin cushion strapped on his wrist like a bracelet. His eyes were focused on the masterpiece before him, gently handling the fabric and carefully placing down pins in the right places.

“ This will look perfect “ He mutters, lips curving up in a small smile.

Mitsuya Takashi, a world-renowned fashion designer who completely swept the entire fashion industry and the world off its feet. Not only was he talented and good-looking, but the confidence and humbleness he portrayed are also what made people love him even more.

However that wasn’t it all, it was also because he was the youngest to ever achieve this height of accomplishments within a short amount of time. A young bachelor. Sought by many ladies and men.

“ Should I put rose patterns or daisies? “ He wonders. She looks good in anything either way. He thought. Grabbing the notebook with different lace patterns and types of fabric inside.

Just the thought of Y/N wearing his handmade wedding dress gives him all sorts of feelings. He feels like he could pull a cartwheel on the spot, although his back has been having problems lately. He feels like giggling and kicking his feet randomly as if he was still in high school.

Seriously, how could one person make him feel intoxicated and yet cured of all sickness at the same time?

“ Mr. Mitsuya, Miss L/n is waiting by the lobby.” His assistant said on the phone.

“ let her in, “

Mitsuya Takashi is a great guy, with talents and looks, and fame. He’s a confident guy with a righteous mind. Though he’s a pacifist, he wouldn’t hesitate to get in trouble if his friends and family get hurt.

He hears the familiar clicks of heels, knowing fully well who they belonged to, he stands up and attempts to fix his messy workstation. Fumbling around like the lovesick fool he was, the door opens and the most dazzling woman enters the room.

“ Takashi? Long time no see! “ She greets, a warm smile on her lips as she gives him a hug. The same old welcoming and lovely energy she gave off the first time she entered his life.

He hugs her back, burying his face into her hair to hide the silly grin on his face. She smells warm and fuzzy. He thought.

Mitsuya was glad that she was finally back from her travels, safe and sound with all her limbs intact and no slight hint of mental insanity. It was weird when you put it that way but that’s just how he was. A worrywart of a person, turning into a mother hen at the slightest sight of injury.

“ I’m glad to see you, how was your trip? “ He asks.

She brightens up at his question, breaking away from the hug that he desperately wanted to chase after. Mitsuya guides her to a chair, one that he specifically ordered as her exclusive seat. A chair that no one, not even his closest friends were allowed to sit on.

“ I watched Mikey’s bike race! I was actually surprised that the competition was being held in Brazil, Good thing Mikey snagged me a nice seat with a great view of the race– “ She rambles on, Mitsuya wasn't really listening, well, he was but the sound of her voice got him lost in his thoughts.

“--kid challenged me to a dance challenge! It was kinda hilarious too since I ain’t backing down from a challenge! ” Y/n had a habit of talking with her hands, imitating the sound of objects or even animals to further explain the story well. 

Cute. he thought.

Mitsuya was a great listener and he also gives great advice. Along with his extremely long patience, gentleness, and thoughtfulness, it was not a surprise that he was popular with girls and boys. 

His thoughts were interrupted when Y/n stares in awe at her side. He knew what she was looking at, he always did. “ Would you like to take a closer look? “ and god was he so glad to ask her that when he received a bashful look of hesitance from her.

“ Can I really? I–I mean it still looks incomplete and I might accidentally spoil the fun! “ She says to which Mitsuya chuckled.

“ N/n, it's yours. You’re free to look at it, and I think it’s better to see it now. Who knows, you might hate the design after all, “

“ Nonsense! “ She exclaims in exasperation, “ How could I possibly hate your designs? They’re extremely beautiful! “ 

A soft smile painted his lips,” Is that so? Well, you can still check it out just in case “ 

Both of them stood, Mitsuya watched her as she softly walked towards the mannequin with an almost complete wedding dress. Her footsteps were light as if she was approaching a fragile art piece.

Her eyes twinkled with admiration. Something that Mistuya adored along with her other antics such as laughing like a maniac when she pranks someone. His lilac eyes stared at her, etching her face to his mind as if he hadn’t seen her in years.

She glides her hand by the hem of the skirt, “ So pretty, “ Y/n mutters.

“ Isn’t it? “ she asks, smiling graciously at the white dress.

“ Yeah, “ Mitsuya agrees, eyes still focused on her. “ Really pretty, “

“ Do you think I’d look as pretty once I wear it? “ 

I made that with you in mind. “ Of course, you will “ You’ve always been pretty.

A short laugh escapes from her, “ Then I’m glad, I’ll wear this proudly. “ She grins, showing off her now perfectly aligned teeth deprived of braces.

How could someone be this lovely? 

“ I hope, Mikey thinks so too, “ An adoring smile on her face. Mitsuya freezes but recovered in no time.

He purses his lips, swallowing down the disgusting bitter taste on his tongue, “ I’m sure he will, “ He replies calmly.

Mitsuya was popular.

Y/n laughs at the thought of her soon-to-be husband, “ He better does, I’ll kick his ass otherwise, “

Mitsuya was loved by many.

“ As you should, “

Mitsuya was a successful young man, sought by many people. And yet he can’t have the one person he’d ever love so much with his entire heart at stake.

Y/n turns to look at Mitsuya, “ You better attend my wedding okay? Can’t have my best friend be left out on one of my happiest days! “ 

His eyes soften, holding back the regret and tears. He bites the inside of his cheek, “ Of course, I’ll be there “

With how he always watched her, he wasn't really surprised when her eyes didn't look at him with the same affection as she did with manjiro. He always knew, yet the bitter taste still hasn't faded.

Her wedding, with me not as her groom, but the friend who designed her wedding dress.

[dearestgojo]

(ummm heads up this is really long I'm going to split it into two parts!!)

1/2

hello, I am once again reading "before love came to kill us" and I need to come talk to you about it or I might explode. I love this story so much!!!!!! It's genuinely one of my favourite fics in the whole world like it IS my Roman Empire!!! I dunno what you laced in it but like. I be thinking about your Iwaizumi Hajime (27) Athletic Trainer all the time 😭and like I KNOW okay!! I know he didn't deserve y/n and that there isn't any way he could make up for what he did. One of the reasons why I love this fic so so much is because you not only gave y/n the justice she deserved, and had her end up with the perfect man, but you also inflicted the most satisfying and fitting karma onto the bad guys!!!

Honestly sometimes i'll read a story and in the end there’s no justice after the abomination of events that occurred and it leaves me with such a nagging feeling of incompleteness. I know a lot of people enjoy the open-ended, no-justice-for-the-hero type of stories cause it feels more akin to how real life is. Don’t get me wrong there isn’t anything remotely wrong for liking stories like that!! I think sometimes it just kinda feels like there’s a bit of contempt for readers (or viewers) who want happy endings for stories. Like its almost looked down upon as childish for wanting a happy ending and I see people throw the word “fairytale ending” around a lot. I feel like the majority of people who wish for happy endings aren’t looking for a cheesy romantic fairytale ending. In fact, if there’s one thing that's even more unsatisfying to me than open endings, it’s happy endings that don’t feel earned. Like the male love interest spends the entire story practically committing war crimes on the woman and does things that are *objectively* irredeemable, but in the eleventh hour he’s suddenly a good person, and all his evil deeds are either forgotten or forgiven and they have a happy ending simply for the sake of saying it had a happy ending. Nothing drives me more crazy than that!!!! Lol

No what I’m trying to say is that when people say happy ending, they want a well-deserved, earned happy ending. One that makes sense given the context of the story, that’s well thought out and has been sprinkled into the development of the characters over the story timeline, and doesn’t require the characters to do and say things that are completely out of their character. 

I’m saying all this to say that that is exactly what you did!! Like you knocked the ending (and beginning and middle) out of the park and it felt so earned. She didn’t end up with Hajime but it was still a happy ending and that’s because it was never a prerequisite in the first place that she had to end up with him for it to be considered a happy ending you know what I mean!!! Am i even making sense at this point!!!! I’m so sorry lmfao im sorry if i sound crazy and rambly this story means a lot to me!!

anon I want to start by saying thank you for this ask, for showing that fic all this love, and sorry it's taken me so long to respond but I've been reading over and over this ask cause it's made my entire month.

I think from the moment I started the blctku I knew I didn't want Iwa and reader to end up together cause sometimes life doesn't go that way and wanted to show that there's always someone out there who isn't necessarily going to fill the place of the person who left but who can come in and be someone new and loving in our lives.

I'm so happy you brought up that scene cause I thought people would think it was unnecessary but that was actually the whole point of it, to show how y/n had started to see all this little 'icks' she didn't before and how they now bothered her.

[existing-out-of-spite]

I dreamed of being alone. No, I craved it. Every day I wished to be left in my own solitude. I begged for my phone to no longer buzz with texts from my eager friends and family. It would be my Heaven. I prayed the rest of the world would cease and I could exist in singularity.

But the morning of the vanishing proved me wrong. It felt off, it felt incomplete. I knocked on every door of my apartment building, I screamed in the street begging the world would take pity and reveal this was all an elaborate prank to make me appreciate people again. To fall in love with their mediocre conversations and actions, to crave them. But instead, the streets didn't hum with morning traffic, bakeries no longer smelled of freshly baked bread and cherry danishes, and house lights that were left on haunted me like ghosts outside of my peripheral.

The first year wasn't bad. My mind was focused on making it through the seasons. Stockpiling canned food and other non-perishable food items. But slowly expiration dates crept, taunting me that soon all the resources I gathered would disappear much like those I loved. I began reading books, acquiring skills like sewing, farming, and basic medicine to boost my chances of survival.

The second year was rougher. True loneliness crept up. I began writing letters to those I missed. Telling them of things I was doing. What I'd learned, what I dreamt of. How I hoped to one day, somehow give them these letters. How I could touch them again, and bask in this presence in hopes of never being ripped away from it again.

By the third year, I felt like I was forgetting how to speak. It had been so long since I had an actual conversation. Writing wasn't the same, instead, my neat letters spiraled into chicken scratch. I began monologuing my actions, talking to myself about anything. The wind, the trees, the quiet. I felt that if I stopped talking for a minute, I'd never be able to speak again. I'd forget completely. The more I talked the more I questioned the correctness of my own sentences.

The fourth year was the most difficult. There wasn't a day I awoke that I didn't contemplate giving up. Never moving again. Letting the ground consume me. What was the point, it had been so long? There was a chance no one was ever coming back. Even if they did, what if I didn't recognize them? Or they, me? What if we'd both forgotten how to talk? How to co-exist again? Was there a point in surviving if our suffering was incurable?

Somehow I made it to the fifth year, where I decided to never stop moving. I didn't stay in a place for more than a week. I changed scenery more than clothes. I preoccupied my mind with new sights and experiences. I took photos. I left signs showing life in case there was another soul in a mile radius of where I camped. But at last another campfire was never lit, filling the night sky with optimistic smoke.

By the sixth year, I had grown tired. I settled. I began building, creating, and experimenting with devices and contraptions. This new hobby distracted me and gave me goals and aspirations again. The plans only got more elaborate. An automatic watering system turned into a full aquaponics system. The chicken scratch sprawled across pages filled with complex diagrams.

By the seventh year, I had stopped writing letters to the people once knew. I had lost their photos ages ago and their faces slowly lost themselves in my memory. My dreams no longer housed anyone but me. Monologuing turned into ramblings, the journals I kept no longer reflected the person I used to be.

At year eight I could no longer recognize my name. It had been so long since somebody called it. When I attempted to spell it, I missed letters and the pronunciation felt foreign. It was a shell of myself that no longer held any value, for I had nobody to call it.

The ninth year blended with the eighth, I was no longer sure of the exact day, but only the season. Nature had reclaimed most of its lost land, filling concrete with roots and flowers. Vines sprawled carelessly from windows and electrical sockets. I had to battle the weeds that declared war on my settlement. While ferns grew spontaneously around the boundaries of my lawn, the clean-cut grass was the only form of control I resembled.

Year ten felt like them all, empty. I pondered how much longer I could last, would my hair turn grey? Would wrinkles form on my hands? Or perhaps I would go a week from then, and the earth would be free, slowly growing over the last of humanity's footprints.

But just as it all began, it ended. At first, they were unrecognizable. I saw them as beasts that had been born from the earth's core. They seemed wild, untamed. It wasn't until I caught my reflection in the water that I realized they were me.

Four of them found my camp first as it was difficult to miss due to the windmill I crafted years earlier. I felt threatened. They were everything I asked for, but they were embodiment untrustworthy. Utter strangers, with unknown motives.

They approached cautiously, bearing their vulnerability.

They asked for company. A chance of interaction to swap stories. Their words were unrefined and messy. They spilled over themselves, in a sense creating their own primal language. Each was the same. Each faced solitude. Begged for companionship, but their pleas fell short on deaf ears. They coped and distracted themselves. Some traveled, others settled, some flourished, others struggled. They all were unsure what changed, what had truly brought them back, brought everyone back. Even those who opted to not survive the years. Those who had lost hope and gave in and those who should've held on for one more day.

Each of those who were left theorized why. Perhaps this was one of God's tests, a chance to prove ourselves. Others offered some that a transdimensional shift that sent everyone into their own universe. Some believed it was nature's way of survival.

We danced around the topic of old friends and family, and what had become of them. Like a dressed wound, there was not much that could be done. Instead, we soaked in each other. We allowed not a bit of silence in fear it would be eternal.

Ten years ago everyone else on Earth disappeared. Now they are all back. Everyone says the same thing. Ten years ago, everyone else but them disappeared.

[martinsmartini]

Ramble 1: The Mechanisms of Man Against Himself

Man was not made for living, but surviving. Yet he so desperately wants to live, going against the electrical impulses of his ancestors, the tracks worn into the floors, the ridges of his brain... Here he is, at war at his own body and his mind: he is his own antithesis. And there are the two polar opposites of a man at every level and aspect, contradicting themselves, a man either banishes one below his awareness or incorporates them so he can get a modicum closer to the truth and get better, more complete answers and approaches to living. But rather than being sharply and painfully threatening, it can become a dull infliction, a chore that he does not want to entertain, preferring certainty and quick answers required of us from begging questions and strangers, or as a result of experiences and convictions he shies away. Pain is always sharp at first. It is not always necessary to contemplate every opinion at every instant, but contemplating and acting the extent of yourself from time to time makes you develop to be more complete. Beyond the two poles man contains everything, but supplies energy to what he deems worth it and tries to ignore the rest, considering everything that makes him and his rationality to the extent of his emotions and his view of the world, and so he sleepily contemplates the best situation and decides on it, to the extent of his train of thought and hunches.

And man attempts to rule his mind without understanding it, and rule the people without understanding them, but how can you solder the wires without understanding the system or where it goes to? He fights invisible demons and unimportant ones, wastes his energy, and wonders why he isn't getting any closer to the heart of his mind. To work through something, you must work with it, and not against it, and some time along the road, the "transcendence" will seem like magic, when it was ultimately its conclusion.

We get hijacked by living in an unpredictable world, a place with too many subjects and a world that is not conducive to the actualisation of a person and not engineered to make someone blossom into themselves, and there are too many paths to follow, and I wonder if we could ever follow them all and become a highly developed, highly complex person if there was enough time in a day and it was dense- but we are forced info specialties to dig a deep hole no one else can by building on the long accumulation of relevant knowledge.

But man finds things that he is good at by chance, and his interests are rarely based on pure understanding and his exposure to the totality of something and it's connections, ramifications, that unveils such a thing of real beauty and its comprehension, and rarely can his riddled mind accommodate such a feat: he is always mulling something over. Instead man develops interests based on incomplete understanding, of it and himself, and its presentations are corrupted by imperfect living. Man is stirred by the mere chance of emotion built on the beliefs he is acquired through living and pure convenience. He is bogged by tangents and crises, and all that matters in building himself and his life, his story in a much bigger one, is how he reacts, for each decision leads down a different path and each decision makes him different. The spotlight is on man. He does not live in isolation with the world, the best he can be is directly related to its effect on the world: what is important has to be important to something. And man had to discover what he can be, and why.

And such things, man, subjects, actions, change, character, study... They have its pure relation to an ideal, be it an ideal society or life, or to the practicalities of progression or the fulfillment of the present moment through perfecting it or more realistically, doing what you can. Ideals are dangerous only when the steps to reach it are impossible to fulfill and it ends up spoiling the whole system of movement, or leading him to cruelty in pursuit of a goal, and senselessly, to destroy the ideas of the ideal, and letting man wonder without end and immobilize him to a pipe dream... And man is often selfish without understanding it so, and so he scratches his own itch and it makes me wonder as to what constitutes the perfect decision, if the greatest number of happiness requires each man to forsake his own. I suppose it makes sense when such happiness comes unexpectedly from another source, but it makes me wonder if it is so universal and solid that everyone is able to experience it.

[ukiyokki]

mars reads too much dreamnotfound fanfiction for their own good

a dreamnotfound fanfic recommendation list by your resident dumbass (me)

this took way to fucking long... i’m tired

below is a (very extensive) list dedicated to all my favorite dnf fics, ranging from quick one shots to 100k+ word monstrosities that devour the storage on my computer, forever incomplete masterpieces to ongoing works of art, you get the idea. i provided links for each fic/series for your reading pleasure. there will be no smutty/nsfw fics on this list, that’s just not my vibe lmao. this list goes in no particular order, and i’ll update it from time to time when i feel like it. now, without further ado, let us begin.

Heat Waves (complete) by tbhyourelame

(wtf else did you expect, looking at a dnf rec list?) amazingly well written, and while it’s not my favorite dnf fic it’s damn near close. in the midst of a brutal heatwave, a suffering dream comes to terms with the fact that he is desperately in love with his best friend. everything i could say about this fic has already been said by nearly everyone who’s read it, so if you haven’t yet caved into the hype, just go for it. you won’t be disappointed.

Gonna be around (completed) by georgescatcafe

(mc irl) my favorite dnf oneshot to date. just read it, i don’t wanna spoil for you :)

Inferno in the Sky (ongoing)by zairielon

(star wars au) an ongoing star wars au currently clocking in at almost 200k words. need I say more? everything about it absolutely slaps, each chapter is amazingly written, and it’s just good. also, can we just appreciate dream and tubbos dynamic in here? 10/10, amazing, must protecc. oh right, a summary: george, an exiled padawan turned engineer, must return to the jedi temple after attacks on it from an unknown assailant threaten the safety of himself and the other jedi.

Like Magic (ongoing) by KangarooKen, NotGra55 (Gra55)

(harry potter au) the unofficial official dnf harry potter au. we watch the young unlikely wizard pair grow up together throughout their years at hogwarts as they battle good old fashioned wizard racism. beautifully written, incredibly fun and suspenseful, and just an overall blast and a half.

GeorgeNotFound, Son of Poseidon, and the League of Minor Gods (ongoing) by Clichewho_69, Cygnvs, Trash_Kinggg

(percy jackson au) percy jackson au? check. “road trip” (technically quest but u get what i mean)? check. enemies to friends to lovers? check. this fic follows the plot of the lightning theif (albeit loosely), but everything is explained enough where you don’t have to read percy jackson to understand what’s going on. basically after moving to the usa, george gets taken to camp halfblood where he learns that a) gods exist. b) he’s the son of poseidon and c) he needs to prove that he didn’t steal zeus’s master bolt.

Protected (completed) by aenqua

(royalty/camelot au) my favorite piece of dnf media of all time. dubbed the official dnf camelot au, where dream is the heir to the throne and george is a servants son with a secret that couldp get him killed. these childhood friends grow up together and learn trust, love, and acceptance. (that summary did not justice to the masterpiece that is this fic) here’s the directors cut

The Hunter (completed) by HederEgo

(mc irl) a choose your own adventure fic with 13 different endings, where dream the hunter must kill george and stop him from beater the ender dragon. enough said.

The official dream team cowboy AU (series)(ongoing) by antsu_in_my_pantsu

(cowboy au) cowboys and outlaws horses and shit. and the big gay. it’s a cowboy au, what else did you expect? fucking yee haw (all seriousness this is a great read, i loved it so so so so much and i can’t wait for the final chapter to release).

This is a Drista moment, let's just accept it (completed) by Qekyo

dnf fic from drista pov. considering its unique perspective, it’s perfectly done. beautifully showcases a sibling relationship through drista and her memories/moments with dream, and it just works, y’a know? also drista supremacy.

Dear Dream (completed) by Qekyo

(wwii au) i don’t cry when watching/reading anything sad. translation: i’m a heartless bitch. however, this fic is the only exception. it caused me to cry so hard my mom walked in my room and asked if i was ok. ‘nuff said.

TECHNOlogical Wingman (completed) by Closeted_Bookworm

techno is the autocorrect ai on dreams phone, and he gains sentience. interesting concept, and the author fucking nailed it. great fic.

It Was Only a Fic (ongoing) by imagineitdear

dream starts reading a dnf fanfic (we’ve all been there buddy).

Teacher’s Pet (ongoing) by niyuha

(teacher au) in which dream is a high school english teacher and george is the new comp sci teacher in room 297.

Saltwater Secrets (ongoing) by earlgay_milktea

(mermaid/high school au) a great example of the shear amount of variety in fics this fandom has to offer. when i started reading dnf fics i would have never thought i’d find one about a mermaid george hopelessly crushing on his human friend, who happens to be his schools star swimmer. yet here i am, and i am far from disappointed.

Smash My Heart (incomplete) by dontrollthedice

george and sapnap are commentators for duper smash brothers tournaments, and george develops a crush on an up and coming smash streamer named dream.

roleplaying in the dark is harder than it seems (completed) by Alienu

laser tag. 10/10

solar system (completed) by quartzfia

(mc irl) george vists dream in pandora’s vault.

Ramblings of a Lunatic (completed) by jungkooksfic

ahh communicating through a notebook left on a shelf in a bookstore- what a perfect way to start a relationship.

Paint me like your French Girls (It's Charcoal, Actually) (completed) by Turtle_ier

(artist au) george is an art student, and dream is a model.

00:00:00 (completed) by isleofdreams

(soulmate au) 00:00:00 is the moment you meet your soulmate, as indicated but the clock ticking down on your wrist until the moment you meet. i’m not a fan of soulmate aus; this fic is the exception.

Blue Skies Smilin' At Me (completed) by kivy

(artist au) i don’t usually cry while reading stuff, but this brought me damn near close. george is a painting conservator and chats it is with the ghost of the artist if the painting he is working on. they fall in a love.

Current Location (incomplete) by hendollana

(influencer au) george simps for a hot american instagram model. who knew he’d actually follow back?

The Withering (series) (series ongoing, 1 work completed) by App1e_Juice

(mc irl) lore and world building and fight scenes and everything i crave. what’s not to love? something starts making the plants and crops around dreams village wither, and must team up with new friends to find the cause of the mysterious disease plaguing the land.

Minecraft, But You Can't Leave (complete) by facadecake

(mc irl) dream and george are sucked into their own private minecraft world together and must beat the game to escape.

Free The Game, Beat the End (incomplete) by goatgoatwasfound

(mc irl) a glitch in minecraft causes thousands of players from around the world to be trapped inside minecraft, with only one way of escape- beating the ender dragon. first dnf fic i ever read, and it’s still 10/10 for me.

Why don't you come a little closer? (completed) by lifeofandoms

george gets stood up by a date, and Dream pretends he’s the date to save george from the embarrassment. simply adorable.

lightning bug (completed) by saintachesP

(band au) while on tour, dream realizes his feeling for george.

Hold me closer (completed) by Treesofmyheart

(mc irl/dsmp) i just,, really like this trope.

Dizzy on caffeine (completed) by GleamingGreenGoggles

(coffee shop au) best dnf coffeeshop au i’ve read. periodt.

living a life of crime isn’t always easy (series) (completed) by itisjosh

(mafia/assassin au) stockholm syndrome except it’s not weird.

Inhibitions Make Interesting Situations (completed) by Ship_On_The_Sea

i pissed myself laughing. it’s just a dream and george being hilariously dense, flustered idiots. serotonin central.

thy eternal summer shall not fade (completed) by gracequills

(high school au) that moment when you recite shakespeare to your crush in your ap lit class instead of confessing (hate it when that happens).

All is Fair in love and Football (ongoing) by graciegirl2001

(college au) #1 favorite college au. in which george is a cheerleader, and dream is the football teams rising star player. this one gets extra points because of the amazing karlnap moments sprinkled throughout. *chefs kisses air*

online love (completed) by andbutso

(high school au) online classes go zoooooooom

Can’t help falling (completed) by isleofdreams

dream re-learns the guitar to sing to george on his birthday. beautiful. fluffy. amazing

dance in the rain and my arms (completed) by lazy_kitkat

george is a rain god, and dream is a wind god

Weather Boy (completed) by DaintyDiizzle

wouldn't you like to know, weather boy? (where dream can control the rain)

The color orange (completed) by anon

(mc irl) dream describes the colors of a sunset

Family Mode (completed)by Strawberry_flavoured_tears

they’re dads :,)

Breathing Room (incomplete) by papercranes

(band an) an amazing band au. the mad lad author wrote original songs for each chapter. above and beyond, mad props :). unfortunately, it’s incomplete

Piece of Clay (completed) by carbonbrine

(artist au) george is a sculptor and his sculpture comes to life- but oh no he’s hot.

Try (completed) by Not4typicalwriter

(royalty au) george must choose a suitor, but none of them are up to dream, his head knights, standards. or dream is hella jelly. also protective dream is perfect

When the Roses Bloom (completed) by HederEgo

(royalty au) close second for my favorite fic. go to royalty au for a quick serotonin bost. it’s all fluff and flowers and crushes, and i love it. criminally underrated.

Heavenstruck (ongoing) by dontrollthedice

george is dreams guardian angel, and dream want to find out more about him and his past life. bittersweet :,)

Bang and Burn (completed) by App1e_Juice

(spy au) george accidentally falls for target number 1 on sapnap’s secret agency’s hit list. this ones great, i love me a spy au :)

Can I get a uhh… (completed) by lemonskies

dream keeps pulling up to the drive through mcdonald’s that george works at drunk.

Pretty Stranger (completed) by anon

when looking for dream in the terminal, george sees a cute guy and decides to flirt.

Take my Hand (completed) by latinbias

(royalty au) another royalty au? poggers. surprise twists? double poggers. love this a lot.

seconds, minutes, hours, lifetimes (complete) by meridies

ROAD TRIP ROAD TRIP ROAD TRIP ROAD TRIP *inhales to compose herself* roadtrip au. unrequited love, ignored feelings, longing, pining, you know the drill. absolutely love this one, its the best roadtrip au i have ever read, in any fandom. (maybe cause i identify with it a little too much, but thats not important. whats important is that you read this fic. right now. im waiting).

Message redacted (complete) by justyouraverageloser

(text fic) dream asks for a girls number and realises hes been given the wrong number. however, an unexpected relationship starts to form between him and the stranger on the other end of the line.

the waves (completed) by anon

(mc irl) this fic was written by the same anon who wrote the color orange, which is up there on my fav dnf oneshot list. dream and george know they have a higher purpose. they don’t know where they came from, or why they are seemingly the only humans in the world, or how they feel about eachother, or even where the skeletons come from, but they are sure of one thing: they have to beat a dragon.

The Dream Doll (completed) by PeppDream (Pep_Pizza)

(voodoo i guess) i’m a real big fan of fics with really out there or unique concepts, so naturally this one makes the cut! i really liked it, it’s really sweet and made me think a lot about what matters to me in the world. george finds a strange doll in an antique shop, and would really like to just stuff it in a drawer and forget about it. sadly (?), the doll has other plans.

last updated February 6th, 2021

[ranahan]

More palatalisations & how they could explain the problem of murmured sounds

Okay, so: Mando’a has these spellings ⟨dh⟩ (dha), ⟨gh⟩ (ghett), and ⟨mh⟩ (mhi) where the h seems to suggest aspiration. But the problem is that that is a very weird set of consonants to be aspirated: I know of no language that would only contrast between aspirated and unaspirated voiced stops and not make the same contrast for unvoiced stops as well. (Except for the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European, but there as well this exact issue is a problem that has bugged linguists forever.)

But then, while I was formulating my palatalisation theories, I found out that ⟨mh vh bh nh lh⟩ are spellings that actually have been used by natural languages to spell /mj vj bj nj lj/. And you know what? That spelling makes perfect sense: palatalised voiced stops don’t sound exactly like murmured (i.e. aspirated voiced) sounds… but they also don’t sound exactly unlike them. There’s a bit of a puff of air, more than with the unvoiced consonants. And this could explain why Mando’a has dh but not th, and ty but not dy.

So we have a bit of a mismatched set of spellings:

… but as you see, together they make a complimentary set.

(Okay, this set is a bit incomplete; I’ll have to leave the task of completing it to a later post because it got very long and very rambling.)

So how are dh, gh, mh pronounced then?

On the Republic Commando soundtrack, mhi is pronounced as /mi/ and dha as /da/. On Traviss’s recordings, neither word makes an appearance so we don’t know how she would pronounce them. Her pronunciation guide gives:

dha[dah]

mhi[mee]

It appears that the extra h does not affect pronunciation.

In Romance languages for example, /gj/ became /j/ or /dʒ/ (so that would be ⟨y⟩ or ⟨j⟩ in Mando’a orthography), and /dj/ became /dz/ or /j/. But maybe in Mando’a they did something else: instead of strengthening, they became weaker, first becoming aspirated, and then losing the aspiration too:

/dʲ/ > /dʰ/ > /d/

/ɡʲ/ > /ɡʰ > /g/

/mʲ/ > /mʰ/ > /m/

A range of these gradations might exist along the different dialects. Perhaps the spelling ⟨dh gh mh⟩ became standardised at a time when that was the prevailing pronunciation among whichever dialect was the most prestigious one at the time.

Conclusion

So there you have it: my best damn attempt to make the weirdness of Mando’a orthography make sense.

I can’t know whether this is what the original authors (Jesse Harlin and Karen Traviss) intended. But as always, my primary goal is to make sense of the corpus of Mando’a that exists in a way that is linguistically plausible. Authorial intent is secondary to me, although I do use that as guidance whenever there is an interview or some source to guide me and I can make it fit & make sense.

Out of Harlin’s inspirations, Russian, Hungarian and Romanian exhibit at least some palatalisation, so the words that were already present in the Repcomm soundtrack (e.g. dha, mhi, tracinya, dralshy’a) could have gotten their sounds from there. Neither of the additional inspirational languages (Romani and Nepali) Traviss has mentioned has palatalised consonants, but Nepali does have murmured ones. So the additional sounds (in e.g. entye, gedet’ye) that Traviss added are more likely inspired directly by Harlin’s Mando’a or the same inspirations he used. Ghett comes from The Bounty Hunter Code by different authors—so actually the problem of murmured sounds is not attributable to Traviss.

You’ll have to judge for yourself whether this solution is plausible and satisfactory to you (and if it’s not, I’m always interested in hearing contradictory opinions even if it takes me a year to think through a reply). It’s satisfactory to me in its broad strokes, although I will have to think further on which sound changes make most sense in the light of the etymologies of the existing lexicon, which set of phonemes/pronunciations/spellings works best, etc (but that part got so long and rambly that I axed it until I have wrangled it into neater shape). But generally I feel pretty good about my chances of making something sensible out of these ingredients.

C, cy, yc—why are they pronounced like that?

I think I’ve mentioned before that the rule is very nearly regular, so here it is. I’ve reproduced Traviss’s original pronunciation guides here (so you can see whether what I’m saying holds true).

c (without y) is pronounced as /s/ before high front vowels /e i/

cerar [sair-ARR]

ceratir [sair-AH-teer]

ceryc [sair-EESH]

cetar [set-ARR]

cetare [set-ARE-ay]

cin [seen]

cinargaanar [see-NAHR-gah-nahr]

cinarin [see-NAH-reen]

cin'ciri [seen-SEE-ree]

cinyc [SEE-neesh]

ciryc [seer-EESH]

mircin [meer-SEEN]

mircir [meer-SEER]

mirci't [meer-SEET]

racin [ray-SEEN]

tom'urcir [tohm-OOR-seer]

ver'mircit [VAIR-meer-seet]

otherwise as /k/

That is, after other vowels:

ca [kah]

cabuor [kah-BOO- or]

cabur [KAH-boor]

ca'nara [KAH-nah-RAH]

can'gal [CAHN-gahl]

carud [kah-ROOD]

ca'tra[KAH-tra]

cuir [COO-eer]

copaanir [KOH-pan-EER]

copad [KOH-pad]

copikla [koh-PEEK-lah]

copyc [KOH-peesh]

cu'bikad [COO-bee-kahd]

cunak [COO-nahk]

cuun [koon]

cuyan [koo-YAHN]

cuyanir [coo-YAH-neer]

cuyete [coo-YAY-tay]

cuyir [KOO-yeer]

cuyla [COO-ee-lah]

du'car [DOO-kar]

du'caryc [doo-KAR-eesh]

ge'catra [geh-CAT-rah]

jorcu [JOR-koo]

ori'copaad [OH-ree-KOH-pahd]

vencuyanir [ven-COO-yah-neer]

vencuyot [vain-COO-ee-ot]

vercopa [vair-KOH-pa]

vercopaanir [VAIR-koh-PAH-neer]

…and in a word-final position:

balac [bah-LAHK]

bic [beek]

ibac [ee-BAK]

ibic [ee-BIK]

norac [noh-RAK]

tebec [TEH-bek]

yc is always pronounced as /iʃ/

aikiyc [ai-KEESH]

aruetyc [AH-roo-eh-TEESH]

balyc [BAH-leesh]

beskaryc [BES-kar-EESH]

burk'yc [BOOR-keesh]

chakaaryc [chah- KAR-eesh]

copyc [KOH-peesh]

dalyc [DAH-leesh]

daryc [DAR-eesh]

diryc [DEER-eesh]

duumyc [DOO-meesh]

etyc [ETT-eesh]

gaht'yc [GAH-teesh]

gehatyc [geh-HAHT-eesh]

haamyc [HAH-meesh]

haatyc [HAH-teesh]

haryc [HAR-eesh]

hayc [haysh]

hetikleyc [hay-TEEK-laysh]

hettyc [heh-TEESH]

hodayc [HOH-daysh]

hokan'yc [hoh-KAH-neesh]

iviin'yc [ee-VEEN-esh]

jagyc [JAH-geesh]

jaon'yc [jai-OHN-ish]

jari'eyc [JAR-ee-aysh

jatisyc [jah-TEE-seesh]

johayc [JO-haysh]

kotyc [koh-TEESH]

kyr'adyc [keer-AH-deesh]

kyrayc [keer-AYSH]

kyr'yc [KEER-eesh]

laamyc [LAH-meesh]

lararyc [lah-rah-eesh]

majyc [MAH-jeesh]

morut'yc [moh-ROO-teesh]

narseryc [nar-SAIR-eesh]

nayc [naysh]

neduumyc [nay-DOO-meesh]

nehutyc [neh-HOOT-eesh]

nu'amyc [noo-AHM-eesh]

nuhaatyc [noo-HAH-teesh]

ori'beskaryc [OH-ree-bes-KAR-eesh]

ori'jagyc [OH-ree-JAHG-eesh (or OH-ree-YAHG-eesh)]

ori'suumyc [OHR-ee-SOOM-eesh]

oyayc [oy-AYSH]

piryc [PEER-eesh]

ramikadyc [RAH-mee-KAHD-eesh]

ret'yc [RET-eesh]

ruusaanyc [roo-SAHN-eesh]

sapanyc [sah-PAHN-eesh]

shaap'yc [sha-PEESH]

shi'yayc [shee-YAYSH]

shuk'yc [shook-EESH]

shupur'yc [shoo-POOR-esh]

sol'yc [sohl-EESH]

talyc [tahl-EESH]

tomyc [TOH-meesh]

tranyc [TRAH-neesh]

tratyc [TRAH-teesh]

tug'yc [too-GEESH]

ulyc [OO-leesh]

urcir [oor-SEER]

utyc [OO-teesh]

verburyc [vair-BOOR-eesh]

verd'yc [VAIR-deesh]

vutyc [VOOT-eesh]

yaiyai'yc [yai-YAI-eesh]

Note that this is still true when yc occurs in the middle of a word instead of the end:

barycir [bah-REE-shir]

besbe'trayce [BES-beh-TRAYSH-ay]

dirycir [DEER-ee-SHEER]

ke'gyce [keh-GHEE-shay]

majyce [mah-jEE-shay]

majycir [MAH-jeesh-eer]

mar'eyce [mah-RAY-shay]

mureyca [MOOR-aysh-ah]

cy is pronounced as /ʃ/

burc'ya [BOOR-sha]

burcyan [BOOR-shahn]

cyare [SHAH-ray]

cyare'se [shar-AY-say]

cyar'ika [shar-EE-kah]

cyar'tomade [SHAR-toe-MAH-day]

mirshmure'cya [meersh-moor-AY-shah]

murcyur [MOOR-shoor]

oyacyir [oy-YAH-sheer]

Ret'urcye mhi [ray-TOOR-shay-MEE]

sheb'urcyin [sheh-BOOR-shin]

sho'cye [SHOW-shay]

tracy'uur [trah-SHOOR]

Exceptions

The above holds true except for some exceptions:

The first is a group of words with a combination of u + yc:

buyca [BOO-shah]

buy'ce [BOO-shay]

buycika [BOO-she-kah]

This might be related to the status of /ui/ as a diphthong in Mando’a & could be a piece of evidence against it. What do I mean? Well, every instance of ⟨uy⟩ in the dictionary, Traviss breaks up in two syllables /u.i/. Could be there’s no diphthong /ui/ in Mando’a? However, I think it’s more likely this is because Traviss gives the pronunciations with an English orthography (i.e. how an English speaking reader would know to pronounce the words), and there’s no diphthong /ui/ in English, so in order to represent those sounds in English, they have to be broken up in separate syllables.

I also think the long /u:/ in buy’ce etc. is likely simply an elision: try going slowly from /u/ to /i/ to /ʃ/, and you’ll notice it’s easier to slip directly from /u/ to /ʃ/. I would generalise it as the diphthong /ʊɪ/ being realised as /uː/ before palatal consonants (at least; maybe others as well).

and:

buyacir [boo-ya-SHEER] /bʊ.ja.ˈʃiɾ/

Which has no excuse for being irregular except for influence on its spelling from buy’ce, so you could alternatively spell it as buyacyir or pronounce it as /bʊ.ja.ˈsiɾ/ (either would be regular).

The other exception to the rule is:

acyk [AH-seek]

The rule for this could be formulated as “y is the only vowel in a syllable, it’s pronounced as /i/ and the pronunciation of c follows that.” Except for…

tracyn [trah-SHEEN]

Which itself could be analysed as a combination of the above rules: y as an only vowel gets pronounced as /i/, but the consonant in cy is still pronounced as /ʃ/ (in which case it would be acyk that is irregular instead).

It’s the derivations that appear irregular:

tracinya [trah-SHEE-nah]

tracyaat [tra-SHEE-at]

tra'cyar [tra-SHEE-ar]

Tracinya is plainly a derivation of tracyn, just spelled with an i instead of y. Interestingly, in Harlin’s Mando’a tracyn is pronounced as /tra.ʃin/ and tracinya as /tra.sin.ja/. So perhaps it’s acyk which should be pronounced as /a.ʃik/?

I’ve chosen to adjust the pronunciation of the other two to conform to the rule of pronouncing cy as /ʃ/: /tɾa.ˈʃaːt/ & /tɾa.ˈʃaɾ/.

And then:

yacur [YAH-soor]

Idek? I have do idea where this one comes from.

And:

Coruscanta [KOH-roo-SAHN-ta]

which is a loanword and doesn’t count. Although I’d suspect that “Corusanta” might be a fairly common misspelling among native speakers.

Explanation

So why is it pronounced like that? The explanation is something called palatalisation, which is the same reason why c in Latinate words is sometimes pronounced as /k/ and sometimes as /s/.

In very simple terms, the high front vowels and the semivowel /j/ are pronounced such that the tongue is at or very nearly the palatal position. So they tend to pull the preceding consonants to the palatal place of articulation (instead of whichever place of articulation they used to be pronounced at).

So in Mando’a:

c → k

c + high front vowel /i e/ → /s/

c + semivowel /y/ → /ʃ/

Not sure if /k/ is the original value of ⟨c⟩ since this rule doesn’t seem to apply to ⟨k⟩. Maybe ⟨c⟩ had originally another value, which has later changed into /k/?

There will be a second part to this post later, but I’ll break this off here for now.

[femmchantress]

Okay so Godzilla vs. Biollante...

This is a rather complicated film to talk about. The Heisei Godzilla films were still in their infancy when this film came out (it's literally the second one to come out) and it was their first foray into an original monster, both of which leave me inclined to be kinder to the film with regards to its many, many flaws.

So I'll start with my thoughts on the core concepts of the film. Like most Godzilla movies, it has elements of an environmentalist message. However, it's also trying to be topical to its era (the closing decades of the 20th century), so it also tries to say something about genetics and research into genetic modification. They set this up in an... okay manner: the opening scene takes place in (not) Saudi Arabia, where a Japanese scientist is working to genetically modify certain key crops to be more capable of growing in an arid environment - that way if there's ever an oil bust or a push towards green energy, food will never be a scarcity in the region. Okay, so genetics are good because they're helping us to create a world that can facilitate a move away from environmentally harmful fossil fuels? But then the lab gets blown up and that kickstarts the whole film's plot, which does literally include the creation of a genetically modified plant monster made from a dead girl, godzilla, and a rose, which goes on a violent rampage and destroys towns and kills people. Okay, so genetics are bad because they're violating the natural order of life and those who dabble in them are playing God in a way that they shouldn't? Which is it? But wait what's this the (not) Saudis are secretly evil and are playing both sides of the argument to fuck with both America and Japan, so we weren't learning how to make sustainable desert farming for good reasons, but for secretly evil oil-baron reasons?!

Funnily enough, the infamous "psychic children" plotline is one of the least convoluted for me. I think they work marvelously as a plot device and help establish a little continuity within the Heisei films - Godzilla is a being both natural and spiritual, with a heart and a soul, which is why he is part of mankind's reckoning for our failure as stewards of the environment and as perpetrators of great crimes against one another. And to have these child psychics being able to understand or connect to Godzilla in some sort of way I think is a good way to symbolize that and to symbolize the relationship mankind has with one another, the earth, and nature (as exemplified in Godzilla). Miki is the standout character here as well; her arc throughout all the Heisei films is just marvelous and I have to give this film props for introducing her and starting her on this journey that only serves to strengthen the narrative across all of these films.

Biollante herself is a very pretty kaiju. Her design is unique and aesthetically compelling, purposefully straddling the lines between flora and fauna, but in a way that leans slightly more towards flora and thus a tad more alien feeling to the viewer. The fights though weren't really all that interesting... the choreography was boring, consisting almost entirely of standing around and yelling/spitting.

The film also has one of the most completely incoherent and dissatisfying endings in the series - after kicking Godzilla's ass, Biollante just... turns into spores and goes away forever, letting the soul of the dead girl whose genes were utilized in creating Biollante pass on. Which, I mean, I guess? Sure. Whatever. But yeah, very inconclusive and anticlimactic and just a very pitiful end that clearly says, "We had no idea how to end this and we have a deadline to meet and have run out of budget."

I could ramble on and on about this, but that's the long and short of it.

TLDR; despite some good aesthetics and one or two okay ideas, the film is an incoherent mess with a plot that makes no sense, tacks on a couple of incomplete messages that fail to meet standards met by other films in the series, literally just doesn't have a conclusion, and doesn't even have a good monster fight.

4 out of 10. It's bad and I didn't enjoy it, but I'd definitely watch it over Godzilla vs King Ghidora (1991) - which is arguably both the worst Godzilla film of all time and one of the worst movies I've ever seen.

[acourtofantumbra]

Pulling at the Thread of the Day Court and the Dawn Court Pt. 2 - ACOSF Bonus Chapter + Witch Mirrors

☆ All SJM spoilers: ACOTAR, CC, and TOG ☆

This is a part two of what could be the longest, most unnecessary theory spiral that will cover the entirety of the SJM multiverse. If you haven't read that first, I'd recommend reading that before you begin. I laid out some beefy concepts and while not everything here directly relates to them... a good chunk of it does. However, it's your life and I support whatever choice you make. *smooch*

A warning… I will be quickly covering the cursed bonus chapter (which I enjoy and, in part, started me on this unhinged SJM theory path). That being said, it’s not where I spend the majority of my time. But if it upsets you, I completely understand, and encourage you to just skip this entirely *A word about my interest in ship sparring (read: none at all) and how I’m just having some fun while attempting to be patient for the next morsel of SJM content from the source herself.*

I always add books and page numbers (and try to add any other relevant citations) to the visuals/sources I use, so check those out if you need some extra info!

Color Key: spoilers, notes from me 2 u, important, important + links, mentioned later in the post, mentioned in another post of mine or in a future post

So in part one, I point out two moments that struck me and started this whole dang spiral... and part two is not the end... god I wish it was...

Quick recap: we covered Lucien and his friend Nuan at the Dawn Court who he says has some of the exact same powers Feyre has, which they both know to be Helion's Day Court magic. Which struck me as odd on many levels. Also, the connection to other faerie realms like Xian and the allusions to what seems like the Southern Continent from TOG.

Ok, but there were actually three things that led me to ramble on tumblr about book theories I have spent way too much time researching.

On my journey to figure out the Dawn Court's Master Tinkerer's —Nuan's — power, that Lucien discovers is the same as the Day Court power Feyre uses to break Hybern's wards, I drove straight into the rascal we've come to know as Helion. I <3 him.

Helion Parallel Scene & Plot King

We've spent time with a smattering of the High Lords, but we know some better than others. As of ACOWAR and ACOSF, Helion is starting to emerge as the third High Lord we "know" the best. In part because he's Rhys and the Night Court's strongest ally as a High Lord of one of the Solar Courts. But Helion also just keeps conveniently popping up in every developing plot line and many of the plot lines that were carefully set up and seemingly abandoned(?). Some examples...

He's incredibly powerful with curse breaking, ward breaking, [insert mysteriously powerful ability here that we don't know yet here], and, described as Rhys' opposite (but different than Tamlin), has a winged beast form that is sunlight embodied... and kind of seems like a griffin maybe? So add that to ever growing list of winged boys throughout the multiverse which is potentially a very important clue

He's Lucien's biological father

He had a long love affair with the Lady of Autumn and that history seems... incomplete and not fully out of the picture

He's got pegasi and no one else has pegasi, but they can't seem to breed anymore

He's got the most libraries (warning: a post on libraries is coming)

According to Rhys there's "trouble at home" for Helion in ACOSF

He's one of the brightest boys in all the land (though Thesan is the brightest) just when we're getting into multiverse Starborn lore

He has the strongest negative reaction to the Dread Trove and can barely stand to be in their presence

Incredibly curious about Nesta... always

I could keep going tbh... and frankly... I want to

I plan on doing a full Helion deep dive, but got distracted by something else first.

So once I started digging into our first full encounter with both Helion and Nuan, a quick thought from Feyre had me screeching to halt. Because... well... its similarities to a certain controversial bonus chapter was... striking to say the least.

So this is Feyre drinking in Helion as the High Lords meet at the Dawn Court to discuss the impending war with Hybern. She's seen him briefly before, but she was a little busy dying.

For some reason she can't stop thinking about her dad and a necklace he brought home from his travels as a merchant. As I've previously said, whenever Sarah includes "couldn't explain why" or "it sort of seemed like this was happening," etc... it's an important detail. Not the most subtle of tools, but hey it's what works for her. And obviously it works because we have all skimmed over moments like these and have been like, "oh my god there it was!"

So in addition to being kind of hungry(?), she "couldn't quite explain why, but" she's picturing "that ancient necklace," she's also associating Helion with a suspiciously familiar land... but one that's notably not one of the seven courts. To me it most resembles a place not located in the world of ACOTAR. It reminds me of the Southern Continent in TOG, which would explain a lot about the connections we have (in this one meeting alone) to alchemists, healing fae powers, magical objects, and more.

Hey Feyre, any clue if your nameless father was was traveling by boat or interdimensional portal?

Ok, now let's compare with Azriel's bonus chapter from ACOSF (yes, I'm bracing myself)... before we do I just want to note: I'm aware a lapis lazuli pendant vs a rose window style stained glass situation isn't the same thing... but... ok just look:

So we've got golden necklaces with a pendant that both Feyre and Azriel think are ooh so sparkly and colorful and secretly beautifully crafted when you look close.

They're also both flooded with pictures, Feyre sees the necklace memory when she's in Helion's presence and Azriel has a vision of Gwyn receiving the necklace when Clotho (oh, I'm gonna be dedicating some time to her one day) mentions it, and they both don't know why. In fact, they find it odd that these visuals came to them. But the memory vs vision distinction is worth noting.

Do I find it very interesting that Helion and Gwyn (tho one could argue Clotho and let's throw in Father Archeron too) inspire these visions of what I will soon explain are almost universal mystical objects? SURE DO.

I also CANNOT find the the interview, but Sarah was asking her friend/interviewer what she thought of the Azriel bonus chapter and alluded to some crucial easter eggs being sprinkled in there. So naturally, when these scenes reminded me of each other I took notice.

A Detour to Witch Mirrors

So let's talk about these pendants! We get a good amount of jewels and jewelry talk in ACOTAR (Amren loves 'em and Rhys has a room like a void full of 'em above the library), but these are fairly unique moments, which is why the comparison came to mind to begin with.

I will get into TOG necklaces and will just note that we obviously have a very important necklace in CC as well — Bryce's Archesian Amulet. I think her amulet is also part of this conversation, but I just wont get into it here.

Rose windows

Ok, so I have seen most folks are assuming that the "rose fashion of stained glass" has been interpreted by most folks as an actual rose, like the flower. A very Beauty and the Beast-like rendering. That's not how I interpreted the the pendant when I saw "rose" preceding "stained glass." Do I know for sure which interpretation is correct? Obviously, no. But when the word rose is applied to types of stained glass design, what is being described is not a traditional flower, but the mandala-style design more commonly associated with gothic cathedrals. Yes, there are pendants (and many other glass objects) that take on this design and it has a rich history, which connects to a lot of SJM set up throughout the multiverse... so I'm going to continue forward assuming my interpretation is correct. And I'll remain fully open to being 200% wrong in the future.

Ok, rose windows: often associated with gothic architecture and cathedrals, their design has spiritual, mystical, significance due to its sacred geometry. Rose windows "transformed the cathedral into an actual “living vessel of the soul”, an embodiment of the “temple within” in which the human and divine can could merge into one." Additionally, rose windows are mandalas (middle photo above): one of the most ancient and universal symbols known to man. They mean many things to many traditions, but often aid in meditation, spiritual journeys, trance states, and mystic arts (this is an incredibly condensed reading of a deeply complex and wide reaching symbol). "The mandala represents man’s relationship with the cosmos, often a symbol of balance between entities."

Back to rose windows, the mystery and mastery of how pure, saturated colors could be technically achieved, rendered in glass as sacred geometry, "led to speculation that alchemy and alchemists may have been involved in its creation." To alchemists, [the rose glass was] “the flower of those who have wisdom, of the perfected soul, and the soul striving toward perfection.”  So not too far off from that magnum opus mission aka the philosopher's stone? -> remember how I said I did a whole post talking about alchemy and would probably keep talking about it? It's not too late to dive into the deep end with me and just accept that I'm dealt all the way in on alchemy here.

Lapis lazuli

A "symbol of royalty and honor, gods and power, spirit and vision. It is a universal symbol of wisdom and truth." Tbh this stone could have it's own post with the number of meanings it's been assigned... but it's "one of the oldest spiritual stones known to man; used by healers, priests, and royalty..." and is believed to be a "powerful stone for thinking and spirituality, and it has a very high vibration," allowing it to "increase self-knowledge and awareness of one’s own thoughts and can help you to trust your inner wisdom." It also enhances psychic and intuitive abilities, and connects the spiritual realm with the physical. Some traditions believed a god's spirit was contained within the stone. Lapis lazuli also has connections to alchemy's mythological magnum opus known as the philosopher's stone "lapis philosophorum." (one day i might be brave enough to dive into the philosopher's stone... we'll see)

So what does any of this mandala, rose window, lapis, and alchemy stuff have to do with a fun fantasy book series or really... anything? Well, know that I'm unhinged. But, ok, the two necklaces and their symbolisms aren't the same per se, but have more things in common than they do differences. And I find their differences interesting because we return to the connection between lapis lazuli and Feyre's memory; and rose glass and Azriel's vision. Lapis is related to self-knowledge and intuition, while rose glass has been connected to fate within the cosmos and transformation of the soul.

So maybe the necklace Feyre saw doesn't sound like a perfect visual match to the necklace Azriel buys... there was another very important necklace described as ancient, gold, and lapis colored. The Eye of Elena from Throne of Glass (the third picture in the trio above). Looks pretty mandala-like doesn't it?

In the beginning of TOG, Queen Elena gives Aelin an amulet of great power — that she and others wear consistently throughout the series — from whatever world or realm she portaled in from. Dorian identifies it as the lost, legendary Eye of Elena. Eyes again relate back to my alchemy conversation and the Gate of Truth — interesting that they find a recreation of the Eye of Elena alter at the God of Truth's altar/temple. But Manon is the one to point out that this name for the pendant/amulet is incorrect... because the eye is actually a witch mirror.

Here are a collection of excerpts, which will be kind of confusing if you haven't read TOG, but I'll quickly break them down below and hopefully get to witch mirrors on their own one day.

In TOG we have encountered a bunch of witch mirrors, but their scope is still kind of mysterious. So Sarah we really need you to finally release The World of Throne of Glass, plz and ty.

We know from Maeve that there are "mirrors to spy, to travel, to kill." Below are essentially all of the known mirror powers thus far... and that's starting to all sound pretty familiar isn't it?

In TOG, we have power mirrors like Witch towers that amplify magic like the yielding ability (*sobs*) to cause incredible destruction. We also have more traditional mirror-looking witch mirrors. Like the traveling mirror Aelin and Manon enter to access Elena's memories of the Lock (and her failed attempt at containing Erawan/her series-long grift).

Most importantly, Manon corrects Aelin regarding the Eye of Elena and says it's a witch symbol called The Eye of the Goddess — and references the three-faced goddess we encounter in every world with the Mother, Maiden, and the Crone. We later discover the TOG Sun Goddess Mala had a Cochran witch help her put her "very essence" into a "small witch mirror disguised as a blue stone" meant to forge a Lock and contain a Valg King.

Also Manon alludes to there being... more than just the one Eye of the Goddess perhaps?

The Eye of the Goddess contains Mala's power just as Lapis Lazuli was believed to do. Plus, we enter the "rare silvers whose forging demands something vital from the maker" territory that... once again... screams alchemy. When Elena's wastes is one usage it doesn't just crap out like an old battery. Time and time again it protects Aelin & co. and provides a direct path to the TOG gods... like when Deanna possesses Aelin and is remarkably destructive... and one could argue a little unhelpful.

Witch Mirrors In Conclusion...

Am I confident I know exactly why the Feyre-Helion ACOMAF and Azriel-Clotho-Gwyn ACOSF scenes read the same? No. Do I think we have some witch mirrors in ACOTAR? I really do. And that's not even including the whole Bog of Oorid conversation...

We know when Bryce lands in Prythian we, now more than ever, need ways to communicate or travel to other worlds. In Throne of Glass it becomes clear that witch mirrors are at least one effective and proven way to do this. I think Sarah would have baked in some tools that have been sitting in plain sight to help us be able to do that.

Do I think we haven't even seen the tip of the iceberg re: witches in ACOTAR/all the worlds? For sure. (and it's a convo for another time because I need to fully read up on witch mirrors and witches y'all). But I think it's very possible a certain singing priestess now owns a potentially world speaking or walking necklace/witch mirror - the same objects Dorian asks Maeve about in KOA. The kind that might make themselves known as something different by projecting images, whether they're memories or visions.

I am really just scratching the surface here, but this is all the spiraling I had budgeted for today.

[smalliinsaneone]

I promised, at one point, a post about facial hair in ofmd with regard to its perceived moral value, and I'm currently struggling with some other writing, so here goes. This will be choppy, but you're not my high school English teacher, so you can't dock me points for lack of transitions (if you are my one of my high school English teachers, I graduated almost seven years ago, you have no power here).

Adding a readmore even though there's that new long post feature, because I personally have it turned off because it's annoying, and I don't want anyone to have to suffer through my rambling.

Throughout the series, there's a pretty clear distinction between who wears facial hair and who doesn't.

An incomplete list of people with facial hair, based on a google images search because I'm at a friend's house and can't just rewatch:

Ed

Izzy

Oluwande

Buttons

Black Pete

Jim in disguise

Roach

Frenchie

The Swede (stubble counts)

Pretty much any other crew member because I know I've forgotten at least one

Ivan

Fang

Doug (he gets his own paragraph later)

An incomplete list of people who don't have facial hair:

Stede

The British Navy

The men back on Barbados in episode 9/10

Jim out of disguise (also gets their own paragraph)

Lucius (another one who, you guessed it, gets their own paragraph)

Ed in ep. 9/10 (also addressed later; there's a trend here)

Now, part of this is based in history. In the 18th century, facial hair was out of fashion among the upper classes. In fact, when I was googling the history of facial hair, one of the sources that popped up had as its google preview literally the entire central conceit of this post:

"From around 1700, hair completely disappeared from men's faces all across Europe. Amid new aesthetic ideas about male appearance, facial hair had become associated with a rough, rustic stereotype, which went against the smooth, shorn skin of the 'polite' gentleman."

Now, I know this show is set in the Caribbean, not Europe, but this is the early 18th century, and during this time the Caribbean was all European colonies. The colonists would have largely been mimicking the styles of Europeans, as that was what was "respectable." You can see this in some of the more historically accurate clothes Stede wears (disclaimer: I am not a fashion historian; this is all as just far as I can tell/as far as I know. If anyone with more knowledge on the matter would like to chime in, feel free!).

Stede is making his name as the Gentleman Pirate, which means that of course he's going to be clean-shaven! Otherwise, he's not much of a gentleman at all, is he? No matter how he dresses or behaves, if he wears a beard, he is as rough a seaman, in the eyes of the "respectable" people, as any other pirate. Perhaps worse, even, because he is, to their eyes, almost mocking them. (And this gets into a whole other point about Ed at the fancy dinner in episode 5, where he clearly didn't fit in, both with his behavior and his appearance, but that is not a point I am currently prepared to make.)

The British Navy not having facial hair also ties into Ed in episodes 9 and 10. As he tells Stede, "Yeah, the beard wasn't regulation, so it had to go." This, of course, circles back to my earlier point about respectability. These men may be pirates or criminals, but they still have to conform to the British ideal.

I'm going to hop back up to the list of those with facial hair for a moment to talk about Doug. Doug doesn't wear a full beard, but, if you look, he definitely has some stubble. This goes along with his clothing, which is definitely more casual and lower-class than that of Stede or the other men we see on Barbados or, especially, the men we see in episode 5. There's yet another point here about Mary and Stede both finding happiness with someone of a lower social class (I'm going to stick with that instead of socioeconomic, even though the latter is also true to some extent, just because of how lucrative it could be to be a good pirate), but that is not the point of this post. I just thought it was interesting to note how Doug doesn't appear to be of the same social class as Mary and Stede.

Back to those with no facial hair.

Jim is a unique case, because they have an inability to grow a beard as themself, but they wear one while in disguise. I know that the beard is in large part to hide their facial features, but that's neither here nor there with regards to this post. The fact still stands that they did, for some amount of time, have a beard. And then, later, their lack of beard sets them apart, which links back into a post I saw somewhere, sometime about Jim almost being from a different genre entirely from the rest of the crew--the rest of the crew is living in either Muppets Treasure Island or your stereotypical pirate film, depending on if Stede or Izzy is in charge, whereas Jim is living a warped version of Inigo Montoya, where killer nuns and assassinations are par for the course.

Finally, I believe, comes Lucius. Lucius is an interesting case, because he's straddling the line between respectable and less so. This is also represented in his hair, as he doesn't have traditional facial hair, but he's also not cleanshaven as Stede or other upper class men. This also represents his place in the crew. He's one of them, there's no doubt about that, as he is included in the mutiny plans, etc., but he's also greatly set apart. His ability to read and write means he was educated in some way, and this is an era before free public schooling (I desperately want to know this boy's backstory. Also I love him). He's Stede's scribe, he's not doing something traditionally sailor-y. That's a word now, shut up, this is my post.

Anyway, tl;dr: facial hair is as much status signaling as anything else, and I wouldn't be surprised if we see Stede rocking facial hair in season 2 as a symbol of having turned his back on his old life for good.

[kyojuuros]

I'm the one who wrote you the anon message regarding my feelings with the manga feeling like a 'rush job' despite being fine with the conclusion. Thanks for your response. I'm going to be brutally honest and say everything after chapter 106 (the War for Paradis arc), IMHO, should've gone differently in certain ways. For starters, it was WAY too long (33 chapters) and could've used more breathing room by splitting it into two and then start with a completely NEW arc that would've been DEVOTED....

to addressing ALL the plot points and possibly leading to a more satisfactory conclusion. Eren's character arc was fine but, IMHO, needed better build up, a long with a better conclusion with more focus on him in the REAL world, his REAL persona, and not the hard-ass act and Path shenanigans. The manga has a dark setting and it's suppose to be sad/tragic/depressing/heart wrenching but I don't like a terrible terms he left with friends, Hange and Levi. I'm sorry but there's really no excuse.

I bolded the part that really stood out to me because I feel exactly the same way. I don’t think making his thoughts and feelings a total mystery while completely turning him into someone who feels totally different from the pre-basement portion of the series was a good move, like, AT ALL. It’d be like if Star Wars was presented in chronological order (and let’s say you don’t know who Darth Vader is when you start) and saw Anakin and Padme get married, and then ~time skip~ to him attacking Padme and Obi-wan and becoming Darth Vader... and only seeing his descent to the dark side just before he sacrifices himself for Luke.

People who’ve followed me for a long time know I used to be a lot more involved in the meta community and I was always theorizing and making long-ass posts about character arcs and relationships and predictions on what I think is going to happen. It was a lot of fun and even if I wasn’t always correct, I was never so far off that it actually made me upset (or if I was, it was warranted and even comical... I used to think the Beast Titan wasn’t a shifter and that there was an underground tunnel that lead outside the walls lol). I think the last extensive meta/prediction I had written was after chapter 112 had published, and once I realized that I apparently had no fundamental understanding of Eren at all anymore I completely stopped trying. It wasn’t fun anymore. I didn’t appreciate that I could no longer understand my favorite character (of all time, at the time). 

But then I think back and I’m like, no... I did understand Eren. I understood him just fine before the time skip and that’s why everything after Marley frustrated me to no end because it was like he’d been ripped away from me and replaced with a fraud. I couldn’t even cry about his death because I’d become so emotionally removed from him by that point that it didn’t even matter to me anymore (and this is coming from someone who would cry about him a lot just listening to song lyrics or getting lost in thought or rambling with friends). It continues to frustrate me because I still love him as a character, and I don’t need to defend him (there is nothing defendable) but I wish I could feel confident in at least explaining his actions properly. I don’t mind that he became the antagonist, I just hate that I continue to feel like I can’t understand why.

I think that, had Isayama just told his story chronologically, and kept us privy to Eren’s POV, that we would have understood better. Seeing him descend into the darker side of himself would have made much more sense if we had actually witnessed it in real time. Giving us a random flashback here and there, barely getting his thoughts at all, and having the most underwhelming info dump in the final chapter (that STILL didn’t even clear things up properly, it just added MORE damn questions) was terrible for his character and the overall narrative. A character that used to give me so much hope (and I was in a very dark headspace when I stumbled upon snk) became a character that just made me feel disappointed.

Rambling over Eren aside, I also agree that the final arc should have been chopped up into 2 or more arcs (I generally treat the rumbling as its own arc at this point anyway). We should have gotten more from Historia. Levi should have interacted more with the 104th. We should have been able to see Hange blossom into their own as a confident commander (and not get killed just to make Armin commander for 5 minutes???). Armin and Annie’s feelings toward each other should have been explored more. Eren developing romantic feelings for Mikasa should have been explored more. Mikasa and the entire Azumabito/Hizuru subplot should have actually amounted to... literally anything. Ymir having a connection to Mikasa should have been explored much more (especially with the revelation that this was the most likely cause of the headache’s Mikasa has had since the 2nd chapter). I’m sure there’s plenty of other things I could think about that needed addressing, tbh. 

The story feels concluded but incomplete, if that makes sense. The themes were wrapped up and are easy to pinpoint and that’s good and all, but for a story that’s very character driven to not have properly built up/wrapped up certain arcs, relationships and character-centric plot points just makes it feel hollow. So I understand why a lot of people are very frustrated and upset and ready to put the story on the shelf never to be touched again.

I’m trying to give Isayama some grace since he admitted the scope of the story was beyond his ability as an author. I just wish that instead of barreling forward with a narrative that he knew he couldn’t execute properly, he would have reconsidered the trajectory of the plot altogether and written something that he knew he could feel confident in. I can think of many ways the story could have gone post-basement that would have been both more interesting and probably more satisfying, regardless if the ending was dark, bittersweet or happy.

It’s a story I’ll read and watch again, many times, I’m sure. I’m still looking forward to part 2 of the final season. I still want to make content for it. I still want to buy and display merchandise of it. I still love these characters and the world Isayama created. I appreciate and treasure all of the joy SnK has brought me over the years. I just... disagree heavily with his narrative choices in the final arc. I’d like to think that MAPPA will somehow execute it a little better (there are things WIT did that I liked better, though they did I things I also liked less, lol), but I’m not going to get high hopes just to get let down again. 

.... It appears I have pent up my frustrations a bit in an effort to maintain a positive presence. LOL

[vermillioncrown]

I saw a post about asexual!Wangxian headcanons and I adore it?? Like I’ve never needed to be validated about my asexuality but it’s nice that people in the fandom (which has explicit sexual scenes in the novel) have these kinda thoughts about the main characters. I guess I don’t need to be validated but it feels great when I am. Like the thought that Wei Wuxian isn’t sexually attracted to anyone (including Lan Wangji) but still enjoys the sex with his husband and has romantic attraction? I love it. Lan Wangji being graysexual? I can totally see it and love that too. It’s nice being able to see parts of yourself in beloved characters I guess. Also the whole “everyday means everyday” not being JUST about sex, but about loving your partner everyday for the rest of your life? I’d like to sincerely thank people making those headcanons.

i'm happy those headcanons make you feel like so, but you're prob telling me this bc 1) i make it no secret that i'm demi and this is in solidarity and 2) soliciting my opinion

so here's my opinion (after giving this a long, hard think) bc something about this was itching at me in the wrong way.

i've answered an ace/demi jc ask before, and that's basically how i feel about any 'resonant' headcanon on sexuality.

after a decent length's journey through fandom, life, and my own sexuality (that is still ongoing because i'm not dead yet), my current conclusion is that "I don't need fandom to validate my asexuality, and i am ambivalent to others doing it for me". if there's a well-written, non-hateful, compelling work that sells it one way, great! if there's one that goes the complete opposite way, sure! that is the true litmus test, bc otherwise it just feels like a bunch of caricatures/stereotypes being cobbled together.

(i agree there is a bunch of SEX in the fandom. it is a bit refreshing to read something different, along the same personal wavelength)

(a fave is this... uh, incomplete ABO fic where both wwx and lwj are betas that have to wrangle all the hormone-addled disciples around them. it's hilarious, it's amazing, it somehow works)

(i'm not digging to link it, too lazy)

the thing i'm not overly fond of is the assignation of labels to these characters, esp to characters in the context of the canon setting (with its historical/cultural whatevers words words i'm tired) these labels mean nothing. esp w a fandom that has such a big culture clash between fans of different origins, any headcanon is just... idk it begs careful assessment that it's not an inappropriate imposition of a viewpoint that disregards the origin of the work. and that's not getting into how complicated sexuality and its expression can be, how it can be expressed in its given environment dictating what observers would label it as, and the fact that it's a novel.

idk characters i love don't have to be for me nor represent me. bc if i get annoyed enough that's when i write my own way.

and us being on the ace spectrum doesn't preclude us from homophobia, you know? sometimes people are loud and proud and have tons of sex and want all of that, and that's perfectly ok too. <- a lot of my thoughts on this growing up had to be detangled from "is this learned, unconscious homophobia, or am i rightfully being bothered?"

y'know, like the forever struggle of "is this internalized misogyny or is this woman actually terrible?"

anyways, i rambled on and on, lost the plot

tldr: i don't engage in other people's headcanons unless presented in fanfic format, fictional people written by hobbyists aren't a stand-in for validating any part of my identity, sexuality is not permanent and ever-changing and is a personal thing that cannot be assigned by others.