#kid cosmic theory

[phoenixcatch7]

The more I think about it the more confused I am by the very brief appearance the triforce makes in botw (and then nothing at all in totk?). Like, it should have evaporated calamity ganon on the spot, it should have overpowered him completely. If zelda had his triforce piece, if he didn't have the Power piece to resist like in tp. He should have gone poof.

Did she accidentally use her wish early? Pure hearted don't break the triforce by wishing on it, it didn't save link, it didn't defeat ganon. Did it break? Where did the pieces go? I can't remember if she actually had a triforce mark on her hand?

Totk having the triforce be in pieces above the clouds would have been so cool...

I'm not considering aoc canon for this but also?? What's zeldas magic and what's the triforce? Did -

Did she just wish for the power to save link? To defend him and protect the kingdom? Is THAT why she suddenly became so insanely strong??

Wait I think I'm onto something here. Zelda carrying the triforce without realising and only having the strength to wish upon it in her darkest hour, but being unaware and untrained, the triforce lost to faintest myth over eons, instead of wishing for ganon to be destroyed and the kingdom restored like every other purposeful use in other games, she instead simply wished to be able to save link, to not be powerless, not be helpless.

And the triforce granted it. Which is why that's the only time it appeared in botk.

[goryhorroor]

What are essay videos of horror movie you watch

oh my god yes, i have like an entire collection of them on youtube

how media scares us: the work of junji ito

what are we afraid of? societal fears reflected in film

the art of texas chainsaw massacre: making daylight scary

the importance of horror (why horror movies don't suck)

the grunge & ringu: what makes japanese horror creepy?

the vvitch - art of terror

how horror movies for kids dominated in the 90s

the shining analysis - tension, atompshere & mystery

creating suspence in a horror films

the art of scream: horror logic done right

wolf creek: australia's most infamous horror movie

why cosmic horror is hard to make

color theory in horror movies

society and queer horror

horror theory: the uncanny valley

the childhood horror of coraline

control, anatomy, and the legacy of the haunted house

elements of horror - don't look

the girlboss-ification of the horror genre

elements of horror - how eyes are used in horror movies

thai horror is so underrated

the history of insane asylums and horror movies

slender man (2018): misunderstanding ten years of the internet

the true history that inspired folk horror (part 1)

the true history that inspired folk horror (part 2)

the true history that inspired folk horror (part 3)

the history and evolution of jump scares

the complete history of horror movies

[no-144444]

misguided mishap- l.norris

Day 5 of fic-tober! fic-tober masterlist

summary: One bed… what could go wrong? (SMUT 18+)

pairing: lando norris x fewtrell! fem! reader

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Long days and long flights. That was your life now. Yes, you were excited when Max had asked you to join Quadrant straight out of college as one of their PR/ marketing managers, but that was when you still thought it would be an office job. You liked to travel, in the sense that you liked seeing new cultures, countries and relaxing every now and then. What you didn’t like was the 4 days when you’d somehow been in 3 different time zones, trying to wrangle an overactive puppy in the form of a 21 year old skateboarder. Thus the joys of the job. 

Yet now, you were busy at a party making connections and ‘networking’ (Max’s favourite buzzword), too tired to even notice  Max and Lando’s eyes on you. You smiled and politely laughed at exactly the right moments in your conversation with Mark from some startup you’d never heard of or cared about. They both watched with soft smiles on their faces as you navigated the conversations simply, making everyone feel heard. Max was proud to say the least. 

Ever since you’d left for college, Lando hadn’t seen you. He’d always enjoyed your company as a kid, and he’d even thought he’d had a crush at one point, though Max did shut that down pretty quickly. But seeing you now? You were gorgeous. He couldn’t describe it. It could’ve been your personality, your smile, your eyes, or something fucking cosmic, but Lando was in love, and there was no stopping it. 

“Busy?” Lando smirked, handing you a G&T. You’d just finished up what you’d hoped to be your last business-related conversation of the night. 

You turned to him, startled, then smiled. “Hi Lan,” you gratefully took the drink with a nod. “Thank you.”

“It’s good to see you,” he leaned in closer, trying to not draw attention to the two of you. 

“It’s good to see you too,” you smiled back. “Congrats on your win last weekend!”

He smiled bashfully, proud of what his season had become. “Thanks,” he nodded, slyly wrapping an arm around your waist and pulling you closer. “What have you been up to?”

“Working for Max,” you chuckled. “In Quadrant, of course, but still, I’m basically just Keegan’s PR manager,” you pointed out Keegan, who was busy trying to explain the theory of a kickflip to Max, who had been struggling with his skateboarding skills for some time. 

“You work in Quadrant?” he gawked. “I had no idea.”

You smiled. “That’s the sign of a good company, the boss has no clue what’s going on.”

He chuckled. “I’ve missed you.”

“I missed you too,” you nodded, noticing that little sparkle in his eyes as he watched you. 

“Why hasn’t Max been bringing you to races?” He questioned, taking a sip from his drink. 

“I’m busy now,” you shrugged. “Keegan is a handful.”

“Why didn’t you come to Ibiza?” 

You chuckled. “You must’ve really missed me if you’re asking this many questions,” someone knocked into you, pushing you even closer to him. He blushed and whether it was because of your words or the closeness of the two of you, he didn’t know. “Ibiza is a party place, I don’t like parties.”

“Why didn’t I see you at home then? I went back a few weeks ago.”

“I was home a few weeks ago. Maybe we just missed each other,” you suggested. 

“Not off galavanting with a boyfriend?” he teased. 

You leaned in ever closer, directly at his ear. “Why? Jealous?”

He smirked, shaking his head. “You are something else.”

“And to answer your question, no, no boyfriend. Too busy trying to wrangle Keegs,” you smiled as you watched Keegan burst out laughing with Max. “How is F1 going?”

“You haven't been watching?” he asked, chuckling. 

“I get too stressed knowing you’re in the car,” you explained. “I almost lost it when you crashed in Austria.” 

“Good to know you still care about little old me,” he grinned. “I promise you I’m safe.”

And something about the way he said it made you believe him. Maybe it was the alcohol, maybe it was the air, maybe it was the intoxicating closeness of him, maybe it was just always supposed to be like this, but you didn’t know. All you knew was that Lando was in front of you, with all of his attention on you, and you felt like falling straight into his trap. 

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” you reminded him. “We both know you’re not safe in that car.”

He shrugged. “I can handle it.”

“I’m sure you can,” you looked up at him through batted eyelashes and smiled. “I think someone’s a fan,” you chuckled, drawing both your attention to the group of girls around his age who were losing their shit over the fact that he was here. 

“Please don’t make me talk to them,” he pleaded and you laughed. One of them slowly started approaching. 

“I don’t think you have a choice,” you smirked and stepped back, waving him a goodbye as his next conversation started. You didn’t notice that he followed you out of the party.

“Trying Irish goodbye?” he smirked, joining you in the elevator. 

“Fuck! You scared me!” you startled. “Do you have to be such a dick?!” 

He laughed, wrapping his arms around you as he apologised. “I’m sorry I scared you,” he mocked, using that stupid baby voice. 

You shoved him off with a playful smirk. “And yes, I’m tired. I just want to get to bed and lie down.”

“Don’t know how well Max will take you not saying goodnight,” he teased. “Might even come check on you.”

“Max can fuck off,” you sighed. “I’m a grown woman, and anyways, he wouldn’t come to the room he probably thinks I’m fucking someone.”

He almost did a double take when you said that, you caught it in the corner of your eye. 

“It’s a long story, but basically Max walked in on me having sex with this guy like 3 whole fucking years ago, and he always brings it up,” you explained. “He likes to hold it over my head.”

“How would he hold that over your head?”

You shrugged. “He thinks I make bad choices, that was one of them in his mind.”

“Was it a bad choice?” he asked, his eyes bearing into the side of your face. Anyone could feel the charged air in that tiny inclosed space. It made the fucking hair on your arms stand up, and gave you goosebumps on your legs. 

You felt your face heat, but answered simply. “No.”

“So then it wasn’t a bad choice,” he told you. “Max shouldn’t have any say in what you do. He’s your brother, not your keeper.”

“I know,” you answered simply, finally looking at him. “Thanks Lan.”

He offered a small smile and let you out of the elevator first. “What room are you?”

“213, you?” “213,” he read out the card the hotel had given him. “Well, that can’t be right.”

“I think it is, I was talking with the hotel staff and they said they’re fully booked up that people from the same companies have been forced to share. Did you come here under Quadrant or Mclaren?”

“Quadrant,” he sighed. You nodded. 

“It’s fine, we’ll survive for one night,” you dismissed the issue with a shrug. 

“One night? I’m here for a week,” he explained. 

“And I’m only here for tonight,” you yawned. “Off to Melbourne in the morning.”

“Break?” 

“Nah, visiting Keegan’s family and doing press stuff,” you explained. You opened the room and let out a sigh of pure rage. “One bed.” 

“I’ll take the floor,” he nodded but you stopped him. 

“We’re adults, we can share a fucking bed Lando,” you chuckled. 

And something about the way that you looked at him made him want to kiss you. The alcohol he’d consumed had definitely loosened his inhibitions and now he was solely focused on you. The way your hair fell, the way you talked to him, the smile on your lips, the way you weren’t shy with him. All of it made him fall deeper and deeper. He didn’t realise he was kissing you until you pulled on his hair, kissing him back. 

“Lan-” you pulled back slightly, but he just started kissing down your neck. “Close the door.”

He kicked it closed and kissed you again, hungry for more. “Jump,” he told you, you obliged and he caught you, carrying you over to the bed. 

“You sure you want this?” you asked as he started pulling off his clothes. 

“I’ve wanted this for a long time,” he smirked, pulling at your clothes. “You sure you want this?”

You just kissed him in response. He kissed down your neck, down your torso, and in between your legs. He took his time pulling off your trousers and underwear. Then he settled himself in front of you and smirked. 

“Such a pretty pussy baby,” he said before placing his mouth on your clit, sucking hard. You let out a yelp as he smirked against you, lapping at your folds, insatiable. It  made you delirious, how good it was, how good he felt. The way his tongue smoothed through your folds, sucking on your clit while he let’s out soft groans as if he’s the one getting sucked off right now. He had you squirming under him, holding your thighs in an iron-clad grip as he sped up. He got sloppier, more lewd sounds coming from the both of you as you got closer and closer to your peak. 

“Fuck, you’re dripping baby,” he groaned aginast your pussy, sending vibrations up your entire body. Your stomach clenched and contracted, and you came all over his face with a loud moan. You’d feel bad for the neighbours if you weren’t so horny. 

“Lan!” you groaned out, pulling his head away and back up to your face. He pressed kisses all over your neck, undoing his trouser to finally let his cock out. He was rock hard, he’d never been this turned on. “Fuck me, please fuck me,” you begged, and everything else fell away. He bottomed out with a moan as you bit into his shoulder to stop yourself from screaming, and when you nodded he started moving. 

You felt like heaven, gripping him like that. It made him feel like he couldn’t stop. Totally pussydrunk. “F-fuck baby,” he whimpered as he picked up the pace. 

“I’m-i’m gonna cum-fuck!” you moaned as he started hitting that gummy spot inside you, making you see fucking stars. “Yes-yes! There Lan, don’t fucking s-stop!”

He wasn’t planning on stopping. He picked up the pace even more, until the room was full of those lewd sounds from your wet pussy and his dirty mouth. 

“Y’like getting fucked like this? In hotel rooms just to l-leave the next morning?” he smirked as you squirmed under him. “Oh baby n-no, you’re not runnin’ away,” he grabbed one of your arms, pinning you down to the bed with a smirk. “Y’think they can hear us?”

That made you clamp down on him even harder, moaning even louder.

“You like that naughty girl?” he smirked, punctuating every word with a particularly hard thrust.  

“Y-yes!” you cried out, barely able to listen to what he was saying. It was all too much, too good, too little. 

“Fuck you’re perfect,” He groaned, biting into your neck as he willed himself not to cum. “Such a naughty girl.”

“Yours Lan, a-all yours,” you whined as you felt yourself getting closer. “I-I’m gonna cum!”

“You cum baby,” he huffed. “Give it to me.”

And he pushed you over the edge again. He kept fucking you through your orgasm, making you cum again as the world went blurry and your ears started ringing. Finally, he came inside you, triggering yet another orgasm as you screamed into a pillow. 

You fell asleep instantly, and he took it upon himself to get you cleaned up. He cleaned you up with a wet towel, put one of his hoodies on you, and kissed you goodnight before joining the bed and wrapping his arms around you. 

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You woke up like that, sore but satisfied with Lando beside you.  Then you realised. What had you done?

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navigation for my blog :) (masterlist)

fic-tober masterlist

taglist: @anotherapollokid @theseerbetweenus @simbaaas-stuff @5sospenguinqueen

[cosmicplexus]

Random Astrology Observations

🌻I wasn't feeling lazy today so this is a bit longer than the usual observation posts🌻

🦋And finally the pricing catalogue is here...at the end of the observations 🦋

Thank you so much my sunflowers🌻your support has been everything. I try my best to respond to your messages and requests. If you haven't received a response, I'm coming 🤍✨

And I tried my best to be reasonable with the prices. Also, I'm not yet doing full chart readings as I am a student with two majors and I'm already struggling with balancing things. In time I will do them. Free one question culture requests are still open, but please don't request for things you see on the pricing catalogue like a big three reading...

I don't want to bore you all too much so here we go🧚🏾‍♀️🦋🌻✨

Astrology Notes...

~4th house Gemini makes for someone who develops family-like bonds in friendships.

~taurus risings tend to be possessive due to the influence of their scorpio 7th house.

~pluto at angular houses 1st, 7th, 4th and 10th is a huge indicator of someone who has had intense experiences in the respective key areas of life and there's spiritual lessons to be learnt regarding that area through transformation.

~libra venus placements may find it really hard to stay single

~7° and 19° venus or moon signs may struggle with the theme of physical perfection and wanting to attain it.

~virgo moons have a tendency of creating problems if they don't have any current ones to solve

~capricorn risings really do look older in their younger days and younger when they're older.

~moon and neptune in 1st house natives may give off the perception that they need saving and may attract people with a martyrdom complex.

~sagittarius, 9th house, 9° and 21° mercuries may have an affinity to music in foreign languages while cancer, 4th house, 4°,16°,28° may enjoy music in their mother tongue

~jupiter in 2nd house and 10th house is heavy lotto winner vibes. Literally and figuratively.

~mercury in 2nd house and at Taurean degrees(2°,14° and 26°) are the born singers

~the 22nd degree is an underrated fame degree...I have a bey's🐝 fame analysis I've been sitting on for a while. That's a conversation for another day.

~pisces venus and mars are the most romantic people in the world which makes me kind of believe the astrology theory of neptune being the higher frequency of venus.

~leo moons really take their hair seriously and may feel out of loop if their hair is not well done.

~want to easily impress a cancer mars man??? Sing praises to your mom. Be dotting around kids.

~girls with 9th house, 9° and 21° Venus are so magically beautiful. Abundance of beauty.

~To a decent degree, liberation of women in society came at the expense of gemini, sagittarius and aquarius venus women being slut-shamed(This is not at all saying other women did not contribute to the liberation of women 🌻✨ That's a conversation for another day)

~neptune plays a huge role in beauty trends and that's why neptune dominant women are usually the beauty influencers which explains why beauty standards are mutable and ever changing.

~jupiter in 7th house can go two ways... extreme luck in meaningful relationships or someone who never has serious relationships and is forever on the look...

~pisces/12th house mercuries and mercury afflicted by neptune are often under fire for being the liars when the real culprit is the sagittarius/9th house mercuries and mercury-jupiter hard aspects.

~I personally view the north node as a jupiter variant. While the general consensus is that it is the purpose we're working for, I do believe that it's also an indicator of our birthrights, innate gifts and where we're lucky.

~Cosmic Plexus🌻🤍

§~PRICE CATALOGUE~§ ~PAID READINGS COMMENCE ON THE 16th of May 2024 🦋DETAILED BIG THREE READING ~ $6.00

🦋5 IN-DEPTH SYNASTRY QUESTIONS READING ~ $9.00 🦋OVERALL SYNASTRY ADVICE ~ $3.00

🦋SPIRITUALITY AND PURPOSE FOCUSED READING ~ $6.00 🦋CAREER ADVICE ~ $3.00 🦋 RELATIONSHIP REMEDY TIPs $3.00

Let me know your thoughts...

~Cosmic Plexus🤍✨🌻🦋©️

[doctorho]

viktor doesn't... pay that much attention to appearances, his or anyone else's. not when it doesn't matter. sure, there's the 'wearing what they see as respectable clothes so they take you seriously' and the 'not going to the dinner table covered in oil stains', but beyond that? he doesn't really care, to be honest.

yes, he's aware that some people put a lot more thought into the way they look, and into what other people think about the way they look. he knows that's a thing. it just happens to be a thing he chooses not to personally get invonved in.

well, it had been.

he honestly hadn't even thought about it much, before. it had just been one of those things that other people did, one of those things he had never really understood. you know, one of those things that made him feel like maybe the rest of the world had had some secret meeting without him where they decided that yes, these are the rules, and no, we won't explain them, you just have to know.

one of those things.

and he had been fine not thinking about it! truly, he had been blissfully unaware of what the current beauty standards were and which traits were seen as good or bad on which year -

and then he'd met you, by some miracle. you know, viktor doesn't meet that many new people, these days, so it does genuinely feel like a miracle when you just... stumble into his life one day. and without even thinking about it, automatically, viktor's brain files you away as beautiful, and he treats that as a passing fact, the same way he treats the color of your eyes. it's just a categorizing trait; this person just is beautiful.

and then, later, when he learns that apparently not everyone thinks that, his brain disagrees, severly. like - are they blind? is this a joke? it's a bad joke, if so, and then he's mad for you.

because he remembers that, ah, right. some people are weird about appearances. they have their menial rules about it that change by the decade.

he's still mad for you, but mentally he's ended that argument with well they're all idiots. because clearly you are an awesome, incredible, beautiful human being and this shouldn't be an argument in the first place.

he tells you this, and then his heart breaks a little when you seem so used to hearing the opposite. when you seem to have accepted what those idiots were saying because you'd just...heard it so often.

when you seem to not-quite-believe that he could really see you as beautiful. that he could really, actually want you. like that.

and it's - it drives him up the wall that this is even a thing. that the negative things you've heard outweigh the positive ones, and apparently by a landslide. that he can't make you see yourself the way he sees you.

because, truly, he thinks you're so beautiful. like, are you kidding? viktor's been skin and bone his whole life, and you're so...soft. he knows it way before he ever touches you; he can see it, and he has a well enough functioning imagination. and he's been thinking about it a lot, lately. what you'd feel like under his fingers. against his body. he has theories about this.

he can tell you're soft, and warm, and sometimes when the sunlight hits you he genuinely thinks you look like you could be straight out of one of those expensive oil paintings people paid a lot of money to see just a glimpse of.

and - yes, okay, maybe some of this was just his hormones talking, but come on. he couldn't not want to touch you. that was just one of those facts of life - the sun rose every morning, and whenever viktor saw you, he had the urge to touch you. to be close to you. to prove to you how much he adored you.

and then when you let him? that - that felt like a miracle. truly and honestly. because - viktor had never considered himself to be especially lucky, just, like, in life in general, but this?

he had to have won some sort of cosmic lottery. to first be lucky enough to meet you and then to be able to do this. to get so close. to touch you like this, to see you like this. it is nothing short of a privilege and he takes it, happily and greedily. and he makes it his personal mission to let you know exactly what he thought about you, and exactly how little you should care about anyone else's opinion. except your own, of course, but only on those days your mind was being kind to you.

so he makes sure you know that he absolutely worships you. okay? you are his personal deity, and he is devoted. he lets you know, any way he knows how, and any opportunity he gets. given half a chance, he will be praising you, telling how gorgeous you are and how lucky he is to have you. telling you how good you look, how good you feel, how good you make him feel. he isn't shy - he tells you, in enough detail to make your cheeks heat up.

and when you're alone, and you have all the time in the world? he shows you, and he doesn't hold back. and then he reminds you, again and again and again.

and you know viktor isn't a liar. he doesn't care about things like this enough to lie about them. so when he tells you that he loves the way you look, the way you feel, the way you are, you believe him.

[the-cat-and-the-birdie]

Just found out Miguel O'Hara is in fact a Geneticist instead of an Astrophysicist.

And I-

'Prodigy level' 😭😭 girl kiss my ass that means nothing

Honestly that's like that girl on TikTok who started digging a tunnel system under her suburban home only to reveal months later that she is in fact a computer engineer rather than an architectural one

but she still thinks that she's qualified to excavate tons of rock from the stone under her house despite the fact that things keep going wrong and said mine is literally filling with water at a rapid pace

Do you know that girl?

Kinda like how Miguel thinks that because he made himself genetically Spiderman he now understands all of the laws of the universe and can prove String Theory even though things keep going wrong and anamolies keep happening

This y'all leader?? You expect me to believe this mfer is educated in magnetohydrodynamics? That man can't tell an astropartical from a cosmic ray are you kidding me

but he's like no... My calculations.. the little glowing lesbian (affectionate) in my watch told me this one black kid in brooklyn broke the universe so it MUST be true also I am very smart

[clownjacket]

Okay but what if this is a cosmic Monkey’s Paw situation Kipperlilly is fucking MISERABLE right now. Like, she was a shithead teen that was jealous of Riz for having a dead dad and a ‘tragic backstory’ because it ‘made him a better adventurer and was an unfair advantage’, and then on her first real mission her entire party got killed and coerced into serving an evil rage god, except for her very best friend who stayed dead. And she HATES IT. It’s like one of those old fairytales where a kid doesn’t do their chores and talked back to their parents, so their parents abandon them and the child gets eaten by a demon and somehow that’s ‘justice’, so you better behave kid! I mean, Ankarna IS a corrupted goddess of justice. It just seems funny to me that she’s LIVING her tragic backstory RIGHT NOW after complaining to Jawbone for two years about not having one. And the worst part is, from a CERTAIN PERSPECTIVE, she was a little bit right. Kipperlilly DID only start doing actual adventuring and rouge shit after she was forced to by an evil god who killed her and is currently holding her friend hostage. Like, it didn’t have to be that way. She could have done that stuff at any time. But her current ‘tragic situation’ is what’s currently FORCING her to get off her ass and adventure. Just the most fucked up, disproportional, unfair approximation of cosmic ‘justice’ imaginable.

Anyway this is a theory??? I guess. Just a direction I hope the story goes in/acknowledges. Because it would be funny

[moider-time]

Everything with Batman is the same except he's a snacker. Bruce could never eat only at breakfast, lunch or dinner, he just never worked like that. Thomas and Martha had such a hard time trying to get baby Bruce to eat at a set time. He wouldn't be hungry at dinner time but at 2am? He was craving some marshmallows.

So the solution to that is him carrying snacks all over the place. Bruce will be at a gala and chomping on some grapes while trying to avoid the mayor. He'll be in an interview, talking about his latest poem related to Gotham's gothic architecture and nibbling on smores.

The Justice League are especially used to it. On the rare times when Bruce forgot to bring food, the others have him covered. J'onn slides him cucumber sandwiches, Ollie has honey-covered apple slices and Clark has his oatmeal cookies that Bruce said he liked. The JL are planning for the next cosmic threat and Diana, Clark and Bruce are having a picnic in the back.

It came in handy when his kids were little and they'd get hungry during movie premieres and fundraisers. He'd just whip out snacks from his suit pocket and they'd munch on some. Even now that most of them are grown, they still slide up next to him and tug on his wrist when they're hungry.

(The only time Damian wants to be referred to as a child is when he's arguing that only he should be entitled to Bruce's snacks cause he is the only actual child. No one else listens of course)

And I know it's canonical that Batman carries like sweets in his utility belt for Robin and any kids he may come across but some of them are for him too. Imagine being a goon and Batman dislocates your shoulder while peeling an orange. I'd just quit.

People have connected Bruce's eating habits to Batman's but instead of the logical theory of Bruce being Batman, they just think that Batman is a secret Wayne child that Bruce doesn't know about. They don't want to upset him so this theory is never brought up in his presence.

(Also Bruce 🤝 Speedsters

Having to constantly eat because you have eating habits that no one else gets)

( @bruciemilf )

[justvora]

An appreciation post to Lady Shiva and Cassandra Cain body reading skills and why they should be the top tier in martial arts

Hello there :)

I recently saw a post that talked about Cassandra and Lady Shiva's analytical reading skills should not be a compelling reason to say they are the best martial artists as there are such things as feints, grappling and other 'techniques' as such….. So I do this not just as an answer anymore, but to explain why, in theory, this skill that both of them have is much more than it seems (and what actually ends up being represented in American comics).

Let's start with what I just mentioned: Within American comics generally hand-to-hand and martial arts fights are usually represented poorly when it comes to talking technical and realistic, but in terms of spectacle they are usually a delight, so this is mainly one of the reasons why this skill that mother and daughter share is not usually delved into, and neither do they go into the terms of grappling and so on.

Next up: Cassandra Cain and Lady Shiva are not only the best martial artists in their universe for that skill, but for their position, potential and narrative.

Cass general fighting performance

When talking about Cassandra Wayne (Cain) we have to take into account that she is still young, so she has a lot of potential for improvement to evolve... And yet, since she was born, she has received specialized training to become a great professional assassin (within the Post-Crisis continuity, she was trained by the entire league of assassins, including among her many trainers the Bronze Tiger; however, in the New52/Rebirth continuity she did not go to the depth of all this). The fact that she was raised and trained to kill means that she does not perform so well in non-lethal combat, since she is omitting and restricting an arsenal and naturalized instinct to fight against her own impulses, notoriously limiting herself - and this is something that has already been commented on several occasions.

Why Cass and Shiva are at the "top" of the martial arts tier list due to their narrative / and the powerscaling stuff from martial arts in comic books.

In this section I will not only talk about why I think that mother and daughter are at the top of the best martial artists, but also about how stupid it usually seems to me to do martial arts power scaling with characters that are very evenly matched.

To start I would like to attach the following screenshot from "LetsTalkLadyShiva's" "CuriousAsk", which I consider, in my opinion, deals with many quite relevant and interesting points about why these characters are above average beyond their own feats (although later there will be characters like Karate Kid whose martial arts are a power in themselves that take him to a level of literally cosmic surrealism).

Now, moving on to the topic of martial arts powerscaling… It makes no sense. It makes no sense because it's not something that can be quantified, and because many comic book characters present a dissonance between the hype, the statements, and their own feats. I think it's not a new complaint to say that many of us are fed up with reading "And he's versatile in all existing martial arts," when it's nonsense without logic due to the nature of these things.

The most that can be quantified in a general way around skill is usually: The number of martial arts that a character knows, and the level of skill around said martial arts - Their years of experience, which is what allows them to develop Battle IQ - And the win rate.

Beyond that, many characters exist for and by the hype, and by their own position within a universe. Lady Shiva was introduced in The Question comics as an alien force of nature, one who broke away from the material world to prove to Sage that he was just a fish in the big pond of his world. There she has narrative power, one as one of the most skilled characters by being a technically insurmountable barrier for combatants. And that's what matters: Not her feats, but who she is.

And... Cassandra? She is The One who is All.

Another thing I consider necessary for martial arts power scaling is the fact that many people try to do the typical:

"[x] character beat [y], who is extremely powerful and skilled And [z] beat [x], so he is even more skilled…etc"

All hand-to-hand combats that can occur are unique, and in many cases there are completely circumstantial situations that define the winner. These circumstances, such as the way and objective that someone seeks, the desire to fight, or how the fight began are defining, and may not mean that someone is, really, more skilled or a better martial artist than another.

In addition, there is a thing called "compatibility", where "A" can beat "B", and "B" can beat "C", and "C" will beat "A". And what is this due to? To the compatibility between styles, where striking can beat judo grappling, and judo can also beat a grappler specialized in BJJ who is capable of beating a boxer, but this will not happen vice versa.

Now… Let's finally get to the interesting part of all this…

The true potential of Cassandra Cain and Lady Shiva's analytical body reading ability.

In this case, and now, I will focus on talking mainly about Cass.

Cassandra was born and raised not to understand verbal language, but body language. In this way she would understand every micro-gesture produced by the human body to interpret it instinctively and naturally in order to understand people… And to predict what they are going to do.

There are several panels that explain this in depth, in short Cassandra reads body language, which is what we often do unconsciously, without realizing it, and this is something I have to highlight because it seems that there are people, both in-universe and IRL, who do not fully understand how this works and confuse it with telepathy.

Nightwing and Jason Todd, on one occasion, have believed that by acting erratically, and without knowing what they are going to do, they could surprise Cassandra, but this does not work like that. As much as they try not to rationalize their movements and keep their minds blank, Cassandra is not reading their thoughts, but the gestures that their bodies make, indirectly and involuntarily. These are micro-gestures, expressions and so on that even reveal some things that people do not know they do or feel.

Another thing I'd like to point out (as a rejoinder to everyone using her fight against Jason as an anti-feat) is that Cassandra wasn't fighting Red Hood - She was communicating through combat. She didn't want to defeat him, but rather explain a situation to him… While he was fighting bloodlusted —this is also a perfect example of how circumstances really matter in a fight—.

To give an example of what I was talking before: "Through telepathy you can read a mind, but when it is blank, nothing can be done. However, with body reading, you can read what the body, unconsciously, will reveal."

Secondly… This ability of Cass is based on an existing concept of martial arts known as "sensen no sen" (which I will call pre-initiative as it is practically the same thing to simplify it). What does it consist of?

Sen sen no sen (先々の戦, before the attack), or sensen no sente (戦線の先手, anticipate the movement), is a concept and a technique of the martial arts of Japan that consists of adopting a preventive behavior towards the opponent and, at the slightest trace of aggressive attitude, a defense technique is performed. That, however, does not simply mean that it is enough to act before the opponent or that you will act at any moment, but it means that you must be aware of the opponent's posture and, only when the blow is made, do you intercept his movement to obstruct his force.

Cody, Mark Edward. Wado Ryu Karate/Jujutsu (en inglés). Bloomington: AuthorHouse. p. 82.

In short: It consists of anticipating and obstructing an attack before it happens. Do you know that they are going to attack you with a straight attack to the face? Well, before it happens, you have already carried out your counterattack perfectly - It is done before, at the right moment, and not when the other movement is already being carried out, all to produce an overtaking effect with which the opponent can be cornered.

Within the Kengan Ashura and Kengan Omega manga, this is one of the skills that only true masters can use… And Cassandra Cain possesses it in a naturalized and instinctive way. So with this she can anticipate any feint that she can predict by reading her opponents and understanding what their intentions are. Is someone going to try to counterattack a punch of hers to throw it with a judo-throw? Well, she will predict it by anticipating and counterattacking in the most optimal way not only to surprise the opponent, but to punish him.

And this goes for grappling as much as anything else.

Again I refer to the nature of comics… This ability is so powerful in H2H, but it's often poorly represented, so characters like Cass or Shiva are never really given the credit to recognize the level of something like this.

[n1blakelover]

i feel like i’m the only one that doesn’t want arc 3 (seasons 8-10) to be set far into the future. like im talking 10 years into the future. because i know that if this happens and the characters are in marriages and have their own children then the story is more than likely going to be about their children and i personally want to know more about the characters we’ve been with, not their kids. don’t get me wrong, i would love to see domestic rayllum and their kids and how all the other characters have grown up, but i don’t want those children to be the focus. i want more of the characters we already know and love. which is why if we do get arc 3, i want it to still be about our main characters (obviously while branching out to seeing others like how arc 2 has branched out to lux aurea) and their conflicts and stories and lives. i’ve seen a lot of theories for how they could still be the focus and my favorite one is probably with the antagonists being the cosmic order against our characters

[sepublic]

Between Odalia clearly being afraid of Belos in her reaction to Hunter… The investors from her show being revealed as wild witches… And all these things being written just before the show’s shortening was announced, it really makes me wonder if there was something else intended.

Those wild witches the BATTs freed could’ve just been a case of reused assets, but Hunter also insinuates that Belos targeted Blight Industries so that rebels couldn’t use them against him. We also see another purpose, but still; I can’t help but speculate that maybe there would’ve been a plot about Alador and Odalia caught between the rebels and the coven and having to make a choice.

Given there’s two of them and how they reveal contrasting stories, I wonder if it would’ve been Alador who sided with the rebels, while we saw more of Odalia’s downward spiral in siding with Belos despite everything, her thought process. Or maybe she would’ve also made the same choice as Alador, mostly to save her own life; She otherwise hasn’t learned anything from the experience or the system’s corruption, nor does she intend to improve as a parent either.

This does remind me of the storyboards, where Odalia would’ve apparently made a truce of some kind with the kids and the Collector, and maybe serving the Collector would factor into that realization. Maybe her fear of Belos, a higher authority, is encapsulated with Odalia dealing with the Collector, and it makes her reflect on how she treated Amity after having a moment of empathy.

Or it’s just the same pragmatic idea of wanting things to go back to where they were; And if that’s the case, it makes me think to my earlier speculation. It reminds me of my theory since forever that Belos wanted to resurrect the Titan, and I wonder if the draining spell was originally intended by the writers to be the energy necessary for such a spell.

But the Collector was included after the shortening (and from what storyboards for Elsewhere and Elsewhen imply, replaced some other cosmic antagonist as someone more agreeable in a shorter timeframe), so they fit the character in and had to change the sequence leading to this; So the Titan being revived was an impromptu Plan B, and Belos gained the ability to possess things so he could pull it off. So it’s the same end point but a different road leading to it…

Thus, my speculation on Odalia having the same endpoint of not really learning, but still someone you could count on to have common sense in the end; This would’ve happened with Blight Industries caught between two sides to potentially cater to, if not both in Odalia’s greed… But then the shortening made it so this was scrapped and it’d happen with the Collector and Belos’ possession threatening the Archives and the entire population within. But the finale was already going past the intended 44-minute mark, the writers opted to prioritize Camila… Still, same idea in the end.

Even with the show over, there’s still eternal speculation on what could’ve been in the original plans; So we’ll never stop wondering! Just as the adventure keeps going in-universe, and we have the pilots to work off of, neat.

[bestworstcase]

there is something i find really interesting with regard to the general consensus on salem that seems to have emerged in the year+ since v9 wrapped—namely that salem must be defeated somehow first, and then if she’s still alive in any meaningful sense she may be persuaded to stand with the heroes against the gods and/or heroically sacrifice herself in some way to save the world. it’s a strange amalgamation of entrenched fanon about her (salem disdains modern humans and only wants to die and is a spoiled evil bitch throwing a tantrum) with the now overtly textual point that the god of light is not any kind of cosmic authority, which sits uncomfortably next to the notion that questioning his rules constitutes unforgivable entitlement. eyeroll.

but theories in this vein always leave unanswered the questions of how? why?—akin to the widespread fanon presumption that summer and/or raven asked the lamp’s first question (how did they learn her name? why did they stop at one? why didn’t raven tell yang how to use the lamp, if she knew how? i still have yet to see anyone who takes this theory seriously even attempt to close these gaps). how is salem to be defeated, and why does this lead to her joining the heroes? why do they accept her help at all?

these are not impossible questions to come up with an answer for, but it strikes me as very strange to speculate about what will happen without first considering the how and why. the unspoken presupposition regarding salem’s defeat is perhaps purgation via silver eyes, which is its own can of worms and one that i don’t think holds up to close scrutiny.

overcoming impossible odds is a mainstay of fantasy for a reason, but i don’t think it’s an accident that v9 underscores the “how are we supposed to stop salem?” quandary in the way it does before ending the volume with the blacksmith gently suggesting that kindness, compassion, and patience are the only way to restore balance. it’s a mistake to turn their backs on the cat out of spite rather than reach out in empathy; likewise saving neo and letting her go is the right thing to do.

so the question of how to defeat salem is twofold; first the practical consideration of whether it is even meaningfully possible to force her to stop (all signs suggest ‘no’) and second the even more salient factor of what salem herself wants and what she will do to get it. raze kingdoms and torture a child, certainly, but is she beyond reason?

the thing is

well, consider it from the perspective of the kids once they return from the ever after. so long as she is not in vacuo, ‘defeating salem’ remains an abstract goal—something they can figure out later, once she’s here, once they’ve dealt with the more immediate problem of the crown, once they have a moment to catch their breath and prepare a counteroffensive… it’s, in a sense, imaginary. but what happens when salem either arrives in vacuo with half a million grimm, or they take that fuckoff huge battleship of theirs to vale for a defiant heroic stand only to watch her, you know, rip it apart like tissue paper?

(remember how important amity the communications satellite was in v7-8? how crucial it was to try to restore the world’s ability to talk to each other? ripping that satellite apart to repurpose it into a really big gun is not going to end well for them. that is, to be blunt, an ironwood move.)

what then?

realistically: you cannot ‘stand united’ your way out of an inexhaustible siege against an enemy who is empowered by your fear and fatigue. defenders win sieges when the besieging force can no longer sustain itself—a besieging force with infinite reinforcements that doesn’t have logistical considerations will win. period. game over. (this is one reason i think they’re likely to try a counteroffensive; they have to defeat salem before she attacks vacuo because even if they repel an open assault, all she has to do is encircle the city to starve them into submission.)

and if the counteroffensive fails—which it will; remember what cinder did to amity with a single fireball?—then their fallback measures are 1. the sword of destruction (which they know won’t destroy her, otherwise jinn would have answered ozma’s third question differently) or 2. silver eyes (untested and hitherto unreliable). to use the sword they have to risk taking it out of the vault, and salem is probably counting on them to take that risk; all of them are operating under the assumption that if ruby blasts salem with her eyes and fails, salem will capture and warp her into a monster, which would have a devastating impact on morale.

turning her inner circle against her worked, but 1. it only bought them a little more than an hour of reprieve before she reconstituted and 2. her inner circle has been winnowed of everyone open to persuasion (cinder might stab salem in the back for her own reasons, but she sure as hell is not going to become less of a problem for the heroes if she does and she’s not going to listen to a word they have to say because, as far as she’s concerned, huntsmen and huntresses are just slave-catchers with a superiority complex). so that’s out, as a strategic approach.

what’s… left? realistically?

rwby is first and foremost a hopeful story, and the plain reality of this conflict is that the heroes have no hope of winning, short of a literal deus ex machina; the best ending they can achieve is to force a stalemate, driving salem back into exile or trapping her somewhere—and that’s fucking bleak. "we saved the charred husk of the old status quo by kicking the can down the road hooray" is not by any means a happy ending, and the only way to get rid of salem after doing so is to invite the gods back to be tyrants again.

hopeful story. hopeless unwinnable conflict. what’s the answer? how do you ignite real, incandescent hope in such overwhelming darkness?

you… circle around from a new direction. immovable obstacle -> change course. a river flows around a boulder. you can’t stop salem by force, you can’t destroy her, but can you reach her? persuade her? help her? has anyone ever tried? if you can’t beat 'em—

what do they have to lose, at this point? two kingdoms gone. strictly speaking, the heroes destroyed atlas, not salem, even though she and ironwood together forced their hand: i think this is an important thing to keep in mind, because it creates an opening for understanding. salem is not alone in feeling kingdom-razing levels of desperation. nothing else they’ve tried has worked. why not ask her why she’s doing this? why not at least try?

v9 promises an inflection point toward a happy ending, not that everything will magically start to go their way now. remember that the original plan for this volume was to have this searingly hopeful departure from the ever after slam into the harsh unexpected blow of “and while they were gone, salem utterly destroyed vale.” it’s always darkest before the dawn. you pick yourself up from rock bottom and you’re still standing in a deep hole. v10 is going to feel crushingly bleak because it’s going to be ABOUT rising up again from that brutally crushing blow of how bad things are in vacuo.

v9 is the looking glass; v8 and v10 are reflections. “that’s actually a risk we haven’t considered” is the turning point in v8 and i think it will be the turning point in v10 as well… in v8 it’s opening the vault and using the relic to get everyone to safety, but v8 also made a point of putting another risk on the table that everyone flatly rejected: penny suggests taking salem at her word that she’ll leave in peace if they bring her the staff. that happens at the beginning of v8; i think it will happen again at the end of v10, most likely in the form of either 1. salem revealing she has thousands of people alive but trapped in mountain glenn and promising their release in exchange for the sword, or 2. salem arriving in vacuo with a million grimm and offering the same terms as before.

they can’t just hand over the relic, obviously. but meeting her halfway—risking negotiation, instead of dismissing the possibility out of hand—is the paradigm-shattering hopeful answer they need.

and i think it’s a much stronger narrative choice, because it challenges expectations and services the core themes of the story as opposed to, at best, implying that what the woman who is being actively tortured by genocidal gods really needs is to be curbstomped and taught a lesson. lol

[thewertsearch]

Yeah, I've always liked that idea. Now that we know a little more about the patrons of Prospit and Derse, I have a new potential theory for how your Dream Moon is determined.

Perhaps it's decided, in part, by your initial attitude to the Alpha Timeline - or, more broadly, to destiny.

I'm not sure if all the trolls fit within this framework - Eridan, for example, certainly doesn't want to defy his 'role' - but the kids all fit perfectly.

Will you follow your path, pay the price, and reap the cosmic rewards of Skaia's plan?

Or will you derail this fucking train and forge a destiny of your own?

[yuri-is-online]

I'm so happy that my concept has become an official part of the script!

I enjoy reading the Yutu series, but I'm wondering if there'll ever be a moment when Yuu goes bear mode to protect their cubs.

Hear me out: since Yuu is basically the only non magic student in NRC crewel decided to give them a self defence weapon to keep themselves safe under the condition that they absolutely only use it for self defense. The weapon in question was a taser stick.

Now let's set the scene: Yutu has been trained to deal with phantoms ever since he was accepted into NRC, however when a phantom literally spawns behind him from a portal, it's hard to do much. As Yutu falls and tries to crawl away from the phantom's path Yuu (who was walking behind Yutu) yells "STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM MY KID" and tases the phantom so hard that it loses spacial awareness and falls stunned, giving them time to stand somewhere safer and more advantageous for battle. Yutu is stunned cause while he knows his parent has a fighting spirit, the parent they're used to has been softened by time and trauma so to see them actively looking for blood (uh...ink?) is new. It's also a sight that yutus dad REALLY enjoyed

I think the phantoms would be a bit more sensitive to lightning/electrical attacks because it's not just something that's bright that attacking you (like fire) but it also travels through their body.

-Grim!OB anon

The concept of phantoms being more vulnerable to lightning.... hmmmmmmmm. That's an interesting concept Grim!OB anon. I have been thinking about cosmic magic in TWST... I wish we could get some more insight into how it works and why there are two versions of it. If all magic produces blot, does that include light aspect cosmic magic? And if so does that mean an overblot phantom can use it ●︿●

Yuu's a strong character in my mind, one who reacts when their friends are in danger. Yutu knows this in theory of course; he remembers how you reacted when he was a child and cried about something small, but this isn't something small. The Yuu he has been fighting for had become an ideal more than a person, but that's not the case anymore.

You are real, your fury is real, the noise that's torn from your throat rivals the King of Beast's roar.

"STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM MY KID"

It's an order so surreal he swears it seals itself into time and knocks him back into the version of him he should be. Years of fighting blot phantoms and scavenging for survival is gone, his father finishes off the phantom with a wave of his pen as Yutu scrambles for you only to find himself hauled up for a strict examination.

"Are you hurt at all?" Your eyes are so hard but your voice is so soft, he can barely hear you. "Sweetheart," your thumb rubs circles on his cheek, oh it's because he's crying "it's ok, I'm here." You are cradling your child in your arms because he is crying and you are determined to keep him safe. "You don't need to fight alone anymore."

You won't let him.

[regular-gnome]

HIII! The ask box finally decided to work for me- 😭 I have a few questions....again.

Have The Archivists faced any dangerous threats? (Not including the Titans)

Can Archivists been born from a Gamma ray Burst and not just a KiloNova?

Have the Archivists ever considered the existence of other Cosmic beings from different dimensions?

Does The Wayfarer still have the skull of the extinct species?

How old is The Anatomist? (Are they in the 100 thousands or maybe in the 1 million range)

Would they attempt to help Climate change, deforestation, humans driving animals to extinction, just planet destroying stuff in general on Earth?

All lot of questions- Sorry about that. 😓

I have no clue what the issue with the inbox is. Some of the asks also disappeared when I know for a fact I got them and was planning to respond later. But glad this one survived. Gotta say, it's a rapid ask fire, so I'll short-answer them

1. So yeah, there aren't many things that can hurt them, but celestial beings can damage each other. Encountering other children of the stars is rare, but if that happens, and it's difficult to predict what a semi-conscious mass of magic decides to do or another far more unstable collector, but they havent seen them for a long time. As for non-physical threats, at this point, they are mostly desensitized to mortals, but that's also something they found out: how bad people can be when they are scared of someone, like Belos with no remorse throwing Collectros disc to be forgotten. I'm pretty sure if he could ensure more to control a pretty powerful power source he would even if that powersourse was a kid and I dont belive he was the only person to ever have this approach

2. Maaybe? In my version, children of the stars are born from events where a big release of energy and magic occurs. Kilonovae typically release energy of 10^41 to 10^43 joules, GRBs typically release something around 10^44 to 10^48 joules. I think it would create a celestial being, but I'm not sure if it would really be a collector or rather some other celestial creature that is simmillar but not the same. I'd like to think that collectors are all born from the same astronomical phenomena, especially given how rare they are (and it plays a little bit into siblings motive), but I dont really have a good reason why it cant be Gamma Rey too

3. They are aware of other realms, but traveling between them is bit more tricky and they already try to keep up with everything that goes on in the galaxy they are currently in. I think there is some quirk to titan magic that makes the travel between dimensions really possilbe or at least more controlled

4. yup! they took more keepsakes but the skull is preserved in Way's corner of the archive

5. It's closer to billions in range. For collectors to be able to look over evolution, stars coming into existence, millions of years isn't enough. Anatomist was one of the younger collectors when the first archives were established and everyone split to their own, but it was still a long time ago. I imagine it takes a very long time for immortal beings to grow up. At the point of the story, they aren't even really mature

6. I know it's currently still a theory, but there are articles about Earth currently experiencing 6th mass extinction, the previous one being that one that took out the dinosaurs. The archivists' goal is to preserve life, and if it's dying, that mission is sabotaged. So yeah, they would probably try to stop it, but I don't think they'd take kindly to the one species that caused it so the earth after their interference wouldnt be the same

[crowgore-throwaway]

Help I'm now hyperfixating on Mouthwashing

Here's what I wrote about it in my journal :P

[Spoilers for the entire story of Mouthwashing]

I think I could be developing a hyperfixation for Mouthwashing. I adore the themes, how it isn't cosmic or alien-based horror, despite taking place in space, but a story of human faults and evils. Jimmy's evil, acting out of greed and narcissism, feeling guilt but not taking accountability. The evil of corporations and capitalism, making 5 working-class people spend over a year traveling through space, just to deliver some mouthwash and subsequently laying them off, leaving the likes of Anya and (I say this reluctantly) Jimmy with no means to support themselves. All that time going stir-crazy, not even for anything important, just so some consumers can have their mouthwash. And Curly's evil, enabling Jimmy by being complicit, not taking Anya's issues seriously because Jimmy's *such* a good guy and Curly doesn't want to upset him. And that unconditional trust leads to him being completely unable to move or speak because he essentially allowed Jimmy to do whatever he wanted and have his little tantrum, putting the crew at risk to just to avoid a problem *he* caused.

Ugh, amazing game. I think it's more sad than scary. All those people dead- Daisuke, a kid in his late teens with so much life and opportunity ahead of him, dead because Jimmy took advantage of his positivity and need to do right by everyone.

Anya, violated and belittled, forced to follow the orders of the man who assaulted and impregnated her. She did whatever she could to protect herself while Curly, the leader she was meant to trust, did nothing. Until she could endure it anymore and took her own life. (I also saw a theory that she was attempting an abortion but overdosed) Jimmy doesn't even acknowledge her death, even with how terribly he hurt her. He just doesn't care about her, he doesn't see her as a person, but a tool.

Swansea, a father and husband. A man with faults, sure, but a man who can take responsibility for them. He owns his flaws and misdeeds and grows from them. Though he's broken and struggles with addiction, he's selfless. He's hopeful for characters like Daisuke and Anya, is a gruff mentor and trustworthy ally who heard Anya out. Jimmy couldn't stand to look Swansea in the face because he was a lot like Jimmy, except he actually took responsibility for the bad things he's done. So he killed him.

And finally, Curly, his friend, the man who believed he could be better, who trusted him, gave him chance after chance, until he was destroyed. Curly was too trusting, and Jimmy took full advantage. In the end, though, Jimmy couldn't stop piling his shit on Curly's shoulders, ultimately killing himself and cryogenically freezing Curly, leaving him the sole survivor in the event that the Tulpar is recovered. Which would mean, in the end, Curly would be the one still mopping up Jimmy's mess.

Seriously, play this shit its wonderful, and the art style is neat. Also, Daisuke is my favorite, I may have written about him the least, but he's such a ray of sunshine.