#like mentioned these aren't all my ideas but just the really basis ones for the sake of simplicity

[dingodad]

please god i need to know what U think of the whole “jadebloods are all female!” thing because i got into homestuck in 2019 around the time of friendsim and (retching) Lanque so i always assumed they were explicitly intended to be an all-female caste. however, re-reading the comic this year, i couldnt find a mention of it other than virgo and the Space aspect being really feminine, but i think kanayas journey with motherhood is more kanaya-centric than All-Jadebloods centric??

on one hand, it makes sense given that alternia has very real gendered oppression, so what’s better for that than CATHOLICISM?? on the other hand, i always saw kanaya as being transfem coded, because it connects so well with roxy yknow.. homestuck fans love to insist that certain characters just have to be cis women (kanaya, jade, roxy)

(as an aside; was “long hair was butch on alternia” a one off joke? i like speculation about alternia’s fashion opposing earth, lol)

most all of our basis for explicitly gendered interpretation of Alternia comes from act 6 intermission 3, where Aranea tells us that "jade 8loods were also an almost exclusively female caste". so the door has always been open for there to be "some male jadebloods". but it's a mistake to view this as having anything to do with any kind of "biological sex". the whole idea of biological sex among trolls is a smoke screen. the jadebloods' assigned gender at birth is "jadeblood". this is what makes them a feminised caste.

Caliborn doesn't have a clue what biological sex is. Aranea will tell you that there are boy cherubs and girl cherubs, but for your own sanity you need to cast this idea out of your mind: cherub sex takes place between good and evil cherubs - which is determined by their blood - and anything else is just roleplay. Caliborn's attitude toward sexing is that the ones he likes are boys - that's all the thought that goes into it. and that's the mindset we need to be aware of when we delve into understanding troll gender. there are some trolls who have breast tissue and some who don't, but they aren't "mammaries" in any sense, so there's no reason to believe they're actually sexual characteristics of any kind; maybe this is what Lord English chose to base his gender schema on, but the idea that this means there must be "male trolls" and "female trolls" is completely imagined for the narrative convenience of the human reader.

when we read that there are "male-dominated" highblood castes and therefore by implication female-populated lowblood castes, it's not by some coincidence of biology: the highblood castes are male-dominated BECAUSE they are highblood castes. each caste has a role to play in Caliborn's Alternia, and just as the highblooded roles are those of patriarchal domination, the lower castes must take on roles of feminised submission; and in the case of the jades in particular, this means breeding duties. the fact that this also comes with the expectation to wear makeup and pretty clothes is just more roleplay.

so tl;dr what i think of "the all jadebloods are female thing" is that it is very obviously true but in a way more 5 dimensional gender studies way than anyone else tends to mean when they say it

my pet "long hair was butch on alternia" headcanon - which is a joke but in the way all headcanons about alternia should be jokes of some kind - actually kind of relates to this lol. bc i figure that if gendered expectations of female trolls includes working in disgusting underground caverns filled with genetic material, it's going to be practical to keep your hair close to your head where it won't get dirty, in much the same way the feminist image of the short-haired woman became popular in the west during and after world war 2, wherein a lot of women had to start wearing their hair close to their heads to avoid scalping themselves in the factory machinery they suddenly had to start working with. hence kanaya dedicated to her assigned feminine role and wearing her hair short vs. porrim rebelling against it for feminist reasons and thus wearing her hair at a length that would be totally impractical for wading through gene pools.

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

A few people have defended Chloe and Lila's writing by saying that teenagers being just as capable of heroism as adults means that they need to be just as capable of villainy as adults. I know that's not good logic, but I can't put my finger on WHY it's not good logic, can you weigh in on this?

I actually don't think it's bad logic at all. They're right. Teenagers are absolutely capable of being monsters. A teenage bully may not have the wide reaching impacts of a terrorist, but teenage bullies still do real and lasting harm that can shape victims for the rest of their lives.

This is why you have to be really careful when it comes to redeeming either of these characters (and also Sabrina since she's almost as bad as Chloe in my eyes). You cannot minimize the harm that they've caused by saying "well, they're just kids" or even by pointing out that Chloe and Sabrina were victims of abuse.

Fourteen-year-olds are more than old enough to know right from wrong. Yes, they're not full adults yet, but they're in the stage of life where they're learning how to be adults. That's why we call them young adults! People in this stage of life are very capable of understanding that their words and actions can hurt people. Heck, three-year-olds are capable of that! If you don't think that these teenage characters understood that bullying Marinette was hurting Marinette, then you're arguing that these characters have some sort of developmental disability or psychological disorder or something of that nature that is effecting their development in an extreme manner. If so, then that requires immediate serious intervention by professionals, but I don't think that anyone is making that argument for anyone save, maybe, Lila.

On the abuse side of things: being a victim is not a free pass to hurt innocents. Victims don't get a magic ticket that says, "you may now do one free abuse" every time that they're abused. By that logic, giving Audrey an abusive past would absolve her of everything that she did to Chloe. The same goes for Gabriel and Adrien, which is why this is such shitty logic. Nothing justifies Gabriel and Audrey's actions. What they did to their children was wrong.

The same logic applies to all characters and all types of abuse. Victim status doesn't prevent you from becoming an abuser. It's actually quite common for abuse to lead to more abuse which is part of why you can't grant exceptions on the basis of victim status. If you do that, then you eventually reach a point where no one is accountable because everyone has been abused and is therefore a blameless victim who can do no wrong. No one wants to live in a world like that.

There is of course, a lot of nuance to this topic and a lot of it is heavily situational. For example, I totally believe that certain exceptions have to made for extreme cases that I'm not going to give examples of to avoid triggering content, but you can probably think of some. However, we're not talking about extreme cases here. The characters that we're talking about are reasonably normal fourteen-year-olds. Young adults who have been allowed to be part of society and who know that what they're doing is wrong. And if they don't know that bullying and terrorism are wrong? Then we're back to the concern that something is deeply wrong with these characters and they need immediate serious intervention from trained professionals.

To be fair, Lila may end up being that kind of character, but Chloe and Sabrina certainly aren't. Since Chloe was the character mentioned in the original ask, we'll focus on her for the rest of this. While Chloe has absolutely been abused, she's not some isolated victim who has no idea how the world works. She's been allowed a reasonably normal childhood. This scene from Malediktator is actually pretty solid writing for a character like Chloe:

Ladybug: I'm fine with helping you, Chloé, but first… I need you to tell me what happened. Why is your father— I mean, Malediktator, so mad? Chloé: It's because of this super lame loser named Marinette Dupain-Cheng. She's this horrible girl in my class and she hates me. (Ladybug looks angry, but then contains her feelings) She's ganged everyone up against me and she— Ladybug: Maybe this Marinette girl isn't entirely to blame? Chloé: Uh! Ugh. Okay, it wasn't totally Marinette's fault. She is really mean to me sometimes, but actually, this time, Daddy got angry all by himself. Ladybug:(not buying it) All by himself? Chloé: Yeah, because… there was something he couldn't do… Ladybug:(puts a hand on Chloé's shoulder) Chloé, it's me, Ladybug. You can trust me. You can tell me the truth. Chloé: I— I— Ladybug: Mm-hmm. Chloé: It— it was me. I hurt my daddy's feelings. Because I want to leave Paris, forever.

She knows right from wrong and she knows when she's hurting people. She just doesn't care most of the time because she's never had to face consequences for causing harm so why should she care? It's not like it effects her! This is why she only cares about the damage she causes when it effects her or the people she loves.

That's not a deeply messed up world view. A lot of people only have strong feelings about things effecting those they love. Chloe just needs to work on being more neutral to people outside her circle because that's how we make a happy functioning society. (This is a hint of that nuance I mentioned before. I'll give a few more hints as we go on, but we won't really be digging into it due to word count. Just know that I'm aware of it.)

Giving Chloe an abusive past didn't absolve her of her actions. It just gave us a potential reason for why she does what she does. This actually does make Chloe's abuse important! Once we know the reasons why her character is doing something, we can then understand her character and better guide her story. Understanding that she's a victim means that she can be helped because this isn't some inherent part of her. It's learned behavior and that means that she can unlearn it.

And now we get to circle back to the original ask and discuss why it's still valid to be mad about Chloe and Lila's treatment and why it IS bad even though it's not wrong to have "evil" teenagers.

The reason why Chloe and Lila's lack of redemption is concerning is because full grown adults who have done far worse things are being redeemed based on nothing while these two teenage girls are being treated as beyond hope. If Gabriel Agreste and André Bourgeois are allowed to have happy endings without doing anything to earn those happy endings, then why are Chloe and Lila being treated as devils? What message is this show trying to send to kids? That it's okay to be a terrorist as long as your reasons are good, but be a bully at 14 and you're doomed for life? That's total BS!

It's especially concerning because Chloe's bad treatment of her adult father is being used to justify his redemption while Audrey and Andre's terrible parenting is not being used to give Chloe a similar free pass. Writers, wtf are you doing? No one should be getting a free pass in this situation. They all need to take action to right their wrongs if they want to be redeemed. Andre shipping Chloe off to live with her mother is an adult man saying, "oops, raised that one wrong! We'll let's just pretend that never happened."

Don't get me wrong, Chloe's actions are still fully her own and she needs to own that, but crying, "Daddy" only held power because Andre did whatever Chloe told him to do. He held all the power and was happy to misuse it in order to make his daughter happy. That means that he holds blame here, too. He allowed his daughter to become a total brat by encouraging bratty behavior.

This was not a situation where Chloe was a danger to others for some reason. A situation where Andre was truly doing the best anyone could hope to do in order to keep his daughter placated so that she didn't physically hurt anyone. It was also not a situation where forces beyond Andre's control were effecting his daughter and shaping her personality while he was desperately trying to guide her down the right path. It was just plain old terrible parenting. He spoiled Chloe rotten, got the completely predictable end result, and then threw her out for a better version that someone else raised. What an uplifting message! (That was sarcasm.)

Chloe and Lila would have worked reasonably well in a story where all of the important characters were teens. A story where Lila was always the big bad, Gabriel was a minor character, and Chloe's parents never got any screen time.

That's not the story that the writers wrote, though, so the "teenagers can be evil" defense falls flat because if domestic terrorists aren't evil and child abusers aren't evil, but bratty teenage girls are, then what are we even doing here? This is extra true because the people this show is aimed at are not adult men. They're little girls who may very well relate to Chloe and Lila.

There's also the issue of Chloe being dammed while other teen characters were given a free pass for no real reason. Felix, Sabrina, and Kim have all done equally bad or even worse things. Felix is especially uncomfortable because he's basically a male Chloe who did all of the same actions - and often did them better - yet he doesn't have to give so much as a simple apology for what he's done. He's just good now because Kagami needs a boyfriend.

Chloe outed herself in public while emotionally compromised? So did Felix and he had weeks to plan before hand, too! Chloe did it in a totally reactive manner without any real plan.

Chloe used the miraculous that Gabriel stole? Felix stole the miraculous himself and gave them to Gabriel!

Chloe bulled Marinette? Felix bullied Adrien!

Felix even did some of the same things as Lila! He tried to ruin Adrien's friendships via manipulation and deceit in his first appearance. He knew Gabriel's secret and used it to his own advantage instead of telling the heroes. He used a major terrorist attack as an excuse to further his own goals. The list goes on! So why is he being welcomed onto the team with open arms? And why is no one telling Kagami just how dangerous her new boyfriend is? She wasn't there for most of this so she has no idea who she's dating.

And this isn't even touching the mess that was Derision's terribly delivered message about owning your actions and not blaming others for your bad behavior. That episode makes everything about Chloe's treatment look even more hypocritical.

In summary, the issue is not that teenagers can't be bad guys, they absolutely can! The issue is how all of the other bad guys and bullies are being treated compared to these two and how inconsistent the rules are. Of course, we haven't seen all of Lila's story, so who knows what the end game is for her. Maybe she'll also be trying to restore a dead wife and so she'll get a free pass, too.

[s-sputnik-k]

me: starts watching x-men (2000), is excited to finally be getting into the proper xmen release order

also me: has to immediately pause and take a long sigh and repeat to myself "it's based on comics from the 60s, it's fiction, it's fun sci-fi/superhero stuff, it's fiction, it's made up" when the first line talks about evolution making humans the 'dominant species'

I think I just need to rant, bc I love x-men but even in the newer films the repeated talk about humans being superior or dominant just really irks me. like at this point I think it's not even malicious, it's just genuine ignorance or misunderstanding of evolution (or a rule of cool situation, which is fair enough because, again, it is fiction). but evolution is LITERALLY just becoming more suited to your environment through natural selection. that's all it means

like, first of all, what is the metric for superiority? is it complexity? because I'm sure there are single cell organisms that are extremely suited to their environment. there are also mushrooms with thousands of sexes (my information did come from tumblr, ik, misinformation central, but I do tend to read into the fun facts I learn here afterwards)--we are definitely not the most complicated organism we know of. hell, fungus is so complicated, we put it all in one category when really, we have no idea what most of it has in common other than the fact that they aren't a plant, animal or bacteria (simplified bc I'm not bringing up a classification chart for this)

so maybe it's about longevity. I mean, humans have only existed for, what, 300,000 years? there are so many living things that have existed for significantly longer! and even if we assume optimistically that humans will last much longer into the future, we still aren't winning on an individual lifespan basis. there are literal sea sponges that live longer than us

so, alright, fine, maybe it's about intellect--that is one of our best traits as a species. but intelligence is just one of many, many factors in a particular living thing's evolution. for many creatures, it's better that they aren't intelligent. I'd be willing to bet there are creatures that have evolved to be less intelligent after it became unhelpful. our massive, energy intensive brains are extremely draining (not to mention dangerous in childbirth); some animals can't even justify having colour perception, why would they need to be able to do algebra? it's like if honeybees decided to measure the evolution of all animals based on how well they spread pollen or make honey. like, it's just not a helpful or relevant metric unless you are a honeybee

so, yeah, humans aren't more evolved, we aren't better evolved, we're just. evolved. we are what we are, based on changes in our environment, random mutations and natural selection. and Charles would KNOW THIS but I understand that talking about human evolution and how it led to mutants having cool powers is an engaging way to start a film about, yknow, human evolution and mutants with cool powers

so, I do eventually finish my heavy sigh and unpause the film. because I love these characters and this story, so I will simply close my ears the next time charles says the word dominant, and pretend it didn't happen so that I can enjoy the film without going on another rant

[windmaedchen-oceanhorn]

More Valen & Fay Headcanons

I've done some digging today, and I found more pre-release backstories. I really needed to get my thoughts sorted and put out, so there is no drawing this time... 🙇‍♀️

Let's just say, overall, I like all these previous ideas and will use them as the basis of my headcanons, as long as it is possible to incorporate them into the current canon of AFK Journey.

So you understand what's from the beta backstories, I marked them appropriately. Since this folder is pinned publicly in the AFK Journey Discord, I assume there is no harm in sharing it here also. 💎 = Fay's backstory ⚔️ = Valen's backstory 🪙 = Atalanta's backstory 👣 = AFK Journey game

Here we go...

Stoutstone Isle is known for its gemstones and other natural riches (💎).

Fay bemoans her being inferior to her parents, both "smart" Evergreen Conservatory scholars. (👣, Fay's Mystery Theater II)

Fay has been absolutely spoiled by her grandfather, so she can be certain of his love and adoration (💎), but I can imagine that she feels insecure about her parent's love AND Valen's love for her. Valen more so than her parents, but they all kinda left her behind after all and she is beyond the moon to now be roaming the world with the Evergreen Conservatory (👣), having the chance to do stuff that'll impress them all.

I still think Valen's father is the one born into the ruling family of Stoutstone Isle. He became a scholar of the Evergreen Conservatory and got to know Valen's mother there. Both spend most time on the main continent but visit occasionally.

Valen has not forgotten his sister and he sometimes writes her a letter (💎). She hates him for leaving, but loves him for at least sending her elaborate letters from the mysterious outside world. I bet, upon meeting her bro again after so many years, the first thing she does is telling him off for his horrible handwriting. xD

I think I will stick to the explanation given here as to why Fay and Valen don't ACT like they know each other during the Remnant Peaks main story arc. I am inclined to believe, however, that for the two little sidequests "Fay's Mystery Theater I & II", they know who they are even if they are not mentioning their relationship specifically. This revelation happened off-screen and since their backstories aren't further elaborated on in-game, it isn't revealed here either. Merlin knows at that point.

They act close enough that I think it's too odd and unbelievable that they still don't recognise each other.

But I admit that they COULD be acting a lot more akin to the first AFK Journey trailer IF THEY DID know each other then.

The Japanese release is close at hand. If someone was willing to keep an eye open, it might be worth checking out their conversations in Remnant Peaks and that side quest. The Japanese like to address siblings with certain pronouns and I would not be surprised if Fay, at least, would have this implemented in her speech whenever she talks to Valen. (But how adorable would it be if Valen did the same to his little sister? xD)

Fay's backstory explains why Valen and her join Merlin in the first AFK Journey trailer. Miasma (I take it, that's maybe an early version of the corruption appearing all over the place, announcing the return of the Hypogeans) has appeared on Stoutstone Isle and Fay ventures out to find her brother and with him, a solution to the Miasma problem = trying to safe their home island. (💎) Since this doesn't quite work with current canon, I have to ditch this particular part. At least to the extend that the Miasma is known to Fay. I don't rule out that Stoutstone Isle may have to be rescued by Merlin, much like the Dark Forest, at a later point of the game.

Valen's beta-backstory made him a member of the Gray Foxes for possibly the entire 8 years after he has left home and before meeting Merlin (⚔️). However, in the current canon he reveals that he's lived in Holistone for "a long time" and the theft of the Faith Stone seems to have been a couple of years ago, too. My personal estimate is that he was about 5-6 years in Holistone… and thus about 2-3 years with the Gray Foxes.

Just as Valen was a member of the Gray Foxes for some time, so was Atalanta! In Atalanta's beta backstory it is revealed that she was a lone wolf, fighting on her own, with huge trust issues. None of her colleagues would work with her, except for Valen. When he insists to help the villagers fight after a job done, Atalanta is basically just walking away, leaving him to fight alone. Of course, while she had every intention to not turn back, she sees hidden archers about to burry their arrows in Valen's back, and she just can't NOT help after all. Without showing herself, she leaves Valen to fight alone in the front lines, but she does take out the enemies in his back. She doesn't admit it, but Valen later knows that she stayed and helped, since he found her arrows all over the battlefield. (🪙)

Even though their relationship was a professional one, and probably not a close one, I could imagine that Valen considered himself in debt to her. So when Atalanta "slipped" away from the HO in Remnant Peaks… it was, as surmised by other fans, done on purpose by Valen. In such a way that he specifically won't lose his face, though. Thus Valen might have paid back what he owed to her. I still have to think more clearly about the violence and crimes in this game, but hey, the Faith Stone WAS a pretty valuable item and proven to have been stolen by Atalanta. If she had been convicted, in all seriousness, I don't think a death penalty would be all that unlikely. Bandits are killed on the spot for way less. (See Hendrik's backstory, AFK Arena).

When Atalanta appears during Remnant Peaks, even though there is no "hi, how have you been" between her and Valen, it is HE who advocates for her being their guide. A reference to their shared past and another "opportunity" given to her to be trusted? ;-)

Reading Atalanta's backstory made me understand her a bit better. But I must still admit, that she doesn't click with me at all. I'd even say, I kinda hate her. But THAT makes me actually appreciate her existence since I can like other characters even more thanks to her. xD

And that is it for now! Thanks for considering my ideas and please do let me know what you think! You can always message me or send an ask. 🥰

[distortedclouds]

Annie definitely doesn’t realize the extent of her trama and just mentions it casually like it’s nothing.

All the scouts talking about their childhood bedrooms “my dad didn’t get me one till I was five, I mainly just slept in this old box”

Or childhood games…”my dad had this game basically where I had to run and if I didn’t beat my time I wouldn’t get a treat” then Armin will go “aww that’s sweet what was your treat” “I would get to do only 100 kick practices and still get dinner”

I also imagine her randomly asking “hey do u think my dad was a bit abusive”. (Key word a bit) and everyone being shocked that she doesn’t know

I mean.... considering her surrounding environment? No, probably not. I'm sure she noticed her dad was worse than the rest, but her was still within the "realm of reason"

But I do love the idea of the warriors (particularly Annie) being soooo blind to the terrible shit that happened in their childhoods and only begin to process it post canon, once they have reliable and frequent access to relationships that are the exact opposite of that with the rest of the 104th

When they're running low on blankets fresh post-rumbling, but Armin still manages to secure her one (don't ask where his own blanket is) she'd say it's fine and mentions like, having to earn her blanket on a weekly-basis by training hard, even during the winter months. So she doesn't need a blanket, though it's nice to have. and Armin just has a "1000 yard stare" with a small smile

It's all a bunch of morbidly silly stuff, that kind of makes everyone else uncomfortable when Annie mentions them, because they definitely don't want to poke where it hurts uninvited just because Annie casually mentions some horrible childhood experience (especially with two mama's boys on the team: Jean and Connie. Also Pieck who seems to have had a really nice dad)

but maaaaaaan everytime she casually mentions something, you KNOW the others are taking account of it (especially Armin, Connie, and Reiner) that's why they're always getting her treats and making sure she's eating well and not working too much during the rebuilding efforts

AND THIS “hey do u think my dad was a bit abusive?" She WILL notice that even people who'd never met her dad before hate his gut but still wouldn't say anything. I think if she does ask, everyone will try to not answer, because it's obvious but also maybe they shouldn't rush her into it

Although, I do see the angst starting to surface once Annie herself starts computing that her childhood kind of sucked, and in the matter of a few months, she's already getting more care and affection from people who "aren't even her family" than she did from her "dad"

[queenvernage]

Which rangers are the closest to being himbos in your opinion?

okay, i have given this much thought. arguably too much thought. these aren't in any real order besides to say danny is #1.

danny delgado: THIS IS THE HIMBO, EVERYONE! danny is the sweetest, kindest, gentlest man alive and he has absolutely no idea how big and strong he is. he's the st. bernard that thinks he's a lap dog. he's a little confused all the time, but he's got love in his heart. he apologizes to doorways when he bumps into them because he lacks the self-awareness of the broadness of his shoulders.

koda: he's not that stupid, but he's very silly and has his moments. he's a simple man. he just wants a burger, for the love of everything, GIVE HIM A BURGER SO WE CAN SEE HIM SMILE!! he's also so gosh darn strong... and we stan a king who's kind to everyone, especially kids and animals. koda basically has it all <3

rocky desantos: he's just here for a good time!! i trust him with my life, on the basis of… well, look at that smile :) he's also such a sweetheart… and don't even get me started on the golden retriever energy. he not only needs you to like him, but if you just met, you better believe you're one of his new best friends. i just feel like he's the type to have "volunteer firefighter and full time optimist" in his insta bio.

dominic hargan: dom tries really really hard and that's endearing. fran saw the vision, she saw it all! and she was so right!! yeah, maybe he does goof around! maybe he wouldn't know what an emotionally intelligent response was if it smacked him in the (very cute) face! but by god, he would (and did) physically throw himself in harm's way to protect someone who he just met and then totally miss the part where that person fell in love with him for just being him. himbo behavior.

conner mcknight: so here's the thing about conner... what he lacks in kindness on occasion (he has a character development arc!) and beefiness to an extent, he more than makes up for nearly in tallness alone. and that's not even to mention how silly dumb he can be... and that face?? there's not an ounce of self-awareness, except for about how pretty he is.

dustin brooks: no thoughts! just motocross, throwing an oily towel over his shoulder after a long day's work, and trying to make his friends happy!!! dustin is such a pure soul. he's not exactly beefy. but in his defense... it's hard to find a prettier, stupider boy that trusts everyone around him with absolutely no reason to do so. i love when he's saying something so ridiculous and everyone is just looking at him like "um what?" and he slowly picks up on the fact that they don't know what he's talking about... gets me everytime

wes collins: here we have a perfect specimen of the himbo subspecies, "rich boy himbo". his dumbness is mostly based on the fact that he's never really had to solve a problem in his life before the age of 20. what is laundry? you have to cook for yourself every day? there are problems money can't solve? but nevertheless, he is kind, he's generous, and maybe he's not maxed on all stats but!!! he's well rounded.

honorable mentions: xander bly, flynn mcallistair, troy burrows, leo corbett

[kimyoonmiauthor]

Short Note on Diversity in novels...

During a certain writing event that starts with N, I often tried to research and find ways to write more diversity.

So there were ten rounds of people on both sides saying, "Don't include it for clout" and "don't do it to be token."

For me, these days, I add diversity because it's my lived experience and often it solves plot issues. No, really. Sometimes the character just shows up and I'm thinking, you're not acting how I thought, you're not acting NT. Could you be ND? If so, what type are you?

And then doing to research to lean into it rather than spending time taking it out is a lot more helpful to the story because how they act is rooted into the basis of the story.

People tend to think that adding diversity "adds more problems". But I kinda think adding historical accuracy or race diversity to NYC or off-hand mentioning that Rromani exist in a Europe setting solves issues like "Hey, here is an entire group that is dedicated to trading! You no longer have to question how Silk got to Europe." might give a richness and feel more accurate?

The fact that people couldn't figure out during that event that PoCs have relatives was wild to me. lol "I couldn't possibly write more than one Black person." Wha—where do you think Black people come from? Also Queer people would attract Queer people too? NDs attract NDs? So the idea of the lone gay (usually Black if they are going Intersectional) dude being the ONLY one in the entire world, is wild to me. You don't think the Black dude has a Black friends and maybe other PoC friends, because ya know, Black people have to hang around only white people and never know other Black people? You don't think the lone gay dude might want to do more than "fashion", "hair", "crafts" and actually date another gay guy? Just asking.

So usually, for me, it helps solve dilemmas. Like hey, if this group of people have known what it is like to handle horses for thousands of years, maybe they can help solve this plot dilemma with a horse. Let's research their group and how they handle horses because my characters don't come from a nomadic horse tribe.

This character doesn't seem to want to date anyone. Why? Could they be... ace aro? If so, what kind? If they aren't, why haven't they? or are they really aro/ace but haven't faced it yet and thus are being unintentionally destructive (BTW, this was me at one point when I didn't understand I was aro/ace and yeah, not my finest hour...)

It doesn't have to be a big deal, the big deal is to make sure to back it up with research even if you belong to that label.

For me, being NB, I had to research trans (binary) people better. Also wrap my head around the European version of trans rep, which I still don't always understand fully. The whole, you must when transitioning a character, make it painful? Why??? Like isn't there Queer and trans joy in transitioning and not all of it is surgery? Yeah. But understanding other perspectives than your own can help shake loose your story to give different flavor to your characters so they aren't "Token" and you can rep various PoVs, even if they aren't center stage. (Some of the you musts also didn't make sense to me... but I've posted those.)

But yeah, sometimes adding diversity helps save you having to rewrite the whole thing. And it solves plot issues—like having the Harfoots kinda like Rromani/traveling Jews solves how to get Gandalf safely from Point A to Point B. Having the elves being various skin colors solves why the spawning place for elves is roughly 30 degrees north which, BTW, lines up with the races on Earth at that latitude. Sometimes making the person Jewish explains why they are so good at inane arguments. lol (Saying this as a Jew... I can list the inane arguments my family has had). So yes, sometimes adding diversity helps rather than hinders and gives you more events you can add.

Your characters are meeting their grandmother coming from India while in Regency England! Well, you've just opened discussions on imperialism, food, language issues, generational wealth, clothing and questions about immigration and heritage. Plot bunnies galore. Are you stuck still? (BTW, this is accurate too).

[wyrmswears]

Alr here comes the "long" ask ig

Thanks to you bringing back my wolf children/werewolves/wolves brainrot, my brain brained a weird lore in my brain about your inhuman thundersnow au.

Remenber this guy? Well yeah, he was the EM of lightning before Libber (also her dad), during the Serpentine War he used his raijū form to fight, even if he was one of the less powerful lightning EM ever seen (based off the color of his lightning being yellow, yellow lightning is less hotter than blue lightning) he took many serpetine down and in general it was like brining a crazy new weapon to the war that suddenly gives certain side a great advantage, ya know, war stuff.

After the war finished, despite him being a good guy. Raijūs started to be seen as horrible bloodthirsty creatures just because of what he did during the war, which wasn't too different to what other EM did is just that he did it as a wolf, even Garmadon thanks to the Great Devouerer venom did worse.

Anyway, people started to get paranoid about raijūs and this caused to some people dedicate most of their time to hunt them down, not all hunters did it because they were corcened or smth but because they simply wanted to have fun killing an exotic species, or simply capturing them for who knows what (maybe using them for taxidermy?? spooky experiments??? biological weapons??? idk)

Slowly the individuals of this species were less and less, until there was only one left, Libber. Her father died and she almost did too, in and the rest is history she leaving Jay with the walkers, etc...

One more species that got extinct thanks to humans.

(this is not my last ask 👹.)

yo this idea is dark af... hell yeah im using it, with some amendments. be warned i also used this ask as an opportunity to do some lore dumping

READ MORE BECAUSE IT GOT LONG

first of all, not all other raijū are gonna be extinct, but their population numbers have dwindled and most of them now avoid interacting with humans. i think it'd be interesting to have the gang meet other raijū at some point so i want to keep the opportunity open :D since they stop interacting with humans though, they are thought to be extinct and aren't really common knowledge among jay's generation.

both raijū and dragon will share this stigma of being dangerous bloodthirsty creatures, given that wu and garmadon also fight in the serpentine war (oni kinda have the stigma engrained in their identity in the ninjago series already ghsghsh and aren't really present in ninjago to most people's knowledge). dragons get off slightly easier however, being considered noble creatures in other legends, but raijū don't have the same reputation and are easier to hunt than dragons so they suffer a greater impact. this stigma is the cause for cole's fear of dragons in s1!

raijū don't make great taxidermy (their corpses eventually dissolve into lightning; full raijū aren't so much comprised of your typical things like flesh and bone), but i can imagine some being captured as living batteriess, although they only have enough power for about a single household, so it would work on a more individual basis than imperium's dragon energy scheme...

i've been having the idea that libber's dad isn't a wolf for his raijū form, but instead a snow leopard! you see, there's not a lot of mythology on raijū recorded online so i'm trying to fit in actual mythos where i can, and raijū aren't limited to a wolf/dog form, but have many four-legged animal forms recorded. i also like the idea of jay and libber's raijū forms looking similar, despite them not looking that similar for two canids, so related raijū in my au don't often have similar animal forms. libber's parents take the form of a snow leopard (in reference to ice who later takes a guardian role of sorts in place of libber's actual father) and a japanese serow.

furthermore, i mentioned this idea in the tags of one of my past posts but for raijū that are elemental masters of lightning, they often die when their child inherits their element. raijū are creatures made of lightning, but for those born with the element of lightning, they don't develop their own lightning because the element more than compensates for the power they need, so when the element is suddenly removed... yeah. so libber's dad is dead Before the main impact of the serpentine war, but perhaps her mother is killed as a result?

jay doesn't have the issue of dying when he loses his element like the bajillion times they do in the series because he's half human! it does mean that the first few times he loses his powers (including contact with vengestone), it feels Extra bad to him because it's literally part of his life-force taken away (i imagine lloyd has a similar effect but by nature of his element instead of his blood), but the longer he is without his power, the more chance his natural lightning has to develop, so by crystallised he can function pretty well without them :]

[zuko-always-lies]

Rating my list of Azula AUs by how much they appeal/are interesting to me now

It's a long list, and some of these ideas are actually quite old, so I thought it would be worth giving each AU idea a rating out of 10. Note that some of these aren't my ideas and I intend no disrespect to anyone. I just want to rate how interested I would be in a story if someone used the AU idea as a basis.

Better parenting Ursa (8/10)-Would be a banger.

Azula raises Katara AU (and continued) and more (9/10)-I've never seen anything quite like this and would be very interesting.

Azula and Katara get friendly postwar and talk about their brothers. (7/10)-Good idea for a short story?

Mai is significantly older than Azula and Ty Lee AU (Older “sister” Mai) (4/10)-Could be interesting but honestly I find canon Azula-Mai's dynamic plenty interesting on its own.

Jin works at Iroh’s teashop but finds out about his past (5/10)-Perhaps worth a shot.

Zuko tells Azula about the Spirit Water (5/10)-Too close to canon?

Ursa and Ozai get along better, and it’s not a good thing AU (4/10)-A little dark for my tastes.

Imperialist Lu Ten survives the war and tries to regain his throne afterwards (9/10)-Now that would be incredible. Lots and lots drama and lots of lighting fandom takes on fire.

Zuko finds out more about his nation AU. (5/10) Somewhat interesting.

Revolutionary Azula takes over Ba Sing Se AU. (2/10) In retrospect it feels a bit too imperialist in tone.

Three different AU ideas in one (4/10) None of them are really that great.

Favoritism in the royal family is a little different (5/10) moderately interesting.

What if Zuko had a nonbending twin sister (who he doesn’t get along with). (10/10) The Zola AU. One of the most interesting and subversive ideas I've had.

Zuko’s daughter changes how he sees Azula (7/10). Could be worth a short story.

Zuko and Ursa try to isolate Azula (“for her own good”) (9/10). Brilliant dark AU, very subversive of fandom expectations.

Ozai gets exiled and the Gaang stupidly ally with him (6/10). Could be entertaining.

Earth Kingdom ends up with custody of Azula postwar and support her bid for the Fire Nation throne when Zuko starts another war with them. (10/10). Pure, wonderful chaos and Team Avatar are really in a bind.

The Gaang tries to figure out why Zuko joined them. (3/10). Might make a good short story.

Dangerous Ladies find Ursa in Book 2. (10/10). Ursa setting canon of fire is always worth it.

Azula and Toph fake dating (1/10). Not that interested in Tophzula.

Zuko/“world leaders” try to force Aang to take away Azula’s bending and he’s very much not OK with it. (4/10). Not too interesting.

Azula is thrown away to the NWT postwar as a trinket and Chief Arnook adopts her. (9/10). Wonderful idea for how to get a fire sibling adopted by the water tribes and have it make sense.

Comics! Ursa’s letter about Zuko being a bastard gets out. (2/10). Too associated with the comics.

Zuko and Katara lie about what happened during the Agni Kai (4/10). Shrug.

An exiled Azula finds Fire Imperialist! Ursa postwar. (10/10) Absolute banger of an idea, although quite dark. Azula and Ursa unite to overthrow Zuko.

Aang has to save Azula from being executed by Zuko (5/10) OKish

Zuko’s defection during DoBS goes very badly for Mai (4/10)

Zuko joins the Gaang at Ba Sing Se, but it ends poorly (10/10) let's make the writers of all those bad Zvtara fics suffer!

Zuko killed Azula during the Agni Kai, and now he has to deal with the consequences. (6/10). Dark/

AU idea where Zuko keeps Azula permanently imprisoned in bad and torturous conditions postwar, and Izumi finds out about when she’s relatively young, and draws exactly the sort of conclusions about her parents that you would expect. Not to mention being terrified that she might be treated the same way if she missteps… (7/10). Could be interesting.

Ozai never declares Zuko and Iroh traitors (7/10). Clever idea, would destroy canon as we know it.

Iroh-Azula roleswap au (9/10). Would be absolutely incredible.

Zuko asks Azula for help with his firebending. (5/10). I really don't like the fire siblings having a good relationship very much at this point.

Zuko wants Azula to like him but doesn’t get why she doesn’t like him (postwar) (8/10). Good idea for a shorter fic.

Katara has an arranged marriage with Zuko and Azula tries to get into the good graces of her sister in law (7/10). Might be interesting.

“Katara is supposed to have an arranged marriage with Zuko, but she falls in love with Azula instead.” (10/10). No explanation needed.

Another take on Zvtara (arranged marriage) and Maizula. (6/10). Good idea but maybe a little boring.

Azula-Katara AU idea (or: Katara runs into an Azula who has changed a lot in some ways and not very much in others) (7/10). Never could quite gets this to work.

Zuko is actually Ikem’s son (2/10). Enough about the comics!

Firelord Azula ends her brother’s exile 3/10. Nothing particularly interesting.

Azula raises Izumi (it’s complicated) (8/10) Really would be worth engaging with.

“AU idea: Azula commits suicide out of despair, and just about everyone is convinced that Zuko had her murdered or at the very least “encouraged” her to do it.” (3/10). More Zuko angst.

Dangerous Ladies get banished/declared traitors and Azula basically gives up. Mai has to step up her place. (9/10), would be a very interesting look at Mai.

I have to say, “Zuko has to deal with finding out that Ursa very much isn’t who he believed she was” remains excellent fanfic fodder. (8/10). Ursa for the win!

“AU idea: Ursa is more aware of Ozai’s abuse and potential for abuse than in canon, so, right after her exile, she seeks out Iroh and charges him with protecting both of her children.” 6/10. I don't find like Iroh enough to really like an idea which had him be so central.

Firelord Iroh treats Azula in a really screwed up way. 9/10, very dark but could have great payoff.

“AU where Azula dies during the latter stages of the war or right after it, and Mai is the only person who ever morns her as a person, not as a politically convenient symbol (Ty Lee runs away from her complex feelings on Azula as much as she can).” 7/10, could be a good oneshot

Dark idea (5/10).

“Since so much of the fandom is convinced that Azula is Zuko’s older sister, I need an AU where this is true and Zuko is just as throne-obsessed as canon and spends all his time trying to usurp his older sister.” (1/10). Not really an idea which stands on its own.

“AU where Ozai has a heart attack and dies right after the fire siblings return to the Fire Nation, and Zuko and Azula have to pick up the pieces. Meanwhile, the Gaang are plotting to overthrow them and bring the war to a close once and for all…” 8/10. Could be a banger.

King Kuai adopts Azula as his heir 7/10. Interesting idea

Things get complicated, darkly (Azula exiled postwar AU) 6/10. A little convoluted.

What if Zuko tried to be a good brother 5/10. Zuko is boring.

“I really need an AU where Lu Ten returns and is pissed over Ozai’s usurpation, so he kills Ozai, seizes the throne, and continues the war. Of course, Iroh ends up supporting his actual son in all of this, and the conflict in the Fire Nation ends up boiling down to Zuko and Azula vs. Lu Ten and Iroh as the situation spirals toward civil war, at the same time the 100 years war continues.” 8/10. Nice chaotic edge.

“Maizula AU where Mai married Zuko, but he died not long after Izumi was born, and Azula and Mai are secretly carrying out a relationship while raising Izumi and ruling the Fire Nation as her regents.” 8/10. Maizula for the win. Could work as a short story.

Azula joins the Gaang with a twist… 7/10.

“The chaos which would result if Lu Ten showed up alive again in Book 1 and launched a rebellion against Ozai in pursuit of “his” throne.” (5/10). Less interesting than the other Lu Ten ideas.

Ursa opposes Firelord Zuko 7/10. More good Ursa content!

Iroh tries to kill Azula during “The Chase” (5/10). OKish.

Mai and Ty Lee on trial for “war crimes”“ and Azula has to save them 9/10, would be wonder with a great Maizulee dynamic.

[bluegekk0]

Honestly this is a more of a general headcanon thing. Do you think there are cultists who worship the void? Because me and my friends have this Hollow knight DND-esc thing and they have made a void cult group who worship void, and are just everywhere, hell they made a Beast that’s made out of void, Dead vessel shells, and other bits, my friends just really pushed the eldritch horror of it all, so in all honestly do you think people currently would worship void if they found out about it?

I mentioned it before but I do think there was some kind of civilization living in the Ancient Basin/the Abyss region that utilized the void for their progress somehow. I wouldn't say they worshipped it, though, and if some did, it wasn't a widespread thing. Void was simply seen as fuel, or something to be molded into workers (similar to what FPK did with the Kingsmould) or tools.

I imagine that was many hundreds of years before any of the cultures that still exist have developed. They were likely one of the first few groups that settled in the area, and because of their territory being so deep within the mountains, they weren't exactly the most well known to others, and so they aren't many records of them.

The void's dangerous nature didn't become a threat until later, when its pure form mutated and became so ingrained in their culture that members of the community started experiencing its effects at an enormous scale. Mysterious sicknesses became common, with no cure in sight. The bugs were eventually found dead with the substance leaking out of their skulls, and the void began further spreading throughout their settlements, wrapping around their huts and leaking into their houses.

Unlike The White Palace, their territory was poorly lit, the void was in its natural habitat, and as any force of nature, it did not care what was in its way. The bugs that once used it as fuel now became its food, and it was too late to stop. Those who somehow avoided its most deadly effects managed to run away and leave their community behind, but it wasn't enough to preserve it, and they eventually all died off (all of them prematurely, the void particles they breathed in on a daily basis did significant damage to their bodies).

That is how I envision void, as an oil like substance that over time mutated into something more like a living being, and eventually into a united form known as The Shade Lord. But in its pure form it has no agenda, it only wants to be left undisturbed and survive. The bugs were just unfortunate to start a settlement in its natural habitat, and they eventually paid for it.

These days, though, it's not as dangerous. After Ghost united it and then dissolved it, the void returned to its peaceful state deep within the pits of the Abyss. The Ancient Basin is much safer to navigate through, just like it was during FPK's reign, though descending down into the Abyss is still not the best idea, even with the lower amount of void down there.

The only traces of the old civilization that can be found today are the few statues (or perhaps they're fossilized corpses?) and other elements of architecture they made, as well occasional ruins of their settlement poking out of the void lakes. But due to the dangerous nature of the area, no archeologist has traveled here to study them, so they remain a mystery

Also worth mentioning, I don't think the vessels would have an effect like that on other living beings. They have shells that keep the void inside, and while they're partially void beings, the amount isn't enough to harm others, unless their pure void comes directly into contact with someone for a very long time (the civilization died to it because they were so dependent on it for hundreds of years, they let it into every aspect of their lives and it overpowered them). So Holly is safe to be around, but they do have to keep their damaged body parts in check (for instance, wear bandages over the open scars so that the void doesn't leak through). I don't think they would cause any significant harm to those around them, unlike beings of pure void (or the pure void itself, which can only be found in the Abyss), but better safe than sorry.

I doubt there are any void worshippers these days, the void has mutated to the point where it's undoubtedly a dangerous thing to be around - in the very distant past, it wasn't much different from oil. I also don't think The Shade Lord was ever really known to them, so they would have no reason to believe it could become a godly being. I imagine all the godseekers unfortunately didn't survive Ghost's ascension as The Shade Lord, so there are no remaining bugs who know about it, other than those who fought its previous incarnation and/or know of its dangerous nature (so basically only FPK, WL, Grimm and Ogrim).

But who knows, maybe there are some reckless individuals who find a being worth of worship in the void substance. I wouldn't count on them living long enough to spread that idea very far, though.

[putschki1969]

hello! would you say the girls are popular in japan? like if they walk down the street is someone gonna come up and be like omg hi i know you? i know they're not like uber world famous or whatever, but never really thought abt it from that perspective

Hi there!

Sorry for the really late reply, this has been sitting in my drafts for a very long time.

Hmmm, no, I have personally never considered them to be famous in the traditional sense of the word. Even back in their Kalafina days, they weren't very well-known outside of their admittedly quite big but rather contained fanbase (which always surprised me considering the almost-idol-like marketing strategies employed at certain points of their career). Whenever I mentioned them to anyone in Japan (people from all walks of life), that person had no idea who I was talking about. Sometimes not even die-hard anime fans were familiar with them beyond maybe knowing a song or two. I think it's because they never quite crossed into mainstream with their music (which of course was both a blessing and a curse).

Needless to say, they are even less well-known as solo artists.

We know the girls walk down the street, use public transportation, have appointments at salons, engage in leisure activities and eat at a variety of cafés/restaurants without being bothered. Some of those places are more exclusive than others (especially the ones Keiko frequents) but for the most part, they go to regular places with lots of random people. Usually, when they are going out we see them wear some sort of hat and a face mask, nothing too crazy or out of the ordinary, they are clearly not trying to disguise themselves but it's probably an attempt to keep a somewhat low profile.

But honestly, Japan isn't really a place where people would outright approach "famous" individuals in public unless they feel very confident. People generally mind their own business, keep their distance and just try to appear as inconspicuous as possible. With this mindset, I would assume stalking is much more common than active engagement. That's not to say that there aren't exceptions to this rule. Just a few weeks ago a Japanese YK/Kala-fan more or less orchestrated a situation in which he was able to meet Yuriko Kaida and LINO LEIA after finding out where they would be going. He handled the whole thing in a respectful/subtle manner and it worked out pretty well for him so it was fine but it's definitely not something that happens on a regular basis.

Unfortunately, I don't know enough about really big idols/actors/artists but I am sure things are a bit more complicated for them, they are probably more careful with how they act on a day-to-day basis but I doubt they would lock themselves up in their homes. After all, we have seen someone as popular as LiSA casually hang out with Keiko at a random restaurant so she seems to be comfortable being out and about in public.

[mae-i-scribble]

Hi, I hope you're having a nice day - in your author's notes for chapter 2 of The Long Way Home, you mentioned the idea that the story HSY wrote is different from the ORV that we know. I wanted to ask if you've ever written any posts expanding on that? I would love to read more about your thoughts on this (KDJ in your story's last memory being about reading that instead of WoS. Gutted me.)

Hello there! I have unfortunately not written a post detailing this (if you are the very nice anon who has asked me to elaborate on this i am very sorry, if you're not anon i am still very sorry), in large part because doing so in a way that I would be happy with would involve combing through the last 1/3rd or so of the novel. Since the major thematics about authors and characters and readers as one aren't really gotten into until that point. To be honest, I just haven't had the energy for that.

The idea that the novel HSY wrote not being ORV is one that I've always had since first finishing ORV- I can't say where exactly it originated from. Now to be clear, it's an undisputed fact that HSY and kimcom *are* writing about the events they lived through, and I do 100% both understand how and why HSY writing ORV is the more widely accepted theory (them including lines from early orv scenes, the way that it loops right back around into ORV's very meta theming, the way it would match up with the ideas of loop of fate, etc.) I just don't agree with it.

One of the greatest takeaways for me on the author/character theming in ORV is that an author will never fully understand a character they write. HSY and YJH live this out in real time, alongside HSY learning the origins of WoS vs the YJH she has come to know as a companion. In writing WoS she straight up admits that she fudges her memories of him because it isn't as if she could know everything about him- she just wrote the story she thought KDJ needed to hear. (I swear I have a point I promise). HSY as intimate knowledge in how while writing someone, you both grow to understand them intimately while simultaneously remaining clueless. With the experiences she goes through, combined with the fact that KDJ's narration in ORV is so specifically *him* with all its unreliability and the glimpses we get into his past/bits of him on his own without kimcom around, I just don't think ORV is something HSY would have written. To me, she wouldn't have tried to write from KDJ's perspective, already having far too much entanglement in obscuring people and characters with KDJ (and possily from that one scenario where she's almost taken over by the character she's incarnated into, but again, i would need to reread).

Then we reach the point where she writes this novel for the KDJ's across worldlines- or rather, kimcom does. Which I think is another very relevant point, HSY is compiling and spinning this into a narrative, but *everyone* is contributing to it and writing bits and pieces. Now that I type it out, I think that might be part of what makes me so happy with the thought that instead of ORV, HSY is writing that same story but told from kimcom's perspective, not KDJ's like ORV is. The image of everyone coming together to give their own perspective and accounts while HSY compiles and sorts those varying viewpoints into a narrative with KDJ as the focus just warms my heart. In a post I made about the epilogues, I brought up that with this interpretation, you can see it as kimcom writing KDJ as they see him, so that he can understand just why they love him so dearly- which I think is especially poignant considering this novel's true purpose isn't even to bring KDJ back, its to help everyone else heal from the trauma of losing him.

So basically, I can't really give you much of a textual basis for my argument besides for the fact that ORV doesn't straight up say HSY is writing ORV, it's more just was my first takeaway that has forever stuck with me as my preferred interpretation.

(P.S. thank you for taking the time to read my fic, I also loved writing the bit where KDJ remembers that story.)

[kyouka-supremacy]

Gin is such a tricky character. They've got a very good premise and compelling relations with other characters which makes them very interesting to explore. They have near to no screentime which makes everybody have a personal and original idea of what their personality is like with equal canon basis, so that in the end it feels like the fandom is filled with as many different Gin-ocs as people that are in it. I'm forever pursuing the objective, doomed to be unsuccessful by its own premise, of finding a fanfiction that features a Gin characterization that perfectly aligns with my own Gin-oc.

Anyways, meet my Gin-oc:

I already mentioned this, but Gin and Ryuunosuke aren't biologically related. Back in the slums, everyone assumed they were for their similar looks and how they never left each other's side, and they never bothered correcting them; what did it matter anyways? In the end, when all their friends were slaughtered, they ended up being the only family they had.

Gin's quite confident actually: she could cut your throat at any given moment, and she knows it. That's the consequence of always having been quite spoiled by Ryuunosuke: not really with words, but it'd be extremely rare for him to criticize anything she does, and he would let her win on everything more often than not. She is the youngest sibling. The difference in age feels a lot bigger than what it actually is.

Gin's the blunt, sharp type; doesn't talk a lot, but when she does it's sure to cut you. She's similar to Ryuunosuke in that. She's the only one who can speak back to the most feared pm member without fearing consequences... And it shows.

The only thing that intimidates Gin is for people that have only ever known her in her work attire to see her in civilian clothes, or the other way round.

Gin is also a little naive compared to their brother: she doesn't contemplate the endless fight between good and evil or what it means to take a person's life like Ryuunosuke is used to, she just gets her job done. She's younger than Ryuunosuke and, although she's still a feared Port Mafia operative, I think she is fairly more immature than him, also given the fact that, again, Ryuunosuke used to spoil her and always tried to shield her from seeing the most gruesome, terrifying sides of the world. It's not like he managed to keep her blind to everything, she is from the slums too and she did see her family being slaughtered in front of her eyes and she does know how cruel the world can be a thousand times more than your average Yokohama citizen; it's just slightly better than it is with Ryuunosuke, that's it. And keep in mind that to me Ryuunosuke is quite naive too, so they're also close in this.

Gin and Ryuunosuke live together. Ryuunosuke moved them to a little rented apartment as soon as he could when he started receiving pm retribution, and they later moved to a big flat when he got promoted to command unit (the apartment was destroyed after Dazai left the pm because. yeah).

Ryuunosuke was actually against Gin joining the pm too. He never contemplated it being a possibility when he accepted to join himself. But Gin never had any intention to sit around uselessly, and was going to join whether Ryuunosuke liked it or not. He eventually gave in, reasoning the pm would have protected her, so it was all for her to be safe (a little naive thinking on his end, but he was young too).

The one and only time Ryuunosuke ever got mad at Gin was when he found out that she killed someone for the first time. Which like, what else did he expect ever since she joined the mafia? And yet he had thought (perhaps, hoped) that her role would be limited to low stakes missions, and that she would have maintained a low rank (he's a little stupid). He was furious. Which sounds quite hypocrite given the fact that he's killed countless people, but the thing is in his mind he always was the only one supposed to stain himself with sin, never Gin. Despite all the lives he's taken, I have reason to believe Akutagawa still values life and understands what burden it is to take other people's; a burden that Gin should had never known. He's quite the protective kind. But Gin is not afraid of Ryuunosuke (of course, he's her dear brother), and she wasn't afraid to speak back at him; in the end, she did what she wanted, but it was a tough tooth to swallow for Ryuunosuke.

No one has to know they're siblings– no one. Ryuunosuke is dead serious on the matter and mildly obsessed by it; he's tormented by the idea of any of his enemies getting revenge on him through Gin, and that's literally his greatest fear and worst nightmare (not only Gin dying, but also Gin's death being his fault). The only people to know they're related are the executives and Hirotsu; if Ryuunosuke ever found out anyone else knew, he would instantly hunt them down and kill them, no matter who they were. At work, Gin and Ryuunosuke act like they don't know each other; Gin never protested, because she understands just how vital the matter is for their brother, and how it would be impossible to change his mind on this.

Gin and Ryuunosuke love each other more than anything. They're always going to be each other's priority, always, I can't stretch this enough. 50% of the reasons Ryuunosuke joined the pm to begin with was because of Gin, because he wanted to take her away from the slums, because he wanted her to be safe. Yet they just... Have no idea how to help or comfort each other. Both of them are entirely inadequate with words when it's about comforting someone. So their only way to show affection ended up just being there for each other, silently. I can picture, in one of Akutagawa's lowest moments, when months of being beaten up are starting to really feel on his already frail body, and his illness is starting to emerge, him vomiting blood at home; and Gin just being next to him without saying a word– because what could she possibly say? But she's still there, next to him, and she's the most important thing for him; and it doesn't make the world any less cruel, doesn't lessen the pain that's killing both of them, but at least there's some sort of white comfort in knowing they're not facing it alone. I really believe that as much as Dazai worked to dehumanize Ryuunosuke, tried to make of him a mindless killing beast only existing to follow orders, Gin was the only thing left to keep Ryuunosuke hanging to the glimmer of humanity left in him. On that front, I find the relationship between them to be similar to the one Kyouka and Atsushi share in Beast: their life is walking through the darkest of nightmares, but they do so holding each other's hand.

Although, those moments of connection became always less frequent as time passed and both of them grew up. The more time Ryuunosuke spent working for the pm under Dazai, the more he was reluctant to show himself vulnerable, the more they grew apart. Ryuunosuke was going through a very hard time and for him it was of vital importance that Gin had nothing to do with it. On Gin's end, it was draining to have to powerlessly, passively witness her brother slowly destroy himself and his own humanity without being able to do anything about it, and ironically that led to her distancing herself from Ryuunosuke in turn. In a funny, cruel way, seeing Ryuunosuke so pained without being able to do anything about it activated the fight or flight response the slums installed in her: since there was nothing immediately tangible she could fight against, her instinctive response was to run away from the situation. I just feel like powerlessly having to see a dear one suffer so deeply without being able to do anything has the potential to be even more painful than having to bear the suffering yourself, and I can see how she would have wanted to distance herself from it. Gin and Ryuunosuke didn't move away or anything, but the time they spent together significantly decreased to the point they were both actively avoiding each other. Ryuunosuke was constantly moody and angry at the world and although it was never - ever - directed at Gin, can you really blame her if she didn't want to spend time with him? It's hard for me to explain this without making it sound like Gin didn't care about Akutagawa, wasn't aware and suffered from his pain, didn't want to help him; because she really did care, and was concerned for his suffering, and wanted to help. It's just something really hard to deal with on daily basis when it drags on for several years, and there's so little you can do, especially if the person you want to help would rather die than let you help them.

It got better, though. I feel like Ryuunosuke touched the bottom when Dazai left the pm. But his and Gin's relationship got better after that. Very slowly, very gradually, but it got better. I like to think something switched in Ryuunosuke with the Moby Dick fight, and he started to change. And if he had to change, he decided to start from his relationship with Gin, because she's the person he cares about the most. He tried to be there for her more often, tried to spend more time with her, and it made her so happy. It took a while, and it was a little awkward at first: after all, Ryuunosuke is still his brooding self, who will tell her “It's been a while // Let's go home” with a frown on his face; but even despite that, what matters is that he's still there where he wasn't before, he's there wanting to spend time with her, and Gin is overjoyed by it, and she smiles sweetly to him. They're fixing their bond together, and I think they will get there! I think they will get their close-to-normal siblings relationship.

Differently from Ryuunosuke, Gin actually grew to quite like her job, especially after the Black Lizard was born. Hirotsu soon enough became the closest to a father figure she could have ever wished for. And she has lots of fun with Tachihara– in a way, they share much more of a siblings relationship than she and Ryuunosuke ever had. They constantly jab at each other, they have inside jokes; they threaten each other's lives on the daily but unfailingly have each other's back in battle. Gin eventually opened up a lot to Tachihara, who she felt like was the only one who could really understand her; she had found a solid common ground in their shared experience of having a distant older brother they struggled to connect with. And she trusted the sentiment was mutual, that Tachihara opened up to her as much as she did to him, completely oblivious to his half-truths. When she found out he was a spy– when he told her he was a spy, it broke her. She felt deeply, thoroughly betrayed; it changed her. She's not much the forgiving type. (talked about the Black Lizard dynamics some more here)

[through-lines]

I've had this idea floating around my head for a while that I've been calling xenogastronomy.

There's been talk here and there about food for nonhumans and alternatives that are safe for our bodies, but what I have in mind is more so this:

How do you make a dish that requires ingredients that don't exist?

How do you replicate flavors that the human body is incapable of tasting?

Basically, it's otherworldly cooking/eating; culinary experiments to (re)create food from worlds beyond this one. And I'd rather have this concept in more culinarily capable hands, but meanwhile, I've been brainstorming dish ideas that are personal to me…

As I mentioned previously, I have ideas about what kind of food I ate as a Nightmare/n, and part of those ideas is that food tastes a little weird: either there's qualities to our food that you just don't get in human food, or we're capable of tasting flavors that humans can't. Maybe they can be roughly approximated to human tastes, but there's always something missing. (Which is a depressingly common theme in my attempts to recall things about my experiences in that world.)

One of the things I'm contemplating is creating meat dishes that involve meat that doesn't exist--which is technically all meat dishes, but it's probably good enough to use mutton for a sheep-like creature's meat. But pian…are not like anything. And maybe there's a certain quality to that mutton that the "real"-world equivalent doesn't offer. So an experiment I'd like to try (if I ever get the time and space to) is messing around with ingredients used to make and flavor foods used as meat substitutes (e.g. tofu and seitan). What could you use in addition to (or in place of) water? What can you use to create strange or unexpected flavors? Could radishes be used to incorporate that burning-tingling feeling into dishes? Things like that.

It becomes apparent to me that a lot of my Nightmare/n dish ideas seem to solve the "flavors aren't quite right" problem by creating overstimulating flavors or stimulating flavors that maybe shouldn't be there by human standards. Which seems like a problem if I ever published recipes! But maybe someone'll find it interesting, if not very edible…

A more grounded alternative is food from my home on the islands. My interpretation is that technically, a lot of ingredients aren't necessarily 1:1 to ingredients here, but are close enough that it's splitting hairs to try and recreate them.

And then there's the pa/opu fruit.

I would very much like to know how to make a fruit. Even if it were say, diced up, recreating the experience of eating fresh fruit would be wonderful. But I know I'll never get the tools to breed ~designer fruits~, and I know that infusing fruit only goes so far, especially when you're adamant about getting the right flavor and texture.

But fruit juice blends are a thing. Many exotic fruits have their flavors described as being a blend of more common fruit/food flavors. Creating a fruit is borderline impossible; creating a fruit juice blend that at least has the flavors is much more feasible. And while it's not the same as eating fresh fruit, fruit juice is the basis for many desserts, which is a fun way to incorporate a flavor from your home into this world. Even if those particular desserts weren't eaten in your home, if you enjoy eating these desserts now, you can still have a taste of home. Neat, right?

Like a pa/opu wedding cake? Come on. That's such a cute idea. I'm just imaging how you could decorate that and the ingredients you could add to that and it makes me happy. It's fun, and it brings a bit of culture A into culture B.

And that's the appeal of xenogastronomy to me! It's a blending of cultures to help me feel a little more at home, in a world where "home" is just stories. A sort of defiant gesture to make those stories a little more real.

Of course, like I said…I don't really have the time or space or culinary know-how to figure this stuff out. But I'm hoping one day I will, and in the meantime, it's still nice to brainstorm. Get those creative juices flowing, come up with ideas to act on when the time is right.

[sortyourlifeoutmate]

So I've seen a lot of interesting opinions regarding the riots or, rather, interesting opinions regarding the response from the authorities to the riots, and a lot of these interesting opinions have also been bad opinions.

I am not the ultimate arbitrator of what is and isn't correct, obviously, but I'm better than some it turns out, so let's give out a little. Because damn.

(And even by my standards this is a little verbose and angry, so let's just put in a little read more here to spare people.)

As you may or may not be aware, there were some riots recently. Who am I kidding, you're aware. You also probably have a fairly solid idea of what lead to what. Horrible murder, ridiculous lies, racists, Gregg's gets looted. It wasn't pleasant.

With that as preamble, let's see some nonsense.

So yes, this seems like a great place to start. A sober and level-headed analysis of the riots that immediately veers into "The foreigners are united and invading" and operates from this baseline, assuming that it is common-sense and just plain reality.

No, sir. You are silly. The riots may have been racially-motivated in the main (we can piss and moan and poke and probe about the corrosive effects of austerity and other such interesting causes but they sort of lose a lot of their heft in the face of predominantly white crowds yelling 'We want out country back') but assuming that the racist people racistly rioting had a point is, uh, wrong. They don't and didn't, and neither do you, you big cocking racist.

Attempting to conquer and colonize indeed. They're not, and saying such things make you sound like a person who does not perhaps have a solid grasp on, well, anything. I assume you can put your trousers on yourself in the morning, but frankly I'll be happy never know.

(PS: What the fuck does 'if the native British want to survive they need to unite racially' mean, exactly? Working off the basis that you are a big cocking racist I can just assume you mean 'White people have to keep everyone else out' but that's not really, uh, that's not great? What's British, exactly? What's native British? Do Normans count? How far back are we going? Why are we even bothering to ask because, at this point, we realise we are talking to be a big ol' racist.)

Moving on.

Okay look. No-one likes the idea of the government arresting you for saying something and that's, you know, fine, but there seems to be this idea that the UK government is on a tear right now just locking up anyone who so much as mentions riots or immigration and that's... not... true...?

You see in this country a thing you can get in trouble for is incitement of violence or racial hatred or some combination of those things. Now normally, thanks to the parlous state of the courts and the police your odds of getting away with that sort of thing are pretty good, but in the wake of explicitly racist riots you being cheeky and posting that hilarious "We should totally burn all the brown people, let's all meet at this location at this time and 'peacefully protest' (wink)" meme is likely to be viewed rather more dimly.

(As an aside, despite what certain elements would also have you believe, this lackadaisical attitude towards dealing with hate speech and such online does cut both ways - the police aren't going to kick down your door for saying all trans people are sexual predators or whatever (with probably one or two exceptions just so people can roll them out and point at them gleefully) while ignoring racists. They're just going to ignore pretty much all of it all the time anyway. There's a lot! Just normally not riots.)

They need to make a point, basically, and need to make it clear that even if you didn't go out and, say, loot a Gregg's or burn a library or something else similarly patriotic, you're not going to be getting away with being a big ol' riot-organising, hatred-stoking racist.

Is that good or bad? I suppose that depends on how much you enjoy being a big fucking racist on the internet, but if you want to criticise the government - and I enjoy it, personally - you can still do that without ending up in jail so, I don't know, maybe put Orwell back in his box, eh? Maybe let's keep him in our back pocket until we need him, yeah?

Christ...

Oh and by the way, should there be consequences for lying? I don't know. Maybe? Depends on what your lying does! Nowadays it seems to be the bread and butter of a lot of people to just talk shit and then shrug and say well they didn't know any better. Was the attacker Muslim? Oh I don't know, so I'll just err on the side of the caution and say yes he was an an asylum seeker at that WHOOPSIE oh no a riot oh well not my fault my hands are clean oh and by the way we're being invaded.

Normally you'd probably get away with that! Not after a riot! Again! Context!

Argh.

And in a similar vein.

You're just wrong. The UK is not going to be sending out international goon squads to nab citizens of other countries who have been talking shit. We don't have time for that, we don't have the money for that.

(Also no-one is apolitical, don't be silly.)

And again, there's this notion that the merest mention of the riots is sufficient to attract governmental ire and, like, no, we'd never get anything done. And the very euphemistic 'discussing the people's demands within these riots' given that what that is gesturing vaguely towards is, you know, the racists.

The racists who rioted? The 'enough is enough' nazi-saluting, 'Are you white if not we'll drag you out your car' crowd? I wonder why discussing them might be bad? Could it be because the people who do that are also racists operating from the position that the riots were, if unfortunate (because they made them look bad), stemming from a legitimate source? So they tend to circulate the same lies that caused the fucking riots in the first place?

Well, 'caused'. Built the bonfire and set the kindling. You know what I mean. The people who bang on for years about 'invaders' and 'failure to integrate' and 'ooh er Muslims they're a bit shifty' and then are shocked - shocked! - when some people act on these statements! Shocked I say!

I'm veering off-course. It's been a long day.

In summation. No. You are wrong. You are all wrong and, in one instance, just a fucking racist.

The rioters were racists. They did not have a legitimate cause of concern or issue or any solutions or anything really at all. They were violent cunts out to be violent cunts and found a good reason to be violent cunts. They don't like Muslims, they don't like brown people, they tend to assume most brown people are Muslim, they like fucking shit up. They are not complex.

The swirling melange of things feeding into the riots? Maybe more complex. And by that I mean the years terrible rhetoric where immigrants and asylum seekers and Muslims are used as sticks to poke and prod an electorate having its life ruined by terrible policies and a world that's just generally getting worse.

See them? It's their fault! Don't look at us! It's their fault!

That parts sort of interesting. But that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about racist, violent cunts. We're talking about people trying to set hotels on fire when people were inside. We're talking about people punching people in the face because they dared to be black and walk near them. We're talking about people on the internet spreading what they know are lies with the specific purpose of making things worse and intentionally triggering what they hope against hope is going to be a race riot, because that's their deal.

So yes, make all of the Keir Jong Un jokes you like. They're going to bang some rioters up, throw some online idiots in jail as an example to others, and then get back to the serious business of making all of our lives worse by cutting public services.

And stop, uh, being such credulous idiots. Basically.

Extraditing non-UK citizens indeed. Fucking listen to yourselves...

We're not America! Or Mossad.

[nayvwriter]

Thoughts an the Renegades from extinction? Do you have a favorite?

Hi hello yes I have many thoughts

(n2 spoilers)

I have many many thoughts on the Renegades. We're going to need to talk about what the word means, to start with. It's one of those times when I know what the in-game explanation is and usually ignore it?

Lydia says that being a Renegade isn't about owning a Tyrant, it's about not following the Guild's rules. This has the fun implications that Lydia is using a different definition for the word than everyone else but is still applying it to herself on the basis that she knows she's working against the Guild.

If that's the original reasoning behind the word, then how did it get changed? Just a coincidence, that the Renegades found Tyrants? It also gets implied that the Renegades were the ones who were working on the dragon project.

So that's the official explanation for what the word means. It's fun for Lydia's character arc, but - as you can see from the entire fic I wrote based off the concept of Renegades - I usually ignore it and go with the other meaning.

A Renegade as someone with a Tyrant. But more specifically...

A Renegade as someone with a Tyrant, who can command their powers. If anyone argues with me here, I will gesture to New Ignitia. Lydia is shown creating a whirlwind that blows away Jin and Mulcimer, without the use of any Nexomon. So she clearly has wind powers, and her Tyrant is wind type.

(This is especially impressive given wind is weak to fire. Unless Jin and Mulcimer allowed this to happen so they wouldn't end up in prison, which is certainly one theory to explain Lydia's hunting of the Renegades.)

I will also gesture to the protagonist, their 'egg' that 'gives them powers', and specifically the Renegades' reactions to it.

We know the Renegades aren't aware of the Solus plan from some of the things that happen in the revivals. Atlanta, for example, has no idea what you are talking about. I don't remember it that well, but I don't think Celine does either.

In New Ignitia again, Jin hears Coco mention using an egg and sees the protagonist use fire, and comes to the conclusion that the protagonist is hatching a Tyrant. This really makes it seem like the whole 'egg with powers' thing is not something Deena made up, it's an actual thing that could happen? Or at least, Jin thinks it might be.

Celine doesn't hear anything about an egg, and when the protagonist shows use of powers, she immediately comes to the conclusion that the protagonist has a Tyrant. So presumably that's more likely than Egg.

How do the Renegades harness the power of their Tyrants? It's really not stated, but I have to assume there's some sort of connection there, otherwise anyone nearby could use it. I've seen other people use a 'Tyrant-Renegade telepathy' sort of idea, so I'm clearly not alone in thinking of a connection here.

I am, however, the only one who's gone this far with the whole idea (gestures at my entire fic). Read Hope's Renegades if you want to see me going insane over the potential of Renegades as an idea. And also other things, this fic is not just about the idea of Renegades (but it's mostly about the idea of Renegades). I had so much fun.

I thought about how a connection like this would happen, and what the implications would be. I don't want to say too much because I don't want to spoil my fic (and also because it's better explained in said fic, I find it easier to write stuff than talk about it). But the way I interpreted it in that fic is definitely not the only possible way. Just the one I really really liked.

And yes I have a favourite Renegade. It's Lydia. She is so cool I love her. Behind that is Atlanta, then Celine I think? But they're all cool and I like them all.

...I have no idea if this is what you wanted as a response, but I haven't actually made a post that's just talking about the concept of Renegades yet, so I figured this was a good time.