#love both the canon and fanon designs though both go hard

[makk0ii]

the contrast between what people thought Irep/Anti-Peri would look like between what he actually looks like is so funny

[xpau-official]

I do not mean to be rude at all but Cross hates being called Sans canonly. There are many comics of him rejecting the name “Sans”

I wasn’t sure if you knew but yea!!! Of course this is your comic so you can do whatever but I just wanted to let you know 🫶

That’s only in Underverse and after the events of Xtale, and I’m pretty sure he only hates it after the conflict with the X-Event.

I didn’t overlook this detail. I made only XPapyrus call him that for a reason, as he is HIS Sans. Similar to how Underswap Paps calls Blue “Sans”. They’re brothers from the same universe, they don’t call each other by their AU name. Does that make sense?

At the end of the day, he is still a Sans, and he is one of the Sanses at the party. XPAU doesn’t take place during any particular time, so progressive plots like Underverse that change the designs and character development over time don’t have much impact on it. Things like him having his scar are just a design choice, as he was drawn with it a lot before more updates of the series.

I’ve always thought of XPAU as having no timeline. It has events from both the past, present, and future. But there’s really no need to think too hard about it.

I understand that there’s a lot of things going on in Underverse, but please don’t carry over those plots to XPAU. It’s just supposed to be a dumb, lighthearted and fun party. This is a fanon series, and although I love to try sticking to canon, some things just don’t happen. So please don’t get at me for getting a fact or two wrong. I’m trying to keep it away from being too OOC while still making it fun. You guys are literally getting to kiss skeletons in ugly sweaters lmao.

If I’m wrong, then that’s on me, my bad. I’ll take the L, though I don’t really appreciate these kinds of comments. I get that it comes from good intentions, just…eh. It’s not fun, you know? But thanks.

[prototypelq]

dante and lucia for the ship bingo!

Thank you, for the ask, dear mutual)

(sounds stupid but do we call them dancia?)

Like, If we were given just a tiny bit more interactions between them, besides the dmc2 plot, I would go salivating-rabies-deranged about them. I think they would be the nicest, softest ship of this fandom, right there with NeroKiri or Sparda x Eva)

(I can confidently bet that a sweet girl like Lucia would make Dante go all 'shining knight' on her, because he is very much a gentleman like that, I am Weak for this okay)

And I am, very much soft for the softness like that)

I think they would, just, look together very good? Not the strongest arguement for a ship, but seriously, their designs just look super Neat together, you know? Also the story parallels between the two as very interesting - demon raised as human and indistinguishable from one, and a hybrid, who has very much more than just human behaviours and tendency, but both ultimately doubting their good nature and humanity. I think they could strive for good nature and values together, it would be an easier metaphorical journey with a partner, and it's kind of a 'the moment they met each other they found what they're looking for, they just don't realise it yet' trope for them.

That said, I think I prefer them in a separate Non-Canon space. I definitely want More material for them, but away from canon.

Like, the mention that Lucia sent Dante mail in, I think it was the dmc5 novel, brought me to the edge of madness over these two. I gaze into that abyss, I see so much potential there, but at the same time, let's be honest, it's out there on its own. Not like this ship would devalue the core family themes of the series, but it just... doesn't have any good space to fit it in.

95% of the series Dante is Depressed As Hell, and the demons that torment him just wouldn't let much of anything happen, nor will they go away untill dmc5 ending. There just really isn't a good time or place to develop a strong relationship for him, though the open-ending of dmc5 could present some opportunities after that plotline's done, and the idiots presumably have their 'happily ever after'.

As for Lucia, I just wish we got more of her. She is so neat, I love her quite strongly for no real reason xD The most I can wish for canon Lucia is for Dante to just... be decent with her, to talk like normal people and to apologise for ignoring her all those years, I think she deserves that, cause the way things ended between them in the dmc2 just wasn't good. They could absolutely be friends in canon tho, I'd really wish that for them.

(...what if they make up and then start developing feelings through mailing each other...what did I say about being weak for them. anyway, if there is any shipping to be made with those it, it can come Only after the Sparda Family Issues TM are mostly dealt with, which is uh, a big milestone to clear, so again, this is hard to implement in canon. I do think it would have the most healing effect post dmc5 tho)

TLDR I just think they are So Neat, and I want MORE of them, but it's best be in fanon territory

[walnutcookie]

Infodump on your AUs where Langue has multiple siblings, NOW!

AH !!!!! SALUTES. SIR YES SIR !! (TYSM FOR THIS ASK ANON AUUUAEUAUUEUEUEHEE<33 I WASNT EXPECTING ANYONE TO ASK ME ABT THIS /POS ...)

okay so. i shall go au by au

Bredele de Cassonade AU

This one is,, not really an au of mine?? I guess just my friends fanon FHSDKFDK for context bredele de cassonade (or just dele for short) is langue de chats sibling who is owned by @/localhypnofruit!!! zey were originally created and designed by me for an au where langue wasnt born (name will not be mentioned for Reasons) though we loved the goober a bit too much X] Socks has taken ownership and developed deles personality and such, while i adore them i prefer to keep langue as an only child in my own headcanon universe because i feel like it works really well for their character. ALTHOUGH me and socks still enjoy discussing the two,, In short dele looks up to langue since they appear very intelligent and confident and strong but in reality langue is a jealous little fuck who just sees dele as competition and just lies to his face because they can and it makes them feel like theyre better than zem. Langue is a lawyer while dele is a doctor (stereotypical Big Boy jobs) and they are disgusted by deles entire career because they have a weak stomach and cant stand gore of any kind and again they feel like they need to out-perform dele and be better than zem in every way HFSDJF

I dont think that the original Dele au really counts so i wont give it a section but its worth an honorable mention!! They technically arent siblings since langue was never born and thus dele basically replaced them (which of course comes with a LOOT of bitter feelings and EXTREME jealousy) and not even their parents know who they are,, so. Technically siblings but not exactly

Xylitol Langue AU

This was another au me and socks talked about :] well. it was more of a Concept actually we didnt do much with it HFSDJHFSDKJ in short (from my memory) Langue is an alien from planet xylitol who gets sent to earthbread to learn more about it and ends up being adopted by deles family aka their canonical parents. Struggles to adapt and is very homesick but i think they grow very close with dele.? i dont remember and i dont feel like checking so um. hi army if youre reading this sorry if i got it wrong HELP

BNB AU

This is. You guessed it. another au with langue and dele YAAAY!!! thats actually 90% of these aus but they all have very different relationships which is why im still listing them HFJSDHJF in this one langue trains and studies as hard as they can to become a magical (magical girl gender neutral) and then becomes a kingdom-wide celebrity and completely forgets about their family because they are so blinded by their stardom. Sad ! dele misses them dearly </3

Molasses AU

Another langue and dele au <3 in this one their parents ended up dying when they were Very young so they were adopted by one of their parents siblings named molasses,, who is very neglectful. Literally does not care one ounce about these kids and yet still gets pity from the rest of their extended family because he took in the poor little orphan siblings. Langue and dele become very VERY close, literally inseparable and as self-reliant as they can be. langue is confident and Loud enough to speak up for both of them "excuse me they asked for NO pickles" while dele is more emotional and physical support :] since dele is quite quiet and langue sucks at comfort and care. Basically the second they can they get out of molasses' house and move in with each other and langue sues his ass the SECOND they can FHDFHDS the two of them still end up struggling a lot though </3 Langue is still very tough on dele but more in a caring way than just an Im Better Than You way

Choco Family AU

this is SHOCKINGLY not a dele au!! This one is about langue being adopted into the Choco B family (choco bar, choco ball, my oc choco bass and @/vnillatree's oc choco bark :]) Theyre the one Chill One and then their siblings are energetic and athletic and very VERY rough they keep ending up in wrestling matches when they never wanted to wrestle in the first place. Torture langue simulator. Family of annoying athletes and their one nerdy sibling

TYSM AGAIN FOR THIS ASK <333 I appreciate it so much i love being asked things randomly.. The best...... I have more aus but this is all ill list for now hehehe

[imhereformr]

Saw this. Thought it seemed fun to share the opinions I have that none of you asked for. I'd credit the original creator of it, but I found like 5 people claiming it's theirs 🤷🏻‍♀️

Favourite character: Musa

I feel like this one needs little explaining.

She's been my favourite since I was 9/10 (which, yes, was in 2004 when the show first came out). I'm pretty sure Musa had a major influence on my current taste in women (that is, dark haired tomboys)

Least favourite character: Faragonda

I've got issues with this shady bitch. She acts like she's all for helping her students and then turns around and keeps major secrets from them. Not to mention she sends teenagers on death missions (Saladin gets a pass on this cause that's literally what his students are at Red Fountain to do and Griffin doesn't do it cause she's a queen).

All in all, fuck this woman and her fake-ass grandma attitude.

Favourite villain: Darcy

Yes, specifically Darcy. Stormy is close behind, but I just don't like Icy enough for the trix as a whole to be my favourite.

Darcy not only has, by far, the coolest powers on this show but she's also the most interesting villain. Whereas all the other villains are obviously in it for power or for fun (looking at you, Stormy), it seems like Darcy isn't quite as set on power. She's putting in the effort, but I feel like, if it weren't for Icy (mostly) and Stormy, she would never have seeked out that power.

But also her character design is beautiful. I mean, the 70s aesthetic… amazing.

Least favourite villain: Tritannus

I just really don’t like looking at him.

Also I feel like his story is weak af. Just give him some land (water?) to be duke of or something.

Also also that Tritannus/Icy thing 🤢

Most overrated: Flora

BEFORE YOU SEND ME ANGRY MESSAGES: I do not HATE Flora.

I just don’t understand why people love her so much. I just don't think she’s interesting enough. Canon Flora is boring. She has no spice. All of her flavour comes from what the fans have made of her.

Fanon Flora, love her dearly. Canon Flora, equivalent to flour (heh, get it? Flour, Flower).

Most underrated: Timmy

A king.

This man does not get the love and appreciation he deserves. Not only is he brilliant, he is also adorably nerdy, he is kind, he is loyal, he is patient, he is a god-tier boyfriend, he is a lovable and honest friend. 

TLDR: He is too good and pure for this world.

If you dislike this man, kindly remove yourself from my page. That shit will not be tolerated. This is a no Timmy slander area.

Favourite season: Season 2

This season holds both some of my least favourite episodes as well as my most favourites. We’ve got an interesting relationship, me and season 2.

That being said, it holds a special place in my heart. Mainly because of the Musa/Riven development, but also the addition of Aisha.

Least Favourite season: Season 5

I only picked season 5 because i don’t think ive ever seen season 6 or 7 fully. I’ve seen parts of season 6 (the ones that pertained to Musa and Riven), but I don’t think that’s enough for me to judge it properly.

Season 5 is just bad all around: mediocre villain, juvenile, probably some bad Bloom/Sky drama that I blocked from memory, that infuriating episode where they forced Tecna and Timmy to go on a irl date, that stupid ass plot where Musa thought Riven was cheating on her, the fucking ridiculous Helia/Flora/Krystal drama.

Favourite fairy form: Enchantix

Beautiful. Classic. Ethereal.

Least favourite fairy form: Sirenix

The Sirenix song, an absolute bop. Sirenix itself, hard no. It’s just… 🤮🤮

Now, again, I am not considering season 6 and 7 as I haven’t seen them properly. Butterflix is a strong contender for least favourite, though.

Favourite episode: Season 2 Episode 15 – The Show Must Go On (Magic in My Heart in 4kids)

Musa performing for the first time in the show. Musa and her dad starting to work on their relationship. Riven putting himself out of his comfort zone for Musa. It’s beautiful 🥲🥲🥲

Least favourite episode: Season2 Episode 9 – Professor Avalon’s Secret (The Angel of Doom in 4kids)

The one where Tecna trades in her base fairy form's hat for a tinfoil hat.

This episode gives me so much secondhand embarrassment.

Favourite couple: Musa and Riven

I mean…. Yeah, obviously.

Least favourite couple: Aisha and Roy

Nabu should never have died

But he did and I have begrudgingly accepted that

BUT FFS LET AISHA MOURN. You made Nabu her soulmate, made them literally perfect together, killed him, made her rage for A SINGLE episode, be sorta sad for the rest of season 4 and the BOOM! Season 5 happens and she’s basically forgotten Nabu ever existed

NO! NON! JE REFUSE! C’EST D’LA CRISS DE MARDE. NON. NON. NON. NON. NON.

Also Roy’s hair looks like a highlighter. Like, y’all make fun of onion boy's hair (as do I because seriously why the fuck is with Riven's hair design), but this man looks like an office supply that has a single use. Onions are not only good to cook with in almost every single recipe in existence (barring desserts) (I am a very bad cook, so do not question me on this) (I am a great baker though, so I know for a fact that onions and dessert is a no no). but they’re also great for throwing at people!

Favourite sidekicks: The Specialists

Look me in the eyes and tell me you believe these idiots are anything more than sidekicks to their girlfriends.

If you said yes, ask yourself if you can remember them going on a single mission without it being to assist the winx since season 1? No. That’s right. You can’t.

These pretty boys exist solely to assist their girlfriends on missions and be eye candy. That’s it. That’s their purpose in life and they are excelling at it.

Least favourite sidekick: The pets

I hate the pixies, but they had their funny moments. These things on the other hand are abso-fucking-lutely useless.

[scoupsahoy]

so i, like most people, pretty much subscribe to the bisexual steve harrington and bisexual nancy wheeler cinematic universes and all that and i've never really had any conflicting thoughts about it

but i was thinking about it this morning and i'm having gay thoughts and i just wanted to pitch them as a lesbian projecting my experiences onto these guys

specifically steve and nancy are so interesting when thinking about this because - partly because they dated - their fanon identities are SO popular and pretty rigid that it's almost accepted as canon. and i dont want to step on that at all but i do want to explore it...

i'm gonna go back and forth but we're gonna dip our toe in with steve.

the thing about him is that basically since season 1 he's been - not queer coded - but definitely immediately latched onto by both fandom and the actors as queer in some way. the guy who played tommy hagan apparently played tommy as harboring feelings for steve, same with dacre as billy, and the way ostensibly one of the only popular ships in the first couple of years or so was stoncy. so like there's this groundwork there which is admittedly impacted by the fact that joe is like. an attractive white adult man. obviously.

but i'm sitting here as a lesbian also really drawn to steve for a lot of reasons but particularly because i see a lot of myself in him? i'm running with something here okay -

season 1 steve is head over heels for nancy. that's, like, undeniable, and honestly the main reason people think he's attracted to women at all but !

he's practiced. he knows what to say to girls. and everyone tells him he's barking up the wrong tree. nancy is too smart for him and honestly super uncomfortable when tied to him. she's playing hard to get, that's his favorite game. she sleeps with him, sure, but she doesn't tell anyone about it, she doesn't like how affectionate he is all the way up to season 2, is honestly incapable of saying she loves him. he's heartbroken by that, but he's not surprised. he's spent a lot of time basically trying to force this pretty little box to close tightly and it bursts open in his hands. and he's upset even though he knew it wouldn't all fit.

there's this through-line with nancy that she's being misunderstood all the time and she resents it, that she knows what she wants and makes it clear to herself but nobody can read her well enough to figure it out. and steve is part of that. she's vaguely uncomfortable with him and his affection and how much he loves her and honestly deeply resents him for not being able to see her and her priorities.

for nancy, she's with steve because he's nice and funny and attractive and he's who she should want to be with. he makes her feel good and gives her butterflies and whatever but it's not really steve she likes, is it? she likes that steve likes her and fights for her and respects her and shows her love and for a year she convinces herself that that's what love is!!

but it's not. of course it's not. she didn't love steve and she doesn't even really know she doesn't until he asks her to say it. and she can't. she didn't know she was lying until she was confronted with it and it's deeply sad for steve but it's also deeply sad for her.

maybe this is just me projecting as someone who was "boy crazy" through middle and high school, but the person you have tricked yourself into thinking you loved noticing that you don't, won't, can't love them, feels like shit. you want to prove them wrong. you want to prove yourself wrong.

because nancy is different than steve. after barb dies, she is no longer friendly with like. any girls. at all. honestly until season 4 when ronance started to get popular she was probably most often headcanoned as this badass straight girl or whatever, which is fine obviously, but also maybe by design?

her best friend is a lesbian (overwhelmingly in fanon) and after she dies she only interacts with men until robin. boys understand her and she wants to prove to them that she's tough and they like her, she's the queen of hawkins high or whatever fred benson says to her.

like. immediately after she ends things with steve, she's with jonathan, because he likes her a lot and he sees her more clearly than steve did and she thinks: okay this is what i needed, this one is right, it's better, it's good

come season 3, she's frustrated again because jonathan doesnt really understand her the way she wants to be understood. but they love each other! she wants to make this work! she's the most driven person she knows, she is determined and stubborn and after everything, there's no reason she shouldn't want to be with jonathan. so they make it work and it's good. all patched up.

brief look back at steve: hitting on women and completely striking out this entire season. it's comical actually. it's actually embarrassing how bad he strikes out, it's like his spark is gone, like he's not even trying! he hardly has the time, anyway, with the kids and work and the upside down. all that.

and then, after some pressing with dustin, he falls for robin. like falls for her. and she's totally different from nancy, because nancy wasn't emotionally available, nancy would never have been able to love him, he's come to terms with that. but robin?

oh she's a lesbian.

season 4. steve is going on dates with girls he doesn't like, who don't like him, who he's not even interested in. robin points it out: you have no idea what you want. which is true. he's very easily swayed. he falls fast and hard but it's never good, he wants something REAL. robin knows exactly what she wants. if only they could combine...

enter nancy wheeler. getting slow-motion broken up with by her boyfriend, too busy to care. boys love her, by the way, she's sought-after, but she has a good excuse. she has a boyfriend that lives far away. she doesnt know why he doesn't come to visit her, but she's also not really interested in coming to visit him either. they're at a stalemate. and it's perfect. she gets to live her life free of romance because she technically already has a boyfriend who loves her very much.

and then her and steve are thrown back together again, and they're so different from how they used to be after less than a year and a half. they've grown and they. woah, they want completely different things. he wants six kids and she thinks that's a nightmare. she doesn't want to be like her mom, doesn't want some big nuclear family, and the problems she and steve had haven't gone away, but she still flirts with him. she thinks it's fun. it doesn't mean anything. she's with jonathan now.

and everyone is up both of their asses like: oh my god nancy and steve need to get back together, they lost each other along the way, they were destined to be together.

but really. steve couldn't be going after someone less interested in him if he tried, with nancy. not with robin or the girls he goes on dates with. he's so positive he likes girls, and these girls never ever like him back (and when they do... he's painfully disinterested), and he doesn't consider why he keeps crawling back to something so unattainable on purpose. over and over again.

and nancy, really is only chasing the opposite of what other people expect from her. she doesn't want to be her mom. she doesnt want to be with steve. she doesnt want to be with jonathan. but thats what everyone thinks she wants. and the worst part is that she doesn't really know what she wants! because this is what she knows she's supposed to want! she's got to be with some man if she's going to get anywhere she wants in life. but god, it is never about the men at all.

im just sitting here holding steve harrington by the face, like: please examine why you are exclusively interested in women that want nothing to do with you. examine why you're so determined to make things work with people you know it will not work with.

and i'm sitting here holding nancy wheeler by the face, like: please examine why you are exclusively interested in men only when they've expressed romantic interest in you first. examine why you're so determined to stay in relationships that you're unhappy in for way past their expiration date. because being pursued feels worse.

i'm just saying that all the crushes i had when i was in high school ended up coming out as gay after graduation or were otherwise extremely disinterested. and every guy i did date had to literally corner me in a hallway to ask me out before the last day of school or something so i wouldnt literally run away from them.

[g00ngala]

hi hannah. drop ur rise opinions if u haven't already by the time u see this. or just general tmnt opinions. xoxo

OH HENRY I CAN ALWAYS RELY ON YOU

this is gonna have to be under a cut too i have a lot . I'll do rise specific opinions bc I have so many opinions all the time so send an ask if you want other tmnt opinions

one: THE "CANON" HEIGHT CHART IS AWFUL.

this is the most ridiculous height chart i have ever seen. As a person who is in real life 4'9. APRIL IS NOT 4'8. she looks like she is of average height compared to other humans around her, and when you are below 4'10 it is NOTICEABLE and in fact it's very rare you'll meet anyone who is shorter than you that isn't significantly younger than you. also in this picture her proportions are off anyways? her body is usually slightly bigger. donnie is smaller than he should be in this picture and you can tell because he's roughly leo's size and both his head and plastron appear to be smaller than leo's which to me indicates they made his sprite smaller so he'd appear shorter. mikey's heels aren't even lined up correctly in the picture and he appears taller than april in it even though the numbers say he's shorter. this chart really seems like they picked 6'0 for the raph height because it seemed like a tall enough height and based all the other heights off that regardless of whether it makes any sense. i sincerely doubt that this was made by the creators of the show, despite being "official". it's just a lazy tweet from some social media manager for engagement and I refuse to acknowledge it.

two: PEOPLE ARE WEIRD ABOUT SPLINTER. HE IS NOT A BAD FATHER. it's like camila noceda all over again. splinter in rise is a complicated and intentionally flawed but good person. he's not nearly as neglectful as fans portray him to be. most people cite the demolition derby episode as proof, but to me this doesn't say that splinter neglects his kids. what's going on in that episode is that as his children outgrow what he can typically provide, he is losing his ability to relate to them and he's trying less hard to actively spend time with them as they become more independent. this is especially with donnie because donnie's interests are not typically something he can meaningfully engage in. additionally, due to his upbringing he doesn't really understand that donnie is the kind of kid that needs out loud explicit praise, so he doesn't typically give it. what donnie expresses in that episode is that he does enjoy spending time with his dad, and that he needs that kind of reassurance about his worth. splinter responds to this, and adjusts his behavior because he cares enough to make active changes for his sons. people also point to raph and say that he had to raise his siblings/ was parentified which is honestly baseless. raph doesn't really start getting that whole complex about protecting the team until mid-late season 2 when he is the leader of a vigilante team and their lives are being threatened. in the early season 1 episodes and in flashbacks he's clearly just as much of a dumb kid as the rest of them, and it wasn't splinter's parenting that made him grow up too fast but instead the world ending threats that were trying to take out the people he cares about.

also stare at these images for a half hour minimum and tell me he's neglectful. that's right shut up HE LOVES HIS BOYS HE DESTROYED THE ANCIENT SCROLLS WHEN THEY TOLD HIM TO LET HIS SONS BE MARTYRS HE ALWAYS JUMPS IN TO FIGHT WHEN THE THREAT IS SERIOUS BE QUIET!!! y'all really cannot handle it when parents of color show any signs of being complicated people on tv

okay NUMBER 3: nearly every single fanon portrayal of casey jones jr makes my blood boil. people are so much more interested in recreating the dynamics from the bad timeline than actually exploring how casey would interact with the others post movie. first of all he's not one of the youngest if you look at his design and his behavior and think about it for 2 seconds he's obviously meant to be around april's age. secondly the reason he calls present leo sensei at the end of the movie is because he's reliving the very recent loss of the leo he looked up to not because he sees current leo as a mentor. if you watch the scene where he yells at current leo, he's obviously taking on an authoritative role in the conversation where leo looks more like a child being scolded. also casey has FACIAL HAIR HE'S NOT 15. point is let casey jones jr be the strange and off putting college aged weird older brother he was always meant to be amen

[nevermindirah]

Yitzhak!

is a character! who Gregadiah What-Is-Math Rucka gave us almost no information about!

I've gone through Tales Through Time #6: The Bear and #1: My Mother's Axe with several magnifying glasses and done a lot of googling and taken my copy of the Tanakh off my shelf for the first time since (well, since the last time I needed to read Torah for TOG reasons, which I think was Booker Passover headcanons) and here's the best I can come up with.

In The Bear we meet someone who goes by the name Isaac Blue:

Read on for a lot of comic panel analysis and historical research and Jewish flailing!

So what do we know about this Isaac Blue person?

He's Lorge, he's got curly hair, he's basically a taller version of Joe as drawn by Leandro Fernández (ie an antisemitic stereotype why the fuck did they approve this character design?? and then why did they double down and copy-paste it to Yitzhak??):

He's got a mezuzah on the doorpost of his house in Alaska!

I screamed about the mezuzah way back in January in this post where I (very reasonably) assumed this character was Joe and spun myself a tale about how Booker is still Joe's brother so the mezuzah stays up even though Booker isn't welcome in that house for a century. Bottom line: the mezuzah is a tradition with origins in the commandment from Deuteronomy 6:9 to "write the words of G-d on the gates and doorposts of your house" and evolved over the course of the Rabbinic period into the modern mezuzah we see here.

I did unnecessary levels of google image search to glean absolutely no useful information about Yitzhak’s origins from this panel:

I've decided the variant cover of TTT 6 is Yitzhak because of a panel in My Mother’s Axe, shown here, and what's likely an unnecessarily deep reading of Exodus, discussed further down:

The person at the right of the bottom panel is wearing the same clothes as in the TTT 6 variant cover and has the same shoulder-length curly hair and hairy forearms.

Left to right, the people in this panel are Lykon (I'll never get used to him being white in the comics), Andy, Noriko (I think? why doesn't Andy mention her by name here?), and Yitzhak. Andy's robe has a stereotypically Greek design on the sleeve cuff, and I had to stop myself 10 minutes into a Wikipedia rabbit hole because Gregorforth doesn't think that deep about this shit. The solid clues as to timeline that we get in this panel are:

Andy's iron axe

the presence of Lykon, who Andy first met in 331 BCE

So all we know is that Yitzhak is an immortal, he was a contemporary of Lykon, and he's Jewish.

Isaac is the most common Anglicization of Yitzhak (which in turn is the most common Anglophone transliteration of יִצְחָק‎), and Greg always uses the (transliterated) Hebrew when he refers to this character. Yitzhak is the long-awaited child of Abraham and Sarah in Genesis, the child who G-d commanded Abraham to sacrifice but spared at the last minute. I see what you did there, Gregory.

Why Isaac Blue? This is where I pulled out my Tanakh. According to the New JPS translation, blue is the first of three colors of yarn listed in Exodus 35:6 among the gifts requested of the Israelites to construct the priestly garments for the Tabernacle and later the Temple. Then in Numbers 15:38 the Israelites are commanded to "make themselves fringes on the corners of their garments throughout the ages; let them attach a cord of blue to the fringe at each corner."

And now for sandbox timelines party! Gregadiah gave us ALMOST NOTHING to go on, so I'm gonna make my own fun.

I, like many modern Jews, think the stories in the Tanakh are foundational mythology that are valuable because of how they've shaped our people but that contain some fucked-up shit and either way aren't meant to be a record of historical facts. Modern scholarship generally agrees that the community we now call Jews emerged as a distinct group of Canaanites sometime in the late Bronze Age (cw this video's host says the Name of G-d aloud despite being a religious studies scholar who knows that is not a name anyone but the Temple priests are allowed to say). The first non-Biblical written record of the people Israel is from an Egyptian source c. 1200 BCE, and the Biblical kingdom of David and Solomon was probably an exaggeration of whatever really happened during the Bronze Age Collapse. We start getting into historical-fact territory a few centuries into the Iron Age:

588 BCE Solomon's Temple destroyed, Babylonian exile begins

538 BCE Cyrus of Persia allows Jews to return to Jerusalem

515 BCE Second Temple construction complete

332 BCE Alexander the Great At Something I Guess conquered Judea, beginning the Hellenistic period of Jewish history — 331 BCE Andy & Lykon find each other

167 BCE another jerkface Greek king desecrated the Temple and basically outlawed Judaism

164 BCE recapture of Jerusalem and Temple rededication during the Maccabean Revolt

70 CE destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans, beginning of the Rabbinic period of Jewish history that we're still in now

What if... and hear me out... what if immortals come in pairs, and the pairs are:

Andy & Quynh

Joe & Nicky

Booker & Nile

LYKON & YITZHAK

What if Yitzhak was a priest of the Second Temple? What if he and Lykon killed each other just like Joe and Nicky would in the same city around 1300 years later, but instead of enemies-to-lovers speedrun with an absurdly long happily-ever-after, when Lykon died permanently Yitzhak decided to separate from Andy and Noriko and become the hermit we later see in Alaska?

We don't know how old Yitzhak is compared to the others, only that he was a contemporary of Lykon at a time when Andy was using an Iron Age version of her mother's axe. Other plausible origins for him:

a Jew of the early Rabbinic period, maybe a child or grandchild of people who were still alive before the Second Temple was destroyed

a Judean of the Second Temple era under the Romans or Greeks or Persians, maybe a priest, maybe not

an exilee in Babylon, maybe of the generation who got to return, maybe of the generation who was exiled (he doesn't look like he was 50 at his first death but who knows, he could've been mortal for both)

an Israelite of the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah, maybe a priest of Solomon's Temple or again maybe not

an Israelite wandering in the desert with Moses

THEE Yitzhak, ben Avraham v'Sarah, our patriarch who was brought up for sacrifice and then spared, and then spared again, and then spared again, and again, and again...

or! he could also be a Canaanite or other Levantine who predates the people Israel, who at some point in his very long life chose to join our mixed multitude, who like Andromache before him (and like Avram and Sarai would in this case do after him) took a new name to reflect the magnitude of influence this people has had on him

Why do I keep saying Yitzhak might have been a priest? It's thanks to the one detail in the artwork I could plausibly connect to solid research without getting a PhD real quick. Take a look at the gorgeous detail on the opening of his robe in the TTT 6 cover. He's dressed in rags, holes and dirt everywhere, rough stitches probably from hasty repair work — except for the neck opening. Compare that to this description from Exodus 39:23 of the construction of the priestly garments for the Tabernacle: "The opening of the robe, in the middle of it, was like the opening of a coat of mail, with a binding around the opening, so that it would not tear."

The next verses describe the intricate designs for the hem of the priestly garment. Yitzhak's ragged garment looks like the hem was torn off entirely.

Am I overthinking this? Yes I am! You're welcome!

My friend and historical research hero @lady-writes​ is in a Discord server with Gregadiah and asked the man himself some questions about all this. He clearly thinks he's being sneaky?? No shit Yitzhak is Jewish, dude, I want DETAILS!

I will not be giving up my Jewish Booker headcanon, I've put too much thought into it by now, the internalized shame of antisemitism explains Booker's depression too well for me, and it just adds so much richness to Booker/Nile both being children of forced diasporas. Fortunately (for him, not me, bc I'd do it anyway!) Gregothy supports fan headcanons even when they're not in line with his own:

One last thing before I close like 100 research tabs and go back to writing historical fantasy and/or porn! I love that, despite that atrocious caricature of a face design, our canon Jew and our fanon Jew are both Lorge and Soft and Kind, flying the face of the antisemitic stereotype of Ashkenazi Jewish men as small and weak, but also not falling into the New Jew / Muscle Jew stereotype that Zionism created. (I am trying SO HARD not to talk about Israel/Palestine for once ughhhhhhhhhh) Anyway here's a (US-centric but very good) primer on both these stereotypes of Jewish masculinity. Is this why I'm forever projecting my transmasc diasporist feels onto Jewish Booker the service sub? 🤷🏻‍♂️

I’ll reblog a second version of this with full image descriptions so that there’s a version accessible for folks who need IDs as well as a version accessible for folks who get overwhelmed by walls of text.

[whetstonefires]

Dia duit! Are you possibly Kieron_ODuibhir?

If so, I absolutely adore your writing. Bualadh bos! Have been globbing my way through your Tim Drake content. If not (and equally if you are not an Irish speaker, then er... Sorry for falling into your ask box like a sparrow turd from the sky!)

It is me! Hi!! 😄💖����✨ Victory~!

Sadly I am not an Irish speaker, I'm one of those Irish-Americans. My AO3 handle was chosen on the basis of a pun that seemed very clever at the time, more fool me.

If English wasn’t my first and primary language everyone would know about it because I would not shut up, I would constantly be going like ‘this only sounds right in these specific words’ and switching. I have accidentally impersonated a German and a Spanish speaker online before by doing this without the excuse of a mothertongue lmao. I don’t even speak German.

Anyway don’t apologize! This is the internet, anyway; if you’d sent the whole thing in Irish I could probably get the gist via google translate. Though I completely understand not wanting to do that since it kind of significantly decreases your control over the act of communication. 😂 Who would want google deciding what they meant.

Glad you like the Tim content! Thank you, thank you. :DD💗 Man that kid was weirdly hard to write for, considering how relatively straightforward and relatable his actual design is. Mostly because of the period--his canonical character was in even more of a state of flux than he is today, so it was always like, which wild fanon exaggeration of his behaviors will we be playing into at this moment. Eventually the rate of bashing in the fandom made it no fun to work with him, it was driving me toward a harmful defensive headspace. I do love him tho.

I wish I’d managed to finish more things for him, I had so many drafts. I’m hoping if I mostly-ignore both canon and fandom drama for long enough I can come back and write more batfam stuff. ✌

Question: I actually really like the imagery of you globbing your way through my fic, but was it supposed to be gobbling? 🦃

[amporella]

kenny kyle for the character bingo 🧡💚🧡💚

GOOD PICKS AS ALWAYS!! Here they are, starting with Kyle; I'm putting Kenny in a separate post because I like to ramble but I don't want to squish him in under the cut </3

Everybody knows that I love Kyle. He's my favorite like 60% of the time, and he's my second favorite the rest of the time. I have absolutely endless thoughts on him as I'm sure anybody who's been following me for a while knows, so I'm going to try not to ramble TOO hard and I'm instead going to address the specific squares that I picked on the bingo board to try and keep this organized.

First of all, his default appearance isn't COOL looking, but he is freaking cute, which I feel counts? I just love his design in general, ugh, the hair contrasts so nicely with his outfit, it's adorable, and his Post-Covid look is literally perfect. I was so delighted when I saw how well groomed he is!!! And his fancy shoes... GNC icon Kyle Broflovski lives on into his fifties. I think you'd be very hard pressed to call his TFBW outfit 'cool', but he obviously put SO much effort into it which is charming in and of itself, and his SOT outfit IS actually cool. Elf King Kyle is my favorite character design of his (and maybe my favorite out of the whole series?); it is so good. Regardless of how much SOT content people make (and there is a lot of amazing stuff out there), there will never be enough to sate my SOT heart.

I do think he's deeper than he seems, but I think that applies for all South Park characters? The average viewer is frankly not going to be exploring any character's decisions beyond trying to guess the next joke in an episode, so the fact that meta CAN be written for him (and every other character) implies that he does have depths that aren't readily apparent to everyone.

I am obviously extremely pro fanon interpretation, but that being said, I do think Kyle has been done dirty, though most certainly not because he was turned into an 'uwu twink character' or whatever the most recent, endlessly repeatable claim about fanon Kyle is. Kyle's obviously faced extreme amounts of antisemitism in the show, and that's leaked over pretty noticeably into the fandom; you don't have to look far for someone blaming Kyle for Cartman's actions, or trying to defend Cartman (I will kill someone if I see people try to deny he's a nazi one more time), or bastardizing his character in some other absolutely evil, antisemitic way. This is obviously by far the most severe way he's mistreated by the fandom, but I also have some beef with interpretations from people who claim to like him, and weirdly enough, they often end up being part of the previous category? I fucking love Kyle, and I still think that some people who love him an equal amount are insane, especially when it comes to projection. I have never met a self described Kyle kinnie who was even remotely similar to Kyle. Maybe I just haven’t interacted closely enough with any of them, but it honestly feels kind of like a curse sometimes? In my experience, the moment you decide that you ARE a character, or are so similar to a character that you two are essentially indistinguishable, you lose your credibility in being able to talk about them objectively.

I think Kyle works amazingly on his own, but I honestly DO think he works better as a part of style; both from a viewers perspective and from a character analysis perspective. Style interactions obviously melt my style heart, so I'm extremely biased towards episodes involving the two of them, but the other reason I chose that square was because Kyle canonically DOES function better with Stan around than he does without him. Cue me going into a tangent about Post-Covid etc etc etc, but seriously, it's canon. He is a more functional character when he has Stan to balance him out, and to me personally, he's an even more entertaining character than he already is when he's with Stan. The same thing goes for Stan! The two of them are so irreparably intertwined with each other that separating them truly just doesn't feel right.

And yes. He has not done anything wrong, ever. You'll find that I have this opinion for most of the kids on the show, because honestly, unless they're a legitimate nazi, I refuse to cast moral judgement on these ten year olds who keep getting cast into situations that ten year olds should not be in.

Thank you so much for the ask minty!! <3 I'll post the Kenny half soon!

[haleigh-sloth]

endhawks and shigadabi?

Okay for the first one:

For ShigaDabi:

Do I ship it: Romantically I definitely do not. However I do want to see them be more friendly in the end, but I want that for everyone so.

Why or why not: Idk it doesn’t vibe with me. Aside from the obvious reasons that it won’t be canon, there really is hardly any direct interaction between Dabi and Shigaraki in the story. They barely talk. So in my opinion, beyond the appeal of their designs mixing well (both associated with red and white and black), I don’t see much to go off of. So therefore it’s hard for me to like, get with it.

Canon potential: I mean it’s def not gonna happen. We know this. For a lot of reasons that have nothing to do with the characters themselves but more to do with the circumstances of BNHA as a whole lol. But under different circumstances, again I’d say no because there isn’t a lot of meaningful dialogue between the two of them, if any.

Fanon interpretation: While I’m not on this ship’s bandwagon, I understand the appeal to see them both open up more with someone. Taking the pieces of their canon circumstances and putting them together is totally plausible for making content. So seeing that fanon portrayal of them when it specifically comes to content of this ship—even though it’s not my cup of tea—I get it. I respect it lol.

I love seeing art of them both together, because they both have interesting designs put next to each other, and I definitely want to see them interact in a more buddy buddy manner later on at the end, but that’s more tied to me wanting to see everyone be friends at the end. But yeah.

[im-still-watching-anime]

warning: this post is just me ranting about the writing of the naruto women for far too long

i honestly feel that one of the most frustrating/vaguely hilarious aspects of naruto is how naruto ended up being - and bear with me here - the best example of the extremely specific female archtype that kishimoto seemed to be obsessed with. 

like when you focus on sakura and hinata - arguably the most important female characters in the show as the two male leads’ respective end game love interests - you can break them both down into the same general mold:

- both devoted to the same boy their entire lives

- both are shown chasing after their crush in order to stand on “equal” footing (i.e. sakura’s “i finally caught up to them” and hinata’s “no longer chasing but standing by your side” mentalities)

- both suffer and try to overcome feelings of inferiority in their respective character arcs

and i want to be clear that while female characters who fit this mold aren’t usually my favorite thing it can definitely still work when written carefully and written well -  to be blunt i personally think both hinata and sakura are awesome character concepts and both had SO MUCH potential and i love their fanon interpretations but i feel that canonically they were poorly written, underdeveloped, and flat characters

most of their canonical character motivations revolve around their love interests - which really sucks because i would have KILLED for a deeper look at everything involving hinata and the hyuuga or even more about sakura’s development of her medical ninjustsu so much got skipped when it came to them which definitely didn’t help anything - that aside this is especially true in og naruto though to be fair - sasuke was still in konoha in og naruto and team seven was together for most episodes which made it especially prevalent in sakura’s case

the point is by the time shippuden came around it was extremely obvious that efforts were being made to improve the female characters - sakura now had much higher combat ability from the start of shippuden and, though she gets much less focus hinata is repeatedly shown doing brave acts and pushing herself to become stronger. and while i really loved the effort and it was definitely an improvement from especially sakura’s original character - it still fell flat to me.

sakura’s fight with sasori was perfect and a great way to revive her character but then she was pretty stagnant in a lot of the following arcs - i.e. injured in the reunion arc, not very important during the two saviors arc, her weird fake love confession during the assembly of the five kage arc, etc. - she constantly bounces between “now i’m strong” and “i still don’t measure up” making her character development - especially pre-war - virtually nonexistent because every step forward gets followed by a step back.

hinata is a bit more difficult simply because she’s such a minor character for so much of shippuden which is insane since she’s literally the protagonist’s future wife. regardless, looking at hinata’s big moments: her fight with neji in og naruto, blocking naruto from pain in shippuden, and the Smack during the war (there’s a few i’m missing i’m sure but those are really what constitutes her biggest moments to me during the meat of shippuden’s actual development phase - not the post war resolution phase) two of three of these moments precede her getting very heavily and soundly beaten which personally irks me - even if i don’t particularly like it i can see why and it makes sense to me she didn’t win the fight with neji or her pain confrontation and it definitely shows that she is brave and emphasizes the all-important devotion to her love interest aspect of her character BUT it’s also a little obnoxious that we never get to see her be REALLY victorious in her major moments.

so to sum up so far: sakura and hinata are both meant to be perceived as innovative and strong female characters but this perception doesn’t work in sakura’s case because she immediately repeatedly reverts back to the damsel in distress archtype and it doesn’t work in hinata’s case because the few strong moments she has are highlighted by failure.

and also the all important point that the majority of their “strong moments” are driven by their love interests - not a bad motivation except for the fact that that is one of their ONLY motivations

to the main point i’m trying to make: lets compare naruto (obviously take this with the understanding that naruto has a MAJOR advantage of having way more screen time and development as the titular character)

in regards to sasuke, naruto:

- is extremely devoted

- repeatedly chases after sasuke to match-up with him and improve

- and, especially in og, struggles with feeling inferior to sasuke

the context is a little different and the motivation behind some of the points changes between the two but it’s the exact same mold as sakura and hinata

the major difference between the two and the main reason that so many more people get frustrated with sakura’s devotion to sasuke and not naruto’s really boils down to development

sakura barely had her own character outside of loving sasuke and when she did, it immediately got downplayed in some way - just look at the war arc and her triumphant “i finally caught up to them” right before both sasuke and naruto essentially gain godlike powers, she then spends the war constantly distracted by sasuke even when fighting “sasuke isn’t worried about me at all” which really downplays her role.

on the flip side, even with his main goal of bringing sasuke back to the village, naruto has tons of motivation and character building outside of sasuke - ex. becoming hokage, gaining everyone’s acceptance, fixing konoha, living up to his parents/jiraiya’s expectations, bringing peace, protecting everyone he can, freeing the tailed beasts, etc. etc. you could go on forever the show is named after him after all.

we are told that sakura always chooses sasuke and nothing else about it but then we are told that naruto chooses sasuke despite everything else.

to sum up: the traditional female love interest that kishimoto wants to invent is the woman who is devoted. she puts the person she loves above everything else because she loves him. she’d do anything for that person even if it puts her at risk, etc. but at the end of the day there’s still the tired trait of still relying on the man in her life for certain things. and he doesn’t bother to expand characters like sakura and hinata beyond that. (great examples of characters who are almost completely separate from this mold are tsunade and temari - though one might argue about the way they were written designed to fit specific tropes for comedic moments - personally i think they manage to dodge that for the most part though)

with naruto and sasuke - naruto manages to fulfill every roll sakura is meant to in a much more elaborated and better way all without the curse of the female love interest that sakura and hinata bear. it’s hard to accept sakura and hinata’s “i’ll love you no matter what” when naruto is already actively outright doing that with sasuke. the roots of sakura’s feelings for sasuke, hinata’s feelings for naruto, and naruto’s feelings for sasuke are all exceptionally similar to one another which is what shoots kishimoto’s main romances in the foot - because it’s hard for them to measure up to the main “platonic brotherly” relationship he built between sasuke and naruto.

this post is obviously disregarding a lot of the Other really deep parts of sasuke and naruto’s relationship and some important points about the other women of naruto. also it’s important to think on the time period naruto and naruto shippuden were written in. we’re in a major incline period for improvement in how women are presented in fiction - just look at the difference of women between og and shippuden. obviously it doesn’t completely excuse anything but it’s a point to consider.

sorry for the rant and sorry if this is all really obvious to you or if it’s worded poorly, kinda just needed to word vomit my thoughts. i really like analyzing how women are represented in fiction and how the representations have developed over the years. i wrote a few essays about it for some of my courses and now i think about it all the time. obviously i’m not claiming this is how everyone should view these characters or anything i just had lots of my own thoughts about the entire situation and dynamics that i had to put SOMEWHERE. if you have any thoughts about it or points you wanna bring up feel free to do so i love fiction analysis a lot so i love hearing other people’s opinions

[kittyprincessofcats]

She-Ra S5 E07 - Perils of Peekablue

There might be spoilers for the rest of the season in this post!

I’ll start by saying upfront that I pretty much consider this to be the weakest episode of season 5 (or at least one of the weaker ones), even though it does move the plot along significantly. The main reason is that, as I said before, I don’t care about the group on Etheria as much as the group in space (with the exception of Scorpia and possibly Spinnetossa), so an episode like this - even though I get why it’s important - just won’t interest me as much as what the gang in space is up to.

That said, it’s not a *bad* episode or anything. Let’s get into it:

- The entire beginning scene where Adora tries to transform into She-Ra and the others keep interrupting her is absolute gold and I love everything about it. Especially Catra, OMG! The way she shows up and actually asks “Are we messing with Adora?” - She’s not even pretending to be helpful and I love that she’s bonding with Glimmer and Bow over “messing with Adora”. And how she then just flings herself onto Adora’s lap and brushes Adora’s face with her tail while cheekily saying “Yeah Adora, concentrate!” - brilliant, absolutely brilliant 🤣. And I also love how Adora doesn’t even try to push her off and actually holds her. These two are too cute.

- I also wonder if the “You can’t let distractions keep you from transforming” line was intentional foreshadowing for Shadow Weaver telling Adora that Catra’s a distraction.

- I like Catra’s new outfit! Well, it’s pretty much just her old outfit with a few adjustments. But still, nice! And she looks really cute with short hair.

- I feel like this beginning scene is pretty much here for two reasons: It sets up that Entrapta is trying to reach the rebellion on Etheria, which will be relevant at the very end of the episode, AND it shows Catra’s new outfit, so we can have a new opening now.

- Changes in the opening: Time for some really exciting mid-season opening changes! Catra’s missing from the villains’ card for the first time ever. Instead, Horde Prime’s hands are now closing around a glowing orb (I assume that’s meant to be the heart of Etheria). At the part where Catra and She-Ra fight, Catra now has short hair, She-Ra is in her new form, and instead of a snarl the fight ends with a soft smile between them (I’m not crying, you’re crying. Best opening glow-up ever! 😭). In the final heroes’ shot, Adora back to being She-Ra instead of Adora, but this time in her new form. And Catra is *finally* in the heroes’ shot as well. GOOD STUFF. (In general, I just LOVE that they actually kept updating the opening in the middle of the season. That is SO cool. But the change that really gets me is how they updated Catra and Adora’s fight, because that’s been the same since the beginning of the show and now it’s SO SWEET.)

- Okay, so my biggest problem with this episode is that the plan to find Prince Peekablue seems... kinda dumb? So they’re planning to sneak into an underwater soiree undercover and abandon everyone else at the camp to find a “hermit” no one has seen in ages because he might know where Adora and the others are? As a plan it just seems far-fetched. I get that they want to warn Adora and company that Prime is chipping people (they don’t know that Adora’s group already knows that), but how would finding Peekablue even help them achieve that? He could tell them where Adora and the others are, but... that’s it. It’s not like he can also magically communicate with Adora or anyone else. And didn’t Swift Wind tell the others last episode that Adora’s coming home and that he can feel her coming closer? So shouldn’t they already know that the group in space are on their way home? (Granted, Swift Wind told that to Micah, Frosta, Spinnerella and Netossa - but I’m assuming the rebels communicate with each other and Micah would have also told Mermista and the others?) I mean, idk how much time supposedly passed between these two episodes, so maybe it’s been a while since Elberon? Also, when did they even figure out that Horde Prime is chipping people? Last episode, Micah still said they had to “figure out what that was”. And if they know about the chips now, it might have been a good idea to check the necks of everyone at camp right away - though to be fair, they maybe didn’t realize how the chips work yet. And yeah, I am nitpicking here (and obviously the rebels have to mess up so things can go south this episode, so I guess they have to make some bad decisions.)

- That said, I love all of their outfits! And I like that Scorpia’s alias “Lynda D’Ream” is a reference to the 80s cartoon.

- Netossa’s lucky that she wears an outfit with such a high collar - makes it hard to put a chip on her neck. (Also, idk if I’ve said this before, but I love Spinnerella and Netossa’s character designs and outfits. They’re both fashion queens.)

- Just the fact that it really is Spinnetossa’s anniversary and Netossa thinks that’s why Spinnerella is acting strange - I mean, what are the odds?

- “They are my people! Which means that most of them have sworn revenge against me at some point.” Okay, that is pretty funny. And getting to meet all of Sea-Hawk’s exes was pretty funny, too. (Yeah, officially they’re not his exes but just people whose ships he set on fire... but come on, the subtext isn’t really subtle here.) And I love the whole running gag of him and Mermista fighting all of them behind the bar counter with Mermista doing most of the work and getting more and more annoyed with it - but when they’re finally done, it turns out there’s also someone there that *she* doesn’t want to see, because she set their ship on fire. Comedy gold.

- Scorpia is me at a party :( I also find it super hard to socialize and get into conversations with strangers. Very relatable there.

- I also love how the sweet flowergirl Perfuma has absolutely no problem blending in with a bunch of criminals.

- “You’re amazing. You have the biggest heart and you could do whatever you put your mind to.” Aww. I’m glad someone told Scorpia that!

- “You should do things not because you’re good at them, but because they make you happy.” That actually is some really good life advice. People should keep that mind in general.

- (I love how Sea-Hawk and Mermista are carrying Admiral Scurvy away in the background while Scorpia and Perfuma are having their heartfelt talk 🤣.)

- “Repeat after me: I can do this. I can do this.” “Perfuma can do this.” 🤦 I feel bad for laughing, but... gosh, Scorpia has some serious self-esteem issues.

- Okay, time for an unpopular opinion: I’m... not that into Scorfuma. There’s nothing wrong with it and I’m not against it or anything, but it just doesn’t particularly grab my interest. That excited feeling you get when you ship something just... isn’t there for me with them, sorry.

(I kinda felt like I had to explain/justify myself, so I started to write a small essay on my ships here that doesn’t really have anything to do with the episode. Feel free to just skip this part.)

I consider myself a multishipper and while my #1 OTP is definitely without a doubt Catradora, I also really have a soft spot for Scorptra (to the point where I’d say it’s probably my #2 after Catradora). And, to make it short, Scorptra vs. Scorfuma is one of those “fanon vs. canon” things for me, where what you want to see happen in canon isn’t necessarily what you find exciting or interesting to explore in fanworks. Obviously Scorptra was never going to be canon because Catradora is a thing, and I’m perfectly okay with that. And in canon, Scorpia getting out of a toxic friendship, moving on from her unrequited feelings, and finding love with someone else (who treats her right) is the right message to send, so I’m glad that’s where the show went. But when it comes to enjoying a ship in fanon (which is what I consider “shipping” to be), then I don’t pick my ships based on how healthy they are in canon, but on how much their dynamic fascinates me and just on whether that certain spark that makes me like a ship is there or not. And in that sense, Scorpia’s dynamic with Catra, which was explored over the course of 4 seasons, is just infinitely more fascinating and spark-inducing to me that her relationship with Perfuma.

And even beyond Scorptra - if I had to ship Scorpia with someone other than Catra, my first pick would be Entrapta. (Yes, I do ship Entrapdak, but like I said - multishipper here. Also, Entrapta has two hands!) And my first pick for who to ship Perfuma with would be Mermista because I like their bickering and I have a thing for opposites attracting.

Anyway, I’ve been rambling about ships for too long now. The bottom line is: I’m fine with Scorfuma being canon and it makes sense that they fit together since they’re very similar people. I don’t dislike it, I’m just not as hyped about it as many people seem to be. On with the episode now, please!

- “I guess I don’t know what a hermit is after all.” Yeah, Peekablue was giving off Double Trouble vibes from the beginning, tbh.

- I love how Netossa is competitive even at planning anniversary surprises.

- Perfuma loudly supporting Scorpia when she ends up on stage is a super nice moment, though. And Scorpia’s performance? Amazing!

- I wonder if Double Trouble made up that whole “She-Ra in space” vision because they were pretending to be Peekablue and just got it right by accident, or if they actually knew that much from their time pretending to be a clone. I wonder how much time they spent as a clone and what exactly they saw.

- Scorpia realizing it’s Double Trouble and then tricking and unmasking them was an amazing moment. So much for Scorpia not being smart!

- I was so excited to see Double Trouble again! Tough it makes me a bit said that they refered to Catra as their “cash kitten”. While they never made a secret out of being in it for the money, I kind of like the idea that they did care for Catra after all. (Do I just ship everyone with Catra? The answer is yes.)

DT: “I know where your friends are. And I’ll tell you - for a price, of course.”

Perfuma: *grows flower arm canon*

DT: “... Fine.”

😂😂😂 Love that.

- “It makes for a very dull audience when everyone’s mind-controlled.” Okay, but that really is a good reason for Double Trouble to help the heroes out without really changing their motivation. They’re still a Chaotic Neutral who doesn’t particularly care about morals - but it would make for a very dull audience if everyone was mind-controlled.

- “Prime is angry. She-Ra showed up and stole his little kitten away.” Like I said before, I LOVE that that’s the reason why Prime’s so pissed in the first place.

- The confrontation between Netossa and Spinnerella is so heartbreaking, but when she said “show me your neck” it again made me wonder why they didn’t check everyone’s neck at camp before.

- “What a shame we can’t be together... in Horde Prime’s light!” Ooohhh, it’s so creepy and angsty, I love it!

- And Mermista’s chipped as well because obviously things have to go south here.

- The parallel confrontations at camp and at the soiree are really cool scenes. I especially like the Spinnerella vs. Netossa fight. And Micah’s chipped as well, because things have to go wrong and Glimmer mentioned being “a day away from meeting her dad” - so obviously that has to be ruined now, too.

- “A little help? I need to lift my hand to the heavens.” Gosh, I love DT.

- Scorpia’s sacrifice made me tear up 😭. (When I first watched it, I was scared she was actually going to die and not just get chipped - I’d never have forgiven the show for that.)

- Can we talk about how strong Netossa actually is? She fought off both Spinnerella and Micah by herself, made a big enough net to cover all the chipped people, and got herself and Frosta out of there safely - I don’t want to hear anything about her powers not being strong again.

- “Happy anniversary.” Noooo, now I’m crying again... 😭😭😭 It’s so sad, but so romantic... (I really love that this season gave Spinnerella and Netossa more screentime. And I’m always here for some angst!)

- And finally, Perfuma is able to contact the group in space and warn them about the blockade. I really like that scene. I like that Perfuma specifically says “You need to stay away”, since we know what happened last time someone told Adora that. And the whole grim mood of Perfuma apologizing and saying the rebellion is compromised, the shaky pictures, the connection cutting off, and then the shot of the ship all alone in space and the silence - amazing. Basically, this episode was “things go very wrong on Etheria, and now the group in space has a serious problem”.

This was a good episode, overall. Like I said, the main reason I consider it weaker is because I care more about the group in space, and they were only here for one scene in the beginning and one in the end. But this was still pretty solid. It had some funny and sweet moments, and then some really cool and dramatic scenes in the end. And of course, it was a very important episode for the plot because things are now really not looking good on Etheria. My favourite moment was Catra sitting on Adora’s lap in the opening scene, though.

[Previous episode]   [Next episode]

[ramblings-of-a-mad-cat]

HPHM Amortentia Scent Headcanons

Or as I like to put it, “Scentcanons!” ...I’ll show myself out. 

No but for real, I had an anon asking about this, so let’s dive in!

The question here is what would each character smell in Amortentia vs what another person would smell if they fancied said character. There are also certain characters who we have confirmed from canon. Finally, I’d like to clarify that I don’t think of Amortentia scents being exclusive to who one is attracted to romantically, just that it can go that way. I don’t want to get too deep into shipping, so any loved ones that turn up as scents probably aren’t going to be romantic interests. 

Rowan - We know they smell of parchment, ink, and lumber. As for what they would smell, I think we can safely assume they’d smell old books, tree sap, and probably Fuzzclaw? Speaking as someone who’s grown up with cats, they do have a unique and not unpleasant smell to them. Everything that reminds Rowan of home, and of what they love.

Ben - Someone who had feelings for Ben would probably smell the scent of dust, or if we want to be more poetic, petrichor. Yeah, I like that. It makes sense given how much he hides and sneaks around. As for Ben himself, I feel like he would be drawn to the scent of safer things. At least Pre-Portrait Vault. I’ve seen clean sheets, mint leaves/mint soap, and hot chocolate used as examples before, and all of them agree with me. 

Penny - I can imagine someone would smell whatever her perfume/conditioner is. Let’s go with honeydew, that kinda suits her.  Head-canons for what Penny herself would smell are the metallic scent of a Cauldron, the wildflowers from Kew Gardens (where she’s said her family visits) and also Beatrice’s hair. Come on, Bea is the person she loves the most, easily. 

Merula - Another canon confirmation, Merula smells of nail polish, cloves, and something “elusive.” (The MC/Merula hints continue, I swear to god.) As for what Merula herself would pick up on, I feel like it would be scents that are attractive, but also painful, if that makes sense? To suit her prickly nature. Stuff like smoke and soot, as well as poison ivy. On top of that, maybe something softer to counter-balance it, like pumpkin pie? 

Bill - I feel like Bill would smell of leather. Let me explain. While he’s usually depicted in a variation on his school uniform, we know from Harry’s description that he was “cool.” In HPHM, he doesn’t have the earring yet, but he does have the long hair. I feel like he’d smell of leather. As for Bill himself, gonna go with scents that remind him of home. Stuff like Molly’s cooking, his father’s jumper, even the gnomes out back. 

Andre - He totally wears perfume, he is the type. There are just certain characters (Penny is another) where you just know that’s a thing they do. So whatever type he wears, that’s what the Andre fans pick up on. For Andre himself? I’m gonna go with the scent of a sewing machine, as well as a broom shed, and maybe something that reminds him of his family, since he seems to be close with them. 

Tulip - As for Tulip’s scent, this is going to go full on fanon, and I’m going to say she smells like cherries. Because apparently when the writers were designing her wand, it was going to be made of cherry wood and be a family heirloom. I still think Sycamore suits her better, but I love that idea. As for the scents Tulip would find attractive, I’m going to go with ones that carry a hint of danger. Candle wax, for example, is always close to a fire. The scent of dungbombs feels like a given. If anyone likes it, Tulip would. Finally, I’m gonna go with pond water, because of Dennis.

Tonks - Anyone who fancies Tonks is probably going to pick up on the scent of Zonko’s. That is where she spends most of her time and does all her shopping, after all. As for what she would smell? I’m gonna say maybe a Wizarding candy, like Fizzing Whizbees. The packaging on something like a Fanged Frisbee. And even Filch’s office, because she has cherished memories of practicing mischief there.

Barnaby - Canon time, we know Barnaby smells like sandalwood and fresh laundry, which is just adorable. But I feel as though Barnaby would be drawn to the scent of the flowers and trees from the Reserve, as well as the old, dusty and musty smell of the Dueling Club. For a third scent I think I’ll go with the smell of Hagrid’s Hut. This is totally a head-canon, but I think they become very close friends. 

Ismelda - Well, this one is awkward. The game loves to make jokes about how she smells bad, but maybe to someone who’s in love with her, the scent would be nice? As odd as that sounds. Otherwise, who knows. She had to have cleaned up pretty nice for the Celestial Ball, right? As for Ismelda herself, this one is tricky. But like Merula, I think she’d be drawn to scents that have more of an edge. Fresh ink comes to mind, and perhaps burnt toast. Other than that? I’m not sure.

Charlie - This one also has canon to back it up, Charlie smells like honeysuckle and grass. As for what he would smell in Amortentia...okay, let's get the obvious out of the way right now. Whatever dragons smell like, that’s going to be one of his scents. Because I don’t care what canon says, he works with dragons in the Reserve. He just does. Other than that, I feel like maybe the metallic scent of a Snitch, because we know he’s a Seeker, and maybe the thistles of trees in the Forbidden Forest? He’s said to hang out there.

Liz - I’m pretty sure she’s supposed to smell like lake-water and hay? I cannot find the screenshots, but her scent was also confirmed by Care of Magical Creatures. In any case, Liz is a fairly straight-forward character to get a handle on. Her smells from Amortentia are mulch, (don’t judge her) as well as a Porlock’s fur, and the scent of vegetables. She’s an outdoorsy sort of girl and similar to Newt Scamander, seems to get along better with other creatures than humans.

Chiara - In terms of what someone would smell, I’d have to go with moonflowers. I know it’s the obvious choice, but how can I resist? As for Chiara herself, I’m going to go with fresh soil, hospital sheets, and dog fur. Reflecting her interests in Herbology and Healing, and also representing the sweetest baby to ever exist, Borf. I’ve seen head-canons that she would smell Wolfsbane potion, but it’s supposed to taste disgusting, so I doubt it.

Talbott - Likewise, I think it’s pretty clear that someone would smell the scent of bird feathers if they fancied Talbott. If that’s too cliche, go with whatever product he puts in his hair, since it’s always slicked back. As for what Talbott smells, I’d go with the scent of hay from the Owlery, maybe the quills that he writes his notes with, and finally the scent of his mother, or her necklace. Could be the same, at least as far as he remembers.

Jae - Anyone who fancies Jae is going to pick up his scent, so probably the scent of the Hogwarts Kitchens, since that’s where he spends most of his time. For Jae, okay...money has a unique scent. It just does. And he deals with it a lot, doing what he loves. So I’m gonna say the scent of galleons, turkey sandwiches, and maybe something with more of an edge, like Firewhiskey. Come on, we all know he’s tried it before.

Badeea - She’s a character I don’t know nearly as well, though I’d like to rectify that. I’m torn between saying that the scent of paint would be what someone else smells if they fancy her, or if it would be something that she herself smells because she loves painting. No reason it couldn’t be both. Other than that, she gives me the feeling that she’s someone who would be really into incense and various spices, like maybe sage. So it’s all chemicals with Badeea...make of that what you will.

Diego - I also don’t know him well enough to judge, but I am certain that he’s the type to wear cologne, so whatever it is that he’s wearing is what the Diego fans would pick up on. As for Diego himself, I’m gonna say the resin of a dance floor, the scent of denim (he wears a lot of it) and probably the smell of flowers? He does make a few casanova style lines about enjoying them. And not just the hellebore. 

Skye - No clue what Skye’s scent would be. Probably something strong Citrus. As for what she picks up on, gonna go with the scent of quaffles, ground coffee, and maybe the streets of Wigtown. I just feel like she doesn’t have much of a life outside of Quidditch and her legacy and has kind of turned herself into a machine to fulfil that life goal, without focusing on anything else. 

Murphy - Murphy smells like linen. Don’t ask me why, I just know that this is true. I can just feel it. It suits him. As to what Murphy himself picks up on, among other things he smells Kneazle fur, the wood of a chessboard, and the scent of chalk. I mean come on, this one one of the easier characters to figure out, give me a hard one. 

Orion - Someone who fancied Orion would seriously pick up on the scent of his hair, because that is some glorious hair. Orion himself would probably smell Jasmine Tea, Quidditch Grass, and the scent of sea salt. I’m not sure why exactly, but he’s a character who I’ve actually thought about this for before, and I think these scents are mystical enough but also give the suggestion of an overall healthy balance.

Rath - This is a case like Ismelda, where I don’t think anyone ever gets close enough to smell her, but more out of fear than the idea that she might smell unpleasant. But I feel like she smells like ginger. As for what she would pick up from Amortentia, the metallic scent of a bludger, as well as perhaps the scent of new robes, and maybe broomstick polish? Similar to Skye, I’m not sure. Not because she has no life outside of Quidditch, but we have no idea what it entails if she does.

Beatrice - I feel like anyone who fancied Beatrice (We are not getting into the debate of who that might be) would probably pick up the smell of her makeup? Because she wears a lot of it now, seemingly every day. As for what she would pick up on herself? I’m gonna say the scent of puffskeins, since she seems to be a fan of them and have one of her own. As well as the scent of the library, but specifically the Restricted Section, because I feel like she regularly breaks in. Finally, hmm...maybe something to do with home? Perhaps a fresh baked pie that her parents made? Just throwing out ideas. 

Covered as many characters as I could think of, and there were only so many scents that occurred to me, aha. I hope this helps though, anon!

[inscribed-in-asteroids]

AN: Here’s chapter two!

Title: The Ripple Effect

Characters: Hordak, Entrapta, Odessa, features original characters

Pairing: Entrapdak, features other canon couples (and some fanon)

Rating: M

Read on AO3. It’s always posted there first.

                                                     Evaluation

“You want us to help you… find your dad’s… home planet?” Hydrangea questions.

“Not necessarily that,” Odessa replies. “I’ve been mulling over this the last couple of years. Wandering through space, it’s apparent that my father’s species has predominantly settled into Etherian life. But when I ask my father where we are from, he has no answer.”

“Not in the withholding information way,” Tristan clarifies.

“Exactly. In the sense he has no answer to give. Period. I’ve discussed it with my mother, and she believes it could be an exciting chance to find out where he’s from!” Odessa claps her hands together. “We know about the biology, physiology, mental health, behavior of one person. My father has been studied thoroughly for years, but his makeup can only tell us so much.”

They nod in understanding. It does make sense. He has been genetically manufactured over and over, thousands of versions of him co-existing among species that still have yet to see anything like him before. Hordak has lived among Etherians, has explored world upon world, but they know he is an anomaly. They all do.

Odessa looks down at her hands, an anomaly herself. Her parents have always been supportive of her intellectual pursuits, and this could very well be one of the greatest. She has filled a medical textbook composed of both Entrapta’s research, Hordak’s explanations, and her own observations, theories and notes about how his species operates. But what good is it if it simply applies to a single individual; that’s not applicable to how science or medical practice works.

Hydrangea pours them tea. She knows how determined Odessa can be once she sets her mind to something. There’s no stopping her once her brain gains traction on an idea. Tristan’s set face comprehends this as well.

Tristan speaks first, “When would you like us to begin?”

Odessa smirks, “Soon as you’re done with your drink.”

“Hm, of course you’d say that.”

“Damn right,” Odessa answers.

Hydrangea places her hands on her hips, “Alright, Des. We’ll get going soon as we’re done!”

“Or you could chug your chamomile in one go.”

“No.”

                                                              -

Dryl is etched further into rocky cliffs, its labyrinth excavated deep inside the mountain. Its residents welcome their princess, happy to see her return. Entrapta’s kingdom had been left to its own devices for years, even prior to Entrapta’s departure; yet they view Odessa as the rightful heir, and treat her as such. She supposes it's something to be grateful for, as it does leave them with a place to rest and organize without much interference.

Though she could do without the large paintings of herself lining the walls.

“I never get over how cute you were as a baby,” Hydrangea says, giggling. “Look how chubby you were!”

“You were so adorable,” Tristan gushes. “So innocent.”

“The sweetest little baby,” she continues. “I still want to pinch your itty bitty face!”

“Shut up,” Odessa pouts, blushing. Curse these portraits… and curse their laughter...

“Odessa! Hello, hello!”

Relieved, she turns, smiling at the friendly face, “Hi, Uncle Wrong-Man.”

Crushing her to his chest, he presses their cheeks together, “It’s been so long since I’ve seen my most favorite niece in the world!”

“You’re going to make all the other nieces jealous,” she says. Then smiles, “But it’s true.”

“I can’t help it, you were the first niece I had!”

Back on her feet, Odessa glances at the vicinity. Normally, there’s more of her uncles wandering through the halls. “Where is everyone?”

“Oh, they’re working outside or in the kitchens. We heard you were back and we felt a welcoming party would be fun!”

“You don’t have to throw one every time we come back.”

His eyes turn watery, a sad, morose frown on his features, “Oh… I see… You don’t… like my parties anymore…”

“No, no, that’s not it!” Odessa says, trying to cheer him back up. “I just meant you don’t need to go through all the trouble each visit.”

He looks up at her, ears drooping lower, “Do you like them?”

“Yes, Uncle Wrong-Man, I love your parties,” she insists. “You’re the best at it!”

In seconds, his bubbly personality returns, “Excellent! I look forward to giving you another party suited to your tastes!”

Tristan leans toward Odessa, hand held up to his mouth, “Wow, for a minute I thought I heard violins.”

“He has that dramatic flair to him,” she agrees.

“How have your parents been? I haven’t seen them yet!” W.H. asks.

“Mom and Dad are fine,” Odessa tells him, following him through the halls. The maze has been modified to be easier to map out. The first time she had come here, they had gotten lost since Entrapta couldn’t quite recall where all the secret entrances were. Odessa took it upon herself to make her own layout, and added to it whenever a change had been made. “They went to Beast Island to see how it is there.”

His ears fall for a moment, “Aw, I hope they’ll visit soon!”

“I’m sure they will,” she assures him. “They had some business to conduct over there.”

“In the meantime, what brings you to Dryl?”

“I wanted to talk to you and some of the others regarding your past,” she explains.

W.H. enters the closest kitchen, walking toward the oven. Tucking on mitts, a perplexed expression crosses his features, “Our past? My dearest niece… have you been afflicted by amnesia?”

“No, my memories serve me right,” Odessa says, patient. “I am asking for information regarding where we had come from, as a whole species. What world we originated from, what our culture was like. I had spoken with father about the matter, but he said he didn’t know due to being younger than the rest of you.”

W.H. crosses over to the countertop, removing the cookies onto a cooling rack. He is silent for a few moments, and it is clear he is choosing his words carefully, trying to understand what she’s asking. He turns, a serious mien about him, unusual on his face. “I… I’m not sure, either.”

Odessa walks over to him, “Is it because you were separated from the hivemind?”

“I don’t believe so,” he replies. Folding his arms over his chest, the fact they’re all one person reveals itself in his posture and tone. “We had been created to serve Horde Prime. Nothing more or less. And I do think that I myself had been cloned after your father. He had been Horde Prime’s general as well, and if he didn’t know, one of our elder brothers might have the knowledge you seek.”

Odessa glances at Hydrangea and Tristan, then back to her uncle. “Do you know who would?”

W.H. ponders for a minute. “Hm, no one here, I am certain. The residents of Dryl are like myself—of the younger group, since we have more people skills to associate with the Etherians.”

Hydrangea says, “I always wondered how that worked. Where you were designated and why.”

W.H. nods, “Oh, yes, we put thought into what our new purposes would be. After I helped my brother and sister with Beast Island, I came here to demonstrate how to function with Etherians!”

Tristan walks over to the counter, “Where do you recommend we go, then? Also, can I have one?”

W.H. beams, nodding enthusiastically, “Please do! I am going to make much more. But in regards to your first question, I would suggest visiting family in Mystacore or Beast Island.”

Odessa takes a cookie off the rack as well, munching. Mystacore is closer, so it would be prudent to try there before traveling to Beast Island. There are portals stationed throughout Etheria, but it’ll be worth stopping by Mystacore. She hasn’t seen anyone there at all yet. Although, it’s not as if there are many who live in the clouds, visiting her family there is always exciting.

“Thank you, Uncle Wrong-Man,” Odessa says, reaching up to kiss his cheek. “We’ll head there now!”

“Take some food with you to go,” he insists. In a flash, he’s bagging the cookies into a cellophane sack, tying it with a pink ribbon that shapes into a butterfly. “Healthy meals are important, but so are treats! Otherwise, you get moody.”

Hydrangea and Tristan are handed their own bags, much to their surprised delight. Before Odessa can accompany them out the door, W.H. stops her, giving her another, “Would you mind taking this with you for your cousin?”

Odessa smiles, “I wouldn’t mind at all.”

                                                             -

Hordak and his brothers were categorized not by their clothes, or hair dye choices, but by their eyes. Odessa and her mother had noted the various shades of eye color, their teeth matching them the most; however, inside of their mouths, it adjusts to mimic the change as well, affecting the tongue and beneath it, gums, hard and soft palates, uvula, even extending down to the oropharynx. All her uncles are in good health, and with none of them dead, she can only assume that the change continues down the esophagus. She got it in writing several years ago that, should any be willing to be dissected for scientific purposes, she has a few choices for her study.

Their eye colors are fascinating: while they all reflect light to glow, which is meant to intimidate opponents, she has observed the change serves as behavioral distinction. The lighter the color, the more mellow and passive the personality; the darker or more intense, the more independent and aggressive. A chameleon-like feature, reflecting mood. And, in turn, signifying mental and physical health, as peppier individuals tend to be less plagued by feelings of inadequacy, anger, and low self-esteem. W.H. had his eye color eventually become the joyful chartreuse yellow she’s known since birth, and her father’s returned to their fiery red sometime after the war. This is the one true variation that doesn’t need attire or fanciful hair styles and dyes to show that no matter how alike they are by DNA, they are their own separate people.

So when she teleports to Mystacore, and she finds dark blue eyes staring at her from above, she remembers, quite immediately, that sometimes, darker eye colors don’t indicate low self-esteem but rather, an egregious amount of confidence.

Her uncle jumps down from his perch, landing daintily on his feet. He narrows his eyes, leering, “Odessa… it has been ages since you’ve arrived on Mystacore.”

“Hi, Talon,” Odessa says.

He looks at her friends, “You two are faring well, I hope.”

Hydrangea smiles, “Yes, thank you for asking!”

Tristan nods, “You look good, too, Talon.”

“Indeed,” Talon answers. “It would be a shame if I lost my abilities.”

With that, he throws knives out from his sleeve. Tristan dodges the attack by barreling to the side, somersaulting along the ground. Hydrangea calls up plants from underground, knives embedding into the sides. Odessa leaps into the air, reaching behind her to draw out a handheld bar. With a click, it extends to a staff, and another morphs it quickly into a pilum.

Reeling back her arm, she launches it with full ferocity at Talon. He avoids it, jumping to the left and pulling out more knives, but he aims them at Tristan, who runs toward the nearest fountain to pull water out from its containment. Tristan moves his arms upward, pushing out enough water to create a vertical depth, the knives slowing down as they pierce its surface and float inside.

Odessa tugs her spear out from the dirt, cornering her uncle at the right. Hydrangea pulls plants forward, fingers splayed in the air. From her fingertips, electricity strings across her exoskeleton. Tristan rushes to their side, water sloshing around them, encasing Talon in its center, creating a barrier.

Talon sneers, then bursts out laughing. His stance loosens, standing upright, “Your senses haven’t weakened. Good. I’d be vexed if you squandered my generosity to teach you combat.”

Odessa smirks, minimizing her staff and settling it behind her back, “We wouldn’t do that.”

Hydrangea grins, “Tristan and I do practice on our own.”

Tristan shifts the water back toward its source, then rubs the back of his neck, “Which is great, since there was no holding back from that attack.”

“Enemies don’t show mercy,” Talon says. Adjusting his collar, he nods his head, “But tell me, what brings my niece and her companions to Mystacore?”

Odessa speaks, “I wanted to ask you something.”

“Me?” he replies, curious.

“Yes. It’s about your origins. Uncle Wrong-Man said it might be beneficial to come to Mystacore and question my relatives here.”

Talon raises a brow. He looks up at his home, then addresses the trio, “Are you intending to stay for longer than an hour?”

“Most likely.”

“I will invite you to my home, then. Come. Dinner will be prepared soon, and we may discuss the topic during.”

Accepting this, they head in the direction of his home. An impressive, ornate building that’s three stories high; they tread up wide steps, where one can overlook the weigela bushes lined around the vicinity’s front entrance, a fountain spouting water in the garden’s center, surrounded by lilacs and roses. Cool air wafts over their bodies, welcome from the heat outside. Odessa remarks that the decor has only slightly changed, the furniture taking on silver, blue, and white qualities, polished until they gleam.

Going to the stairs, Talon nods at them, “Make yourselves at home. As usual, do not break anything. I will see you at dinner promptly.”

Once he’s gone, Hydrangea chuckles, “He’s still intense.”

“He’s gonna kill us one day,” Tristan sighs.

Odessa pats his shoulder, “Only if we let him.”

He lips thin out, “Not reassuring, Des.”

Climbing the steps, they decide to wait until they are called, and opt to entertain themselves by bothering someone else.

                                                             -

Magic radiates within the room, energy felt even behind the door. Odessa carefully pushes it open, seeing a slim figure move around. Putting a finger to her lips, she leads her friends into her cousin’s quarters. His face is stern, staring at the spell hovering over the ground at shoulder height.

Hydrangea sits quietly on a cushion on the floor, and Tristan does the same. Odessa leans against the wall, and they all watch. Eon is her cousin, and their similarities begin and end with their fathers having chosen Etherian women as their partners. He differs from her, and any other potential cousin, by having the capability to do magic. Real, Etherian magic.

Eon takes measured breathing, focusing on the spell. It elongates toward the ceiling and floor, then narrows to a thin line. Reaching for it, he plucks it with his forefinger. It snaps, and a discordant sound follows, uncomfortable and shrill. Hydrangea and Tristan cover their ears, as Odessa winces.

Eon looks at them, brow raised. He grins, “Did you all enjoy the show?”

“We did, until that,” Hydrangea complains, glaring at him. She frowns, lightly slapping her ears, “Aw no, there’s some ringing!”

“It’ll pass in a few moments,” Eon explains. “Besides, you three coming into my room unannounced and unwelcome deserves a bit of retribution.”

“By popping our eardrums?” Tristan asks, deadpan.

“Exactly,” Eon says, one hand on his hip. He turns to Odessa, and smiles. “You’re here sooner than expected.”

“I believe we arrived on time,” she answers, grinning back. She hasn’t seen him for a while, but he has gotten taller since then. He takes after their species' propensity for large heights, but she knows he’s grown a few inches and might continue to grow for the next couple of years as well.

Eon begins putting away his spellbook and notes, arranging them neatly, “What are the three of you doing here? With you on Etheria, you normally visit me later on your returns.”

“I came to ask your father some questions, but then he invited us to dinner.”

“He can be standoffish, but oddly enough, never when it comes to hosting meals.”

Hydrangea sits up, “We got into a sparring session with him right away too.”

Eon joins them on the floor, one knee bent to prop up an arm, “I had mine early this morning. You know him, he’s never done with training.”

Crossing outstretched legs, Tristan reclines against the wall, “Your parents don’t let up, huh?”

“No, but I head to my place at Bright Moon later in the month. I check in biweekly to continue my sparring and magic training, then head back and repeat.”

“That’s a lot of back and forth,” Hydrangea adds, holding a pillow to her chest.

Shrugging, Eon says, “I don’t mind. Keeps me busy.”

Odessa chuckles lightly, taking a seat beside Tristan, “For being super busy, Uncle Wrong-Man said to give you this.” Pulling out the bag, she tosses it to him.

Eon catches it deftly, a quiet ‘yes’ of triumph leaving his lips. His diet is strict when he’s with his parents, for optimal nutrition and betterment. But he has a sweet tooth that rivals Odessa and Entrapta, thus any opportunity to consume sugar is taken. Using a levitation spell, he has it placed atop his desk, and an invisibility spell follows after, keeping it from view.

“Won’t your parents find it? It’s not like you can’t smell cookies,” Odessa states.

“I’ll say it was one of you.”

Hydrangea laughs, “I don’t think they’ll be entirely fooled by that.”

“If not, that’s fine by me too,” Eon says. “I let them think they’re savvier than myself.”

Tristan smirks, “How often has that worked?”

“More than for you,” Eon says, smirking back.

Odessa and Hydrangea whoop at Tristan, who laughs in good humor.

Stretching his arms up and to the side, Eon turns to his cousin, “How did the last journey go?”

“It went as planned. We went to Pilan, and my parents found what they needed for research.”

“And you two?” he asks, addressing the others.

Hydrangea lays on her stomach, drawing circles on the pillow, “Hm… my moms have started taking me to council meetings, which is interesting. We had a gathering with some of the leaders in Plumeria that are helping to manage its growing space. And New Chelicerata has been thriving for years now, since we removed all the machinery in the Fright Zone and expanded it into the Flower Field.”

“Not all the toxins have been removed, I’m assuming.”

“Some of the groundwater had been too polluted, and it leaked into larger bodies of water, but, as a whole, we started seeing real progress six years ago.”

“I’ve been helping the residents there by removing water too far gone,” Tristan adds. “We’ve been separating them into larger containers as instructed, and we’re hoping that newer technology from Entrapta and Hordak will yield positive results in another decade or so.”

“Even if it’s slow, progression is always good.”

Odessa glances to her left, letting her mind drift. Time doesn’t pass by the same when traveling through space. She watches her mother age, while her father stays the same, and that’s the extent of how often she pays attention to the changes happening around her. It’s not from ignorance, but from not giving too much thought to it, even with the years she has spent returning to Etheria to evaluate and aid her people here.

Settling against Tristan, Odessa yawns. He keeps his body still as she falls asleep, finding their chatter relaxing. Dinner will arrive sooner if she’s napping. Even closing her eyes is enough for her body to rest, breathing quietly as she listens to them discuss any topic they happen upon.

Her friends are interrupted mid-conversation, a knock at the door grabbing their attention. Odessa opens an eye. The housekeeper bows her head, addressing Eon, “Your parents are waiting for you in the dining room. Please, follow me.”

                                                              -

Odessa knows her uncle, Talon, is a force to be reckoned with in combat, but her aunt, Nyxia, is a woman with severe features and a severer personality. If there was ever given a choice between fighting him or her, they may have to weigh their options a little more carefully.

She is seated next to Eon, with Hydrangea and Tristan placed across from them. Odessa leans toward her cousin, “Did Nyxia poison the food this time?”

Eon shakes his head, “Maybe Tristan’s.”

Tristan bawks, “Hey!”

Waving his hand, Eon smiles, “I’m teasing. It’s more than likely Hydrangea.”

“What?!” she demands, worried.

“You two are making this easy,” Eon grins, shaking his head. “Really, after all this time, you continue to doubt my parents’ hospitality.”

“I haven’t seen your mom in a while, okay? I wouldn’t know if I offended her last time,” Hydrangea breathes out, leaning back in her chair.

Ear twitching, Odessa catches the sound of footfalls, her aunt coming into view from the corridor, chin-length, violet hair framing lithe, dark features, gown flowing behind her. Definitely not a person to be out of line around.

But that only applies to non-relatives.

Nyxia smiles warmly at her niece, “Odessa! My charming girl, how have you been?”

“Wonderful, Aunt Nyxia, thank you,” Odessa replies, nodding her head in respect.

“Excellent. I heard all of you did well in your impromptu session with my husband earlier,” she says, making her way to the other end of the table. Standing beside her chair, she looks at her son’s other friends, “Talon remarked that you’ve improved considerably.”

“Thank you, ma’am,” Hydrangea and Tristan reply at once.

Talon comes from the opposite corridor, walking toward Nyxia. Pulling out the chair for her and sliding it beneath, he moves to the other end and takes his place at the head. The staff bring out their meal: roasted pheasants and potatoes, slathered in its drippings, with baked seasoned vegetables on the side. Wine is served to all of them, as Nyxia and Talon are lax in this department of child-rearing, though the option to have different beverages is always available. Odessa requests her usual fizzy drink, as Hydrangea asks for lemon water. Tristan and Eon have no qualms with the choice displayed in front of them.

“Smells delicious, Miss Nyxia,” Hydrangea compliments.

“Thank you, my dear,” she answers, laying a cloth on her lap. “When I heard you three were in Mystacore, I chose to make this instead.”

Odessa and Eon twiddle each other’s fingers under the table, a silent ‘fuck yeah’ to the change in menu. Nyxia is a phenomenal chef, but she abhors cooking. The usual staff do lovely work, except they are meant to keep things simple, clean, and balanced. Nyxia, despite agreeing with her husband on meal preparation, manages to create rich, satisfying food each time. Normally, when Odessa and her family are visiting.

Relishing this opportunity, Eon cuts into his pheasant, stabbing a portion of potato with it, melting on his tongue. Trying not to pretend-weep. Or actually weep.

“What was your question, Odessa?” Talon asks, swirling the wine in its glass. “It’s not like you to come without your parents.”

Dabbing her mouth, Odessa looks at him, “I wanted to ask you questions about your time serving as a soldier for Prime.”

He doesn’t break the smooth motion of his wrist, not minding that part of his life, “Yes?”

“I was told that older clones might have information regarding our origins. A life before Prime sought out to conquer the universe. My father and W.H. are too young to remember, or were never privy to it. You’re one of the eldest, so I figured to come here before heading to Beast Island.”

Talon sets down his glass, lifting his fork and knife. He takes a bite of his food, chewing quietly. Swallowing, he says, “I will be blunt: it is not possible to know such a thing. Our purpose, our life, was to do Prime’s bidding.”

“There isn’t anything you can think of?”

Talon mulls the question, glancing up at his wife, then back to the plate. He narrows his eyes, and they flicker to an even darker shade of blue for a fraction of a moment. He gives a minute shake of his head, imperceptible to all but his wife.

Odessa waits for him to speak, slipping out her recorder with a strand of hair.

“I… cannot remember a time before Horde Prime. There was only war. Ravaged lands, and screaming,” he leans forward. He meets his niece’s gaze, “You might have to go to Beast Island for your answers, though I do not trust they will know more. Many of us have been alive for decades, but not millennia.”

“Is there a reason for that?” Tristan wonders. “The hivemind was the source of connection. Did you lose memories once it left?”

“No, it doesn’t seem to be that way,” Talon answers, sipping his drink. “It’s more… you have recollections, starting from the present. And it continues backwards until it stops. A wall in your head, which is the moment of when we, for lack of a better word, are ‘born.’ From what I’ve gathered, raising Eon, and observing all of you growing up, an infant that develops naturally can have memories that are faint—both in sensation and imagery, and the mind’s eye develops scenarios of what could’ve happened. Piecing puzzles in your memory banks. Attempting to make sense of your childhood and surroundings, and it even causes you to feel certain emotions into adulthood on a subconscious level. For us, and my brothers, there is no guesswork. There is the instant of emerging from the vitrine, and from there it goes on. Our memories are crystal clear, and gaps do not occur. If we feel emotion, it’s from direct experiences, not preconceived ideas of maybe how we experienced living. The hivemind being removed made us how we are now, but its absence didn’t seem to affect anything else.”

“Fascinating,” Odessa says, forgetting her meal. “So, you remember everything?”

“Yes. It would seem my brothers and I recall memories at greater capacities than most.”

“Would you say you have photographic memory?” Hydrangea asks, leaning forward.

“Our superior intellect allows us to retain knowledge quicker, and we remember things for longer, but a true photographic memory isn’t an aspect we have considered.”

Nyxia cuts into her pheasant, “It’s not unlikely. Your brothers and you have shown an uncanny ability to remember things more greatly than Etherians. It might be prudent to research it further, wouldn’t you say?”

Nodding in agreement, Odessa would not rule it out. She’ll discuss it with her mother for an unbiased opinion later.

Dinner finishes with chiffon cake and fruit, leaving guests and hosts satisfied. Talon and Nyxia wave at the door, as Eon walks them to the portal.

“It was good to see you all,” Hydrangea says, turning to Eon. She clasps his hands, “You should visit more!”

Eon blushes slightly, still not used to open demeanors, “I’ll try to make an effort.”

Tristan pats his shoulder, “You have to get out more. Between you and Odessa, I don’t know who’s more of the hermit.”

“It’s definitely me,” Eon replies. “Odessa’s too needy.”

Punching him in the arm, Odessa gives a side-hug right after. She and her friends step onto the portal, “I’ll drop by again soon! And visit my parents sometime, dumbass.”

He flips her off, smirking.

Hopping through the portal, they arrive in Plumeria, where she bids goodbye to her friends. Then, she heads to Beast Island.

                                                               -

“Odessa! My little cupcake, how was your trip to Mystacore?” Entrapta asks. Imp, crawling around on the walls, chirps his greetings with Emily beeping at her return.

“It was very interesting,” Odessa says, pulling out her recorder. “Would you like to listen with me?”

“You bet!” Entrapta shouts, sidling over to sit on her hair. Odessa takes a proffered seat before playing back the conversation at dinner. She listens with rapt attention, the two of them quiet. Afterward, Entrapta grins, “That was fascinating! I had noticed that your relatives tend to be more affluent with recollection than most, but this requires more study.”

“Do you think there is a possibility that they have photographic memory?”

“We won’t know unless we test the hypothesis,” Entrapta turns to her daughter, grinning wide. “You know what that means!”

Odessa grins wide too, saying it with her.

“Time to experiment!”

                                                               -

Odessa and Entrapta had to decide what and how to measure. The test is simple on paper, but part of the reason memory tests can be difficult is due to fallibility of nature. Recalling a memory does not equate accuracy. They also had to take into account that Etherian children were more susceptible to false memories, which could affect them as adults, hence, why Talon said that there’s no guesswork for his brothers and himself. And when it came to the ethics, Entrapta reminded Odessa that it’s part of experimentation, much to the latter’s chagrin. Odessa would’ve followed, regardless, but she’s more determined to see things through without obstacles.

A lack of true full-blooded children for Hordak’s species, and Eon and Odessa were not little anymore, that wasn’t necessary to entertain. However, Odessa and Entrapta believed it would be prudent to test the memory of Eon and any other hybrid cousins simultaneously to the Etherian and Horde groups, sans Odessa.

After deliberating, they chose to experiment by gathering Etherians between the ages of 15-50, to cover the age bases of both Etherian teens and adults, hybrid offspring, and Horde descendants. After age 14, correct absolute judgments and relative judgments have better succession rates and are not as affected by false positives. With this in mind, Odessa sends out a mass message asking if anyone would like to be part of a study.

She receives her answers quickly from her uncles, who would be more than delighted to aid her in any quest. She splits them into four groups, Group A, B, C and D. To accommodate for the choice in subjects, they will be separated into three sections, Etherians being the first, hybrids the second, and her uncles will be the third subsect. Over the course of the week, she receives the rest of her subjects at Beast Island.

Tristan and Hydrangea are the first to arrive, looking forward to spending time with her and her family in the meantime. Hydrangea gives Emily and Imp hugs and kisses, cooing over them incessantly. Imp clings to Hydrangea’s neck, completely at ease.

Tristan pats Emily’s surface, smiling at her beeps, “It’s good to see you too.”

She beeps even louder and harder, spinning around in place.

Entrapta grins, “Aw, you made her day!”

“No one else is my favorite robot, are they, Ems?” Tristan asks. She spins again, and the whirring becomes softer, almost shy.

Odessa nudges his ribs, “Great, my sister has a crush on you.”

Tristan rolls his eyes, smiling.

Odessa peers at his face, “Hey, you shaved!”

“Yeah, you were right. It was horrible,” Tristan remarks.

“You look better this way,” Odessa affirms, pinching his cheek, and he lightly whacks her fingers away.

Scorpia comes a moment later, and immediately bolts over to them all. Once the hugs are done, Scorpia and Entrapta discuss things on their own. Entrapta settles into the crook of Hordak’s arm, resting easily over her shoulders. Scorpia gushes over how cute they are. Hordak humphs in disdain, despite the blush on his cheeks.

Another five minutes pass and the portal hums. Catra, Adora, and two of their children come through.

Odessa sighs. Not looking forward to having some of them here. But she smiles, walking to Adora, “Hi! Thanks for coming.”

Adora smiles, giving Odessa a warm hug. She pulls back, holding her at arm’s length, “It’s no problem. We’re glad to help! You’ve gotten taller.”

“You’ve definitely sprouted more than we thought. I remember when you were knee-high,” Catra says. “You were the worst ankle-biter in Etheria.”

Odessa teases, “Still am.”

Laughing, Catra pats her back, walking hand in hand with Adora to their friends.

Her smile falters after that, though she manages to keep it in place. If Catra and Adora weren’t there, she wouldn’t hide her contempt or indifference.

They have four children in total. Quadruplets in fact. All a year younger than her at 15. Two of them, Clawdeen and Marlena, tend to spend their time in Bright Moon, and she has no opinion of them other than they’re not her sort of people. Well, that’s not true. They’re surprisingly elitist and refuse to associate with anyone they find unworthy of their time. They mind their business enough, however, so Odessa doesn’t pay them attention.

Barely coming to five feet tall, Molly is one of the children here today, a skittish, timid thing; the runt of her litter. She inherited Catra’s heterochromia, one eye blue, the other green, and that’s the one interesting thing about her. She stands, unsure, by the portal. Her appearance here is odd, since she tends to be alone. Odessa doesn’t hate her, or even dislike her, but the girl’s meekness doesn’t make her striking enough to have an opinion on either.

Adam, their one son, is another story. His eyes are bright blue, and slightly jarring in the feline face. The opposite of Molly, he is loud, prone to temper tantrums, and his temerity leaves much to be desired. She prefers the company of confident, open people, but he’s, without a doubt, the most obnoxious fucker she’s ever had the misfortune of knowing.

His eyes, the only one to resemble Adora’s, land on hers, and he leaps over, grinning. Placing an arm on her shoulder, leaning, he says, “Yooooo, what’s up, girl?”

Odessa turns to him, narrowing her eyes, “Please don’t take my smile for welcome, you complete ass.”

“Ooh, baby, you need to chill,” Adam says, poking her nose.

“Try that one more time and I’ll bite it off.”

He winks, “That a promise, thottie from space?”

Odessa smiles wider, eyes flashing, “It’s a threat, you parasitic fool.”

Sensing her growing irritation, her friends bound over. Hydrangea waves at Adam, “Hey! We haven’t seen you in a long time. How’ve you been?”

Adam turns to her, “Hey, Dragon Fruit! You know how I be—taking care of all this,” Adam gestures to his thin body, puffing out his chest. “What you been up to lately? Those flower braids are doing everything for your look.”

Hydrangea urges him to walk far, far, far, far away from Odessa’s area.

Rubbing her temples, Odessa takes a breath.

Tristan rubs her back, “Remember, Des: think of the experiment.”

Odessa nods at him. Science. Her one true refuge. “I know. It’s a little… irritating that he’s here. But I’m sure that empty-headed dolt will yield some results for me.”

Tristan smiles at her, ensuring she doesn’t lose her cool. Once he’s sure she won’t murder, he looks at Molly, “Hi! I didn’t think I’d see you here.”

Molly brushes hair away, looking briefly at the ground before addressing him. “Yeah… Um, my moms thought it would be cool to take one or two of us. To help Odessa out.”

Odessa shakes her head, “So glad about that.”

“Um… I’m sorry about Adam...” Molly starts.

“It’s fine,” Odessa replies, focusing back on her clipboard, walking away.

Sighing, Molly bites her lower lip, feeling uneasy.

Noticing that, Tristan smiles at Molly, “Come on. We can wait over here.”

“Sorry you’re stuck with me,” she mumbles.

“I’m not stuck with you,” Tristan answers. He leads her to an unoccupied stone ledge, the occasional pooka darting across it. “Though, I didn’t think this was your sort of thing.”

“It isn’t. I don’t really want to be here,” Molly answers, pulling her legs to her chest.

“It might be fun, right?” Tristan asks.

Shrugging, Molly places her chin onto her hands.

They both watch the portal light up, a plethora of clones marching through. It has to pause for a brief moment, then it continues to spew individuals out of it. Tristan glances down at Molly, knowing there’s no point in attempting to converse. The silence doesn’t bother him, and she seems to take more comfort out of not having to make dreadful small talk. He hates it too, so this works.

Eon and his parents eventually pass through. Waving at him, Tristan reclines in his seat, “You and your folks actually came. I didn’t think any of you left the house.”

Standing with his arms behind his back, at ease, Eon smirks, “You’re all lucky we don’t come out more often.”

Tristan sticks his tongue out at him. He gestures to his left, “You remember Molly?”

Eon looks down at her, “Yes, we have met before. Nice to see you again.”

Molly flushes, turning away, “Nice to see you too…”

He glances at Tristan, who gives a one-shoulder shrug.

She keeps quiet, looking at the people around her. Hordak and his brothers all stand out as one unit, and other cousins similar to Eon slowly arrive. Not as large in number, with more variation than Hordak’s species but less than natives. She watches Etherians coming forth as well, and doesn’t wave or acknowledge them. Hoping to blend with the background, she scoots further away, sinking behind Tristan.

Tristan notes her discomfort and doesn’t move.

Eon, however, waves at some relatives, who rush over to greet him.

Molly frowns, accepting her fate. She takes to watching Eon speak with his family, his tall, sleek body impressive even among those similar to him in build. His hair, cropped shorter at the sides, falls in front of his forehead, a darker hue than his cousin Odessa. His eyes are a lovely shade, bordering on magenta with a stronger red tint, the sclera an equally pretty color, lighter than his irises. His usual confident smirk remains on his face throughout, bright, sharp teeth against the usual backdrop of pale face with the sides of his cheekbones and neck becoming a shock of dark blue or purple. It seems to be a common male trait, since Odessa’s face is white all around, but she isn’t sure. She doesn’t see the other cousins close enough to tell.

She spies Odessa wandering with her device, either barking orders or quietly checking off things. Long, lilac hair floats behind her when not in use, her frame just as slim and tight as the others, and inheriting a tall height seems to be the norm for them. Despite her gorgeous features, Molly finds it interesting, also intimidating, how much redder Odessa’s eyes and sclera are compared to Eon’s.

Hydrangea is speaking with Odessa now, platinum blonde hair brushing against her body, falling in the softest of waves to the small of her back. Her lithe frame befits the gentler, kinder nature she has, which isn’t surprising considering who her parents are. But there’s that powerful change in limb, her arms spiking at the shoulder in dark red, the skin of her arms mottled with it, until it reaches her elbows, where it spikes again, hardens, forming another patch of chitinous skin that reaches her fingertips, claws neatly filed down. And then there’s the tail, shorter, but as potent as Scorpia’s. Deadly and graceful.

She looks up at Tristan, beautiful, brown eyes staring off to the distance. Long lashes frame them, delicate yet full. His hands rest lightly over his knees, fingernails painted black. Hair reaching the end of his neck, lightly touching muscular shoulders, it enriches brown skin with its color, more than a mere dark purple. It’s the color of wine in the dark, of a gorgeous night as the last remnants of light dash away. The blue of his clothes highlight everything further, lavish gold trim clashing against the bright colors, revealing every taut muscle without meaning to, and she traces the curve of his spine with her eyes.

She feels a gaze on her, and finds her brother staring at her from a distance. Molly, snapping from her reverie, darts her sight to the ground. Unaware of Tristan looking in her direction.

Once enough participants have arrived, Odessa claps her hands, “Alright, people! Listen up: I have divided you all into the following groups. Step up this way, where I will assign you all with a place to go to.”

Adam bounds up out of nowhere, whispering, “Can whatever group I’m in be called Team Sexy?”

Odessa ignores him, “Let’s begin, shall we?”

                                                               -

                                                    HYDRANGEA

                                                        Age: 15

                                                Species: Etherian

“Alright,” Odessa says. “I’m going to show you 10 pictures. You will have seven seconds to absorb all the details for them, and afterward, I will ask you one simple question about what you can remember.”

“You got it!” Hydrangea sits in her chair, comfortable. “Sounds easy enough.”

Odessa smiles, “Here’s your first one.”

She holds up a simple image of table mats atop a wooden surface, decorated with plates of breakfast foods, drinks, and fresh fruits.

“Okay, ready for the question?”

“Yep!”

“What fruits topped the waffles?”

“Oh, um… berries and apples?”

Writing it down, Odessa proceeds with the next image.

                                                      TRISTAN

                                                       Age: 17

                                               Species: Etherian

“Hello!” Entrapta says, bringing him in. “I’m going to show you 10 pictures for less than 10 seconds each, and you’ll let me know what you remember.”

“Sure thing,” Tristan replies, sitting upright.

She pulls out an image of miscellaneous items and personal effects on a desk, three photographs in the middle, a drawing in one of the corners, a grey notebook, and a folder with intricate patterns.

“Okay, ready for the question?”

“Yes.”

“Were there tickets on the table?”

Tristan mulls his answers for a moment, “No.”

                                                        MOLLY

                                                        Age: 15

                                                Species: Etherian

Odessa approaches the girl, relieved that she doesn’t have to deal with the handful that was her brother. She looks at Molly, “I’m going to hold up 10 pictures for you, and you will have seven seconds to absorb the image. Afterward, I will ask you questions.”

“Alright,” Molly nods, nails clicking against each other.

The image is of a mountain peak, glinting from the light; the moon shines above it, and a trip of hoofed animals moving along its surface.

“What was the total number of baby goats in the image?”

Molly thinks over the total, and says, “Five.”

ADAM

Age: 15

Species: Etherian

Entrapta comes into the room, “Hello! I’m going to be showing you some pictures—”

Adam interrupts her, “Is this going to take long?”

“Nope! It takes less than five minutes for this segment to be complet—”

“Do we get paid to do this?”

“...No.”

Scratching his nose, Adam leans back in his chair, “Got it, got it. Lay it on me, girl!”

Entrapta smiles, “Great! So, I have 10 pictures and I will show them to you for about seven seconds. I will ask you questions after each one about what you saw.”

“Question real quick: is this one of those tests that explain anything about your psychosis?”

“What do you mean?”

“Is it gonna tell me anything, like, am I gonna learn about who is the most likely to be a murderer or nymphomaniac?”

Raising a brow at him, Entrapta says, “I can’t divulge too much about the study to participants. But this is not that kind of test.”

“Aw… okay,” Adam shifts back further in his seat, lifting the front legs from the ground. “Well, that’s less fun.”

Entrapta proceeds to bring out a picture: a series of potted plants are lined on shelves, different heights and colors smashed closely together in the frame, their pots not resembling the others save for a few.

“What was the centre motif for the pots?”

Adam scratches his chin, “Frog, I think.”

                                                         EON

                                                       Age: 18

                                          Species: Etherian and ?

Odessa approaches her cousin, sitting relaxed in the seat. She had gone through the first ten pictures with him already. She glances at him, “Are you ready to continue with the process?”

“Whatever this study is, I’m assuming that you need me to come back again for another trial run.”

“Yes, you will be returning a few times after today to aid in the study, as per your agreement on the written form.”

“Of course.”

“You went through the first half, and you’re going to begin the second half now. This is slightly different,” Odessa explains. Instead of photographs, she holds up a pad, similar in size and weight to her telecommunicator. “I am going to hold up one image: a grid of white and black squares. Then, I will show you a second image, of the same number of squares on the grid; however, you will choose the one square you believe was white in both image one and image two. Image three will have the grids with numbers in the squares instead for you to pick. The amount of time will be the same, seven seconds. There are four levels of difficulty, and you will proceed until we reach the last level.”

Nodding, Eon watches her lift the screen to his eyes. A grid of white and black appears, and he keeps in mind which are white only. The second image appears. Then the third. He makes his decision. He will not know if he is right, as the data is processed within for the researchers alone.

Odessa keeps her face neutral the entire time, intrigued at what this part of the test will yield from everyone else.

                                                          TALON

        Age: approx. 90 (total) | approx. 52 (mental) | approx. 52 (physiological)

                                                        Species: ?

Entrapta smiles, “We do appreciate you helping with the test.”

“It is no trouble,” Talon states. “You and my niece are a select few that do not leave me…”

“Irritated?”

“We’ll use that word.”

Entrapta approaches her brother-in-law, setting herself down on swathes of hair, “Are you ready for the second half of the test?”

“Yes. By all means, little sister, proceed.”

“Excellent! I’m going to show you a grid with black and white squares. Another image will appear after on the device. The number of squares will not change, however, you have to decide what is the one square that remained white. You will pick that in the third image, where the squares will all be numbered.”

“Understood. You may show me the first image.”

                                                            W.H.

        Age: approx. 40 (total) | approx. 23 (mental) | approx. 27 (physiological)

                                                       Species: ?

“This must be exciting for you, isn’t it?” W.H. asks. “You haven’t done a study like this in a while.”

Readying the pad, she nods, “It has been a few years since I’ve conducted anything in this manner.”

“I still remember when you were little, and you insisted on having your first experiment be a methane explosion. You were so cute!”

Odessa smiles, “Speaking of memory, we’re going to begin the second half of the test. You will have the same amount of time to memorize the image on screen. Another will follow right after, and your task is to choose which square on the grid remained white. The image will be your selection on a numbered grid.”

“Sounds fun!”

Holding it up for him, Odessa watches his eyes stay in place, focused. A flicker to indicate change on the screen, then another before he makes his decision.

                                                        HORDAK

        Age: approx. 56 (total) | approx. 57 (mental) | approx. 35 (physiological)

                                                        Species: ?

Entrapta can’t help but smile at him, “Thanks for helping, Lab Partner!”

Hordak smiles back, rising from the chair, “Of course. The experiment seems to be going well.”

“It’s been so fascinating!” Entrapta lifts herself up in the air, at his height. “Everyone has been super helpful, even when they’re rambling about their own assumptions!”

“Who was rambling?”

“One of Catra’s kids—the boy. He was very interesting when he talked, but I had to stay focused! We’re collecting so much data… Odessa is going to be ecstatic!”

Happy to see her in good spirits, Hordak leans forward, kissing her cheek, “When you’re done, I will be waiting for you in our room.”

Entrapta waggles her eyebrows at him, wrapping her arms around his neck, “Ooh! Is this about that new maneuver you wanted to show me?”

“We’ll see if your memory serves you just as well tonight,” Hordak smirks.

Squealing, Entrapta kicks her legs behind her, pecking his mouth with her own. “Can’t wait!”

                                                               -

The results, overall, took two months to compile through the data machine and to check back in with the participants. None of the groups had different numbers, pictures, objects, or words. Odessa and Entrapta tested everyone on their eidetic and photographic memory ability. Group A had no distractions, Group B had Etherians with distractions only, Group C was where her cousins had the disturbances, and Group D it was her uncles with diversions.

When it came to eidetic memory, the numbers didn’t vary too much. But the photographic memory yielded noteworthy results. Each group was brought back a month after being tested to see if they could recall things better. A few Etherians showed some promising ability for it, but overall it wasn’t strong. Her cousins showed stronger signs for photographic memory, Eon being one of the best candidates.

But her uncles were nearly at a 97% rate of accuracy. Talon and W.H. showed an adeptness for remembering things weeks later. Hordak was somewhere in the middle. She wonders why.

“Mom,” she says, holding the charts in her hair. “I know that photographic memory is rare, but these numbers are unreal.”

“I know! The majority of your relatives have a knack for it! That’s so fascinating.”

“I have a theory that it might be due to the hivemind, and perhaps the military training they underwent. It would make sense why they have such capability, even two decades later,” Odessa says. She pulls another chart toward them, tapping her forefinger in quick successions behind it. “It may or may not be that, since we’re not certain of Dad’s origins, but it would explain aspects of it.”

Entrapta’s hair moves her behind her daughter, peering over her shoulder, “It may. I saw that Wrong Hordak was remarkable with photographic memory, and Talon as well.”

“I believe it’s possible that it might be due to neither having depressive episodes. It may have been a group study, but I saw that clones similar to Dad in terms of mental health had a tendency toward memory loss or confusion. It’s not as often or strong as Etherians, or a couple of my cousins, but it’s there. Brains are brains after all.”

“It is exceptional to write this in our records. I wish we had more examples to go by,” Entrapta says. She smiles, “I think it says quite a lot when you compare it to Etherians and your cousins, though.”

“I do find this riveting. Even if it’s Dad cloned thousands of times, there’s something in their brains, their minds, that can provide clues to them as a whole. It’d be prudent to conduct more research, but I’d like to begin as soon as possible, and I can add notes as I go along.”

Entrapta pats her daughter’s head, “And now that you have this information, what do you intend to do with it?”

Odessa looks up at her mother, then back at the data. “I’m going to have Tris and Gea come with me on a little field trip.”

[bbq-hawks-wings]

long ask anon cont Pt 1- lol, I think Tumblr is eating my imgur link of the full ask even after I broke it. Also, thank you guys so much for answering and hitting the issues so well. I love what you and @autumn-foxfire has written so far. Here’s the rest: ...or at the very least, gen stories. The drama and tension between Hawks & Dabi actually gets me hyped & excited. This is a little off-topic but why are there so many trans-Hawks stories that are smut? I have nothing against it or smut but-

-it’s hard finding trans-Hawks/reg-Hawks stories that don’t involve smut. I do acknowledge that his character design is very appealing (ex: reader,ocxHawks mountain) but there’s so much sexual content ppl put Hawks in that it’s hard to find good stories(even smut ones)about his character just interacting w others or dealing w drama,mysteries,etc. I just want good Hawks content to recommend to new fans instead of just smut in case they’re underaged. (Hawks-sensei=Holy Grail)

Anyway, this is my perspective as a fan of Hawks who just got into BNHA for about 4 months & is extremely worried how others will see Hawks when the anime comes back bc of all the currently available fan content for him on Tumblr-AO3-Twitter. I really didn’t mind (even liked) the lov members when I wasn’t in the fandom but w/ how ppl write/draw them in order to bash Hawks, it actually made me want to read more about the main cast/Pro Heroes & Hawks hanging out w/ them instead.

With the Main cast/Pro Heroes, we can at least get a Hawks that gets to have therapy, build healthy (non-guilt) friendships, and the others would be able to learn about the faults of Hero society and the Commission through him.

But for Hawks+lov stories, I now cringe internally when I see the "league as found family" tag even though I would usually love the concept bc if Hawks is involved, he's either really ooc or the lov are. It feels weird to read stories where Hawks lets slip his tragic backstory (accidentally instead of purposely) and the lov openly accepts him or they don't care much since Dabi vouched for him. I think I've seen more interaction between Toga/Mr Compress/Kirigiri with Hawks than Twice even though that's canon (would love it if Twice interacts enough with Hawks to have his own conflicts and tries to convince Hawks from his path rather than just feelings of betrayal) . I would love to read more AU Hawks+lov stories where Hawks interacts w/ the other lov members through Twice and becomes conflicted when he realizes how close they are to Twice and how they should also get a second change or ones w/ tension and grudging acceptance of each others' beliefs so both sides would have to examine themselves if they should change their stance. Sadly, those seem to be a rarity or perhaps, only available in stories where Hawks isn't a central character.

Not gonna lie, even I heard the choir of angels and saw the heavens part when Horikoshi said, "Here, have everything you love about the kids' personalities plus the freedoms and privileges you can have in an adult character - as a treat." It also helps he was the same age I was during his manga debut. Even so, it got old pretty fast to see the sheer amount of smut that flooded the fic scene after the anime aired. Like, it's understandable - and this could just be my own view of sex and relationships talking - but jumping straight to wam, bam, thank you ma'am without the emotional foundation is a little boring at least and annoying when it's everywhere. At least people tag that pretty faithfully.

A faithful look into inter-League dynamics would be appreciated all around, I think. Some of the fan base seems to have this impression there's never anything wrong or abrasive about the relationships in it, but I imagine it's the opposite with what we've seen in canon. If anything, it would do a greater service to the League alone to see these realistic conflicts but explore how and why they stay together anyway. Adding Hawks into the mix is bonus material, in my opinion.

The good news, though, is I hear more and more from new fans that they heard about fanon Hawks for a while outside of fandom only to pick it up for themselves and give a hard side-eye to fanon. At least from a few people I hear about how they don't even begin to understand why fanon is so popular when canon is so much more interesting. It gives me genuine hope for the anime-only crowd because it's going to be even harder to misread his actions when they're put to voice acting, music, and animations - and that's even before well-known anime commentators like Mother's Basement may pick him up as a character essay. (Inosuke was picked up for his "What's in a Waifu" series, and he has a positive view of HeroAca so I'm holding out hope!)

I don't think bad takes and mischaracterization is ever going to go away completely, but it feels like those who preach it are a minority who either have to keep preaching it from the rooftops and drown out other voices to believe it or who are more concerned with being woke (or maybe even just trolling?) than actually just enjoying a series because they like it or dropping it if they don't.

Any additional thoughts, @autumn-foxfire?