#makes sense i ended up plural lol

[orange-orchard-system]

Since mottos and slogans have been a hot topic in the plural community lately... I want to introduce one that I've been thinking of for a long while now! It's part rallying cry, part "defiance via continued existence", and part punk in the "spikes as a deterrent" way (if that last comparison makes sense at all, lol – I'm specifically thinking of things like how wheelchair users may put spikes on the handles of their 'chair so others don't try to touch or move them without permission). It's this:

"Plural as in there are more of us than you think."

[PT: "Plural as in there are more of us than you think." / end PT]

I've also considered a longer version that would tie in the queer community/queerness – which I know is intertwined with plurality for many people – and that version would be: "Queer as in here without fear, plural as in there are more of us than you think". What do you all think?

I think it's very to-the-point, and plays on a simple premise: that we're not backing down – not in the face of hate, and not in the face of fear. Especially with the longer version; we're here, we're queer, get over it – and if you refuse to, just know that you can't silence us all, no matter how loudly you try to drown us out. We will always be here. There will always be someone to fight against the hate, to spit in the face of bigotry just by continuing to draw breath. It also has a nod to an older queer sentiment that I think we should bring back for both queer and plural folk alike – that we are everywhere. The cashier that scanned your groceries might be plural. The classmate sitting next to you might be plural. The neighbor across the street might be plural. We are here. There are more of us than you think. And we will not be afraid.

"There are more of us than you think" is also a nod to how statistics are often both misunderstood and just plain lacking in data. People really don't seem to realize just how population statistics translate to real life; how many people they pass by or have brief interactions with fit that "extremely rare" condition they dismissed, because something like "1.5%" doesn't look like a lot on paper, but ends up as a whole lot when you wander out into the world. That's at least one out of a hundred – and that estimate is on the more conservative side about one specific presentation of plurality, and doesn't account for many, many other forms of it. So, yeah, there are definitely more of us than they/you think.

I admit it can be read as a tad aggressive, but that's also part of the point. It's meant to be a very in-your-face type of motto, especially as a spit in the face of pluralphobia and all other forms of bigotry it entangles itself with – racism, sanism, disableism, ableism, religious intolerance, queerphobia, etc.. Yeah, your cashier, classmate, neighbor might be plural – and so what?! Yeah, maybe you should think twice about messing with us, because acceptance is growing and you're not going to be able to excuse your hateful nonsense for much longer without it being called out as such! But on the other hand, I think it can work well as a conversation starter, giving people the prompt to ask, "What does that mean?" In this case, the slogan being so provocative works in its favor! Yeah, actually, I'd love to talk about how plurals go unknown and deserve more awareness, how there are almost certainly more of us than even we can know for certain! And, again, spikes on a wheelchair – taking words as an art form, this slogan is art that's meant to make you uncomfortable, to make you question things; "Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.", as Cesar A. Cruz said. It makes you scared or uncomfortable to think about there being more plurals out there than you first estimated there to be? Why does it make you feel that? Is this the result of unconscious bias? Why do you think we, the makers of this slogan, might be comforted by the same phrase that disturbs you?

We're plural as in more-than-one in more than one (lol) meaning of the phrase. More-than-one in this body, more-than-one of us out there fighting the good fight – helping others, breaking down walls, and pushing for a kinder and more accepting future.

Plural as in there are more of us than you think. Fuck your hatred, we're gonna be here no matter what.

[tomwambsgans]

expanding off this post about tom and greg's respective comphet/repression:

securing a woman to one's side, in american society in general but especially in the corporate sphere, is a cheat code to establishing masculinity.

tom knows this very well, clearly for a long time prior to the show's events. i've of course talked plenty before about how heterosexual relationship(s) (<- very contentious plural lol) are tom's (very middle class) way of balancing out his innate effeminacy - but also, for tom, it's clearly not enough to just have the woman. he wants to feel it too, likely owed to having grown up with happily married parents to model. he gets a whole lot of status by marrying shiv, but that doesn't satisfy him despite the way that his romantic ideas about love wrt shiv (i want to perish on impact, let's get out and teach scuba) fall apart and prove hollow. it's often hard to tell where tom's genuine midwestern values end and where pragmatic aspirations to the elite begin, but given the striving nature of his family and frankly his whole socioeconomic class, imo they're deeply intertwined. and inside of tom they form a strong need to not just look like that Real Man, but to be it, whatever the cost. however unhappy it makes him.

...meanwhile, greg's model: a gay dad who went off and did what he wanted, and then was caught and likely ostracized from then on, possibly not even due to his desires/needs nearly as much as his inability to hide it better... and an unhappy, somewhat emotionally neglectful mother.

so greg grew up knowing he didn't want to be gay bc his dad wasn't an admirable/successful figure, but! he also saw firsthand that being with a woman did not stop you from being gay, nor did it necessarily even hide it from others. it was likely not until entering the sphere of the roys and specifically attaching himself to tom that idea of "securing a woman will give me the role of a normal masculine man" seemed real to greg. and due to it coming so late in life, after about 30 years of little to no stable approval even when he might have appeared to be straight, greg just doesn't have it in him to also alter his insides nearly to the degree that tom does. he'd only learned how to hide what he does have, not create feelings that aren't there. it's too late for him to internalize anything new.

and this is why, when greg is introduced to the idea of "the date ladder," he consciously understands it as a game to play. he switches up from disappointment about each attempt to attach a girl to himself feeling hollow, to knowing that he's acting. when greg realizes the positive material consequences, he enthusiastically leans into the model of heterosexuality that he can best play at: [misogynistic] player/serial dater. sex is already culturally something that doesn't necessitate open affection, due to happening behind closed doors. so it's plausibly deniable that there's anything actually happening OR any feeling behind it. there's not supposed to be feeling. there's only supposed to be that rush, which can just as easily come from any sense of success, or even just convincing other men that you've been successful.

(he still doesn't play at it that well, of course, given that all he's managed is 30 seconds tops of hand stuff, but it's notable that that's truly the best that greg can do, lol.)

finally, the way that tom and greg's methods of repression clash, then, feels like a tragically ironic miscommunication : each of them burn out fast at any attempt to do it how the other does it, so they each fall for it.

[vidavalor]

have u ever seen the "his name has Ra in it. Ra is the Egyptian god of sun. Sun has three letters. A triangle has three peaks. Illuminati is a triangle. That means that he's illuminati" videos?

cuz ur like that but cooler and more educative

The last line of your message means you can have chocolate pie. 💕*sets you up with a plate* I was getting a little nervous there for a second lol. I think that any book or show that causes its audience to engage so much is a great one and if someone is enjoying making connections like the ones you described, then it's their life to enjoy. I'm not going to yuck on anyone's yum but I have seen some theories that I honestly had difficulty following so I get whatcha sayin' and I appreciate the compliment.

If I said this next sentence with any other context but with regards to Good Omens, you'd all try to have me committed lol but here it is: I'm following language-related directions from The Voice of God. Literally. I have it in the works to do a post on that alone because the show is actually teaching the audience Crowley & Aziraphale's vocabulary and it's provided some keys at times as to where in the show you can find lessons in it. In S2, there's also a meta scene about it, which is the "Professor Rossignol" scene. Some brief thoughts on that and, since you were nice enough to drop me a note, also on Ra and The Illuminati while we're at it, just for kicks.

It's no good to make it evident to your audience that your main characters are speaking a secret language that they've made up if the audience can't be taught to speak it because then the meaning of what's being said is lost, right? And it is very obvious that Crowley & Aziraphale have their own vocabulary. There are a lot of examples of it but one scene, in particular, that stands out to me is 1967 because it is literally impossible to make heads or tails of what they're fully discussing unless you try to figure out what Aziraphale means by "dangerous." He tells Crowley that he's heard about Crowley's plan to rob a church for holy water and then says to him this, word-for-word:

"I can't have you risking your life. Not even for something dangerous."

What does that mean, right? If you didn't already get a sense that their words don't add up on the surface sometimes, you get smacked in the face with it in that scene. Aziraphale's phrasing puts "dangerous"-- a word with a scary, negative connotation-- in the position of a positive, cherished thing that Crowley would see worth risking his life for and the end result is that "dangerous" must mean something to them besides the surface definition of the word. [What it does is something someone else has asked me for so post on that to come.] Right there, though? You have hidden vocabulary. One of the most important scenes in the show and it makes no sense without an awareness of it. This is all long before Crowley's standing there saying "no nightingales" in 2.06.

There are other scenes where something doesn't add up without an awareness of hidden language being spoken. Why does Crowley melt into a puddle of burning goo at Aziraphale saying "We will win, you know" about Heaven winning Armageddon in 1.01? Because, as other scenes and The Voice of God's narration teach, when they're speaking of Heaven or Hell with pluralized pronouns, they're really talking about the two of them together beneath the surface. That's why Crowley's face melts into a lovesick gaze and hint of a smile when Aziraphale says "we will win"-- because Aziraphale is saying that he and Crowley will win.

In S2, Aziraphale says he learned French "the hard way" with "Professor Rossignol" in 1760. Aziraphale already speaks French. He and Crowley, as Crowley points out in the scene, speak every language of the world. It's a nod towards how you can speak a language but a secret language like theirs is one that can be built out of words that sound familiar but are put together in a way that you need to understand in order to comprehend what is being said.

In the course of the scene, Aziraphale speaks French to Crowley and what he says is a riff on "la plume de ma tante"-- a French phrase that refers to the kinds of sentences that you are taught when you learn a new language that you would never actually say in real life. This scene is actually nodding to the "la plume de ma tante"s of Ineffable Husbands Speak and where you can find them in the series.

The reason why those sentences exist the way they do when you are learning a new language is to teach as much vocabulary as possible alongside teaching people how to conjugate verbs, etc.. This is why you are never taught practical sentences like "Excuse me, where is the restroom?" or "Yes, I would like to buy that bread, please." but are, instead, taught sentences like "Is it true that you can buy white onions at the library on Tuesdays?" lol. It's because when you are a child and you learn the native language or languages spoken by the people around you, you absorb thousands of words just by living in that world but when you are a teenager or an adult learning a new language, you start almost from scratch. You need to learn as much vocabulary as possible as soon as possible, in order to become fluent. Aziraphale says he learned some "la plume de ma tante"-like sentences (in a language he already speaks but in which he wanted to play better) from a professor whose name eagle-eyed fans already translated as meaning "nightingale" in French, right?

Nightingales (the birds) and also nightingales (the skeleton keys). The Rossignol family created The Great Cipher that encrypted communications for the French government for centuries-- they literally built a secret language. If you want to learn Ineffable Husbands Speak, the show is saying, you need to follow the nightingales. So, who taught us about "nightingale" being a word related to Crowley & Aziraphale? God. Whose sentences, at times, smack of "la plume de ma tante"-like vocabulary lessons? God. What better character to teach us what we need to know than the literal Voice of God, right? God is our Professor Rossignol.

God's 1.01 line of "The Russian cultural attache's black bread is particularly sought after by the more discerning duck" is the most la plume de ma tante sentence in Good Omens lol and the four sentences-- of which that is one-- that God says to re-introduce us to Crowley & Aziraphale in the St. James' Park scene, when picked apart using language elements things suggested by God's opening monologue at the start of the series, contain almost every element of the vocabulary, with other scenes reinforcing and adding to it throughout.

Further suggesting this is the way to go is that if you apply the same instructions to the top part of Demon's Guide to Angelic Beings Who Walk the Earth (the bit above Aziraphale's entry), you'll find the guidelines repeated-- and notes to us that include everything you would need to unlock the hidden language in the entries for Aziraphale and Baraqiel (Crowley) beneath them. I'm not just randomly deciding this is what stuff means, is mah point lol. I'm taking lessons from Frances McDormand.

As for Ra and The Illuminati, well... to date, I've seen Ra come up as one of the many, many words in Demon's Guide to Angelic Beings, which are hidden-in-plain-sight coded love letters. Aziraphale uses it in relation to Crowley. Ra is the ancient Egyptian god of the sun and was depicted as a figure that was half-bird, half-man. That alone would probably be amusing to Crowley & Aziraphale. Aziraphale referring to Crowley as the god of the sun is just romantic. The sun is a star and Crowley made them; the Earth and all life and their life on it would die without the vital warmth of the sun. There is no food and no peace and no life without it. Calling his very old serpent partner the god of the sun sure sounds like Aziraphale saying that he can't live without him.

As for the masons and Gabriel... I took it as a joke about conspiracy, actually, not something suggesting one. The bartender at the pub assumes that Gabriel and Beez are masons-- meaning Freemasons-- because he thinks that there is a local chapter that meets nearby. The bartender has made assumptions about Gabriel and Beez that add up to "not from around here" and assumes they're there for a mason meeting. Gabriel is well-dressed and clueless in a rich sort of way to the bartender-- he doesn't know what a jukebox is and he's in an expensive-looking suit. He also has an American accent so the bartender figures he's probably not a local. Gabriel doesn't dissuade the bartender from thinking that he and Beez are Freemasons because Gabriel has no idea what that is-- because the bartender said "masons" and, honestly, that actually is pretty close to what Gabriel is by his own definition.

A mason works to make things out of stone and the original meaning of the word was specifically related to those making stone walls. Gabriel was in Eden at the start-- the ultimate in stone walls built-- and he also just took Beez to see a statue of himself carved out of stone. Walls are really all Gabriel's ever overseen being built or ever reinforced or ever known before Beez. He's not the most poetic of beings but he can see an analogy there where he is the imprisoned imprisoner of those in Heaven and he just doesn't dispute it because not like he's about to tell the bartender that he's actually The Supreme Archangel of Heaven and Commander of the Heavenly Host 😄 so, letting the guy assume that he works in stone seems like a good solution, as it's actually barely a lie.

The irony is that, etymologically-speaking, the bartender is actually more correct: Gabriel, in the pub that night with Beez, isn't a mason. He's a free mason. Because he's with Beez and the two of them together are carving a path out of their prison walls. Gabriel has actually joined "The Illuminati"-- because he's been illuminated... he's been enlightened. Dude's going to be Grand Master Wizard of The Illuminati or whatever it's called in S3 and bring a whole lot more with him, Beez, Crowley & Aziraphale along the way. He consumes beverages now. There's nothing holding him back. 😂

Anyway, thanks for indulging my ramblings and have a great night. 💕

[loupy-mongoose]

Did you make any fanart for Bug Fables? (Also secondary bug related question- thoughts on Hollow Knight?)

I'll answer the second one first. I've never played Hollow Knight myself, but watched a playthrough of it. I never got into it as much.

I've done a fair bit of Bug Fables art, some of it for MasaeAnela when she played through it on Twitch.

Now, a lot of the art contains spoilers, big and small, so I'm gonna put a Read More. (It also ended up being super long lol)

You've been warned.

I'll try to order it from least to most spoilery so it's harder to accidentally see them.

*Note for the art, the character Leif, the blue guy, refers to himself in plural. Saying "We/us" instead of "I/me". Just so you're not confused. X3

First I'll share a little Bug Fables version of a bug I saw at work one day.

This was made in response to Masae getting endlessly distracted by sidequests in her playthrough. XD

Leif has ice powers, and one of his moves requires the player to hit a button as it pops up. If they fail, the power backfires and Leif does a little animation where his hand freezes. Masae kept pressing the wrong button, so this came to mind. XD

At some point I decided to draw them as dragons. There are a few more down below, but there's a spoiler bit of text, so it goes in the depths lol.

Based on a bit of optional dialogue in the game. X3

I still like this artwork. :>

And a few comics I've done.

Fetch gone wrong~

The following arts relate to massive and/or end-game spoilers, so continue at your own discretion!

More dragons~

Very spoilery comic

Mood Music

Uh oh

And some existential dread.

Hoo! Okay, that's all that I have to share! A lot of this probably makes very little sense without context, lol.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed that! It was nice to look back at all these. Some are good memories, and some I completely forgot about. X3

[spanishskulduggery]

If I want to say the radio was playing music, is that still "tocar"? I know that's for when someone is actually creating the music with an instrument, but it feels weird then to use it for something that is just playing back a recording. Come to think of it, what's the Spanish for "Just press play"?

...Sorry in advance for me going over commands. It just comes up in this situation lol

-

Yes, it can be tocar (la radio toca música sin comentario - the fancy word is reproducir... I would say tocar is maybe not the most common here but it can be used just to say "playing music"

Otherwise, the most common verb in my experience for this is poner. You can say la radio pone una canción "the radio puts on a song" for "plays". Probably comes from when radios would have specific tapes or files they needed to "put in/on", but it still makes sense

[on some radio programs someone will ask for a song, and the response is te la pongo "I put it on for you", or se la pongo "I put it on for you (usted)" but in English we'd probably translate it as something like "going out to you" or "here it is for you"... something like that]

Note on reproducir: In Spanish, when you're "playing back" audio recordings of things, reproducir is the word used for "play", but it's a bit fancy for radio. It would be like tapes and audio files

I would personally lean towards poner in this case; but sometimes it's tocarle play as well

...

Now, as far as "press play", it's almost always dale (al) play or ponle (al) play where you're playing a video or music

This is dar/poner + le "it" + play... Where you say it like English; and these are the tú forms as commands [usted would be dele play, póngale play... and plural, denle play and pónganle play]

If you see the al here it's because it's dar al (botón) play "hit play" but literally "hit the play button"

-

Note: There are other words for "to press" - oprimir or pulsar or presionar are the most widely understood, maybe apretar which is "to squeeze". They all make sense it's just more options in Spanish where English says "hit" or "press"

For radio, it's more common to use dar which is "to give/hit", or poner. But if you're working with a remote or a phone, you can see the other verbs too.

And in video games you'll see Pulsa Start for "Press Start" a lot of times.

Also phones may also use marcar. When phones ask you to press one or something it can be marca/marque uno or oprime/oprima uno for "press one" - depends on if they're using tú or usted forms

...

Also note that Argentina would most likely use the vos forms and the commands are a bit different - where tú command for poner is pon, the Argentinian vos command is poné

In general, vos commands for South America [usually this is Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and some others] end in an accent mark... so it's almost regular, then boom accent mark. Like hablar can be habla for tú, then hablá for a vos command

Argentina would probably be saying ponéle play

[sophieinwonderland]

howdy! would you happen to have anything on system hopping / travelling / whatever is going on here lol

we have a Lot of fictives, and many miss their home world. could it be possible to, say, create a way for them to travel between their source and the innerworld? if that makes sense? im personally lost on whats going on atm inside and are too preoccupied to check the details

anyways, thats mostly me speculating that thats whats happening here right now (or at least something like it), and i dont know where to even begin looking for information or help for this sorta thing

I'm sorry, I don't.

Like I mention in my pinned, my opinion on plurality is as a psychological phenomenon. From that view, you can replicate some parts of their homes in your inner world, but never quite recreate the real thing.

When I first became self-aware, I did try going back to my world in our inner world. It's a bit easier when the world was created by my host. But I tried not to interact with anyone too much there for fear that we could end up with another headmate. The limited interactions with the NPCs there did bring some comfort though, so it could be helpful for you to consider with them.

I think sometimes though, it's best to mourn the past and be willing to move on. Form new connections with their system and with external people in this world if they want. It will probably be healthier than living in a mental shadow of their former world.

I'd suggested finding other blogs for advise on metaphysical system travel or reality shifting.

[alangdorf]

Welp, the ref lineup still isn’t done cause I haven’t drawn Shion yet, and the belated valentines I’ve been working on are gonna be like at least a month late cause I just planned three more, but what I did do these past couple weeks is start writing a fanfic and then immediately abandon it to go draw a bunch of only tangentially-related suzutsubas (except for that first pic; that’s a scene from it, albeit one I haven’t written yet), only half of which are fit for public posting (one of ‘em I could make a few edits and feel ok about posting sometime; it’s not that out there, it’s just, y’know. Hamal Cine Bad End Hyperbolic Torture Chamber. I’m usually very “whatever happens happens” about my art but if I don’t show some restraint I know I’ll end up stuck in there forever), but hey, since I’ve been teasing them for ages and finally have some finished stuff with them, take a couple Suzumii! Also gonna ramble abt headcanons under the cut (and it will be LONG)

To begin, a note abt my Len’en gender/pronoun headcanons: as a they/them preferrer myself, I’m thrilled that most people just stick with those for everyone, but I’ve developed some more detailed headcanons as I go through working on designs and I’ll generally be using those. Don’t worry though, most of them are still nonbinary and basically all of them are trans/gq. Relevant ones for this post are Tsubakura: they/them nonbinary (transmasc to some degree) and Suzumi: cis female, question mark?? (to be elaborated on); for clarity’s sake I usually use she/her for Arde and Hamal Cine individually and plural they for the system collectively (also I don’t usually use their nicknames, dunno why), but singular they for Benet (the wiki says Benny is probably short for Benetnasch so I’m assuming that’s their actual name) for reasons which will also be elaborated on (sort of).

Aaalso this clearly isn’t autobiographical or anything but I think I’m subconsciously putting a lot of myself into Suzumi because 1) we do look pretty similar (brown wavy bob + blue eyes) and 2) given their current status as both the main antagonist and the most well-known plural Len’en character (I get the impression that Hooaka also being plural isn’t super common knowledge; I mean it took me several read-throughs of their wiki page and their dialogue with BPoHC Secret Team to get what they were getting at lol) I am probably way too anxious about doing a bad stereotype. Just an observation and also probably partially why I’ve even ended up with so much headcanon for them in the first place

And before I get into the thick of it, notes on derivations from canon: I’m running with the assumption that Suzumi being a system is a relatively recent development tied to whatever incident it was that caused the falling-out, since Tsubakura is like the only person who seems at all familiar with Hamal (including Mitori/Chouki/Fumikado, but they’re more easily explained away as just having met with one of the other alters the few times they’ve interacted) even though she’s supposedly usually the one fronting. They don’t seem to know the mechanics of it though, judging by their confusion when Arde implied that she and Hamal are different people. So basically, I’ll be referring to pre-incident Suzumi as a different character from any of the other three. (Ngl I am very influenced by Dissociation Constant on that and just in general [when will my wife The One and Only Suzutsuba Fic return from the war…..]) I was also debating whether to have Suzumi have any history with the gang before starting to work at the lab/whether stuff would happen around high school or college age, cause they keep referring to everything happening “a long time ago” and I know I, a 24-year-old, feel like stuff that happened five years ago was like yesterday, but I do have the pandemic and not really doing much of anything for most of that time to reckon with so like, eh. College age makes more sense in my head and so does the dynamic of like, Suzumi was only introduced into the friend group (she was acquainted w Hoojiro and Yabu already though bc lab) because she was dating Tsubakura and since that ended, and badly (understatement of the century), they have extremely little reason to be civil with each other and also interacting at all is really awkward.

Ok now on with it! Either end of high school or beginning of college, Suzumi ends up interning at Tsubakura’s lab for college credit (Tsuba’s already practically a department head despite being like 17 or something because. Idk. Who even knows what’s up with them) and she’s like. Only wears t-shirts and jeans (bought a bunch of khakis for this job though), [reading] glasses from the men’s section, hates leaving her hair down (it’s lab safety anyways). Repressed queer in denial, you know the type. Starts interacting a lot with Mx. Tsubakura “wears short shorts that everybody thinks are actually a skirt and also uses ore and omae almost exclusively” Enraku who seems to have everything all figured out and is immediately starstruck (GIRL WHY?? they are such a mess). Lots of “do I want to date them or do I want to be them” confusion (this will be relevant later); eventually evolves into the “am I trans or just a lesbian” question (not that they would need to be attracted to women to be into Tsubakura but you get the picture), which never quite gets answered.

In any case, they do eventually start dating (Tsubakura thinks she’s cute and smart so they reciprocate), and they’re not like super great together cause Tsubakura is emotionally constipated at the best of times (Suzumi’s into that though) and neither of them are the most mentally/emotionally healthy people even back then and also Tsubakura is more or less Suzumi’s boss which is weird, but they’re kind of ok??? Tsubakura’s mom dies at some point, also they move in together (college housing is expensive), the rest of the crew at the very least tolerate Suzumi, etcetera.

And then…! [insert catastrophic event here]!! I don’t have a shot to call on this yet cause I have no idea what it could’ve been (and I’m sure it’ll get revealed at some point anyways); I’m just banking on it being something extremely not mundane and something where you could reasonably set the blame on either (or neither) party cause they sure both seem convinced the other is way worse, huh! In Tsubakura’s case at least, blaming Suzumi is partially a defense mechanism so their self-loathing doesn’t get the better of them over it (guess what the fic was supposed to be about, lol).

The worst part of all this business though is that they DON’T break up over it immediately and it just makes everything orders of magnitude worse for everyone involved. Tsubakura and Arde have hate sex MORE THAN ONCE………… they would both really rather forget about it. Hamal thinks it’s hilarious, ofc, but the less said about her, the better. And Benet… exists??? The only idea that I’m running off of for them atm is the observation that I think they’re the only character with flat black eyes other than Tsubakura/Tsurubami and the subsequent idle thought, “hey if someone malded so hard about a breakup that they ended up with an introject of their ex would that be messed up or what?” So make of that what you will. (Oh and it may have been obvious that this is what I was going for but Hamal is femme and Arde is butch and they’re constantly squabbling abt aesthetic presentation. Having Arde be straight-up male would’ve been too straightforward of an interpretation and I think it’s funnier this way)

The canonically mentioned murder attempts start taking place and I’m leaning towards Tsubakura eventually being convinced to move out even though it was originally their apartment, albeit mostly just because the wikipedia page for house sparrows mentions that they’re known to take over swallows’ nests, usually after they’ve been abandoned, but they will sometimes drive away or kill the current occupants, and that was a very fun fact to come across when specifically doing research for Len’en but idk how else to incorporate it lol. And so on and so forth up until the present time.

Uhhh is that all I have atm? I think so! Anyway, I think I finally shook out all my suzutsuba doodles (and rambling, though I do still have that fic to work on. idk whether I’ll be able to finish it though; I started strong with an extended metaphor in the middle but Iiiii’m not sure if I can successfully write my way up to it while making it make sense. Also I may draw pretty slow but I write even slower!! Eh I’m sure I’ll post some of it sometime) for the time being so I should theoretically be able to finish up my bigger projects now. Maybe I’ll have the valentines ready in time for white day? We’ll see!

[lesbinewren]

I’ve learned too much about the Ahsoka show against my will (haven’t watched it and fighting the urge to) and the more I learn about Sabine’s plot there the more I wish they’d never touched on Rebels characters in live action. What are your thoughts on Sabine through the Ahsoka show, having seen it?

i think what stands out for me is that i didn’t hate it as much as a lot of other sabine fans i know, my gripes are more just the way that her story sometimes scrapes so close to being really really good, but never quite makes it all the way there. a big part of this i think is how they strayed away from a lot of overly-specific references and spending too much time on things that would need to be explained to non-rebels fans, which i appreciate from the perspective of making the show accessible (esp bc i have met a few people now who watched rebels for the first time BECAUSE of ahsoka), but i do think weakens certain aspects as far as being a spiritual successor to rebels

i think the broad strokes of what’s there could be really good, they just need more fleshing out. a lot of this is something that could be “fixed” for me in future seasons/stories assuming a certain amount of care is taken.

i’ll start with what i liked: i did warm up to natasha’s performance a lot quicker than i thought i would. the intro she has in the show had me captured pretty quickly, both because i think it’s a well-written character intro and how natasha sells it. i still prefer tiya’s iteration of the character, but natasha was really great at capturing the mix of soft kindness and attitude, plus sabines specific blend of insecurity and confidence. i think some of her best moments also come from how well she nails the chemistry between her and other ghost crew members (as sparing as those scenes are, which is a major gripe of mine). her and eman’s ezra are so electric to watch, and her one scene with hera hit it on the head (that scene also did a ton of heavy lifting as far as selling me on LA hera). you can FEEL the love she has for both characters and immediately get a sense of what their relationship is like, even if you don’t know all of their history. i genuinely think all of the LA rebels were at their best when they were interacting with each other, because those relationships all hit the nail on the head and i hope to see more of that in the future, especially with her and hera (and PLEASE bring zeb in, i miss him so much you can’t show me that you can make him look good in live action for a cameo in a different show and then not let him see his family!!!)

i liked the attention to detail the set design team had when it came to her apartment on lothal, i liked that they gave her a cat, i liked that they outright stated her sibling relationship with ezra. i liked her back and forth with huyang, i liked that they let her keep her more masculine style armor vs re-casting bo-katan armor, i liked that the show did not hold back on seeing how she’s been struggling with the loss of ezra and her birth family (though i don’t really like how the off-screen killing of the wrens was handled). i liked her rivalry with shin, i liked the scenes with her howler, i liked that she got a poncho for a bit, i liked the way she treated the first noti that she met. i liked the way she got to be selfish and messy and yet still we see that she’s a good person, that she learns from her mistakes and makes the right choices in the end even when it’s hard. i like that she cares, she cares so much it gets her in trouble and despite this she still gets to be sassy and snarky and have all of these pluralities that make her who she is.

genuinely, though everything below is way more long winded than what’s up here, my feelings towards sabine in this show do lean more positive, my criticisms are just more complicated and wordy than my likes lol. i think there’s a lot that’s done right (which i think majorly has to do with natasha’s performance), and so, so much potential. there’s a nonzero chance that season 2 could address most of my issues in a way that satisfies me and turns around my feelings on this, even if ultimately i think i will still always prefer and wish for more animated sabine

criticisms under a cut bc this is longer than i thought

the two big issues i have are the way her mandalorian heritage is handled and the way her jedi arc is handled.

when i say the way her mandalorian heritage is handled, i guess the better answer is the way it ISN’T handled. sabine being a mandalorian is so nonessential to her character in this show, that if you took her armor off you wouldn’t even know she was mandalorian. hell, keep her armor and just don’t have her helmet (which i also think she should have worn more without CONSTANTLY GETTING KNOCKED OFF ARE YOU KIDDING ME) and i bet you a lot of casual viewers wouldn’t have even picked up on it! compare that to her in rebels- being a mandalorian is so integral to her identity, even when she isn’t on good terms with any other mandalorians. she references it herself, other characters reference it about her. this is a character that wielded THE DARKSABER for crying out loud, and her mandalorian identity is erased? in an era where a show called “the mandalorian” is a disney+ flagship that this show itself is essentially a spin-off of, it boggles my mind as both a storytelling and a marketing decision.

any criticisms about mando s3 you may have aside, the last live action show before this one was about the reunification of mandalore. one of your leads in this new show is a mandalorian with a personal connection to the co-lead of that show who once possessed the macguffin you revolved a subplot around there (and is actually the one who handed it over to said co-lead in the first place, kicking off the shows whole backstory). and you just… don’t think about at least letting mandalorian heritage be a bigger part of this character? and not even that, but actively ignoring how important it was before? i understand wanting this show to stand on its own, but it feels like such a waste. sabine loving her mandalorian heritage while also rejecting certain parts of it is a huge part of what makes her character so cool and interesting, and i actually think could have worked really well in tandem with the jedi arc they have for her.

my hope is that now that they feel they’ve done the legwork to establish her as a jedi they won’t have to put quite as much focus on that and in season 2 and wherever else she shows up we’ll be able to see more mandalorian-focused aspects of her, but we’ll see how that goes.

which does bring me to the whole jedi thing. i don’t hate it- i completely understand why people do, but i did warm up to it by the end of the show. i also am not opposed to the idea of anyone being able to connect with the force, it just being a lot harder for those who aren’t naturally force-sensitive, to the point that it’s a non-issue for me. while it wouldn’t have been my preferred direction for her story to go, i actually do like the idea of sabine being a nontraditional jedi, blaster in hand yet following their teachings in her own way because they resonate with her as someone with a desire to help others and do good, and as an extension of how she loves and honors kanan and ezra as her family. we do see inklings of this in rebels, where she rejects certain violent parts of mandalorian culture in favor of “sounding like a jedi” based on what she’s learning from kanan (again a reason to focus more on her as a mandalorian, but whatever).

the problem is, it doesn’t really feel like the show’s jedi arc for her is actually following up on those things. the show doesn’t really address why sabine wants to be a jedi, outside of maybe it being a way for her to find ezra with ahsoka. but now she found ezra. so why does she care about being a jedi? is it because she believes in the code? because she wants to connect with the jedi in her life? because after all she’s been through, she’s searching for peace and balance within herself the jedi path can provide? the show doesn’t really bother to bring this up. i can fill in the gaps with my own fanon, but it feels odd to essentially be told “this character, who showed no interest before, wants to be a jedi now.” this is again something that can be explored in season 2 to satisfy me, but as it stands right now i struggle with it. because right now, the answer feels like “why does sabine want to be a jedi? so ahsoka can have a padawan”

especially because the closest we get to an answer isn’t actually a jedi thing at all- if anything, it’s dark side mindset. the most consistent thing we see with sabine wanting to be a jedi in the show is actually wanting to yield the power of the force. especially when it comes to her attachments (specifically ezra here)! nothing to do with selflessness, with inner peace, any of the core tenets of the jedi philosophy- it’s just about that power. i don’t think it was the intention, and if it was i think sabine struggling with the dark side is entirely natural to her character after all she’s lost at this point, if it was portrayed that way. but her triumphant moment of finally unlocking that power is not one where she realizes she has to find calm within herself to feel the force around her, but one where she is able to access it purely out of fear for her own life in a panicked moment, and then again out of fear for ezras life.

and maybe this is part of the story! the season does end with her rejecting her attachment and instead of going home with ezra, going back to help ahsoka because it’s the right thing to do. so it’s headed in the right direction in that regard. another hope i have for season 2 is that we’ll see sabine struggle still with using the force when she’s at peace and not in a life or death situation, and the frustrations that come with that. maybe she starts relying on strong emotions like anger or fear to wield the force, and ahsoka has to guide her now on not just finding her connection, but on finding it without relying on emotions that could lead her to slip towards the dark side, even though it’s much harder. i think it would create some really great tension considering how sabine’s initial apprenticeship with ahsoka ended, and we then get to see how “ahsoka the white” handles these problems differently than she did before. but who knows?

i also think i said pretty recently i would instantly be 100% more on board with this arc for her if she was allowed to at least talk about kanan. she was close to him, she loved him, he was a huge part of her life and her arc in rebels- and her relationship to him is ignored. are hera and ezra’s relationships to him (which do get acknowledged) bigger parts of rebels? absolutely. but there are several entire episodes revolving around the relationship between sabine and kanan, and other moments between the two of them throughout. i understand the show wants to be accessible to people who haven’t seen rebels, but it feels odd to have the entire scene where ezra builds his lightsaber dedicated to his relationship with kanan, while sabine’s relationship gets ignored. sabine gets to have a nonverbal reaction to huyang bringing him up, (which natasha plays well) but then… that’s it? the shift is then immediately focused again to her relationship with ahsoka.

and even that connection isnt explored to its full potential. like, how does sabines relationship to kanan affect her one without ahsoka? and not just “kanan and ezra were master and padawan and now me and ahsoka are.” like, kanan was, in a way, her first jedi master. and she witnessed him die tragically, saving the life of her and two of the people she’s closest to. has she built kanan up in her head as an ideal ahsoka doesn’t live up to? is she guilty that she didn’t have as much an interest in being a jedi while he was still alive? does she compare the way she saw kanan teach ezra to the way ahsoka teaches her? do things she learned from kanan ever conflict with what ahsoka teaches her? i don’t necessarily need the show to spell out answers for these questions for me- i like getting to write my own headcanons in the margins of the series. but i feel like it’s such a missed opportunity to not even acknowledge it.

and my final smaller issue is that a lot of the trademark elements of her character no longer exist in this show. while the set dressing does a great job of showing her artsy side, we don’t really get to see her draw or paint or even talk about art. we dont get to see her knowledge of or affinity with explosives. i say it’s smaller because i dont have as much to say on it, but tbh i missed these parts of her as much as i did her as a mandalorian. while sabine in this show has a lot of her personality, relationships and style from rebels, which i appreciate, the interests and background that not only make her unique but make her who she is are missing, and it is honestly sad.

in a way, i love when a lot of these things are left open. i love getting to fill in gaps like this and create some of those emotional connections in my head, that’s a huge part of the fun of fandom for me. it’s also why i don’t mind that we haven’t (yet, i’m sure it’s coming eventually in some form lol) seen all of the details of sabine and ahsoka’s initial attempt to find ezra, and them parting ways because of ahsoka fearing sabine is veering to close towards the dark side. i like getting to write it in my head a little bit, i think that particular info is enough to build on for the shows purposes for me.

and frankly, i don’t need every single one of my questions here directly answered. in fact, i would say i DONT want the show to outright answer all of these. rebels didn’t feel the need to hold our hand through every single character arc and relationship dynamic, and this show shouldn’t have to either. i like my room for headcanons! but there’s a point where they all build up to a point where it feels a little bit careless, like the writing sabines arc in this show often prioritized ahsoka’s arc and what needed to happen there before her own, even if it meant leaving out major parts of sabines character.

a lot of it i genuinely think couldve been fixed with just a couple more episodes of this show (8 episode season my beloathed) and perhaps things will be explored and fleshed out in season 2 to satisfy me- we are technically looking at an incomplete story with this show, so things could happen next season that make a lot of my points moot.

again, i think that this show had a lot of legwork to do regarding sabine as a jedi and catching us up on her relationship to ahsoka, to the point that it didn’t necessarily have time to fully dive into a lot of issues with this first season- and maybe now that that’s established, they will be able to do a lot of these things! i think the show is headed in the right direction based on the ending, with both sabines choice to help ahsoka and also how the show does make a point to show sabine picking up her mandalorian helmet and when she could have left it behind. that last bit especially felt very pointed considering how little her mandalorian heritage was brought up in season 1, that maybe it will play a bigger role in season 2. we now have a sabine that they don’t have to show being out of practice, so maybe we’ll get to see her be the incredibly competent fighter/pilot we know she is! maybe now we’ll have time to explore exactly why she wants to be a jedi, how being a mandalorian is important to her and interacts with her jedi beliefs. we’ll have time for her to do art, maybe she’ll get some opportunities to blow things up again! maybe now that she knows huyang knew kanan, she’ll get to talk about him. maybe she’ll get to reunite again with hera, chopper, zeb and ezra and we’ll see those relationships shine.

but until we have a season 2 in our hands, these are my current thoughts

[majorbaby]

u know, u dont have to answer this but u keep mentioning a sidney post you made that you're not satisfied with bc u wrote it much earlier in ur mash analysis, and i have to wonder what you'd say about him now, as a character, as a narrative device, etc?

Sidney is so much a tool for storytelling that I would liken him to punctuation. He exists to draw out the inner thoughts, fears and desires of our more three-dimensional characters, most notably Hawkeye but also Margaret, Klinger, Charles and the patients he treats on the show. Their psychoses are so often based in their fears, their denial, their disbelief, their unwillingness to take personal responsibility for their circumstances – which is not usually how real mental illnesses work, but still makes for good television. 

I’ve also used to term “Sidney ex machina” to describe his function:

Deus ex machina; plural: dei ex machina; English "god from the machine" is a plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem in a story is suddenly or abruptly resolved by an unexpected and unlikely occurrence.

The 4077th will hit a wall with a patient (sometimes the patient is Hawkeye) that they cannot overcome, because they’re experiencing an illness of the mind and they don’t specialize in that type of illness - although you could make an argument for Hawkeye “therapizing” his friends (Margaret in Images, Radar in Hepatitis, BJ in Period of Adjustment) but he’s still not trained. When this happens, someone will go “get Sidney on the line” and every time without fail, Sidney successfully fixes the problem. This wouldn’t land so well if he was a recurring character on the show. 

Hawkeye is so in touch with the inner workings of his own mind and heart I wouldn’t necessarily put it past him to be able to monologue his way through his problems, coming to the solutions on his own (maybe with the exception of GFA or Bless you Hawkeye) but you still get the sense that he already knows the answer, he just needs someone to help draw it out of him. That’s Sidney’s role. He’s really just there for Hawkeye’s voice to have something to bounce off of so it becomes audible to himself and us, the audience. 

There’s one brief exception to Sidney being used this way and lol, it’s no surprise to me its in the Written-by-Alan-Alda Dear Sigmund. Alda’s episodes do tend to deal more with character drama, and I imagine he couldn’t resist taking a stab at Sidney. We learn that Sidney’s struggling with the loss of a patient – but only after Hawkeye and BJ read his private letters, really his journal, which is rude as fuck btw, but to me unintentionally emphasizes how much of a barrier there is between the audience and Sidney’s thoughts/feelings/fears/desires. But I can’t think of any other occasion where we get to see what’s beneath his calm, cool, professional exterior. 

There’s other times I was curious about that.. In War of Nerves he’s supposed to be at the 4077th as a patient, but he leaves the mess tent because he has a head injury that no one is considerate of, and he ends up treating people when he’s the one who’s supposed to be recovering. 

If you choose to see Hawkeye as getting progressively worse as the war wears on him (and idk if I do personally because the show is so episodic but that’s another post) then I have to wonder what it feels like for Sidney to have to keep treating him, especially in Goodbye Farewell Amen, where we finally see a crack in Sidney’s normally neutral expression, his consummate professionalism, as Hawkeye comes clean about what really happened on the bus. Like… they’re friends, it’s already ethically questionable to have Sidney treat him, and then we see exactly why that shouldn’t happen when Hawkeye is understandably upset that Sidney has decided to send him back to the 4077th. There is a moment of forgiveness and gratitude that passes between them in Sidney’s final scene in the series when Hawkeye thanks him, not insignificantly while he (Hawkeye) is performing surgery (to me it feels like a nice callback to OR), which he’d previously wondered aloud to Sidney whether or not he’d ever be able to return to. 

And here I am again saying that “flat” characters, of which Sidney is MASH’s best example, aren’t poorly written when they’re fulfilling their intended purpose, which Sidney does very well almost every time we see him. He’s so good at his job that it even feels weird for me to talk about his thoughts and feelings in fic, I want to get him in there, have him draw out the interiority of whichever character he’s in conversation with and then be like “glad we had this chat, peace” and actually that is how I see him being used pretty regularly in fic. 

Btw this is the Sidney post that gets on my nerves, not because I disagree now with what I said… actually that post is just this post stated too simply for my liking and it got way more traction than I ever imagined it would, so obviously it appeals to something that people feel, but I didn’t state what it was. It’s so vague it reads like a fandom in-joke. So thank you for giving me the push to show my work. 

[stergeon]

🦈❤️ (for that writer ask post)

🦈 Which character is the toughest to write?

i’m lucky in that most characters flow pretty easily for me, but i’ve struggled the most with writing ferdinand and bernadetta.

ferdinand’s voice is more challenging to execute than i ever anticipate it will be. i barely featured him in chapter 1 of muscle memory, but it was enough to stress me out. he has this particular tone i can’t seem to nail—he’s overly confident and sunny in a way that can come off as oafish, but that oafishness is usually hiding a clever and thoughtful truth.

in general, i like bernie, but she’s not my favorite lmao. pre-timeskip, i find her to be so tough to write as she spirals for nothing and can easily take control of a scene. it’s hard to keep her on task, and i worry about her coming off cringey. i’ve only made an attempt at writing her in echoes of zanado and i’m not sure i’ll do it again, though i’ll definitely give post-timeskip bernie a chance to shine at some point. gotta reward her for all that growth.

i’ve also taken a few stabs at writing locked tomb fics, but i simply cannot get harrowhark’s voice quite right, so those have yet to see the light of day. alas. maybe i’ll finish one eventually!

❤️ What is your favorite line that you’ve written in a fic?

hmmmmm. i don’t feel like i’m particularly skilled at crafting one-liners that stand out or are all that witty. i tend to either be partial to parts of sentences or entire passages that flow well. for whatever reason, i was pleased with the line in muscle memory chapter 2 about kissing the “soft plateau below her navel” even though it’s just describing a tummy lol. the words feel nice together.

i’m gonna cheat and throw a few out here. edelgard’s rant about the cats’ names in her majesty’s favored felines was so fun to write and still cracks me up. she’s so high-drama smdh. love her. there’s also a really stupid sex joke early in that story that’s not even a joke, per se, but also makes me laugh.

i think like you mean it contains some of my most primo navel-gazing angst, and i’m especially fond of the very last paragraph:

She held her like she was the other end of the tether, like she was the only thing keeping her here, like holding her could save her, could give her purpose, could make her worthy, like the heat-on-heat of their intertwined bodies could make meaning of all the things that didn’t make sense in this world. She closed her eyes, and held her, and begged the favor of an absent god, praying that she—that this—could be enough.

i also like this line from chapter eight of at the edge of the void:

And even without her love, he would still choose to make himself a planet and remain in her orbit, knowing full well he would be eventually swallowed by the gravity of a dying sun.

unfortunately, my neuroticism doesn’t let me like it that much because i’ve not put enough thought into whether anyone in fódlan, especially edelgard, has a concept of what gravity is or that suns (plural) can die. i won’t let me have any fun.

[plural-culture-is]

hello, i saw that you take asks asking for advice? sorry this is gonna be kind of long-

so at some point (i have no idea when, i've always had a really bad sense of time lol. i think it was maybe almost exactly last year? idk lol) i started talking with a voice in my head (which i passed off as an imaginary friend), but over time they kind of. multiplied. and then i kinda went 'ah shittake mushrooms am i plural??'

initially i kinda went 'oh whatever' and didn't end up interacting much with (what i believe to be) my system for a while. if it's relevant, i ended up getting a concussion at the end of july and before that i was not having a funky fresh time in school so i kind of shoved plurality onto the back burner

then in december, my director made a passing joke about the possibility of me being plural during a rehearsal, and someone in the system (who doesn't wish to be named) said something to the effect of 'he doesn't know there's (i forget the number) of us' and i ended up spending the weekend obssessively researching plurality.

anyway- i've been treating it as if i was system for the past little while bc i'd rather be wrong than y'know. accidentally ignore real people that happen to share my brain. (when i don't accidentally think to myself that i'm probably not plural while talking to them-). and i guess i kinda want an external opinion?

-i do experience a lot of dissociation, and often don't feel like i'm me or that these hands are not mine, or that i'm not controlling myself and it's just some autopilot being on. this has been happening for as long as i remember. i also seem to have two handwritings, and have communicated with members of the system via journalling

-i did use to do competitive sports from a young age, which i hear can potentially cause undue stress/trauma to a child, so that could also be something?

-some of them (members of the system, we haven't decided on a term bc communication is spotty) do fit classic roles of a system. most notably is there's one that continually keeps me from doing things that could harm myself and helps 'protect' me from intrusive thoughts

-when i discovered apparently people remember shit and the brain doesn't just dump it like an hour later, that surprised me. i'm still in my teens, but i genuinely do not remember much about... anything tbh. the term 'gray out' honestly explained a lot for me

-i have aphantasia, but the system insists there's a headspace. some of them make fun of me for 'being blind in headspace', but i think they're also helping?? me with the aphantasia, since recently i've been able to see shadowy outlines of stuff they 'airdrop' to me. this includes waking me up by bombarding me with the word 'boo' zooming at my face when i was half asleep.

-sometimes i can feel them like, hugging me or comforting me

-i also do feel some sort of presence in there, and can sometimes pinpoint where certain members are. i also seem to be unable to access the 'back half' which is apparently intentional so.

i mean there's probably more but my memory is not great lol. typing this out does make me feel a bit more like this is real and i'm not misinterpreting things (i do have a very active imagination, hence why i initially went 'ah late imaginary friend having'). but i'd still like an external opinion, so thanks for taking the time to read this half rant that is way longer than it should be haha

yes, i do think you're plural. i have nothing else to say lol, all of that sounds very plural and it seems like you already know that anyway

[sepublic]

OFFICIAL VIDEO ON FOR THE FUTURE RELEASED!!!

            BRUH I WAS RIGHT. THE COLLECTOR TURNS PEOPLE INTO TOYS!!! TOYS THAT OBEY ALL THEY WANT!!!

         Omg the Coven Heads… And RAINE! RAINE GOT TURNED INTO A TOY AND EDA!!!

         This confirms what Collectors do… PLURAL. THEY COLLECT PEOPLE AS TOYS. And the Owl Beast recognizes the Collector, and the Collector possibly recognizes Eda too…

         “Collectors live long, we watch things pass. To preserve, to observe, we must amass. What flies, what swims, be it predator or prey. Seal them up so that they never fade. But should they meddle in our affairs, we’ll clean the planet and scorch the air.”

         MANY OF THEM?! Or is the Collector part of a lineage? They turn people into toys to keep them alive… Was it another Collector who captured the Owl Beast into a scroll? Is this why the Titans fought back, did they employ the Titan Trappers after all? It says WE’LL clean the planet and scorch the air, likely in response to the Titans defying the Collectors.

         So is ours just an orphan of war? Did the Titans and Collectors wipe each other out, and our Collector is so giddy and murderous because they were raised that way, and then Belos fed into it? They seem to have written in this history book that it’s more fun to play, so maybe that’s how they stuck out from the others. Maybe King’s dad spared them because of that, and it’s what will prevent the Collector from being a murderous threat! TOH getting into cosmic lore Kirby-style, just what I’d hoped…!

         GINGER LILITH GINGER LILITH!!! Her hair is short, did she do it to remove the traces of blue and just be herself! No Tide Pod Lily lol… BUT HOOTCIFER!!! He got turned into a toy too.

         We see a mural with three Collectors and another with one interacting with a Titan, but it’s cut off… King has a toy-ified Hooty with him, and Eda is there!!! His mom!!! And what’s with the Beware of Beast cage, was King inside and did Eda free him?

         Eda seems to be suffering from her curse, which makes sense, not a lot of access to potionmakers given the climate, plus the Collector’s presence could be agitating the Owl Beast. SHORT HAIR LIKE LILITH!!! And Evelyn…

         Raine was turned into a doll. Can Raeda EVER get good things???

         Belos is alive, he eats a poor butterfly and evidently has an old hideaway from when he was Philip. Is this THE cave where we saw him recuperate at the end of Elsewhere and Elsewhen? Does he have a plan yet or is he just hiding?

         Hexside’s been attacked, but we see it in the poster and Amity is present, so it’s likely the kids will try to free everyone there. Or it WAS a place of refuge, the one Mattholomule, Skara, and Barcus lead to, but we see the Collector take over in real time.

         We see Hunter protect Willow from an attack! The Collector’s? We see them and King arrive in the same area. There’s a dude in the back, were they all turned into toys, or did some obey and get to be people? Or are the toys still capable of showing fear?

         Haha Belos’ statue was replaced by… FRANCOIS??? And is Amity reacting to the twins being toys?

         We see the kids fighting, surrounded by eyes and teeth like from the poster. It looks like the Detention Pit monster… Will it actually help put the Collector in ‘detention’ or is it just a backdrop? Or is it just an underground escape route, will we see Eda’s old hallways come into play? The kids and Camila prob come across the Collector and/or their Trappers underground.

        So much to unpack here. The grander lore of the Collectors, Belos up to SOMETHING, probably to return in Watching and Dreaming as the big bad. And Eda trying to rescue Raine and King! Possibly with Lilith and Hooty’s help, which leads to Hooty being transformed… And presumably the kids reunite with her in the climax? No prosthetic arm, no chance to get one I guess. This is insane and I’m not ready!!!

[httpiastri]

JACKIEEE!! It’s finished finally!!! I can’t believe it 😩 I don’t particularly like it but it’s not awful either.

I read it through to make adjustments, sending it to my lovely native friend to beta read it and correct my mistakes that don’t make any sense for a native speaker 🙈

ITS 2,9K words 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫 probs will go up to 3K 🤯🤯 IM KINDA IMPRESSED WITH MYSELF 😌😌

WAAAAAA IM SO EXCITED!!!!! 🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹 i’m going to love it, i can feel it already <33

oooo that’s such a smart thing to do tho!!! wish i did that more… it’s so often that i read back on my fics and just go “??? what does this even mean??????” 😶 also this is so nerdy and not at all what you asked for lol but i realized recently that ‘one of your hands’ is singular and not plural (like ofc i know that it’s ONE hand but since there’s an S in the end, my brain has always used the plural form of the other words in those sentences), so now i have to change like all of my fics because i write “one of your hands ARE” instead of “one of your hands is” 🙃🙃

2.9k def is impressive!! good job love 🤭🤭 it’s gonna be a good long read! i can’t wait 🥰🥰🥰

[lovetogether]

Twin peak the return spoilers dawn and cab do Naught look

The return truly tapped into stuff we wish we saw way more in terms of like. Characters with DID. Now Dale having DID is most definitely not canon (we never assume anything we believe is canon) but like he’s up there next to a small handful of characters who were so scarily realistically plural that it kinda drove us insane. The ending of the return like makes so much sense to us from a DID pov 😵‍💫 . Anyway, what we wanted to talk about was much more self indulgent LOL. Anyway, when it comes to DID depictions the only common “trope” is the Evil Alter nd it’s like (aside from allll the obvious stuff) we’re soo sad that’s the only big DID trope. Cause like. Nobody writes plural characters lol 😭. We always joke to ourself if plural characters were more “normal” in media we’d love to see an alter similar to our regressed ones/newly split ones. We looove imagining characters we hc as having this type of alter :-). Okay okay so what we’re getting at is the return was the closest we got to this w Dougie Jones nd it made us so beyond excited and happy man we were bouncing around every time it cut to him. When he first showed up I remember we started freaking out so much our dad came in and asked what was wrong nd we were too excited to speak nd he looked at our monitor nd just shook his head nd left 😭😭😭😭😭😭💥. Anyway this made us so happy nd excited its crazy to us the places we’ll stumble upon accidental “good” rep. The fact Dougie is like one of the few characters w a definitive “good” ending is so funny silly to us. Our alter Song likes that character a lot cause she’s our usual regressed alter nd they were happy to see something relatable in media that wasn’t like, a child character. Okay yaaaahhhh ^__^ yay okay .

[amiplural]

Hi! Recently I’ve been questioning whether I’m plural, (as you might’ve guessed, since I’m sending an ask to this blog, lol) but I’m scared that I’m subconsciously like, internalizing/being influenced by what systems mention about their experiences somehow? (Not sure if internalizing would be the right word, sorry lol)

Anyway, I dissociate a lot— especially recently (I’m a bit stressed form a play that I’m in and that seems to influence it, but that’s not what I’m meant to talking to you about). I’ve jokingly referred to it as going into a ‘video game character mode’, since it feels as if I’m not exactly controlling/experiencing being in my body— like a video game or movie.

The thing about it is, I’m always vaguely aware of what’s happening, it’s just like being numb. The closest I can compare it to is if you suddenly were experiencing the effect of laughing gas? If that makes any sense?

I change my preferred name and pronouns a lot, too, because my personality almost feels like it changes? But it’s still me, I think?

I don’t know, it confuses me a lot and I’m unsure. If you need more information about my experiences to help me with that more, I’ll happily provide it!

—🪷 lotus (just in case)

So, first of all I'd like to reassure you of two things!

One, there is actually an origin term for forming based on being around lots of other systems. Imo, this would be likely to happen due to things like autistic mirroring or "copycat" behaviors that can be caused by any number of types of neurodivergence.

Assimulogenic: An origin of plurality that involves gaining plurality due to assimilation or becoming plural because you are surrounded by plurals, very close with a plural, look up to a plural, or for any other reason one's subconscious would begin to assimilate. This is not a willogenic origin, meaning you do not chose to become plural, but it can be related to a common feeling of whistfulness in *wishing* you were plural or you were like the system that you are close with

However, what's even more common is realizing existing plurality as you start to interact with other systems. This is actually how we initially realized. We met ONE other system and our whole egg carton cracked like it was dropped on the floor xD

What you describe as "video game character mode" does sound like it could be someone switching in while you maintain awareness of the front. Looking into types of plural consciousness, like monoconsciousness, polyconsciousness, and more complicated types may help, though we are EXTREMELY BAD at explaining them (we're sorry! TT).

But yeah, that all makes sense and sounds like pretty classic dissociation. The changing names and pronouns while still feeling like you may be related to where you fall on the median to multiple scale (so, how separated and distinct you are from your headmates) or may have to do with your consciousness type, blendiness, or confronting... but honestly even in extremely multiple systems of any type I feel like this is pretty common. In a sense, you're all you (system) but not necessarily all the same you (individual), if that makes sense?

Anyway, you are welcome to share more experiences if you would like. The policy of this blog is to never tell anyone they are a system (no "I diagnose you with system!" xD) but it's very specifically because we are here to offer guidance but at the end of the day, you know your experiences better than we can.

However, if what you're looking for is just affirmation that you can identify as plural/a system: Yes. If you feel like you are a system, you can. If you're unsure, too, trying the label can help determine if it fits! You often can't tell if clothing fits just by looking at it, and the same goes for labels. You're not hurting anyone or taking any resources by exploring yourself/selves. If it turns out not to fit, no harm has been done, and you've had self-discovery you wouldn't have had without it.

But if it does, you will have found out specifically by trying it, and that's great! Not to throw a platitude at you, but you can do whatever you want forever with these labels. xD

I hope this helps, and want to make sure that this is a safe space. If any other potential headmates of yours want to share their own thoughts or experiences here, they are also welcome to.

It boils down to though, we trust your/y'all's judgment. Take the time you need to explore and figure out and feel secure in your identity. Whether you decide you're plural, or just an ally, we will welcome you here nonetheless <2

PS the name lotus is gorgeous!!

[palfriendpatine66]

What is bean? Is it real? Will the world end if I ever witness one? Is it plural or singular? Why British like bean? Why car and bean? Poetry and bean? Are some people Starfish jelly bean, like you?

Very seriously, thank you for your ask. I will be thinking about this all day. I know it's not what you intended here but I appreciate the engagement. I appreciate you being here, I super wicked appreciate if you actually read all of this and you deserve a gold star.

Ok, now, PREPARE YOURSELF!!! you sparked something in me with this ask and I'm about to go off on one of my very favorite things about psychology: cognitive essentialism (real, actual psychologists, brace yourselves I've been out of university for 9 years and I'm going to just say what's floating around my brain right now and not look anything up. I'm sorry) Rant below the cut!

OK so as we grow and develop, one of the most important jobs our brain does is start sorting things into categories. It's really super good at doing this, babies are doing it all the time: observing objects and actions happening all around them and drawing conclusions about how the world works. Is an essential basis our learning and compiling knowledge: forming categories (ex. things I drink) and adding things that fit into this category (ex. milk, water, juice) and making a generalization about why they belong together, what defines them (ex. they come from a cup). An experience that challenges this then redefines the categories (Ex. They experience something being in a cup that we don't drink. Like..idk. paint for an art project.) and then learning takes place when the parameters are redefined (ex. I only drink things that are given to me, or things that smell good, or something. idk. this was a bad example to use).

BACK TO THE POINT: Cognitive essentialism! Is basically that there comes a point where our knowledge is based on something that "just is". It can't be redefined any more, it can't necessarily be rationally explained. We cognitively believe that there is just something essential about this thing that makes it what it is. My professor's example of this changed my philosophical life lol: The world is made up of squirrels and not squirrels.

If you ask someone what a squirrel is, they can provide features that define it, right? Its a small mammal that lives in trees, eats acorns, it scavenges through the winter. They're grey or brown/red. Ok, yeah. And it's different from a chipmunk, which is similar, because it does have different observable characteristics. This makes sense to our brains. BUT cognitive essentialism is that there's a point in our brains where a squirrel is just a squirrel because it is and something else can't be a squirrel because it's just not. Is a squirrel still a squirrel if it loses it's tail due to injury? Is it still a squirrel if it doesn't have fur? At what point is it not a squirrel? Can it ever change from being a squirrel because it began its life as a squirrel, or is it always a squirrel because that's its innate identity?

This is something that really super genuinely interests me - both in the cognitive development sense of how we come up with those essential unmalleable categories, and in the more philosophical sense. And this is what sparked my weird lecture (sorry). WHAT IS BEAN? is bean different to you and me and the next mutual? IS there something essential that makes a bean a bean? When is a bean not a bean?

this has been your pal's lesson in cognitive psych that no one asked for 😝