#middle lore

[fen-the-space-dragon]

Mk uhhhh Middlepaw backstory time? I think it’s time for that (as in I wish to share the magic words that cause maximum emotional damage to my little child here so that YOU TOO can cause them emotional damage if you so wish. Cuz I enjoy making my ocs miserable and I swear I’m not a psychopath… also I feel like I should prob just explain their backstory along with those magic words)

There’s also a tldr at the end cuz this is really long

Mk, starting at the begining:

Middlepaw was born outside the clan to two rogue parents. They also had two siblings named Eldest and Youngest (you can tell their parents loved them very much naming them after their birth order /j). They didn’t really stay in any one spot long and tended to travel around a bunch, eventually wandering near Mommyclan. They figured it might be nice to live in a larger group where everyone kinda helps take care of everyone. Plus Youngest was sick and none of them knew much about healing, so they kinda needed Mommyclan’s help anyway

They wound up joining the clan and while the parents refused to take warrior names, they did change their kit’s names to fit in with the clan (Eldestkit, Middlekit, and Youngestkit). The parents would constantly fuss over Youngestkit and didn’t really give much attention to their other kits. Eldestkit was pretty much only given attention when being told to watch their siblings or see if the elders or anyone needed anything. They were pretty much just given chores and responsibilities

Middlekit on the other paw, was pretty much just ignored. Whenever they tried to get their parent’s attention, they were just told to go away, or that their parents were busy, or to go play with some other kits or something. At first they would directly try to get attention (mostly from their parents, but also sometimes from other cats), but slowly stopped doing that as it didn’t work with their parents who also didn’t like their kit pestering other clan members. “Stop annoying our clanmates. You don’t want us to get kicked out because of you, do you? Youngest kit would die if we got kicked out, you know that right?”

They stopped pretty quickly after that and instead tried to get attention other ways. They practiced “catching prey” (pouncing on rocks and moss and stuff), climbing, running, etc. They became a bit of a tryhard and wanted to be the best at like everything, that way maybe someone would acknowledge them for being good at something. They got frustrated a lot though, seeing as you can’t really just flip a switch and instantly be good at everything. They’d get upset when other kits beat them in a race or play fight or were just better than them at anything. Eldestkit would try to comfort them when this happened, but it didn’t work much. Middlekit wound up deciding that they just aren’t good at anything and are useless. They stopped really doing things and just kinda sat in the nursery and watched other cats. (This was towards the end of them being a kit. They were almost 6 moons old at this point. Youngestkit also got better at some point near the end of “tryhard Middlekit” and the begining of “sad Middlekit”)

Middlekit and their siblings were apprenticed (this reminds me Middlepaw needs a mentor lol) and lots of pressure was put on Eldestpaw by their parents to pretty much be perfect. “You need to do better. If we’re not useful, do you think they’re gonna keep us around? You need to be better than the apprentices who were born here or what reason will they have not to throw us out?” Youngestpaw was babied and given a lot of slack by their parents who used their former illness as an excuse to treat them better than their siblings (it was really just favoritism). Aaaand Middlepaw… who is Middlepaw? Yea, they basically never interacted with Middlepaw at this point and honestly kinda forgot that they were their kid unless someone metioned it and then they were like, “Oh, yeah! Middlepaw! Of course! We love Middlepaw! They’re so uh… good. They’re a good kid… yea :)” and then prob changed the topic to one of their other children

About a moon after being apprenticed, Eldestpaw, Youngestpaw, and their parents went on a “family walk” (without Middlepaw ofc cuz who’s Middlepaw? Eldestpaw mentioned that Middlepaw wasn’t there actually, but the parents were just like, “Eh. We don’t want them here. You two are the better children. Besides, they barely talk to us. They’re basically not even in the family anymore,” blaming Middlepaw for the distance between them and their family) and uh… they just never came back from the “walk”

When Middlepaw realized they weren’t coming back and had gone on a “walk,” they shut down even more than they had before. If anyone showed concern for what had happened to their family, Middlepaw would just tell them that their family is fine. “It’s just what they do,” is prob about the most explanation they’d give, but they seem to know what happened

For about a moon, they just kinda moped around. They would do things they were told to do, but only about the bare minimum before going to find a nice corner to be sad in. They didn’t really put much effort into anything and especially didn’t talk to or interact with anyone who didn’t start the interaction first. Even then, they’d try to end the interaction as quickly as possible

During the “sad Middlekit” bit, they also started talking to objects a bit, but it was only a little bit here and there and not nearly as much as they do now. They began a lot of their odd habits once their family left as kind of a way to cope with feeling so lonely and they started talking to things that weren’t cats a lot more than they previously did

More recently, they’ve slowly stopped moping so much and don’t try to end social interactions. They still usually don’t start them, but they will try to keep them going once someone else starts them. They’re also much less of a “sad quiet” now and more of just a “doesn’t have friends” kind of quiet. Also, they kinda tried to hide things like talking to themselves and objects before, but now they don’t kinda in hopes of someone noticing that they exist because of it

Also, their parents would try to kinda hide how they treated Middlepaw and Eldestpaw from others and if anyone ever said anything about that to them, they’d just try to brush it off like, “oh, it was a one time thing,” “tough love, you know?” “sometimes you just gotta be a little hard on them. It doesn’t phase them though”

Aaand uh yea. Btw, those magic words I was talking about in the begining are just anything along the lines of “go away,” “stop being annoying,” “I’m busy right now,” etc. Pretty much anything that resembles an excuse their parents would use to get them to go away

Tldr: Middlepaw had crappy parents who ended up abandoning them and leaving them emotionally fucked up and that’s why they have all their weird habits and don’t really start social interactions much :)

Why do I do this?

[inbabylontheywept]

i did wrestling in middle school. on one hand, i was actually quite good at it, which was nice. being good at any sport was a new achievement for me. on the other hand, i was bi, and i was trying very hard not to notice that i was bi, and getting folded into knots by very kind, very muscular dorks made that task somewhat difficult.

adding fire to the problem was that my parents and my grandparents wanted to watch my matches, because they were very proud that their Gangly Nerd Son was actually Sporting, and they wanted to cheer me on. which would've been sweet and all, but if there are four people you do not want there during a key part of your Burgeoning Sexual Awakening, it is your mom and your dad and your grandma and your grandpa.

right? i mean, imagine some guy's got your head in his armpit, and you're going you know, old sweat smells bad, but fresh sweat has a sort of and then you make eye contact with your grandpa in the stands and you remember you're swearing spandex so if you pop a boner people aren't just going to be able to see the outline, they're going to be able to count the veins, and the only way you will be able to restore your family's honor after that would be by moving to siberia and renouncing joy, forever. that, or lift your entire body up by your kneck then twist 180 degrees without paralyzing yourself.

it’s a lot of pressure, is what i’m saying.

still it did motivate me to win my matches really fast. because i was so tall and skinny, i was stupidly good at the double leg takedown, and then once someone was knocked down, i'd just do the half nelson and kind of flip em over for the pin. then the ref would count to three and i’d win. EZPZ.

i had one match where that went great. won in the first ten seconds, sat back down, and prepared myself for a good hour or two of doing fuck all. didn't even feel bad the parents/grandparents were gonna be bored. the matches went up from me in 5 pound increments (i was in the 115 lbs division) and it was going great until we got to the 145 lbs division. the other school's wrestler stepped onto the mat, and she turned out to be a girl so our guy flipped, because for straight guys, wrestling a girl is not a pleasant experience.

i'm not entirely unsympathetic. my experience wrestling dudes was definitely a little traumatic. but also, i dealt. guy could've dealt too. instead, he refused to wrestle, and the coach went - fine. not even worth fighting over.

so he went to the 140 pounder, and that guy said, nosir, my mom said mormons can't wrestle girls. next guy down, 135 pounder, now he knew he could pull the same card and thus did. 130 pounder, 125, both tapped out. he got to the 120 guy, and that guy was catholic, but he said he was considering being mormon, and thus would have to pass. as a precaution.

coach blew up a little at that. he said "is there anyone - anyone - on this entire goddamn team that is willing to wrestle a girl?" and then he pointed at me and said "YOU. MAT. GO."

and i'll be real, if i'd been paying more attention, i'd have pulled the mormon card too, but i'd just been putting all that audio into a buffer file because i was reading, so i was halfway across the mat before i even processed what had been said and by then it was too late to turn back.

still i had a plan. and my plan - my beautiful, perfect plan - was to do what i'd always done. tackle, flip, pin, win. sit down. read. bore my family to death. move on.

i got the first part right. she was bigger than me, but she wasn't taller. just an incredibly stout woman. god built me like a snake with glasses, just as he built her like a combat cube. the problem was the half nelson. soon as she was down, i tried hooking my arm under hers from behind and for both genders, the defense for this move is just clamping your arms really fucking tight against your sides. if you're a guy, that's whatever, but if you're a girl - especially if you're god's chosen combat cube - that pins your opponents hand right against your boob.

so, i got the hook in, she clamped, my whole arm pressed against something soft, my coach was yelling THE HALF NELSON. BABYLON! JUST FINISH IT! FINISH THE HALF NELSON! and i was just trying to press hard enough to finish, when then my brain went

...oh.

and i flipped out. of course i flipped out. i like girls, and touching a boob is an elemental experience, and i was not ready. i was not prepared. i had not committed the sacred rites. i recoiled like i'd just brushed my arm against the surface of the sun, stood up, and backed away. nobody in the room knew why i'd given up. all they saw was me, right about to win, suddenly flailing around and scrambling. so everyone started screaming at me to just get the half nelson again, and i couldn't really yell back there's a fuckin' boob in the way and it was very distressing, and the only way i could think of to make them stop was just doing it over again the right way.

so i did.

i hunkered down and prepared myself for Wrasslin' Attempt #2: The Sequel.

i knocked her down again, EZPZ. i went for the half nelson again, but she knew what i was about to do so she super clamped, and i knew she was gonna super clamp, so i wound my arm back like a pop-eye cartoon punch before swinging my arm through the gap between her bicep and her side, but the amount of time i spent winding back super signalled what i was about to to do, which gave her time to clamp even harder, which somehow redirected the entire force of the popeye punch to the bottom of her bra.

it spat out a single boob the same way an action hero might spit out one single tooth after getting a solid crack across the jaw. as if to say:

*ptooie.* "that all you got?"

i did not actually see this. my experience was that first there was an arm, then there was a bit of boob, but i was braced, i was ready, forward at all costs, tatakae motherfuckers, and then the boob went away, and i didn't know where it went but my team, and the audience, and everyone who was in front of me, they all gasped like i just kicked them in the stomach. except for my coach. he was behind me, and thus one of the four people in the room who did not see the boob. now my mom, my dad, my grandma, and my grandpa, they all got flashed but nooooooo, coach thunderbutt was behind me, and he didn't see shit so he was still yelling NOOOOOO BABYLON WHAT ARE YOU DOING JUST FINISH THE NELSON! GO FOR THE KILL! BABYLON! BABYLON!

but i did not go for the kill. i stood up and she stuffed her boob back real fast, and we just kind of circled each other awkwardly until time ran out and i won on points. that's not technically allowed, but the ref had some mercy on me.

my coach did not.

i barely had time to sit down before he strode over to the bench to chew me out.

"babylon," he said, in that very calm way people get when they're too pissed to yell. "why didn't you pin?"

and i didn't know how to say well coach, i tried, but there was a boob, and it kept getting in the way, and my mom was watching, and so was my dad, and so was his dad, and his mom, and god (like bible god) and that's a can of worms because i'm pretty sure he was already mad at me, and i'm wearing spandex, and i think i might have to move to siberia, so instead i said

"i uh. i forgot how to do the half nelson."

which is actually impossible. forgetting how to do the half nelson is like forgetting how to swallow your spit.

and he looked at me, like i was the dumbest person in the entire world, and i looked through him like i'd just survived my 250th day in a trench at verdun, and he said: fine.

fine.

but we're all going to practice it for an hour tomorrow because you forgot.

and then he left.

and my buddies had the gall to be salty about it. i got so many comments saying "dude, why didn't you just tell him the truth?" and i said "you can if you care so damn much. you could've wrestled the girl too. maybe someone else should do the hard thing today."

but they didn't. so the next day, we did an hour of half nelson drills, and i spent a decent amount of time getting thrown around the mat, and it was pleasant in exactly the way that i hated and the year after that, to the surprise of everyone but myself, i quit wrestling and joined the trivia team.

and if you want more reasons to love my mom, my grandpa joked after the match that i might have to talk to my bishop about it, and my mom told him he would be allowed to make jokes after he stood in front of a crowd of 110 people in spandex underpants while wrestling a woman that was not his wife.

he paused for almost five seconds after that. then he said: aw. hell. sorry babylon.

and i'd have preferred my apology from god, but getting it from him was pretty good too.

[demaparbat-hp]

Golden Boy (and Silver Girl) for the Kintsugi AU.

[fantasyinallforms]

"The Hobbit movies aren't accurate. The Hobbit's movies made the dwarves too hot"

SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Shhhhhh.... shh

Look into my eyes right now and know I'm being so serious.

I. Don't. Care.

I don't care that it's basically Tolkien fan fiction. I'm under no delusion that it's accurate, I know the studio used the movies as a money grab insted of letting PJ do what he actually wanted. I KNOW. We *all* know.

I still don't care. It brings me joy.

[peasant-player]

Everyone in the Tolkien fandom who spent hours to makes ellaborated charts, name descriptions, little drawings and every other thing to help get to know the characters better.

And get like 3 views

Know that I love you and hope your life is filled with kindness.

[here-comes-the-moose]

Echo during his time with the 501st: doing body shots, dancing on tables, blowing things up in the barracks with Fives, creating chaos with Fives, doing keg stands, complaining about them leaving the club “too early” even though it’s four in the morning, being the reason that new rules were added to the reg manuals, generally being an absolute terror

Echo during most of his time with the Bad Batch: tucking kids in, telling bedtime stories, always carrying healthy snacks, in bed by nine, putting people in time-out, telling “kids” to behave, tending to sick “kids”, being the only one to put their foot down and shut down any shenanigans, generally being a mom and an absolute angel (of course this is when he isn’t being the absolute badass that he is and always had been since let’s not forget that he’s an ARC Trooper)

[artifacts-and-arthropods]

500-year-old Snake Figure from Peru (Incan Empire), c. 1450-1532 CE: this fiber craft snake was made from cotton and camelid hair, and it has a total length of 86.4cm (about 34in)

This piece was crafted by shaping a cotton core into the basic form of a snake and then wrapping it in structural cords. Colorful threads were then used to create the surface pattern, producing a zig-zag design that covers most of the snake's body. Some of its facial features were also decorated with embroidery.

A double-braided rope is attached to the distal end of the snake's body, near the tip of its tail, and another rope is attached along the ventral side, where it forms a small loop just behind the snake's lower jaw. Similar features have been found in other serpentine figures from the same region/time period, suggesting that these objects may have been designed for a common purpose.

Very little is known about the original function and significance of these artifacts; they may have been created as decorative elements, costume elements, ceremonial props, toys, gifts, grave goods, or simply as pieces of artwork.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art argues that this figure might have been used as a prop during a particular Andean tradition:

In a ritual combat known as ayllar, snakes made of wool were used as projectiles. This effigy snake may have been worn around the neck—a powerful personal adornment of the paramount Inca and his allies—until it was needed as a weapon. The wearer would then grab the cord, swing the snake, and hurl it in the direction of the opponent. The heavy head would propel the figure forward. The simultaneous release of many would produce a scenario of “flying snakes” thrown at enemies.

The same custom is described in an account from a Spanish chronicler named Cristóbal de Albornoz, who referred to the tradition as "the game of the ayllus and the Amaru" ("El juego de los ayllus y el Amaru").

The image below depicts a very similar artifact from the same region/time period.

Why Indigenous Artifacts Should be Returned to Indigenous Communities.

Sources & More Info:

Metropolitan Museum of Art: Snake Ornament

Serpent Symbology: Representations of Snakes in Art

Journal de la Société des Américanistes: El Juego de los ayllus y el Amaru

Yale University Art Gallery: Votive Fiber Sculpture of an Anaconda

[royalarchivist]

Sure, Arkanis has cool lore, interesting NPCs, adorable little ghosts, and more, but you know what the best part is? Tazercraft shenanigans!

(This meeting was over 7 minutes long, and Mike kept distracting Pac and made him laugh the entire time 😂)

[tizeline]

Okay, i know this may sound stupid but you better have names to each one of these ghosts because they're so cute & adorable!!/hj/nf/lh

LMAO yeah I wanted to give them just a little personality ^^ but unfortunately I don't know anything about japanese names so uhhh yeah no they're all nameless 😔✌️I'm just gonna call everyone Peepaw Hamato or Meemaw Hamato

Also you including this screenshot made me realize I accidentally drew some little scribbly line on Donnie's battleshell that's not supposed to be there but I'm lazy and I don't wanna go fix it so whatever XD

[eloquentsisyphianturmoil]

Gandalf said ‘do not offer me that’, Galadriel said ‘I would be a queen, great and terrible,’ but Elrond said ‘get that the fuck away from me’ and this is nonsensical.

The other keepers of the elven rings were most challenged by the One, why not Elrond? Is his struggle merely hidden? Is it his Maia blood? Is it simply his mixed blood? Is that why Aragorn withstood, too?

Canonically the race of men are most easily corrupted, yet Elrond half-elven, who is almost 40% man, doesn’t notably bat an eyelash. Why?

[theethoslab]

Absolutely losing my mind over Scar’s stream today

He was already talking to Etho while catching ocelots

Joel logs in and Scar immediately asks if Etho wants to go visit him

We get so many Etho lore crumbs (although he doesn’t fully confirm anything except having stubble and trying to get rid of 2 extra house generators)

They hang out for like 2 hours doing nothing hut chatting

Eventually Scar leaves but forgot that he left his ocelots at Etho’s because he was so excited about boat boys that he never brought them home

[fen-the-space-dragon]

Middlepaw info dump cuz I’m bored. No, this will not be well organized. I’m tired and don’t have the energy to organize and also just remembered I gotta do Duolingo, but really don’t wanna… so if I mysteriously disappear, you know why. Anyways, sorry if this is rambly and/or doesn’t make any sense… I may or may not fix it later if needed

- They crave attention because they often don’t recieve a lot of it. Because they haven’t recieved much of it, tho, they aren’t too great at interacting with others… so instead of just talking to cats to get attention, they do some interesting things. Example: approaching Milkwail (quitedisasterous’ character. I absolutely love Milkwail <33) in hopes of being punted because being punted is a form of attention and any attention is good attention (spoiler: this plan failed, but in the best way possible)

- When they do get attention, they have no clue what to do with it. Social situations are not their specialty

- To make up for the lack of interacting with cats, they tend to interact with inanimate objects instead. Rocks, sticks, leaves, whatever. They’ll also just talk to nothing while staring off into the void of time and space. They have like full on convos like this and have specific objects that are their close friends. They tend to keep these ones stashed in hiding places around the territory so that others don’t accidentally mess with them or something not realizing that they have importance. (one of Middlepaw’s favorites is their emotional support shedded snake skin named Jerry. Why is it named Jerry? Cuz I said so. I really don’t know. They keep Jerry extra well hidden compared to the others)

- Middlepaw is very nonconfrontational. For example, if someone were to find one of their object friends and messed with it in some way, they wouldn’t be happy about it, but wouldn’t do anything. They’d probably just watch from a distance and be really tense the whole time and then go find it a new hiding spot the moment the cat left (btw, by “not happy,” I mean like worried, not mad. They understand that these are just objects to everyone else and don’t blame others for not seeing these things the same way they do)

- They talk to themselves and also objects and stuff and they do so both out loud and in their head, so sometimes they mix the two up… meaning they’ll occasionally talk to a cat and accidentally say things in their head and just be staring at the cat waiting for a response to something they never actually said

- They did have a family (parents and two siblings), but they just kinda disappeared one day. I’m still working out the details on this, kinda wanna wait until more canon lore about Mommyclan history comes out before I set the specifics in stone. Middlepaw has a vague idea of what happened to them, but that’s probably about the most info anyone has. Middlepaw also just kinda tried to pretend nothing had happened. This is all subject to change tho. I’ll prob make another post about this once I solidify the details and stuff. Or maybe not, idk. We’ll see

- They’re 10 moons old

- Uhhhhhhhh… more fun facts…. Middlepaw loves mints. They found one once and absolutely loved it

Aaand that’s all I can think of rn. I might do another later if I think of more stuff idk. If you read this, thank you! I appreciate your interest in my ‘lil cat ^^

[re-bogwitch]

Balin: [Retelling the events of Battle of Moria, a great sense of pride and admiration in his tone as he recounts Thorin's noble deeds in war]

The Company: [Looks at Thorin in a new light of awe as he poses regally with his hands clasped behind his back, steadfast and contemplative - a leader, through and through]

Thorin: [Sweating bullets and feeling like he can't move now because all the attention is suddenly on him and tbh all he wanted to do was check out the view but now it would look so stupid if he moved away like it would be so awkward if he turned around and everyone was just staring at him but at least he looks cool?? does bilbo think he looks cool??]

[jellyskink]

If I was standing in a room and DomesticatedFord was there you best believe I would Mother that man as if he were my son, I would give him a big juicy steak to eat and a real bed to sleep in and I'ma just mother him! (He is 10x my age but I don't care!)

He’s confused and a bit frightened, as he doesn’t know who you are or why you’re being so nice to him

(Also I hope you’re exaggerating about the age difference, because that would make you 6 or 7, and in that case you REALLY shouldn’t be reading this AU)

[echoes-in-echoclan]

I LOVE KESTRELSTAR CARING ABOUT PEOPLE RAAHHH

Quillpaw belongs to @blazingmicah-wc

Moon 0 

Moon 44.2 - Moon 44.4

[kfrnkm]

because I had awakened "It"