#mind palace meta

[theriverwild]

2.06 Mind Palace

There's been so much discourse about the vision Annatar conjures for Celebrimbor in 2.06. Some have pointed out there are markers that are clear indicators this vision has come from Celebrimbor's memory, and that Sauron is using his sorcery to draw images from Celebrimbor's mind, much as he entered into one of Galadriel's own memories in 1.08. Others resolutely point out many references to the time he spent with Galadriel, and many parallels to his draw towards Galadriel being that of Morgoth's to the Silmarils.

I won't attempt to prove anyone right or wrong. I will simply put forward that we are all of us deceived! Whatever the vision is, it belongs to Sauron. We see what we want to see. And this is brilliant story-telling.

Just like Galadriel and Adar know Sauron is scheming, but do not agree on the mechanism or his full plan. Just like Elrond and Gil-Galad have been unable to see eye-to-eye on the use of the rings and best mode to oppose Sauron. Just like King Durin and Prince Durin are now divided over the power of corruption Sauron has injected into their relationship.

Consider Haldir's words from The Fellowship of the Ring:

Indeed in nothing is the power of the Dark Lord more clearly shown than in the estrangement that divides all those who still oppose him. Yet so little faith and trust do we find now in the world beyond Lothlórien, unless maybe in Rivendell, that we dare not by our own trust endanger our land. We live now upon an island amid many perils, and our hands are more often upon the bowstring than upon the harp.

And I find an interesting allusion here in the last. By the Third Age, Sauron is no longer playing Galadriel like a harp. And though she might be focused in defense of her realm and the opposition of Sauron (hands upon the bowstring), she has likewise laid down her sword, her blinding quest for vengeance.

(I'll leave it there as the Third Age Galadriel-Sauron relationship deserves it's own series of posts.)

[zan0tix]

These two make me SICK reading their introductories back to back was actually killing me the way the narration describes jakes blue ladies and janes detective/funny men are direct parallels of eachother it makes me INSANE

[shadows-and-starlight]

The parallels of Charles "I'm glad you didn't tell me" to Edwin about his impending death

And Niko's "I'm glad you told me" to Crystal about her dire situation

[v-arbellanaris]

i think positing loghain's patriotism over everything else actually directly ignores loghain's characterisation in both tst and the calling. as far back as tst, loghain's goal was never the liberation of ferelden from orlais. i do think & agree that he hates orlais, and he's furious about the occupation, but he also doesn't rly seem to think there's any way to oust them. he doesn't see the point in trying & he doesn't understand his father's sudden loyalty to a "king", to maric. he looks out for maric, not out of a sense of patriotism or duty to his country, but because it was the last wishes of his father - something maric himself makes explicit when loghain attempts to abandon him. loghain sacrifices hundreds of soldiers to save maric - to maric's fury. it's maric who is patriotic. loghain takes over maric's job in the calling not because of ferelden but out of love and concern for maric. he tries to talk to maric about his depression several times and he comes back to denerim specifically & explicitly to support maric after rowan dies. he does the same after celia dies, to support anora and cailan.

i don't think patriotism is really what drives loghain. it's loyalty, it's love. loyalty to his father, because he loves him, leads him to protect maric and act in (what he thinks is) maric's best interests. loyalty to maric, because he loves him, is what leads him to protect ferelden and act in (what he thinks is) ferelden's best interests. protecting maric - who his father sacrificed everything to keep safe - kept his father's principles alive and, in that way, he honours his father. protecting ferelden - which maric sacrificed everything for - keeps maric alive and honours maric. and if the warden wins his loyalty, he's willing to follow the warden's lead on whatever they think is best - whether that's the dark ritual, or for either of them to take the sacrifice, or anything else.

to me, it seems like his patriotism is a symptom, not a cause. i don't think it's as clear cut as loghain makes it in his dialogue in dao, but i do think he's self-aware enough to accurately gauge his motivations here. he says that he didn't do any of this because he hated orlais, he did it because of maric. and when the warden comments that maric is dead, loghain's response is telling.

why should that matter?

[sabotourist]

"Constant, unimaginable pain. We know all about these things, don't we Omega?"

"Humans taught them to us."

Yes yes yes you're very scary and sad but also why don't you ask theta and Delta what humans taught them. Ask that, you angsty bitch. You had a shit teacher in fourth grade and then decided that nobody knew shit and that you were the smartest being in the universe. Maybe you could have learned some other things if you gave Tucker the chance to share them. If you stopped making Delta just your workhorse or telling off Theta for being concerned about Tucker. You see Delta reach out to Theta and think it's stupid. They're closer to being human than you'll ever be when you keep intentionally covering your ears, going lalalalala, and then egging on all the mean and angry and psychotic parts of yourself instead of taking a step back. Instead of seeing this person you're pushing to his limits, this person you're pushing just short of the same breaking point the Alpha was stuck in. Seeing that you're repeating the exact atrocities that did this to you to someone just as innocent as the Alpha was.

Bitch. Orange bitch. Stupid orange bitch. I love you so much.

[boylikeanangel]

hey remember how it was said there was gonna be a lot of dancing in good omens season 2 and they hired a choreographer for the season. remember how neil gaiman said jane austen is going to be an important point of reference this season both on a textual and metatextual level. and yknow how we now know episode 5 is called "the ball". ok now remember in pride and prejudice 2005 how there was that scene where lizzie and darcy were so transfixed on each other while dancing that literally everyone else in the room disappeared

[fatalism-and-villainy]

One overlap between Will and Hannibal is in the way they both have an affect that combines tenderness and violence, even if those traits manifest in different ways for each of them - it’s another way in which they’re identically different.

Hannibal’s murders, as we see them, are fairly swift and brutal, with the exceptions of people he wants to “savor,” like Bedelia and Gideon. But his violations are gentle - everything to do with Miriam Lass; the way he handles Will so delicately while putting him through the horrors in season 1; stroking Abigail’s cheek while he goes mask-off about being a murderer; the way he washes Bedelia’s hair for her during their dark fairytale living situation in Florence; etc. His softness is wrapped up less with the act of murder itself and more with manipulation, influence, intimidation, etc - he’s at his most gentle when he’s at his most menacing.

Will’s manipulations, on the other hand, are accompanied by him projecting confidence and bravado. His gentle side he doesn’t show as easily to people, because it’s more vulnerable. But it’s also wrapped up in his violence, albeit in a different way - his impulses towards brutality stem from righteous anger on behalf of outcasts and victims. Where he gets mixed up is a) his impulses towards heroism clashing with the sheer pleasure of killing, and b) his empathy and care towards victims clashing with his empathic identification with killers (something killing more can only intensify).

All of that is to say - I’m gonna expand on something I touched on in this reply to @bloodaria regarding how Will might kill post-canon. Sometimes speculations on how Will might be changed post-fall, or how much more unhinged he would be from canon, have his viciousness being dialed way up (sometimes in contrast to Hannibal’s more refined approach). But, while I can see that, I think another interesting take that gives Will some more surface-level Hannibalesque traits post-fall while also leaning into his preexisting internal contradictions would be Will’s gentleness being folded into his murders.

Like… I think of Katherine Pimm’s mercy killing, and the way she claimed to “quiet people’s minds” - and whose mind is louder than Will’s? And I think of Garrett Jacob Hobbs promising Abigail that he could “make it all go away” right before attempting to kill her - something Will of course recreates in his dream in Oeuf. The view of killing as soothing and calming people, removing their burdens, doing them a kindness - I can see an unhinged version of Will buying into that. Especially if he himself gets in an emotionally volatile, self-loathing state - given his self-destructive tendencies, if he’s projecting hard onto the people he’s hunting, it’s plausible he could cling to that belief. And it would fit in with the show’s exploration of the darker sides of empathy, and empathy and cruelty being two sides of the same coin.

[dogbunni]

saiki fandom at large just out here with so many top tier takes like galaxy brained and I'm over here tapping my little sandcastle bucket kinning nendo and having 0 thoughts. can't even look directly at yalls posts bc they're the headcanon equivalent of biblically accurate angels. actually brb I'm pressing all the buttons on my washing machine. don't care anymore

[canonicallyanxious]

[d20 neverafter episode 4 spoilers]

some more random thoughts:

man brennan hinted at there being so many secrets about the pcs that weren't revealed in the first ep and he was fucking RIGHT and i'm sure this is just scratching the surface of all the lore potential of this season!!! my mind is racing at the thought that all these secrets and motivations and opposing factions got revealed in this episode and because it was one on one the pcs don't KNOW about each other's secrets and the forces that are compelling them like the POTENTIAL FOR DRAMATIC IRONY AND TENSION i am READYYYYY

the book as a "very safe waiting room"... not an endgame or a solution but a stopgap [albeit perhaps a very effective one] so the pcs can figure out "what" to do with all the people in the book... also the book as an entity in its own right with motivations that are still entirely unclear to us... not an actively malevolent force but still terrifying especially because no one can explain it... hm... hm........

The fairies want Gerard to bring them the glass shard... but they seem not to know that the intrepid heroes have the book, and thus it's probably safe to say they don't know the book wants the glass shard too... i mean as a general statement it's so fun that there are SO many factions at play here and with such different relationships to all the pcs i am really looking forward to seeing how that all plays out!!!

out of all them pinnochio's transition into the new world felt the most forced/violent... like iirc [which is absolutely not a guarantee honestly i just watched the ep but my brain is still mush] most of them brennan just described as, like, waking up or coming into awareness in their body [kind of an implication of their consciousnesses merging with the new consciousness i think?] but with pinnochio he was being actively PUSHED into the new world by the stepmother as the pinnochio he was "replacing" was sucked violently away... i don't remember if brennan described him as having two memories of a similar life but regardless he's done a fantastic job at building the stepmother into a figure that strikes a lot of genuine fear in my heart skdjfnskdjfns

speaking of which what IS she. she seems opposed to the other fairies, and also very motivated to keep Rosamund away from the other princesses [at least I think that's who she's trying to hide Rosamund from?], and the way Cinderella talked about witches painted them as more of a neutral [at least for now] force than what the stepmother feels like. what is her endgame! girl what is your DAMAGE what do you WANT i'm SCARED

brennan don't think i didn't clock Cinderella saying that witches can't be trusted but still clearly delineating them as a separate faction from the fairies and then calling Timothy a witch in his own scene... what does it mean what does it all mean... [ALL the witches are awoken to the multiverse potential versus SOME of the fairies and SOME of the princesses...?]

[dirtbra1n]

like a physical weight off my chest, jesus christ. anyway pictures I took with my actual for real camera yesterday under the cut

they’re blurry for artistic license this time. not because of the iphone 8.

[tyrannuspitch]

okay actually i think this is. at least a little deliberate. it's a test/trap for the w4. maybe one he came up with in the moment, maybe even after the first micro-undermining (lowering their fists from salute when they see who's on the throne), but still...

loki does this insincere little speech, not fully making eye contact, with a quaver in his voice and the slightly childish detail of calling the king "Father" rather than "my father" when talking to a third party, and he watches to see if they'll listen to him. and then he stands up and drops his voice half an octave. it's like. "oh is this how you see me? i don't care. it shouldn't matter how you see me. i'm still fucking royalty."

which i guess means he's trying to shame them. it's intimidation but there's also... an attempt to prove a point? which is not exactly trying to win allies, but it's as close as he's getting in this state.

but they don't see him proving a point. they don't have the subtlety or self-awareness to realise he's being like that on purpose. so they just go Oh No. A Liar And A Villain.

[fangsandfeels]

I've seen the "Non-ascended Astarion ending is bad for him because you have to persuade him to reject the ritual" opinion...

..implying that he never really wanted not to ascend, it's you the player who selfishly forces him to give up on his goal. To prove their point, they state that you can get a good ending out of all other companion's quests without using Persuasion at all, except for Astarion.

And boy did I want to talk about this...

(In fact, everything I wanted to say has already been told in this amazing meta post, but I still gotta ramble)

First of all, Astarion was going through an intense PTSD. The game gave him a debuff to show how badly going back to the place of his torment was affecting him. Larian couldn't make it more obvious that he wasn't thinking clearly.

Second, there is one thing all abusers have in common: they destroy their victim's feelings of self-worth to the point, the victim no longer wants or knows how to ask for help or have relationships outside their abusive circle.

Who would want you like this? Look at yourself, you think you're better than me? You're nothing. Who would want to waste their time on you? You think somebody else would treat you better?

Since entering the Cazador's palace, Astarion is reliving his worst moments. Initially, he takes it in stride, hiding his discomfort underneath performative and emotional expressiveness. He talks about how he spent time in the bedrooms where he never did any sleeping, about the kennels where he was tortured, about the barracks where he was sent to when he "deserved neither carrot nor stick". Bad memories, but he shares them with Tav because he trusts them with his scars already. They might as well know the rest.

But after descending into the dungeon, Astarion starts spiraling into self-loathing at a break-neck speed. He used to think that all Cazador victims he ever brought to him were long gone, drained, and discarded. A horrible, undeserved death, yet the thought of them not having to suffer for too long was a small consolation, one of the threads holding his sanity together.

But then it turns out that they weren't dead. They were turned. Locked away deep underground, alone with their new selves, with the hunger and isolation. They did suffer. All these years, they suffered, buried in this tomb - because of him. Cazador may have turned them, but it was Astarion who brought them to him. And they remembered it. They recognized him. The monster who stole them from their home. The monster who ruined their life. Monster. Just like Cazador.

So, as if his PTSD wasn't enough, this revelation was another blow to his grip on himself, his perception of himself. His confident facade was shattering - and in his head, he was starting to think that Tav's idea of him, of who he is, was shattering as well. He tried to warn them before. He said he couldn't be what they saw in him. Whatever person they believed him to be had never existed - and Tav was finally coming to realize that as they walked through the gallery of his sins, looking his victims in the eyes and hearing out what they had to say. Of course, Tav hated him now. They had to. How could they not?

So, at the end, he is scared. Terrified. He bit off more than he could chew by walking into the manor and thinking he had only six fellow spawns to deal with. He saw their lives as a small price to pay because Cazador made sure to erase any solidarity between them. He made them torture each other and compete with each other. He twisted the very meaning of family bonds to his perverted liking, and he knew that by doing so, he would make sure every single one of them would get a whiplash from anyone trying to mention family in a positive connotation. Astarion takes no issue with getting rid of his "brothers" and "sisters" because he is fully aware that had the roles been reversed, they would have sacrificed him without a second thought. And he was certain that Tav would change their mind once they learned more about his brethren.

But the spawns in the dungeon...All the faces he remembered. All the lovers he lured. They did nothing wrong. They never hurt him. They never tortured him. Their only mistake was to trust him.

The revelation horrifies him. His first response is to be shocked, overwhelmed with emotion - and then he has to remind himself that sacrifices must be made. He feigns indifference. He tries to cover his internal conflict with gallows humor. But his flippant mask keeps slipping as he lapses from indifference to anger, to guilt, to begging Tav not to hate him as his greatest crimes glare back at him and claw at him, shouting out threats and seething with hatred.

He can't bear the thought of dealing with all the people whose lives he helped to destroy. He can't do anything for them. Just killing Cazador won't undo what he did to them. He will never be anything but a monster in their eyes. And this is what he deserves to be. He will always be reminded of what he is.

He has no choice but to do the Ritual.

He has no idea what will happen to him after he is done - he isn't a planner. He has never been. But at this point, he doesn't see his soul as something worthy of preserving - and by association, he extends that to other spawns. He knows it all too well because he remembers how it felt. He dissociates, projecting everything he hated about himself onto Cazador's victims, trying to rationalize why he should live and why they must die while he actively avoids the truth.

Completing the ritual is no longer about being free. Or protecting himself and his lover. It's about running away. Even when Astarion has Cazador at his mercy, he still thinks of running away. Getting lost forever. So nobody could ever hurt him.

A part of him even realizes that it means running away from Tav too. But Tav can leave, he naively thinks, not knowing the full consequences of the ritual. Tav will leave to find someone else, someone better, and he will start everything anew, a king of his castle.

So, of course, Tav has to reach out to him through that thick haze of fear, anger, and self-hatred. Persuasion isn't about strongarming someone into doing what you want. It's not subjugation or emotional blackmail. It's reasoning with someone. And that is exactly what Tav does - reasons with Astarion after watching him mentally struggle, after seeing his genuine shock and fear, after understanding that he isn't fully on board with the idea.

It's true, vampire spawns tend to gravitate toward power, especially if nothing is pulling them back. A vampire spawn is a feared and scorned creature - it no longer matters whether they were an unwilling victim, forcefully taken and turned. They are seen not as an individual but as the extension of their master - and the only natural transition for them is to get on the top of the food chain. The only way to make a name and become treated as something more.

Astarion saw power as the mean to safety and freedom, first and foremost. Ironically, he never planned beyond securing these two priorities. He never saw himself after accomplishing his goals, and it's kinda amazing how people can make conclusions about his hedonism because he misses petty vanities, wants to drink blood from a goblet, and sleep on silken sheets. The man who was held and tortured in the kennels, fed rats, and had to stitch and fix his only set of clothes over and over to keep it presentable, the man who has never felt happy for most of his conscious non-life is called hedonistic for wanting nice things. For still wanting to take care of himself for once.

He wasn't harboring any grand plans, conquests, or schemes. Even his idea of taking control of the Absolute was abstract and shapeless because he didn't care about getting control over the most influential people as much as he was afraid of breaking whatever protected him from Cazador's domination. He never really knew what to do with power aside from keeping Cazador and the likes of him at bay.

The way Astarion behaves in a relationship also speaks tons of how controlling he really is...or how he isn't controlling at all. When his romance with Tav transforms into something real, and he enters a new territory, Astarion is empowered to make decisions and think about what he wants instead of pleasuring others. It's clear that he and Tav don't have sex after they come clear about their feelings. Tav respects his comfort and boundaries, gives him all the time he needs, and lets him take the lead. Whether they will have sex again or not is entirely up to Astarion. Whatever he decides, it won't change Tav's feelings for him. He doesn't have to do anything he doesn't want to do.

Astarion enjoys this new autonomy. He is playful, affectionate, outspoken...and afraid of messing everything up. If Tav mentions breaking up, Astarion thinks he is the problem. If there is another potential love interest showing they have eyes for Tav, Astarion encourages Tav to be with them because he believes they can give Tav everything he can't. When Tav says "I choose you," Astarion is taken aback, needing a moment to hide his genuine confusion at Tav actually wanting to be with him rather than Gale, Karlach, or Halsin.

For all his talks of control and dominating others, once Astarion finds himself with a lover who values his autonomy more than getting power at the cost of his dignity, who makes it safe for him to be honest, and who listens to him, he almost stops mentioning control. He merely lives in the moment, happy not to know, not to pretend, not to manipulate. Just to be.

What Astarion truly craves - not wants on a superficial level, not conditioned to want - is not to be a vampire lord. He wants the freedom to be anything. Anything he wants. Little does he know that true vampires rarely get to be anything they want, even if they gain the ability to walk in the sun -- we see it in his Ascended path as, instead of acting up on his supposed freedom to be anything, Astarion repeats Cazador's rules step by step. Just like Cazador did. Just like Verlioth did. He isn't anything he wants. He is the replica of his former master.

Astarion never had the luxury to explore who he wanted to be outside what Cazador made him. He only makes his first steps once he is free. We see glimpses of that deep-seated aspiration to be seen as a person. Treated like a person. Loved like a person. To be reflected in someone's eyes. He wants to know if there is someone beneath his usual mask, something his, not tainted by Cazador. Someone real. And at the same time, he dreads to know the answer. Because that part of him knows regret. Knows shame. Knows guilt. Confronting it posed the risk of realizing he didn't deserve love, kindness, or a future. What if real him truly doesn't amount to anything? What else for him to do?

So, he tells himself that he has no choice, and he expects Tav to affirm it -- not because he wants them to, but because he believes that Tav has seen enough to make the same conclusion. However, Tav objects, trying to be louder than all the inner demons hissing into his ears. Tav speaks to the Astarion, who asked them what they saw when they looked at him. The Astarion, who thanked them for standing by his side when he said "No" to Araj. The Astarion one who stood frozen in their hug before returning it tentatively. The Astarion who diligently, dedicatedly, caringly kept pulling himself together instead of letting himself unravel completely.

Tav reminds him that this Astarion, right here, right now, is worth fighting for. That he didn't survive all these years of torture, pain, humiliation, and dehumanization to give himself up now. He already has the power to avenge himself, avenge all Cazador's victims. He can end everything right here, right now - and this is the only power to free him. He has the power (and responsibility) of having a choice.

Tav empathizes with other spawns as victims not because they're more "innocent" than Astarion, but because associating with them doesn't brand Astarion as weak or broken. These spawns aren't horrible wretches, and neither is he. They don't deserve this, and neither did he.

The only one who deserves to die today is Cazador - the vampire, the monster, the pathetic piece of shit.

Astarion Ancunin deserves to live.

[megaderping]

Persona 5 fandom, I beg of you, please stop with the casual (and likely very unintentional) ableism. This is less about one specific person and an overall trend I see whenever people post bad takes on Akechi. Going "Akechi is a murderous psychopath" is harmful because it spreads an unfair stigma about psychopathy and mental illness in general as this "crazy" and violent thing, which has been normalized for far too long. And also, it's just not true. Anyone who thinks Akechi is this "remorseless psycho" (keeping in mind this use of the term isn't great) simply does not have more than a surface level reading of the character. His missable November texts make it abundantly clear that he is not happy with what he's doing under Shido. Which, granted, HIGHLY missable text. You have to basically delay Sae's Palace and not go in at all until mid-November. Engine room, 12/24, multiple times in third sem... his remorse is there, it's just subtle or not presented as shaking and crying and begging for forgiveness, because he's a guarded mess of a person (with deep psychological scars, make no mistake- this is not a healthy kid). But even without those texts, there are plenty of times where these feelings are conveyed. His sad reaction when Morgana explains changes of heart (if he had known sooner), his regrets in the engine room and lamentations about Joker's freedom, and I basically did a whole meta post breaking down the important visual and spoken symbolism to Akechi's character that gets boiled down to "hehehe crazy murder boy". Hate or dislike him? Cool, sure, but the normalization in fandom communities of just throwing around mental illness related terms in a derogatory fashion... really isn't good? Like even if Akechi was literally a psychopath or sociopath or had npd or other specific mental illnesses, that doesn't inherently make him evil, nor does it erase his victimhood, which is so integral to his role in the story.

He killed people, yes. That's not really up for debate, and yes he gets feral and over the top in third sem... but that's just over the top edgelord behavior directed at Shadows and focusing only on that ignores everything else he says and does in third sem, yet it happens so much (even though other Phantom Thieves, like Haru, have fun fighting Shadows too). Are we just gonna ignore all the times he's cool, collected, and reasonable in third sem to throw around this antiquated and hurtful idea of what the word "psychopath" means? ._. Just... blarg. I've made many Akechi rambles/rants, but the normalization of ableism surrounding him is not great? I think it's mostly down to ignorance and lack of media literacy, but yeah. Plus it's kinda fucked up how little weight is placed on Shido for teaching him how to do shutdowns (his own admission), the fact that the moment Akechi revealed himself to Shido, he was screwed, because this is a man who took a bump on the head as a reason to ruin Joker's life.

Idk. I think it's not just a P5 fandom trend, even, because it's so normalized the same way people think OCD is this funny quirky mental condition because of shows like Monk when it's an actual disability that can deeply affect people in horrible ways... Mental health awareness is good is all I'm saying.

[kataang-week]

Trick or Treat, Kataangers!🎃

Katara and Aang sprites from Distant Horizon. Graphic created by Mod Belle @itsmoonpeaches.

🦇What is Kataang Halloween?

Kataang Halloween is a one-time, three-day mini-event hosted and created by @kataang-week on Tumblr for the first time this year. (However, there is potential for it to happen again in the future.) Kataang Halloween celebrates Kataang with a Halloween theme. All prompts were chosen by the mod team.

🦇Cool, when is it?

Kataang Halloween starts on Thursday, October 31, 2024, and ends on Saturday, November 2, 2024.

🦇What are the prompts?

In honor of Halloween, we're using lucky number 13! There are 13 prompts for each adventure.

"Trick" prompt list:

Old Spirits

Family Secrets

Altered State

Moonlight

Teeth

Demon Claws

The Deep

Offerings

Inner Palace

Lost

Grotto

Cliff Edge

Poison

"Treat" prompt list:

Taffy

Candied Haws

Lanterns

Mid-Autumn

Mooncake

Crunchy Leaves

Warm Drinks

Pumpkins

Chrysanthemum

Sharing

Toadstools

Apple Picking

Paint

🦇So how does this work?

Choose your own adventure! You can take inspiration from the Trick prompts, Treat prompts, or both! Feel free to mix and match prompts to create spooky and/or sweet Kataang content.

Anything you can think of counts as content as long as you fill one or multiple prompts at a time. Fanfics, fanart, gifsets, metas, edits, playlists, moodboards, music, etc.—the sky's the limit.

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Please create your own original pieces. We do not accept AI-made fanworks.

We only accept new works created for Kataang Halloween, not works that are retroactively said to be created for Kataang Halloween. However, you may create something that fills a Kataang Halloween prompt for an ongoing work like a chapter fic or an ongoing series. See this ask for more information.

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The easiest way for us to find your work so we can reblog it to this blog is by using the tag “kataang halloween”. Using “kataang” and “kataangtag” also help. You must tag one of the three in your first five tags otherwise it doesn’t appear in the search. It is also helpful to tag us directly with @kataang-week.

Sometimes even properly tagged posts may not appear when we search the tags, so if you do not see your content reblogged, please let us know.

Once we’ve reblogged it to this blog we add our own tags (a prompt tag and a user tag) for easy organization. This means we can find all the work for one prompt or all the work from one user in one easy click (this also means that if you have changed your username since participating last year you need to let us know so we can update your tag!).

🦇Can I post my stuff other places online too?

Of course you can! However, we won’t be able to reblog anything that isn’t a Tumblr post.

For those of you who will be posting your works on AO3, feel free to add your fic to our Kataang Halloween AO3 collection.

🦇What if I have late submissions for Kataang Week 2024?

While we will not reblog any late submissions for Kataang Week 2024 during the Kataang Halloween event, late submissions for Kataang Week 2024 will still be accepted up until Kataang Week 2025, so don’t be shy and don’t worry about giving the world more Kataang content 💖 We always welcome it!

As always, if you have any questions, feel free to submit an ask to the Kataang Week blog. See you on Halloween, Kataangers!

🦇Who are the mods?

@airbender-dacyon AKA Mod Dan: A Kataang fanfic writer who prefers fluff, but also loves some drama and angst. Mod Dan started writing Kataang stories in 2013 and has helped organize Kataang Week since 2016.

@penguinsledder AKA Mod Atarah: A writer, gif maker, and musician–she enjoys fluffy young adult Kataang and all the ways they complement and parallel each other. She first joined Tumblr for Kataang Week 10 years ago, and started helping out with writing posts and making banners as a mod since 2016!

@itsmoonpeaches AKA Mod Belle: An avid Kataanger with a penchant for angst and mild violence who likes writing. Mod Belle has been a mod since 2021 and helps write posts and social media.

@chocomd AKA Mod Celes: Fanfic writer who adores Kataang for their fun and flirty side but also their bond forged through grief and loss. Mod Celes joined in 2023 and helps with a little bit of everything - whatever needs to be done!

[sabotourist]

So I was thinking about wash. I watch the show out of order, so there are a lot of scenes I haven't seen. I consider this enrichment. Anyway, because of that, I knew about his injury but hadn't watched the seasons surrounding it for a while.

I thought of it like this: wash finally accepting that his memory and skill doesn't define him, and that they don't keep him around for his ability. And that he can let go and stop fighting now. It's okay. He's released from fighting.

And then I watched some scenes. And one scene completely changed my opinion of that.

Deets under the cut:

(excuse the screenshots, i am a fraud)

He sounds so genuine when he's saying this, too. He likes going on his misadventures with the Reds and Blues. In light of that, it's no wonder his injury would upset him. He doesn't want to lose that. Not just belonging, but the ability to just... be a trusted member of their team.

In light of that, I really don't like the idea of his injury taking that away from him. Instead I think it could represent a final shift in power.

Wash had started to take on more of a supporting role since season 11. As Tucker grew more and more into the role of a leader. Tucker had this devastating moment of reflection in s17 about it, too.

But the season never quite got to bring this idea around to anything. I liked the ending of the season a LOT, don't get me wrong. Carolina's arc had an awesome finale. But between Wash and Tucker, this really felt like setup for something that never got paid off.

Tucker trying his best to reconcile the role of a leader. Wash wanting to stay with his team, but no longer being fit for a leader role. I think that would have been the perfect time to pass the baton, fully and properly. To tell Tucker that it isn't just because he isn't fit to lead, but because Tucker is the best one for the role.

I think in my own perfect world, season 18 would have been a very chill season a la the early seasons where they just hang out and talk with very little plot, at least for most of it. Give them all a chance to catch their breath and figure out what's what. Let Tucker and Wash have a conversation about how Tucker still looks up to Wash, about how Wash has nothing but respect for who Tucker has become. How they didn't get the best hand, but how Wash doesn't want to retire, and Tucker doesn't want him to leave, even if he's not the soldier he used to be. About how shit is fucked but they can still be happy.

And then Grif drives a Warthog through the wall right into Tucker. At that moment, the ritual is complete.

[phoenixcatch7]

Okay so I saw this post about dark percy (really him reaching his Limit and fighting full strength with everything he had) and I was imagining the potential fallout of that. Pretty bad, as you can guess.

The thing is a lot of percys strongest moments happen out of view of the olympians, especially in hoo. The hurricane atop the glacier in alaska, the poison scene in tartarus, bending the depression river and the one in the palace of nyx.

Stuff like the St Helens eruption got him washed up on an inescapable island literally removed from reality until calypso gave him the OK, the achillies curse he got tricked into losing by hera. Smaller moments, the minotaur, fighting ares, the stolen pirate ship, walking on water vs hyperion, freshwater sources, him knowing both Latin and Greek, they're more easily brushed off or at least mostly due to cunning, sword skills and sheer luck and grit.

But basically the olympians don't actually know the full extent of percys strength and divine power. They have hints - percy standing on the throne, winning against ares, his many victories - but what they aren't willing to brush aside in the heat of (an important) battle there have been pretty strong consequences for.

Heck, just look at Frank, he's no prodigy with weapons, he's polite and respectful, but his distant relation to two olympians letting him inherit shapeshifting earned him direct divine meddling and his life force tied to a hunk of half toasted firewood. Man is a honey bear with lactose intolerance and he was punished with a mythical death curse for being too strong.

If Percy's true strength came out, he would risk losing everything. His freedom, most certainly. If he wasn't straight up executed he might wind up in a Greek myth style imprisonment, the way of atlas, prometheus, calypso, or something like the myriad of ways Greek heroes met their end. Good scenario he survives a dozen curses and gets on with life with a dozen new disabilities, best case scenario he's stripped of every inch of divine power and dropped back to the mortal world, not even clear sighted. Total separation from the Greeks and Romans. Oh, annabeth would marry him either way, and his friends would hardly abandon him despite the gods wishes, but they'd hardly be able to see him, and no long range contact without the ability to IM him or vice versa.

All of that to say Percy is hiding his true strength from the gods themselves - maybe not consciously, and it's not even power he particularly wants - but if they ever find out?

It's game over.

But why is he so strong? I don't know. What I do know is that the half bloods of the books are so much stronger than the ones of myth. Used to be that divine blood would get you divine favour and a great fate whether you liked it or not. Maybe some cunning and bow skills. A spot of spell casting if you were really lucky. Achillies got his curse after he was born, Perseus had a dozen magic artifacts, orpheus had something going on but hercules is to my knowledge an outlier. Now? Everyone in camp has some special power. Flight, fire, necromancy, hypnotism, dream walking etc. However it's happening, half bloods are slowly but surely getting a lot, lot stronger every century that passes. Meta? I mean I guess. But.

What no one has done before is something that their godly parent couldn't.

Except.

Except Percy.

Except Percy, in tartarus, at his mental, emotional and physical limit, controlling poison with his mind, overpowering the goddess of poison in her home, making misery choke on misery. Feeling something in his chest crack. Doing something poseidon could not, and doing it better than the person who could.

Down there, hidden away from the gods, he evolved. For that brief moment, he did something, was something new.

And that was how the gods overthrew the titans.

And that's why they must never find out.