#need to clarify that if using source material

[violentdevotion]

if u see me watchmen oc posting no u didnt

my eyes are closed. so long as you can forgive me in 2 days when i stop posting about watchmen and start incessantly posting about something else

[anarchotolkienist]

you’re attacking that neopagan kind of birthstone post about druid plants, but could you please elaborate or at least clarify the explicit trope that is being used that has been historically weaponized?

I used to spend about a good third of my time on this godforsaken website attacking that idea, but sure, I'll do it again. This will be a bit of an effortpost, so I'll stick it under the readmore

There is a notion of 'celts' or Gaels as being magicial and somehow deeply in touch with nature and connected to pre-Christian worldviews that the people who decided to make up the "Celtic tree astrology" used. This is also why Buffy used Irish Gaelic as the language of the demons, why Warhammer uses Gaelic as Elvish, why garbled Scottish Gaelic is used by Wiccans as the basis for their new religious construct, why people call themselves Druids to go an say chants in bad Welsh in Stonehenge, or Tursachan Chalanais, or wherever, etc etc. This stuff is everywhere in popular culture today, by far the dominant view of Celtic language speaking peoples. Made up neopagan nonsense is the only thing you find if you go looking for Gaelic folklore, unless you know where to look, and so on and so on. I could multiply examples Endless, and in fact have throughout the lifespan of this blog, and probably will continue to.

To make a long history extremely brief (you can ask me for sources on specifics, or ask me to expand if you're interested), this is directly rooted in a mediaeval legalistic discussion in Catholic justifications for the expansionist policies of the Normans, especially in Ireland, who against the vigourous protestation of the Church in Ireland claimed that the Gaelic Irish were practically Pagan in practice and that conquest against fellow Christians was justified to bring them in like with the Church. That this was nonsense I hope I don't need to state. Similar discourses about the Gaels in Scotland exist at the same time, as is clear from the earliest sources we have postdating the Gaelic kingdom of Alba becoming Scotland discussing the 'coastal Scots' - who speak Ynglis (early Scots) and are civilised - and the 'forest Scots' (who speak 'Scottis' (Middle Gaelic) and have all the hallmarks of barbarity. This discourse of Gaelic savagery remains in place fairly unchanged as the Scottish and then British crowns try various methods for integrating Gaeldom under the developing early state, provoking constant conflict and unrest, support certain clans and chiefs against others and generally massively upset and destabilise life among the Gaels both in Scotland and Ireland. This campaign, which is material in root but has a superstructure of Gaelic savagery and threat justifying it develops through attempts at assimilation, more or less failed colonial schemes in Leòdhas and Ìle, the splitting of the Gaelic Irish from the Gaelic Scots through legal means and the genocide of the Irish Gaels in Ulster, eventually culminates in the total ban on Gaelic culture, ethnic cleansing and permanent military occupation of large swathes of Northern Scotland, and the destruction of the clan system and therefore of Gaelic independence from the Scottish and British state, following the last rising in 1745-6.

What's relevant here is that the attitude of Gaelic barbarity, standing lower on the civilisational ladder than the Anglo Saxons of the Lowlands and of England, was continuously present as a justification for all these things. This package included associations with the natural world, with paganisms, with emotion, and etc. This set of things then become picked up on by the developing antiquarian movement and early national romantics of the 18th century, when the Gaels stop being a serious military threat to the comfortable lives of the Anglo nobility and developing bourgeoise who ran the state following the ethnic cleansing after Culloden and permanent occupation of the Highlands (again, ongoing to this day). They could then, as happened with other colonised peoples, be picked up on and romanticised instead, made into a noble savage, these perceived traits which before had made them undesirable now making them a sad but romantic relic of an inexorably disappearing past. It is no surprise that Sir Walter Scott (a curse upon him and all his kin) could make Gaels the romantic leads of his pseudohistorical epics at the exact same time that Gaels were being driven from their traditional lands in their millions and lost all traditional land rights. These moves are related. This tradition is what's picked up on by Gardner when he decides to use mangled versions of Gaelic Catholic practice (primarily) as collected by the Gaelic folklorist Alasdair MacIlleMhìcheil as the coating for Wicca, the most influential neo-pagan "religion" to claim a 'Celtic' root and the base of a lot of oncoming nonsense like that Celtic Tree Astrology horseshit that started this whole thing, and give it a pagan coat of paint while also adding some half-understood Dharmic concepts (three-fold law anyone?) and a spice of deeply racist Western Esotericism to the mix. That's why shit like that is directly harmful, not just historically but in the present total blotting out of actually existing culture of Celtic language speakers and their extremely precarious communities today.

If you want to read more, I especially recommend Dr. Silke Stroh's work Gaelic Scotland in the Colonial Imaginary, Dr. Aonghas MacCoinnich's book Plantation and Civility in the North-Atlantic World, the edited collection Mio-rún Mór nan Gall on Lowland-Highland divide, the Gaelic writer known in English as Ian Crichton Smith's essay A real people in a real place on these impacts on Gaelic speaking communities in the 20th century, Dr. Donnchadh Sneddons essay on Gaelic racial ideas present in Howard and Lovecrafts writings, and Dr. James Hunter's The Making of the Crofting Community for a focus on the clearings of Gaels after the land thefts of the late 18th and early 19th century.

@grimdr an do chaill mi dad cudromach, an canadh tu?

[kalki-tarot]

Your Future spouse's First Impression of you

˚₊‧꒰ა ♡ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚

Pick a pile <3

1 - 2 - 3

4 - 5 - 6

Disclaimer — The images I used to select a pile were sourced from Pinterest, I hope the reading will resonate with you. I'm not responsible for any decisions you make in your life from my readings. I'm just a beginner and these readings are just for fun.

Check masterlist for more !

Pile 1

Wheel of fortune, 9 of cups, two of cups, king of wands, ace of swords, king of pentacles, the emperor, bottom of deck 3 of swords.

When this person sees you for the first time, they'll feel an instant connection with you.

This person sees you as their wish come true. They might feel that you are someone who's in a stable position in life. Your calm face and demeanour stands out the most to them.

You are a balanced person in their eyes. They might want to partner up with you.

I'm sensing masculine energy within you, regardless of gender. You seem confident and firm to them.

They see you have a lot of clarity in life. You are someone who has fresh ideas and perspectives about things in life.

They might also see you as someone financially independent, who stands on their own feet.

They can sense your dominating aura. They may also see you as a family oriented person. The provider in the family.

Regardless of what you show outside, you also have a side of you which dwells in pain and longs for understanding. They do notice that. And will be very understanding and patient with you.

Pile 2

10 of cups, 8 of wands, death, 10 of swords rx, two of swords, the hermit, 7 of swords, the lovers

They wanna start a family with you instantly the moment they see you because you provide them emotional fulfillment in some way.

They might be struggling with some betrayal or ex cheated on them or something painful like that. But they are moving on / have move on from that situation or thing in their life. They are recovering from their wounds.

They might be indecisive whether to move forward with your or not. They might second guess things with you due to their past heartbreaks.

They need some deep, introspective time for themselves to reflect within.

They are still hurt from what went wrong in their past so they have trust issues and might not even trust you in the beginning.

They will act strategically with you. They don't wanna hurt themselves again.

Don't worry the lovers came out right now as I clarified things. They would want a romantic relationship with you. They would like to offer you things. They do see you as a marriage material.

They are walking away from the things that don't serve them anymore.

Pile 3

Temperance, the magician, 9 of pentacles, king of pentacles, the hanged man, 10 of swords, 3 of swords, 2 of pentacles

They will think that you are so balanced. A perfect balance of everything. Like you can be the cutest and the sexiest both.

They would be tempted by you, of course, and they will surely start manifesting you after you meet.

The 9 and king of pentacles tells me that either they are very rich and abundant or they'll find you rich and abundant in your lives.

Maybe they noticed your branded purse or something.

They'd be stuck by your beauty like they won't be able to take their eyes off you. Whoever chose this pile is very gorgeous for sure!

They might be stuck at some past heartbreak or betrayal the time they meet you.

They might be in a painful situation that's getting on their nerves constantly. Maybe it's due to finances?

They would see you someone who manages a lot of things or has a lot of responsibilities at a time.

They notice you juggling between things but still not losing your balance.

Pile 4

They'd see you as a powerful combination of ambition and practicality. They'd think you are a successful yet peacful person. Quite occupied in your own business, not really involved in other's drama.

They would also see you someone who is very creative and spontaneous. Very passionate to create new things.

They themselves would feel inspired or intimidated by you and your bold and direct personality.

They'd think that you are someone who was wronged in the past which led to you being all broken and shattered. But you got yourself up on your feet and now you are reaping the benefits of your own hardwork and patience. You are a self made queen / king in their eyes.

They'd be shy or hesitant to approach you first but the divine will do justice to you both.

The divine timing and play is at action and you two will eventually get dating or in a relationship.

They see you as someone they can spend their whole life with.

Pile 5

You both are divinely connected to eachother, on a deeper soul level.

They'll notice your need of balance in life. It feels as if they can see right through you. They give me psychic vibes or you are one.

I can sense a feeling of being trapped and limiting thoughts and actions. Both of you were heartbroken in the past. There were some situations out of you both's hands.

But you need to face pain to undergo some realizations about yourself, your divine purpose and connection.

It feels as if they can sense your heartbreak. They feel as if you've gone through a big transformation in life.

They feel you know a lot about life, you've gone through a lot of things in life.

They see you as someone brave who's fought through life's circumstances and has become what you are now!

They see you as a wife/husband material but also someone they can start a business with.

You have that business and logical mind as well as your intuition with you.

They dont want to load you up with a lot of responsibility as you already have much though.

[bonebrokebuddy]

@kodedgeekthings eyo you mentioned wanting a dpxdc prompt for Howard, Batman’s mechanic!

Harold misses fixing toys for kids and in his off hours has taken up the habit of answering questions on forums about machining, electrical, engineering, mechanics, and mechanical design that are often frequented by students.

One day, he comes across a request by a college student who is trying to assemble his own car out of scrap he bought from a local wrecking yard.

Ghostly_Boy states that he has previous experience in machining and can make replacements for broken or too-damaged parts if need be, but he doesn’t know where to start and what specific requirements he needs to reach to ensure it’s street legal.

Harold willing to help, he answers a few of Ghostly Boy’s clarifying questions:

- Great questions!

It’s good to note that if you’re not careful, fixing or making your own car from parts can be a moneysink and can cost you more than a brand new vehicle. - That being said, your first major step to ensuring you can drive the car is to get the title of the body/frame of the car you plan to build. It’ll have the VIN on a plate welded to the frame usually near the lower edge of the windshield wipers on the drivers side. It’s how the DMV identifies vehicles for licensing.

- Generally, you’ll at first get a “wreck out” title that shows the vehicle is listed as a total loss, but if you can assemble the parts for the car with that frame, the DMV can check if it’s properly running and road worthy & license for you to use it on public roads if you’ve done the proper paperwork.

- Once that is done, it’s largely a case of getting the right parts and assembling them. Depending on how much you have to repair, you could be taking on a task that could give a challenge to even a seasoned mechanic. There may be additional paperwork depending on what exactly you need to repair, like the breaks, lights, steering, etc.

- If you want to build the car entirely from scratch, chassis and all, that’s an entirely different story with a much more complicated list of requirements to make it street legal, so getting a frame from a junkyard is a great first step!

- Make sure to keep all bills of sale, junkyard receipts, invoices and manufacturers’ certificates on any major parts you used in building the vehicle to prove its road worthy to the DMV when it’s complete!

Harold doesn’t always answer first but over time he’s found the adventures of this kid amusing and keeps up with it.

Ghostly_Boy keeps the forum updated with his progress:

The kid spontaneously deciding to scrap the wiring system and make his own in a span of 3 days, leaving experienced mechanics on the forum practically screaming at the kid for his updates showing him using random wires he salvaged and pigtailing them together to get the length of wire he needed.

Mixing not only multiple types of wires but ones that didn’t have the protection needed for auto use. DIY-ing his own relay and fuses he didn’t have and connecting the wrong grounds and switches. And planning on leaving the wires unwrapped and loose.

Leaving Ghost to promptly redo the wiring, correctly this time, within 78 hours.

Making a repair of a massive rusted hole on the passenger side by the bumper and the front tire via cutting 1/2in past the rust, grinding it pretty and clean, tac & seam welding the vintage aluminum housing material of a toaster to cover the hole to the response of Harold and many others in the forum just going “… I guess that would work?”

Harold and many others telling the kid that this “ectoplasm” material wasn’t cleared through the EPA’s Clear Air Act and could be illegal to drive with it as it’s fuel source unless he got the emissions tested & the center of gravity of the car adjusted to have the center of gravity a gas car has, it wouldn’t pass Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. Nor would the previously untested on material make it easy or quick to get an Emissions testing certificate. Best to just stick with gas.

Removing what he thought was a “skid plate” that turned out to be another rusted out section on the frame on the bottom of his car and repairing it with steel he salvaged from an old medical table he had laying around. (To the multiple slightly confused commenters asking how Ghost had a spare medical table, he replied, “eh, my folks visit every so often and they’ve been giving me things they’re clearing out of the house so they can move closer to my older sister. I just so happened to get the ye olde medical table. They’re an odd couple of folks but that’s why I love them.”)

People just crying at the kid to go to rockauto.com and just buy the damn parts he needs for his car. (A good resource btw)

The kid kept cutting corners to save cash but through the badgering of Harold and many others that he actually would have to spend money to make this car be safe to drive in, he finally got it completed.

Ghost’s post of him leaving DMV waving the updated title to the car in its envelope in the air, titled, “THE DMV FINALLY SAID IT WASN’T A FIRE HAZARD! ONLY TOOK 2 YEARS! THANKS EVERYONE!” Got the most amount of responses he’d ever had with congratulations from lurkers and previous commenters.

Over the course of those two years, Danny learned how to draw his own wiring diagrams, properly solder and weld, and learning to actually plan out his projects so he got it right at least the fifth time instead of the 20th. Not bad for a kid that went straight from graduating high school with a 1.5GPA to construction jobs.

But after finally getting the car approved, Ghostly_Boy returns to the forum with a new problem. Lamenting that his parents keep coming over and “modifying” his car to no longer make it street legal.

At this point, about half of the answers to the submission think it’s either a joke project taken very, very seriously with a good chunk of money behind it, or a kid with parents that have narrowly avoided falling completely down the mad scientist rogue rabbit hole.

After all, what sort of parent would think that the DMV would approve to “anti-ghost missiles” being attached to the outer body of the car? Either way, the submissions always had video attached showing a demonstration, proving that Ghost wasn’t just completely yanking their chain. And a good amount of money would have to be sunken in to not only pay for the fines Ghostly continued to get from the additions to his car, but to actually manufacture and make a unique working product for each plea for help request.

Harold is not only taking notes on some of these defense measures but also decides to bring up the boy to Alfred. Intrigued, they together keep an eye on Ghostly_Boy. Bruce may be their employer, but they can handle a case or two on their own.

- I wanted Danny to try to make smth for himself now that he doesn’t have access to his parent’s lab anymore but he also doesn’t have access to ectoplasm so he’s fairly unfamiliar how to wire things Not for ectoplasmic standards.

Also I wanted to make a prompt where Danny had a good relationship with his parents & went into a fairly realistic job after high school with his fairly bad GPA so he’s saving up for a technical school via construction jobs as he doesn’t like the idea of working fast food for understandable reasons.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

When the twisted wonderland anime comes out what are the things you hope they do better then what they could do in the game?

To quickly clarify a few things (so new readers and anyone stumbling across this post doesn't get the wrong idea): firstly, we do not yet have any confirmation on what the Twisted Wonderland anime will be about. Secondly, I have previously expressed that I would prefer the TWST anime to be random slice of life rather than another main story adaptation. If we assume that the anime will be another adaptation of the main story, I don't think the anime staff has a ton of liberty in the alterations they can make to the source material. Book 2 is widely known to be the greatest example of Bad Writing in TWST, and it cannot exactly be swept under the rug since it's in the main story. I doubt anyone would be allowed to make massive rewrites to the script or to the series of events; the biggest changes we get are slightly compacted scenes in the manga and the light novel. For example:

Skipping lines that appear in the game. (Ex: in the Book of Heartslabyul, Ace does not joke about sharing a room with Yuuken.)

Combining scenes to save on time. (Ex: In the light novel, Yuuya and Deuce meet Leona for the first time not in the Botanical Garden, which is the case in the game. Instead, the mob student that broke the eggs meant for Ace's apology chestnut tart is a Savanaclaw kid that Leona shows up to reprimand.)

Adding slight details to fill in logical gaps. (Ex: Yuuya in the light novel is granted a NRC uniform by Crowley; the uniform is described to us, the readers. Yuu getting a uniform is never mentioned in the game.)

Continuing from the last point, new details can also serve to flesh out character motivations, backstories, and lore. (Ex: the Heartslabyul light novel informs us that Riddle faces social repercussions for his OB and almost got expelled from school; the Savanaclaw light novel sheds new light on Leona's motivations, and the same can be said of Riddle.)

So basically, the story (again, if the anime does end up following the plot of the main story) would be the same. What would make the anime different from the manga, game, and light novel is largely the medium in which it is presented. I have talked about this at length in a number of older posts, but here is one example of how the manga, uses visual storytelling (as it is primarily a visual medium). A manga chapter is usually limited in length due to it being physically printed and shared in a magazine alongside other manga; there is therefore a constraint on how long-winded it can be, and its limited pages must be used effectively. We need to think about the strengths and the weaknesses of each individual medium and how those strengths and weaknesses affect how it might slightly change how TWST I presented.

An anime is able to incorporate animation with sound in a 20ish minute time slot to tell a tale. It gets the same benefits of the game, but far more freedom of movement. There is, however, also a time constraint to be considered. One complaint TWST often gets is that despite half of its core gameplay (I'm not going to count reading as gameplay) being rhythm games, the music the game has is NOT memorable. While the anime most likely won't have a ton of original songs, I hope that it can at least creatively incorporate some of TWST's scores as background tracks to fun scenes and make them more enjoyable that way. The anime will also be able to... well, be animated!! We won't get just a static screen where a maximum of three characters are crammed onto the screen at once staring back at you. It's okay to have in the game to save on time and budget, but you have to admit it does get boring to look at after a while. But with an anime production, we can get exciting lighting and camera angles that result in cool animation! I hope that this will really help the TWST characters' stories come to life on the screen ^^ One scene in particular that I hope the anime will adapt well is the VDC/SDC performances of RSA and NRC. The game tells us that RSA's performance is clumsy and amateurish, but it still managed to capture people's hearts. The game also tells us that NRC was not able to perform at their maximum capacity because they were already physically worn down from dealing with OB Vil. I want to see these descriptions actually be realized on screen (the Rhythmic/Twistune alone isn't enough), as it could help us better judge and have an enhanced understanding of the situation. I know a lot of fans who, to this very day, still feel that NRC was cheated of the win and shouldn't have lost to such a lackluster performance from RSA, so I'm hoping that a fully animated version might give us more perspective.

[svsss-fanon-exposed]

Welcome!

This is your official-unofficial source for all things SVSSS fanon-debunking! As a veteran reader of MXTX's least popular novel and someone with a PhD in SVSSS literature, I have taken on the arduous task of separating fact from fiction... or well, specifically, canon from fanon.

《 Disclaimer: The purpose of this blog is textual analysis, not to tell people what fanon or canon material to use or not to use in their fanworks, or to make moral judgments on the way people interpret the text. Please see my faq and psa tags for more about my views on the matter. 》

There is a significant affliction within this fandom, where fanon ideas are assumed to be canonical facts-- to the point where sometimes fanon will even end up on the official SVSSS wiki 😱😱😱!!!

I've met quite a lot of people who are surprised to find out that something they think is canon is actually fanon, and even a few that are the other way around, so I've decided to start this blog to help people sort it out!

My credentials and qualifications are as follows:

PhD in SVSSS literature (awarded to me by a disgruntled SJ apologist).

A good minimum of 50-75% of available brain-space devoted to SVSSS at all times

Consummate knowledge of minute lore details

Near-memorization of a good portion of the novel, with the added ability to find any quote within 10 minutes of searching (in both EN and CN)

Author of a fic that is currently over 300k words long and counting, which was originally written out of spite for fanon portrayals of certain characters and themes

The ability to write 5k+ rants about any given topic in the space of an afternoon

--------------------

How this blog works:

You, dear reader, send in a suspected fanon topic to my askbox. Or perhaps it's something you suspect to be canon, but would like confirmation on.

I will then write a post on this topic (on no set schedule, I go as the wind takes me~), first applying a rating (more details below), then adding further information as needed. Topics with either support or rebuttal in canon will have quoted evidence presented, those without either of those things will simply have a brief explanation.

I will also add some analysis or potential interpretations and readings but I will do my best not to add my pure opinions to these posts-- this blog is about textual evidence! So, do not reblog my posts to argue with me based on your headcanons! If you want to argue against one of my posts, provide a quoted source from the novel!

Otherwise, I will most likely block you :>

Any hateful content or attempts to start fandom wank on my posts or in my inbox will get deleted and blocked. Anyone who provides textual evidence that changes my rating or analysis will be very much appreciated and receive the Golden Cucumber Award.

At the end of the day, this blog is entirely about canonical textual analysis and has no bearing whatsoever on what people want to headcanon or use in their fics. It's fandom. Do Whatever You Want Forever. Who am I to say you can't use a certain headcanon?

Just please treat headcanons as headcanons. No matter how deeply-entrenched into fanon they may be, they're still not canon and shouldn't be treated as such.

If you're of the mind that you'll still do whatever you want without regards for canon, then you're probably not the intended audience for this blog. If you're someone who wants to clarify whether a popular idea has a basis in canon or not, then read on to learn more about the rating system and see already-discussed topics!

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Rating System

WHAT DO I CONSIDER CANON? (please read before commenting)

Each exposed fanon or canon will receive a rating and analysis. The ratings are interpreted as follows:

CANON - This fact is directly or indirectly supported by the text! If you want to stay true to canon, this should be treated as fact.

FANON - SUPPORTED - Though the text doesn't directly state this is true, it is a very likely interpretation based on various factors including historical precedent and cultural norms, genre tropes, and the occam's razor principle.

FANON - NEUTRAL - The text neither confirms or denies this. It may be true or it may be false, and the matter is entirely up for interpretation. Many fanon will likely fall into this category, and whether you adopt it or not won't affect how true to canon your interpretations are.

FANON - UNSUPPORTED - While the text may not be directly against this headcanon, it is still an unlikely interpretation based on various factors including historical precedent and cultural norms, genre tropes, and the occam's razor principle.

FANON - CONFLICTING - The text goes directly against this interpretation, and there are quotes that prove it to be incorrect. If you wish to stay true to canon, it's best not to include this idea.

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Awards:

I will give out three awards on this blog for those who assist me in keeping fanon and canon separate!

The Bronze Cucumber Award will be given to anyone who reblogs my post and adds significant additional context in support of/explaining my analysis. This may be textual context or "support" context (cultural norms/historical precedence/genre tropes/etc.). Since this fandom likes to analyze, I will only be giving out this award to those who specifically add details and ideas that are not rooted in my original analysis (such as, a quote from a completely different part of the book, or a linguistic explanation that provides context), rather than those who simply expand on what I already wrote.

The Silver Cucumber Award will be given to those who reblog one of my analysis posts with a source telling the origin of a particular fanon idea. This is wonderful for archival purposes-- just as it's good to see where canon ideas come from, it can also be helpful to know where a fanon idea originated, in order to have proper context. Only the first responder to provide a fanon origin will receive the award (so that this blog doesn't get too clogged up).

The Golden Cucumber Award will be given to those who reblog one of my posts with a debunking of my analysis-- as long as they provide directly-quoted evidence that disproves my points. This evidence should be based on the text of the novel itself, and I should be able to look it up in my own copy. I will be more selective with giving out golden cucumbers to reblogs that debunk on the basis of "support" elements (cultural norms/historical precedence/genre tropes, etc.) because many of those topics can be somewhat subjective.

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Previously-Tackled Concepts

(See below the cut for a full list)

CANON

CQMS Twelve Peaks' have Color-Coded Uniforms

Shen Yuan has a Younger Sister

Mobei-jun has Blue Eyes

Shen Yuan is a Monster Nerd

Airplane was a Child of Divorced Parents

Ning Yingying is Younger than Luo Binghe

FANON - SUPPORTED

Shen Jiu Only Goes to Brothels to Sleep, Not to Have Sex

Mobei-jun and Shang Qinghua Eventually Get Married

FANON - NEUTRAL

Shen Qingqiu is Banned from Xian Shu Peak

Shen Qingqiu Wears a Cinnabar Mark on his Forehead

Shen Yuan Wore Glasses in his Previous Life

FANON - UNSUPPORTED

Shen Yuan was Chronically/Terminally Ill in his First Life

Shen Yuan was a Socially Awkward, Introverted Shut-In By Nature

Luo Binghe has Curly Hair

Aphrodisiac-Producing Plants are an Ever-Present Danger in the World of PIDW

FANON - CONFLICTING

Ming Fan was Head Disciple of Qing Jing Peak

Luo Binghe Received Both Scars from the Abyss Scene

Qiu Haitang has More than One Older Brother

Shen Qingqiu has Green Eyes

All Demons Naturally have Forehead Marks

Luo Binghe has a "Stereotypically Masculine" Appearance

Xuan Su is a Large, Broad, Imposing-Looking Sword

Shen Yuan's Original Body Closely Resembled Shen Qingqiu's

Luo Binghe and Shen Qingqiu were Meant to End Up Together in the Original Draft of PIDW

CANON EXAMINED

Shen Yuan's PIDW-Reading Timeline

Cang Qiong Mountain Sect Hierarchy (tag)

The Pre-Canon Timeline and Character Ages

[swordfright]

https://www.tumblr.com/swordfright/756502816281018368/what-do-you-think-is-your-most-controversial-dsmp?source=share

I remember sending this to a bunch of dsmp blogs (starting with elmhat I think ?) bc I like when people share ideas/opinions who diverge from the main consensus because I find it the most efficient way for people to stick to canon and not fanon since people can have different interpretations of event

And it was super interesting to see the one about the experimentation being after prison rather than before (loved the two LN and Q ones too but as you said they were a bit more common. Would love to see your take on c!slime though now)

(And I wouldn't have a problem with you giving unpopular opinion about the fandom either but to be clear I was not trying to start anything with my first question, I just like seeing uncommon takes)

Don't worry lol I didn't assume you were trying to start shit. Ok, so c!Slime is pretty interesting in that he's the closest thing we have to an NPC in what is otherwise a roleplay, which implies certain things about how he can be used in the narrative.

A little bit of quick background: I spent a LOT of time as a kid doing RP online (it was an original story set in the Death Note universe and it happened on a website that went bankrupt in like 2017 and no longer exists lmfao don't worry about it) and idk what RP etiquette is like in other communities, but in the community I was a part of, it was sort of frowned upon for players to outsource heavy plot/character development material to NPCs. It was allowed and people did it, but it was seen as sort of a cop-out. The underlying idea being that if you're gonna bother to do RP, your character's most important interactions should be with other PCs, in part because it helps build/strengthen the RP community and in part because it better entrenches your character's storyline in the storylines of other PCs, which in turn encourages other players to keep RPing and keeps the story going. Again, creating NPCs was very common, but players were discouraged from having entire arcs or character trajectories be highly dependent on NPCs. It was seen as sort of a cheap, low-effort way of progressing your character's development without having to coordinate plot beats with other players, and doing it too often was seen as sort of antithetical to what RP is trying to achieve as a form of gaming-storytelling. To me, c!Slime is a classic example of when an RPer outsources a little too much narrative weight onto an NPC.

First of all, I wanna clarify that it's kinda difficult to define what an NPC is or isn't on this server, but I'd say c!Slime is more of an NPC because even though he's played by a CC with some degree of improv, we know that cc!Quackity specifically wrote c!Slime's character to fulfill a narrative role and asked cc!Slime to play that character - as opposed to alternate characters played by CCs of their own accord (Sam Nook, Dream XD, Sam Bucket, Mexican Dream, etc.) So, for example, I don't see Sam Bucket as an NPC but I do see c!Slime as an NPC. c!Slime wasn't an original creation on the part of the player, he's a narrative tool (which is fine, but it does mean that what he can and can't do in the story is limited to what cc!Q needed him to do.)

There are some things I think the addition of c!Slime did accomplish. For one, Q's interactions with him provide a platform for more introspective character work on Q's part. And while I that character work could've been done by having Q interact with a PC instead, I do think Slime is better positioned to act as an apprentice figure because he had almost no lore prior to Las Nevadas and didn't enter the story with baggage or ties to any other major characters. He's a blank slate, which makes him really easy to use as a narrative device. Q voices thoughts and ideas to Slime that he can't voice to other characters (usually because it would be OOC for him to do so, or wouldn't make sense in context), which means that Slime is sort of a vehicle for delivering Q characterization to the audience.

This is all fine and I think a lot of it was done fairly well. I like cc!Slime's acting and I think the character is a fun addition to the LN crew. That said, I don't think the payoff was great. Slime being an NPC really undermined what I assume cc!Q was going for with End of Las Nevadas, in large part because he doesn't have well-established relationships with other characters. Aside from Q, Slime basically only ever interacts with Tommy, Foolish and Ranboo, and even those interactions are limited to a really tiny handful of streams. Punz capturing and manipulating him, Slime helping c!Dream confront Quackity...all that stuff could have been a lot more interesting if it had more time to marinate. Like, I love the IDEA of Slime and c!Dream interacting, but we don't really get any meaningful interactions between them outside of Slime's function as a storytelling tool. He's there when he needs to be, and only ever when he needs to be.

For instance, I would've loved to see what Slime thinks about Q's slime army. It's really weird to model your mindlessly obedient slave army after your friend. That was a weird ass thing for Q to do, and it would've been cool to see Slime react to that. But because he's more NPC than PC, and because highly scripted lore like the LN series doesn't really encourage deviation, we never get to find that out. Slime doesn't ever really get to be his own character, which in the end kinda undermines a lot of the character development he triggers for c!Quackity because at the end of the day, it's really transparent that Slime only exists to be a prop. It's a kind of one-sided relationship that's unique to RP.

I think End of Las Nevadas was weak for other reasons too, but uhhhh yeah the Slime stuff bothered me a bit. Would've liked to see him do more. And he disappears after pushing Q off the ledge and, to my knowledge, we never see him again! If he had been more PC and less storytelling tool, presumably other characters would've had opportunities to react to Slime's role in the events of that stream, or notice that he's missing/back again/missing. But instead, he's able to just vanish from the story after he's fulfilled his role because that's all he was ever supposed to do.

[boomhoon]

LOVE SHHH!

A Jay drabble- inspired by Jo Yuri

Synopsis- You’ve declared love dead in your heart, but an unexpected meeting in the hallway has you head over heels for a man who doesn’t even know your name!

Content- gn reader, implied to be set in a highschool, strangers to ???, fluff, Jay calls reader pretty, one swear word in the first sentence, Jay is in a band (☠️). not proofread, 801 WC.

Love is shit.

It’s pointless. A waste of time. A waste of emotion. And i’m definitely done with it.

My last lover cheated on me with a girl at some random party, and my first love ghosted me without any warning. That one a lot hurt because we were doing so well and I still saw them around town (and because they were my very first). The rest in between have been horrible blurs of toxicity and boredom.

Was love always this bad? No. It used to be magical, something I yearned for. Feeling loved, and loving others is something everyone should experience. But is it all we need? Once again, no! I’m free to love myself, do things how I want to, and enjoy everything by mysel-

“Oh my gosh- I’m so sorry, let me pick these up for you.” I bumped into someone in the hall and ended up slammed against the floor. My books and other school materials were scattered all across. People slowly walked by, and made the awkward move of bending to help but then walking away. I groaned quietly, and started picking them up myself. “It’s okay, I should've paid more attention.” I mumbled.

I looked up and saw a gentle hand extend towards me. I grabbed it, and instead of pulling myself up, another hand gingerly came to my back to help pull me up. That’s when I saw him. He had rose gold specs on, he was dressed better than some runway models, he had on cologne which smelt citrusy, and musky. He had concerned eyes, and a soft smile.

“Are you sure you’re all right? I didn’t mean to hurt you.” The man nervously chuckled as his hands retracted from me. I blinked a few times in awe before responding, “Oh no, i’m not hurt at all! Please, don’t worry about it.”

He raised an eyebrow in suspicion, but nodded his head in understanding. “Okay, I’ll trust you on that.” He bent down to retrieve the last of my items before handing them to me. He stopped once he took notice of a certain item. It was a guitar pick, a miscellaneous object I had left in my pocket. But it happened to catch his interest.

“You play the guitar?” He asked a small smile of intrigue, and he looked up from the pick, his head still tilted downwards.

“Yeah.” I nodded quickly, trying to ignore the way he was looking at me. “The acoustic one.” I clarified.

This man was gorgeous.

He nodded, pulling his fingers away from my stuff, and readjusting his specs carefully. “I do too. I’ve also tried out the electric guitar. “I started last year, and it’s become my new favorite hobby.” He suddenly started speaking at a rapid pace. “Did you know that acoustic guitars date back about 3000, to 3500 years from now? The first guitars are thought to have been found in Spain, but i’ve also seen some sources say they could even be traced back to Mesopotamia! Isn’t that crazy?”

I looked at him with slightly wide eyes. He seemed to have a lot of junky knowledge on things.

Not that I wasn’t interested…

“Oh, I didn’t know that. I’ve never got into the history of guitars before.” I laughed sheepishly.

“I’m still learning the chords, and how to play some songs. I think that’s all the information I can store right now.”

He simply laughed in understanding. “Yeah I get that. I’m probably the odd one for knowing about the history of guitars. My friends say so at least-Damn that guy Sunghoon-,” he muttered the last part to himself.

I smiled to myself.

“Anyway I don’t want to keep you standing here any longer, sorry for bumping into you.” He raised his hand apologetically, and started walking off again. He seemed busy, which would explain why he was in a rush running down the hall.

But midway, he stopped and jogged up to me again.

“This might seem weird, but i’m in a small band. We’re playing in the garage of one of my band mates, and I was wondering— would you want to come and see me play?” He asked, with a lightly scrunched up face, and a tight smile. Almost as if he expected me to say ‘no’.

“Yeah sure.” I said instead.

His face relaxed, and he pulled out a piece of paper and pen from his bag. He wrote a few things down and handed it to me.

“Alright, i’ll see you there! It was nice meeting you…”

I straightened the piece of paper and read its contents.

It contained the address of his band mate’s house, his phone number, and a small message

### ### #### i think you’re pretty, call me - Jay

I hated love, but I fell in love right there.

————————————————————————

taglist: @sanasour @mars101

A/N: IM SORRY THIS WAS SHORT AGAIN 😫 I might continue this because i have some ideas for it, but omg life is tough! Any interaction is appreciated <3

[kerakitty]

Adam’s Creation and Appearance

So there’s a lot of nitpicking surrounding how Victor made Adam and how Adam should be portrayed as a result of that (e.g. should he have stitches, varying skin color, etc). I find this kinda weird because we don’t actually know how Adam was made. Victor intentionally omits this information when telling his story to Robert Walton for fear of someone managing to reproduce his work.(1)

We do have a few, scant details, but they’re hardly enough to draw any solid conclusions from. Here’s a list of all the facts given about his creation (relevant quotes with page numbers at bottom of post):

Making Adam big allowed Victor to work faster.(2)

It took Victor months to gather the materials he needed.(3)

Some materials were gathered from dissecting rooms, charnal houses, and slaughter-houses.(4)

Victor was able to choose Adam’s features (e.g. hair color and texture, tooth alignment).(5)

The whole process, both gathering materials and actual construction, took a little under two years.(6)

That’s it. That’s all we know. We don’t know how these “materials” were used, we don’t know what caused them to go from inanimate to living, or even what exactly they were. Yes, Victor mentions collecting his materials from the places listed above, but aside from mentioning bones(4), he doesn’t say what exactly he was taking. Were they intact organs? Pieces of tissue? Entire limbs? We don’t know. Confusing things further, Victor mentions that he “dabbled” with graves and “tortured living animals”(7), but doesn’t clarify whether these were additional sources of materials or simply research into the mechanisms of life and death.

General consensus seems to be that Victor used organs and whole body parts from cadavers to create Adam, but there's plenty of evidence that that’s not the case. Aside from the fact that it would’ve been difficult to create an 8ft tall body with proportional limbs out of pieces of humans averaging under 6ft, there are a few lines in the novel that indicate that this wasn’t Victor’s method. Victor consistently refers to the materials he used as “lifeless” and “inanimate”, but never dead. He also consistently speaks of imbuing new life into the materials rather than renewing or restoring life. In fact he outright states that reanimating the dead was, as best as he could figure, impossible.(8) Whether this only refers to raising a dead individual as they’d been in life or to any organic tissue is, like so much of Victor’s research, extremely vague.

So where does that leave us in terms of Adam’s appearance? Well, with not a whole lot to go on. Does he have stitches? Maybe. Does his skin color vary? Also maybe, though probably not given that Victor describes his skin and makes no mention of any variation in tone.(9)

The closest thing we have to a canon appearance for him is probably the illustration included in the 1831 edition of the novel.

There’s no stitches or other scars visible here, but since we have no idea how much (if any) input Shelley herself had on this design, that’s not necessarily confirmation one way or the other.

Ultimately, aside from a handful of details, we don’t really know what Adam should look like. We know he has thick black hair, watery yellowish eyes, yellower skin, straight white teeth, thin black lips, and is 8ft tall with all features proportional to that size.(9) Outside of that, and the fact that he looked ugly but not horrifying right up until he started moving(10), it’s up to the reader’s imagination. And given that the novel was intended to be a horror story, I suspect that’s intentional. In horror it’s often our imaginations that supply the most frightening imagery and any good creator of horror is aware of this fact.

So portray Adam however you want, and maybe don’t nitpick other people’s portrayals of him. So long as neither of you are going against the few explicitly described details the novel provides, they’re probably not any more off the mark than you are.

Source quotes and page numbers below the cut.

All quotes and page numbers are taken from this upload of the 1818 text.

”I see by your eagerness, and the wonder and hope which your eyes express, my friend, that you expect to be informed of the secret with which I am acquainted; that cannot be. ...I will not lead you on... to your destruction and infallible misery” pg 23

”As the minuteness of the parts formed a great hindrance to my speed, I resolved... to make the being of a gigantic stature;” pg 24

“...having spent some months in successfully collecting and arranging my materials...” pg 24

“I collected bones from charnel houses... The dissecting room and the slaughter-house furnished many of my materials;” pg 24

“I had selected his features as beautiful.” pg 26

“I had worked hard for nearly two years...” pg 26

“...I dabbled among the unhallowed damps of the grave, or tortured the living animal to animate the lifeless clay[.]” pg 24

“...if I could bestow animation upon lifeless matter, I might in process of time (although I now found it impossible) renew life where death had apparently devoted the body to corruption.” pg 24

“His limbs were in proportion, and... [h]is yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun white sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled complexion, and straight black lips.” pg 26

“I had gazed on him while unfinished; he was ugly then; but when those muscles and joints were rendered capable of motion, it became a thing such as even Dante could not have conceived.” pg 27

Side note on that last line: I always felt Victor was rather underselling the creativity of Dante here. Dante came up with some trippy shit. I doubt the Uncanny Valley was something of which he “could not have conceived”.

[ceilidhtransing]

Here to once again sing the praises of Duolingo (and go on a long ramble about language learning)

I see a fair bit of criticism of Duo that essentially begins and ends with “Duolingo alone won't make you fluent”, stated as if it's obvious that this point alone is enough to totally condemn the app.

The thing is, “Duolingo alone won't make you fluent” is true*, but also a) pretty obvious to most dedicated language learners and b) not nearly enough to automatically render Duolingo not worth using.

[*It's also worth pointing out that “fluency” isn't really a single coherent concept: people can have radically different fluency levels across, for example, reading and speaking; different levels of proficiency can count as “fluent” in different settings depending on the needs of that setting; and not everyone learning a language is even aiming for “fluency” in the first place - though this also leads into a huge can of worms about the somewhat prevalent idea that fluency is the only worthwhile goal for learners and if you're not aiming to be fluent then it's a waste of time, but that's a discussion for another day.]

The value of Duolingo varies a lot by course, but my experience is that even though Duolingo alone won't “make you fluent”, the bigger, better-developed courses can take you a long way. Yes, obviously not to C2 “basically a native speaker” level, but pretty far. And that's personally where I find the app's real value: giving enough of a grounding in a language that other learning materials - short stories, podcasts, conversation groups, etc - become accessible. Of course Duolingo alone isn't going to make you fluent, but for a lot of learners it's an irreplaceable early tool on their journey towards proficiency.

Early on, when your level of knowledge of a language is zero or near-zero, so much of the struggle of learning is a feeling of total overwhelm as you try to figure out how to learn and find a method you'll stick to. Independent learning can feel like walking blindly through a maze of disparate and sometimes contradictory resources, some on grammar, some on vocab, some that say “start speaking immediately!”, some that say “get to grips with these grammar foundations before even trying to speak!”, some that insist there's no replacement for immersion, some that argue that immersion is like being thrown in the deep end and expecting yourself to swim, and this is where so many people burn themselves out. You can't read short stories or listen to podcasts when you know literally nothing of a language, and if you use a random unstructured assortment of materials then you'll probably end up learning grammar concepts in a very random and disconnected and confusing way. Duolingo bridges that early gap between “zero proficiency” and “some proficiency”, providing a structure that says “just keep doing this and you will watch your ability grow”.

Really, I think it's in precisely what “doing this” means that the disagreement arises. It's a very YMMV app, depending on how each person uses it. Someone using Duolingo for >30 minutes a day, making rapid and intense progress through their course, and seeking out alternative sources to clarify bits of grammar that they're confused by is having such a different experience from someone who does one lesson a day just to keep a streak going. Of course someone doing the latter isn't going to be “made fluent” that way - because there is no language-learning material on earth that is going to produce genuine progress with that little time and attention (and frankly there is no material on earth that is a 100% comprehensive standalone course from beginner to fluent and doesn't require any supplementation). Regardless of which material you're using - Duolingo, Babbel, Rosetta Stone, LanguagePod101, a YouTube series, a university course, a textbook, or any of the many other miscellaneous methods - time and attention is basically what it comes down to, and personally, in the beginner-to-intermediate stages of language learning, I've found Duolingo to have a pretty good ratio of “time and attention” to “language progress”.

Ultimately, Duo can be excellent at holding your hand through those early months of language learning, getting you to a point where you don't use “Duolingo alone”, because you now have enough confidence and grounding to supplement with things like short stories and podcasts and conversation partners - things that you would have found unbelievably daunting at the beginning, but that are now accessible to you thanks to a free app that guides you through a clear learning structure. I think that's great.

Zu lang, ich habe nicht gelesen - vielleicht bin ich noch nicht fließend, aber ich kann viel mehr mit Duo als ohne Duo sprechen :)

[broodwolf221]

my message to new/returning fans

as da4 approaches and the fandom changes, gaining both new and returning users, i want to state very clearly:

share your thoughts! it doesn't have to be "original" to be valuable! no more than it needs to conform to current fanon! you don't need to read everyone else's theories in order to state your own

I'm familiar with that pressure and how much it can dampen the urge to share, to actually engage with the broader fandom. even though i was there at the start of dai's fandom, i fell out of it for years and came back recently, and there was a definite undercurrent of pressure to a) conform to the theories already stated, especially by big name fans, and b) to only ever post a truly original theory

the former inherently limits fandom and treats it more like an academic field that one needs to be familiar with before stating anything; the latter is fundamentally ridiculous, since we're all engaging with the same source material and have the ability to perceive foreshadowing and explore what it means. the first person to perceive and write about a bit of foreshadowing has no more fundamental "right" to that perspective than the hundredth

it can also be hard to wade through the tags of a fandom that's been out for a decade+, especially if you like a character or ship that gets a lot of hate. that's exhausting and no one is obligated to do that research

you're not too late to the fandom to have theories, to post meta, or to express your feelings. those of us currently in the fandom would do well to remember that new people will be joining us and they likely won't even know the bloggers who have already posted meta, so seeing someone ask if xyz has ever been considered should be treated as a valid question. seeing someone say they've never seen ppl talking about xyz should be viewed as an invitation to (gently!) point to some people who have talked about it. "oh, if you're into this idea, you might like [username's] meta"

i think it's valuable to draw attention to the fact that a long-established fandom has been getting new blood throughout the whole time it's been here, and will be getting considerably more new blood soon, and that it might be worth adapting to that early. because regardless of any established fan's preferences, we are going to be getting new fans unfamiliar with established theories/fanon. and no one should be beholden to fanon anyway

but all this is to also say - new fandom members? i see you. I'm here for you. if you want to know what's been said, you can ask me and i will direct you as best i can; if you want to come up with stuff on your own, i support that. i will never come onto your posts to "disprove" your theory or to claim it's unoriginal

also, know that when you see vent posts where people are feeling annoyed about fans or complaining about them, they are almost certainly talking about fans who are engaging in discourse, are argumentative, or are otherwise being kinda shitty. i know - from personal experience! - how easy it is to take a vague vent post personally, especially when the kind of behavior they're actually annoyed by isn't clarified, but it's unlikely to be directed at fans who are engaging with curiosity and excitement. being new to a fandom is intimidating and as someone who's trying to be respectful, it can be so easy to internalize messages from people's venting, but fr, it's rarely about new fans and their conclusions. that said, if those posts bother you… unfollow! or block! blocking is not a mean or cruel action

find your niche, curate your experience, and you will definitely find people who support you. I've really enjoyed my time here and met many people i care about and respect, but it was a bit of an uphill struggle early on and i know a message like this from an established voice in fandom would have helped ease my own concerns coming into this space

[viktoriathewitch]

͙⁺˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙ witchy things I did that worked •̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚⁺‧͙

(se você fala portugues BR, sinta-se livre para enviar DM ou pedir tradução de um post. boa parte vai estar em inglês, para facilitar minha vida e atingir mais pessoas.)

-`🕯 INTRO 🕯´-

Although I'm part of the spiritual community, I'm still quite skeptical whenever I see a spell or ritual, be it online or in books, asking myself if it'd work or not. Wondering if the source of such spells and witchy things were actually being honest. So! Today, I'll be sharing some witchy things (as not all of them were spells IMO) that actually worked! Still, I want to clarify that these things worked for >me< and I'll just be sharing my experience with the things I did that worked best. Feel free to also share yours in the comments!

-`🕯 WITCHY THINGS THAT WORKED 🕯´-

❅ herbal baths and magik baths in general, is some of my favorite things to do. Well, I actually love showers and they are such a scared moment to me, and whenever I need some deep energetical cleansing and boost, they always work for me. However, I want to point out that I wash my hair after finishing the herbal bath. So, I recommend doing this on wash hair days. My favorite combo is thick salt and rosemary. How I did it: ⁍ 1-step, prep: cleansed and energized the materials. ⁍ 2-step, make rosemary water: I didn't use a specific amount, but I'd say 4-5 cups of water and half a hand of rosemary is enough. Let it boil for about 5 minutes and then let it sit for 15 minutes with a cloth on top. ⁍ 3-step, thick salt scrubbing: the scrubbing should be done from your neck to your feet. Don't scrub too hard, you don't want to hurt yourself. Visualize negative energy or the power something/someone has over you leaving your body. DO NOT SCRUB YOUR GENITALIA WITH IT OKAY? ⁍ 4-step, rosemary shower: after the rosemary water has cooled down a bit, start to pour the water over you from your head. Now, the actual rosemary won't go with the water, so you can pick it up with your hands and scrub your body gently with it. DO NOT SCRUB OR WASH YOUR GENITALIA WITH THIS WATER. ⁍ 5-step, clean your bathroom: chances are you've made a mess! ❅ banishing candles is something that I did when I was on low energy but needed banishing ASAP. I also didn't have all the ingredients I wished for, but it worked with the ones I had! I made a total of 2 candles, and I placed one in the living room and the other in my bedroom. How I did it: ⁍ ingredients and tools: black candle, red candle, dried pieces of garlic, corn hair, thick salt, essential oil (I used lavender cause it was the only one I had lol), mortar and pestle, paper (to protect my table from the wax), candle holder (further explanation about candle holder later), and fire. ⁍ 1-step, prep: cleansed and energized the material. ⁍ 2-step, candle dressing: I applied the essential oil to the black candle, then started to dress it with the garlic pieces. I recommend doing this slowly and dressing each "side" of the candle instead of the whole candle. With the help of the red candle, I lit it up and used its drop of wax to hold the garlic in place. ⁍ 3-step, protection ring: with corn hair and thick salt, I created a protection ring so that the candle would be free to do its job without interference from what I was banishing. I placed it within the candle holder, which was a chamberstick type. Now, I want to say that the protection ring needs to be around the candle, with a chamberstick, it was quite efficient since I could carry the candle and the protection ring mutually without getting the house dirty. ⁍ 4-step, banishing: lit it up and allowed it to burn fully. ❅ warding is one of the best ways to protect your house or personal space. It always works for me, even when done in the astral (I've done this once but it was not intentional, don't ask me how I did it because I have minimal power over my astral/mental projections still). Basically, gather up energy and release it with the most amount of anger possible, like a dog showing its teeth to an enemy, while setting out the intention of only your guides, desired spirits, and positive energy entering. Do this in each room of the house if you wish to ward the whole house, or just in your bedroom if that's better. ❅ repelling unwanted energetic interactions through anger. Well, this one is a bit similar to warding, but it's done when the so said energy or spirit is already there. I've done this in the astral too, it worked thankfully lol. Anyway, it's similar to warding, but now you have a target to which you'll direct the aggressive energy you're gathering. Together with this energy, you'll say words like "get out of here" like, screaming, either out loud or in your head. You'll hunt down the "problem" if needed. My biggest tip is to go full red mode.

-`🕯 CONCLUSION 🕯´-

So, this was it! I hope you guys enjoyed it and that I've brought to y'all something new haha. As you can see, I haven't done much lol, I don't like to venture myself too much, and spells aren't my "it" activity either. Still, even though I've done more things, these were the ones I had the best results. Either way, see you soon <3

[cienie-isengardu]

Why are you such a Jedi Order hater?

At this point I do not know what surprised me more - the idea spread through fandom that using critical thinking in regard to source material that on its own often imply or outright acknowledge Jedi Order’s flaws is equivalent to being hater or receiving an ask about Jedi Order when I’m for months on so so low star wars energy I literally don’t remember the last time when I wrote anything significant in regard to Jedi as characters, let’s alone about their organization. 

But to satisfy your curiosity, the Jedi Order - as an organization, not the characters, and specifically Yoda’s Jedi Order of the last decades - rubs me in the wrong way to the point, this is an organization I would never want be part of, be it in real life or as character living in star wars universe (though again, this is solely about Yoda’s Order, as the Legends!Tales of the Jedi era or even Legends!Luke Skywalker’s Order are different matters). 

The list of reasons includes yet is not limited to: hypocrisy, worrying more about political status quo within Republic context than actual campaigning for needed changes, Jedi approach to slavery, letting the “Yoda, as the wisest” idea dominate Jedi Order’s approach to many vital matters or generally speaking keeping one person in charge for hundreds years, the way learning Jedi Way is preferable started with infant and really small babies who can’t consent in the first place and who are cut from their biological family (again, different approach to that in Legends!TotJ’s version of Jedi Order), double standards with treating its members (the best seen with Anakin but comparing Legends and New Canon can give that impression about other characters too. Anakin though is more complicated matter I spoke before over the years), the ArgiCorps seen by youngling as a indication of failure that leads children/teens desperately trying to pass their trails/becoming padawans to avoid what they assume is equivalent to being kicked out of Temple. AgriCorps itself, as a way for less talented force-users who weren't picked for padawan training because it does feel like giving away the "useless" kids. There are more reasons but frankly, I don’t have the energy to dwell on them.

Jedi Order is flawed, it was written as such in context of the last decades of the Republic and I do not think that criticizing it (or maybe rather pointing out what source material presents anyway?) guarantee the label of hate.

Hope it helps clarify my feeling for Jedi Order.

[solradguy]

I hope you don't mind me asking but is Asuka's body a teenager? Because I saw someone say that it is.

Asuka has somehow been growing/making bodies to transfer his consciousness into but we don't know how old his current body is or how many times he's done this. His Overture Material Collection short story, ISOTOPE & ISOLATION, is the main source for this information.

Overture takes place in 2185 and Strive in 2187 but ISOTOPE & ISOLATION doesn't give any hints as to when that memory transfer into that body was done. I don't think we know when Asuka and Raven first met? But Raven's in that short story so presumably this specific transfer happened sometime after they first met and possibly around the events leading up to Overture since the short story is from the Overture book and all the stories in it loop back to that game's events somehow.

I need to clean up my translation of ISOTOPE & ISOLATION so here are some notes from that to clarify on parts where my wording choice was suboptimal:

That story uses 「少年」 to refer to Asuka's new body, which is very 1:1 with "juvenile," "young boy," "youth," etc. It doesn't leave any doubt that his body in that scene at that moment appears young by normal human standards.

Raven expresses his concerns over Asuka's young body's hormonal changes as it develops being "troublesome" (ie. angsty teenager moment) and Asuka replies with,「元々、人間の生理活性物質ではないからね。」"It is not originally a human bioactive substance."

So it's not entirely a normal organic human body...? I think it may be something like how he built his clones or Jack-O's vessel and that it probably reaches full maturity as fast as a Gear would (2-3 years).

Asuka's current body could be at the development stage of a normal human teenager's or it could be a fully grown adult. The other characters seem to treat him as an adult ("That Man") and none of them describe him as looking like a kid/teen like they did with Bedman too, so it's probably safe to assume that his current body is probably, at a minimum, somewhere in its 20s if we had to put it on the normal human development scale.

As far as I know, they haven't elaborated more than this and the current information is too vague and too sparse to come to a solid conclusion. We can make educated guesses but until they come out and confirm it one way or the other we can't definitively say we know how old his current body is, whether physically or otherwise.

[sgiandubh]

A study in media fabrication: the Metro interview

I was on a late, self-prescribed ☕ break at the office and lo and behold, mindlessly scrolling @bat-cat-reader's page, what do I see? S's last 'interview' to Metro UK. Rarely have I seen such a poorly cobbled fabrication, so I thought I might share a couple of quick thoughts about it.

A word about the newspaper, first. This is not, as you might think, a part of the Swedish-owned and worldwide present Metro conglomerate of free commuter tabloids, that usually end up littering the carriage, by the end of the day. Nope, and I had no idea. Metro UK is owned by DMG Media (The Daily Fail people, in other words) since 1999 and uses a different logo, to avoid being sued on what is, in my opinion a blatant trademark infringement (remember, S was the culprit the EUIPO punished for way less than that!). More interestingly, though, the print and web editions have totally different content, which means that you'd look in vain for the James Bondesque pic while commuting from Wimbledon to London, for example. The relevance of this interview is nearing 0, in my humble opinion: if anything, it just served to check a box of the PR's current media plan and justify the retainers a couple of people cashed in, as a result.

Quotes and references like the one below abound:

Now, if you imagine S talked face to face to Ms. Josie Copson for the sake of this article, you couldn't be more wrong. In fact, I doubt he knows her name or (when questioned) even if he ever gave an interview to Metro.co.uk. In plain English, he didn't "tell" Josie anything: PR probably sent her some formulaic 'answers' by email and let her add some fill-in material, then revised and greenlit the whole for release.

How do I know it? Easy: no photos. No specifics (random example: 'seated at the counter of Soho's BAFTA Bar, in London, SRH' this and that). And the almost scrupulous rehashing of the talking points we have already seen (and it did break my heart to see so many upset people for literally nothing, in here). Give or take some last minute inserts, some of which are quite dubious, to he honest.

This one, for example:

How odd. A Zoom call apparently happened, of which - again- we have no evidence at all. It's not impossible, but it is improbable. What is interesting, though, is the 'related' discreet surfing suggestion at the end of the article, which sheds new light on that Gen Z. joke - which yes, now sorta makes sense:

Why? For more (monetized) clicks and traffic. Remember the tiny detail that Metro's business model is based on a free offer. So, they have to make it viable somehow: in print, it's the ads. Online, it's all about the ads and the clicks.

The only interesting thing I could take out of this would be a very peculiar choice of words:

Being spied on... By all means, please clarify and thank you. I can think of one or two people in this fandom, regularly and almost obsessively dueling for the position of best informed in town. Using very different methods, to be sure, but still qualifying for this spying position, in my book. Both of them completely lack perspective and offer very little context, but that is of no particular import, when it's all about feeding your captive audience with nonsense.

If these two people wanted to come clean, they'd only need to write two very simple phrases:

This is a gossip blog exclusively focused on SRH.

and

This is a social media monitoring blog exclusively focused on SRH.

Not gonna happen anytime soon. Cue in the mystique of 'sources' and repeatedly absurd 'lucky strikes'. It certainly makes things way sexier than they really are. Because when you know things, you don't brag about it. Easy as 1, 2, 3.

Oh, and mark me: it's always been about SRH. No wonder the boundaries feel 'blurred'.