#no way am I fighting with any of those builds to make them functional

[ophernelia]

I got my EA account sorted so y’all know what that means.. I either wanna do a sim dump and/or a build to put out either this month or next month. I kinda want it to be a collab though. Mutuals I will be annoying you about that sometime soon lol.

[shinesurge]

Webcomic rings run by people within the community are cool and you should support them

I've been loudly struggling a little bit with corporate webcomic Stuff lately so I want to mention something positive to balance it out: webrings run by small groups of creators earnestly trying to support each other are slowly making a comeback and I for one am delighted.

If you weren't around for them in the before times, webrings were just some folks who hang out a lot who feature each other on their websites. That's literally it lmao. There's generally no money involved and it only really functions the way it's supposed to if people have control over their own websites AND genuinely want to participate and get excited about other folks' work, which means the practice has pretty well fallen by the wayside over the years in webcomic culture given. Everything. In the rare event someone decides to do something like this it's usually in the form of a link list somewhere on their website; this doesn't usually indicate any sort of mutual support, it's just a list of what the creator is reading themselves.

A webring, though, is an official banner or hub that people gather under intentionally where each member is more or less on equal footing. It's essentially the concept of "a rising tide lifts all boats" put into practice, each creator brings their own audience to the table in a passive, opt-in sort of way that's different from working for a publisher since there isn't necessarily a Top Spot or a paycheck everyone's vying for, and individuals retain autonomy over both their own work and how (if) they promote each other. You're all at your own tables in an artist alley rather than fighting over the table in the front of the book store, essentially.

I have two rings and one collective for you today!

Webcomic Ring was brought to my attention AGES ago by Holly, one of the artists featured there, and I might have brought it up at some point but I'm doing it again lmao. This is exactly the kind of thing you ought to be looking for; a small group of enthusiastic folks having a good time making their weird little comics. You probably haven't heard of much in the catalog, that's PERFECT in the context of webcomics that's where the GOOD SHIT is. Finding something like this is A Gift go dig around in the longboxes for a while.

Then a few people have pointed me in the direction of the KNIFEBEETLE collective and that's neat too! Most of the comics there are already fairly well-known, but the vibes are excellent and I haven't seen a lot of talk about the collective /itself/ outside folks already in the know. I think it's important for this sort of thing to be more visible to folks who aren't terminally steeped in webcomic culture already so here I am telling you about it. You were probably reading several of these before I suggested it, but that's how a webring works! For it to do its job you should take those bigger creators' tacit recommendation of the less popular titles as a sign to go read something new and strange. Wild, I know these are practices held over from the old internet, but I think we should try and bring them back.

Lastly, I want to mention Spiderforest, which is a collective (slightly different from a webring) BUT still a very cool project readers starved for new stuff should pay attention to.

You've probably seen Spiderforest kicking around for a long time already; they're wonderful and have always been an overall positive force in the community in my experience. They really focus on building up a community, and especially welcoming newcomers and helping them get their feet under them. Full disclosure, I've been asked to apply by a few different folks over the years and the only reason I never did is I don't have the ability to participate in their forums and such as frequently as they want their creators to; it's a very good system (from my outside perspective) that might contribute to the community staying mostly healthy in ways that art communities usually don't and I appreciate it a lot!

ANYWAYS that's all I got for now, just trying to balance out some bad feelings I've been having by talking about some good stuff. Please go binge an archive this week.

[gallusrostromegalus]

AEIWAM : what are the divisions specialities actually ? Like obviously the 4th heal and the 11h fight but like. The 9th? Do crosswords?

BOY AM I GLAD YOU ASKED BECAUSE THIS IS SOME OF THE BEST RETROACTIVE WORLD BUILDING I HAD TO DO AND I'M PROUD OF IT.

So in canon, almost none of the guard squads have "specialist" jobs, mostly because it's not terribly important to the plot, and because the court guards were essentially formed as an ad-hoc mercenary gang to protect one city specifically, but since Yamamoto didn't have to remain loyal to any noble family specifically, he kept getting pulled in as an arbiter and more and more responsibilities heaped upon him until the Court guard squads were acting as a De-Facto government, until the old man got pissed off with being involved in everybody else's business and rounded up a gang of nerds to do that for him so he could go do sword stuff. Seriously, everything about the administrative Bullshit in Soul Society makes sense when viewed through the lens of 'this shit was made ad-hoc out of what was available by people who only kind of knew what they were doing.

So the main government of Soul Society functions approximately like so:

Royal Guard:

Only technically part of the government, the Royal guard consists of The Monk who is responsible for making sure nobody steals any more of the soul king's body parts, and the four people he chose to help/didn't want left unattended in the Spirit World: The Guy who makes Zanpaktou, the Guy who can (theoretically) heal the Soul King, the lady who can literally mess with the fabric of reality and the lady who can create new souls. They spend nearly all their time in the Royal Realm trying to prevent the universe from unrevealing further, and don't really have administrative power so much as if any one of them decided to, they could wreck house of anyone in the spirit world, so if they say something, the central 46 listens and obeys.

Central 46:

The Highest Administrative level, sets society-wide policies, mediates disputes between provinces, wrangles the noble houses, assigns aid and designs social programs. It's comprised of 46 sages and other wise people appointed by the 46 as they die off. IN THEORY "Let a bunch of academics and philosophers who presumably know what they're doing make policy" isn't *that* bad an idea by itself, but it got coupled with "Also, to make sure these guys aren't being bribed or politically pressured, let's keep them in near-total isolation :)" and that's when things got weird.

The Central 46 does try it's best to maintain a peaceful and prosperous society, but it's got to strike a weird balance and the isolation sure does not fucking help maintain a cognizant worldview.

Noble Houses:

So the soul society, by the way they measure time*, only JUST got out of a major warring states period because magical Germany invaded and the guy that lead the army also managed to get The Mandate Of Heaven, but a lot of those formerly-warring states are still around, especially the ones that stole pieces of the soul king. They're not governmental bodies, but the families have shitloads of money, private armed forces and political influence. Think of the worst possible combination of magacorporation, mercenary army and royal dynasty. The are, unfortunately, still a political force to be reckoned with.

*Badly.

Provincial Governors:

So the Soul Society is divided up into Districts like so:

(Embiggen to actually see the damn thing)

The Seireitei is in the center, with the districts counting out until the central 46 got to the outer edge they could theoretically get forces and/or emergency food to in under a month and declared everything after that "District 80" AKA "You're on your own" No taxes are collected in the 80th district and people who don't want to deal with the soul society government often try to strike it on their own out there.

Each of those little rectangles is a district, and each of them has approximately the same number of people living in it- the lower districts are densely populated and, due to their proximity to the Seireitei, well-developed. The districts generally get less developed and less densely populated as you get farter from the center, but this varies wildly by the competence of that district's Daimyo or Governor. West 51 is a much more developed district than it's position would dictate, because it's Daimyo is canny and made good use of it's mineral resources and position in inter-mountain shipping. South 14 Should be one of the nicest districts, but their Governor is a moron who keeps picking fights with the neighboring districts like he's allowed to annex them, and the district has been sanctioned from hell to breakfast over it.

Gotei-13 / Court Guard Squads:

Sort of the executive branch of the Central 46, founded out of Yamamoto's gang of criminals he rounded up to deal with the Quincy invasion back when Rome was collapsing. So the court guard acts out the orders of the Central 46, and *theoretically* has authority over the noble houses and provincial governors, but they are pretty much constantly dancing on the edge of another warring states period, so things can get... tricky.

ALSO DID NOT HELP that The Monk who guards what's left of the Soul King came down from the Royal Realm and foisted a bunch of trans-dimensional responsibilities onto them but the Specific duties of the 13 court guards in AEIWAM are as follows:

(It's worth noting that the order of the court guard squads was determined literally by the order that the 12 criminals signed the agreement with Yamamoto to protect the seireitei, not the order of importance)

Division 1: ADMINISTRATION Oh god there is so much coordination to do between the central 46, the running of internal affairs, recruitment, training new shinigami, coordinating assignments that take more than one division's input. securing and distributing funding, etc. It's main jobs are: assigning work based on policy from the central 46, running the Shinigami Academy, and actually running the Gotei-13.

Division 2: SPY SHIT Gotei-13 is a shady-ass organization with a lot of enemies and that's not about to change. The second division is responsible for keeping an eye on the provinces and noble houses and anything else of interest, "Handling things quietly" for the Gotei-13, and preventing the Central 46 from being corrupted or assassinated. The Shihon Clan has historically held the captainacy of the 2nd division as part of the compromise Yamamoto struck with the noble houses at the founding of the court guard squads to end the civil wars- that each of the 4 noble houses would hold a captain's position, until the noble houses fell apart or the court guard did. This gave the Shihon clan a GREAT incentive to undermine the shit out of other noble houses, and Yamamoto gave them his blessing to do so. Ironically, the Shihon clan was one of the first to collapse.

Division 3: INTERNAL AFFAIRS Law Enforcement, but specifically the Seireitei and shinigami/martial court/jail. The court guard kind of lives and dies by how much it's respected* and it's essential the Gotei-13 follow strict ethical standards and also a tight adherence to authority lest one of the squads break off and start a civil war. Accepting Bribes and Defying Orders are much more severe crimes than say, excessive collateral damage. The 3rd division is responsible for investigating complaints, mediating disputes between divisions, and generally making sure everyone is behaving properly. *By the noble houses, Daimyos and central 46. The average civilian? not so much.

Division 4 Medical This division was actually the FIRST established, even before the court guard really became Squads. It was Chigiri and her pack of field surgeons that commanded Yamamoto's respect and gave him the idea of letting the other criminals have minions too. 4th divison is responsible for maintaining the health of the court guard- not just emergency medicine, but vaccinations, post-service medical care, and civil sanitation- keeping the streets clean and water safe is the #1 way to prevent deaths. Until recently, this meant a lot of trained medics were doing a lot of grunt work, until Zaraki, a guy from districts where Dysentery is still the #1 killer, successful argued a proposal to Unohana that her medics should be managing other, less-in-demand squads doing the labor, which would get the jobs done a hell of a lot faster, and not back up triage as much. Unohana, who had previously not *trusted* other squads to do the work reliably, finally relented and accepted some damn help.

Division 5: Rukongai Affairs The 5th division is responsible for coordinating efforts between the Gotei-13 and the Provincial Governors- Hollow Eradication, Disaster Relief, additional armed forces to help local police, Helping distribute grain to mitigate famine, etc.

Division 6: External Affairs Responsible for representing the Gotei-13 to other groups and dealing with Noble House Bullshit specifically. While Noble House Bullshit is 95% of what they do, but technically, they're also responsible for handling diplomatic relations with the Beastfolk in the eastern districts, Las Noches after the winter war in the west, Any Kami that might come through, and Hell, if they ever get a line open. The Kuchiki family has held the 6th Division captaincy for generations as a peacekeeping measure between the gotei-13 and the noble houses.

Division 7: Incoming Souls The reason the soul society doesn't reunite people with their families when they die is that they do not actually have control over who reincarnates as themselves (and if they retain their memories), who is reborn as a baby in the spirit world, and what district they get assigned to- that's all decided at the moment of a Soul's death by Hell, using a Metric the Shinigami can only guess at. That said, the 7th still can do a lot- Souls that had to be cleansed with Konsho go through the 7th division and are escorted to their assigned districts. Other, non-hollowfied but odd case souls will end up in the pocket dimension that serves as the queue into the afterlife- people with high spiritual power, animals that achieved personhood in the world of the living and other nonhuman persons, and somtimes spirits who were almost certainly supposed to go to a different afterlife all come through. The 7th division is also charged with keeping a running tally on important statistics like the relative balance between souls, who got hollowfied and why, collecting data on who goes to hell when konsho is prefromed on them and why, and other data to try and work out Hell's metric backwards.

Division 8: Income and Funding The court guard squads are... kind of taxpayer funded. The Daimyos collect taxes from civilians, they pay those taxes to the central 46, and the central 46 disburses some of that money to the Gotei-13, but the truth is, for all the duties they're expected to preform, they're wildly underfunded. So the court guard has had to get... inventive to make sure everyone gets paid and they can do what they need to. Investments in industries, ownership of weird land grants, taking out loans, selling merchandise and straight-up schmooze have all been used by the 8th division to make sure the bills get paid. Shunsui is, by that measure, the best captain the division has ever had- he's shrewd and had astonishingly good luck when it comes to finances so there hasn't been a pay strike since he took over. Probably his best idea was handing the branding and product design of the Gikon to the Shinigami Women's Association- that one paid mad dividends.

Division 9: Information Services The ninth division is most famously home to the Seireitei's first and most largely-ciculated newspaper, but it's also the records office, PAYROLL, library, document archives, data collection and data analytics. Also, tech support. Also also: manage all the arts programs, propaganda and festivals. This is why Kaname was load-bearing to Aizen's plan.

Division 10: Living World Affairs The 10th division was responsible for monitoring the living world- mostly keeping track of hollow appearances, but also: what the remaining Quincies are up to, reporting back on useful technological advancements, any other weird shit that turns up there, and keeping track of all the Shinigami on deployment to the living world (mostly 10th division but the post-war population boom means every division's having to chip in now.

Division 11: Emergency/Heavy Deployment Every time the Gotei-13 had to do some heavy lifting, it's the 11th division's job. Mass outbreak of hollows? 11th's job. Emergency Dam repair to prevent a flood? 11th division muscle time. Daimyo got funny ideas about conquering a neighboring district? 11th division. Funcking Quincies again? 11th division. Rampaging Kami afflicted by a terrible curse? you know who to call. This was the SECOND Division to be founded, because the actual sentence that came out of Yamamoto's mouth was "Chigiri, you and your gremlins put my guts back in, Yachiru, round up some assholes and DEAL WITH THAT FUCKING THING." and the 11th's prerogative and hiring practices have not changed since. Since the 11th's work is more intermittent, there are long periods between jobs for them, and it's only recently they've been allowed to pitch in on regular maintenance and rehabilitate their reputation as a bunch of lazy degenerates.

Divison 12: Supplies (more recently, Research and Development) Prior to Kisuke Urahara's weird science boner, the 12th Division's primary job was the manufacture and supply of everything the Shinigami would need to do their jobs. Uniforms, Gigai, medical supplies, communicators, rations, Gikon, the actual buildings in the Seireitei, bedding, Protective gear- if a Shinigami received it for their job, it was made by the 12th division. Despite previous captain Kirio Hikifune being the most accomplished chef in the history of Soul Society, it's Mayuri that has made the most profound mark on Soul Society Cuisine with the fast-prepared, acceptable-tasting and surprisingly nutritious meals he developed to deal with the mass influx of souls after WW2, and the franchise distribution centers combined with his attempts at children's educational programming mean that Mayuri occupies a cultural niche in Soul Society not unlike Krusty The Clown.

Division 13: Magical Research, Kido Corps Until recently, the Kido Corps was a seperate division governed under the purview of the central 46, and the 13th division was doing it's research into Hado, Bakudo and Haikido independently, but as the two organizations worked increasingly closely together, they began to share more until the catastrophic events of Turn Back The Pendulum left the Kido Corps severely depleted and without leadership, at which point Yamamoto persuaded the central 46 to let the 13th division absorb the rest of the Kido corps and take on their work.

So that's how the government in Soul Society is SUPPOSESD to work.

[charmwasjess]

My tiny mountain town is a blue dot swallowed up in a sea of red. Our statistically-irrelevant town went for Harris. The larger counties around us all went for Trump. Here’s what this election looked like in the southeastern Appalachian on the front lines of that cultural divide: 

Outright unprosecuted voter intimidation: in the few blocks walk from my house to downtown, I can see a prop skeleton dressed as a Harris supporter hanging from a noose, and Harris yard signs slashed with a knife, others just ripped down to the cardboard.

Gerrymandering - years ago, these little-known poorer districts were redrawn around population centers in ways that give likely Republican strongholds more weight, particularly in rural areas like mine. Republican lawmakers literally have opened prisons in rural counties in my state to artificially inflate population numbers with people who can’t vote due to their felon status to tip the scales.  

Of course, the Electoral college, where US votes are decided by weight of a state’s respective collective population and importance rather than just the counted individuals votes

I’m not making excuses. I echo the rest of the world’s collective disgust and horror about the outcome. I am literally sick with my country. People will die because of this. People who don’t live here, people who didn’t get a choice or stake in the US elections, and who probably wish they’d never heard of the place. And people in my own community. 

Yet it is so easy to picture this election as the ultimate triumph of laziness and inattention, particularly in “ignorant hillbilly” places like where I live, which generally go for Trump without any fight - at least not one that shows up on an election night map. But the Republican right has been working for decades to put the legal, economic, and societal pressures that lead to this in place here. 

We fought hard. Grassroots campaigners, our organizers of LGBTQIA+ groups, leaders in our communities who showed up despite the fact that it put a target on their backs if shit went bad. Teachers fighting Republican-led mandates of ignorance and racism to choke out any thinking that might interfere with their political goals for their ideal voter base. Librarians who get death threats for having kid’s books dealing with gender or queerness in the public libraries. 

These are not imagined examples, these are things that happen to real people I know in my tiny blue community. And the violent, right-wing party, the party that promised to make this second Trump term one of revenge and retribution, knows who those people are too. 

The Charlottesville “Ignite the Right” attack happened in my backyard. I had friends on that street when a self-described neo nazi drove into a crowd and killed Heather Heyer and injured 35 others. Trump was president when it happened; he called the alt-right who invaded Charlottesville with guns and armor and torches that day “good people.” 

I have no faith in my party now. It feels like we’re still trying to play a game we lost years ago, while the other side is busy winning a new game, one where they get to make up all the rules. 

I realize that there are greater global trends at play - incumbents being ousted, a swing to the right, post-pandemic economic scrambles - larger issues than the difficulties of voter suppression in my rural American communities. I'm not in a great mindset to consider them this week. I've been politically active since I was old enough to vote, and it feels like we always build so much momentum and then slam facefirst into this fucking invisible wall.

Honestly? I’m so tired and depressed and anxious, I feel like I can barely function right now. At the same time, I’m disgusted by my own despair and whining. What gives me the right to stop trying now, when so many people across the globe are facing the same anger and exhaustion? When so many people are in more active danger, with less options than I have?

Anyway, I wanted to write something out about the election, maybe just to let go of the words and get them out of me. I'm a queer politically active liberal in a Republican-dominated rural space. Next week, I'll read all the posts about hard work and hope and building support networks. This week, I just need a fucking minute on the floor.

[destinysbounty]

Huh. I just dug up an old fan-theory i came up with back when i was like 15. And while its definitely way too weak to hold up against any real scrutiny, it at the very least makes for some mildly interesting fanfic fodder so i thought id share it with the greater fandom hivemind.

(Dont come at me about the holes in this theory btw, i was practically a baby when i came up with this and it was one of my first attempts at theory-crafting. Trust me, ive come a long way since then)

Anyway, the theory goes like this:

While in the lighthouse, Dr. Julien builds a replica of his son. But try as he might to get it to turn on, it never actually works. Whatever special spark brought the first Zane to life is inexplicably absent from this one. So he locks it away in his basement, and never gives it the light of day again. This is the reason Dr. Julien never told Zane about Echo, or brought him with them - because at the time, Echo wasnt even functional. Wouldnt even turn on. Was nothing more than a lifeless shell collecting rust in the basement.

So how, then, did Echo become sentient by season 6? Great question! But uhh heres where the theory kinda starts to go off the rails. So buckle up, folks.

Basically the theory goes that when Zane died at the end of s3, his soul still lingered in Ninjago. And his disembodied spirit eventually found itself drawn to a vessel that was similar to the one he'd lost - one his father had built yet long abandoned. But his new body lacked the memory storage contained within his old one, and his resurrection effectively gave him almost complete amnesia. All he could remember was his name and his purpose (to protect those who cannot protect themselves).

Meanwhile, when Titanium Zane says hes a replica, hes actually completely right about that. Some fragments of his code left behind from his visit to the Digiverse gained sentience and inherited Zane's elemental power, creating the Zane we know and love today.

But the original Zane, the one that died fighting the Overlord, actually ended up becoming Echo Zane. Which then would have explained why Zane had so many holes in his memories after being resurrected, and why his sixth sense became much less active as well - he was only made from fragments of the real Zane's code, after all.

Now, as the big smart grownup i am today, i can look back at this theory my baby self had crafted and poke about a million holes into it. But...idk, i always feel nostalgic about this theory in spite of all that. Not just bc it was one of my first fan theories ever, but also bc it would have such fascinating narrative implications if true.

Like, the idea of Mr. E being Echo? Well, if we apply that to the concept of Echo being the Original Zane, then his hatred for Current Zane takes on a whole new dimension. It also gives me a lot of emotions about the whole Ice Emperor situation, as well as Zane's apparent discomfort towards his own statue.

And what kind of position does that put the rest of the gang in? If they had to choose between saving one or the other - the Zane who died for you, or the Zane who lives for you - which one would they choose? Could they choose? How long do you have to love a replica before it starts to feel more authentic than the original? And in that case, who becomes the 'real' zane? The one you love, or the one you lost?

Again. This theory has more holes in it than the Titanic. Cut me some slack, i was an idiot child and also a novice at making theories. But giving credit where its due, i do think it at least raises some interesting concepts. And Ive always casually wondered what would happen if it turned out to be true.

Like i said. Fanfic fodder.

[twig-tea]

Fire and Dynamite Can Sit With Me

There have been a couple of really excellent posts about Fy and Dy on my dash this evening, and I wanted to yes, and them but am making my own post because things were getting long. First, if you haven't read this post by @waitmyturtles or this one by @lurkingshan or this one by @bengiyo do that first!

In addition to the moments all of these brilliant people have pointed out, I wanted to highlight a couple of other things.

First, like Ben mentioned, we find out later in the series that Dynamite first fell for Fire because he beat up bullies for him. The important thing this informs about how Dynamite interacts with Fire in the early episodes is that he sees Fire's fierceness as safety. This is important because Fire is RUDE, and it alienates other people from him. It also means that he knows Fire is a straightforward person who is not afraid to punch people he's genuinely mad at. Dy knows what Fire looks like when he's genuinely mad.

Second, one of the things that Dynamite picks up about Fire is how much attention Fire actually pays him. He says himself, if you weren't interested in me and you were interested in Jane, you wouldn't notice or care about my presence.

Third, Dy did not move in with Sansee in order to stalk Fire. It was a series of coincidences that led to them both being in that condo building. And when he says it's fate thanks to a goddess granting his wish, Fire doesn't disagree, he just curses out the goddess for granting Dy's wish.

Fourth, Dy is excellent at reading people and situations. You have to be when you have been bullied for your attitude in the past. He's constantly correctly reading Ten and his reactions to Prem, and he takes encouragement from how Fire reacts to him up until Fire legitimately wavers, and as mentioned by Shan in the previous linked post, that's when he backs off. Dy is not ever pushing when he can tell he's really unwanted, and he doesn't stand in Fire's way. He encouraged Fire to speak to Jane; he even got Fire Jane's contact info. He continues to flirt in front of Jane but he can tell she doesn't mind--we see him look at her and clock her reactions in those scenes. And he steps in immediately with Fire's mom to take the heat for Jane being in Fire's condo, without even talking about it, because he knows how damaging it can be to be cut off by a family member for being a disappointment.

So much about consent is body language and nuance. I'm not saying "no means yes" or whatever nonsense, but pushing when someone is genuinely uncomfortable even if they're not saying no is so much worse than sticking around even when someone tells you to go away because you can tell they're relaxed and not actually upset. The contrast in power dynamics, reading of body language, and consent vs non-consent is strong between Fire and Chef Changma, and Changma heartily loses that competition.

Despite clocking Fire as closeted from jump, Dy does not push Fire to come out. As Ben mentioned, he puts his own friend group--friends who at this point are functioning as his found family replacing the family that abandoned him, like so many of us have had to do--at risk to respect Fire's right to come out at his own pace.

Fire at first defaults to staying in the closet. But when he sees the toll that this has on Dynamite he decides to push himself to come out anyway, even though Dy is not making any demands.

As Turtles mentioned in their linked post, when Fire stops fighting himself with his whole being, he's soft. And this is how he is used to expressing love, it's how he expresses his love to his mother too.

In short (lol), I LOVE THEM YOUR HONOUR.

[itsnotmyfaultsomepeoplecantread]

"Am I actually autistic," I whisper, while picking out half of the vegetables from my soup because they make the texture wrong. "What if everyone was right and I am just choosing to be a mess, and there isn't any other explanation for my weirdness," I say, reciting my ABCs backwards, and listening to the same song on a loop because it keeps me focused and calm. "I don't even have special interests," I say, knowing full well that I get wildly invested in specific shows/movies/information, and have re-watched a niche TV show about thieves dozens upon dozens of times because it makes me happy, and I get exhausted by too many new pieces of media.

"Are my support needs even valid," I scream, on the phone with my mom during a panic attack that was triggered by the wind unpredictably whistling through the pipes. "Is my level of social anxiety and unresponsiveness enough," I ask, thinking about how my remarkably vivid memories since the age of two are primarily filled with a life wrought with social struggles, which have never, ever gone away, even after years of practicing small talk and rehearsing conversations in my head in never-ending loops.

"What if I'm just broken," I sob, quietly, knowing that before my diagnosis, no treatments worked because my brain is functionally different, and I don't have control over what that looks like. "What that's not the answer," I say, texting my partner who sits on the couch next to me, because I have lost my words, and thinking of how no one ever noticed my verbal shutdowns because my silence was preferable to my occasional periods of babbling. "What if I'm not even autistic," I whisper, quietly, into a dark room of memories of everyone that has ever told me how deeply weird and wrong I am, but act surprised when I tell them I'm autistic.

As I ask myself these questions, I wrap myself in the perfectly-textured sweater that was the closest thing I could find to the ancient, hole-filled one I cried over when I left it on the plane at 22 years old. The sleeves of my sweater cover scars from a decade of picking at my skin. The picking helps me process the day's social interactions, and attempt to understand my own mysterious emotions.

The exhaustion it yields is unbearable. I tire of fighting to be heard, yet struggling to explain with the accuracy I desire. Of constantly hearing how everyone "is a little autistic," because I cannot possibly be disabled if I have spent years trying desperately to learn basic small talk. Because most people don't care to learn, or to reach behind the mask and see what lies beneath. They don't know me. And yet, despite their doubts, I find myself torn apart when they inevitably get frustrated by my inability to read invisible boundaries between faintly marked lines. I follow the social cues I am told to follow, and still I get it wrong.

The lack of trust builds the walls that so few have been able to breach. Even fewer remain welcome, becoming those whom I treasure with undying loyalty. I remain honest and open, my idealism and empathy wanting so desperately for people to be as good as I know they can be. But that doesn't prevent the rejections from haunting me, convincing me that my existence is wrong.

It haunts me.

So, I spiral. I think of how much I copy others, at the cost of my own identity. I think, too, of my stubborn refusal to do what everyone else is doing or is telling me to do, and of every time that I have panicked over something that no one else understood. I think of how many times I have felt like an outsider; of how many times I sought out the company of my teachers to that of my peers. I think of every test that I cried on, while others laughed at me — of how deeply depressed and angry it made me, knowing that they would never understand. And I worry that I don't even fit the standard of normal for my own diagnoses. I worry that I am this way by choice. I worry that I am judged. I worry.

But as the worry hits me like violent ocean waves, I let it wash over me until the feeling calms. And I finally let it go.

[spiderh0rse]

notes from the process of building my butcher-cherish fic. lots of em.

Will first clarify none of this is set in stone I'm still in the planning/winnowing out all the outside influence I don't need stage

for the purposes of this fic five had a minor combat thinker ability. projected reverse-afterimages. sees motions people make before they make them. six has some major heat resistance. seven has enhances reflexes, and having super strength multiple times over has made following through on those reflexes even easier. ten has a tinker power focused on,,, ehh figure it out later

To make the strength stacking a little more interesting, FIRST'S is straightforward enough, but if he's in more pain, he's got more power. Can't use his induced agony on himself, nor can future users. Refused to take care of minor injuries. Would frequently engage in self-harming behaviors to make himself stronger. Thinks that may have been his power's way of hinting at the inheritance. Wondered if Thinker headaches would ramp up the power. THIRD: In this case, fear makes his strength greater. Again, incentivized to get into dangerous situations to reap greater rewards. Believes now that most powers operate in this fashion, but doesn't quite have his head on straight enough to say any of that. SIXTH: straightforward and minor. Brute 1 alongside her Mover whatever rating NINTH: Stronger when angry. Fighting style was get close, make the opponent mad, then dredge up his own bad memories and get pissed enough to kill the other guy. ELEVENTH: Stockpiles. When he's not using it, he gets more in the stockpile. Able to release it either all at once or like a sort of tap. This can't be turned off alongside the other strength powers, but does *amplify* them. It runs out long before everything else does. Priority is on ending fights fast.

on the topic of naming what is functionally twelveish ocs

One: Butcher Two: blood based name? Vascular? Three: former hero so name should follow PR sorts of things. Hindsight? Implies Thinker power but could work. Four: Pestilence? Nah. That's got a wider range of connotations. Fester is too straightforward. Putrefact? Straightforward as well but slightly less obvious. Five: oogh a tough one. How do you name combat thinkers. Placeholder: Forethought Six: thinking something vaguely uhh. Behemoth-themed? Mythology at any rate but I've got very little suitable in my head for that. Ifrit maybe. Something I'm forgetting. Seven: yet another subtle power. Hard to get a name from. Jitter? Probably looks weird throwing himself around like he does. Shudder? Along these lines. Eight: Stoneknapper is a GREAT one I've seen but I don't want to knockoff that. Not VISIBLY anyways find a synonym Nine: Bearskin. I'd contemplated making him a Case 53 but the name would be on the nose here. Ten: i am not figuring out the Tinker's specialty and giving a name based after it right now. Unless. Shit like rube goldberg machines. Makes some normal action into a giant trap if you set it off. Just call him Rube. Eleven: Buildup. Name misleads into thinking he's got escalation going on. Opposite is true. Twelve: again I really liked Nemean but without her being a lion case 53 that has less impact. Workshop this one. Thirteen: oh god it's another super strength. I need to give him more than that and then I'll figure out a name Fourteen: Quarrel Fifteen: Cherish/Cherie (Sanguine? Cheerful in nature and blood-themed)

Urrgh XIII's strength. Uhhh. Fuck it that isn't all he has. The strength is like. A minor aspect of something else. Direct consequence of a power? Needed side effects? Maybe he's got like. Denser physical makeup. Yeah he's tougher everywhere and that includes muscles. Bam. Easy. Bulwark

Yes I'm mostly working on making sure the Butchers feel like people. Arduous task! But on the topic of how they aren't all a catatonic mess being dragged deeper into the ocean as Tattletale planned

How to work around Bonesaw's alterations,,, could argue that if it altered the Gemma, then the new shard coming with built-in "yeah here's a new control schema" fixed that on accident

i think this has just enough of a root in existing parahumans lore to not feel impossible while also being difficult enough to predict being able to happen that Tattletale didn't account for it

[imonthemoonitsmadeofcheese]

Eris' Tax Shelter

This one is both timely and a PSA for anyone wanting to make use of their Legendary Shards prior to the launch of TFS. So I give this to you here. Direct link to Ao3 if you prefer to read it there: https://archiveofourown.org/works/56339362

ACCESS: RESTRICTED DECRYPTION KEY:0GLVP1A437$IKO-006 REP#: 303-DERELICT-AUDIO AGENT(S): AUN-326 SUBJ: VIP#1316 AND ERI-223 INTERACTIONS - POTENTIAL BRIBERY, ILLEGAL LOBBYING & MANIPULATION OF TAX LAWS

[BEGIN TRANSCRIPT]

"Finally, someone I actually want to check up on me!"

"I am observing some very strange Guardian behaviour on Luna and believe it may fall under your area of expertise, Rat."

"My area of expertise? How so?"

"It seems financially motivated and of questionable legality."

"Ha! This doesn't sound like a conversation we should be having on Vanguard comms. Why don't you come over for lunch?"

"Hmmm... you are probably correct. Will you make... the sticky rice?"

"Sticky rice needs to soak for several hours before I cook it. How about sandwiches for today and you come over for sticky rice lunch tomorrow."

"I enjoy your sandwiches. Unfortunately, I will be on Mars tomorrow."

"I'll bring it to ya. You coming over now or what?"

"I will be there soon."

.

"So, do tell me what Guardian behaviour requires my... what'd you call it? Expertise?"

"They are lined up at my Lectern of Enchantment to purchase Phantasmal Fragments at a rate and volume that is... extreme. I cannot imagine why."

"Oh! I do know all about that, actually."

"You do?"

"So, city administration just passed a law. Tax law. Goes into effect Tuesday. War effort stuff."

"I knew they were doing... something... I had not paid attention to what."

"Course not. Doesn't affect ya on the Moon, but that is, in fact, why it is currently affecting ya on the Moon."

"How does city tax law have any impact on the Moon?"

"It's the fact that it don't that's the impact. You, oh beautiful, three-eyed, former god of vengeance, happen to live in a zone which has never been part of city or Vanguard taxation."

"I am well aware. At one point the Cryptarchy attempted to claim some sort of jurisdiction over Sanctuary on Luna. Thankfully Ikora was able to put a stop to... whatever that bureaucratic ridiculousness was."

"Good thing too. You know those bits of legendary weapons everyone gets from disassembling shit they find lying around?"

"The shards, yes. That's what they are using at the lectern. They are not generating fragments with glimmer."

"Right. Come Tuesday, all legendary shards become property of the city to help with the war. They need the components to help fight off the pyramid forces on the ground, shore up the ADU's, build weapons for civilians, generally help keep shit movin' an' functional."

"This makes sense, although would that not render the shards financially useless?"

"Exactly."

"I can understand why they would spend them now then, but why on the Moon?"

"In addition to bein' outside any city taxation zones, and therefore, not technically by the letter of the law evadin' anything, your Phantasmal Fragments take up very little space, Moondust. And several places will still exchange 'em for glimmer, in particular the Cryptarchy and our friend who likes us ever so much, Rahool."

"Rahool is terrified of me and he loathes you."

"He and I have a uh... complicated relationship. But yeah.  Because the Moon is where it is, legally-speakin' there ain't any laws being broken.  And your fragments are super portable."

"I would assume so. They are ethereal whisps of nightmares manifested from the Ascendent plane. Their corporeal instantiation is minimal. They are barely quantified concretions from the energies of phantoms which only manifest fully under specific circumstances."

"Pieces of ghosts. Not like... Guardian ghost-ghosts, but actual ghost-ghosts."

"That is one way of putting it."

"And ghosts don't take up much room."

"I do not follow."

"They use your table to turn the shards into Phantasmal Fragments and then they can keep the fragments and sell them for glimmer later, rendering the soon-to-be-useless shards, useful, long after they cease to be able to be used."

"Hmmm..."

"People've been calling it 'Eris' tax shelter' on Vannet."

"The Lectern of Enchantment is something I built and utilized to harness the vile magic of the Hive in order to transform the negative energies on the Moon into components which can be used to fight the forces of the Witness. It is not a tax shelter! I must inform Ikora."

"You can do that, sure. But they are still using it as intended. It's just that its current intended use for this specific purpose happens to currently be... profitable."

"Are you using it?"

"Me? Nah. Do I currently have several high-density containment units filled with your Phantasmal Fragments? Yeah. But I've had that for a while. I got components for everything. You've seen what's on my ship. I ain't currently buying any from ya right now, nor am I gettin' anyone to buy 'em for me as a favour, if that's what you're wonderin'. I do enough things of... questionable legality already. Tax evasion is such an easily proveable activity. And since I am not a Guardian, when I'm not on the Moon hangin' out with you, I am, technically, under the jurisdiction of the city and subject to its tax laws as a resident thereof. I run a business outta the tower after all. I got several shipping crates of legendary shards just waitin' to be turned over to city authorities. And all the paperwork for it prepared too. Ol' Drifter's gonna be on record for being among the biggest donors of legendary shards to assist with the Last City's war preparations. Can't do that if I convert 'em."

"Hmmm... You are not an altruist, Rat. Why aren't you using this... tax shelter?"

"I am an altruist on paper, Moondust. That's where it counts."

"Why?"

"Different aspect of city tax law. Thing called tax credits. You donate in certain approved ways, you get a credit to count against taxes you'd otherwise have to pay. Gambit's been making quite a lot of glimmer for me. The more tax credits I get, the less tax I pay. If this goes the way it's movin' now, city's gonna end up owing ol' Drifter quite a lot of cash. They won't be able to pay, of course, so they'll need to work it out with me some other way."

"The entire city is going to owe you favours?"

"Hypothetically, yeah. That's one of the reasons why I may have... hypothetically... suggested it to the council in the first place, yeah."

"Wait... You're on the city council?"

"Not officially. I'm a... what you'd call an unofficial adviser. Very unofficial. In theory, purely in theory, mind you, some of the higher ranking members of city council might, hypothetically, owe me some favours and every once in a while I might ask 'em to vote a certain way or put forth a specific idea. Hypothetically, of course."

"You're manipulating the socio-political structure of the Last City to your own ends."

"If I were, not sayin' I am, mind you, but if I were, I would not be doin' it in a harmful way, nor in any way that could be considered illegal on paper."

"How many city politicians do you own? Hypothetically."

"In theory, enough to swing a vote in my favour if I need one. Definitely enough to offer clemency or a pardon, if yours truly was ever caught doing something that might need to be pardoned. Not that I am in the habit of gettin' caught, mind you, but it's always nice to have a backup plan, just in case."

"So the reason all these Guardians are buying Phantasmal Fragments on the Moon right now is because they are about to become useless due to tax law you helped to put in place?"

"Hypothetically."

"And you did this because you needed to lose money on paper so that you can pay less taxes on your Gambit earnings?"

"Now, don't go spreading that theory around. Lotta people are pretty pissed about the whole devaluing of shards thing, especially Spider. Mithrax won't let him use your tax shelter."

"It isn't my tax shelter!"

"House of Light is hoping to be the number one group donating legendary shards to the war effort. Should give 'em very, very good optics in a very direct and undeniable way. Help 'em out quite a bit, politically, and will definitely soften quite a few people's hearts toward them as a whole. It's exceptionally good PR. Not the best for Spider's finances though. Although, what with all that money that up and disappeared for rebuilding the Eliksni quarter, it is kinda poetic that Spider's about to take a hit in the finance department. Strange, that. Couldn't see that coming. Spider sure is pissed over it. Can't imagine why."

"This has nothing to do with your taxes. You are helping the House of Light."

"Oh, it has everything to do with taxes, and anything pertaining to mine is pure conjecture, but if it does end up also helping the House of Light, why that's just another happy accident. And something it does help, undeniably and un-hypothetically, is the city. It's good for them. They need this."

"Fascinating."

"So... that's why everyone's lined up on Luna buyin' your fragments, Moondust. Eris' tax shelter is the talk of the town right now."

"I see."

"And you could pull in the Vanguard, tell Ikora about it, have her and Zavala put a stop to it, but you know how the Vanguard is with policies and procedures. By the time the bureaucrats and administrators actually manage to agree on something it'll be long past Tuesday. And, to be honest, preparing to go into the Traveler's probably a much higher priority for everyone right now. So what if some guardians end up making a bit of cash? Who does that hurt?"

"Aren't the shards they are spending something that could be used to improve the city's defenses?"

"I don't think you're aware of the scale involved in this one, Moondust. Guardian's don't have a lot of spare room in what they carry around. That's the whole reason why anyone has those legendary shards in the first place. Ya get 'em from disassembling guns and armour. They do that because they got no where else to put 'em. Whereas someone like yours truly or the House of Light, we've been able to stockpile some significant amounts. City's gonna be doing just fine for shards. Trust. What's goin' on over on Luna is just a drop in the ocean compared to what's about to be infused into the city infrastructure. It ain't hurtin' no one, except maybe Spider's pocket book, and he's been lining that with other people's glimmer for a while. 'Bout time he was required to be more... generous for a change."

"As usual, our conversations regarding your areas of influence never cease to be simultaneously both impressive and concerning."

"Any day I can manage to impress you is a good day in my books, Three-Eyes."

"Tsch."

[END TRANSCRIPT]

[multiplicity-positivity]

what the fuck am i meant to do if being a system is still completely miserable. i've tried so fucking hard to get anything out of this and i'm sick of it. i'm sick of seeing how so many years of effort has amounted to absolutely nothing no matter what approach i take when someone who has known for like a month is happier about this than i am. i'll probably be dead before i get anything positive out of this whatsoever

hey, thank you so much for reaching out to us. we’re sorry to hear that you’re struggling so much and system life has been difficult for you. we’re not sure what you’re looking for here, be it some advice, encouragement, or just a listening ear. we do have some words for you, but we’re putting them under a cut in case you don’t want to hear any advice/encouragement and were just looking to vent (which is always welcome here, by the way).

okay first, we’ll say that we know it’s difficult, but comparing yourself to other systems is only going to cause you more pain and strife in the long run. every system is different. every system’s personal journey is unique. and just because some systems are able to get along perfectly with excellent communication after only a couple months of trying… that doesn’t mean every system can or should function that way.

if it’s any consolation, our system also struggles a lot due to our plurality. we have parts who fight, communication can still be difficult to manage, balancing everyone’s interests and desires can be overwhelming, and dealing with dissociation and cptsd symptoms on top of everything else makes life often feel abysmal and hopeless. it took us years to achieve the level of communication and comfort with each other that we have today, and even then, we’re not exactly stable. we can assure you, you’re not alone in feeling like you’ve made no progress with your system. there are lots of folks out there who have been in your shoes, or are currently dealing with similar situations.

for many, many systems, especially those of us with dissociative disorders, life is very hard. learning to accept your plurality is hard. learning to cope with your trauma history is hard. learning to communicate and get along with your alters is hard. it’s all extremely difficult, and you are absolutely owed a bit of credit.

you’re here. you’re alive. that is a major accomplishment! and we’re very proud of you for making it this far.

also, you’ve been trying. you’ve spent years attempting to make progress. that also counts for something - your efforts deserve to be recognized, even if you feel like they have been fruitless so far.

recovery is a very long process. we’re not sure if you’re in therapy, but if you’re going at it alone, it can be a monumental task and often feel impossible. and when you’re in the thick of it, it can be quite difficult to see the progress you’ve made, or feel like anything has changed at all. we don’t know you personally, but it could be that you have made progress - it’s just hard for you to recognize or see it at this time.

if anything, know that we see you. we recognize your efforts and while we cannot understand the unique pain you’re going through, we sympathize and have seriously struggled ourselves. even if you really have made absolutely no progress, we have faith in you and we know that it won’t always be this way. please don’t give up. please keep trying. and look after your mind and body too, while you’re at it.

we believe in you. we’re wishing you and your whole system the very best with healing, building communication, and founding positive, happy, healthy relationships. and if you never get there, know that you are still deserving of love and acceptance just the way you are. we seriously hope that you can find that, friend.

[myimaginarywonderland]

The thing about the Gerard storyline is like, what could possibly be the lesson here?

That racist homophobic white men will always be punished with a slap on the wrist?

That the 118 is a family who will fight for each other?

Like, we know this.

There is no lesson that can come out of this. If they wanted to have someone else become captain (a storyline I have wanted since S4) then they could have just as easily written Bobby of with his resignation earlier on in the season. We could have been leading up to a Bobby retirment arc since like last season which would have been reaffirmed after the cruise ship. We could have had the 118 realise this and debat if one of them wants to try and step up and we could have seen that person or those people try out on calls.

And we could have still had a stranger come in, just a random character who could have served as a plotline to one of the mains becoming captain. We could have just had someone new introduced for maybe 2 or 3 episodes to show that the 118 already functions as a team and that they are already so adapt to each other that of course on of their own should take over even if there might be doubt.

There is no lesson with Gerard. Rather Bobby returns (which would just make an even more unnecessary storyline) or someone else takes over, we could have had that drama without ever having a piece of shit captain like that. There's no purpose to it. We don't need a reminder that people like that exist and are in leadership positions because we know that.

I just feel like there is no build up for this to have any satisfying pay off. And even if he like dies or they take him down some other way, they shouldn't have to because this man should not be allowed to let a station that he directly was reported for his bad behavior for.

This storyline is meant to finally mix up the dynamic of the 118 team but they could have done it in literally any other way that would ensure a better payoff.

I am already so over this.

[shitpostingkats]

Yu-Gi-Oh Review Roundup: GX!

Favorite main character: Chazz Princeton

The Chazz. The yugioh rival who, barely five episodes into the first season, gets fed up with being in the show, sails away on a yacht, shipwrecks, is rescued by card game playing russians, gets adopted by said russians after beating all of them back to back in a 50 man gauntlet, and returns to the main plot triumphantly riding a submarine with an entire crowd of slavs chanting his name.

In, uh... *checks watch* episode 25.

Chazz is one of those yugioh characters who’s just always doing the most he possibly can, and you gotta love him for it. And unlike some prideful anime rivals, he actually has the skills to back it up. Skills you actually get to watch him build himself, from the ground up, after having his fall from grace/russian sabbatical. Which just makes it even more satisfying to see him tear into duels, because his archetype of choice, and his whole arc in general, is about using the most unintimidating, unwanted, and least powerful monsters. It’s like the pokemon trainers who threaten to beat you into next week, and then bring out. A magikarp.

Except he then absolutely trashes you with said magikarp. And clomps away in his big goth platforms, loudly proclaiming that magikarp are annoying, and stupid, and he definitely doesn’t like them. Nu-uh. Ignore the maxed out friendship stat.

Up until the heavier plot kicks in in season three, Chazz has hands down the best character arcs of GX. His fight to break free of his abusive brothers’ control, his crabby assimilation into the Slifer Squad, his brief stint and subsequent escape from a Literal Cult (yeah that happens in gx don’t worry about it). Chazz is such a charismatic and well developed character that, when he kinda vanishes for like a dozen episodes, only to reappear, having won an entire tournament offscreen, being heralded by banner-bearers, and carried on a freaking PALANQUIN

I stood up and CHEERED.

Favorite antagonist: The Dark King

The most stunning of trope subversions in a season chock-full of them. Yes, Yubel may be a more threatening and complex villain, but they have so much going on between the dub vs. sub battle, they may get the final save-the-world card game at the end of the season, but the Dark King is such an equally nuanced and menacing antagonist.

Because he’s the protagonist.

 The dark king is every concept I loved about the Yamis in DM, the idea that parts of ones soul aren’t wholly power of friendship goodness, the idea that you can still choose to be an anime protag even if there’s darkness living inside of you. Because being kind is hard. And the act of pursuing it hits so much harder when we see how much it costs to turn down the other path.

Again, I’m a sucker for any character arc even remotely analogous to mental illness. If you see a pattern in the way I review media, I wholeheartedly claim it. I am a simple creature.

But the Dark King also functions so fantastically as both a metaphor and a subversion because we’ve seen the trope of a Superpowered Evil Side before. The show is betting on that. The twist comes in that the Dark King is not some malevolent, foreign entity. That it’s Jaden. Just a scared kid, lashing out at the world and forced to deal with the consequences. And he’s not evil.

Whereas Marik shows with dealing in the part of yourself that wants to commit atrocities, Jaden takes it the next step, and has to accept that you can’t just get rid of it. You have to live with it. Rein it in. But be kind to it. Because it is you, and it just wants to keep you safe and it may be wrong and a base impulse but punishing your worst instincts is not only self harmful, it is impossible.

You may have instantly internalized any negative emotion out of shame, and yes, you may somedays even be controlled by it. But do not fear it. Learn to work in tandem with your rage. Do not let it possess you, but do not imprison it either.

The Dark King is one of those stories that I really think I needed to hear as a kid, but even now, consuming the series as an adult, doesn’t make that message any less impactful.

Favorite side character: Tyranno Hassleberry

Back in the early days of 2021, before the first season of yugioh dm was even a passing consideration of a thought in my mind, I decided to poll my online friends and determine what they thought the Best Worst Name in localized yugioh.

These were people that had never watched yugioh, never so much as glanced at the card game.

We started with 32 names.

After five rounds of voting, only one was left standing.

Tyranno Hassleberry beat Maximillion Pegasus, and thus was crowned the ultimate champion of Best Bad Yugioh Name.

Some might say this championship gave me a bit of a preemptive bias towards the funny dinosaur man.

They’d be right.

Imagine my delight, however, when this already-primed-for-stupidity name got a face, and we learn that big, dumb, real himbo of a yugioh name is attached to an equally big and dumb himbo of typical yugioh absurdity. I mean, truly, Tyranno Hassleberry is everything I love about yugioh worldbuilding, personified. In a series that takes an up close examination of the partnerships between man and monster, and the terrible psychological effects thereof, Hassleberry stands as the shining example of a character so full of love and stupidity that he is immune to the horrors.

While Jaden “What is attraction” Yuki is off getting ptsd from his partnership with a dragon demon that hyperfocuses on relationships so hard that it has put people into comas, Tyranno is also there. Just vibing. Hassleberry, do you have such a strong spiritual connection to your ace monster that you might be genuinely inhuman? Do you also have special anime eyes and mild superpowers? How’s that going? Good? Good!

The world of yugioh not only can provide rich, nuanced explorations on mental wellness and the very idea of identity, it can also provide a man who is half dinosaur and it is only ever lightly remarked upon. Apparently, the solution to surviving an ever expanding universe of unreality and cosmic horrors beyond your imagination is just. Be kind. Be happy. Talk about dinosaurs.

Favorite duel: Yubel vs. Zane

A masterclass on how non-plot-relevant duels can still contribute SO much to the show and its characters.

Zane is a funny little weirdo. The walking personification of Gifted Kid Burnout, this dude graduated valedictorian and then immediately proceeded to get kicked in the ribs by the realities of non-academic living, causing him to sink into a deep and self harmful depression spiral, obsessed with pulling others down to his level and proving to them that happy go lucky positivity is only a naive shield in the face of true adversity and cruelty.

*Laughs a bit too forcefully* What a funny dude!

Zane has basically been on a downward slide in mental wellbeing since season two, and at this point, seems to have reached a natural stopping point in his corruption arc. Tired, washed out, and pessimistic, but at least comfortable in his status quo of being An Absolute Mess. He’s teamed up with Aster as sort of the token chaotic neutrals of the party, the only ones edgy enough to do things like casual torture and murder, but he’s attempted to reach out to his brother, and has even begrudgingly been roped into protecting the gang as they make their final stand against Yubel. He seems to be operating under the belief that while he no longer has to try so hard to rid the highschoolers of their delusions that the power of love and friendship will save the day, he’s still a depressed snot rag wrapped in a black leather overcoat.

That fantastic bit of ex-villainous personality gets to go head to head against the current villainous personality, and it is a treat. Yubel and Zane carry entire scenes through sheer force of presence, and seeing them snark and attempt to out edgelord each other is a delight.

But it also is a very pivotal point for Zane’s character because, for once, he is not the most mentally unstable person in the room. That honor goes to Jaden, newly traumatized, and about to start rolling down the same hill. Zane recognizes those self destructive behaviors, even attempts to warn Jaden that refusing to acknowledge his actions will only lead to further harm, but before he can properly sit down and explain to Jaden that self harmful behaviors are bad actually, and that electrocuting yourself to feel any semblance of emotion is actually a massive holy shit red flag, Yubel interrupts them.

So now, Zane, Failure Big Brother Extraordinaire, has to come to some semblance of peace with his own emo demons, while battling Jaden’s for him (both literally and figuratively).

The sheer panache of two of the most wonderful anti-heros of yugioh, the emotional turmoil of Zane’s inner conflict, the realistic portrayal of how we process trauma, plus the absolute YUGIOH MOVE that is choosing to die of card game induced heart attack. Honestly, I could go on about this duel forever.

Favorite arc: Quest for the Rainbow Dragon

I mentioned previously that I started watching yugioh as something to have on in the background, usually while I sewed. The Quest for the Rainbow Dragon is the arc that made me put down my needle and actually devote my full attention to watching the show.

GX is a show full of subverting audience expectations. I have my own opinions on the prioritization of shock-bait over consistent plot writing, but I also can’t deny that when Adrian Gecko just shrugged off his shirt and engaged in freaking fisticuffs, I was speechless for a whole five minutes.

In between one blink and the next, GX went from a weird early 2000s merchandise advert that occasionally had character writing and the oh-so-rare taste of legitimately serious writing, to a full on survival horror anime. The surreal, empty desert environment of the spirit world, the main cast slowly whittled down and frequently split up, the eerie monologues of Yubel and their legitimately unnerving horror visuals; all contribute to this claustrophobic feeling of dread. The panic of the students feels real.

And QftRD, despite being the first entry in GX’s much darker and grander second half, makes wonderful use of smaller scale episode plots. Entire episodes are devoted to the struggle of moving from one room in the school to the next, or negotiating for enough food to survive just another day. Every main character gets to shine in aspects that we’ve only seen hints of in their lives of status quo card games: whether it’s Alexis’ natural leadership, Hassleberry and Axels’ military skills, Crowler’s actual want to protect the students’ well being, or Jaden and Jesse just finally getting to explore their connections with duel monster spirits. Heck, even the unnamed students get to shine, using their knowledge of the school to navigate through hidden passages.

It’s such a shock to the system, after two and a half seasons of decidedly not small scale apocalyptic survival. The transition from Saturday Morning Cartoon Weirdness to PTSD War Crime Hours is very jarring and unexpected, even if you know it’s going to happen. But the duel zombies arc goes a long way to make that pivot feel deserved, to give actual weight to the sacrifices and choices the characters are about to make.

Also, I somehow managed to write this entire thing without realizing this is my second time my favorite arc in a ygo show has been the one with the word ‘dragon’ in the title.

Greatest strengths of the series:

The slow burn from shonen cartoon to cosmic horror trope subversion.

Truly, I can only compare GX to a handful of other shows that have ever come within the same ballpark of a viewing experience. The closest I can get is maybe relating it to Red vs Blue: One of my favorite shows of all time. And one that it’s absolutely impossible to get into.

See, with both GX and RvB, they’re shows that start out silly, unconnected, and (don’t worry, I love both of these shows with almost my entire heart), bad. Now, an impatient viewer might be tempted to just skip to the point where the show takes off, where it quote unquote “gets good”. But the problem is, if you attempt to cut out all the chaff, you lose what fundamentally makes the sudden spike in writing quality so compelling: the unexpectedness of it.

GX grabbed my attention by the throat in Waking The Dragon, because, up until then, I’d been using it as chill background fodder. Jaden felt so real to me as a protagonist and a person, because I’d spent fourty hours watching him be a normal protagonist/teenager. The previous episodes might not have done much to advance in terms of the plot, but they delivered something equally important: A status quo.

And when that status quo is broken, it feels much more powerful to the audience because it feels so fundamentally wrong. Just like it’s insane to watch in real time as RvB goes from being a bunch of outdated loosely strung together skits to a military drama waxing poetic about morality, GX spins on a dime from “Saturday morning cartoon” to “Cosmic horror meta tropefest”, and every episode you want to look up from the screen and go “How. Wh- Who let them just... do this?” Who let them set out to write one kind of story, and then not bother to correct them when they started doing something completely different? And why is it so good?

That is a very rare feeling in media, I think. To be so truly and utterly thrown off guard by a change in story direction, yet having more fun than you possibly could with some so-called “good” stories. And I think it’s a feeling worth cherishing.

Weakest points:

The slow burn from shonen cartoon to cosmic horror trope subversion.

The other reason I compare GX to Red vs. Blue is the fact that they are both shows that I cannot in good conscience recommend to friends.

“Here’s this show I like,” I say.

“Oh, cool, I’ll check it out!”

They return, minutes to hours later.

“So, I started that show you like and uh. Are you aware it is? Bad?”

“Yeah, don’t worry, it gets better-”

“Oh, sweet, cause I was really worried-”

“-Just give it a couple seasons!”

“I, uh.” They tug at their collar. “Can I skip the bad parts?”

“No. :D”

Hours and hours of time sunk into a mediocrity on the off-chance it “gets good” is a tough pill to swallow for most people. It’s a tough pill to swallow for me, and I willingly aspire to watch every yugioh anime. Add on top of that poor production quality,  bloated plot bunnies, and some writing that has aged like milk, and you have. Well. A benign watching experience, at minimum.

And like I said, there’s good ingredients to the final storyline buried in all that early stuff! Just skipping directly to the middle in a hope to reach “the part everyone talks about” fundamentally waters down the experience, leaving you struggling to understand what has fans going bananas.

Why does the show hit you on the head 200 times with a hammer? Cause it feels so good when it stops!

Now, I’m not your parent, and you can watch tv shows however you want. If you only watched seasons 3 and 4 of GX, then by god, you watched GX, and you are welcome at the discussion table. Get in here, amigo. Your opinion matters just as much as mine.

GX is very difficult to review, in comparison to all its other sister shows, because the aspects some people praise are the very aspects others could never really get into the show because of. Its greatest strength as a story and its greatest weakness as a show are one in the same. It’s sort of this weird child of the family, unable to be talked about without a lot of contradiction and conversational backtracking. Is GX the best show of the three? Maybe. Is it my favorite? No, with an asterisk. Is it some people’s favorite? Absolutely.

If you changed it, made the plot tighter, the writing more concise, had a planned narrative from the beginning and slowly worked in elements of the larger endgame, would those same people still like it, in the same fervor?

I don’t think so.

Most yugioh moment:

YA SEE, A FEW YEARS BACK, ON A ROUTINE DIG FOR DINOSAUR FOSSILS, A LANDSLIDE BROKE OUT AND NEARLY BROKE MY LEG IN TWO. THEY HAD TO OPERATE QUICKLY, SO THEY USED THE DINOSAUR BONE I FOUND TO SAVE MY LEG. EVER SINCE, I'VE HAD WHAT THEY CALL DINO DNA. THE DOCTOR SAYS IT MAKES ME STRONGER THAN THE AVERAGE JOE.

[ilikekidsshows]

I’m starting to form a theory of how The Owl House introduces characters. I’ve seen a lot of people point out the dichotomy between Hunter’s introduction here and how he’s characterized later in the series. Similar complaints of a first appearance making a character seem more unsavory in their first appearance have been levied against other characters as well, usually to claim that fans shouldn’t be so quick to view them as good people and how they need to make up for their previous villainous deeds. But here’s the thing, this dichotomy is interpreted by the audience as a sign of the characters’ duplicity, not the writers. Meanwhile, I am very much convinced that the characters being more villainous in their first appearances is a writer choice first and foremost, and a choice with a purpose.

It all comes down to how I described how a lot of characters on this show are introduced: villainously. Many recurring characters in this show are introduced as “villain of the episode” characters, even when they are intended to become allies at the end. Eda and King consider possibly eating Luz and then treat her like family ever since (King even jokes about this in the season one finale), Amity tries to get Luz dissected in her first appearance and ends up a love interest, Bump tries to do the dissecting and is shown to be a reasonable authority figure, Edric and Emira plan to bully and publically humiliate their sister but are incredibly supportive and helpful with her schoolwork, Hunter is fully supporting the Emperor’s reign and becomes an ally, and no doubt the ending of ‘Any Sport in a Storm’, another episode people complain about, will match the pattern. What I’m getting at is that The Owl House has a pattern where a character’s introduction will rarely give us much useful info on them, merely presenting a simplified version of the character that can serve as an obstacle first and it’s only after that obstacle role is played out that their characterization gets more room. It's function before consistency.

In reference to a mega hit series that does this same thing, I’ve taken to calling this characterization trope the Jojo Phenomenon. The manga and anime Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure had a pattern where the main character (the Jojo) will collect many colorful allies, but not before beating them in a fight, and the fights happen because the future allies will act as villains in their first appearances due to outside influences or misunderstandings, changing their manner to be much more friendly and righteous after they join the heroes’ group. Sometimes the difference is so stark that the character seems to change personalities entirely.

Now, as to why JJBA does this, it’s for the purpose of misdirecting the audience, subverting expectations, if you will. Any even slightly story savvy reader or viewer will guess that, since most stories need supportive casts, some of the people the main character meets will become their supportive cast. When the supportive cast is presented as villains first, the viewer won’t guess the character’s role the instant they’re introduced. The most effective subversion of expectations is to build up your own story’s expectations and subvert those. This way your audience doesn’t need to be familiar with specific other works to get their expectations subverted.

[kinaesthetiqueer]

Scrolls and Aura Monitoring

Scrolls are such a neat, all-encompassing multitool in RWBY. I like how we've seen them be everything from communication to accessibility assistants (Fox & ADA) to tech interface (Watts, Cinder, Ironwood) and more.

I've already talked about my technical expansion Find My Team and how the app allows team leaders to locate their team members, within certain parameters.

What I didn't talk about was how proximity to one's scroll affects its ability to sense and monitor its owner aura.

Essientially, I'm about to answer one question that 20/21 raised: What is the functional distance someone can be away from their scroll before it stops being useful as a monitoring device?

Short answer: approximately one mile/1.6km of unobstructed distance

Long answer—

Long Answer: Scrolls have an effective range of exactly 0.97 miles or 1.56km. This range includes their ability to sense both other scrolls and the person to whom they're keyed.

How'd I come up with this? Gods, I'm so glad you asked because the only person who would be interested enough to question me is the one who was present while I was doing the math. 💛

We never see any implants or bracelets mentioned or shown in any media that suggest a more scifi way of monitoring. So I figured that scrolls must be tapped into their owner's aura signature directly for the more fantasy type option. I'm going with the idea that scrolls have a set-up sync option that helps new owners key their scroll to their aura. It is, however, optional. (Which helps explains Jaune. Pyrrha helped him set it up during intiation though.)

For krwbyverse, I'm sticking with the idea that each scroll senses its own owner and can transmit that information as needed to other scrolls. Atlas pioneered aura transfer, which means that they had to build that on tech that can sense aura, right? Right.

Students can form groups as needed, outside of their teams, so they can adjust monitoring groups as long as they have the permission of the other person. Something along the lines of enabling WPS or AirDrop basically.

So, for example, RWBY might be a permanent school-based group but should RW need to team up with SN, they could form a new monitoring group for ease of keeping an eye on each other's auras. Such a group would be temporary, either on a time limit or set to dissolve upon half of the group dropping out. Doesn't have to be four but old habits, y'know!

(The permanance of school team groups has implications for JNPR that I have already briefly addressed in On the Run from Tomorrow. :') )

Okay, so math.

I used the scene from V6C1 with the Argus Limited fight. Ruby and Nora watch their scrolls, waiting for the them to leave each other's range. I took note of the time it took between Blake cutting the train tie and Ren activating his semblance– 35 seconds. Given a suggestion from a Wiki commenter, the Argus Limited is likely based on the Milwaukee Hiawatha train. After research into it, I'm inclined to believe it. Those trains were built to go 100mph/160kmh on average. Using the time and that speed, I calculated that the AL traveled about a mile in that time.

(I am electing to acknowledge but ultimately ignore some physics here, mainly an object being detached from its source of power and therefore beginning to slow down due to force acting against it (friction, wind resistance), just because with all the anti grav and ice and everything, im choosing to just. not make my brain hurt. I could though. you'd have to pay me though.)

Why care!?

Because that's as close as I can get to a canon peer-to-peer transmission distance, especially because the CCT is down! I think it makes sense that aura info wouldn't necessarily be tied to CCT uptime, right? Can you imagine being on a mission way out somewhere and not being able to see how your partner's doing?! Anyways.

Where was I going with this.

Oh yes! RUBY! Poor Ruby. Aside from not having access to FMT and everything else that her scroll can do, she doesn't really have another way to find her scroll. They're so critical to student life that to be without one is to be incredibly disadvantaged.

Because of On the Run from Tomorrow specifically, krwbyverse Beacon dorms don't use scrolls for room access, like canon implies. I needed them to be able to get into the dorm without electricity being a factor. Hence why they have Laundry/Backdoor keys and Room keys. Hence Weiss' key fob.

BUT BACK TO SCROLLS

A scroll can sense its owner for up to a mile. So even though Ruby didn't have her scroll, it was still useful as a monitoring device as long as it didn't get too far away from her. Beacon is a pretty big campus. But unless it gets out of that range, it's not going to show as offline or out of range. Once a scroll gets out of range, it grays out the aura level with an offline overlay, showing the last known aura percentage.

(Which sucks for JNPR. Because a broken aura and a dead aura are indistinguishable by the tech. There was always that little sliver of hope.)

This was way more rambly than I intended but fucking tumblr posted my draft instead of saving it so here I am!

[theundeadgospel]

Long ears pin back in absolute exasperation as the vampire trudged into the gardens of her formerly owned Castle Drachenfels.

Now overran with a mass sum of Rotblood since her untimely departure, the blood magic wielder had no choice but to reclaim her throne and start anew with refurbishing and building a platoon of vermin to call her own. Life was never too kind to her — there was always SOMETHING wrong, SOMETHING to mend to her will. And if the Gods insisted on prying yet another good thing away from her cold, dead hands after throwing her to HELL and back — quite literally —, she was going to personally find a way up to the divine heavens to SMITE EVERY LAST GOD HERSELF.

Throwing open the doors and interrupting the zombified men during their feasting, all disease-clad eyes were now on her. Without her battle armor, Betty looked no more intimidating than any ordinary woman — but it was her usage of forbidden magic that truly spelled DANGER. Coupled with an UNBRIDLED RAGE that had been boiling up inside her rancid soul for the past year or so, the red head was wasting no time in introducing a clean slate — and making a decent splash in the making of it.

Just as the initial shock wore off, one of the men let out a garbled SHRIEK before charging forward with his hatchet, aiming for the vampire’s head — only to be gripped by the throat and thrown hard into the concrete below, splattering blood messily across the stone. Her heel then proceeded to curb stomp the already putrid head into an unearthed edge of land next to his prone body, a series of reverberating CRACKS echoing through her property as teeth shattered and blood asphyxiated the Rotblood’s throat. Kicking the carcass aside, Betty summoned Spinemangler and pointed it at the remaining three,

“ Privet, revolting fuckers. You have something of MINE that I would like back. This is MY castle that I have oh so graciously allowed you to camp out in and redecorate without my permission — and now, it is time for your departure!

GET. OUT. “

Pivoting her toned arm back, the vampire swung her giant battle axe as hard as she could — watching as the large weapon boomeranged across the living space to embed itself into the second and third men, impaling and pinning them to the back wall. The last Rotblood stared at the pile of formed viscera on the wall, the barely functioning gears in his mind palace slowly acknowledging that he was somehow outnumbered by a single undead — at a second too late.

A searing, blinding hot agony abruptly shoots through the amalgamation’s body. The sound of SIZZLING AND CRACKLING internally followed by the THUMP of his frame colliding with the ancient floor, blood rushing out of nearly every orifice as Betty stood above him — activating her signature magic. Pointed claws envelop his cheeks to SQUEEZE like a stress ball, digging downwards to RIP AND TEAR SUPPLE FLESH while maintaining hard eye contact,

“ I am SICK AND TIRED of relentless fighting, only to be rewarded with NOTHING BUT LOSS. Do you understand how LONG AND HARD I FOUGHT TO GET TO WHERE I AM? SPITING THE GODS, CLIMBING THE RANKS, BECOMING A WARLORD, ONLY TO RETURN AND FIND MY TERRITORY VANDALIZED BY A BUNCH OF INSIGNIFICANT, CRAWLING ROACHES? “

Blood pooled down a now melting face, coating her pale hand in the dark, thick substance. In the background, the previous liquid shed began to evaporate from the ground and twist into blood vines that WHIPPED AND SLIT at all flags that represented Norsca, DECIMATING every piece of evidence that the Rotblood ever existed in Drachenfels. The Rotblood she held was gradually sinking in place as his body was drained of his own life force — having it SQUEEZED AND BOILED out of him.

“ — And my own clan — Clan Fester and my now LATE Lord Rasknitt — was SLAUGHTERED while I was absent! Because without their amazing commander guiding them while Rasknitt was off sticking his furry COCK in a swirly time machine, those stupid FUCKS GOT THEMSELVES ALL KILLED! BY A RAGTAG GROUP OF MISFITTED ADVENTURERS! A WHOLE CLAN EXTINCT — BECAUSE OF FIVE FUCKING SHIT STAINS! “

With all of the blood drained from his now deflated head, Betty SQUASHED it like a pumpkin and tossed it into the table, shattering precious porcelain. No more vermin of hers to clean up the mess by licking her wounds and devouring the trespassers’ corpses. No more gravelly laughter and victorious triumph.

It was all gone.

Breathing heavily, Betty slumped down into her heavily defaced throne chair, shakily bringing a cup of wine to her lipstick-smeared lips. The taste of deteriorated copper burned her throat — as did the tears threatening to spill over the GUILT AND GRIEF threatening to swallow her whole. Silver eyes then caught a glimpse of the branded symbol somewhat making itself known from her ragged sleeve, now rolling it up fully to get a better look at the formed scar.

Clan Moulder — right. The symbol that was bestowed upon her not out of respect or gratitude, but TREASON. Bitter reminiscences of when Grey Seer Rasknitt had sent her out to Clan Moulder to retrieve more information undercover since she was already close with Throt — only to fumble last second out of a GNAWING REGRET for doing such a heinous thing to her closest friend. And in a fit of RAGE AND AGONIZED BETRAYAL, the Master Mutator beat her within an inch of her various lives before scorching his symbol into her flesh as a permanent reminder. And yet, in spite of all this, the two mad scholars still reconciled and always managed to collaborate once more before parting ways — the red thread tying them together not by wrists or hands, but by their throats and claws.

Skimming her digits over the marking, Betty then stood on shaky feet, slowing her breathing. It was better than nothing. She needed some sort of protection until Drachenfels was restored and filled with more of her own trained men.

With that in mind, the undead exhaustedly dropped her cup of wine and headed in the direction of Clan Moulder, the rich beverage tangoing with spilt blood.

[dingoat]

So, a whole two people had an interest in my thoughts on cathar in Star Wars and purring, which I guess is enough to prompt me to try and put some of them into proper words. I do want to preface this by saying my own personal thoughts and feelings on these matters are very much my own personal thoughts and feelings, coming from my particular areas of interest and professional knowledge, and have absolutely no bearing on how much I enjoy other people's takes/characters, or how willing I am to interact or depict other people's takes/characters! Everyone approaches these things differently and frankly I have no interest in nor take any pleasure from raining on other folks' parade or telling them how to write/design/depict their own characters. Mostly, I want to reassure people that it is in fact completely okay to have completely different ideas to the more popular fandom headcanons, it is absolutely fine to disagree, and it is very not cool to try and force a single way as the 'best' or 'most correct'. I also, personally, have way more respect for people who will readily admit that they imagine a character/species a certain way purely because it viscerally appeals to them- they dig the aesthetic, they just think it's cool/cute/neat, etc- rather than those who dream up a feature and use ham fisted imperfect science to try and justify it.

If you like your cathar to purr simply because you think it's lovely, you go and do you, I love and respect you for it, and my words going forward here and now are simply not for you. I'm not here to fight or argue or try to convince you otherwise, I have no interest in discourse! There are just facets of world building and character design that I know I feel differently about than most people and I'm making myself vulnerable here by sharing some of them.

(I am also going to talk about a little more than purring.)

So! A little bit of background on me and where I'm coming from.

Animals are my life, I have studied them academically and work with them professionally and have lived and breathed animals since my very earliest memories. I am fascinated by form and function, by taxonomy and natural selection and adaptation to environments, by behaviour and cognition, and I am deeply committed to conservation efforts. All of these interests are what inform and guide the way I think about fiction, they are what I enjoy about made-up species, sometimes I think long and deep, and sometimes I just have gut responses. (Also, most of you here wouldn't know me from a bar of soap and I don't expect you to believe anything I say simply because 'I said so'. I could be lying about my life experience! If any of my talking points are of genuine interest to you I encourage you, I implore you to research further on your own!)

Now!

Cathar!

Cathar are just one of many many many 'space cat people' that hang out in Star Wars land. I was first introduced to the greater Star Wars universe through a tabletop RPG and I found myself RAVENOUS for lore, to know what was out there, to help expand and flesh out our character's adventures with as much delicious and beautiful variety as possible. I love this stuff. I dig the obscure aliens, I love the nonhumans, and because of my interest in real world animals, yes, the animal-analogue aliens have always been particular favourites.

Star Wars has lots, and lots, and lots of cat people, and visually they vary from very-animal (fluffy, four-limbed Cor) to basically-human (hi, Cathar, hi, new-canon Zygerrians), with a bunch of in-betweens at varying levels of cattyness and a few novel features here and there. To me, applying every variation of 'earth felid' to every species of 'sapient feline' in the Star Wars universe is just kind of boring and scientifically improbable in a way that (personally) irks me. If Cathar are the only space-cats you think of and utilise in your corner of fandom, I can see why you might enjoy making them as wonderfully varied as all the wild and domestic cats we have around us, but I just don't feel the need. I am far more interested in seeing some-features-here, some-features-there. These guys more like tigers. These more like domestic turkish vans. These ones more like lynx but WHAT IF theyr'e from an ocean world?? I have fun with that. I don't need a tiger-cathar and a siamese-cathar and a lynx-cathar and a margay-cathar. I have way more space cats to play with, and where canon/legends falls short, I'll make my own thank you very much.

So, coming from this angle alone, I actively don't want to stuff my cathar full of every variant of earth-cat behaviours and abilities. I have literally no need to make cathar, arguably one of the most humanoid cat-people Star Wars has to offer, capable of purring. To me, they're physiologically pretty much human with some mild, superficial feline facial features and fuzzy bodies. Human mouths, lips, tongues, throat, speech capability. I don't think they meow or prrp or hiss or purr (at least, no better or with any different reason than a human might mimic these sounds), I even struggle to visualise them 'perking' their ears, and if I want a character that I can write with those more catlike tendencies, I'll pick something that isn't a cathar! (And if I want a tail, I'll write them as a farghul or something. I don't need my cathar to have tails, and the function and variety of tails is another thing vastly misunderstood and misrepresented in popular fiction, but that's a whole other essay.)

We've also got the whole thing where roaring and purring are mutually exclusive sounds. No cat species can both roar and purr, and it is a distinction in the hyoid bone (that supports the tongue/larynx) that makes a cat capable of one or the other. Some big cats might have little rumbles/growls that can sound a bit like a purr, but it's really not the same thing. Hollywood messes this up all the time, look at every cartoon lion and tiger out there, and while it's totally within your right to headcanon some cathar-specific vocal apparatus that allows for both, I simply prefer neither, because the unique position of this bone in humans is apparently the foundation of our ability to speak. I look at a human-proportioned head, and I imagine human equivalent vocal abilities (so yes, I'd imagine the same for zabraks, @gran-maul-seizure ). I might write a togorian capable of roaring, or a trianii capable of purring, as both are significantly more alien than a cathar in my eyes.

Splitting cathar up into different subspecies with different abilities doesn't really work for me either (a lot of fandom intra-species variation doesn't really work for me) because there are a lot of very widespread, fundamental misunderstandings of how natural selection operates, and what leads to different species in the first place, and even what makes a species at all.

If these points don't matter to you, again, I re-iterate, that's fine. Go ham. If all you want to do is make a thousand creative variations, if you want to make a cathar for every cat-look under the sun and that's what's fun for you, please go right ahead! But these points matter to me a great deal, and so I take great enjoyment out of including them in my world building and character thoughts.

[Why do these things matter to me? Because I want to see life on our actual, real world home planet earth preserved. I believe understanding the vast variety of life is essential to fostering greater appreciation and ultimately care of our natural world. Biodiversity is essential and so poorly understood/acknowledged by the general public and it is one of my genuine missions in life to increase and improve understanding in whatever avenues I have available! Not every rabbit is created equal. You can't replace one lemur species with another and expect it to fulfil the same role in the environment, they are fundamentally different creatures. One lizard is not the same as the next, one skink is not equal to the next! People stroll down the beach and cast their eyes over a dozen different shorebirds at once and yet all they see is 'seagull' despite so so many different processes and niches and roles operating right before their eyes! If people can't recognise a sandpiper from a curlew from a crake, let alone a wood sandpiper from a marsh sandpiper from a terek sandpiper, how can they learn, how can they understand that each individual species is doing something different in the environment? That when one species goes extinct, something is irrevocably lost? Helping people understand that one species can not simply be replaced with another, no matter how superficially similar, is truly important to me. Important enough to me that it matters in my fiction as well! That I get more joy out of seeing exploration of earth felids represented across multiple unique space cat species, rather than a one-size-fits-all-cat-man!]

So, back to the space cats. To me, personally, it is most believable to imagine that cathar evolved to a certain level of intelligence, sapience, technological advancement, within a single environment, and then these abilities allowed them to expand further into more extreme environments, cross oceans, survive in hostile climates, etc. A single, distinct species, with certainly some physical variation (just like humans) but within very specific parameters (just like humans - our skin colours and body shapes vary, yes, but across predictable spectrums; we don't have spider-monkey humans and chimp humans and mandrill humans and capuchin humans and snub nosed monkey humans and pygmy marmoset humans). I imagine that when the early cathar population spread, say, from a lightly forested landscape into the snow, they did not need to evolve a fluffy coat with snow leopard patterns because it was their ability to make heavy coats out of wildlife pelts and construct shelters and build fires that allowed them to move into the snow in the first place. They didn't need to develop camouflage appropriate to the environment because they could find colours to wear, they could dye or bleach their fur, their intelligence took over and allowed them to adapt much faster than natural selection ever would. Once they hit a certain point in their species' evolution, they did not need to continue to change physiologically to adapt to environmental pressures.

Could you look at it the other way? That the cathar-predecessor spread across their home planet and adapted into various environmental niches, developed new coat colours and vocal systems before actually becoming the intelligent and self-aware spacefaring cat people we know and love? Sure! But I would argue that it is deeply, profoundly improbable that what you would wind up with is a single species! I would argue that it's profoundly improbable that each one of these environmental variants would develop to the same level of sapience at all, let alone wind up able to produce offspring together, but y'know, the idea of multiple dominant species from a common ancestor is cool and fun too. The key, here, for my own personal believability, is multiple species. If you don't care about any of this in your fiction, fine! Do what's ultimately more creatively fun for you, but own that creativity rather than misrepresent science! And if you actually do like to consider species variation and evolution from a more real-world biology perspective, I encourage you to read and think a little more deeply, go beyond the rule of cool and get to understand the sheer, magnificent, overwhelming variety and beauty of our own home a little better.

My cathar don't purr, because biodiversity matters to me.

Footnote: Slightly more sideways thoughts, I guess, but I also kind of find the trend of giving animal-esque species cutesy animal-esque tendencies to be a little rude, and it's something I prefer to write into Imperial xenophobia rather than make fact for alien species. I don't find it especially fun to consider Aric Jorgan getting distracted with a ball of yarn or being placated with a saucer of milk or grooming himself with his tongue, and especially not any implications that the behaviours might be involuntary. I imagine it's a very tiresome, disrespectful gag for human Imperial agents to give a bowl of milk to their cathar colleague, and I imagine a Republic trooper wouldn't dream of insulting their cathar counterpart in the same way.