#or about anything else of it

[aquilamage]

This is a continuation of my discussion of my “compressing the time between Leif getting stuck in snakemouth and the start of the game down to like 10 years so Muse can be around” au that I started over on @enbeemerang’s post. But I didn’t want to take that space up more than I already have lol

So in canon stuff I tend to go with Grandpa being Leif and Muse’s kid, so that would also be the case here. Which if I was writing something of this would mean I’d have to come up with a name for him. so. glad I’m not. But I’d put him in Tod’s spot because 1) he’s about that age and 2) Leif’s “Now, stay out of trouble. Don't worry your mother.” line after the lost toy quest already gets me in the context of his relationship with Tod in canon. Imagining him doing that kind of parental lecture towards a kid he has yet to realize is his own child makes me insane. (also makes for an amusing moment after the initial revelation stuff)

or there’s the alternate version of that quest (that would only happen in iterations where Muse is banished) where instead of running from the Midges he gets stuck in the cave. Team Snakemouth gets recruited to the search mission secondhand. Kid’s pretty shaken up by the time they get to him. Leif does a lot of the calming him (Kabbu or Vi comments on wow you’re pretty good with kids and Leif’s like ...yeah) They take him back to his grandparents (one of them carrying him as he directs, almost falling asleep as they get into town), tearful reunion. They turn to thank Team Snakemouth and stop at seeing Leif who’s dead still, staring at his parents.

I forget if I touched on this in the previous but it’s a much different emotional moment for Leif in any of the reunion scenarios for this, with it being bugs he already is connected to, his immediate family. More persistent guilt about what he put them through, for one. Definitely some awkwardness around their kid. And on top of Muse’s attitude (or treatment if she’s not there) feeding his existing hesitance about Elizant II, he’s also gonna feel more conflicted about continuing to explore because then he’s not being around for his family. Is that just abandoning them again??? (especially since I have a based-in-nothing headcanon that Muse and Leif’s plan when they started having children was going to have Leif doing more of the staying at home taking care of them)

I don’t have anything specific about it really but oough the cordyceps reveal really hits Leif harder when the identity crisis has to answer to there being bugs who knew the Leif from before. “ I am nothing but some...thing... Something that thinks it is him.” but also like. he’s a thing pretending to be Leif to Leif’s closest family, what a monster.

after handing in the first artifact Team Snakemouth immediately runs into Rebecca in the palace. And since I’m going with the headcanon that she was the third member of their scouting team we get family reunion: speedrun edition

slightly off-topic of everything else but I also had the thought that with this compressed timeline Elizant II’s age gives a lot more flavor to things. It works no matter what it is but like. If you want her more sympathetic she was barely an adult when she had to take over and little enough time has passed until canon that it still shows. And otherwise especially with Muse’s reactions/feelings I feel you could do some stuff with her being younger vs the same age vs older

also for anyone who knows and cares about my usual “mothiva’s related to muse”posting: she’s muse’s estranged younger sister in this one.

aaand hollow knight spoilers ahead for the rest of this:

so for the iterations that are “Muse gets exiled and goes out through the forsaken lands and ends up in hallownest,” it’s a rough journey exacerbated by the fact that she didn’t have supplies or prep when Elizant kicked her out. She comes in from the hallownest’s crown/crystal peaks side. It’s some medium amount of time after the ending of the game (godhome but ghost is fine they just have cool void god powers now). And she manages to get at least to the outskirts of dirtmouth. Her appearance causes a stir in general but especially for everyone who’s gonna read into her being a Moth specifically.

Now if I was writing this I would almost certainly ignore the question of potential language barriers completely. But since I’m not, that means they’re going through everyone who knows other languages to find a translator. Most reasonable candidate I think would be Quirrel, although there’s plenty of other options - any of the other bugs who’ve been outside of Hallownest (Lemm probably being my next choice because I’m biased about him. and I think him and Muse interacting would be fun); plus I like the idea that vessels can understand any language, but in that case Ghost and Hollow would only be able to translate one way (assuming they would even be willing to be around her). So eventually it turns into a language exchange with her learning whatever the common hallownest language is and some of them learning bugnish (which makes it easier for Team Snakemouth to communicate when they show up (doing some exploring for the queen I guess). Although when they mention that they’re working for the queen who exiled Muse it makes whoever they’re talking to hesitate about mentioning her)

and yeah for the most part on this it’s just otherwise me dumping all these characters in a salad spinner together and going “nice”

except there’s the variant concept of “the radiance survives as a tiny fragment of Herself and then possesses/inhabits Muse when she shows up because Moth.” Which I have two vague ideas about the when. 1) It takes root when she’s up at the crown by the Radiance statue but doesn’t do anything until the first time she sleeps, in Dirtmouth. And when she wakes up the effects become apparent 2) She goes down below the well and slowly starts feeling weird until she collapses. Either way I think it’d be a “something happens in her mind while she’s unconscious about it but then it’s actually clear what’s going on when she wakes.” Muse is not happy about this. She’s dealing with enough other stuff; she doesn’t need a random deity taking up residence in her head on top of it. Especially one that has all the bugs around her freaking out/hostile toward her now because of it. Two sort of flavors for this as well. 1) Radiance is equally unenthused about the arrangement, did not do it on purpose, did not ask for this, can’t leave, and is basically just exhaustedly resigned to it. 2) Radiance still at the active anger at the Everything. Still didn’t inhabit Muse on purpose in the way like infecting bugs, but yes in the form of purposefully directing Herself to that point, and is trying to do something about this opportunity. She’s not possessing Muse in the sense of being able to outright control her, but She can do some things by force, in brief moments, and also just mess with Muse’s mind. Made harder by Muse fighting Her, though. (And I do think She’d try and bargain with Muse. Don’t You Want To Go Home? I Can Make That Happen. With My Power No One Can Stop You)

[noelledeltarune]

EVERY SINGLE DAY there are MILLIONS of characters in their late 20s who get falsely accused of being father figures to teenagers when in reality the description of "weird older cousin" or "step-sibling that moved out before you were born" is 1000000x more apt

[noonbeam17]

psst. guys did you hear. they made up a new game that everyone you know suddenly got really really into in the span of a day and you never heard anything at all about it prior

[aesthetic-uni]

It’s that time of the year again

[zanmor]

We are well beyond canary in the coalmine warning levels with the way trans people and particularly trans women are treated on this site.

Maybe you've heard the metaphor of allowing wolves and sheep to share the same space, welcoming everyone. You end up with just wolves because allowing them in that space makes it unsafe for any sheep. Or the story about how a nazi goes into a dive bar and is refused service. The bartender then explains to someone else at the bar that if you serve them once they tell their friends and before you know it you're the nazi bar they all go to and normal customers don't feel safe.

Terfs and other bigots are seeing these targeted harassment campaigns succeed against trans women and rejoicing. They see Tumblr ban them and officially stand by those decisions as endorsement for their harassment. It's a sign to bigots across the internet that Tumblr is a good place for them.

And what's more is that a lot of us probably don't realize just how much trans women contribute to Tumblr. The women banned recently were sources of site-wide memes and posts I wasn't even aware originated from them.any years old memes and references can be traced back to trans women on this site.

How many of these folks have to be removed before this is no longer a site you want to be a part of it? Sure you cultivate your own experience, but you can't follow or interact with people who aren't here. And if I wanted to interact with the nazis and terfs I'd go to reddit.

I encourage everyone to reblog this. Trans women shouldn't have to be the only ones speaking out against the bigotry they're experiencing. They shouldn't be the only ones risking their blogs being nuked by staff. We have to stand with them.

[keymintt]

a comic/zine about coyotes

[headspace-hotel]

I don't mean it in a creepy way I promise, but I feel a kinship with China, Japan and Korea i wish more people from my region shared, because...we have sister ecosystems!

It's actually amazing, there are so many plant genera that are not closely related to anything else and just have a couple living species: One (or two) from mid latitude Southeast Asia, and one from the Southeastern USA.

For example, the two living lotus species (sacred lotus and American lotus), the two living tulip tree/ Liriodendron species, the Chinese and American sweetgums (Liquidambar spp.) the Chinese and American trumpet vines (Campsis spp.) the Chinese, Japanese and American wisteria (Wisteria spp), the Chinese, Taiwan and American sassafras (Sassafras spp.) I KNOW i'm forgetting many of them because there are so many. Twins!!!!

And there's so many iconic plant groups shared in common between East Asia and SE USA. Like dogwoods, magnolias, rhododendrons, we even have our own bamboo!!!

I think a lot of how strangely familiar each ecosystem would feel to someone visiting from the other one.

And I bet there's a lot of ecological knowledge and insights we could share with each other...

Sister ecosystems...

[blueboyluca]

“When I first heard it, from a dog trainer who knew her behavioral science, it was a stunning moment. I remember where I was standing, what block of Brooklyn’s streets. It was like holding a piece of polished obsidian in the hand, feeling its weight and irreducibility. And its fathomless blackness. Punishment is reinforcing to the punisher. Of course. It fit the science, and it also fit the hidden memories stored in a deeply buried, rusty lockbox inside me. The people who walked down the street arbitrarily compressing their dogs’ tracheas, to which the poor beasts could only submit in uncomprehending misery; the parents who slapped their crying toddlers for the crime of being tired or hungry: These were not aberrantly malevolent villains. They were not doing what they did because they thought it was right, or even because it worked very well. They were simply caught in the same feedback loop in which all behavior is made. Their spasms of delivering small torments relieved their frustration and gave the impression of momentum toward a solution. Most potently, it immediately stopped the behavior. No matter that the effect probably won’t last: the reinforcer—the silence or the cessation of the annoyance���was exquisitely timed. Now. Boy does that feel good.”

— Melissa Holbrook Pierson, The Secret History of Kindness (2015)

[grey-viridian]

Sillies

[counting-stars-gayly]

I’m going a little wild over the fact that Percy started feeling the effects of the chimera’s poison two minutes before he collapsed. I thought this part of the episode was weird when I first saw it because the camera focuses on him when it seemingly should be focusing on Annabeth, but then, I realized Percy’s odd behavior while he’s in focus.

He also turns abruptly, and a little late, to Annabeth, as if he just remembered to listen to her, as if he’d been distracted by something.

Then, this boy starts cracking jokes to cheer her up instead of saying, “Hey, something’s wrong; I could literally be dying.” And you can see on his face a few seconds before he collapses that the poison’s starting to really get to him, and still, he doesn’t attempt to get her attention and ask for help.

Then, when they’re at the fountain, he tells her and Grover that he’s feeling better even though he obviously isn’t, because he’s hoping he’s physically strong enough to pretend. (He falls on his ass.)

100% Percy just didn’t want to worry them and thought there was no way to find a cure in time anyway. I’M SCREAMINGG

[sleepymccoy]

This is also a bit of a culture query, cos these are all in my house so I genuinely cook with these all (except chicken salt, that's been in my cupboard for ages)

But I'm not from the USA and most people here are, so I wonder if that's similar! Maybe your cupboard is identical to mine. Maybe we use the same stuff but call it something else. Maybe USA has a different relationship with pre mix spices and you use none of it. Maybe you've never heard of pre mix spices. I dunno. That's why I'm asking!

I use plain herbs and spices as well. Especially when making a complex meal I'll do it myself. But I use pre mixes other times, so I'm voting. Voting for a pre mix doesn't mean you don't also use paprika! If you genuinely have no pre mixes in the kitchen tho, then hell yeah, tell me!

Also, I know I haven't listed everything in the world. One, that's impossible. Two, this is a bit of a culture thing so I just checked my kitchen and used those. This selection is representative of me only

(you don't have to be from the USA to vote, obvs, we just all know that's how the results will end up. Please tell me about your spice mixes in other countries!!)

Morrison spice blend: Pepper, tumeric, ginger, cardamom, parsley, salt

Chinese five spice: Star anise, cinnamon, clove, fennel, Sichuan pepper

Chicken salt: Salt, chicken stock, garlic, paprika, pepper, onion, celery

Gluhwein gewurz: Orange peel, cinnamon, lemon peel, star anise, hibiscus, clove

Chimichurri: parsley, garlic, oregano, vinegar, chilli, salt, pepper

Za'atar: thyme, cumin, coriander, sesame seeds, sumac, salt, chilli

Garam masala: coriander, cumin, cardamom, cloves, pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg

[haunted-xander]

Well, I guess you didn't have much of a choice either

[weepingalaxy]

if jeremy and michael knew each other, don't you think the bites would feel rather similar?

[bumblebeebats]

I must say, as a non-american (who even LIVED in the US for several years), all these state polls really look to me like:

[batshaped]

the continued adventures of an internet user who was frozen in 2004 and defrosted in 2021: some things are just the way you left them

previous 2004 internet user comics are here: one, two, three, four, five; or just in my 2004 tag