#or something.... but like.... this is far less mythic and far more ancient than the nazis thought

[vendal-construct]

The Heathens Lot.

The sunset was lovely today, it was a truly beautiful sight the way the light shown through a magnificent, voluminous canyon of clouds. As we tried and failed to photograph it, we found ourselves cursing urbanity. Cursing the height of buildings blocking it's center. Cursing the clustered sprawl that made it impossible to find a clear place. Cursing how inescapable it-

We are perhaps exaggeration our reaction...regardless. The brief damning of modernity, however, reminded us of something long on our mind.

We are careful to not fall victim to the trap of a mythic past, lest we find ourselves mindlessly barking "RETVRN" as certain kinds of pagans do. We admit our view of our ancient Scandinavian progenitors isn't as rose tinted as many of our peers. We respect and admire their tenacity and culture in the same way we do all historical peoples, and give them special attention for the practice of our faith, but they were not special in the way people want to think.

A peasant fisherman in Þrǿndalǫg in 800 had the same concerns, needs, and even similar clothes as a peasant farmer in Brittany in the same era, regardless if said fisherman went Vikinging at some point in his life. The Fisherman likely had some small shrine he made token offerings in before making something more grand on days of import, while the farmer offered little prayers when he had the chance and greater shows of devotion on holidays.

The fisherman was not clad in animal furs and did not hail Thor in chanting rituals with animalistic howling. No matter how much anyone wants you to think he did, that time was long, long past and before the Æsir's myth were fully formed.

In truth, "Neo-pagans", Heathens, Asatruar, whatever word they use, are all seeking the same thing. They seek something special and wholly different from modern, mainstream religion. There are many reasons. Some because they raged at Christendom, rejected it and condemned it, and chose the most extreme option that sounded appealing. Others use it to supplement some unrelated magic practice for reasons unknown too us. Others a genuine desire to rekindle Pre-Christian traditions.

...and of course those who wish to co-opt their ancestors to turn into mouth pieces for their hatred.

Our point is this: We all yearn for a time that never will be, that was much like a time that never was. Do not mistake this time for one of history, those who do walk a path of self destruction.

In making peace with this fact - in knowing we are little more than a self professed priestess in her room burning incense, offering drinks to the dead, and torching scribbles of poems as gifts to gods - it becomes far easier to honor our faith. We hold no delusion we are upholding some ancient religious tradition when the line of succession was broken more than a thousand years ago.

We make peace with this fact, because we know it makes our belief and practice no less real.

[catsvrsdogscatswin]

Binged Nocturne yesterday, so here are my spoilery thoughts on the matter, in no particular order:

Watching this season was certainly an experience. Neither I nor my sibling have any knowledge of the Castlevania games beyond "there's a guy named Alucard who kills his dad multiple(?) times and also Belmonts are the player characters probably," so it's not like we were expecting anything, but there were a lot of "oh wouldn't it be funny if" or "I bet they'll do X" moments BUT THEN THEY ACTUALLY DID. "Why don't we continue this conversation somewhere more comfortable?" (Oh lol he's gonna fuck that priest.) *smashcut to Orlox and Mizrak naked in a bed together* (OH WAIT WHAT?!!?!)

"There's an underground secret passage to the abbey." (Uh yeah and how do YOU know that? 'I bet she fucked that old man.' Pfff I bet she did. 'I bet he's Maria's dad.' Ehhhh I mean maybe? Bit far-fetched.) "But then we wouldn't have had Maria!" (*unified unholy gibbon screeching*)

(I'm not saying this series is bad, I'm just going to be a little disappointed if absolutely nobody from the original series gets even mentioned.) *Alucard shows up at the very last second* (Oh we are winning this season! 'We are WINNING!')

Orlox served astronomical levels of cunt and I hope he continues to hang around being a nebulous problem for everybody else for the rest of the series. And then go be evil and gay somewhere else at the end, like Striga and Morana.

While I respect the power move of Drolta's heel-less platforms and the environmental storytelling of "ooh wow look how vampires can balance effortlessly on floating heels like it's nothing" personally speaking it did look a bit. weird. Like just give her stilettos, man.

Drolta was otherwise an absolute delight to watch for every moment of her time onscreen and her character design was absolute peak. Every outfit and hairstyle was immaculate.

Maybe this is just me having read up on her a lot, but having Erzebet Bathory be mixed with the Egyptian goddess Sekmet was... jarring. She was a Hungarian noble and had absolutely fuck-all to do with anything further south than the European frontier of the Ottoman Empire, so even the "drank a goddess's blood and got possessed a little bit" still feels cobbled-together and forced.

Personally speaking, I think it would've served the writer's "dread vampire Messiah come to swallow the sun and usher in a new age of blood and doom" purpose if they had EITHER the vampire Erzebet Bathory who committed all of her (mostly mythical/exaggerated) serial killing crimes and then some, OR an ancient vampiress infected by drinking a goddess's blood. You either pull the cachet of an infamous vampire-tangential historical figure or make up a story about a vampire being consumed by and becoming a channel for something more powerful than even them out of whole cloth, but please don't do both. Especially when both versions originally had nothing to do with each other.

We all none of us deserve Eduoard. I hope he gets to transform into something more human-looking by the end of the series (so he doesn't get mobbed) and then go home to his nameless boyfriend and live happily ever after. Maybe after kicking the Abbot's teeth in, since he deserves it.

Speaking of which, this was Annette's season. Richter may have had his name on the tin but this season was for her and she killed it. Absolutely stole the show, man.

I love the way her summoning was animated and find her realistic for both her age and her time period in terms of enthusiasm for revolution and a tendency to act with emotion rather than thought, but Maria was just kinda... also here. Presumably she'll have more to do next season.

[the-uncharted-cookbook]

Adventure.

That was always the point, after all. I never had much luck as a treasure hunter though. Not the kind like Nathan Drake or Charlie Cutter anyway and, believe me, I tried. I spent more than a few fruitless years digging around old tombs and following ancient maps while searching for mythical lost cities but I never had more to show for it than scrapes, bruises, and an empty wallet. After a less-than-brief stint behind bars in Cambodia when a job went south, I knew something had to change. With a little bit of coin I had squirreled away and a sizable loan from one Gabriel Roman, I found myself behind an entirely different type of bar, the kind that serves food and drink.

Over the years, I've mixed drinks for thieves with hearts of gold, conmen with silver tongues, criminals as bold as brass, and far more that have tested my mettle. I've listened as they've told fantastic tales of traveling around the world, uncovering ancient mysteries, and risking life and limb for a little fortune and glory. The recipes that you're about to read are my tributes to those tales of adventure, romance, and danger, and to those who told them. They're a way for me to immerse myself in those escapades, preserve those stories, and pass along those experiences to others in the best way I know how.

Each recipe seeks to capture the essence of a person, a place, a moment, or a priceless treasure. They all include specific instructions, ingredients with recommendations, and a little relevant history. I hope that the foods and drinks you find here teach you something, take you to places you've never been, and lead you to unforgettable adventures of your own.

As always, Sic Parvis Magna.

[maskthedwarf]

Hey, Anon, just a little aside; please don't use that word. It's a slur against people with dwarfism.

It gained popularity from the Freak Show days where little people were treated as less than other people, like we were bugs into their shoe that weren't worth being called people so we were called m*dgets, but our dehumanisation goes as far as ancient Rome and Greece, where we treated as lusting bald little men who would go after men's wives. Some statues were even made of people with dwarfism with oversized genitals, which was seen as a bad thing in Greece, hence why most Greek hero statues have smaller ones. We were also given to people as a form of prize due to people only viewing us as something for entertainment.

Referring to her as a dwarf would also cause problems because she isn't one, Jenna is just smaller. Other terms that are okay are Little Person and Person with Dwarfism when referring to an actual person with Dwarfism. Also, one last thing, while calling a little person a dwarf isn't really offensive. It can feel dehumanising by comparing us to mythical creatures. So unless you have a close friend who's comfortable with being called a dwarf, or you are a person with dwarfism and are comfortable with it, I wouldn't recommend saying that either.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk :3 I hope I educated some people. There are other sources that can talk more in depth with this stuff, because I am not entirely knowledgeable on the specifics of our history, I'm still working on that, so I'd recommend checking those out. There's a lot of little people on tiktok that talk about it! I'd personally recommend Aubrey Smalls. He also has lists of other creators he personally recommends. Also, fun note, even if someone has Dwarfism, we can still build muscle mass the same way average height people can. Some little people are strong enough to carry average height people on our shoulders! So even though Tara is small, she could easily have more muscle mass than R ^-^

How did R get overpowered by that 5’1 midget in the first chapter

do we got toothpicks for arms or something? 😭

She’s little but she’s strong 😭

[uiruu]

woah i just learned that the word Nazi was originally derogatory, and the Nazis never used it to refer to themselves because it was kind of an insult lol. apparently, the original meaning was like “country bumpkin” or “hillbilly” or “redneck”, deriving from a nickname for the german name “Ignatz”, which was a common name in Bavaria, which is where the Nazi Party started. like, the word in the Nazi sense does come from National Socialism, cause “Socialist” (Sozialist) was shortened to “Sozi”, and so “National Socialist” was shortened to “Nazi”... specifically because it was a pun on Sozi and the derogatory “stereotypical dumb farmer” word. the reason we call them Nazis is because political opponents of the Nazis (leftists, especially those who fled Germany and were living as expats in other countries and, i suppose, would have been primary sources for what they experienced of what was going on in Germany at the time, what they knew was building up there) called them that in order to deride them. They didn’t call themselves Nazis, as it would be like cops calling themselves “pigs”. We call them Nazis because the people who hated Nazis called them Nazis. 

it’s just wild to me how that has been completely lost, cause like even in German, that just became the standard word for those people like immediately after the war. it’s derogatory and vile for all sorts of other reasons now. in some ways, it’s nice to know that they’ll forever be known by a word originally used by opponents of Nazism in order to call them stupid, though

[ganymedesclock]

what do you think about the white lady? got any cool headcanons about her? she's always come off to me as someone distant and uncaring, but not necessarily cruel

My silliest headcanon is I don't actually think White Lady has arms under the bindings.

The less silly headcanon is that I think the humanoid part of her is just her fruiting body / the part people imagine when they think of "what is a mushroom". This would explain why she basically practices birth control by swaddling 90% of it. It doesn't really slow her down, hence the comment that she's only restrained of her own volition, and I think if she wanted to be anywhere else she could just. submerge and then rupture out of the ground wherever she wanted. That's right. Most stationary seeming character in Hollow Knight has Flowey mobility.

To build from here to like... deeper stuff, my take on WL and her presence in the pantheon is the idea that WL is a sort of literalized "Columbia", or the role Amaterasu takes in the mythology of the founding of Japan. The idea of "The Land" or "The Kingdom" as a living mythic figure that a king is potentially wedded to.

WL seems overwhelmingly passive. She does not exhibit much concern about the kingdom or its downfall. If anything, she seems sort of perturbed or surprised that she misses PK as much as she did. Her response to an uncomfortable feeling is just sitting around and waiting for it to die. Even compared to her husband, she seems like a deeply ancient being. Which makes sense, because it's implicitly her roots that are sticking out at Kingdom's Edge, which would suggest we actually spend the entire game walking over her body. She is the soil of Hallownest. She defines its borders. There are few pockets older than her, mostly Unn, suggesting Greenpath may be- partially- a place that her roots don't reach.

WL basically does nothing with politics until it's mentioning the Grimmchild where she tells it outright to not get any ideas because the land would never accept it as a king, something that "someone who isn't a queen anymore" seemingly wouldn't have any say in. But I think WL sees herself as 'the land', even if she is more of an extremely expansive organism that lives within it and quite possibly maintains symbiosis with it. As far as we can tell, gods project their own sort of habitable spheres in an overwhelmingly barren world; WL may be the sort of underground sun warming the ground, plants growing from the 'exhale' of her root structure.

You're right that I don't think she's necessarily cruel, though she is absolutely callous in some ways. I think a lot of it comes down to her perspective. WL is kind of terminally big picture. Her response to Ghost- a long-lost child she did grieve to some extent- is to politely ask them if they wouldn't mind going to die in place of their sibling, on account of it'd be obviously not preferable if the apocalypse ensued. When Ghost in the 'true' endings (and similarly derived Godmaster endings) attains the void heart, WL equally neutrally accepts that she basically has no control over them anymore. The prospect that they could kill her probably dawns on her, but we know what she thinks about the Radiance. It's just not preferable really.

I feel like WL is significantly more "alien" or "eldritch" than PK. This doesn't necessarily make one of them better than the other, but a lot of PK's dilemmas are actually pretty relatable. The irony of him seeming like such an aloof mysterious god is that once we actually break past all his defenses, he is surprisingly ordinary. Yes, he was some kind of giant sandworm dragon. But his foibles and failings are unglamorous. We practically find him the way you find a failed survivor in a zombie apocalypse, a body huddled in a closet bunker where it held out and failed, still carrying the echo of trying to convince himself it was worth it.

WL's problems are less relatable in that sense. I think most of us don't have the ironclad certainty that unless something goes extremely wrong we'll outlive all of our problems, but that's just it. She's not going to fight her enemies or take a meaningful stance about anything. She can be almost darkly-comically negligent, such as asking "Ogrim" to go check on Dryya when she's able to track the progression of Hollow's infection through her roots from half the kingdom away, and it hasn't occurred to her that Dryya should be eating and sleeping and moving around more. Like a dotty old grandma who forgot to feed the parrot one too many times and wonders why the old thing doesn't sing for her anymore, only a bit more unsettling directly because while many of us might be upset at the fatal neglect of a parrot, many more are justifiably obstinate about the idea someone might see you as just a pet novelty, because your lifespan really isn't that long.

[ragingbookdragon]

What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger

Kotallo x Reader One-Shot

Word Count: 1.1K Warnings: None

Author's Note: I finally had time to sit down and write! This week has been hectic so far! Enjoy! -Thorne

**********************************************************************

She’d been rereading the ancient texts she’d found years before in the Old-World military bunkers she’d explored, stories of science fiction and fantasy, post-apocalyptic earth ravaged by wild storms and evolved creatures or mythic battles with magic and great winged beasts, when she heard it. Some parts she had to fill in herself as the years had either weathered away the pages of the physical book or the digital data had been corrupted, but for the most part, she had full texts to read. But the first few times, it caused her to shift her gaze towards the open area of the bunks, after the fifth, she clicked off her Focus and frowned, leaning towards the sheet she’d drawn up over her area to listen closer; a quiet, almost imperceivable grunt sounded from the bunk next to hers, Kotallo’s to be exact.

“GAIA,” she murmured, “What time is it right now?”

The AI took a moment to respond through her Focus. “It is currently zero-two-hundred hours.”

“Thank you, GAIA.” Rising from her bed, she bypassed the sheet and shuffled into Kotallo’s, gazing at him sitting up against the wall with his feet on the floor, eyes screwed shut, jaw clenched, and fist curled in his lap. “Your arm bothering you?”

He merely nodded, too focused on withstanding the pain to answer.

She disappeared back into her bunk, only to return with a lantern and her medical kit. “Let me look at it,” she said, taking a seat near the top of his bunk, her right leg in towards her and laying her left over his lap. She set the lantern on the small table and gently unwound the blue bandage he had wrapped around the stub of his arm. “It doesn’t look infected,” she noted, carefully examining it. “Is there something that hurts specifically?”

Kotallo kept his eyes shut, but he muttered, “I can feel my fingers flexing but they aren’t there.”

“Phantom pain,” she acknowledged. “My grandfather used to feel something similar.” Considerate to not cause any more pain, she slowly urged him to lift what much he could and look around. “The cauterizing and stitching are healing well.” She couldn’t help but trace the most prominent scar forming, jagged and still angry looking; reaching into her pack, she pulled out a thin strip of bark. “Chew on that for a few minutes.”

At that, he opened his eyes and looked down. “What is that?”

“Willow bark. It’ll help with the pain.” She handed it to him and then reached into her pack again, pulling out a small, flat vial about the size of her palm. Opening it, she poured some onto her palm and set the vial down before rubbing her hands together.

“That scent is overwhelmingly powerful,” Kotallo noted, and the corner of her lips quirked up for a moment.

“Plant oil mixtures.” She carefully smoothed her palms and fingers over the stub of his arm. “Won’t fix the pain forever, but it should dull it for a while.” Quietly, she said, “I know your arm is a touchy subject, so thank you for letting me help you, Kotallo.”

He exhaled through his nose and let his head fall back against the wall. “I don’t understand it.”

“What?”

“Some days I wake up and it doesn’t bother me. I don’t feel like my worth is attached to it. Other days I wake up and all I feel is shame. The whispers and stares, the outright scrutiny I bear.”

She nodded, running her thumb up over his shoulder. “As a Marshal of the Tenakth, you will bear it until the day you take your last breath. But you need to remember that your honor and respect aren’t tied to this.” Leaning over into his line of sight, she caught his eyes. “Those that view you as somehow less than respectable or honorable are naïve to truth and are blinded into believing that their worth is somehow measurable by their bodies.” She leaned forward and pressed a kiss to his collarbone. “And you, Kotallo, are someone whose worth hasn’t been taken from him in any form or fashion.”

He simply gazed at her, reaching up to softly touch her face, calloused fingers brushing over smooth skin. “How you just explain it all away. Like it’s easy.”

Giving him a humored hum, she replied, “How about I explain this in a way you’ll understand? What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger and also gives you a very dark, very sick sense of humor.”

Kotallo snorted and cupped her cheek, bending down to press a kiss to her lips. “Very understandable and true,” he murmured against her.

“I’m anything if not good at explaining things in simplistic terms,” she grinned, pecking his lips once, twice, then a third time before pulling away to wipe her hands on her dark pants. “How’s the arm feeling?”

“Better, but still sore. I have a clean wrap in that box over there,” he said, nodding at it.

She frowned and shook her head. “I think you should let it breathe for a while. You keep the wrap tight all the time, half of my mind tells me that’s why you find pain quite often. Let it heal some more before wrapping it up again.” When she saw the argument brewing, she added, “At least when you rest, let it breathe.”

He sighed, finally nodding. “Alright. While I rest.”

“Good,” she affirmed, standing up, though she stumbled a bit from the feeling gone lost in her right leg. Kotallo’s hand shot out and grabbed her, keeping her steady and she put a hand on his shoulder with a quiet laugh. “Thanks for the catch. I hadn’t realized it’d gone to sleep so fast.”

“You’re welcome.”

Once feeling returned, she pulled away. “Are you going to be able to sleep?”

He shrugged. “Probably not. I’m not tired anymore.”

“I’d been reading earlier. Some Old-World stories I’d collected from military bunkers.” She gave him a hopeful look and offered, “I can read one…if you want to listen?”

Kotallo glanced at her, giving her a calm smile. “I think I would enjoy that greatly.”

Returning a smile of her own, she watched as Kotallo shifted, sitting up against the wall with his legs outstretched on the bunk, opened slightly, and she crawled between them, tapping her Focus. “Have a blanket?”

“End of the bunk,” he replied.

She grabbed it, laying it over the two of them, and started reading, “The average life expectancy for a Hell Diver was fifteen jumps. This was Xavier Rodriguez’s ninety-sixth, and he was about to do it with a hangover…”

[maxwell-grant]

Excuse Me what is pulp and why is it importan?

Good question! And probably one I should have answered sooner. Time to put on the historian hat for this one.

"Pulp" is a term used mainly to describe forms of storytelling that sprang out or were dominant in 20th century cheap all-fiction American magazines from the 1900s to the 1950s. The pulp magazine began in 1896, when Frank Munsey's Argosy magazine, in order to cut costs, dropped the non-fiction articles and photographs and switched from glossy paper to the much less expensive wood pulp paper, hence the name. The pulp magazines would mainly take off as a distinct market and format in 1904, when Street & Smith learned that Popular Magazine, despite being marketed towards boys, was being consumed by men of all ages, so they increased page count and started putting popular authors on the issues.

It was specifically the 1905 reprint of H.Rider Haggard's Ayesha that not only put Street & Smith on the map as rivals to Argosy, but also inspired other companies to start publishing in the pulp format. Pulps encompassed literally everything that the authors felt like publishing. Westerns, romance, horror, sci-fi, railroad stories, war stories, war aviation stories. Zeppelins had a short-lived subgenre. Celebrities got their own magazines, it was really any genre or format they could pull off, anything they could get away with.

Nowadays, although they came quite late in it's history, the American pulps are most famous for it's "hero pulps", characters like The Shadow and Doc Savage that are viewed as a formative influence on comic book superheroes. The pulp magazines in America lasted until the 1950s, when cumulative factors such as paper shortages, diminishing audience returns and the closing of it's biggest publishers led to it dying off, although in the decades since there's always been publishers calling their magazines pulp. That's the American pulp history.

But pulps are a phenomenon that spans the entire world and has a much bigger history to it, because pulps have become synonymous with cheap fiction magazines and those have a much bigger history. In America, before the pulps, you had the dime novels, the direct predecessors of the pulps, as well as the novelettes. England had it's penny dreadfuls and story papers, and continued publishing pulp-format magazines past the American 1950s, and that's how we got Elric of Melniboné. France and Russia arguably got to it first with it's 1800s coulporters, chapbooks and particularly the feuilletons which lasted all the way to the 20th century and created characters such as Arsene Lupin, Fantomas and The Phantom of the Opera. The Germans published pulp under the name hefteromane. Japan also published pulp magazines both original as well as imported, and the current "light-novel" phenomenon started off as an equivalent of pulp magazines (it's even on the Wikipedia page). China has wuxia, Brazil has cordel, Italy has gialli. There were Indian, Persian, Ethiopian, Canadian, Australian pulps and much more. Look anywhere in the world and you'll find examples of "pulp" happening again and again, under different circumstances and time periods.

Even if we stick to American fiction, it's impossible to state that all pulp heroes must come from the 1900s-1950s pulp magazines, because that forces us to exclude some of the most popular pulp heroes like Indiana Jones, Green Hornet, Rocketeer and The Phantom. Pulp may have once been a term meant to refer to pulp magazines exclusively, but it's morphed and lost structure and it's become the closest thing we have to a general umbrella term that allows us to try and consolidate these under a shared history. It's a lot, as you can see, and it's why several pulp historians that broaden their scope outside of 1930s American fiction have adopted Roland Barthes's definition of pulp as "A Metaphor With No Brakes In It", which is still the closest thing to a true working definition we have.

Why is it important? You tell me. I don't like to stake claims about stuff being "important", everyone's got their own priorities in life. Surely a lot of people would scoff at the idea of old populist fiction published in what was functionally equivalent to toilet paper having any sort of "importance". On the other hand, some people definitely want to talk big about the pulps as a cultural bedrock of fiction, something that's baked into the lifeblood of all fiction as we currently know it. Which it is, mind you, but I don't like to talk about pulp fiction's value being derived mainly from merely the things it inspired.

There is definitely a historical importance to be had in cataloguing them. According to the US's foremost pulp researcher Jess Nevins, 38% of all American pulps no longer exist, and 14% of all American pulps survive in less than five copies. Many libraries have very scant, if any, records on them, many collectors are hard to locate and are uncooperative when it comes to sharing information and letting outsiders view their collections. A lot of them are bound up in legal complications that prevents them from taking off in the public domain, and a lot of them ARE public domain but are completely inacessible as research material. And that's the American pulps, foreign pulps have fared far worse in posterity, with records inaccessible to people unfamiliar with the language or locations, many existing merely in mentions on decades-old records, and hundreds if not thousands of them being completely gone beyond recovery or recall.

Gone, dead, wasted, destroyed. They can't be found in barbershops or warehouse or bookstores, not even in antique stores. Hundreds, thousands of characters, stories and creators, gone. Time and posterity have crushed them to dust, forgotten and ignored by their successors. Unfettered by pretenses of respectability that repressed their glossier counterparts, in packages meant to be destroyed after reading, proudly announcing itself as trash. Things that should have never even lasted as long as they did have died many times now. It's heroes peripherical shapeshifters, nearly all of whom seem dead, quite dead, as dead as fictional characters can possibly be.

But they do not die forever. Many of them have, maybe most of them have, but many of them linger on.

"The strange red flickering of 1930’s fiction seems distant now.  You hold in your hand the product of a time too remote to recall, and feel a slow stir of wonder.  The smell of pulp pages, an illustration, an advertisement, these fragile things mark the slow hammering of time and display what it has done.  About you are today’s machines, today’s shadows.

Outside the window, leaves hang against the sky, as did leaves during the 1930’s.  The sound of voices are no different then than now.  You hold the magazine and feel something quite delicate slipping past. These solid forms surrounding you are all insubstantial. Time’s hammer will also pass across them, leaving little enough behind." - Spider, by Robert Sampson

Many of the things people call dead are just things that have been sleeping for a while or haven't had the chance to be born. Pulp fiction is dead on the page, inert, unless your imagination breathes live to it, and every now and then, one way or another, these characters dig themselves out of dustbins. Maybe it's a brief revival, maybe it's a successful reboot. Maybe they find publishers, or maybe the public domain allows them to find new life. Maybe new creators do interesting things with them, and maybe, just maybe, they live again because some won't shut up about them online. Some curious impulse led you to me, did it not? 

We all have our Frankensteins to obsess over, and these are some of mine. As someone who's lived a life perpetually restless over pursuit of knowledge, pulp has lured me like a moth to flame, because I literally never run out of things to discover within it, I never run out of possibilities. As the years pass and the public domain starts being more and more open to the public, more and more narrative real state is brought forth for writers and artists and creators to play around.

Pulp is the dark matter of fiction, the uncatalogued depths of the ocean, the darkest recesses of space. It's the box of your grandfather's belongings, the treasure you find in an attic, a body part sticking out from an old playground. It's the things that don't work, don't succeed, the things that don't fit, that are out of place. That shouldn't live and succeed, and did so anyway. The things that slither in the cracks, the shadows behind the curtain.

Aren't you interested in peering on what's behind the curtain?

The exquisite workmanship of the head, of a pre-pyramidal age, and the hieroglyphics, symbols of a language that was forgotten when Rome was young–these, Kane sensed, were additions as modern to the antiquity of the staff itself as would be English words carved on the stone monoliths of Stonehenge.

As for the cat-head–looking at it sometimes Kane had a peculiar feeling of alteration; a faint sensing that once the pommel of the staff was carved with a different design. The dust-ancient Egyptian who had carved the head of Bast had merely altered the original figure, and what that figure had been, Kane had never tried to guess.

A close scrutiny of the staff always aroused a disquieting and almost dizzy suggestion of abysses of eons, unprovocative to further speculation. - The Footfalls Within, by Robert E Howard, quoted by Stuart Hopen’s The Mythic American Culture

[reginaldqueribundus]

No. You know what's actually wrong with society today? Attitudes like this. I worked hard for everything I have, yes. But I want everyone else to have what I have too, and to have the chances I had. Is it so wrong for people to ask that life not be so goddamn hard all the time?

This Ancient Spartan philosophy of "you have to work until your hands bleed and sacrifice your physical and mental health to get nice things" is, first of all, total bullshit — people shouldn't have to struggle and sacrifice so much just to live their lives — but I digress. This philosophy might work in some pie-in-the-sky magic fairytale society where everyone has the same advantages and opportunities, but guess what? That mythical egalitarian utopia? It doesn't exist! Not everyone can live a safe, comfortable, fulfilling life through “hard work and sacrifice”, and thinking everybody can obtain a house and a car and a job that pays well enough to afford these things if they simply do more/harder work is, like many branches of theoretical physics, something that only works on paper.

Many people seem to think that “work” is this magical number like the high score in an old Super Mario game, and the more work you do makes the number keep going up until you can eventually get whatever you want. This is simply not true, and the notion of less-fortunate people being "lazy" is a poisonous, classist lie fed to us by selfish capitalist elites and repeated by people who've either a) had everything handed to them their whole lives, or b) have never once thought about the adversities other people face. To say nothing of disabled folks, who apparently have no place in this fuckhead's worldview, which is another disgusting and ugly side to the conceit he's putting forth here.

And as a side note, I'd love to meet all the legions of people these shit lickers keep mentioning who are allegedly out there demanding no work and free cars, because I've never met them, and frankly don't think they exist. They're mostly made up by people like this to justify not caring about the needs of others. It isn't a crime for people to want healthcare, or transportation, or housing, to be accessible to them when it very often isn't. And the only entitlement on display in this comment, is the writer feeling entitled to sit and enjoy the fruits of his labours while casting aspersions on everyone less privileged than him, and never spare them a second thought.

Friend, if you've read this far into my obscenely lengthy post, all I ask of you is that you be kind to one another, think about those whose needs and situations are different from your own, and don't write them off as "lazy" or "entitled". Something you take for granted may have never even been a part of someone else's life, or may not even be attainable for them. I encourage you to think of Charlie Chaplin's words in his 1940 film, The Great Dictator:

“We all want to help one another, human beings are like that. We want to live by each other's happiness, not by each other's misery. … And this world has room for everyone, and the good Earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful.

You have the love of humanity in your hearts! You don't hate! Only the unloved hate — the unloved and the unnatural!

Let us fight for a new world — a decent world that will give men a chance to work — that will give youth a future and old age a security. …Let us all unite!”

[thepoet-ry]

-in the dream-

In the dream, its much like it is in the poem. anything can happen.

There may be birds and there may be something far more terrifying. There may be something you'd never considered in your waking life. Visions of your mother feeding you black milk or your father coming at you with a dagger. Diggings into your chest in an attempt to find your heart that reveal a withered white and puss-filled sack, more like a miscarriage than a brave, beating vital thing.

In the dream, it is much like it is in the poem. You find yourself walking in green fields, sun on your face, only to fall off the edge of the world like you did in a video game you played while you were still a child. Rainbow roads fade and evaporate just as you were approaching the checkered flag. The end doesn't matter as much as how you got there. Journeys and childhood games look less alike than they really are.

In the dream, it is much like it is in the poem. There is no end in sight and it lasts much shorter it seems. You feel your way in the dark, some unknown watcher guiding your hand. Pressure nonexistent yet you are drawn into the depths of yourself. Finding all manner of creatures and thoughts believed extinct or mythical. You find the leviathan. He swallows you whole. You are in his belly with a candle. You find that ancient fear, that archaic flame. Where is the guide?

In the dream, it is much like it is in the poem.

[yamayuandadu]

Circe by Madeline Miller: a review

As you might have noticed, a few of my most recent posts were more or less a liveblog of Madeline Miller’s novel Circe. However, as they hardly exhausted the subject, a proper review is also in order. You can find it under the “read more” button. All sorts of content warnings apply because this book takes a number of turns one in theory can expect from Greek mythology but which I’d hardly expect to come up in relation to Circe. I should note that this is my first contact with this author’s work. I am not familiar with Miller’s more famous, earlier novel Song of Achilles - I am not much of an Iliad aficionado, truth to be told. I read the poem itself when my literature class required it, but it left no strong impact on me, unlike, say, the Epic of Gilgamesh or, to stay within the theme of Greek mythology, Homeric Hymn to Demeter, works which I read at a similar point in my life on my own accord.

What motivated me to pick up this novel was the slim possibility that for once I’ll see my two favorite Greek gods in fiction, these being Hecate and Helios (in case you’re curious: #3 is Cybele but I suspect that unless some brave soul will attempt to adapt Nonnus’ Dionysiaca, she’ll forever be stuck with no popcultural presence outside Shin Megami Tensei). After all, it seemed reasonable to expect that Circe’s father will be involved considering their relationship, while rarely discussed in classical sources, seems remarkably close. Hesiod’s Catalogue of Women and Apollonius’ Argonautica describe Circe arriving on her island in her father’s solar chariot, while Ptolemy Hephaestion (as quoted by Photius) notes that Helios protected her home during the Gigantomachy. Helios, for all intents and purposes, seems like a decent dad (and, in Medea’s case, grandpa) in the source material even though his most notable children (and granddaughter) are pretty much all cackling sorcerers, not celebrated heroes. How does Miller’s Helios fare, compared to his mythical self? Not great, to put it lightly, as you’ll see later. As for Hecate… she’s not even in the book. Let me preface the core of the review by saying I don’t think reinterpreting myths, changing relations between figures, etc. is necessarily bad - ancient authors did it all the time, and modern adaptations will inevitably do so too, both to maintain internal coherence and perhaps to adjust the stories to a modern audience, much like ancient authors already did. I simply don’t think this book is successful at that. The purpose of the novel is ostensibly to elevate Circe above the status of a one-dimensional minor antagonist - but to accomplish this, the author mostly demonizes her family and a variety of other figures, so the net result is that there are more one dimensional female villains, not less. I expected the opposite, frankly. The initial section of the novel focuses on Circe’s relationship with her family, chiefly with her father. That’s largely uncharted territory in the source material - to my knowledge no ancient author seemed particularly interested in covering this period in her life. Blank pages of this sort are definitely worth filling. To begin with, Helios is characterized as abusive, neglectful and power-hungry. And also, for some reason, as Zeus’ main titan ally in the Titanomachy - a role which Hesiod attributes to Hecate… To be fair I do not think it’s Hesiod who serves as the primary inspiration here, as it’s hard to see any traces of his account - in which Zeus wins in no small part because he promises the lesser titans higher positions that they had under Cronus - in Miller’s version of events. Only Helios and Oceanus keep their share, and are presented as Zeus’ only titan allies (there’s a small plot hole as Selene appears in the novel and evidently still is the moon…) - contrary to just about any portrayal of the conflict, in which many titans actually side with Zeus and his siblings. Also, worth noting that in Hesiod’s version it’s not Oceanus himself who cements the pact with Zeus, it’s his daughter Styx - yes, -that- Styx. Missed opportunity to put more focus on female mythical figures - first of many in this work, despite many reviews praising it as “feminist.” Of course, it’s not all about Helios. We are quickly introduced to a variety of female characters as well (though, as I noted above, none of these traditionally connected to the Titanomachy despite it being a prominent aspect of the book’s background). They are all somewhat repetitive - to the point of being basically interchangeable. Circe’s mother is vain and cruel; so is Scylla. And Pasiphae. There’s no real indication of any hostility between Circe and any of her siblings in classical sources, as far as I am aware, but here it’s a central theme. The subplots pertaining to it bear an uncanny resemblance to these young adult novels in which the heroine, who is Not Like Other Girls, confronts the Chads and Stacies of the world, and I can’t shake off the feelings that it’s exactly what it is, though with superficial mythical flourish on top. I should note that Pasiphae gets a focus arc of sorts - which to my surprise somehow manages to be more sexist than the primary sources. A pretty famous tidbit repeated by many ancient authors is that Pasiphae cursed her husband Minos, regarded as unfaithful, to kill anyone else he’d have sex with with his… well, bodily fluids. Here she does it entirely  because she’s a debased sadist and not because unfaithfulness is something one can be justifiably mad about. You’d think it would be easy to put a sympathetic spin on this. But the book manages to top that in the very same chapter - can’t have Pasiphae without the Minotaur (sadly - I think virtually everything else about Pasiphae and Minos is more fun than that myth but alas) so in a brand new twist on this myth we learn that actually the infamous affair wasn’t a curse placed on Pasiphae by Poseidon or Aphrodite because of some transgression committed by Minos. She’s just wretched like that by nature. I’m frankly speechless, especially taking into account the book often goes out of its way to present deities in the worst light possible otherwise, and which as I noted reviews praise for its feminist approach - I’m not exactly sure if treating Pasiphae worse than Greek and Roman authors did counts as that.  I should note this is not the only instance of… weirdly enthusiastic references to carnal relations between gods and cattle in this book, as there’s also a weird offhand mention of Helios being the father of his own cows. This, as far as I can tell, is not present in any classical sources and truth to be told I am not a huge fan of this invention. I won’t try to think about the reason behind this addition to maintain my sanity. Pasiphae aside - the author expands on the vague backstory Circe has in classical texts which I’ve mentioned earlier. You’d expect that her island would be a gift from her father - after all many ancient sources state that he provided his children and grandchildren with extravagant gifts. However, since Helios bears little resemblance to his mythical self, Aeaea is instead a place of exile here, since Helios hates Circe and Zeus is afraid of witchcraft and demands such a solution (the same Zeus who, according to Hesiod, holds Hecate in high esteem and who appeared with her on coins reasonably commonly… but hey, licentia poetica, this idea isn’t necessarily bad in itself). Witchcraft is presented as an art exclusive to Helios’ children here - Hecate is nowhere to be found, it’s basically as if her every role in Greek mythology was surgically removed. A bit of a downer, especially since at least one text - I think Ovid’s Metarphoses? - Circe directly invokes Hecate during her confrontation with king Picus (Surprisingly absent here despite being a much more fitting antagonist for Circe than many of the characters presented as her adversaries in this novel…) Of course, we also learn about the origin of Circe’s signature spell according to ancient sources, changing people into animals. It actually takes the novel a longer while to get there, and the invented backstory boils down to Circe getting raped. Despite ancient Greek authors being rather keen on rape as plot device, to my knowledge this was never a part of any myth about Circe. Rather odd decision to put it lightly but I suppose at least there was no cattle involved this time, perhaps two times was enough for the author. Still, I can’t help but feel like much like many other ideas present in this book it seems a bit like the author’s intent is less elevating the Circe above the role of a one note witch antagonist, but rather punishing her for being that. The fact she keeps self loathing about her origin and about not being human doesn’t exactly help to shake off this feeling. This impression that the author isn’t really fond of Circe being a wacky witch only grows stronger when Odysseus enters the scene. There was already a bit of a problem before with Circe’s life revolving around love interests before - somewhat random ones at that (Dedalus during the Pasiphae arc and Hermes on and off - not sure what the inspiration for either of these was) - but it was less noticeable since it was ultimately in the background and the focus was the conflict between Circe and Helios, Pasiphae, etc. In the case of Odysseus it’s much more notable because these subplots cease to appear for a while. As a result of meeting him, Circe decides she wants to experience the joys of motherhood, which long story short eventually leads to the birth of Telegonus, who does exactly what he was famous for. The final arcs have a variety of truly baffling plot twists which didn’t really appeal to me, but which I suppose at least show a degree of creativity - better than just turning Helios’ attitude towards his children upside down for sure. Circe ends up consulting an oc character who I can only describe as “stingray Cthulhu.” His presence doesn’t really add much, and frankly it feels like yet another wasted opportunity to use Hecate, but I digress. Oh, also in another twist Athena is recast as the villain of the Odyssey. Eventually Circe gets to meet Odysseus’ family, for once interacts with another female character on positive terms (with Penelope, to be specific) and�� gets together with Telemachus, which to be fair is something present in many ancient works but which feels weird here since there was a pretty long passage about Odysseus describing him as a child to Circe. I think I could live without it. Honestly having her get together with Penelope would feel considerably less weird, but there are no lesbians in the world of this novel. It would appear that the praise for Song of Achilles is connected to the portrayal of gay relationships in it. Can’t say that this applies to Circe - on this front we have an offhand mention of Hyacinth's death. which seems to serve no real purpose other than establishing otherwise irrelevant wind god is evil, and what feels like an advert for Song of Achilles courtesy of Odysseus, which takes less than one page. Eventually Circe opts to become mortal to live with Telemachus and denounces her father and… that’s it. This concludes the story of Circe. I don’t exactly think the original is the deepest or greatest character in classical literature, but I must admit I’d rather read about her wacky witch adventures than about Miller’s Circe. A few small notes I couldn’t fit elsewhere: something very minor that bothered me a lot but that to be honest I don’t think most readers will notice is the extremely chaotic approach to occasional references to the world outside Greece - Sumer is randomly mentioned… chronologically after Babylon and Assyria, and in relation to Persians (or rather - to Perses living among them). At the time we can speak of “Persians” Sumerian was a dead language at best understood by a few literati in the former great cities of Mesopotamia so this is about the same as if a novel about Mesopotamia mentioned Macedonians and then completely randomly Minoans at a chronologically later point. Miller additionally either confused or conflated Perses, son of Perseus, who was viewed positively and associated with Persia (so positively that Xerxes purportedly tried to use it for propaganda purposes!) with Perses the obscure brother of Circe et. al, who is a villain in an equally obscure myth casting Medea as the heroine, in which he rules over “Tauric Chersonese,” the Greek name of a part of Crimea. I am honestly uncertain why was he even there as he amounts to nothing in the book, and there are more prominent minor children of Helios who get no mention (like Aix or Phaeton) so it’s hard to argue it was for the sake of completion. Medea evidently doesn’t triumph over him offscreen which is his sole mythical purpose. Is there something I liked? Well, I’m pretty happy Selene only spoke twice, considering it’s in all due likeness all that spared her from the fate of receiving similarly “amazing” new characterization as her brother. As is, she was… okay. Overall I am definitely not a fan of the book. As for its purported ideological value? It certainly has a female main character. Said character sure does have many experiences which are associated with women. However, I can’t help but think that the novel isn’t exactly feminist - it certainly focuses on Circe, but does it really try to “rehabilitate” her? And is it really “rehabilitation” and feminist reinterpretation when almost every single female character in the book is the same, and arguably depicted with even less compassion than in the source material?  It instead felt like the author’s goal is take away any joy and grandeur present in myths, and to deprive Circe of most of what actually makes her Circe. We don’t need to make myths joyless to make them fit for a new era. It’s okay for female characters to be wacky one off villains and there’s no need to punish them for it. A book which celebrates Circe for who she actually is in the Odyssey and in other Greek sources - an unapologetic and honestly pretty funny character -  would feel much more feminist to me that a book where she is a wacky witch not because she feels like it but because she got raped, if you ask me. 

Circe evidently having the time of her life, by Edmund Dulac (public domain)

[limitlessgojo]

Blood Bound: Blackened Bond (Ch 16)

Warnings: Action, Coarse Language, Fighting, Descriptions of Blood, Death, Gore, Japanese Mythical Folklore, No Major Character Death

Previous Chapter: 土御門天皇 (Tsuchimikado)

Next Chapter: Inferno: Flames of Hell

Word Count: 3.3k

Tags: Kamo Noritoshi x Reader, Soulmates AU, Angst, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Fem!Reader

Taglist: @lessie-oxj @rizzo-nero @whoreuc @fkngkumiko @isl3t @gojoussunglasses @onepotatostand-blog @s-t-f-u-b-i-t-c-h @sunaswife @lordguameow @track5enthusiast @nayydoesthings

Notes: If you want to be tagged for every update, and specify if you're okay with NSFW posts or not, please mention it in the comments below ty ❤

This chapter is LONG, a lot longer than I expected haha, happy reading!

Chapter 16: Non-Standard

Noritoshi was in a shitty mood to say the least. He went home to his clan immediately after getting a summon. The clan head had discussed their stance on the upcoming war and is readying their jujutsu sorcerers for battle.

His half-brother had made a not too subtle snarky remark about you. "You've already gotten yourself a woman? Wonder if she even likes you. I'm willing to bet Homura's cuter than her." Secretly his brother was curious about you, having heard about your special grade status.

Noritoshi steeled himself, knowing his brother's playboy tendencies at his school.

"That's enough. I am quite serious about her, so don't even think of taking her."

He watched his brother shut up upon seeing him like this and left him hanging.

'Heeehhh? That Noritoshi is actually interested in someone? Interesting…'

Other serious matters aside, his father, as usual, asked about you, only for him to find out you've both gotten into an argument.

The head of the Kamo clan only raised an eyebrow. "That’s normal for every couple."

Noritoshi kept his temper at bay. But he couldn't help resenting his phone call with his father that day. If his father was less controlling and obsessive over their clan status, maybe it would have gone better.

No... He was also influenced by the elders. Ashamed as Noritoshi was to acknowledge it himself.

“We… broke up…”

At that, his father shuts his eyes, mood obviously souring.

"You are literally a fated pair, how is that even possible? *sigh* If it proves too difficult with her… well we had that list of marriage partners set up for you. Homura has made it quite clear she and her family would be very delighted to assimilate with ours."

Is this what Noritoshi wanted? A woman who obviously flirted with him as she lusted for power? No, he wanted you, who never inquired about his status. Just about his family, his mom, dad and half siblings.

You made it very clear you were worried about his family's well-being. And whether they would like you or not. You want him to meet yours. You never even asked him for a gift or much favors. (Though he had a feeling your family was pretty well off, based on your clothes and jewellery.)

And he loved the fact that he could breathe like a regular teenage guy around you. The only thing you’ve requested from him so far was honesty and transparency.

"No. That won't be needed. Y/N is mine. She is the only one for me." He spoke slowly and clearly. This is the first time he actually disagreed with his father. He'd lose his sanity without you.

"I expected as much, I've never seen you this determined about something before. Soulmates are so complicated." His father sighed out. "Do as you wish. It isn't wise for me or the elders to interfere with something as sacred and ancient as this soulbond you share with her anyways."

Noritoshi felt himself earn a small win at that. He was growing a backbone. "Thank you father."

“However! You cannot force her to love you back. Surely you know this. If you don’t get married by the age of 25, as per our clan tradition I’ll have you set up with another woman.”

Noritoshi inwardly sighed, resigned to his fate.

◇◇◇

Needless to say, you trained like a demon as the eve of Christmas quickly approached. Nobody dared come 10 feet near you as you perfected your Blizzard and Tornado techniques. It was normal to hear the crack of a sonic boom and see flashes of lightning around you.

You were hesitant to use your cursed technique reversal. You barely use flames and Inferno in general, but it can't be helped. But now you hold a pack of matches in your hand.

You lit a match and manipulated the flames. It danced dangerously around your fingers before you moved it from one hand to the other.

You were doing well. Spending a lot of time here on campus helped you to control your emotions and not let anger fuel your cursed energy like you did when you were younger. Those were such bad habits.

A wheel of flame circled in front of you. Very clean and stable. All of the sudden, a strong whirl of wind and empty space extinguished the flames like a vacuum … Only one other person in Japan is capable of doing that other than you.

You turned your head to the side and saw an incredibly tall man with snow white hair and a pair of sunglasses approached you. His bright baby blue eyes gently twinkling and peeking over the rims of his shades.

“Satoru nii, it’s been a while. Why visit me now?” You tiredly asked. He came up just a few inches away from you, staring down at you.

“I got a call from Hiroki. I’m here to help you with your special cursed techniques. It’s time, you’ve stopped holding yourself back Neko-chan.” He leered down with his trademark grin.

◇◇◇

You spend the entire afternoon getting pushed around by Satoru. This man was crazy strong. He kicked you against a tree. “OOF” you heaved.

"You avoid using Inferno. Is it because of your childhood trauma? I'm not shaming you but it's something you need to overcome."

You frowned at his words.

"You only have today to train with me y/n! Aren’t you honored I went out of my way from Tokyo to Kyoto?”

"Like hell I am."

“You’re not using the full extent of your cursed techniques. That power is your one true ally in this world. Trust it a bit more. Apart from your soulmate anyways, but I can see you and Noritoshi aren't exactly swell right now." Your eye twitched at that statement.

Satoru eyed the broken strands of red ropes that floated around you. Not a good sign. It was reaching out to the distance. Maybe to where Noritoshi is huh, Satoru wondered. Until he spotted one thin string, still very much intact and alive. He grinned.

‘This prick and his fucking special eye abilities’, you grumbled. He hit your back hard, “What bad language you have. Imma straighten you up today kitteeeen~”

He pranced around you and squatted to lean down to your level.

"But seriously, you say you want to get strong but you fear your own power kitten. Don't do that." Satoru pointed straight at your eyes. “Remove the fear of hurting the people around you. Because you’re literally fighting to protect the ones you love, focus instead on harnessing your cursed energy to fight. Your messed up emotions could cost you a fight, even your life. Doesn’t matter if you’re a special grade like me. At this rate you won’t catch up to me.”

You slumped to the ground in defeat.

“To be honest, I feel like my growth has stunted. I don’t know if it’s the lack of powerful opponents I’ve had lately.”

He sighed out so loudly and obnoxiously that your anger flared up at him. “Thaaat’s what I kept telling you. You shoulda come to Tokyo Jujutsu instead of here! 100% I would enjoy teaching you and I mean it. I could teach you ya know, and Yuuta is there as well. Another Special Grade, although his circumstances are quite unique and with the way he is right now, you have a better chance at beating him one-on-one since he’s a newbie to this world. And yet you kept saying you wanted to be here for your family.” He shook his head.

You felt as though your head cleared up all of a sudden. “Because I was here…. I was meant to be here. Satoru. I know it deep in my soul. Because I met Noritoshi and…. “ Your heart throbbed so loudly you heard it in your ears. A deep pain stabbed into you.

Ah right. You said you were over him. You broke up with him weeks ago.

“And? You’re not together anymore. Figure out your heart and I could let you reconsider transferring to Tokyo Jujutsu High you know?” He said with a frown.

Why does the idea of leaving Noritoshi behind feeling like you were carving your heart out? He isn’t anything to you anymore and yet…

No. Enough of this. You’re here to train and fight that curse that killed Sora. Your emotions were all over the place. Satoru came up to you and wiped your tears off your face.

“What are you doing to yourself y/n? Don’t lie to yourself. I thought you wanted to live life as honestly as possible.” Even Satoru looked concerned and troubled over your state.

You gulped. “Yeah you’re right. I told myself I wanted to get stronger and protect the ones I love. Now I’m just running away. Noritoshi at least has been trying to reach out to me, but I shut him down.” Your heart is hurting.

Satoru stared at you and the cursed energy that was rapidly pulsing around you. Then grinned. “Then... Fight me one-on-one right here right now. Let’s make sure to keep the damages to a minimum and take care of the buildings. All the other students are still here on campus. Sky's the limit since both of us can move well in mid-air. I want to see you control your emotions and fight me properly. I’ll hold back.” He said.

You took a deep breath and looked back up. “Challenge accepted.”

You’ve envisioned this countless times. You wanted to see how you could match-up against Satoru and all his years of experience. You weren’t expecting to win, but you were not going down without a fight. Your cursed technique is actually a good matchup for his.

You can manipulate molecules. Though you suspect his control is on an atomic level, and thus could overpower yours due to his finesse and 6 eyes. But you could at the very least try.

Satoru, on the other hand, already knew of your potential. 'She is the only one I know who can actually touch and surpass me, given that she can control gravity and condense molecules. It will come down to timing and refining techniques.'

“Give me 5 minutes to suit up.” You asked. He agreed. You flew to your room and eyed the katana of your father. He actually planned to give it to Sora when she turns 16. But due to her death, he gave it to you instead on your 16th.

The name was Kintsugi, because it was made of two halves before being welded together in the centre with high grade steel. The center has a core of a fine diamond dust that’s infused with cursed energy. It’s a grade 1 special tool that multiplies the cursed energy you put into it by 10.

“Don’t break it. Don’t break it…. But It’s Satoru I’m going against. It will break.” And so you put it back and instead reached for your best twin blades and metallic whip. You coiled it around your wrist like a bangle, before flying back to Satoru.

“Done preparing, kitten?” He had removed his sunglasses and his blue eyes were out wide open as they assessed your cursed technique.

“Yep!” You yelled. “Ah Toru, shouldn’t we inform the elders or Utahime sensei that we-”

He didn’t give you time to speak as he appeared in front of you all of the sudden. Rushing with a right hook. You quickly dodged. He kept his word and is going easy on you at least.

You exchanged a few blows with him, both his limitless and your spacial barrier active so technically, no hits were landed.

Until you warped the space and forced the molecules around them to retract, making you actually reach and hit him.

He must have expected the solid punch, because in return, he kicked you as he warped off your spacial barrier. You eyed him as you regrouped. It’s anyone’s game huh.

“You’re still holding back! Are you going to be like this in a real battle? Are you okay with staying weak? Or do you have to wait for someone special to die before you ignite?!”

Oh no he didn’t. Your emotions raged, and you tried to calm them down. But all you saw was blood red. You never felt this angry at Satoru before. Before you knew it, you had activated inferno, making the entire surrounding area, which Satoru was in, combust and burn up in flames.

You lit up a match and pulled the flames on the ground and trees towards your smaller flame and held a massive ball of fire. Satoru was gone, it was only soot on the ground. You looked up to see him hurtling down at you.

You barely dodged, before wrapping the flames around you as you used it to strike at him repeatedly. You both rose up higher and higher into the air.

“Special art: Goldenrod,” you shot a bolt of lightning at Satoru only for him to dodge it. “Don’t just shoot it from your hands! Electricity is a current! You can make it run through your entire body!” He yelled as you both spiraled and fought over the campus.

He had the energy to teach you while you were fighting. You scoffed, but listened carefully, generating electricity in your hands before letting it wrap around you.

You were both dodging and striking at each other with such power. The trees swayed violently as winds and rubble were thrown about.

“What on earth…” Noritoshi and the other students stared at the flashes of fire, lightning, and wind above the campus.

The sky darkened. Good. If you had water, that was another asset.

He must have realized this as he immediately activated his Cursed Technique: Reversal. “Red.” You were forced back, plummeting to the ground. You swiftly turned and saw Miwa and Mai staring at you with horror.

You pulled yourself up back into the sky, still filled with fire and lightning, narrowly missing the building. You twisted your fingers to the side. The flames turned into the shape of the Dragon and you whipped back to hit Satoru from the front while your dragon of flame hit him from behind.

He danced around your attacks, teleporting from one area to the next to dodge them.

He then easily extinguished your flames with a flick of his wrist, but your lightning stayed. He can’t extinguish it, because it was coursing through your body, constantly moving.

You both stood, hundreds of feet high above the Kyoto Campus in midair. Lightning flashed above and winds howled.

You’ve never been pushed this hard your entire life. Not with Hiroki. Not with Todo. But Satoru was really on another level of strong. Unbreakable like a monster. He didn’t feel human anymore.

You tried for a Mach Speed hit, which you’ve never tried on anyone else; it would kill them on impact. “Mach 3.5” There was a loud BANG!

Going at Mach Speed has its limits of course. You can afford to do Mach 1, 5 times a day. Mach 2, 3 times, and Mach 4 only once.

A huge cone of smoke formed behind you as you launched yourself at Satoru. He was still able to evade you, but you pointed one hand to him, quickly following up on another attack.

“Fubuki.” Your blizzard technique was a combination of Niflheim and Tatsumaki. Cold air whipped around you and you thrust it towards Satoru. A mini tornado has formed around you and it pushed and pulled widely. But you were in the eye of the storm.

Satoru dodged your winds, but couldn’t escape them all, wincing as some small ice shards cut into his skin. He attracted debris and rocks towards you. One caught on your shoulder, making you yell in pain, but the rest you were able to guard against with your winds.

He immediately closed in on you to prevent you from doing another full blast and punched with ‘Red’. You countered with a roundhouse kick supercharged with your blizzard and lightning, neutralising his infinity jujutsu with a bit of mixed gravity control.

A huge gust of whirlwind was emitted from the impact, forcing everyone on campus down to the ground.

“GOJO! TSUCHIMIKADO! STOP THIS!” Utahime was screaming at the top of her lungs, still heard over the roar of thunderclap.

You both looked at each other and knew it had to end soon. Rain was starting to fall.

He threw his back and laughed out loud. “I hadn’t had this much fun in ages. You’ve grown really strong. Stop me if you can.” And flew away from the buildings and into the surrounding forest. You whipped your tornado around you and quickly followed him.

All the other students that had been watching you go at it followed. Utahime did as well. They stood from a distance as both of you exchanged more hits.

You lit another match and let arrows made of flames rain on Satoru, weakening his limitless barrier as much as you could. Only one arrow slightly singed his sleeve. Damn he was good.

Satoru attracted your body with “Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue.” You felt like your insides were tearing as you tried to stop his force. But his limitless technique easily overpowered yours. You let go and rushed towards him with both your swords out.

He easily sidestepped and kicked them out of your grasp. The hit was so heavy, even though it hit your swords, you felt the force reverberate throughout your body.

Satoru grabbed your neck from behind, and for the very first time since you were awarded the Special Grade Jujutsushi status, you were forced down onto the ground.

You used your cursed technique to soften the blow as much as possible, but Satoru was relentless as he slammed you head-first down onto the grass.

Everyone winced as you hit the ground hard. "He's not human." Mai said. Everyone agreed, not used to seeing you at the mercy of another party like this. They were reminded of who exactly was the strongest sorcerer alive.

In order to win against Satoru, your goal was to touch him and move past his limitless barrier. Even if it’s just for a moment. You couldn’t use Niflheim or Inferno from afar. He would remain unaffected as he guards and stops the change in movement of molecules around him.

But now his hand was around your neck. Your twin blades suddenly rush to close in around his neck in an x position to gather his attention, while you use your technique to warp the space around his hand to weaken limitless and hold onto him.

You lashed out with your metallic whip, letting your cursed technique run through it. It worked and scratched his cheek a bit.

"Enhanced gravity: Output 30%", the ground cracked underneath the both of you as a massive weight pressed down. And then you shocked both Satoru and yourself with the lightning coursing through you. Screaming at the pain in the process.

He gritted his teeth as volts shocked his bones.

Utahime and the others stared at both of you. "What a huge amount of cursed energy." Todo said in awe. "Non-standard Jujutsu users are insane."

Satoru still had the strength to hit your lower back which caused you to heave out and stop Goldenrod from activating. Both of your clothes were literally toasted. “Haha. You’re a scary one y/n.”

That’s all you remembered before you passed out; you were out of cursed energy.

◇◇◇

Noritoshi rushed over to take you in his arms. Pulling your unconscious body close to his, he gave you a once-over. You had just fainted from exhaustion, there were no serious injuries. Good.

"Noritoshi," Satoru called.

"Yes, Gojo San?"

"Take care of her for me please."

He straightened up, "Of course. There’s no need to ask that from me." He then carried you to the infirmary, holding you gently in his arms.

Blood Bound: Table of Contents

Author's Notes: Me writing this entire scene: FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT!!! (x100)

Y/n was able to fight on par with Satoru, because he chose to limit his cursed energy output and match his skills to her level. A psychokinesis cursed technique would be a natural enemy for limitless since you can condense and expand space between molecules. But you still lack experience in battle. And if we were going to talk about Domains, Satoru would dominate the battle.

[raeynbowboi]

How to Play as Link in DnD 5e (2.0)

With the release of both Mythic Odysseys of Theros and now the new big expansion in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, I figured now would be a good time to reexamine Link with the context of new subclasses, class features, and game mechanics that weren’t around the last time that I built him. While I won’t do this for every character I’ve built before, characters who have new options made available with these updates will get a new rebuild for 2021. If you want to compare and contrast this build to the original, I will link that build right [here].

The Spirit of the Hero

Link’s a Hylian and that’s just a fancy way of saying elf. His best racial options are either the High Elf, the Wood Elf, or the Half-Elf. Half-elf’s extra skills are tempting, but as Link is never given any parents or an ancestral family tree, we can’t really justify him as a half-elf. We’ll call him a Wood Elf for the extra +2 to his Dexterity and the +1 to his Wisdom as well as that woodsy vibe. But if you wanna go for a Half-Elf for the power build, I won’t tell anyone.

Link’s alignment is tricky. On the one hand, he is shown kneeling before the monarchy, defeating the forces of evil and darkness, and doing odd jobs to help the common people he comes across. However, he can also start forest fires, break into people’s houses, smash pots, steal people’s life savings or personal belongings, and attack the chicken population until they attack back. I’d wager he’s Neutral Good if for no other reason than his morality is highly dependent on the player.

My first choice for Link’s background would be the Folk Hero for Animal Handling and Survival. However, Link’s background is so inconsistent, it’s easier to just list out the skills he tends to have and tell you to pick a background that has those skills, or create your own: Animal Handling, Athletics, Investigation, Nature, Perception, or Survival. There’s a case to be made for other skills as well. Acrobatics works a little and his jumps did involve sick flips in Majora’s Mask, but Link doesn’t tend to balance or platform jump very often. Link can play instruments fine and danced in the Subrosian Dance Hall in Oracle of Seasons for Performance proficiency, but he’s usually playing instruments to activate effects, not to actually perform for a crowd. Link shows some Stealth skills in Breath of the Wild, but this hasn’t been a longstanding skill of his, so I didn’t lump it in with his main skill list.

Becoming a Hero

When it comes to his build, Link has made some use of spells in the past, but he’s nowhere near the spellcaster that Zelda and Ganondorf are. Link is definitely more of a martial fighter who augments himself with a wide arsenal of magical items. So when it comes to picking Link’s class, we have a few things to keep in mind.

BARD

Link is a talented young man, and he has had magical instruments in a few games over the years, as well as dancing in Subrosia, among other things. While I don’t subscribe to the idea of Link being a bard myself, I understand why people would come to this conclusion, as Link isn’t really bad at anything... except talking. And lying. And looking threatening. Or haggling. Yeah kind of hard to depict Link as a CHA caster who isn’t proficient in any CHA skill checks. 

Spirits (UA) This doesn’t fit for every Link, but especially for Breath of the Wild where Link gets help from the spirits of his fallen comrades, the flavor of calling on the dead works for Link. For a non-BotW example, maybe Link can tell stories of his past lives, and the memories he shares with each of them.

Valor This college has the downside of being built as a cheerleader, while Link really should be built for solo-combat since that’s how he approaches most fights. But Valor is better than Swords and also gives Link proficiency with martial weapons and shields, while Swords does not.

FIGHTER

While there are many martial classes, the Fighter differentiates itself by being the most down-to-earth option. It’s not beholden to rage, or smites, hunting, or sneaking. It is the simple skill of the blade, and this is a skill Link has in spades. From the earliest games, Link has been a master of the sword, the shield, and the bow.

Battle Master Link is a strategic fighter. He looks for weak spots, and he exploits them the best he can. Of all the fighter subclasses, none is more clever than the Battle Master. Its many maneuvers resembles the numerous sword techniques Link has learned especially in the later games. Even in Smash, Link showcases how clever he is by being able to combine his arrows with his bombs and shoot a bomb arrow. To my knowledge, none of the other characters can combine their abilities like this in Smash.

Cavalier The subclass is poorly named, and was better in its initial name as the Knight, as that is really what this subclass is. It is the idea of the knight in shining armor. They can also be flavored as bodyguards, a traveling sellsword, or castle guards. So Link does not have to be glued to Epona to make use of this subclass. The main reason to want this subclass is the Warding Maneuver, as giving Link the chance to either block or reduce all damage he takes is going to seriously improve how well he can tank a hit, and help keep him in a fight longer.

PALADIN

More than any other class, the Paladin actually stands for something. They fight for a value or a belief. They swear their life to a cause and are prepared to die fighting for it. Link works on a lore level as a Paladin. Especially when he’s dedicated multiple lifetimes to the same cause. Across every timeline and game over screen, Link has always returned and stood in defiance against whatever evil may come. 

Ancients This oath makes Link sworn to the forces of nature, such as the Great Fairy, and protecting the balance and harmony of the light, life, and love against death, decay, and darkness. The Ancients Paladin is all about protecting the balance in the world and valiantly opposing evil wherever it might arise. It also has a druidic or fey aspect, which kind of works for Link.

Crown With this vow, Link serves the Hyrulian Royal Family. This makes Link the princess’ personal knight, and an agent of lawfulness, order, and peacekeeping in the land. While 5e has backed away from typecasting Paladins as Lawful Good, this is probably the most Lawful subclass one could pick, as it places the authority of the royal family above all else.

Glory Instead of being sworn to the light or the law, the Glory Paladin is the harbinger of the goddesses. They are flavored as legendary heroes of destiny, possibly being demigods or the personal errand boys of the setting’s pantheon. This subclass is clearly focused on being a frontline warrior, and the features make Link a true force on the battlefield.

RANGER

Anyone who’s played Legend of Zelda knows that Link is very good at surviving. The games don’t tell you how to navigate the wilderness, Link just has to figure it out for himself. What’s more, Link may be willing to venture into the wilderness, but he’ll be hard-pressed to find many NPCs that far outside of settlements or cities. Yet what they fear, he thrives in. And it’s no wonder that this is the class most peole would assume for Link.

Hunter This conclave is the slayer of all things that threaten civilization. They can choose to be better at chipping away at one enemy, counter attack bigger monsters, or mow through hordes of minions with more ease by taking out multiple at a time. Especially at higher levels, this conclave excels at ripping apart Ganon’s forces with nary a golden curl out of place.

ROGUE

The rogue doesn’t need to be a wanted criminal on the lamb. They can be a clever fighter with a variety of skills and a knack for evasion. That speaks a lot more to Link’s skill set than one might assume at first glance. It’s not a perfect fit for Link, but it’s really not that inaccurate either.

Inquisitive This roguish archetype is defined by being clever in combat, looking for weak points to exploit. They’re also much more observant, making them better at discovering clues or secret passages, or telling when they’re being misled. At higher levels, their ability to look for weaknesses can even increase their sneak attack damage. This especially fits some of the older games where boss fights were focused on using items to exploit the dungeon boss’ weaknesses, rather than hacking away at their health bar. In these older titles, Link was less of a straight up warrior and more of a clever trickster pulling off strategic victories.

Scout The Scout Rogue has heavy Ranger vibes, as they get free expertise in Nature and Survival, enhanced mobility, the ability to disengage from fights more easily, and at higher levels become masters of ambushes. This fits well with Link’s sneakier sniper playstyle that can be done in Breath of the Wild, as Link can take out entire camps without ever being seen.

Thief While Link is not a standard cutpurse, Link is a treasure hunter, a dungeon delver, and the jokes about him robbing the people of Hyrule and breaking into people’s homes doesn’t exactly help. The thief also gets to use more magical items, allowing Link to use things such as enchanted instruments without being a bard.

WARLOCK

Link usually isn’t the hero of his own volition. He often starts his journey with Triforce of Courage, a source of power gifted by his patrons. It’s honestly a weak connection, but it loosely works, so I’m including it. 

Celestial While this subclass is geared toward serving something other than a god, I don’t see any reason why a Celestial Warlock couldn’t serve the Triple Goddesses of Hyrule or even Hylia/Zelda directly.

Hexblade The most obviously martial warlock option, this is a good choice if you want to incorporate Fi into your character.

Link’s Toy Chest

Hero’s Sword - Longsword (+1-3) Mirror Shield - Repulsion Shield Hero’s Bow - Oathbow Gale Boomerang - Storm Boomerang Fire Rod - Wand of Fireballs (requires spellcasting) Mastersword - Sword of Zariel, Holy Avenger Longsword* Hylian Shield - Shield of the Hidden Lord  Goddess Bow - Ephixis, Bow of Nylea Golden Gauntlets - Gauntlets of Ogre Power Zora Tunic - Cloak of the Manta Ray Pegasus Boots - Boots of Speed Hover Boots - Boots of Levitation Hook Shot - Rope of Climbing

SIDEKICKS

Sidekicks are a new edition from Tasha’s that let Link bring allies on his hero’s journey. Experts are skill monkeys who focus on Help actions, Spellcasters dip into the INT, WIS, or CHA spell lists, and Warriors are trained to fight and don’t have to talk, so they can be animals.

Epona - Defender Warrior Riding Horse Navi - Expert or Healer Spellcaster Sprite Sidon - Attacker Warrior Merfolk Sheik - Expert Noble (Elf) Wolf Link - Attacker Warrior Wolf

Theros Piety

The Piety System from Theros lets us be devout to a god and earn features from worshiping them. As far as I’m aware, this is an optional feature, and not every DM will make use of these, but if you’re able to, here’s a handy guide. These gods really stood out as the clear choices for Link to go with.

Iroas - God of Victory

Domains: War Virtues: Achieve a great victory, Overcome slim odds honorably, Defeat a foe in single combat, Perform a great feat of strength or skill Sins: Being a coward in battle, Beat an honorable foe through deceit, harm innocents Piety Bonus: +3 Learn Compelled Duel spell +10 Learn Crusader’s Mantle spell +25 For 1 minute, creatures cannot gain advantage on you +50 Increase STR or CHA by 2 to a max of 22

Keranos - God of Storms

Domains: Knowledge, Tempest Virtues: Solve a riddle or puzzle, defeat an unwise enemy, plan ahead for an upcoming challenge, build or restore a temple to Keranos Sins: Jeopardize others through foolishness, ignore a wise course of action, fail to plan for a challenge, give in to anger or self-destruction

Piety Bonus: +3 Add 1d6 lightning damage to melee attack up to INT mod turns. +10 Reroll a failed INT or WIS saving throw +25 Advantage on Initiative rolls +50 Increase INT or WIS by 2 to a max of 22

Nylea - Goddess of the Wild

Domains: Nature Virtues: Help any wild animal, stop those who hunt for sport or profit, win an archery competition, slay an aberration, fiend, or undead Sins: Kill an animal without reason, Dedicate a building to or make a sacrifice for any god (including Nylea), protect a city from a natural disaster

Piety Bonus: +3 Learn Hunter’s Mark +10 Learn Speak with Animals +25 Attacking creatures must pass DC 15 WIS save or change targets. +50 Increase DEX or WIS by 2 to a max of 22

Cunning Tactician

Battle Master Fighter (12) Inquisitive Rogue (8) Fighting Style: Dueling Maneuvers: Brace, Disarming Strike, Feinting Attack, Parry, Precision Attack, Riposte, Sweeping Attack Tools: Thieves’ Tools, Mason’s Tools

While Link is brave and strong, he is most defined by his clever mind and unorthodox solutions to boss fights. With this class split, Link has prioritized strategy and tactics over everything else. While it leaves him a little squishier, Link is still a very capable warrior. As a Battle Master, he got a free tool proficiency. Mason’s Tools allows Link to find secret passageways in stone walls, which most dungeons tend to be made of. On top of that, with his Feinting Attack, Link can give himself advantage, meaning he can use Sneak Attack even in a 1v1 fight, which fits his solo adventurer playstyle.

One-Man Army

Battle Master Fighter (12) Hunter Ranger (8) Fighting Style: Dueling, Archery Maneuvers: Brace, Disarming Strike, Feinting Attack, Parry, Precision Attack, Riposte, Sweeping Attack Hunter’s Prey: Colossus Slayer, Multiattack Defense Tools: Mason’s Tools

I used this build once in a level 10 campaign. 6 levels of Fighter, 4 levels of Ranger with a +2 Longsword, and let me tell you something. This build creamed the competition, which was the other PCs at the table, who were also built as level 10 characters. Link nearly defeated his first opponent in a single round, dealing around 70 damage between his four attacks. When I say this is Link’s “power” build, I mean it. I didn’t even sweat when an adult blue dragon showed up after the tournament ended, that’s how much faith I had in Link’s ability to fight. I honestly forgot to even use Link’s battle maneuvers, he was just dealing so much damage that it slipped my mind. You could swap Battle Master for Cavalier, but for me, the Battle Master is more accurate to Link’s favor of techniques over basic hack-and-slash.

RANGER SPELLS

1 Absorb Elements, Ensnaring Strike, Hunter’s Mark 2 Cordon of Arrows, Healing Spirit

The Hero of Hyrule

Battle Master Fighter (12) Glory Paladin (8) Fighting Style: Archery, Dueling Maneuvers: Brace, Disarming Strike, Feinting Attack, Parry, Precision Attack, Riposte, Sweeping Attack Tools: Mason’s Tools

As a Glory Paladin, Link is driven by a desire to be a legendary hero, and at least in the UA version, the Glory Paladin served the gods, as Link does. Like the two builds above, Link balances the brute might of the Glory Paladin with the tactile diversity of the Battle Master.

PALADIN SPELLS

1 Cure Wounds, Divine Favor, Guiding Bolt, Heroism, Protection from Evil and Good, Searing Smite, Thunderous Smite, Wrathful Smite 2 Branding Smite, Enhance Ability, Find Steed, Magic Weapon, Warding Bond

Oaths and Promises

Glory Paladin (12) Celestial Warlock (8) Fighting Style: Dueling Pact: Blade Invocations: Eldritch Smite, Improved Pact Weapon, Maddening Hex, Relentless Hex

The builds from here on are more for the flavor than necessarily Link’s character. As a Blade Pact Paladock, Link becomes a CHA-focused martial with some extra spell slots that turn his smiting sword strikes into a bokoblin slurry machine. This build focuses Link more as a servant of the gods than anything else. Just make sure he has the Hex spell, but you can replace Maddening Hex with Agonizing Blast if you want to use the Master Sword laser beam at full potential.

PALADIN SPELLS

1 Divine Favor, Guiding Bolt, Heroism, Protection from Evil and Good, Searing Smite, Thunderous Smite, Wrathful Smite 2 Branding Smite, Enhance Ability, Find Steed, Magic Weapon, Warding Bond 3 Blinding Smite, Crusader’s Mantle, Elemental Weapon, Haste, Protection from Energy

WARLOCK SPELLS

C Blade Ward, Booming Blade, Sword Burst 1 Armor of Agathys, Cure Wounds, Hex 2 Lesser Restoration, Misty Step, Shatter 3 Spirit Shroud, Summon Fey 4 Galder’s Speedy Courier

To Serve and Protect

Battle Master Fighter (12) Crown Paladin (8) Fighting Style: Dueling, Interception Maneuvers:  Bait and Switch, Brace, Disarming Strike, Goading Strike, Parry, Riposte, Sweeping Attack Tools: Mason’s Tools

Link is Zelda’s knight, bodyguard, and servant. So this build prioritizes features that makes Link the loyal emissary of the Princess of Hyrule. As such, this build changes Link’s role to be more of a defender to the princess than a solo hero. This build assumes that the princess or someone else who needs to be protected is joining Link on his adventure.

PALADIN SPELLS

1 Command, Cure Wounds, Divine Favor, Heroism, Compelled Duel, Searing Smite, Thunderous Smite, Wrathful Smite 2 Branding Smite, Find Steed, Warding Bond, Zone of Truth

After all is said and done, I hope I gave everyone a lot to work with. Of course my suggestions are not law, and if nothing else, I hope it gives you an idea of how you want to build him. Last time I built Link, I gave one set build for him, but I still laid out other options. Recently though, I’ve been trying to show multiple builds at the end of my build posts to offer a wider idea of what building a character can look like. Happy 2021 everyone, and let’s hope this year goes smoother.

[jackdaw-kraai]

What are the Krait Dragons like in the Guides Verse? There are too many potential variation on "large predatory lizard", and I've started developing some way too specific headcanons that I'd rather scrap before they solidify instead of retconning everything later.

Well, since I’m a fan of How To Train Your Dragon, and since I’m a fan of How To Train Your Dragon, yes, I said that twice, I like my dragons to be actual dragons. And since I’m also a fan of the whole “magical creature” spiel, don’t expect my krayt dragons to be anything less than mythic. 

My own personal view for them is very much in line with the whole “mountain dwelling creature of legends, shrouded in myth and magic.” The krayt here are absolutely enormous. The lesser krayt alone are 20 to 30 m in length and have wings that block out the sun from a ground view when they flare them out. These creatures are nomads, and roam the planet as they search for fresh prey. They do have various regular haunts though, and known krayt lairs are usually kept under close watch by the locals once the season the krayt should visit again arrives. 

These creatures can live for centuries, and the older they get, the wiser they become. They’re far from mindless as well, and it’s not that uncommon for communities to be able to bargain out a mutually beneficial deal with a krayt to exchange livestock and game for protection from threats and pest control of other, more animalistic predators in the area that would attack indiscriminately. 

Lesser krayt in the Guides verse look more like quadrupedal dinosaur-esque even-toed-ungulate-esque birds than they do lizards. A hybrid of distinctly reptilian and mammal characteristics combined into something along the lines of proto-birds on four legs, equipped with wings and lightning fast reflexes. Fine, almost hair-like feathers are mixed in with the hard scale plates and horns. They usually come in color varieties from bright, rust reds and fiery oranges, to muted yellows and browns, to rare shades of reddish purples and blues. 

And as guardians of the Desert, they carry Her in their bones, lending them a curious sense for the storm and especially fire. These creatures are associated with the Twin Suns in the folklore of the Children, and Kin and Ri are often said to visited their Mother the Desert in ancient times, carried down from the heavens on the backs of thousands of lesser krayt as they scorched the earth wherever they went. After their patrons left back for the heavens, the krayt stayed behind and met with the Storm. Nowadays, they are seen depicted as carrying messages alongside it between the heavens and Desert as much as they are with the Suns.

And then there are the greater krayt. These are different beasts entirely to their lesser relatives, and their size is only the start of it. Greater krayt are a minimum of 100 meters long as adults, some having been rumored to grow up to ten times that length. These are the rare, immense sages of the heavens. Whereas the lesser krayt live for centuries, the greater krayt live for millennia. They gain a wisdom in their age that rivals that of even the most academic and logically-inclined of sentient species. These krayt dwell in the hidden places of Tatooine, though they are rumored to gather in great numbers on the southern half of the planet. No one has been able to confirm such gatherings, as they supposedly happen in the most inhospitable and dangerous mountain range of the planet. 

Greater krayt, unlike their smaller relative, aren’t nomadic, though they might give the illusion of being so due to the immense size of their territories. Spanning the size of countries, hundreds upon hundreds of square kilometers of space may may only have one or two greater krayt in it. And if the locals know where a greater krayt has its den, you can bet that it’ll be the most fiercely guarded secret they have. 

Because where lesser krayt are associated with fire and the suns, greater krayt are associated with the stars, the moons, and rain. They’re said to be the keepers of the heavenly reservoirs, and control the distribution of the rains the Desert and her Moons send to the Storm to deliver. Where lesser krayt are revered as protectors and guardians, greater krayt are worshipped as minor deities. People leave offerings of herbs, spices, scents, flowers, music, and precious materials in shrines in the foothills of mountains where greater krayt reside, as no one actually quite knows what they eat. These offerings are then added to the hoard these creatures accumulate over the span of their long lives. Though nest might be a better description of how such a hoard looks to outside observers.

The long, feathered, many-limbed serpents of the heavens. Where lesser krayt still look more or less like recognizable everyday animals, greater krayt look wholly alien. Their bodies are extremely long and serpentine, with many slender pairs of bird-like legs to carry it on the ground. Three pairs of feathered wings help them sail the skies with little effort, and greater krayt have been spotted flying at altitudes that would classify as the lower boundaries of space, with some even being rumored to have been seen leaving the atmosphere altogether. To help with these kinds of altitudes, they are entirely covered in a thick coat of feathers, dense enough that they have no known parasites as they would all choke to death in their coat. These feathers range in a true rainbow of colors, from pearly white to metallic purples and blues, to deep blacks, and everything in between. No two greater krayt are patterned exactly alike, though it is most common for them to have some form of white incorporated into their patterning. 

Greater krayt are known as the sages of the heavens, and there is many a folktale about them acting as mentors or oracles to the heroes in them. Each dragon is unique in the knowledge it’s rumored to have, but the consensus on knowledge common amongst the greater krayt is that of meteorology, astrology, botanic, and always magic. Though to get a greater krayt to teach you is a far more difficult endeavor, as they are said to only speak into the minds of those they deem worthy. Most commonly, these individuals are referend to as “Desert touched” since they are believed to carry the blessing of the Desert with them as well.

Both of these dragons posses the ability to create pearls in their gizzards, though unlike canon, it’s actually far more common for krayt to freely give them away to trustworthy individuals or communities when they grow too big to properly function as grind stones due to the amount of nacre layered on top of it. Naturally, greater krayt pearls are far larger than those of their smaller relatives, and due to their rarity, much higher valued.

There lives a greater krayt in the Jundland Wastes area. Luke was gifted three of its smaller pearls and, if you remember the first time he talked about runners, is known as Desert touched. Do with that knowledge as you will.

[slightlyrebelliouswriter23]

Hi Em! Have you read the Bargainer series by Laura Thalassa? I recently started Rhapsodic (the first one) and I’m unsure about wheter to continue.

(Slight spoiler for the first quarter of Rhapsodic coming)

The reason I’m conflicted is because the mc and the Bargainer (a mythical and ancient faerie) met for the first time when the mc was 15 because she needed his help. A little later (after she has turned 16) she started calling the Bargainer to her room every night for a year because she was feeling lonely and wanted a friend. He came and spend time with her every night until a year after the first night she tried to kiss him because of course she fell in love with him. He then disappears and they don’t see each other for seven years until he comes back to collect the favors she is owed. They already kissed once or twice so far (in exchange for a favor), but considering the genre I’m pretty sure there are many more intimate and explicit scenes coming up. I’m not sure if it’s worth continuing for me, because the grooming doesn’t sit right with me. I know they haven’t seen each other in seven years, but the mc is still really hung up on him. And so far it seems like he disappeared seven years ago because he was also romantically interested in her but since she was only sixteen at the time, he decided to wait until she was more appropriately aged. Which I don’t know if I can give him credit for since he was interested in a child.

Anyway, sorry for this long ask, but I was just interested in what you or your followers think about this series and especially about the relationship dynamic between the the mc and the Bargainer.

hiya nonnie! i have not read this series, though it has been recommended to me on a couple different occasions. if you want a more specific take on this scenario, i'd recommend asking @snusbandxknifewife about it since she's actually read it.

i'm not really in the business of trying to moralise books for other people. i'd encourage you to use your own deductive reasoning to sort out for yourself whether you agree with your personal partaking in the book or not.

but my opinion, without having any context of the described situation, is this: it's not grooming since HE'S not the one calling HER to his room every night. if they exchange a kiss or two, that's not inherently sexual. mouth kisses are actually considered a "relic gesture" by scientists, who theorise that kissing on the mouth is meant to feel like the way in which mothers used to wean their children– which was, in early human societies, by chewing up food and deep kissing their babies (mouths between shared-DNA family members being significantly less dirty than fingers/hands, at least in ancient societies, tho tbh probably also in modern day lmfao).

furthermore, sealing a deal with a kiss instead of a handshake is something you will see in many texts/stories in a wide variety of cultures throughout history. it's only in modern times in which kissing has become an intimate act. which leads me to my next point. he (your MC's love interest) is an ancient being, therefore you simply cannot apply your modern (likely hollywood aggrandised) morals to his character. that doesn't make sense.

and finally, he goes away for A WHILE after SHE tries to kiss HIM. he could've came back the moment she turned 18. that would've been shady. but he waited much longer than that. not saying he should get brownie points for that, cos that's the bare minimum. but it's not indicative of grooming for me.

HOWEVER, if this still doesn't sit right with you just.... don't read it 🤷‍♀️ you're allowed to put books down if you don't vibe with them. this is something i've had to learn as someone who takes ages and a disproportionate amount of energy to read things. BE PICKY! that's the only way you're going to enjoy your reader experience.

but i'd also encourage you to think about whether the Thing that is bothering you about the piece of FICTION is actually something that's going to take away from your enjoyment of the story, or if it's something that applies to irl so you feel guilty for shedding your morals for the sake of enjoying fiction. if you absolutely CANNOT separate your irl morals from the fiction you consume, that's fine, you don't have to read it. but that's also on you, not the author/story/anyone else who likes the series.

[vendettacanons]

// coming up with a couple verse ideas for Mei!

Basis: All these verses follow the idea that during Mei’s ceremony to be rid of the panda, something goes terribly wrong. During the part where she forces herself back through the mirror to try and keep the panda as a part of herself, she ends up slipping into a different realm / time period. All alone now, she has to adapt to this new environment all on her only her panda to help her.

What Once Was a Blessing - A verse focused on Mei being transported to a historical time period where the panda was still considered a gift. It’s mystical powers would be even stronger and it’s strength even more heightened because it’s back during a time where it was necessary to survive and thrive. (Historical AU more or less. How far back depends on the plot. Can also be incorporated into things like Wilson’s Heart, Assassin’s Creed, Red Dead Redemption, etc.)

Under a Red Moon - A verse focused on Mei being dropped into a more scarier timeline. Whether this means dealing with a more hostile world in general or a more specific threat that she has to learn how to avoid or otherwise cope with depends on the plot. The only thing that’s certain is that there’s something out there. Something strong and something terrifying. But thankfully, she still has panda that’s more than willing to jump out to protect her and the people around her. (Horror AU for things like DBD, Resident Evil, FAITH, Until Dawn, analog horror, general monster verses, etc. Can go either way with Mei being considered the hunter or the hunter on account of which form she takes.)

A Mystical Connection - A verse focused on Mei being dropped into a more fantastical, magical universe or timeline. The panda feels right at home connecting with and interacting with other mythical creatures. Mei especially likes mermaids and unicorns, and if she wasn’t so scared and homesick she might even like being in a more magical world. As a result of being surrounded by the fantastical, the panda’s ancient powers return to it in full force. It can heal, it can use magic, it blend in, and is capable of all kind of feats through the use of wild magic! (Fantasy AU, works with Skyrim, Dragon Age, etc.)

Release The Panda - A verse focused on Mei getting dropped into a timeline or universe where the panda is considered a power more than it is considered an inconvenience. She can use her gift to help good people and to help stop bad people in her tracks. She feels so far from home but this universe feels so familiar - maybe if she can use her panda to do good, she can eventually find her way back to Toronto and to her family. And ever determined to be the calm, responsible “adult” she is, shouldering every burden and doing everything she can to win people’s pride and approval, Mei takes on the task of becoming a super hero. Her alias? The Panda! (Original, she knows.) (A superhero AU more or less.)

Some Sides of Us Are Messy - A verse where Mei gets dropped into a futuristic timeline or universe. There is a heartbreaking, soul-crushing realization of what ends up happening to the world around her. She imagined a million things for the future, but it never looked like this. In this setting, she feels even less comfortable with the panda. Everything is so different and those differences range from disappointing to downright horrifying. Everything around her has changed even faster than she has and she wants to fix things, to make things right. But how do you do that all by yourself? She’s just one little panda in a great big world that’s all messed up. (Futuristic verse for things like Fallout, the Outer Worlds, Mass Effect, and Cyberpunk 2077.)

Free The Beast - A verse where Mei ends up stuck in her red panda form. She tries to navigate being a beast full-time and adapt to all the benefits and setbacks that come with it. It’s not an easy task, especially with no one else to help now. (Animal verse. Works for things like Beastars, Aggretsuko, Centaurworld, Watership Down, etc.)

Red Is a Lucky Color - A verse where Mei ends up in the heart of some truly wicked and disastrously bad operations. Completely alone with only her panda there to comfort and protect her, Mei has to find her way to safety and navigate under the radar of some truly heinous people and their plots. It seems the only way she’ll get through this unscathed is by sheer luck. Fortune favors her though it seems; for red is a lucky color. (Crime/action verse. Works for things like GTA, Far Cry, WTTG, and SCP.)

// Other verses I came up with:

My Neighbor Satsuki - A verse where the ceremony is successful. Partially anyway. Rather than being sealed away in an amulet, Mei and her panda spirit are separated into two physical forms. The panda doesn’t speak, but it follows Mei around as a guardian and a friend which she names Satsuki. (This verse can really be mixed with or incorporated into any other verse.)