#our androgynous king

[deadbaguette]

I’m feeling devious, you’re looking glamorous🍇🍷✨

[sir-dyke-genderpunk]

I'm sick and fucking tired of people not fucking remembering that one of radfems first targets were BUTCHES. It was about dykes being masculine and hating that masculinity. You can find dozens of accounts from all the way back in the 70s of radfems targeting cis and trans butches alike. They steal from butches. They stole our fucking flag. They appropriated androgyny and drove a divide between butches and lesbians that identified as androgynous for YEARS. Don't you fucking DARE conflate being butch with being a terf or a radfem. If you knew an ounce of your history you'd know that radical feminism started as a movement to remove butches from the community completely, and also that butches/transmascs/drag kings and transfems/drag queens have a long history of solidarity, love, and trust considering the fact we're INCESSANTLY demonized even within our own communities. Butch/femme include transfemmes, it always will and ALWAYS has.

[dclovesdanny]

Dcxdp fanfic recs w/ specific tropes

Also, all of these are on AO3 unless specified otherwise.

First off: Deaged Ellie\Teen Dad Danny

Since this got first place, here are three fics for this trope

My first submission for this is How To Become a Step-dad in 5 Easy Steps by CallMeStrega. It’s dead on main, with a ton of misunderstandings and pining Jason. Ellie is 6 in this fic, and it is so adorable

My second recommendation for this trope is Issues Regarding One Daniel Jonas by SIRDUCK_07. It has some dead serious, but that hasn’t shown up much in the fic yet. It delves more into how creepy Vlad is, and has twins Ellie and Dan.

My third submission is Brothers Ever After by Music_Feeds_My_Soul. It is somewhat centered around Damian and Danny being twins, but Danny being ‘pregnant’ with Ellie is a huge part of it, and it is a really good fic.

Next trope: Dimension Travel

My first recommendation for this one is Ghostly Delivery by WeirdNCrazy. It is very funny, and goes through Danny meeting all the main heroes, not just the Batfam.

My second recommendation for this trope is Danny's Accidentally Super-Inducing Adoption Chaos Filled Extravaganza! By Conartist170. Two of the tags are ‘This fic is not to be taken seriously’ and ‘Take everything with several ounces of salt’ which describes its vibes perfectly.

Next trope: Dead on Main

My first recommendation for fics of this ship is When You Accidentally Kill A Clown by SchlalensitzBucket. It’s only visible to those with AO3 accounts, but it is 100% worth it, with tons of shenanigans and shipping.

My next recommendation is Arctic Siren by Magpie_Crow. It is so cute and Danny is both androgynous and flirty as hell. Plus, something really cool happens in chapter one, leading to a smitten Jason.

Next up: Undead Dad Jason

My first rec for this type of fic is The Boy King and the Dark Knights by smallgaything. It is not only funny, but it hits you in the feels while incorporating several different tropes. Also, it’s one of the first Dcxdp fics I ever read, so it has a special place in my heart.

My second rec is Don’t Leave Me in the Dark by Astra_Nova_Kat. It has Good parents Fentons and Undead Dad, which isn’t really common, but works so well in this fic. It also has a bunch of misunderstandings, which everyone knows I adore.

And that’s all (for now). Let me know in the comments if you want more!

[luxthestrange]

WHB Incorrect quotes#55 Demons Vs Angels

I've seen a lot of kings when they were kids, which gave me an idea,Kid Universe...boom everyone is a kid on earth,Gremlin Kid Mc and meeting the kid kings and angels- and it all started...with a kids local baseball-

Mr.Kim: Mc, how was practice?*Smiles as he sees you sit down next to Mihyeok at the table*

Kid!Mc: So good!

Mrs.Kim: Tell us everything~

Kid!Mc*Puff his chest proudly*-The boys in our baseball area were a little mean at first, but I handled it!

Kid! Mc: Can I warm up with you?

Kid!Bimet*Cant...really tell your gender,you look very androgynous*I don't play baseball with girls

Kid! Mc*Smirks at the Bully*Really? Your friend's playing with one~

Kid!Valefor:-oh oh!*Laughs at his friend*

Mr.Kim*Sniffs into the napkin, Proud at you standing up and roasting a sexist jerky kid*...I am so proud of you

In Your First game the other kids' team threw the ball aimed at Your head , You dodge in time

Referee: Penalty!

Mr.Kim*Stands up in shock angrily so*Whoa!

Mrs.Kim: Oh! Dear lord!

Minhyeok's older brother who is the coach for your team stops his parents from doing anything brash

Brother*Stops the faculty from getting in*Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold it!

Brother: It happens, they're okay, Brush it off, Mc!*Giving you a thumbs up for being a better sport*

When You were given another chance ...the boy AGAIN aimed for you're face which you managed to miss last minute

Referee:Penaltyl!

Kid!Minhyeok*On the bench watching that and stands up enraged*Whoa!

Mrs.Kim*Glares at the scene before her*...What the hell?

Mr.Kim: Son of a bitch!

Brother: Hey! Hey, hey, hey. Hold it! We talked about this!*Is about to Lecture his parents but notices You angrily remove your headgear on the ground and run towards the other team player*MCCCCCCC!

Kid!Mc*Tackles the boy to the ground and gets on top of him*UGH!

Brother: Ah, well, here we go...

Kid!Mc: Eat dirt! Eat it!

Kid!Beel: Kick his ass!

Kid!Mc: Does it taste good?Huh?~

Brother*Shrugs it off and smiles and starts to cheer for you*Yeah, listen to your buddies Kick his ass!

Kid!Mc*Taunting the boy and continues to hit him with glee*You gonna cry?~ Huh? Do it! Cry!~

Kid!Gabriel*Is coughing up dirt as you shove his face in the ground and start punching him*

Mrs.Kim: Do something! Break it up!

Mr.Kim*Snickers not looking away from the scene now and pats his wife's shoulder*H-Hang on, they're winning~

Mrs.Kim: Mc! Mc!, you stop beating up that boy!

Kid!Satan*Next to Minyeok hyping you up* Punch him in the nuuuuuuuts!

[transastronautistic]

When people stumble over their pronouns, stammer, blush, or apologize in embarrassment, I often think of Riki Anne Wilchins' description of her friend Holly Boswell: "Holly is a delicate Southern belle of long acquaintance ....S/he has tender features, long, wavy blonde hair, a soft Carolina accent, a delicate feminine bosom, and no interest in surgery. Holly lives as an open transgendered mother of two in Asheville, North Carolina. Her comforting advice to confused citizens struggling with whether to use Sir or Madam is, 'Don't give it a second thought. You don't have a pronoun yet for me.’” ... ...[T]o answer the homophobes becomes easy, those folks who want to dehumanize, erase, make invisible the lives of butch dykes and nellie fags. We shrug. We laugh. We tell them: your definitions of woman and man suck. We tell them: your binary stinks. We say: here we are in all our glory — male, female, intersex, trans, butch, nellie, studly, femme, king, androgynous, queen, some of us carving out new ways of being women, others of us new ways of being men, and still others new ways of being something else entirely. You don't have pronouns yet for us.

- Eli Clare in Exile & Pride: Disability, Queerness and Liberation (1999)

[sleeplesssmoll]

May I request some suitcase family headcannons summer addition?

ill start

1. vertin is definitely rocking a button up pineapple shirt and those long a** dad shorts (Because she's our androgynous king 👑) with a straw hat to top it off

2 if they go to the beach instead of a lake in the suitcase there will be girls thinking vertin is a guy and trying to flirt with her

Confession: I don't like the beach so I didn't think about this at first, but now the brain is WORKING! Also, I love your ideas! You have me thinking about an entire scenario. Although, my mind focuses on Vertin the most lol so these probably won't be that interesting. This is more like a drabble than single HCs. The team heads to the beach because of a mission but they turn it into a vacation. Also, instead of a pineapple shirt, Vertin got this as a gift from the kids:

Suits and Ducks

Vertin tried to go to the beach with her suit. Desert Flannel and Blonney argued with her for a while saying how hot it'd be and so on. Vertin reminds them she crossed a desert in a suit and survived a shipwreck in her signature suit. She'll be perfectly fine going to the beach in her suit. It was the kids who actually managed to get her to change. Sotheby and the others gifted a silly shirt with little yellow ducks on it. They knew she wouldn't wear a bathing suit but they wanted her to join them! Since it was a gift from her crew, Vertin treasures it and proudly wears it in public at the beach. Outfit complete with bermuda shorts and a boater hat with a ribbon around it. Desert Flannel and Blonney tease her at first but they prefer this casual outfit instead of the stiff suit. Vertin looks like a dork but she's a cute and happy dork so they're secretly happy too. However, they're not the only ones to think that. Instead of deterring attention, Vertin catches the eye of a few beach goers since the shirt is a conversation starter. You know how it goes after that, our charismatic Timekeeper has a way of pulling people in once she starts talking to them. Also, she's pretty. Even if she's being silly, people seem to like Vertin's face. However, they give up on her once they see her crew, which happens to be full of beautiful people (Sonetto, Blonney, Desert Flannel, Druvis, Bun Bun, etc). The bar is high lol.

Eye of the Storm, Center of Attention

Sonetto was shy about wearing a bathing suit since she isn't used to showing so much skin. Desert and Blonney helped her find a modest one-piece and cover up that she felt comfortable in. She turned quite a few heads at the beach. She doesn't like being the center of attention, but she didn't mind the familiar weight of Storm gray eyes on her back while she splashed around with Regulus and the others. She made eye contact with Vertin on the shore. Vertin immediately tilted her hat over her eyes and turned her attention back to the bucket of seashells she and Eagle collected together. Later, the crew painted these shells together and decorated the gardens in the Wilderness with them.

Inner tubes and Ice Cream

Regulus is the captain of a giant floating inner tube. However, the others swarmed her “ship” and stole it. The pirate captain was thrown into the sea! When she went to complain to Vertin, she couldn't find her best friend. Her first thought was the one time Vertin mentioned she's not a great swimmer. Did the ocean claim her when she wasn't looking!? Then again, she survived being thrown into the sea while wearing a suit of all things–

Vertin spawned behind her with popsicles and ice cream. On one hand, Regulus was relieved but on the other, Vertin went to the store without her! The betrayal. They usually buy goodies together so the pirate can show her all the good snacks! Regulus forgave her when she realized Vertin bought frozen treats for all of them, including her. Vertin didn't want to interrupt her fun so she and Lilya went together instead. Lilya wanted to buy more alcohol anyway.

Regulus enjoyed her “rock n roll rocky road”, moved that Vertin remembered her favorite flavor. However their friendship nearly ended when she watched Vertin BITE into her Creamsicle (orange and cream pop). Vertin doesn’t feel pain or sensitivity so she always eats them like that…

Sonetto attempted to eat her blue-raspberry popsicle the same way after watching Vertin and immediately regretted it.

BBQ

Bunny Bunny’s BBQ smelled so good, other beach goers brought some of their ingredients over and offered to work together, kinda like a potluck where everyone brings something and the food is shared.

Night Fishing

Vertin doesn’t sleep at night because she naps during the day. She decided to try her hand at night fishing on the pier. She slipped out quietly so as not to wake her tuckered out teammates. Sonetto noticed she was gone because she hears everything that goes on in the Suitcase. She freaked out like usual until she found Vertin peacefully fishing on the pier. She sat with Vertin, using the Timekeeper's jacket as a blanket since she was still in her nightgown. Vertin tried to shoo her back inside since was clearly exhausted but she refused to budge. She ended up falling back asleep against Vertin's shoulder. However, Sonetto wondered if she dreamed the whole thing since she woke up in her bed the next morning. She didn't, Vertin carried her back the same way she does for the others. If Vertin is around, she sleeps like a log but if Vertin isn't around, she sleeps more lightly.

Vertin didn't catch much, but Satsuki prepared a Japanese style breakfast with it for her the next day. That breakfast ended up being “sampled” by so many other crew members that Vertin ended up nibbling on leftover BBQ to compensate.

She didn't let anyone touch her tea though. She'll share everything else but Satsuki's tea.

Kraken

Of course, this beach trip wasn't really a holiday. They were supposed to be investigating sightings of a sea monster. They almost forgot about it until Druvis and Lilya mentioned it in passing. Apparently the sea monster interrupted them while they were flying together on Lilya's broom over the water.

They managed to scare it off, but they need to take care of it since it's still a danger to others. The Timekeeper sets out with her crew to fight the beast.

The Kraken Calamari (Pavia's idea) they made hit different. Vertin made sure to save a portion for Madam Z and Tooth Fairy to try.

Home

When it was time to go home, Vertin decided it'd be nice to have a beach section in the Wilderness for the Summer. While she can't control the weather in her Suitcase, she can reshape the land. The others loved this idea. The Wilderness had other plans and it snowed on the first day of adding the beach. Imagine all these arcanists in summer clothes freezing outside (well, except the SPDM soldiers). They came inside and enjoyed hot chocolate instead lol.

Sunburn

They expected Vertin to get sunburn like some of the other arcanists, but she was fine. The Foundation's temperature training teaches them how to protect themselves from the elements with arcanum, which is why she crossed the desert and stuff without issue. Sonetto can do it too (she's really good at it), but she used sunscreen as a precaution.

Ms. Moissan made the children wear it too and used Sonetto as an example.

This means it was the young adults who suffered the most sunburn. Jessica was not happy about it. She didn't get sunburn, but Blonney did so she couldn't hug as much as she wanted.

[devildomwriter]

Ten Manga I Think They’d Enjoy #2

Lucifer

He likes manga that reads like classic literature, dark stories, mysteries, psychological stories, and occasionally something sweet or cute

Children of the Whales, Mujirushi, PTSD Radio, Requiem of the Rose King, Shadows House, The Summer Hikaru Died, Togue Oni: Primal Gods in Ancient Times, Gachiakuta, Your Lie in April, Drops of God

Mammon

He likes stories involving his personal hobbies like working on cars, gambling, etc. he also enjoys funny stories and secretly cute romances or relatable romances

Play it Cool Guys, Bleach, Chibi Vampire, Daily Lives of High School Boys, Fire Force, I Belong to the Baddest Girl at School, I’m a Wolf But My Boss is a Sheep, My Monster Secret, Skip and Loafer, The Muscle Girl Next Door

Leviathan

Leviathan loves everything but he’s especially a fan of gaming manga, magical girls, monster girls, isekai, and the classics

A Centaur’s Life, Jobless Reincarnation, Yashahime Princess Half-Demon, If Witch Then Which, Banished From the Hero’s Party I Decided to Live a Quiet Life in the Country Side, My Clueless First Friend, Far-away Paladin, Geek Ex-Hitman, If the RPG World Had Social Media, Komi Can’t Communicate

Satan

Satan loves manga that reads like classical literature but he also loves stories about cats, dark mysteries, psychological stories and ones with characters he finds relatable

Case Study of Vanitas, Cat + Gamer, XXXHolic, Haunted Bookstore, Skull-Face Bookseller Honda-San, Vampire Library, Heavenly Delusion, I’m the Catlord’s Manservant, Infernal Devices, Library Wars

Asmodeus

Asmodeus mostly enjoys romance whether it’s cute and fluffy or extremely erotic

Nana to Kaoru, We Can’t Do Just Plain Love, We Started a Threesome, I Want You to Make Me Beautiful, In to the Tentacle Cave, Who Wants to Marry a Billionaire, Training Mr Sakurada, My Androgynous Boyfriend, Birds of Shangri-La, Interspecies Reviewers

Beelzebub

Beelzebub is a big fan of manga involving food but he also enjoys a good action adventure and sports manga

Crazy Food Truck, My Deer Friend Nokotan, One Punch Man, Restaurant to Another World, Let’s Eat Together Aki and Haru, How to Grill Our Love, Giant Spider and Me, Hajime no Ippo, How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift?, Plus Sized Elf

Belphegor

Belphegor likes stories with relatable characters which can be hard to find but he also loves adventures, horror, and Slice of life; he’s a little all over the place

Servamp, Soara and the House of Monsters, Jujutsu Kaisen, Rurouni Kenshin, You Have No Human Rights, Uzumaki, SINoALICE, Gannibal, The Tree of Death, Dorohedoro

Solomon

Solomon loves compelling narratives, dark psychological stories, stories that take a deeper look a humanity and immortality, and one’s that involves demons/angels/sorcerers. He does also love cat books like Satan

Ancient Magus Bride, Blood on the Tracks, Bloody Mary, Of the Red Light and the Ayakashi, Demon Diary, Dr. Stone, Emanon, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, Magus of the Library, Mob Psycho 100

Thirteen

Thirteen is a little all over the place, she likes to see what’s popular but she also enjoys slashers, one’s that take a closer look at death and spirits, and dark romance

Duke of Death and His Maid, Executioner and Her Way of Life, Ghost Reaper Girl, No Longer Allowed in Another World, Versailles of the Dead, Your Turn to Die, Chainsaw Man, Your Letter, Solanin, Corpse Party

Simeon

Simeon enjoys reading manga that have some religious aspects, he likes ones about authors since they are relatable, and he enjoys some random ones here and there that are cute or funny. He’s also a sucker for a pure romance

Ceres Celestial Legend, Handa-Kun, A Witch’s Printing Office, Lord Hades Ruthless Marriage, Takopi’s Original Sin, Ride Your Wave, Haru’s Curse, Blank Canvas: My So-Called Artists Journey, Our Dreams at Dusk, Blue Flag

Raphael

Raphael canonically likes coming of age sports dramas. I believe he’s also he amused by one’s involving ant Christian aspects about angels and demons, heaven and hell. He also enjoys one’s that include his hobbies like security, military, and anything to do with fashion

Cheeky Brat, Waiting for Spring, Blue Box, Kuroko’s Basketball, Yowamushi Pedal, Ran and the Gray World, Mame Coordinate, Cinderella Closet, Kamikaze Girls, Anri a Shoemaker

Luke

Luke loves to try everything but his books are monitored to make sure he doesn’t stumble upon anything inappropriate for his age ana angel status. He loves ones about food, animals, adventure, and a good slice of life or 4-panel.

Cat Massage Therapy, Yu-Gi-Oh, Pokémon Adventures, Animal Crossing, My Little Pony: The Manga, Story of Seven Lives, Star Wars: Rebels, Dragon Ball, Disney Twisted Wonderland, Cardcaptor Sakura

Michael

Michael enjoys funny books, one’s that take a closer look at humanity and war, classical adaptations, and one’s involving angels and demons.

Record of Ragnarok, I Had That Same Dream Again, Skip Beat, Angel Sanctuary, Homunculus, The Ephemeral Scenes of Setsuna’s Journey, Alpi the Soul Sender, X, Ballad x Opera, Legend of the Nymph

Mephistopheles

Mephistopheles likes books that involve history, nobility, prestigious jobs, mystery, and equestrian sports. He also enjoys one’s about demons and servants.

Chronicles of an Aristocrat Reborn in Another World, Great Jahy Will Not be Defeated, Villains Are Destined to Die, Vinland Saga, Cantarella, Kingdom, Blade of the Immortal, Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective, How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom, Ajin

Barbatos

Barbatos prefers books that are dark and disturbing as well as insightful books on time, immortality, grief, morality vs law, etc.

Coffee Moon, Drifting Classroom, His Majesty the Demon King’s Housekeeper, The Maid I Hired Recently is Mysterious, Horizon, The Lady and Her Butler, I Sold My Life For Ten Thousand Yen Per Year, Homunculus, Parasyte, Yokai Rental Shop

Diavolo

Diavolo absolutely loves cute family manga, funny manga, one’s that involve demons and angels, cute romances, and exciting action and adventure. He isn’t picky and will read anything if it’s been recommended to him.

Correspondence From the End of the Universe, Soul Eater, Given, In the Clear Moonlit Dusk, Juana and the Dragonewt’s Seven Kingdoms, Terrified Teacher at Ghoul School, Thigh High, Delinquent Daddy and Tender Teacher, Hate Me But Let Me Stay, Hinamatsuri

[shidfart23]

[ID: A part of the original Flatland book is mentioned:

"My Wife as well as myself heard the words, although she did not understand their meaning, and both of us sprang forward in the direction of the sound. What was our horror when we saw before us a Figure! At the first glance it appeared to be a Woman, seen sideways; but a moment's observation shewed me that the extremities passed into dimness too rapidly to represent one of the Female Sex; and I should have thought it a Circle, only that it seemed to change its size in a manner impossible for a Circle or for any regular Figure of which I had had experience.

But my Wife had not my experience, nor the coolness necessary to note these characteristics. With the usual hastiness and unreasoning jealousy of her Sex, she flew at once to the conclusion that a Woman had entered the house through some small aperture." End ID]

A. Sphere our androgynous king

[ID: a digital doodle comic of the poster's own version of the scene, as follows:

A. Sphere seems to be looking at the back of his fingertips, while A. Square and his wife, Mrs. Frau A. Line argue.

Mrs. Frau A. accuses "Thats a woman!! Why is there a lady in here!?"

"No thats not a-" A. Square replies.

Mrs. Frau A. cuts him off "were you hiding her?!?"

A. Square, seemingly embarrassed at her implications replies "No!"

Mrs. Frau A. Line, having enough scuttles closer to A. Sphere. "Fine! Then I guess I'll have to touch her myself!"

A. Square shouts. "Wait!" But before he could stop her, Mrs. Frau A. had already touched A. Sphere. everyone seems to be silent for a moment...

Mrs. Frau A. scuttles backwards, embarassed that she may have just felt a Perfect Circle, an action seemingly disrespectful in Flatland. "Oh." She says dumbfounded. A. Square is bummed that he just saw his wife get close to another.. man? like that.

Mrs. Frau A. Line recovers and quickly releases her peace-cries while running out of the room. A. Sphere is very confused about this entire interaction. A. Square thinks to himself "my turn.." seemingly curious about how A. Sphere feels as well. End ID.]

And my own version of that scene...

[whereserpentswalk]

Select an alternate universe to study abroad in for a semester. You'll be sent there with a new body that matches inhabitants of that realm. Little to no time will pass in your world, as time between dimension is entirely diffeent. Wherever you choose to go you won't be known to be from another dimension unless you tell people.

1- an endless forest made of massive trees, so tall no mortal soul has seen the ground or the unobstructed sky. The sentient races of this world consist of slender owl like humanoids, various insectoid races, short squat mushroom people, and a minority of rodent like creatures who live further down the trees. Technology in this world is as advanced as ours, but the aesthetics are more similar to our Victorian age. They say this world's heaven is deep above the trees, and this world's hell is deep below it, with each culture's religion having its own version of God/gods above an devils in the forest floor (outside of the mushroom people, who worship gods below.)

2- an endless system of volcanic caves and tunnels that demons and fallen angels come from. This realm is vast, and is ruled over by countless lords and kings, some truly evil, some merely strange. Demons and fallen angels come is countless forms, most looking somewhat humanoid, though with strange and unnatural distortions, from animal like parts to things humans would find much more horrifying. This is one of the few realms listed where they know what earth is, but they don't know much about it outside of myth.

3- an alternate earth where mythical creatures such as vampires, werewolves, deep ones, dragons, and witches exist. It also has a population of demons and faeries who came over generations ago. While they were in hiding for many millennium, they've now taken over most of earth, with humans being removed or conquered in some regions, and peacefully integrated into others. Though in both cases they are now a minority.

4- a version of earth that's both flat and entirely endless, with many sun's carving safe warm zones in the ice. Even with 21st century technology new lands are still being explored. Most social problems still exist, but things are looking a bit more hopeful, and the world's slightly nicer to live in. Cryptids, gods, magic and the afterlife are all proven to exist, even if humanity doesn't know much about them. Human bodies here naturally trend twords looking however the person inside them wants to look, and sexual attraction and pleasure don't exist.

5- an alternate earth where the kpg mass extinction never occurred. Dinosaurs remained dominant but kept evolving, leading to a sapient race eventually emerging from raptors. The raptors are currently at a similar technology level as us, though due to how they're mind works they've spent more time developing computers and mathematics than they have any other field of technology. Also don't mind the obelisk in the pacific ocean, nobody there knows what it does or who put it there either, and we won't put you anywhere near it.

6- a world filled with giant monsters of all kinds, some looking like massive dragons or Chimeras, others looking like more strange and colorful creatures. Though some animals are smaller, the smallest intelligent creatures are the size of bears, and the largest are much bigger than blue whales. Technology is limited in some regards, mostly as the inhabitants don't always need it.

7- the world of the faeries, strange and complex, and both terrifying and beautiful. Very little is known about this realm other than the strange and often dangerous creatures who come from this place. If you go here it's likely you will remember very little and enjoy very much.

8- a universe where humanity is completely isolated to spaceships and space stations, most of them the size of cities. Humans here are grown artificially, and have completely androgynous bodies that lack biological sex, and most of them combine their bodies with mechanical upgrades becoming cyborgs. Most humans never touch a planet, and those who do don't stay there for long. There are a few alien species with planetary civilizations, but almost all of them are strange and eldrich. Technology is incredibly advanced compared to ours, and quality is life is better. Most humans consider AI taboo, though normal computers are fine and commonplace.

9- a world where humans are entirely missing, but every species of mammal is sapient and humanoid. Birds and reptiles pick up the pace of animals in the ecosystem, as the mammals have created a global civilization. Though magic doesn't exist here, and technology is around a 21st century level, the quirks of each species have created a lot of situations impossible in our world. Though several nations exist, the main powers of the world consist of a group of powerful corporations, an ancient secret society, and the church of the dead gods, all of whom are locked in a cold war, that luckily keeps the nations of this world at peace.

10- a massive city, floating in the void, surrounded by eldritch horrors. Countless humanoids have made their homes in the city, most hailing from diffrent dimensions themselves, but permanently stuck here. Though many races here could pass for humans, none of them truly are, from the sirenia who have wings for arms and hands for feet, to the modutal who can take parts of their bodies off and swap them with other members of their race, to the subterranean vamire who eat raw meat and have albino skin, to the hyven whose minds are each split between two to five bodies. It's estimated between fifty to a hundred humanoids call the city home.

11- the abyss. Do not attempt to enter the abyss. We cannot assure your safety.

[melanie-the-artful]

Genshin Character Names' Meanings

Hello there! So, I remember I once saw a post about meanings of some characters' names in another fandom, and while some of those names probably were given to those characters just because they fit, some of them certainly were chosen for their meaning, and well, it was just interesting to read! And yeah, here I am, in today's series of "I have freaking nothing else to do" I brought you a list of meanings for Genshin characters' names (today only Travelers and Mondstadt).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Aether | Comes from the highest air layer - where the gods live, and from the god who embodies it in Greek mythology; Also not sure whether it's connected, but fun fact: in Latin "Iter" means «Journey»

Lumine | Literally «Light» in Latin

Kong (Chinese Aether) | «Heavenly», «Air» or «Sky» - Chinese Name

Ying (Chinese Lumine) | Literally «Glimmer», «Twinkling» or «Light» in Chinese and a Chinese Name

Sora (Japanese Aether) | Literally «Sky» in Japanese and a Japanese Name

Hotaru (Japanese Lumine) | Literally «Firefly» in Japanese and a Japanese Name

Paimon | Comes from King Paimon, the 9th of Goetia Demons 

Amber | Well, in her case it obviously references her eyes that carry that color, and it is also similar to the word «ember», which underlines her being a Pyro wielder; Also «Fierce» as an originally Arabic or Celtic Name

Kaeya | «Monsoon Flower» - Sanskrit Name

Lisa | «God's Promise» - German Name

Jean | «God is Gracious» - Originally French Name

Barbara | Although in our world it is believed to come from barbarians, in context of Genshin she might've been named so after Barbatos, the Archon rulling over her nation. It also makes sense considering how her father also serves at the church; Also «Foreign», «Strange» as an originally Greek Name

Diluc | Comes from «diluculum» - Latin for «Dawn»

Noelle | «Christmas» - Originally French Name

Klee | Literally «Clover» in German

Albedo | Term for the fraction of sunlight that is diffusely reflected by a body; also a Latinicized alchemical term meaning «Whiteness» and «Purification»

Sucrose | A chemical element, also known as C₁₂H₂₂O₁₁, or just sugar

Mona | «Solitary», «Adviser» or «Wish» - German Name

Fischl | Considering German grammatics, literally means «Little Fish» 

Amy | «Beloved», «Dearly Loved» - German Name

Bennett | «Blessed» - Originally French and Latin Name

Rosaria | «Rosary» or «Wreath of Roses» - Derives from originally Latin Name Rosarius/Rosarium

Diona | «Goddess» or «From the Sacred Spring» - German Name 

Eula | Could be based on the german word for owl Eule or the German Name Ulla which means «Will»

Mika | «Who is like God» - German Name 

Venti | Sounds similar to the word «windy», also literally «Winds» in Italian

Barbatos | Comes from Duke Barbatos, the 8th of Goetia Demons 

Crepus | Comes from «crepusculum» - Latin for «Dusk»

Seamus | «Supplanter» - Originally Irish Name

Frederica | «Peaceful Ruler» - German Name

Alice | «Noble» or «Exalted» - Originally German Name

Rhinedottir | Originally Rhine was a name for someone who lived by the Rhine river in German, yet the word itself originates from the word 'renos', which means «Flowing Water» or «Raging Flow»; meanwhile "dottir" is «Daughter» in Icelandic

Barbeloth | May derive from the Gnostic aeon Barbēlō, a supreme, androgynous entity in Gnosticism known as God's first thought, being his "feminine aspect" and the Mother-Father of the aeons

Nicole | «Victory of the People» - Originally French Name

Varka | Likely based on the Old Persian 𐎺𐎼𐎣 (varka), meaning «Wolf»

Decarabian | Comes from Marquis Decarabia, the 69th of Goetia Demons

Dvalin | Comes from a dwarf in Old Norse tales, meaning «The Dormant One» or «The One Slumbering» (akin to the Danish and Norwegian "dvale" and Swedish "dvala", meaning «Sleep, «Unconscious Condition» or «Hibernation»).

Durin | Overally associated with a dwarf named Durin, who is also from Norse tales, though some say it is of Latin origin and means «Firm», «Enduring»

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yeah, here it is! I know, I basically made a compilation of things you can find yourself in Google, buuuuuut in case you were too lazy or not curious enough to do so, I did so in your stead! And I have to admit that those are not names of my homeland, and I may not know all their variations or significance, yet I'm still interested, and I'll be happy if you're willling to correct me. And maybe I will even dig in deeper into the topic next time!

So, see you!

Edited: Yeah, I added a few more meaningful characters and Travelers' names on other languages + a few other tiny additions. I think now it seems a little more complete. Next up is Liyue!

[imagitory]

Hi all! So even if I wasn't thrilled with Wish as a final product, I was really inspired by Brittney Lee's wonderful concept art for a more human-esque "Star"...so I decided to take that idea and put my own twist on it! Because as much as I like Brittney Lee's concept, I had two main thoughts in the back of my head while drawing this --

I actually liked that Star in the film wasn't explicitly male or female, and Disney hasn't ever done a non-binary main character in one of their animated films before, so I thought a more androgynous look could be interesting.

The original concept's hair makes him look A LOT like Jack Frost from Dreamwork's Rise of the Guardians, in my opinion -- and yes, although I like Jack, I don't see Star being much like him.

So -- thinking to salute the original idea of the filmmakers to take inspiration from past Disney projects -- I took visual inspiration from several characters, most from the Golden and Silver Age of Disney Animation (except for Puck from Disney's Gargoyles TV series, but come on, he's just fun), so as to play up the mute, but still very extroverted, sweet, playful personality this character would have. Much like mute side characters from some of Disney's previous works like Dopey, Dumbo, and the Spring Sprite, you would never be in doubt about what Star is feeling (if nothing else than because like Tinker Bell, they're prone to change color like a mood ring 😂) -- but as a central character of a full feature film with a very close (possibly even romantic) bond with our heroine Asha, they would have the chance to express a wider range of feelings than their predecessors...not just through their animation, but also (I would add!) a score that captures their mercurial air and feelings as well as Fantasia blended its art seamlessly with famous classical pieces.

To close us out -- some of the instrumental pieces from previous Disney projects that served as a playlist for my image of Star while working on this! Because for me, music and Disney have always gone hand-in-hand, and honestly, a cohesive and powerful score outside of just the lyrical music numbers always makes a Disney film 150% better...and I think in Wish's case, it would've also been elevated, if its music had come together in conjunction with the instrumentals meant for each scene to create a more cohesive score.

On the Rooftop / What's a Kiss / Perturbed Pixie - Peter Pan Bundle of Joy - Inside Out The Nutcracker Suite - Fantasia To Be Free - Aladdin Magical House Cleaning / Blue or Pink - Sleeping Beauty Under the Stars - The Lion King The Crystal Chamber - Atlantis: The Lost Empire Main Title - Return to Neverland

Have a magical night, everyone! xoxo

[saturnbellfromhell]

THE ENERGY OF THE SUN

One of the first posts on my Tumblr was about the Moon and all her feminine glory. How she is bold, yet mysterious, cunny, yet delicate, powerful yet soft. In today's post we speak of the the star of the show, literally. Our beloved Sun which shins brightly threw our windows kissing the Moon goodbye. For another day is to appear on the horizon, for that it brings serotonin into our body and bliss into our hearts. The Sun has been talked about, written about, sang about and worshipped for as long as life has existed on our planet. It is the masculine to the Moons feminine with whom he has created a small family consisting of a son Mars, the planet of action, a daughter Venus, the planet of beauty and a androgynous child Mercury, planet of communication. Together with their energies they rule all that is seen. The primary family of our solar system and where raw energy is bred. This star flows in the middle of our  system, where it shins every millimeter, not leaving anything hidden. For it's master it has chosen Leo. A fiery and noble fixed sign which represents the king of all creatures. Leo's are in the middle of our favorite season, Summer. Where the Sun has impregnated our crops and bears fresh food to our table. When the hottest months appear, so does a infant Leo. Being the master of such a powerful and complex star, Leo's have a lot on their hands.

~Leo's are in the center of all, unironically they are mostly hated for such behavior. But in reality they literally cannot help it. It's what comes natural to these people. When the Sun shines on you, you have very little to hide. Every accomplishment is met with large praise, but every downfall is met by huge dissaprovement and judgment. So Leo's have to form a larger ego than others to survive such things out in the world. In their home life they love their family and partner to the core. Being loyal to the grave for them and not letting anyone lay a finger on them. They are the leaders of the pack, the grandiose caregivers of their own family. What they crave is affection and attention, but they also want this for all their loved one's. Even if a courageous Leo becomes a star, he is more than willing to put his loved one in the spot light. Remember that meme of Will Smith showing off Jada Pinket Smith on the red carpet, yep that's what a Leo would do (which is funny, because Will Smith is a Leo rising).

~Other than a Leo's love and loyalty, they are such prideful people. Rarely will you hear a Leo dirty talk themselves. They are also known to be overachievers, ambitious and throughout. These individuals are the emotional one in the fire sign group. They long for freedom and change, love and devotion, praise and respect.

~The bad caracteristic of a Leo comes from being a fixed sign by itself. Fixed signs are known to be very stubborn and fixed, literally, on their beliefs and ideas. It's quite hard getting a Leo to change it's routine, try something new or have it any other way they imagined it. Leo's are the one who want control over their life and decisions, so don't bother changing it. They will treat you like a God or Godess, but be sure to not act like you are better than them. They can also have a longer tongue than what it needs to be, even moreso if Mercury is in a fire sign, the Leo will never hold back his words. By doing so, Leo will have to learn to bend their back sometimes, bringing more harmony into their life.

~A Leo's house is eccentric and loud, just like them. They adore random pictures, figurines and small touches of pazaz. If living with a Leo be sure to let go and let them do their thing, I mean they do have good taste at the end of the day. The metal gold is what catches their eyes, they also adore shiny anything and diamonds. Their style is everso changing, whatever they wear the most important accessory is their confidence. With main-like hair and a wild look in their eyes they take the world by storm.

~If not sure somebody is a Leo, do not worry, for they will tell you themselves. The chatty Leo is sure to tell you all about their hobbies, achievements and goals and be sure they will go to great strengths to better all of them. People find it hard to follow up and true Leo and by doing so become bitter towards them a lot of the time. But what they don't acknowledge is that Leo's would be over the moon exited to grab someone and put them under their wing.

~Even though a Sun is meant for and it is it domicile, in detriment it falls on a weird Aquarius. Aquarians are not meant for the spotlight for they are the ruler of others, the humanitarian of the group. It is all about other and not about themselves for this a wise lesson to be learned from a Leo and also a wise lesson to be taught to a Leo. Exaltation lands it's place to a baby Aries which has much to learn but feels at peace by holding the crown. A fun way to look at exaltations if you are not familiar is looking at it like making a feist. The Leo gets everything done, the collecting, planning, organizing, preparing and cooking, but the Aries just shows up and enjoyes the feist making everyone welcome and happy. The energy of the Sun is primal and welcoming, playful and flavourful, exiting and concious, strong and delightful, but not for anybody!

~Where the Sun resigns is in the 5th house, the house of complite hedonism, creation and joy. It's the house where romance lives and where all passion and love accurs. It defins our adoration for children and where our inner child finds it's playground. This house is all about the fun and amusing aspects of life governing games and hobbies, sex and creative acts, self expression and relationships. Even though the 7th house is called the house of partnerships, this house is how things flow in a relationships. How sex and sexuality is embedded in the individual. The 7th house moreso has to do with the functions in a relationship afterwards, like a marriage. The 5th house also represents the enjoyment before the purge and structure in the 6th house. So you can look at the 5th house as maturing into a relationship, the 6th house as self improvement and the 7th as the stepping stone into the new world where solidarity is not common anymore. After the 7th house we look at our life and relations as a collective, not so much as an individual. For everyone must learn a lesson from every house and lord to become a better person, not only for themselves, but for the whole world.

~Leo teaches us to have a good time, not be bothered by accidents, expand our knowledge, fight for our ideas and enjoy being human in a very raw form.

~Planets that are welcome in a Leo's home include Jupiter, who expands this house, bringing luck and optimism into our hobbies and relationships. The Moon, bringing a firm duality into the picture, here the Moon will cater to intuition and desires into a natives personal and love life.  Mercury will also be welcomed with a smile on Leo's doorstep, bringing new communication skills to the table and a driven Mars to activate all that is said above...and of course a lovely Venus to bring a seductive manner.

~But not all feel at home here... like Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto

~Saturn in the 5th house

A cold planet in a warm house is always a no go. Here Saturn cannot find any discipline nor structure nor valuable time. With a prominent Saturn in the 5th house  individuals can have a hard time with playful and spontaneous acts. They can also have a great fear of losing oneself to others and not wanting to open up and try new things. By doing so they can feel like they have some sort of curse put on them, where life doesn't flow like it does for others. This placement can also indicate harder views on sex, where people feel like they are obligated or pushed to be intimate. Saturn here also delays children and stable relationships. Many with this placement can also feel downgraded and only find happiness in a steady career. This a very stressful position for Saturn with many expectations.

~Uranus in the 5th house

Uranus is all about surprises and novelty. It's a Aqurian planet. As said above Sun is in detriment when in Aquarius, so of course this can govern troublesome events into the 5th house. This can indicate a unexpected/unplanned relationship or pregnancy by all means. Uranus can also make it hard for the native to stay in relationships since he chooses freedom over all. It can also mean that a native finds independence through a lover or partner. They need a lot of security in love to strive.

~Neptune in the 7th house

In a woman's chart this can be a indicator of hidden romances for the native, since Neptune is a planet of dreams and the "outer world". This can indicate a lot of unfufiled desires and wants that are not being met since the native cannot express himself/herself directly. Love where a Neptune resides in the 5th house needs to be soft and tender with a highlight on mysterious sex. Since this house is about creativity, Neptune here helps the person becoming more dreamy about anything, such as acting.

~Pluto in the 8th house

This one is a tough one. Pluto is very transformative and needs a lot of space to get his point across. It governs all that is away, death, the darkness, rebirth, endings..etc. So not a very fun planet for a whimsical 5th house. With Pluto here it can have a very rigid and formal approach to life. You don't have a very carefree and easy going life. This placement can also mean a native can fall victim into a power struggle and feel guilty about intimacy. It can bring a lot of mental and health struggles into their life aswell. A very understanding partner is needed with a Pluto in the 5th house native.

[canmom]

The Flower That Bloomed Nowhere: 013-032

Previously: 000-012, spinoff post about entropy [all Flower posts]

Time for more flower...

...no, not that flower!

Unless...?

Welcome back to my liveblog of sorts for web novel The Flower That Bloomed Nowhere by @lurinatftbn! Shout out to the Flower discord for giving me such a kind welcome. You're making me want to go all out on this liveblog, but, I musn't...! So I'm going to try to just comment on things that jumped out as especially noteworthy rather than write down everything that went down.

Especially since... a lot happened in these chapters. We have a perfect androgyne tree thing! Magical duels! Questionable student/teacher relationships! Steamed hams! Intense political arguments at dinner! Metafictional assurance of fair play! Prosognostic events! Transgender AIs! And of course........

a murder!!!!!

...ok that one was kinda obvious. But the first body has hit the floor! I don't feel like I have nearly enough information yet to start speculating about who might have dunnit.

That's a lie. It was definitely Kinzo Ushiromiya. That bastard.

So, from the top!

We're introduced to a few of the members of the Order, with by far the most screen time going to Su's mentor and ah, kinda-girlfriend? Neferuaten. And like, damn, lot going on there!

Before I get into the meat of that - first the bit where I search a character's name on Wikipedia. Neferuaten's name is most likely a reference to an Egyptian female king/pharaoh (a rank that's apparently distinct, conceptually, from a queen) variously called Ankhkheperure-Merit-Neferkheperure, Waenre, and Aten Neferneferuaten. Most often shortened to just Neferneferuaten.

Her exact historical identity seems to be a little unclear - she may or may not be the same person as Nefertiti for example. Whoever she was, she apparently reigned for a couple of years around 1334–1332 BCE, and was then succeeded by the famous child king Tutankhamun. Or maybe Smenkhkare came in between them? Seems to be a matter of some debate. Girl really needed to leave a few more vast and trunkless legs of stone so we can figure this stuff out.

In any case, this version of Neferuaten goes way back with Su. Her introduction is to launch a magical attack on our poor girl while she's contemplating the 'everblossom'. One of those classic 'master surprise attacks the student to see how much they've learned' deals. This servers as a fine exposition for the exact mechanics of magical duels.

Zettai! Ummei! Mokushiroku!

Let's briefly note how magical duels and magic works here, since it seems like it will be very relevant later.

The more we learn about magic, the more explicit is that this system is not some natural property of the universe, but something that's designed by the mysterious Ironworkers. It seems like it's kind of an API to the Ironworker admin console. The Ironworkers wanted to make it difficult to do magic on human bodies, and therefore they designed a system for detecting what is 'human', based on three heuristics - anatomical, motion and neurological.

Humans, being the freaky little hackers that we are, of course set about figuring out how to bypass this system, and created standardised means, consisting of three spells, termed [x]-beguiling arcana. In a sense the three criteria are something like three 'hitpoints': the primary way to win a duel is to get all three spells off, thus making your opponent vulnerable to magic.

To achieve this, you can either speak the words of a spell or sign them by drawing them with your fingers - i.e. one way or the other express the appropriate string of symbols. This is risky because if you're interrupted at the wrong time, your spell can backfire and blow up, and getting a spell right requires precise pronunciation and also rapid mental maths. So the general 'gameplay' of magical duels involves attempting to disrupt the opponent's focus and aim, while fast-casting the spells that are most familiar to you.

We're introduced to a few spells that could be useful in battle, such as

Matter-Shifting (telekinesis spell with a geometric bent, used to move a cube of dirt to act as a smokescreen),

Matter-Annihilating (deletes stuff),

Entropy-Denying (essentially a shield that freezes objects and fluids in relative motion),

Air-Thrusting (creates a shockwave air blast),

Light-Warping (fucks up the light for visual cover),

World-Deafening (mutes all sound, which can interrupt casts)

Entropy-Accelerating (disrupts coherency, causing rapid aging-like effects - can be used on a 'higher plane' to disrupt all magic in an area)

Entropy-Reversing (rewinds matter along its path of motion - reference to entropy here seems a tad dubious but w/e)

It's clearly a pretty carefully thought out system - I appreciate that it's approached from the point of view of someone trying to exploit the shit out of the system and figure out what the real meta would be. It does kinda seem like if you got the drop on a wizard and shot them with a sniper rifle they'd be toast, but we'll see later that much more powerful weapons than mere chemical firearms exist in this world, and presumably in a combat situation everyone would have entropy-denying (or equivalent) shields up, so maybe that's a moot point.

Anyway, we are later informed by the closest thing to authorial voice that everything we're told here about magic can be assumed to be axiomatically true, similar to the red text in Umineko. Which pretty heavily foreshadows that this is going to be on the test, if you like!

the magical metaphysics

With apologies to Neferuaten, who will get more detailed comments shortly, there are some other big revelations about magic and the nature of this world that I should talk about while we're on the subject of magic!

In the last post I wondered whether casting magic is an innate quality or a 'skill issue' situation. It turns out the answer is sorta 'neither'. In fact, it's something that has to be unlocked, using special equipment and a particular ritual. The cost of this ritual is not yet entirely spelled out, but we definitely get an inkling. It's rather ominously implied by this exchange in chapter 22:

"We're supposed to want to save people, to make the world better. To defend a bunch of people who practically committed murder--" "You're a murderer too, dour girl." I stopped, and blinked. It took me some moments to process the words. They'd come from Lilith, who now seemed to have finished with her dessert. Now she was just slowly swirling her spoon around in the last remnants of the chocolate sludge on the plate and, occasionally, dipping a finger into her cream bowl and licking little bits of it up. Her expression was irritated, but disconnected. "All arcanists are," she said. "It's how it happens. So having fights over moral high ground like this is very stupid and annoying. Please stop."

In the same chapter, Su uses something called an 'acclimation log', in which she records her 'association' with a series of diary entries from her childhood self. It all suggests that Su's present consciousness has somehow taken over the body of another character, who we could maybe call original!Su.

A few chapters later, we find out what's the deal with prosognostic events. In fact we get a pretty extensive exposition. It turns out that iron is magical in this universe, providing access to higher dimensions, FTL and all sorts of shit. However, because the Mimikos and other worlds are running on a 'substrate' of iron - sort of like a simulation - we are told this is why they can't recursively include iron within. And since the human body includes a certain amount of iron (most notably, in the haemoglobin protein in red blood cells), it is not possible to fully realise the human body inside these artificial worlds.

a self-referential quibble

Here's how Su puts it:

A substrate cannot exist within itself. That sounds awkward when I put it so directly, but it's not too hard to understand if you think about it in abstract-- A foundation obviously can't support another foundation of equal weight and nature, because… Well, it would make nonsense of the whole premise. A book is a device for storing information, but it cannot contain within its letters everything about itself and what it contains, because that is already more than it contains. A box cannot hold another box of equal size, unless it is bent or otherwise changed. A mind cannot hold another mind…

On the face of it, this seems on the face of it... not entirely true, at least in some domains? You can run a virtual machine program on a computer, representing any particular combination of hardware and software, which is from the perspective of software 'on the inside', essentially indistinguishable from a computer running on 'bare metal' hardware. The only real difference is that operating the virtual machine has some computational overhead, so it will be slower. The more virtual machines you nest, the slower it gets.

But 'from the inside', the only way to tell which layer of virtual machine you're on would be to refer to some kind of external clock signal (which can trivially be spoofed) and notice that it's running slower than it should!

We could also mention here the subject of quines, which are programs which print their own source code.

Let's consider Su's examples. The book that completely describes its contents might be able to get around this problem in a similar fashion to a quine, by exploiting redundancy and self-reference.

For example, let's try creating a string that completely describes its own content, using a quine-style technique.

This string begins with a sentence followed by its quotation, and then 100 letter ws; the sentence is: "This string begins with a sentence followed by its quotation, and then 100 letter ws; the sentence is: " wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

In fact the '100 letter ws' could literally be the entire string that follows. Suppose the length of the 'real content' of the book is S, and the length of the rest of the 'metadata sentence' describing properties of the book is M; then the total length of the book is 2M+3S.

You can add as much additional information to the 'metadata' string as you like, provided you quote it again afterwards. If you don't like having a book be three times the length it needs to be, you could compress the 'real content' string using an algorithm like DEFLATE, and include instructions in the 'metadata' on how to decompress it. (Text tends to compress really well.) This is where we run up into notions probably all too familiar to rats, or indeed anyone who recently read Seth Dickinson's new novel Exordia, such as Kolmogorov complexity.

But... I think this might well be intentional. Given how common notions like 'stacks of simulations' and 'self-reference' are in rat space, I suspect we may be being misled! The 'rules' of the game - more on that in a moment - say that Su won't deliberately lie to us, and won't withold information without saying so, but her perceptions could be mistaken. Maybe she's been given a false explanation of why the world works the way it does.

It's also totally possible that while the general point (you can't contain a thing in itself) may have some edge cases, the specific instance - you can't build a universe on a giant higher-dimensional iron spike and still have that universe contain iron - may still be true. We don't know the first thing about building universes using magic iron after all.

anyway... the Deal with Prosognisia!

The Ironworkers had a hacky workaround to the 'no iron' rule: they had a few tens of thousands of preserved human bodies on board their Tower of Asphodel. Asphodel, incidentally, is a genus of flower, said to carpet the Asphodel Meadows, one of the three divisions of the realm of Hades. (In their game, Supergiant decided to convert it into a lava zone.) It looks rather pretty actually!

So, they were able to instantiate these bodies in their rebuilt worlds by sort of making them into a reference to one of these stored human bodies. Here's Su again, chapter 26:

Some human bodies, or at least the impression of them and the iron within, had been preserved as part of the Tower, frozen in a timeless place. And because of that, it was eventually discovered it was possible for them to exist in the artificed planes as a sort of stable paradox. After all, while a book can't exist within itself, it can still reference other stuff it does contain internally, even if it makes for somewhat awkward reading. A few tweaks and workarounds solved the problem of the iron associated with that human body staying a part of it, and just like that, human beings were walking something at least akin to the earth once again. However, this only permitted replicas of those bodies within the Tower to exist. The creation of new ones remained impossible, and births not incubated by anima taken by the same mechanism would inevitably fail. And there were far fewer preserved bodies than minds; scarcely more than ten thousand or so for each party.

So every human born in the Mimikos is forked from one of these human bodies. For... mysterious reasons, if you recognise that someone nearby is forked from the same body as you, you both straight up die. If you touch such a person (a 'contact paradox') it's even worse, and all the iron in your body disappears, leaving behind a 'greenish sludge', which seems to be a severe enough disaster to cause deaths of nearby people as well.

(This is a little surprising given that the iron in the human body is only about 60 parts per million by mass, but it would kinda destroy your blood's ability to carry oxygen, so it would definitely be pretty fatal.)

The 'distinction treatment' we heard about is able to mitigate the risks somewhat - with quick medical intervention and time magic, it's possible to allow the people involved to make a full recovery. An interesting wrinkle is that it's implied either Ophelia or new character Balthazar is trans, because normally people of the same gender can't share an upstream body.

That definitely leads to a very fascinating fucked up medical emergency scene, but the reason I'm discussing it now is because it's got bearing on this big-deal question of 'what's so fucked up about arcanists anyway'...

so what's so fucked up about arcanists anyway?

Having finally answered one of the major questions, we can start zeroing in on another. In a flashback scene in chapter 30, we learn that the 'original' bodies have innate access to the magic API, but when you're given a distinct identity at birth you quickly lose it. To have your sv_cheats 1 restored, you have to go through a process that, it would seem, downloads a new mind into your head from one of those original bodies...

The man sat back a little in his chair, crossing his legs idly. "It's intimidating in concept, but please do understand that, in the overwhelming majority of cases, there are no observable effects whatsoever. Around half of the individuals who go through it don't even lose consciousness, and of the other, four out of five don't report any abnormalities when they reawaken. And even of the remaining 10%, the symptoms are negligible for nine out of ten-- Fleeting false memories, minor alterations in temperament that self correct, usually in under a day..." "And the others?" I inquired. "The remaining one percent." He considered this question for a few moments, obviously choosing his words carefully. "The technical term for the rare cases where confusion persists in the longer term is pneumaic assimilation failure. We have a program for treatment, using a combination of various phychological and medical means. It's time-tested. It brings people back to themselves quickly, usually within only only a few months at most." 'Confusion.' 'Brings people back to themselves.' I wasn't feeling fond of the way he couched everything in euphemism. It wasn't helping. "What do you mean by 'it brings people back to themselves'..?" I furrowed my brow. "They just... Forget everything?" "Not immediately," he said. "But they lose a sense of association with... Well, with anything that shouldn't be there, and that leads those memories and feelings to fade over time." He smiled. "The human mind is very adept at excising anything it judges to be out of place. All it needs is a push in the right direction."

The new mind tends to rapidly adjust to its new context, connecting to the memories stored in the body and assuming continuity of identity. But in rare cases it fails! Nuts! And we can infer poor Su appears to be one such case.

Presumably this is what Lilith is referring to when she says that all arcanists are murderers. It's not clear if there is continuity of consciousness when you get /mode +o'd - since you (usually) inherit the memories it is perhaps hard to say whether such a thing is meaningful.

In any case, Su's mega-guilt complex, the reason she seems to want to visit the mysterious egomancer Samium, seems to be at least partly that she's evicted the previous consciousness to inhabit this body. I don't think that's the whole story though! Her grandad seems to be involved somehow too. I don't think Su is literally the reincarnation of her grandad, because it seems unlikely that he'd be motivated to carry out ego suicide like this.

introducing teacher mommy

All those major revelations aside, let's get back to the subject of Neferuaten, aka 'Grandmaster', Su's old mentor in entropic thanatomancy. She quickly establishes herself as one of the most likeable of the inner circle of the Order - she's funny, understanding, generally affable and a little self-effacing. Su definitely puts her on a massive pedestal - though other characters such as Ran find her a little more sussy.

I gotta say, the author is really good at writing old academics. Each one of them comes across as strongly believable, distinctive, motivated and flawed characters. I'll talk a bit about the others in a bit but first let's talk age gap yuri! lmao

Anyway, at the end of chapter 20 we get this:

Then she leaned over and, in an impulsive, almost casual gesture, kissed me on the lips. Before turning, heading to the exit.

'Huh!' thinks the reader. 'That sure is an unusual thing for someone's teacher to do.'

It is quite a few chapters later before Su gets round to telling us a bit more about what's going on...

After that, we met outside of the university more and more often, her becoming sort of a source of emotional support. At some point, I became aware that what was happening was probably quite inappropriate. It's not like I was underage, having turned 25 two years prior, but she was my professor. But I'd been bad at making friends in both of... Well, in both my past contexts, and I'd felt so lonely living in Tem-Aphat, away from Ran and any reminders of the resolutions we'd made. And it all somehow felt so natural. Things got out of hand. One day, I'd had a fight with my father over the logic bridge, and had got a little drunk when I was due to see her. I don't know exactly what I was thinking, but I did something uncharacteristic of me. Inappropriate. But she didn't respond in the way I'd expected. To my shock, she didn't act like it was inappropriate at all. It wasn't as if we ended up dating. That would never have worked, and I was pretty sure she was past wanting that sort of thing anyway. On some levels, she always kept her distance. But it became something we did together, an avenue of private expression that became part of her support for me - and mine, eventually for her.

Su then expresses a bunch of guilt over the whole thing. (Not least because it's a 'selfish' thing she's doing in a body that, implicitly, she doesn't think of as hers.)

The issue of age here is interesting lol. Definitely my gut reaction, and probably the one the story is aiming to elicit, is to be a bit 'wuh oh' by all this, maybe think of Makima wrapping Denji round her finger. That said, by vastly expanding the range of human ages, it's definitely poking pretty hard at our intuitions about what's 'appropriate'. The vibes are like... the students are constantly referred to as 'the kids' by the hundreds-year-old wizards. I don't think we're told Su's current age, but if she was 27 in this flashback, and in the present she says a 29 year old computer is close in age to her, so I would guess currently early 30s. Neferuaten's age is not stated at this point but given her position she's def a few hundred years up there.

The vibe though is that Su is infatuated with someone who has vastly more emotional maturity and experience of the world, not to mention social power over her, and that person is all too happy to encourage it.

The way Su tells it, it sounds like this fling went pretty ok for them? But I definitely feel like things are probably not gonna stay ok, given how clearly the 'inappropriate' nature of this relationship has been foregrounded!

Dark yuri is literally one of the things I'm here for, so I'm looking forward to the fireworks lmao.

Anyway, besides that, we get a bit of a sense of Neferuaten's ideology. She actually shares a lot of Su's skepticism about the viability of the whole immortality project. She makes a big point of making sure the gang get a sense of the order's culture and rituals, apparently viewing this as a chance for their project to be judged by outsiders for the first time. On a personal level, she raises the issue of if the project might be able to save only the young - whether they might be the last humans to not become immortal. Nef's attitude seems to be that she'd be good with that - something she clashes with Kam over.

Otherwise, she's kinda... world-weary, I suppose you could say. She seems to look at the firey youngsters with an attitude along the lines of 'wish I still had that'. She does love to perform to an audience, asking leading questions to set up some lesson or another.

She's a fun character, I enjoy reading her a lot.

Also she seems to have made a sapient AI in the basement! Only everyone says it's definitely not sapient - it is in some sense not agentic, it can't change its motivation, allegedly. Still, it definitely has a 'passing the Turing test' sorta vibe.

don't mention the war

Besides Nef, we get introduced to a few of the remaining members of the class, and also the masters of the Order. Of note is Bardiya, the former revolutionary. He's a very 'speak his mind without preamble' sort of character, which can land him in hot water.

So, returning to Chapter 22, we have a really juicy scene in which a dinner conversation gets very heated after Bardiya mentions his role in the war, provoking a political row with Durvasa, a member of the order. It's a really well observed social dynamics scene - the characters dancing around the topic and the way a row is almost avoided, and then it isn't - Bard's determination, Kam's brown-nosing, Su getting drawn in against her better judgement in a deeply relatable way.

Thanks to this convo, we get a sense of the events of the revolution! So, as @nightpool helpfully informed me, I actually got things a bit mixed up in my rough timeline last time. The 'gerontocrats' were not a feature of the distant-past imperial era - rather it's a figure identified as an oppressor class by a very recent movement, still within living memory for even the youngsters.

The events broadly seem to reflect something like the Paris Commune. There was a famine under the hand of a 'Meritist' city council, killing thousands, which led to a popular uprising let by a 'paritist' movement. The paritists executed a handful of people and redistributed property based primarily on age, intending to break the power of the 'gerontocrats' who had neglected the 'younger generations' by hoarding resources. The Administration overseeing the whole world alliance then cracked down hard - deploying a poison gas that, though it was intended to be nonlethal, turned out to have unexpected lethal side effects.

In the aftermath of the revolution, it seems many reforms were made - besides relaxing the rules on what magic is banned, they changed the equation of scarcity so that food could be replicated more readily? Little unclear on this part. Su mentions that the situation is different now than it was when the Alliance was built, with the material scarcity mostly gone, but clearly there was a famine in recent memory.

Anyway, there is naturally a big generational divide over this. The older generations lived through some pretty fucked-up sounding wars, called things like the 'Great Interplanar War', and in the aftermath built a political system that was supposed to secure peace. (c.f. League of Nations, UN). Although she broadly sympathises with the revolutionaries, Su seems to extends the older generation a fair bit of understanding for having built this system and fearing what would happen if it were destroyed. Though the most relativist view comes from the mouth of Neferuaten:

"I think a common problem with inter-generational communication is an inability to really convey context and scope," Neferuaten said. I noted she didn't actually convey if Kam's understanding of what her point had been was correct or not. "Someone who lived through the Interluminary Strife might tell a young person from the modern day that they have no understanding of hunger, only for the latter to stubbornly retort that they lived through that Ikaryonic famine that preluded the civil dispute… Except that one was a catastrophe that lasted decades and killed tens of millions, while the other slew less than a thousand." She sighed. "People try to relate the experiences of others to their own lives in order to contextualize their understanding of the world and how it might be bettered, but those second-hand experiences inevitably become caricatures, conveying no useful truths. It makes me wonder if human beings, both young and old, are capable of learning from history at all."

Around here is raised the question of a person's political development - the arc from a young person's anger at the state of the world and determination to tear it aside for something better, against the resignation of an older person who fears losing what is already there, however flawed. (We might note of course that there exist young conservatives and old radicals. Circumstances have a lot to do with it.)

Of course, with this whole 'gerontocrat' business at stake already, the mission of the Order hoping to achieve immortality is naturally cast in a dubious light. Fun conflict. On the one hand we have 'can immortality be achieved, and what will it cost', on the other 'who will benefit from it, if it is'! So much narrative force is obtained by politicising this, attaching it to characters with personal motivations and histories, instead of leaving it up to an abstract 'living forever good/bad'.

But it's not all political debates and shagging your teacher...

Over the course of these chapters we get a sense of what the order's been up to!

Let's talk flowers. Just prior to the meeting with Nef, Su comes across an enormous freaky plantlike thing. This turns out to be an experiment to create a being that can survive in even the most extreme environments, like the bottom of the ocean - an attempt to demonstrate that immortality is possible at least in principle. This lifeform is termed the Nittaimalaru or 'Everblossom'. It seems like a pretty good candidate for being the story's eponymous Flower - symbolically, the underwater immortality-granting plant that appears in the Epic of Gilgamesh.

It's worth noting here that 'indefinite lifespan' is actually not entirely impossible in our natural world. I was talking about this with a friend who raised some interesting points:

reading the first post i wanna bring up that while the concept of cancer is fundamental to any multicellular organism the presence of cancer as a problem is actually pretty niche. same with telomere degradation, which is a purposeful anti-cancer measurement. like pretty much all perennial plant life is capable of absolute immortality. while the lobster grows forever until it can no longer use its legs to push its great weight along the sand towards food, if a tree overshoots its growth it's more than happy to break off its unnecessaries, though with both of them at a certain point it's always good to have help after a while. as mammals we're very obsessed with the concept of like ending death as this sort of ultimate goal, prime directive, whatever, when that shit was deliberately turned on in the first place (assigning intent to evolution sue me), because in terms of cost benefit it gave us something in return that we as students of medicine or biology are still not fully grasping.

After a little more discussion:

@play-now-my-lord wrote:

even if humans weren't causing climate change, climactic fluctuations over centuries upend a lot of what is normal in specific areas. if the people on a farmstead in bronze age sweden lived 500 years, the methods and habits they internalized when they were young would habitually be incorrect for the conditions as they existed, the weather, the soil

other friend:

that's how most trees die in the end the root system operates as a weak parallel to the tree's neurons, with a more physiological bent than say our chemical one. patterns around balance, nutrient access, hydrology, and wind are ingrained and learned over centuries and the more regular/consistent that cycle is the more a root will grow. if a tree's roots are built around buttressing from a wind tunnel due to forest conditions and the trees around it fall for whatever reason, it has to relearn what used to be a hundred year old certainty that it needs to lean against the westerly gale every winter, etc. - this is generally a pretty brittle process altogether when it comes to the base of the plant n stuff

some caveats:

should be noted i overlooked a lot of nuance about perennial mortality, like, some plants are more used to investing into survival than others i'm thinking of like how beech bark disease doesn't affect the roots of the beech, so the trunk dies but new shoots continue to grow out and eventually catch the disease and repeat, so the plant is essentially still immortal but forced into a perpetual state of adolescence. but i think for a great number of trees if the tree falls it just goes "eh the rot consumes us all " and dies

Among mammals, we could also note the cancer resistance of the naked mole rat, which loves to defy all sorts of generalisations (also one of the only non-arthropod eusocial animals). They're not exactly immortal, living around 37 years on average, but their chance of dying at any given year is pretty much flat rather than increasing with age.

Of course, longevity and resilience are different things. Nef mentions the resilience of tardigrades as an inspiration. As far as their experiment goes, the 'everblossom' is not an entirely successful experiment, requiring twice-yearly maintenance to address an imbalance.

Given how prominently it features, and the invocation of Gilgamesh, it seems pretty damn likely that the everblossom will in fact be a key to immortality, or something like it.

Religion exists after all!

Other parts of the facility are also pretty funky. We learn that it was patterned after the old headquarters of the Order, which was destroyed when they got found out; that headquarters was built in an old church compound. What sort of thing does a church worship in this world? Actually it's kinda goffic as fuck. Makes Catholicism look downright tame. It's a polytheistic religion and the deities involved are figures like this...

In the center of the circle was a statue, about 8 feet high, and of the kind of ornate-but-formulaic design that characterized art from the Second Resurrection. It depicted a tall, skinny woman, though her two sides, left and right, were very different in nature. The left was beautiful and youthful in a generic, almost ethnicity-less way, dressed in the most delicate of silk peploi, with long and unrealistically tidy curls falling elegantly over her shoulders. Her lip was curled into a gentle half-smile, kind but slightly mysterious, teasing. Her right... Well, her right, to say the least, was very different. On that side, she appeared to be skinless, although it was hard to tell with a statue; I recalled it being a matter of hot debate among the boys in my class back in secondary school. It was possible she was simply incredibly emaciated, or that there were supposed to be growths - like scales - erupting from her flesh. Her hair was made up of hateful, eyeless wyrms, biting and hissing at each other, and her flesh, which was naked save for a tasteful rag covering one area in particular, was covered in numerous stab wounds, bleeding openly. As for her face, it was grim and wide eyed. Mournful and contemptful both. I recognized the figure depicted at once; I passed one of her temples whenever I went to the distribution hall to pick up groceries. This was Phui, Dying Goddess of Love Given Way To Anguish, one of the eleven deities of the now largely defunct Ysaran-Inotian Pantheon.

In the stories, Phui was the third-to-last of the gods to fall during the end of the world, who attempted to take her own life after the death of her lover. But the breaking of the heavens had left her unable to die, meaning that no matter how she much she cut into her flesh, how much she starved herself of food and drink, reprieve would never come. Only relentless, unceasing pain, and grief for that which she had lost.

Metal album cover ass-religion, I'm into it.

The mysterious Ironworkers seem to have really drummed into the population of their new Mimikos that there was a very nice world once, and they'd better be damn sad about what happened to it. However, religion has waned in the present day, and it seems most characters are atheists of some sort.

What did happen to it, anyway? It's referred to as 'the collapse' with a lowercase c; I noticed an author's comment where the author says it's not a case of just a name for the apocalypse. A few people in the comments started speculating about false vacuum collapse. This is a physics thing. Basically, a remote possibility exists in the standard model of particle physics that the existence of matter in our universe could be in a kind of local energy minimum, but it would be possible for it to locally fall into a true minimum, creating a kind of bubble that expands at the speed of light and just deletes everything. We're pretty sure that isn't true though. If it did happen we literally would not be able to do anything... at least in a universe without FTL.

(Curiously, Su mentions special relativity at one point. With all the funky cosmology stuff I kinda wondered if special relativity is still real, but apparently it is! Electromagnetism has been mentioned as still being a thing a couple of times now, so rather than being totally absent it seems like the physics is a bit different, with an electric shock being sufficient to cause radiation poisoning.)

The fair play interlude

In between chapters 22 and 24 we get a curious little interlude called Intermission ∞ 1. The introduction presents it as something that is happening on one of the 'higher planes', translated into terms we can understand, which is grounds for it to get metafictional.

Two entities, calling themselves the Playwright and the Director, discuss the direction of the story so far before laying out the version of fair-play mystery rules this story will be operating under. They are as follows:

THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE PROTAGONIST IS ALWAYS TRUTHFUL

ALL EVENTS FOLLOW THE RULES OF CONVENTIONAL REALITY, UNLESS INDICATED OTHERWISE

ALL SYSTEMS INTRODUCED CANNOT BREAK THEIR OWN RULES AS DEFINED WITHIN THE NARRATIVE, UNLESS INDICATED OTHERWISE

I made them red because it feels like they would be red in Umineko.

Further clarifications and caveats allow that Su can withold information (for dramatic tension or whatever I guess) but she'll always tell us when she does, and an example of 'system introduced' is the magic duel sequence: the characters know accurately how magic duels work.

The two entities are performing this story for some sort of audience, and during their double-act credit themselves with control over the direction of the scenario, sometimes disagreeing. (Another one, the chorus, enters at the end.) Probably best not to think too hard about what that implies for our characters on the 'main' level of the story being 'real', it's probably just a cute bit to take the audience aside without completely breaking the fourth wall. Then again... who knows!

What this means is that my concerns about professed liar Su being an unreliable narrator are unfounded. It's still a limited POV, so Su could fail to notice things or be deceived, but she's not trying to pull one over on us.

I bring this up because...

There's been a mordah!

So, in the last chapter I read - strictly the beginning of a new arc - we find someone dead!

Well, this was kinda foreshadowed earlier. The chef disappeared, the assistant chef was knocked out by magic, and some kinda crazy time magic happened in the pantry - with the heavy implication that someone was trapped in some kinda hyperbolic time pantry for many years. At least they'd have plenty to eat..? The characters don't pick up on the implication of the tally marks and write it off as a stasis field malfunction.

So, it was natural to suspect the cook is dead. Indeed they are: Su finds a mysterious note in the book given to her by an academic at the school as a parting gift, warning her not to trust the inner council - inexplicably written two years prior and warning her to check the archive in a certain position. Investigating this, she and Kam find a secret armoury room. In there is a tunnel, and at the bottom, the cook appears to have committed suicide, leaving a suicide note vaguely implying the Order is up to some seriously sussy shit.

Of course, Kam and Su immediately suspect foul play. But they also both have ulterior motives for coming to this conference, so they agree to keep it hush-hush. This is definitely a great idea that won't get everyone killed by Beatrice... I mean uh. Whoever the murderer is.

The obvious question is, who dunnit? And why? Unfortunately, we don't really have alibis for most of the characters. Many of the inner circle haven't even shown up on screen yet. So there's a lot of people who it might have been.

More suspects! More suspects!

I haven't even mentioned several of the characters. We also have Sacnicte, steward of the house - she's an arcanist, and Su is kinda insanely horny for her aesthetically appreciative, in a way that the other characters notice and are literally like 'I don't see it'... which makes me wonder if we have a situation where someone has fucked with her perceptions. She's very down to earth and casual.

Her name is probably a reference to the Maya princess Sac Nicté, meaning 'white flower', who according to legend was involved in the migration of the Itza people from the Chichen Itza. Mind you the article I'm getting this from is kinda horrendous; the sole source is in Spanish and appears to be some random website from 2004.

Among the older generation, we have Theo's dad, Linos. He is a generally affable chap, kinda socially awkward (he's responsible for prolonging the political discussion by a botched apology) but otherwise not particularly standing out among the Order members.

Linos or Linus is another Greek name with a few referents.

The Order member who really does stand out is Anna, or in full, Amtu-hedu-anna. She's the one who's properly old, having dodged many of the 'kills people around 500' bullets of this setting, and not especially inclined to make nice. Very 'straight to the point' kinda lady. We meet her fairly briefly - Ran seems to have landed in her good books.

This one really took some digging! It seems to be based on Enheduanna, who was a Sumerian high priestess of Nanna and the oldest named author in history, credited for tablets like The Exaltation of Inanna, although it seems there's some debate over whether she definitely wrote them. Her rank in Sumerian was Entu, and I could fully believe 'amtu hedu anna' is a different transliteration of 'Entu Hedu Anna'.

As mentioned above, we're introduced to two logic engines, Sekhmet and Eshmun, built respectively by Neferuaten and (the as yet unseen) Hamilcar. Sekhmet has more biological components and wants to be a human. She wants to be human, and she's also expressed a distinct pronoun preference and gender id, which I suppose makes her trans. Eshmun is a more traditional logic engine with a lot of cogs; Sekhmet calls him 'big brother', so I guess he gets he pronouns from that.

Sekhmet is of course named for the Egyptian lion-headed warrior/medicine goddess. Eshmun is a Phoenician god of healing. Hamilcar was a name used by a number of Carthaginians, mostly generals.

Ezekiel is another one of the student gang. We haven't seen much of him yet, so I don't have a lot to say about him. Abrahamic prophet.

Balthazar is a student from another school - another thanatomancer in fact. He's something like the protégé of Zeno, and his presence is Zeno's condition for having this whole affair go ahead. He's got the same eyes as Ophelia, and Zeno failing to do his paperwork and allowing to happen is a big deal. But Zeno's kind of a bigshot so it might not come to anything. Anyway, Su is kind of suspicious towards Balthazar, but he takes it all in good humour.

Balthazar was one of the three magi in Christian mythology. There were a few Zenos, but the best known is surely Zeno of Elea, who came up with his famous "we need to invent calculus to solve this" paradoxes around infinite sums.

Yantho is a member of the Order staff, who was cooking when whoever did shenanigans in the kitchen... did shenanigans in the kitchen. His roast was ruined, but sadly he was too unconscious to order fast food and pass it off as his cooking. He can't speak and communicates by writing on his tablet.

The name crops up as an obscure Maya deity, part of a trio of brothers with Usukun and Uyitzin, but I can't find any source that seems particularly definitive.

Samium is an old egomancer, whose presence is a secret that only Su and Ran are in on. Su wants to speak to him, for reasons that are probably to do with finding out if he can restore 'original!Su' into her body, or maybe resurrecting her grandfather, or something?

...is that everyone? I think that's everyone. At some point I probably need to make an Umineko-style character screen lol.

can we solve anything yet?

Since this chapter is the beginning of the arc, I suspect there's more info to divulge before we can think about trying to solve this one. And, given the Umineko inspo, the problem to solve probably isn't simply 'whodunnit' but something more fundamental to the nature of this world.

Still, it seems all but spelled out explicitly that current!Su failed to properly assimilate into her body after she became an arcanist. Her grandfather's final 'kindness' is less clear. Her intentions with Samium... I've mentioned the obvious theories about already. She's mega guilty about overwriting this poor girl and has decided the only course of action is to try and restore the mind that inhabited her body originally. But I don't think we have the whole picture just yet, because I still can't figure out what her granddad did.

Given her discussion of 'dragon' vs 'phoenix' resurrection, and of how her meeting with Samium might change the order, I also theorised - before I really twigged the arcanist thing - that she was here to resurrect her grandfather in her own body. Body-hopping is like, the classic immortality strat after all. But... I'm less convinced of that one now? It doesn't seem like Su particularly liked the old man, she definitely doesn't want to follow in his footsteps, and 'saw him die unexpectedly during the revolution' does not seem like it would inspire the same sort of guilt.

Still, he surely did something to her, she's definitely cryptically alluded to that enough times.

Besides that?

Obviously really digging this story! Honestly, this one rules. It helps that the author is clearly into a lot of the same shit I am. All the long discussions and beat by beat narration could potentially feel a little dry, but honestly, I'm pretty hooked, it's definitely pulling me forwards. It's a fascinating, conflict-rich setting, that raises all sorts of interesting concepts. It's confident in knowing what it wants to be. Umineko is a hell of a tough act to follow, but this one has a distinct identity of its own. Can't wait to see what happens now the mystery seems to be about to kick off for real.

With that in mind, I'm sure it won't be long until the next one of these. I may have to dial back the detail a bit, this is kinda having a bad effect on my work right now. There's just so many fascinating corners to follow up ^^'

Anyway, I realise these posts are kinda massive for tumblr, so I'm gonna start copying them over to canmom.art soon. <See you next time>.

[roykiller07]

i am always so scared and avoidant of explaining my identity to anybody (even, if not especially, myself) in any more words than the vaguest description possible ("im trans these r my pronouns and im a lesbian") because i cant telepathically transmit my gender into their brain so theyll never understand the complexity of it and will think something is wrong with it because im 100% nothing if not a lesbian but my nonbinaryness does not necessarily exclude manhood but it also does at the same time?? idk. wish ppl would stop trying to get me to explain my nonbinary identity in binary terms (im ppl nobody is asking me to say anything more than what i already do)

that comedian was so right i am a man in the way that kraft singles are cheese. it presents like it would be in the same category, it tastes like an offputting version of the real cheeses, a lot of people would call it cheese and it calls itself cheese too unless legally restricted but when you look at the actual content it is an entirely completely different substance. which doesnt make it any less a cheese persay but certainly also makes it definitely NOT a cheese at the same time. and its way better on grilled cheese than normal cheese is. not sure how that fits into the metaphor but its important to me

the same can be said for the way that im a woman and for both a large majority of the "ingredients" are completely internalizations of external inputs instead of any actual innate part of my being, like being a girl in the weird girl by mommy long legs way or in the impact of growing up a girl in a sexist society way or in the betty grof way or in the autistic female cartoon characters way or in the when choosing which character was OUR character growing up amidst my siblings in any game or show, often ending up w the only girl instead of just anyone that resonated with me way (was always mad at the games/shows for only having one girl, never upset about having to be her instead of someone else unless one of my siblings took the cool genderless-esque one) (maya and zero from borderlands...) or in the im my mother's daughter way or like being a guy in the random stray cat of indeterminate sex way or in the when every new person got confused about my gender as an androgynous kid, laughing super hard with my whole class/whoever was there about how dumb they were but always avoiding answering/correcting them clearly and getting upset if someone else told them i was a girl way or in the feeling very uncomfortable when anyone but my family specifically called out that i was a girl as a kid way (when alex tried to tell me i was the ruler QUEEN not the ruler KING for my collection of rulers..... die) or in the im my brothers brother way or in the drag king way or in the tboy swag of harold tdi way or you know i could go on for literal eons and still feel like i didn't list enough. plus a lot of the items on BOTH lists apply to BOTH options

and besides that im also like totally disconnected from gender?? i definitely still feel agender and genderfluid at the same time all the time not to mention the constant banging at the door in the back of my head for catgender begging to be let out. overall point blank period i know that the reason i feel this way about my gender is because im autistic and when social constructs don't come naturally to me that includes gender. but that's never like. a definitive enough answer for other people or for my own sanity and it makes me mad because NOBODY UNDERSTANDSSS MEEEEEEE [emo crying on knees]

whatever who actually cares (me)

i think the last time i felt properly fully self expressed was when i was 10 and had a scratch account named mr fox and used a persona called mr fox on it and part of what was special about me was that my name was mr fox but i was actually a girl even though i would throw up if someone called me a miss or mrs

[ditchdwellersupreme]

Hermekate (A Poem/Song of Sorts)

Hermekate Hermekate Hekahermes! We sing to you, we pray to you We adore your glorious name Hermekate Hermekate Hekahermes! Your name is Life Your name is Death We honor your Name Hermekate Hermekate Hekahermes! Thou art a glorious god! You bring us joy You bring us strife Eternal cycle anew Hermekate Hermekate Hekahermes! He is the Queen She is the King He brings us greatest joys Her song is sung In ancient tongue By mortals fair and young His name she laughs His song she sings His beauty immortal She is the Androgyne King He is the setting Sun Hermekate Hermekate Hekahermes! Our nightly prayer Do you ever hear Forever we shall sing Hermekate Hermekate Hekahermes Hermekate Hermekate Hekahermes Hermekate Hermekate Hekahermes To thee we cry To thee we sigh To thee to thee to thee! We are your sons Your daughters true Your everlasting night Has brought us endless delight Hermekate Hermekate Hekahermes! This song is sung In strange Aeons O Necromantic Voice Who dwells in dark Who's brightest light Who is the dog's bark Hermekate Hermekate Hekahermes! Our dance is sung For you our One You madness bringing Lord Dionysian Queen Darkest Dream We sing our song for you And now our song is sung Hermekate Hermekate Hekahermes Hermekate Hermekate Hekahermes Hermekate Hermekate Hekahermes

[wide-ride]

Fae Court (1.2k words, rapid weight gain, lactation, a hint of breeding, a hint of horror)

The banquet is spread out before her like a rich profusion of jewels, like a wet gutting at a charnel, and she thinks: well, it would simply be rude to refuse. One dainty silver fork is already pressed into a dumpling bundle of duck coated in a lush red sauce, as glossy as a cherry. It tastes, however, of the meat. Heavy, gamey, hearty with fat within thick, soft dough. It fills her mouth and then escapes down her throat, leaving a faint fading of flavor, a craving. She aims the fork and spears another. She bites, chews, swallows. She daubs sticky red from her lips with white linen.

Fae court is raucous, and all attendants are wrapped up in their own jests, their own lurid conversations, but she still has the presence of mind to notice furtive glances, to notice outright stares. She had not needed any cajoling to make her eat.

There is a queen at the head of the court, or a king. An androgyne with a narrow face and bright eyes. It is from that seat that the sharpest attention comes; when the monarch smiles, she glimpses a fang. “Dear thing,” the despot says, “are you hungry?”

She nods, once, and then, as if it is her duty, she spreads pale butter over bread, and she bites through the crust.

(“Poor girl must be starved,” one goblin says, in jeering pity.

“Not the brightest,” one faerie quips, and it sips sugared dew.)

Thin arms angle elegantly; the monarch gazes upon the feast without taking a bite. “Darling thing,” they say. “Are you often hungry?”

“A bit of madness in the king,” she answers around a mouthful. “And all down the line. Bad crops, no food. No prospects. And the daft man keeps inviting wars. I thought—” she says, and for the first time she wavers. A glint of fear shines in her eyes. There are sharp little teeth in all the mouths around her. Their bodies move with a hummingbird’s quick and still grace. Her own is slow, and far too real; her pulse flutters in her neck. “I thought,” she says, and she swallows. “We’ll get pillaged. I’d like to not get pillaged. I’d rather come here.”

“You believe, then, that I am not mad?” the monarch asks. The crowd titters.

“Maybe,” she admits. “But you’ve got rules.”

“That we do.” A slender hand strokes the tablecloth. “Do you know what they are?”

“I eat, and I’m in,” she says, as flat as a blade. “I’m a citizen of fairyland, and a peasant of his no more. Listen, I know that it’s— a questionable decision. But you lot grant wishes, and give quests, and those sorts of things. I don’t quite believe that I’ll die here. Not like out there.”

Their laugh is like the rustling of crystal, like the precarious swaying of a chandelier. “A citizen! You would make yourself my subject?”

“I’ll pay taxes and all,” she says, and she gulps down a glass of nectar. “Toil in the fields much the same. I don’t mind that.”

“Poor little beast of burden.” The monarch’s gaze drops down the slope of her chest to the swallowing heave of her breasts. Direct and dark, animal. “Yes,” they say. “You have successfully invited yourself here. You will be, I believe, a very productive member of our society.”

She reaches for another roll, and that gives her pause; she had only really needed a nibble to cheat her way in, but she has been gorging herself without thought, without even her own notice. But now that she has realized what she has been doing, she only desires it more; rich meat, thick butter, sweet fruits, all the things she cannot afford. A bead of sweat trails down her temple, and she feels a tautness at her midriff.

She glimpses, then, a bulging stripe of pale above her skirt, an astounding and thick spilling-over of fat. She finds that she cannot breathe. Her face reddens. She shifts in her seat, and she sees the drooping swell of her gut splay yet further over her thighs.

“This—” She stammers. “This— what is—”

Growth comes, and she blooms; a dire warmth seeps out from her core, spreading, swelling. She clutches at her chest. It is softer now, more pendulous, tipping her posture in a way she is not accustomed to. She cannot help herself; she cries out. “Help the poor girl,” the monarch commands, and needling fingers weave through the laces of her supportive corset. It loosens, and she finds that she can breathe again; she is breathless, however, at the plump mass spilling out before her. Clawed hands pluck away her blouse and rend her undergarments, but she does not recognize the body below her. It is doughy, heavy. Rolls rise around her sides and then drape down, piling upon the spread of her stomach. When she spreads her corpulent thighs, her gut sags low between them. She lifts her arms, and she feels a wobble.

“Worry not,” the monarch says. “Our honored guest. Or— not a guest, no? But we shall honor you the same.”

Some new morsel is lifted to her lips, breading and duckfat and thickly dripping sauce, and— she eats it, a little helplessly. And she sees that bite sink into her belly and swell out a heavy bloat. The cool spring air wafts over her freed breasts, and as she perks, she thinks— it is only the cool air. But the next bite brings the sight of each teat puffed up as if teased, and they feel heavy, sore, latent. Another few bites rounds her, and she feels each breast lift and roll atop the stuffed, heaving mass. She feels distended, distorted. Everything wobbles. Her stomach churns as if each crumb was a feast in itself.

The vulnerable underside of her gut begins to drape beyond her parted knees.

“Productive little heifer,” the monarch purrs. “Animal strolling so proudly into my larder.”

A carafe is held to her lips: sweet cream. She can feel it as a coolness within her. Her gut grows, and her breasts sway, sagging to the sides of her rising stomach. She looks bloated and bred. She feels it. The last swallow disturbs her ailing belly like a kick, and a warm, liquid weight engorges her teats. Her nipples nearly level with her navel. She groans.

“Quiet, now.” There are clawed fingers scraping the plump layering of rolls upon her side. “Complain, and I’ll give you an udder.”

The aching heat relents with a dribble; a trickle of white travels down the round swell of her belly. “Oh,” she moans, overwhelmed. “This is—”

“Watch your words, dear.” Elegant hands pinch the leak to press and pull; milk gushes. With it comes a pure and blinding instinct, a throb in the woman’s cunt. She would like to eat, and grow fat, and be milked, and be fucked— to have her belly swell, to be put to good use, for this indulgent body is a blessing. She would quite like this new life without worry. (She would not even mind the udder.)

“One more,” the monarch says, and a candied cherry is put to her lips, dripping with syrup. “One more, and you shall never leave here under your own power.”

She parts her lips, and she laps at the fae’s fingers, and she tastes fruit, sweet sugar, and the subtle iron underthrum of blood.