"People are creatures who cant live without loving someone. But since they're creatures who can't love something that's strange or revolting, then by process of elimination, they can't live without loving something they can love."
It's her. The meat woman.
tbh, I don't really know anything about her asides from the stuff that I read on her wiki / Birth of Authority from Wish document and stuff that people in the fandom have said about her, so idk how accurate this would be to her lol but I think I have a gist for what her deal is XD
For Capella, I was going for a kind of butcher aesthetic, but with some touches of demon / dragon elements because iirc she transforms into a dragon at some point (also I think she already has a demonic vibe to her + just... how she is in general), and she 'butchers' people's bodies into grotesque shit. That's also the reason why her weapons are meat cleavers, to go with the whole 'butcher' theme. I also wanted to have a sort of clashing of cutesy / risqué elements in her outfit to go with the contrast of her appearance versus her personality, hence the ruffles + bows in her outfit paired with the latex top, gloves, and pencil skirt. I had no idea what to do with her at first, because her outfit in canon is literally just. A bikini. And some other shit. Aside from a color scheme I had no real 'theme' to go off of, just scantily clad outfit. I was at first gonna go for something like a mad nurse / surgeon vibe cause of how she alters people, but being a butcher just fits so much better for her and goes with her vibes really well. Also I think she's been called 'meat woman' in the LN or WN before so it makes sense lol XD
The authority from a wish document basically says that she wants to be loved by everyone and believes that people only love someone's appearance / looks are all that matter, so she wants to make everyone else around her look disgusting so that they only love her, and says her 'wish' is to turn others into something revolting, so that's what she probably wished for, giving her the ability to transform herself and others into whatever she wants.
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there’s a question to be asked i think about to what extent “getting out” can be conflated with “being saved” in this show, and what freedom actually means to any of these characters.
like you can argue that shiv saved ken by voting against him on gojo, but what if your intent behind saving someone is to inflict a worse punishment than if you’d just left them trapped? can a child weaned on poison survive on milk, or are you just sentencing them to a death by inches, starved of the only thing they know? and if you save someone specifically because you know that being saved is the worst thing that can happen to them, is that kindness or cruelty? at what point does a good thing become a malicious act?
and you can say that roman is finally free, but what exactly is he free from? the company? his father? does unlocking a cage mean saving a dog, or are you allowing him out on the street knowing there’s a kill shelter nearby? if the driving anxiety behind roman is that he’s an idiot and a failure—that he’ll never amount to anything, and trying will only lead to pain—and he’s finally cut loose once all of those anxieties have crystallized into cold hard fact in his mind, what has he actually escaped from? if the cage is in your mind, is it even possible for somebody else to unlock it?
the fundamental truth of a tragedy is that even being saved can be a death sentence, if the characters are incapable of escaping the thing doing them the most harm (themselves and their childhoods)
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I think it's fun, and consistent with the rest of his character, that while Tim has no faith in the existence (or perhaps simply benevolence) of any sort of divine higher power, he does believe in the existence of souls.
I think that fits really well with Tim having faith in people. That all individual people are important, that they have amazing capabilities for both good and evil, and that they need support from each other to keep doing good. It fits with his continuing balancing act with both faith in and criticism towards Bruce.
Tim finds it totally believable that Greta is both a ghost & connected to some kind of afterlife pathway. He rolls with Anita's parents souls whooshing into the fetal clones. When Kon is worried he doesn't have a soul, Tim is confident that Kon does have one. He gets pissed when Red Tornado is dismissed as "just" a machine.
When Dick fights against Tim using or sampling the Lazarus Pit to bring back some loved ones, asking "What about their souls?" Tim just retorts that "The Pit brings that back too."
Which leads to one of my headcanons: that some time before she died, Janet expressed either belief in or hope for reincarnation. Tim describes his parents as "My mom was a little religious. My Dad not at all." in the Judgment on Gotham crossover arc. In Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul, when thinking of dead loved ones to bring back, he pictures Kon, Steph, and his dad. Not his mom.
Combined with all the above, I'm headcanoning that Tim has reason to think the Lazarus Pit can't bring back Janet Drake. That Tim believes her soul is neither lingering on this plane nor moved on to an afterlife from which it can be summoned, but willingly reincarnated already, and is therefore actually out of reach.
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I’m a bit nervous about sending an ask, but the curiosity has won me over, hope this isn’t too many questions
You said you headcannon Leo Valdez as dragon kin so I was wondering, do you think he has shifts often, if at all? If so, does he generally have some types of shifts more often or is it more balanced? And do the other campers and the seven know? If they do, did he tell them or did they piece it together on their own? If he told them, did he have to explain a lot or were they kind of just like “okay” and didn’t question it a lot? Like they just accepted it and didn’t want to overstep or something is what I mean
I think maybe I’m overthinking this, I really hope I’m not asking too many questions or anything
It's no worries at all! Asks/questions are always welcome!
I think his most usual shifts would be teeth/scales, but they're a lot more subtle so he either doesn't notice them as much or can ignore them. Those ones are probably semi-regular for him but again, more subtle most of the time (most of the time... every once in awhile he gets hit with a stronger maw shift and he's just sitting there gnashing his teeth at the air for like an hour cause his mouth feels weird until it goes away). Maybe also horns.
Less common ones for him but ones he'd notice more are probably wings, tail, and talons. Talons i mostly just think would be funny for him cause he has his habit of tapping his fingers as a stim. Him getting tripped up from the phantom talons while trying to stim, being confused for a minute about why his fingers aren't touching the table and he just ends up tapping out morse code into the air a couple inches above his desk instead. Wings and tail would probably just be pretty standard phantom limbs - they're just there and he's aware of them and maybe able to move them a bit. I imagine he'd eventually try to make some 'kin gear to help with those shifts specifically just so his brain stops error 404ing when his dragon limbs pass through solid objects despite his brain thinking they should be able to tangibly interact.
I don't think Leo would know what otherkin/alterhuman is when he first meets the Argo II crew, and probably wouldn't get the opportunity to learn about it for awhile. He doesn't really have the vocabulary to explain how he's feeling - just that he Is A Dragon. The rest of the crew probably also doesn't know what otherkin/alterhuman is either so they don't have an explanation for him, but, yknow, demigod life is already so goddamn weird, if Leo says he's a dragon that's not the most abnormal thing they've heard that week and they'll just take his word for it and accept it. And Jason probably understands the feeling re: being a wolf therian, even though he doesn't have the vocabulary to explain it either, so there's at least some solidarity there.
Earlier on I think Leo would just crack a lot of jokes about being a dragon, not particularly explaining how he feels about it to the others but just kind of putting the concept out there. He might try to explain it if the topic comes up but, as mentioned before, just struggle too much to try and find the words for it (the adhd/dyslexia/autism wording problems do not help there). I do like to think though that, due to their Hades/Pluto kid soul powers, Nico and Hazel would actually be able to pick up on spiritual-origin otherkin/therians/etc if they focused on it - Nico in particular, probably a lot more passively - and be able to kind of see phantom limbs/shifts sometimes (cause goodness knows how souls/spirit stuff works in the Riordanverse and I can have my self-indulgent silly alterhuman worldbuilding hcs if i want to - also at least partially inspired by some journal posts i've read of people mentioning people/animals/automatic doors picking up on their phantom limbs and being able to track the movement and stuff. if any demigod would be able to do that it's gonna be the kids with literal soul/phantom powers). I just find the concept amusing of Leo trying to explain this extremely metaphysical experience and Nico's just off to the side like "Oh yeah no, your soul is a dragon. Like, very literally. Dunno how that happened but good for you. btw why do you have ghost wings sometimes?" And Leo's grateful for someone helping him explain it but also isn't sure how he should react to statement. Eventually though one of the crew stumbles across alterhuman stuff - probably Leo or Annabeth, most likely accidentally through looking into daemonism stuff (you know they both read His Dark Materials) - and they put two and two together and finally have a means to explain it and Leo could not be more relieved (though he still doesn't know how to feel about Nico's soul comments).
I love rotating alterhuman demigods in my brain
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I remember watching a video of a snow leopard couple cuddling each other while they sleep and now I can’t stop thinking about Tai Lung leaving the spirit realm to do some soul searching to get a grip on his rage and struggles with perfectionism
To his surprise, he meets another snow leopard on his journey. And she’s just as recluse as he is, if not more so (snow leopards are pretty solitary creatures). She’s a cautious cat, a hermit, but has a deep kindness towards others.
Shenanigans ensue, and they begin to bond through their adventures together. And he sees how difficult it can be to be kind instead of being angry. Anger towards others, and himself. The anger that comes from needing to prove his worth.
And during their time together, he sees subtle displays of empathy, of kindness from her. A kindness that he can’t help but try to emulate, because she seems so certain of herself, with nothing to prove. She lives life for the joy of living, and it baffles him that he never thought that was an option. So he takes a page from her book, and tries to live for the sake of living. They part ways, and his heart pangs at the thought that he might not see her again.
Although Kung Fu is an art in its own right, it never felt quite cathartic for Tai Lung. There was always the push to be better, to stay the best. Getting to the point that ‘never enough’ was engrained in his brain. The anger grew from there, and the martial arts became an avenue for his rage.
He begins to try something different. He pursues another art form: painting. The limitless colors and shapes that he can make with his own paws, or with a paintbrush. The rush of joy that surges through him through creation, rather than the destruction that used to come from his (mal)practice of the martial arts.
It’s not something he’s a natural at, but it’s something that brings a smile to his face. Eventually, he gets better at it. The glee towards his painting progress feels much more rewarding than when he’d master multiple Kung Fu techniques. The snow leopard with a penchant for painting.
His artwork brings in the eye of a few potential customers. He sets up shop in a small town, doing a few commissions that earn him a name that isn’t spoken with fear: Tai Lung, the painter. The artist whose paintings feel alive.
Word travels, and the peaceful painter meets the kind hermit again. The hermit who happened to inspire him to live for himself.
She notices that he seems different, lighter. Content. He’s still grumpy, but the rough edges don’t cut. She smiles, telling him that painting suits him. The question that arises is: what happened?. Tai Lung has a simple answer for that. He wanted to be strong, like her.
That prompts a distinct eyebrow raise. Bewildered, she tells him that he was always strong, just scared. There was a fear to his anger.
She says, ”You don’t seem as scared anymore,” gently placing his hand in hers.
Tai Lung gives her a gentle smile. “Still sharp as ever, I see.”
That prompts a loud laugh out of her, and his smile grows in the little art shop.
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