#she’s too entrenched in the lore now

[cheekyvank]

what happens when tour is over and there aren’t beautiful new images of sister daniel every night

[drenched-in-sunlight]

"Marika becomes the sum of all the Fromsoft girlies" is nice but you forgot Nashandra who actually has parallels with Marika! Recommending to check it out, she's cool!

let’s get this out of the way now… I love DS2, I think the vibe and gameplay is immaculate and I’ll defend it as a whimsical and enjoyable videogame experience till the end of time.

But my god, I hate how they handle female characters in that one 💀

In fact, I don’t like how they handle female characters in DS franchise in general. It got a bit better in Bloodborne and Sekiro and especially AC6, but overall ever since I started playing Fromsoft game in 2020, my main gripe with them is they only have 2 tropes to shoehorn their female character into: helpless victim of a system that would mangle and exploit them OR serious sword lady. And if I’m being real, it’s the main gripe I have with Elden Ring base game too?

I didn’t discuss it on tumblr because back then I were still trying to keep this blog art-focused, but when the game came out in 2022, I did express my concern on twitter that I found the female characters cast… strangely lacking. Because I went into the game expecting Ema-level of writing (literally Sekiro’s Ema is one of the best female characters Fromsoft has ever written to this day I could and have talked ppl’s ears off about her. And I’m glad she on her own is very different from Marika. That means they could at least write 2 more types of female characters now the bar is on the floor but I’ll take it and cherish what I have), but it felt like they got reset back to DS franchise with ER base game.

(This has an added layer of me being a girl born, raised and lived in a Sinosphere country that is entrenched in Confucius values just like Japan, so yes I do understand and experience firsthand the underlying culture values that shapes their writing. Hell, I live and study postgraduate in Japan for 2 years too).

But we are going off track, this is about DS2. Now, my problem with DS2 is, see, with 1 or 3, the female characters either have very little agency or no agency at all. And it just…. be like that. The male characters are somewhat the same, so it really doesn’t bother me that much. The cool, unique, not sexualized design is enough. But 2?

2 has a lot of female characters…. who either play no role in the world setting or sinister figures that charm men and bring ruins to kingdoms? What?

(Before anyone says “but Lucatiel—” Lucatiel is the beacon of light in that game, yes, but at the same time her purpose centering around her brother is… also a problem I have with the way they handle Malenia’s story. My Fromsoft experience has lore to it as well jfc)

Like, it’s just ??? to me half of those women have no agency or backstory whatsoever apart from being the Dark’s daughters that would bring doom everywhere they go??? You can say everything wrong in DS2 world is their fault and I actually wouldn’t have much to argue. Actually, it’s interesting you bring up Nashandra because I do think Nashandra has parallel in Elden Ring. But not to Marika.

Nanaya.

That’s who reminds me of Nashandra in Elden Ring. Literally the mysterious, lowkey nefarious lady and her old man husband with questionable dynamic DS2 trope 🧍‍♀️ you can actually see that in their name too.

If I have to pick a character in DS franchise specifically to make parallel to Marika, it’ll always be Gwynevere. Because I honestly think it’s amazing they took a character that has the least amount of agency they’ve ever created, and turned the core concept of her (warmth, healing spells, sunlight, mother, daughter, queen, faith) into another character with actual good writing.

That’s why I didn’t include Nashandra in my previous post. Not because I don’t know about her. It’s because I know.

[genericpuff]

Not related to lore Olympus but this discussion seems a bit uhh strange. Some of the comments are calling Mattie bites a right woman hater. If you don't believe me,check this out.

https://www.reddit.com/r/webtoons/s/4zaDi6fWos

god okay I feel like I'm opening Pandora's Box with this shit but I have lots to say about it so... yeah fuck it, let's do this, I'm brave-

So I can absolutely agree with OP's sentiment that BlackLightJack's content has become uh... more aggressive and mean-spirited , and don't get me wrong, that was always sort of his vibe, but now it feels like he's straight up just weaponizing his fanbase and like... y'all know how curt I get about LO here, I can be a real asshole about it, even I think what BLJ is doing feels really shitty, immature, and frankly just uninformed? Because most of his videos are just him pout-screaming profanities into the microphone, like I know this is gonna sound nitpicky and petty but I can literally hear it in his voice that he's enunciating his words the same way an 8 year old would so that spit would land on the person they're yelling at ("STOOOOOOOOO-PPP-UHHHHH") and lately his content just feels like what it used to feel like being in CoD lobbies back in the day. Him having the name 'webtoon killer' just gives me such a sour taste in my mouth. Like... this feels like some kind of Batman villain in the making LMAO

But maybe no one wants to hear that opinion from someone like me who's literally called themselves the "far superior off brand" as a gag LMAO and that's fine honestly if you think I'm full of shit, this is also just my opinion!

But like... and I know I'm being an asshole going 'b-but-!' but... BLJ is also building an entire ass monetized platform off his vibe and using that platform to specifically go after Canvas series and creators. And let me tell you, while many would argue "well it's just the webtoons that are grossly negligent / breaking Webtoons' ToS / etc.", his fanbase is also constantly just sending him new comics to read and trash on and I feel like it's only a matter of time before he goes after a completely innocent creator whose only crime was being not great at webcomics which... shouldn't be viewed as a default crime punishable by pitchforks. That sorta already happened with the Fulcagay situation, I don't know Fulcagay and he almost definitely wouldn't know me, but he's a fellow Canvas creator who I've run into and shared a space with, and BLJ's original comments about him just felt incredibly off-base and volatile without giving even a shred of benefit of the doubt. I get the sense BLJ doesn't know about Hanlon's razor ("Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity") because EVERY video he does about every comic and creator he's addressing assumes maliciousness always.

This is the same shit we got with Youtube creators like Leafy who became infamous for just taking the piss out of everyone until they took it too far. Like, take it from me, it can be VERY easy to get so entrenched in being an asshole and taking the piss out of everything that completely innocent people get hit with splash damage, and if you're not willing to take responsibility for that, then you're gonna look like a bigger dick than the people you were aiming for. This pee analogy working for y'all? 😆

As for what Matty Bites has to do with that, I don't really get it? Like maybe I'm just misinformed here, maybe I haven't watched enough of her stuff, but she's never given me anywhere near the amount of red flags I get off listening to even one episode of BLJ. Matty feels like someone who actually reads and analyzes and researches the stuff she's criticizing in a way that's relatively harmless with her own flair sprinkled in (and her humor is hilarious btw, her opening skits are great LOL); BLJ meanwhile feels like he's constantly one opinion away from starting a #victimofcancelculture campaign because he's just trying to be as edgy and angry as possible LMAO (and ironically they're both often criticizing the same thing, but it goes to show how delivery makes a hell of a difference when it comes to dishing out criticism)

All that said, if there is something with Matty Bites that I'm missing here, I'm fully open to being informed because I haven't watched many of her videos and there could just as well be something that I've missed. But I don't think she's anywhere near as hostile as BLJ tends to be, I don't think Matty Bites' comedic video editing and sassy commentary has ever resulted in creators actually being attacked and bullied like BLJ's have.

Overall I think anyone who builds a platform or audience off criticizing content (and this includes me!) needs to practice responsibility and accountability in what they put out and what they choose to focus on and criticize. It can be really easy to accidentally use "criticism" as a get-out-of-jail-free card to just be a bully. It can be really easy to wind up leaving your criticism so unrefined and surface level without any deeper reflection that you never actually open your mind to anything and you just end up echoing out hate speech without even intending to. And it can be really, really easy to ruin your own palate from willingly consuming nothing but shit all day.

Just to quote some very famous words from a fictional character that absolutely apply here:

[homestuckreplay]

she seems like a pretty regular girl to me!

(page 651-663)

9/17/2009 Wheel Spin: Captchalogue Lore Verdict: ????????

9/18/2009 Wheel Spin: Parent Bad :( Verdict: Well I’d take Dad over Big Imp any day and I think John would agree.

9/19/2009 Wheel Spin: being silly :3c Verdict: John, Mid-Ogre Ambush: 'haha where are my trick handcuffs?'

3 days’ worth of pages here because work has been eating me alive and time to write about Homestuck has been tragically limited. I will keep this so so short and focus only on what’s really important.

Currently, John is facing down two adversaries. One is the Crude Ogres, the physical challenge, and the other is GG, the mental challenge. I am delighted to learn that these higher level enemies are called ogres so that I can stop referring to them as Big Imp.

‘Hanging from the tree is your TIRE SWING. In a kid's yard, a tree without a tire swing is like a proper gentleman without a monocle. That is to say, HE CAN HARDLY BE CONSIDERED A TERRIBLY PROPER GENTLEMAN AT ALL.’ This is from page 27 (!!) and now on page 663, one of the ogres has stolen the swing and equipped tireswingkind. I guess any semblance of this still being John’s yard and John’s house is gone. The other ogre has taken Sassacre’s, while the imps have plundered the magic chest. I guess I’m thinking about how everything in John’s home that means something to him is now being used to hurt him, how he doesn’t get a place of respite or even a safe place to keep his possessions, which only highlights the need for the captchalogue system – for John and as a part of the story.

I’m so excited about Dark Kingdom Politics based on how the small imps are scared of the big imps. Thinking of them as chess pieces, it would not be correct to say that pawns are scared of rooks and bishops, as in chess no piece can threaten another piece of the same color. But seeing them as soldiers from a ‘kingdom entrenched in darkness’ (p.424) engaged in a war against the light, this fear does make sense, suggesting a more complex social order and NPCs with an inner life and a motivation beyond ‘grab object and attack.’

With that in mind, ‘You stop being the imp because that was stupid’ (p.657) is too hasty, I think that command giver was onto something. Your name is PAWN #413. As was previously mentioned you are AN IMP. A number of your SIBLINGS are scattered around this house. You have a variety of INTERESTS. You have a passion for SILLY HATS. etc. I am being silly but I really would like to get their perspective, especially if it complicates the binary of light and darkness in ways that might affect John’s choices further in the game.

But the real star of these ogre pages is the visuals. The ogres are comically big, to the point where it’s hard to get a scale of how big in comparison to John. Seeing John’s house from a bunch of different vantage points, and then seeing a single toe curling in through the window or a hand slamming down from the roof as imps react in terror. I really enjoy quickly flicking through all these different angles of the house. I think this section would be cool as an animation too, like a faster paced version of the one on page 250 – I don’t know which version I’d like better but it’d be fun to compare.

The Sweet Bro & Hella Jeff on page 663 suggests we’ll cut back to Dave now, who, like John, is preparing for a dangerous rooftop encounter. Goodbye for now John <3

On page 651 we are treated to the LONG AWAITED GARDENGNOSTIC REVEAL!!!! We just get her silhouette (and pronouns, on the next page) so while I think the spikes on her head are just messy hair, it could also be a fun hat. This is a low bar to clear I’ll admit, but so much media has a lot more male characters than female, so I do appreciate Homestuck keeping things more balanced among the leads.

John’s dreams are represented in clouds. The two other places we’ve seen clouds are above John’s house before he was transported to the Medium (for example, p.82) and surrounding Skaia as it is described by Nannasprite (p.422-423). So it’s kind of like John is able to see all the way to Skaia in his dreams, and he sees his dad, a birthday cake, a box of Gushers, a harlequin emblem, Slimer, Harry Anderson, and finally his friend gardenGnostic. We then get a quick flash through the Sburb installation screen, a pumpkin, and a spirograph, as John suddenly wakes. Seeing the installation screen is especially wild – it’s like Sburb is reloading in his mind as he wakes.

Getting the GG sighting almost felt like a ‘be careful what you wish for’ moment, because John’s conversation with her on page 652 is the most frustrating thing I’ve ever read. If someone tried to message me like this I would block them. In past conversations GG has seemed mysterious, now she’s just obnoxious, and I don’t know if she’s reacting to John saying she ‘seems like a pretty regular girl’ and is trying to prove him wrong, or if there’s another reason.

For example, there are definite inconsistencies in how she talks about the meteor that might have been near her house, and possibly other things too. In the first Pesterlog we see between GG and John (p.169) she says ‘GG: there was a loud noise outside my house!! GG: it sounded like an explosion!!!!’ and also asks John what Sburb is, and if he got her package. On page 293, GG reports back and says that she ‘went to investigate the explosion’ and confirms that it was a meteor, describing it as ‘pretty big’ while not being allowed to get too close.

Then things start getting weird. On page 382, GG tells Dave about her present for John, saying that ‘GG: he will not open it GG: he will lose it!!!’ Based on timezones this conversation takes place 49 minutes before the earlier one with John. On page 442, GG gives Rose the tip about Sburb’s ability to resurrect Jaspers the cat, although does not mention Sburb by name.

Both of these stand out, but have plausible explanations. But what really tests the limits of possibility is this new conversation on page 652, in which GG says she ‘was confused’ about the meteor, ‘fell asleep for a while’ and ‘lost track of time’, that the meteor is ‘hard to explain’ but she ‘know[s] what it is now’ and strangest of all, ‘and now i know everythings going to be ok!!!’

????????

So originally I was wondering if GG might be two people, twins perhaps, one who has a psychic connection with a god or other powerful entity and one who doesn’t. That doesn’t explain how an explosion (that could be confused for a meteor) could prophesize good fortune, though. What might explain it is a UFO crash, manned by aliens who were somehow able to share some knowledge with GG. Given John’s movies, it is about time we got some aliens in this story. Honestly I’m pretty lost and don’t have a solid theory that explains everything even after sitting on it for a few days, but Rose and Dave are right. There’s something weird going on with this girl.

[reliablejoukido]

Digimon LOST AU Headcanons part 1/? - Early Taichi-centric stuff

There are character details I've left out regarding other people, because I tried to only focus on the situation from Taichi's POV. Also, more happens to him after this, but this would be equivalent to a first half of a first season. Some of this is subject to additions and changes in the future, based on what I come up with for other characters. Eventually I'll make a masterpost

General info at the start:

Flight from Los Angeles to Tokyo

They crash on an uncharted island somewhere in the Pacific

The survivors that land on the beach are Taichi, Yamato, Sora, Koushiro, Mimi, Jou, and a dozen background characters (I haven't decided if any of the background people are relevant yet)

The tail section of the plane broke off as the plane was falling to the Island and the people on it (including Takeru and Hikari) are presumed dead

There is some sort of unknown "monster" on the Island that kills a few of the background characters

There are people already on the Island (the Others). Among them are Daisuke, Miyako, Iori, and Ken, who capture survivors from the tail section

Taichi:

Age: 26

Flight main section/beach camp

Tries to be a positive person, but is stuck with a difficult situation. Has to figure out the difference between being impulsive and being courageous. Butts heads with Yamato and Jou. Makes friends with Koushiro and Sora.

Flashback: Taichi and Hikari fly from Tokyo to Los Angeles to have surgery for Hikari’s super rare terminal cancer by a world renowned surgical oncologist (Dr. Kido Sr.). When the doctor does tests, he changes his mind and says he cannot operate because she will die. He suggests they go back to Japan to see his son, who is a prodigy and has successfully operated on this type of cancer more recently, but is currently reclusive and nobody can find him

Flashback: Hikari is too sick to take the flight home, so Taichi has to go back to Japan to find this guy’s son and beg him to do the surgery. Taichi is haunted by the fact that he has to leave her in LA. But he’s determined to find Dr. Kido Jr.

Has no idea his sister Hikari was secretly on the flight, in the tail section along with Yamato’s brother Takeru. Also little does he know that the Island has healed her (à la John Locke and Rose). He won’t discover Hikari is on the Island for a while, as she has been captured by the Others (02 kids)

Taichi tries to relate to Yamato’s obsession with finding his brother, as Taichi is a brother himself. But Yamato doesn’t let him in. At least not in the beginning

Taichi preoccupies himself with trying to get off the Island, because Hikari’s prognosis was not good. He gets frustrated when Koushiro, who is deeply entrenched in the Island’s lore, believes they should stay and study the Island. That there’s a reason they were chosen to come here.

Sora secretly does not want to be rescued either, so she sabotages Taichi’s plans to get off the Island without him knowing. Jou finds out and keeps her secret, for now

When Taichi realizes Jou is the doctor he is looking for, he becomes irrationally obsessed with getting both himself and Jou off the Island. Jou is depressed and unmotivated and tells Taichi that no, he doesn’t think he could save his sister. He’s worried he can’t save anyone. He wants to die on the Island and wishes he wasn’t a survivor. This angers Taichi.

Mimi, who gets upset and leaves the beach camp one night, has a dangerous encounter with some sort of unseen monster. She is saved by a strange glowing vision of a young woman who tells Mimi she is Hikari Yagami and that there are other plane crash survivors on the Island. Mimi tells Taichi this and he doesn’t know whether to believe her… but he wants to. Koushiro warns them that it may be a trick, that the Island is digital, somehow, and could be projecting holograms or illusions

Taichi has to make the decision to venture deeper into the Island where there are potential monsters that could kill him, just to see if his sister might be on the Island. Or to stay back and heed Koushiro’s warning/keep trying to get off the Island

Eventually Taichi decides to hike deeper into the Island. Yamato offers to go with him, thinking his brother is alive based on Mimi’s vision. Sora also goes with him, hoping to learn more about what the Island wants for her

[elanorpam]

Hey, ive been a fan of your cultstuck series since i first read it 10 years ago and its one that i hold dear along woth toastyglow and their siblings' works. Given that we are all adults now with very busy lives, i dont expect you to kerp up with an old project like writing a fan novel fpr free, but i am curious as what ur current plants for earthbent are, if there are any atm.

(Tbh id be happy with any answer you provide, whether its a detailed outline, an unsure shrug, an excited wink hinting at a deadline or an announcement of permanent hiatus. Youve given so much with your writing, thst i just want you to be happy with whatever plans u have)

hey there! i'm going to go with unsure shrug as an answer here.

see, I did have a detailed outline for cultstuck-- i wrote it all down at around ...2015? very soon after the second eridan chapter, and sent it to my beta, who then proceeded to ghost me forever. I was already sensing she was growing disinterested in the fic/the fandom, giving constant excuses, and I myself was dealing with an anxiety/depression combo that would sharply nosedive by the time the finale came around, so i just... let it go. She didn't care. I wasn't in a good mental place to care. We went our separate ways.

I decided to take a mental health sabbatical, and now, after a few years of sertraline and therapy, the thought of picking it back up is very, very far down my list of priorities. I have so many other fics I want to write, for media which hasn't let me this profoundly down! And also, Cultstuck was conceptualized in the post-cascade hiatus, in chat logs and rough outlines, and was never supposed to take later canon into account unless it dropped any interesting, matching lore...

...but late act 6 took such a dump on the characters and the setting that it took the joy right out of playing on my patch of sandbox, fenced off as it was. And I couldn't connect with the Retcon timeline at all, but some of its developments are so popular and so deeply entrenched that I hesitate to contradict them even though i kind of hate the whole thing and never meant to take it into account?

Let's take the strongest example: Davekat. Dave and Karkat in Cultstuck were never meant to be anything more than mutually annoying acquaintances connected only indirectly via Terezi-- Dave was to be her moirail, and aro-ace besides. This was because for the entirety of the comic, that was the only vibe I got from Dave as a character, and from his interactions with Karkat as a whole-- he and Karkat felt too similar in mutually unpleasant ways, like a cousin that's just enough like you to give you second-hand embarrassment. So by the point the comic was playing coy with pushing the New Dave and New Karkat action figures together, you couldn't get me to care about Davekat if you put a gun to my head. This really hasn't changed in the least. And that means whenever I think of dealing with disappointed Davekat fans in the future of the fic, I just feel an all-encompassing, soul-deep exhaustion.

but i also don't want to drop the fic altogether, for some reason? Like, I might not feel this way forever. So idk, i'm keeping my options open i guess. Subscribe to the fic/series and maybe 10 years from now you'll get a notification like a holiday miracle. Who knows.

[1800duckhotline]

temerice stature, motion, formal

oc asks: character design edition

TEMMY TIME!! THANK YOU ANON ILY I love thinking about her so much

stature: What’s your OC’s body type? How tall are they? Do they wear clothing to accentuate their look or do they try to mask it?

Temmy's body type is pretty lanky but not overtly so! I will have to research on this properly whenever I get the chance, but before her embrace she used to have estrogen tablets in smaller doses since her hormone transition was more or less in its beginning stages, and as such she hadn't yet put on more fat on her bones and the fat distribution shift is now stuck in a sort of mid-stage. She is an average height, standing at about 165 cm / 5'4" tall.

Being a computer geek and spending most of her free time fiddling with codes at home and rarely going out, her physique is not super exercised, which is something she used to struggle with a lot in her life as a human. She felt very inadequate, especially since she felt a lot of pressure on how she "had" to present to the world - which meant baggy and covering clothes were her go-to. Now, as a fledgling, she doesn't go out of her way to accentuate her body type necessarily but she cares less about what people think of her appearance.

I definitely want to expand more on how she transitioned from human to vampire psychologically, and how her embrace positively affected her relation to gender as well, but more or less one thing she realized is that she was so entrenched in her insecurity (not by fault of her own, tbh) that she had no idea how more people love lanky alt nerds than she thought! Especially girls!

That said if she could she would continue HRT, but I guess that is a limit based on how "faithful" I want to be to the VTM TTRPG lore. I could also just say fuck it and say she can still take it, hahah

motion: How does your OC move? How does their clothing help or hinder their range of motion? Are they flexible, coordinated, clumsy?

Temerice tends to wear baggy, loose clothes, kind of reminiscent of the skater boy and nu-metal mall goth style of the late 90s-early 2000s, so undoubtedly her range of movement is only limited by her physical skills. The heavy chains dragging her pants down might not help but that's just something you gotta sacrifice for the sake of a cool style.

She is a bit clumsy since physical activities were never her forte, though as Kindred her skills have obviously become better with experience, especially as she is specialized in melee fighting. For comparison she is not on Ranx's level of skill with weapons but she can swing a mean axe with no problem. Of course being a Gangrel only contributes to her advantage in fighting now, but she's very young and still learning the ropes of her disciplines.

formal: What’s your OC’s formal look? Do they like dressing up? Do they have different looks for different occasions?

Formality and Temerice have never really been compatible... She loves being comfy much more than looking "dressed up". She's worn her couple of suits for family events before she moved away on her own and transitioned socially, but even now that she feels comfortable as butch she doesn't really care for restricting clothes. The most formal it can get is her wearing a band tee and proper clean shoes and maybe a vest jacket, possibly with her hair up. Her in a suit? Nah... it's not gonna happen. For her it toes a bit too much in gender territories she doesn't want to get into again and feels like it just doesn't fit her.

[castlebyersafterdark]

did you know noah was gay before he came out? what do you think of all the bylers who were fully convinced he was a straight frat bro and an ally™️ playing a gay character? i’m not sure what I thought back in the early days, but by the time S4 rolled around, I thought it was pretty obvious that he was queer. Especially when he was gushing about byler so vocally!

not that straight actors can’t also be proud allies, but it seemed… a bit more than that lmao. but it seems like so many people fell for his “I have a crush on zendaya” thing. many even thought he was secretly in love with millie and sad she was friendzoning him. and I remember back in like 2020, he used to have so many thirstyyyy female fans, much like a boy band or justin bieber. it was a wild time.

people try to switch up now, and they’re like, “I always knew.” But I’m like… did you? 🤔

cause I remember it all too well 🎵

Like I've said, I was a casual fan and didn't do fandom stuff very much at all for Stranger things before s4. Maybe the occasional interview clip that got reposted. I looked at Finn's stuff more since I had a brief stint in the IT fandom after ch2, but that wasn't like. A huge focus of mine. I only really got into deep dive looking into the cast after Noah came out. Because that was so amazing and I was so excited for the kid!! The bravery as such a young public figure in a major television show with a huge following. I remember scrolling tumblr and seeing someone reposted the iconic tiktok and just smacking my bf, saying 'oh wow Will from stranger things is gay!!?" And he was like, 'we... know this.' Hahaha. And then since there was a lack of anything in between filming and I was full on obsessed with the show at that point, I was looking at stuff about the cast as much as the characters and plot. Absorbing info and lore, etc.

So, I'm afraid I'm not too fun to be someone to dive into if I clocked anything. I clocked stuff with the literal character of Will Byers, but that was how the character was portrayed/written.

Looking back and seeing videos and interviews of him, it's like. Oh yeah, I can totally see it, how did so many miss it - but then, is that retroactive? Since after the fact, I did see reference and jokes that he seemed like a frat guy. But I also know/knew gay frat guys who you'd never clock, since it's not a one personality fits all world. So, it still fits. He may be out but he still had those college party boy/fratty vibes. I don't know!!! Hard to say overall what I really think since you get so biased being entrenched in the fandom for so long.

[raisengen]

For a while now I’ve been trying to figure out why I find Surtr Arknights so… I’m not even sure what the right word is. Entertaining, maybe? Funny? Reassuring?

She’s the best operator in the game. Almost everything we know about her is about how we don’t know anything about her. She doesn’t know anything about her either. Her scores are “normal” in everything except “excellent” Tactical Planning and “flawed” Originium Adaptability. She can smash through solid rock walls. She says she’s an Arts user. Her files say her power isn’t any form of Arts. She’s full of other people’s memories. Originium can store info and memories, but she’s barely Infected. Her sword protects her from originium exposure. We found her setting up camp in an area directly after a Catastrophe hit. She has an actual live magma giant that is never mentioned anywhere. Instead of “dying” she retreats herself. She’s a bit of a dick.

In gameplay, I find many of the “broken” operators a little bit annoying in some way. But not Surtr, why? Have I just been using her for long enough that it would be hypocritical? Maybe it’s because other gods take over an existing niche and then entrench themselves with a bunch of extra perks, while Surtr only really compares directly to Utage and maybe Skadi.

Maybe it’s because they started designing around her power. Maybe it’s Surtr’s hyperconsistency. Wherever you take her she does the same thing: once every 2 minutes you get to point a magic wand at almost any problem and make it go away.

Rather than solving some of the problems all of the time, which invalidates everyone else focused on those problems, she solves all of the problems some of the time. Maybe that helps, since it means she either replaces everybody or she replaces nobody. “I may not be able to kill anything that moves, but I’ll kill this one type of guy and I won’t give up every job if it’s not over in 30 seconds.”

The single operator most overshadowed by Surtr (S3) is Surtr (S1/S2), which makes it feel like a grand rediscovery when you remember that those skills are actually quite good, too.

Clearly it’s not great to have a single 6* stand out so much in a gacha game, but compared to operators like Corrupting Heart and Holungday, she doesn’t feel like she was designed as a money printer. No big event, no fanfare, no limited status, no banking on known popularity. You can get her on bought 6* tickets, and she’ll likely show up in the gold cert shop before too long.

For all the grand lore of Arknights, she’s not really connected to anything, and nothing connects to her. “Over here is our intersectional examination of various societies and their issues intermingled with multiple horrors beyond our understanding, and over here Surtr, she smashes things and likes ice cream.”

(Someone posted a while back the idea of Surtr getting an Integrated Strategies season focused on exploring her memories, which would be excellent for both Surtr and for IS, since it would recapture a lot of the specific good things about Fungimist’s setting/tone that I feel are missing in Crimson Solitaire.)

Speaking of the ice cream, she’s one of the few operators to get a designated favourite food that becomes a defining trait among fans, but there’s so little else about her that they can hardly be accused of erasing her character. The fanart of her is consistently great, too, with or without ice cream.

So here’s to Surtr, she’s everything, she’s nothing. You can take her anywhere, you can’t take her anywhere. She’s iconic, she’s a background extra. She’s all-important, she doesn’t matter. She’s our right hand arm-man, our confidante, our silly little Sarkaz.

[headingalaxys-spicy]

Since I am in a cardverse mood at the moment how about Yandere! Cardverse America taking an interest in a Queen of another Kingdom? Maybe the Diamond Queen?

I’m getting into some lore on this because the Cardverse is fun but also those outfits. And now I’m going to create a separate post for some more 3 am card verse ramblings.

America was aware that the reason the other kingdoms kept their Queen hidden away was that they were the keys to protecting their lands, lineage, and fabled powers that can grow if they were to marry a foreign King. Depending on the card's powers and who they’re fused together with can dictate which powers can be created in the next generation.

The Queen of Diamonds is a figure that knows how to make amazing financial plans, bulletproof to the point where fiscal failings are non-existence in the Kingdom of Diamonds. King France is protective but not controlling of his capable Queen. The Queen of Diamonds also known as y/n can fight ferociously to defend her territory from other kingdoms that were trying to encroach. The King of Diamonds couldn’t help but admire how terrifying and gorgeous you were in the midst of battle. You left the colorful

Gress is covered in a blanket of red. Make the other kings aware that you’re not interested in entering a united bond with them.

The bonds were the dangerous things that can render you to a fraction of what you were capable of being. This could not be a reversible spell once you were married off to a foreign king. You wouldn’t be able to leave his hand without being accompanied by your king unless you want to risk death or severe or permanent deterioration of your body.

(In short your survival would be 100% dependent upon the king and his territory.)

Something that asshole in glasses was all too aware of.

The King of Clubs was currently fighting with the King of Diamonds entrenched in a battle so it was up to Queen y/n the glimmering Diamond.

Unfortunately for you the King of Spades came prepared to take down the diamond warrior. Just as you were about to land a critical blow to the right side of his skull a barrage of golden yellow Thrush’s zipped by your vision and began to pierce other parts of your body. It caught you off guard and you now have new issues to deal with. The bird's slightly curved beaks manage to scratch your cheeks, arms, and forehead, nearly taking out one of your eyes.

‘This bastard is really starting to piss me off.’

You hop backward to dodge some of the birds tracked onto you and followed you to continue to pierce your flesh. Their beaks were known for causing drowsiness in the citizen in the Cardverse. Y/N was no exception.

The King of Spades narrows his icy blue eyes and fires off his spell with the snap of his fingers. He has his target right where he wants her.

Vines that were sapphire shaded vines that were covered in sharp spades that would give people hallucinogenic visions of whatever he wanted the victim to see. It wasn’t long before the spines found their way into your tender flesh as they ripped through your dresses. The more the plant's toxins seeped into your bloodstream began to cloud your vision with a variety of azure flowers that reeked with his essence.

Cornflowers: a positive hope he wants to have to be by your side always.

Delphinium: representing him and his more wholesome child-like and a possible presentation of his goal to have heirs with you.

Blue Star Flower: It’s obvious why this flower is on the list for he is the epitome of a person with determination, endurance, and strength.

All things that surrounded y/n felt fuzzy? Or smelled like colors? What's this warm feeling in my head? My heart?....

These were some of the musings that fluttered about in Y/N’s head as she drifted off into a different state of consciousness.

Alfred is amused as he watched Y/N’s body begin to go limp as their face blushed and contorted into varying different emotions that were clear attempts to escape the indigo Kraken that had clasped harder onto your form. The spell would begin to rewire your subconscious.

[faelapis]

so. while this was confirmed a year ago, new tweets by ian jq have reawakened the discourse about humans being the first intelligent life gems encountered. note intelligent life, not organic life. alien animals still died from previous invasions, but humans are the first intelligent creatures gems encountered. 

apparently, the party line on twitter (where nuance goes to die) is that it’s too “convenient” that humans are the first other intelligent species gems met.

i take a few issues with that assessment: 

a) “it was pink’s first colony, isn’t it convenient the diamond concerned with organic life owns the first planet populated by intelligent organics? wouldn’t they have died if any other diamond got them? isn’t that super lucky?”

no. we know rose/pink was very interested in organic life from before earth. she always thought aliens were cool, interesting, fun, and liked learning about them and keeping some as pets - such as the rainbow worms. we know she visited the others’ colonies, even if she doesn’t own them. she’s the only diamond who is simultaneously “selfish” enough to visit colonies up-close on a whim because it’s fun AND doesn’t see herself as too good to play with local organics.

so, then, why on earth (hah) wouldn’t she care if there had been intelligent life on any of the other planets? she didn’t fight for earth just because she “owned” it. she cared because she was able to form connections to humans... which she would have done regardless of which diamond’s colony it was. if anything, ownership is a hindrance to her usual romps, because blue & yellow expected her to stay put in her moon base. smile and wave. be a “leader”. 

b) “how is it realistic that humans are the first intelligent life gems have met?”

the SU universe as a whole is not a universe filled with life. it has been framed as cold, animalistic, overall lifeless, purposeless, and one in which you gaze at an empty sky and beg for an authority figure to give your life meaning. this works much, much better if life, especially intelligent life, is incredibly sparse. they are small flickers in a cold void. it adds to the feeling that both humans and gems feel of loneliness and pointlessness, where you create these intricate structures of organized almost-religion to feel devoted to a purpose. this existentialism, which we will explore further below, is a huge part of SU’s themes.

c) another theme - and this one is important - is that gems and humans have been treated as this mirror parallel of life, people, and society (tm) for the entire runtime of the show. hence, steven as the bridge. a bridge, usually, connects two sides, not five. they are more similar than they are different - to the point where you can use gemkind to comment on how humans are like, and see some of the horrors and tragedy of what humanity looks like “from the outside”. not once has there ever been implied to be any other intelligent species to disrupt this elegant, thematic dichotomy. ever. 

d) unlike fanon speculation, the show has always been very careful about never implying there were any previous rebellions. SU is not a star wars-esque universe populated with a million different intelligent species and cyclical rebellions + alliances between them. it is a big, cold, empty void, with tiny pockets of fragile life. which is part of why the connection between two alien species is so remarkable. it is the exception, not the rule.

e) many of us who looked at homeworld in a not-badfaith light already came to the conclusion that humans are probably the only intelligent life they’ve met. (based on what we know about the universe, its logic, the themes, the implications of other colonies, pink diamond’s personality, no other species ever bonded with enough to fight for, etc etc,)... and those of us who did, including myself, have (lovingly!!) compared the crystal gems to hippies or eco-terrorists. this 100% holds up to how homeworld gems generally, and the diamonds specifically, see them. 

this is why blue thinks a “solution” to pink being sad about the invasion is to create the zoo. it’s a petty conflict, from her perspective, of environmentalism vs conservationism. like how, if a capitalist is kinda sad about a rainforest being bulldozed, you might as well just take some pretty toucans and panthers and stick them in a zoo. they’re preserved for humans to enjoy. problem “solved”. it worked with the kyanite colony & rainbow worms, why not here?

this is part of why lapis accuses the CGs of not caring about gemkind. they put this silly little dirtball above gemkind, starting a war that hurt (”real”) people? 

this is also why pink, mocking the other diamonds, says “you wish to save these life-forms at the expense of our own? ha! don't be absurd!”. gemkind needs resources to create more gems. so, to the diamonds, of course that’s more important than Making The Bees and Monkeys Sad. they’re not even directly killing them, they’re just taking resources. it’s not “””their fault””” they need ‘em too, gems are more important. the same way, to us, humans are always the most important. many of us don’t give a damn about how we hurt animals.

f) it galls me that anything but the darkest possible interpretation, even when it makes perfect sense with what we know, is always seen as “convenient” by people who watched nostalgia critic once and think they’re now great media critics. i saw similar comments to jasper being brought back to life, even though it made perfect sense with what’s implied about the powers of the diamonds. most of that, too, was woven together by paying close attention to implication, not outright stated in a lore dump - but that doesn’t make it “convenient” in the bad way. it makes it the logical outcome of this world, if you paid attention.

like jasper coming back to life, it also told us something thematic about the diamonds’ absolute power over life & death. steven is kinda horrified, even if it’s a good thing, that things can ever be fixed. he still feels like he needs to be “punished”. he holds this toxic mindset that punishment is more important than healing, because of the pit of self-harm he’s fallen into... which is kind of how some people see the diamonds, and the world as a whole. 

even if things can get better, it doesn’t matter. at least not as much as punishing and distancing ourselves from the “bad people”. even though, actually, things CAN get better, and that’s more dependent on systemic change than it is on punishing “bad” individuals... that doesn’t fascinate them. it’s a fucked-up idea of “consequences” that is sadly prevalent in fandoms: they’d rather the world be doomed if they get to kill the bad people for it, than the world being slowly healed in this bittersweet way that includes everyone.

and i’m tired of that. on the whole, fiction is a reflection of this very dour, justice-oriented view of the world where we can only gain satisfaction from punishing the bad guys responsible. SU’s response to that is, that actually, just this once... no! the world gets better, and the “how” doesn’t revolve around individual punishment. it’s trying to heal everyone. 

g) it seems to me that for a substantial amount of people, “convenience” has less to do with the themes and logic of the world than it does with wanting canon to live up to their fanon image of homeworld and the diamonds. even if that means a ton of offscreen intelligent life dying Just for the sake of a 1-v-1 earth-vs-gems conflict, with no agency in the story. i don’t understand how that would make it better. all other life we’ve seen have been animals. pink was around for other colonies - even if she didn’t personally “own” them - yet didn’t care deeply enough to fight for them. because she couldn’t bond with worms the same way as humans. (yknow, unfortunately, for the worms :’<)

also, you don’t NEED other species of intelligent life to have been made extinct to still have a somewhat cynical interpretation of the diamonds’ intentions here. even if it makes the world less grimdark in praxis. it’s not enough to be aware of humans in the abstract, blue and yellow still won’t listen. you need to actually interact with humans in order to learn about / care for organics that don’t serve a purpose in your system. this was just the first chance gemkind had to do so. it makes sense that some would be curious, while others more jaded and dismissive, after encountering a universe mostly made of the lifeless & animals.

to give the other diamonds some credit, they’ve probably encountered plenty organic life, and thus have built up a bias that everyone but gemkind are aimless, animalistic life forms, and its up to them to give themselves purpose. why should humans be any different? oh wow, they live in groups? big whoop. so do ants. they build nests? so do birds. they babble? so do parrots and rainbow worms. they still serve no purpose. they still die if you breathe on them.

it’s only when blue meets greg - thousands of years later - that we see even the tiniest of cracks, in which blue is made aware of some level of emotional intelligence, but is still firmly entrenched in the view that he’s just a Slightly more advanced organic than others. like... puppies comforting you. she was surprised he could even do that much. this was a slow process for rose as well! 

but anyway, at the point of the war, to many gems, they are concerned first and foremost with gemkind. life matters because of your singular, gem-oriented “purpose”... but some gems, like pink, who never saw herself as a justified goddess, take the opposite approach. they don’t see themselves as “above” other life out of either lack of awareness of the capabilities of intelligent life forms or a self-appointed Higher Purpose. they’re curious, and then, willing to fight for life they can bond with, once they learn to love. 

which brings me to...

h) how a big theme of the show as a whole is selflessness vs selfishness. 

here, the crystal gems as a whole have actually been on the side of selfishness, from homeworld’s perspective. the end of gathering resources would mean they would no longer create more gems. which, to HW, is selfish. which... of course it is, if you think you’re the only intelligent life out there. 

the way homeworld gems express themselves is through an elaborate system of self-perpetuation and creation, in which the emergence of more gems is a higher purpose for the collective. the individual doesn’t matter. to them, the random creatures they find on other planets do not matter. they’re just organics.

humans matter to pink because she’s, like i said, curious about alien life, and less convinced about her own purpose... but also more personal, relationship-driven, and cares about what happens the specific individuals she subjectively bonds with, rather than prioritizing the overall “needs” of her species, like a good queen bee is “supposed” to do. 

homeworld thinks that no individual feelings - even a diamond’s - is more important than perpetuating of the system that gives their species meaning. most gems are happy to be shattered for that cause, because they’ve never formed those “selfish” relationships that makes life worth living without purpose. so actually, yes, this works with pink’s motivation, and blue and yellow not being as easily swayed works with theirs.

(all of this is extremely relevant to the arc steven has in “future”, btw. he needs a reason to be needed, purpose. and pearl’s arc, white diamond’s arc, jasper’s arc, etc etc - living for purpose vs living for relationships and selfish exploration of the self is a massive theme of the whole show!! at leaast if you pay attention to anything more subtle than merely “here’s a lore dump!”, which the show has always avoided. it’s more sublime than that. you, too, are supposed to only have a small, subjective understanding of the world, like steven does, which teaches you to value subjective perspectives. your purpose is not higher than the agency of others, and you shouldn’t control the world.)

i) it makes dramatic sense, actually, to center the conflict around the first time gems have met another species that stand a chance of understanding them! hence steven is a bridge. that’s a good basis for mirroring two species, a conflict that raises interesting questions about how we, too, see non-human life, the premium we place on emotional connection vs “purpose”, and how even when we learn to value humans that are different from us, we might still fuck around and bulldoze a rainforest, if it’s convenient and we can justify it internally. 

and again, it’s more logical. as we know it, the story went “long ago, gems took resources all over the universe, until pink found a species intelligent enough some of them learned to bond with on a deeper level than Cool Pet Worm”, NOT “long ago, gems zapped a bunch of intelligent species - which we will not mention ever, or give any agency in the story - and pink just ignored that, until she randomly decided humans were more important than all those, for no reason, even though she’d met countless intelligent species before”. 

the former makes more sense in ~every reading of canon, be it thematic, logical, personal, character-driven, etc~... except the one most favored by SU’s most badfaith of critics, which is that the only “logical” way for the story to go is one in which we can safely label the diamonds as inhumanly, unchangably bad, rather than having base assumptions, motivations and logics that aren’t so different from many non-dictator humans.

i think for some, they protest not because that makes more sense on a thematic, logical or character level, but simply because they want to. they’re USED to being fed that narrative satisfaction has to do with seeing the bad guys face comeuppance, in place of inclusive, welfare-oriented healing. faced with storytelling that rejects their view of justice while also openly being subjective, sublime, and loving of all of its characters, not just the “nice” ones, they see it as a “failure” to be what they’re used to. 

if the world CAN systemically heal in a way that includes people you personally don’t forgive, that must be a “flaw”. if those “bad guys” haven’t actually killed hundreds of intelligent species offscreen who have no chance to heal, that doesn’t fuel your justification for the most cynical interpretation of justice possible, so that, too, “must” be a “flaw”. if it’s framed as possible for them to work towards undoing their harm, that deprives you of the satisfaction of edgy punishment for unhealable hurt, so that, too, is of course a “flaw”. any world where healing is possible for everyone, and the perpetrators can contribute, must be a “flaw”, to a mind only concerned with the validity of vengeance. 

even when the story is perfectly candid that you’re personally allowed to be hurt and traumatized (like steven - and most characters, really), you’re still allowed to feel... you just can’t expect society as a whole to abandon its “inclusive healing” model and function on your logic; that your pain is solved by vengeance. it isn’t.

in short, cry about it. 

[spooky-activity]

Just a little update on Cassandratopia 2: Electric Boogaloo (Or as it stands in my Google Docs folder rn, A Helping Hand). I’ll put it under the cut cuz it’s kinda long. 

I just wanted to say that I’m still planning on actually doing it, despite all evidence to the contrary lol 

I did Cassandratopia in a haze of graduating from college(where I was studying animation) and just having ended my first dnd campaign as a dungeon master (which went 3 years!). I was fishing around for internships, but since the pandemic had just kicked off I wasn’t having much luck. So I had a lot of creative energy that wasn’t getting channeled anywhere, and a lot of free time when I wasn’t applying to places. Which is how I did 4 pages a day several times per week. Which was insane. 

As it stands, I’m running 2 dnd campaigns(one meets weekly, the other every other week or so), and just scored a full-time internship at a video game company! The campaigns I’m running are a homebrew open world, which, for those of you who aren’t too familiar with dnd, is a metric fuckton of work to prep for each session because I have no idea what my insane friends and siblings are going to try and do every time we play. 

Anyways all this to say that my storytelling itch is kinda. Sufficiently getting scratched atm and I have a lot less free time. I’m still plucking away at the setting/refining the story of A Helping Hand, but it’s largely on the backburner. Cassandratopia was also, uh, like the first story I’ve ever told in any sort of format besides the give-and-take of dnd, so... I’m not used to having so much control over the narrative. Oddly. I’ve never thought of myself as much of a writer of stories; my main focus is character animation, so someone else is usually writing the stories I’m telling anyways, which is super cool with me. Honestly I’m surprising myself with how much I want to tell this story, which is why I’m still sure I’m doing it. Just. Slower. Than Cassandratopia got done. 

But I’ll share a bit of the lore I’ve been cooking up! Specifically about Zhan Tiri and The Drops. The story will be told in an extremely dnd type setting, because that’s the kind of narrative I’ve told before and am comfortable telling: hard magic rules, neat fights, scary monsters, a dash of eldritch horror, and huge emphasis being put on magical artifacts(kinda like in the show!). Here’s some stuff that’s basically locked-in. 

Zhan Tiri

Zhan Tiri is one of the many Demon Lords of the Abyss. She’s kind of a mashup of two of my favorite Demon Lords, Zuggtmoy, the Lady of Rot and Decay, and Pale Night, the Mother of Demons and Queen of the Night(with just a dash of Hannibal Lecter because who doesn’t like helpful, polite, manipulative-ass bitches lksjflkja;fj). Her domain sits almost exactly between the Sundrop and Moonstone, largely being the new growth that comes from death, and the endless cycle of life and death. Places where her influence is strongest includes the cracks in... Well anywhere really, from society to the planet’s shell, where metaphorical or physical rot could grow; musty, mostly ignored places where something could fester. Iconography related to her would include endless mazes, fungi, grasping skeletal hands, and rotting/blooming corpses. Her spores can animate corpses, which she likes to use as mindless minions when she doesn’t feel like sending one of her Acolytes. She shares a scrap of her power with those few mortals she likes. She appreciates ambition and the desire to Grow to be bigger than what you were to start with, as those are qualities she herself possesses. 

Incredibly intelligent and merciless to those she deems her enemies, her main thing is pulling the strings from the shadows and seeing just how far she can push people to act with as little prompting from her as possible. She does, however, have the power to kinda bulldoze her way through things if she needs to, but she doesn’t like to because where’s the fun in that? 

She first gained interest in the Material Plane when a Wizard with too much hubris from said Material Plane(Named Demanitus) contacted her trying to figure out more information about The Drops and how to control them. After indulging him for a bit, she started preparing to make a summer home on the Material Plane because it’s New and Fun here and Wow These Mortals are Really Fun to Mess With! And some of them she even genuinely liked! Demanitus then realized his mistake and locked her away in Pandemonium for what he hoped was forever, but turned out to be only around 1,000 years, due to the efforts of her followers. Her little stint in Pandemonium magnified the more... Chaotic aspects of her personality, so now she wants to cover the Material Plane in blooming mazes of fungal crops that she can break people with at her leisure. 

The Drops

The drops are two semi-sentient pieces of one original artifact, whose original purpose was to be a tool of creation for the gods. Which, through some great calamity(still deciding that one), got sundered and settled into the two basic aspects of creation: the nearly unlimited well of life-energy which organizes stardust into planets, cabbages, and kings, and the “you gotta crack a few eggs to get an omlette” destructive force which breaks down what the sundrop makes so that it can make more. 

The main goal of the drops is to reunite. I would want to as well if I was ripped in half! This manifests as a... General tug in the direction of the other drop. A desire in the host to Go That Way. It can be resisted, and even ignored for a bit, but it’s always there. Like being hungry if starving wasn’t a danger. Just a bit uncomfortable if you aren’t going That Way, but ignorable. 

Both drops generally try to be as helpful to their wielder as possible, as originally they were a tool of creation to the gods. They are innately obliging. They’re also REALLY UNSAFE FOR MORTALS TO BE MESSING WITH. The Sundrop is a little safer because the most it can do is kinda. Overcharge you into something distinctly not human but still alive, and King Fredrick was lucky he made the Sundrop into soup before giving it to Arianna. But King Edmund got his wholeass arm blasted off for touching the Moonstone. 

The Sundrop

Best I could whittle it down, the Sundrop has power over life energy, like the sun’s light. It also has power over the energy derived from geothermal activities, so deep sea creatures Are Not Immune To The Sundrop, which was a funny thought that crossed my mind that they could be, but that will likely never come up anyways salkdjf;ljsf It is, in its basest form, Growth and Progress. 

It’s a little sentient, but very much entrenches itself into whoever is holding it at the time. Like another mind looking through your eyes and seeing what you see/feeling what you feel while still retaining a bit of individuality from the host. It’s not... Parasitic because it’s in its nature to give, but it’s generally pretty firmly attached to whoever is holding it until they die( which isn’t usually for a WHILE. It ’infects’ a new host when one dies, usually a plant near their grave...) or until a solar eclipse. It wants what they want, but it’s very fussy so they have to ask it for power exactly correctly(like singing an incantation every time you want to heal someone, or doing a Ritual involving lots of very specific ingredients, Celestial Alignments, and Secret Words) or it won’t listen, like an orchid dying if the ph balance is off in the soil by a little bit. But it’s generally pretty intuitive to use, because it wants what you want and (as long as you ask right) is willing to help. 

Anyways basically under the influence of the Sundrop you get a few things: 

Basically limitless energy coursing through your body while you’re in a place with sunlight, which equates to rapid healing, mostly, because every cell in your body is being supercharged with free energy. Never getting exhausted in direct sunlight. (If Rapunzel lived in a place that was sunny 24/7 like near one of the poles she wouldn’t have to sleep like. until it started to get dark in the opposite half of the year. Then she’d have to sleep like a regular human being)

You stay at your prime, or if you are past it, revert to your prime. Someone who is holding the Sundrop, or who has regular access to the Sundrop’s magic can’t die of old age or illness. They have to be hurt beyond the Sundrop’s ability to heal or have it taken away from them. 

The ability to share this rapid healing with others (if you ask right)

The ability to freely draw on the raw, near-limitless energy of the sun to shape into things like cool-looking energy blasts (only if you ask right) 

The Moonstone

The moonstone has powers over varying levels of destruction: from destroying things by ripping them apart/ to Not Letting Things Be Destroyed(also known as protecting) by freezing them in indestructible rock. Like the moon, it can ‘reflect’ a bit of the sundrop’s power, so it can kinda provide energy, albeit a lot less than the sundrop can provide. It’s the inevitable march of The End of All Things, fertilizing the fields of time with the ashes of the old so the new can take root. 

The Moonstone is a bit more in the dark(pun intended hehe) when it comes to bonding with someone, it can only try to figure out what is going on based off the emotions of its wielder, and through anything directly touching the Black Rocks. Because of this it’s... Kinda dumb? It tries to do things to help(Like shooting red fear-rocks to try and scare away whatever must be scaring its wielder so badly) but often fails spectacularly at helping. 

Under the influence of the Moonstone you get: 

Mortals get Neat Body Armor that’s actually just you being turned into a rock! They are very fragile! They need to be protected! The best the Moonstone can do to try and preserve you is to Stop All Destruction by.. Pausing all bodily functions indefinitely. Rocks don’t need to eat, sleep, or breathe, and almost nothing can destroy you if you’re solid Black Rock. The weak reflection of the Sundrop’s energy keeps the host animated, but they’re not exactly alive anymore. Like cryostasis. Wounds (if any) acquired in this state won’t be a problem because they’re not messing anything up, because nothing is technically working in the first place, but they will be a problem when you’re not protected in this way anymore. It’s a cosmic ‘I’ll deal with that later’ button, essentially. 

Like the moon, the Moonstone can reflect the light of the sun. It uses its rock crystals to do so, which can even split the sun’s power into different shades, like a prism. Essentially, different colored rocks can mean new and exciting power sets. 

Blue Lightning! The Moonstone can reflect the Sundrop’s power, so it also has access to pure bursts of energy, even if it is weaker and colder. 

The Moonstone is very helpful, but usually has no idea what you want. ‘Asking’ the Moonstone for more control over its power in the same way you would Ask the Sundrop for more power reminds it of the perfect bond it used to share. The Moonstone’s incantation deepens the bond between wielder and Moonstone in such a way that it actually knows what you want from it, giving you near perfect control of its powers.

*This is kind of just a side note of the Drops: While the Moonstone is weaker than the Sundrop in an head-on fight, it could hold its own if it were on the defensive. Redirecting the power instead of trying to overpower and such.

** Cass made of rocks means I get to draw her skeleton :) not in every picture that would be fucking nuts and way too much work alskjdf;lkjs;fv

[vintneress]

𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐂𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐍 𝟎𝟏:   the mysterious blood disease.

at birth,  alcina dimitrescu inherited an unknown blood disease from her father,  who in turn inherited it from his father,  and so on.   in house dimitrescu lore,  the disease in question is said to originate directly from cesare,  the folkloric forebear of house dimitrescu who jointly founded a certain romanian village with nichola,  berengario,  and guglielmo.   throughout her childhood and well into her adulthood,  alcina had little understanding of this disease aside from its symptoms and,  eventually,  her family’s preferred method of treatment.   her lack of concrete answers about her condition drove her initial foray into science,  virology in particular,  and eventually led her directly into mother miranda’s clutches.

the symptoms of alcina’s disease mimicked an aggressive form of the already serious aplastic anemia,  an illness that stalls the body’s production of red blood cells and leaves the sufferer fatigued and more prone to infections.   in addition to the previously listed symptoms,  during flareups alcina experienced migraines,  dizziness,  rapid and irregular heartrate,  fever,  unexplained bruising,  rashes,  and uncontrollable bleeding.   these symptoms often crippled her in childhood,  and while they lessened some as she emerged into adolescence and adulthood,  they again worsened inexplicably from when she turned forty and onward.   alcina believes that,  had she never found mother miranda and given herself over,  she would have died within five years of her forty-fourth birthday.

alcina discovered only after her father’s death,  when she lost her inheritance and was forced to fend for herself with her mother’s slightly lower status family,  how exactly he and her paternal ancestors treated their disease.   rumors had swirled among the nobility for as long as she could remember of house dimitrescu’s history of cannibalism  —-  after her mother’s untimely and suspicious death,  alcina even came to believe those rumors about her father  —-  and with some initial reluctance,  alcina,  too,  resorted to cannibalism to abate her symptoms.   over time,  alcina’s ruthless self-preservation overtook the already scarce guilt she felt for her actions,  though she hoped that her scientific pursuits might someday uncover a more convenient treatment,  and perhaps even a cure,  for her illness.

unfortunately,  such a treatment never came,  and alcina’s interest in finding a cure blossomed into a fully blown obsession with immortality.   when she eventually found miranda at the age of forty-four,  she was desperate.   convinced that her death was nigh,  she offered herself to miranda for experimentation,  and after weeks of painful metamorphosis she emerged the woman she is now:  nearly invincible,  immortal,  and deeply misanthropic.   although she had finally achieved invulnerability to age through mother miranda’s designs,  in a twist of fate,  alcina’s hereditary illness somehow formed a symbiotic relationship with the cadou parasite during her long and arduous mutation.   a journey that began with a desire for a cure ended with the firm entrenchment of her disease;   she must now consume even more human flesh and blood in order to sustain her powers.

not that she minds.   after all,  she loves the taste of a good blood wine.

[shadowfae]

1- Not much tbh, just what you've posted, and 2- To be honest I quite like your long answers. It can definitely wait though, you should get some sleep.

Is your warpriest link a constant thing? Does it ever fade into the background? I'm contemplating forming a second link, something happier than my copinglink, and I'm not sure how to tell when to tell when the line of a link vs a persona is crossed when not worn out of necessity.

And the original ask so I have it on hand. I did take a look at your original context, and if you're cool with it, I'll edit this post with a link for those who may find this is a useful answer and need that on hand. Otherwise, it'll stay a mystery.

But yes, it seems like my Sabe experiences would be a useful thing to talk about here. And in order to do that, I need to go over four things: who and what Sabe is, why he exists the way that he does, what that does for me, and lastly what I think he is in terms of terminology and why.

To start, here is his toyhou.se profile, if you want to read more about his actual story and thoughts and whatnot. But I doubt you'll have the necessary context for that, so let me go into it. RuneScape (RS) is one of the oldest MMORPGs in existence. WoW might be older but I doubt it. Basically it's a medieval magic fantasy that's very long running and you the player end up the World Guardian, aka the guy that stops the gods (who are very powerful folks who just don't die of natural causes and typically stand for some philosophy) from blowing the world up because Guthix, the dead god of balance, asked you to. Well, he voluntold you. And that makes you a major chess piece, Elder Gods get involved, it's a big mess.

But before all that happened, back in 2006 when I was introduced to the game and very shitty at it, well. I liked the lore insofar that I've always liked the lore, it was interesting and I liked thinking about it. I didn't have membership and I sucked at playing so I just read the wiki and the God Letters over and over and sometimes the Postbag from the Hedge. Alongside my two friends, we played at being children of the then-triad of main gods: Saradomin, Guthix, and Zamorak.

I liked Zamorak best, but I didn't think his ideas would be the best for society as a whole, so I ended up playing child of Guthix. Eventually we grew up and grew apart but every couple of years I'd go back to RuneScape, read the lore, settle on what choices I'd make if I could play, and think about being the player character. In 2010 I discovered a fic - dawn by khayr, it's on Ao3 and dA - about Iban, son of Zamorak, right around when I was reading Percy Jackson. Cue him showing up as a soulbond and an older brother figure and guiding me right up until the end of sixth grade. Iban got me through the ruthless bullying that would later set the stage for all my major suicidal-ideation and self-hatred for the entirety of high school: even then, I was more stable than I might've been otherwise, because he interfered.

Saradomin stands for strength through order. Procedures and law and diplomacy and war strategy. He was originally kind of a ripoff of the Christian god, but he's grown to be more of an order-over-peace character and is quite well-written. Guthix stands for strength through balance, and has been all over the board in terms of what he's done and will do. He's kind of a dick, actually, but his heart's in the right place.

Zamorak, as you've heard, is strength through chaos and personal strife. It's no "the strong over the weak" or "the strong take care of the weak", it's flat-out "everyone is strong, and just need the right circumstances to tap into it to be the best they can possibly be". Now, his philosophy is kind of more for warriors and scholars, but if you tilt your head, it applies to everyone. Chronically ill folks will find their chaos in fighting to get up every day and maintain a life. Folks in traumatizing, abusive situations find that chaos in their very survival. Scholars challenge themselves and their fellows and their predecessors trying to find the answers they so need. Nobody in lockstep, no such thing as "we've always done it this way."

A lot of human Zamorakians and Saradominist propaganda says that Zamorak is simply absolute evil: and to be fair, when most of that was written, he kinda was because he was based loosely on the Christian devil. Later writing says that they're typically mistaken on that. Zamorak isn't evil. The very first thing he did upon becoming a god was fulfill a promise and lead a slave rebeliion. (The Avernic uprising, if anyone's curious.) He stands for the downtrodden and says "You are never going to get your dignity by going through the motions and trying to peacefully show you're worth respect. Burn some shit down and prove that you won't stand for this bullshit."

Zamorak in a Saradominist's eyes is someone whose banner you wear when you want to be a crazy murderer. Zamorak in a Zamorakian's eyes is the singing voice who murmurs "Get up, this isn't enough to kill you, you can still do this," when transphobic laws get passed or you hear a slur thrown your way on the street.

And as someone who grew up queer and nonhuman, yeah, that resonates, and the older I get the more I think "Guthixian philosophy is best for a society at large, but Zamorakianism for individuals is good." Because Zamorakianism can't really apply on a theocratic level. It really doesn't. It turns into American bootstrap culture and no social services and all that shitty stuff.

The funny thing is that Zamorak himself has no issues helping out if he thinks you need it. (If he didn't, he wouldn't be cool with asking for help, or giving it when he's asked. Which he does do repeatedly so. The man has more kindness in him than people want to admit.) What I do find fascinating is what he thinks of the actions of some of his longtime subordinates, who clearly support him, but I don't think support his actual philosophy. Because if you ask me, he'd side with the downtrodden humans of Meiyerditch, not the vampire lords that treat them like cattle. He's proven that he likes humans, and doesn't see them as unworthy. I do wonder if Jagex will show us what he might do about that.

Either way. Ahem. Over the course of a decade and a half, I keep going back to RuneScape, refining my philosophy and side, thinking again what I would do playing the game proper. About... I want to say five years ago, Jagex opened up the Sixth Age and I finally noticed, and they rewrote every god's philosophy because they wanted every single one to be actually playable. Not just "hurr durr evil" but actually have a logical line of thought. They probably didn't have pop culture paganism in mind, but the gods of RS are incredibly well-suited to it.

Well, I found that out, and immediately went through every god's philosophy, and reasoned my way through it. What does a worshipper of this god look like? What sort of life would they lead? If i apply this to me, what does that look like from that perspective? Do I understand this? Is it comfortable to exist in?

And as it turns out, I understand Zamorak the most, followed a close second by Armadyl, which was quite surprising. Zaros remains incomprehensible and I don't trust like that. (That's another story.) So I thought about it more, and it stuck even when I wandered off to different fandoms and interests. But what happened was that I ended up internalizing it, unknowingly and without meaning to.

It meant that when, two years later, I ended up in a horrific and traumatizing situation, the anchor I hit that held me together was a mixture of being a Devil - I am a fucking God you will obey me and recognize my power - and Zamorak's core philosophy: this cannot kill me, this cannot stop me, this is pure fucking hell and I am going to laugh in the face of death because people are forged in hellfire and I will walk away knowing what I'm made of.

And I was right. Honestly, out of everyone who was there with me, I think I'm the only one that was that deeply entrenched and walked out without trauma. I do not believe I could have done that had I not internalized Zamorak's philosophy. (That isn't to say if the others had that philosophy they wouldn't be traumatized, because there were absolutely other factors I wouldn't know about and some that I do and didn't do them any favours; but I am saying that it saved my ass and without it, I might not have been okay.)

I walked out of that with zero regrets. Zero. Even now, I don't regret a thing. Because it doesn't matter what happened or how much I was lied to or if he deserved my kindness. I know what I perceived to be happening, and I know how I reacted, and when the pieces were down I was stronger than steel, gave kindness without considering the cost, and I walked away unscathed.

How many people can say they've looked death in the eye and laughed? More than there should be, not too many that knowing what I'm capable of when put into pure chaos isn't somehow impressive. Because it is. And Zamorak's words proved themselves, or rather, I proved him entirely correct.

And when I last went back to RuneScape, and thought about it with enough time to put it all into hindsight, well. Aw, shit, he was right. Then vaguely around that time I went back and read Dawn, which was unfinished, tracked down the author and demanded to know how it fucking ended. (She told me and we're still friends like three years later. xD) Then I went back and found my old OCs, and decided fuck it, I'm making my own World Guardian.

So first thing I did was log in and jump over to the Makeover Mage and make myself into a boy. Kept the plateskirt though, I wanted to have the RS equivalent of a limp wrist to prove I'm Very Queer. Then I went about remaking my character. I wanted to make a self-insert, I was old enough to know it wasn't cringey, it was just fun, but I didn't want to use my default avatar with the black hair over one eye and the Chaorruption. I wanted to make a new self-insert based in nothing I was already using.

So I made the most beautiful man I could! Long, dark brown hair, pretty semi-dark skin, looked Kharidian, and then I said fuck it and made him Zamorak's youngest son. Originally, he was adopted when he was young by Iban and Clivet, and suffered serious imposter syndrome when being WG meant he'd never get demigod powers. But as I grew more confident in myself, he ended up getting powers? And then eventually I rewrote his backstory, and then wrote about his mother, and her relationship with Zamorak, and then he had friends like Blaire and Icthlarin (who was also my furry awakening, rip me).

Then with the most recently questline I've been getting a bit more into RS magical theory, and I've been mulling it over lots, and Seanan McGuire's Middlegame definitely helped; and I figured out how I wanted him to handle being World Guardian: it didn't make sense for him to be openly Zamorak's son, the other gods would just target his family to manipulate him. So I had him play neutral openly and Zamorakian to his friends, effectively living a double life.

Then he just looked up one day and said "Oh, by the way, my father won't acknowledge me to keep me safe but I don't know that so we have a very unsteady relationship because I don't know if he loves me", and then Children of Mah came out, and he was all "Oh and I think I just got disowned (I didn't, Zamorak was protecting me, but I don't know that) so my relationship with Zamorak is Fucking Shitty" and he was stuck that way until I figured out how to save their relationship.

It culminated in Sabe not knowing how his Mahjarrat powers worked and guessing, and hating himself for being half-and-half, and missing everything about being a Mahjarrat, and literally you couldn't have gotten more obvious in order to tell me I was having Fucking Issues coming to terms with the fact I didn't have any understanding or knowledge of my own heritage, but whatever, eventually I noticed that.

And as I've been working to understand myself and my heritage, so too has Sabe been doing that with his Mahjarrat heritage. But for the longest time, no matter how I put him and Zamorak in the same room in a scene to try and get them to talk it out, it wasn't working. Something wasn't right. Sabe resented being World Guardian, hated having to betray his family, didn't know if he was wanted, and hated himself for having to kill Mah, the mother of his species.

Not that long ago, a few months actually, he informed me (which is my shorthand for 'I suddenly figured out this happened, and it genuinely feels like remembering that one fucking word you have on the tip of your tongue, I always knew and just forgot for a while') that no, he'd been ripped in two by a hope devourer, brought to his father's stronghold, and Zamorak split his magic between mortal and divine in order to get around his godproofing and heal him. Zamorak's intense worry for his youngest son was what caused Sabe to break down and tell him honestly what was going on and how he was feeling, which caused Zamorak to do the same, and they finally, finally made up.

A week later, I noticed the connection between Sabe's Mahjarrat issues and my Irish issues, and started to wonder if he was a linktype.

I mean... he's a self-insert. He makes the choices I would, the me in the here and now, that I think are best. He's not a person I was and still know myself to be, he's not someone I grow into, he's not living his life beside me like a shadow. He's me, choosing the things I do, because I say so. But he's also me in the things he reflects, the things he struggles with, and things I had zero fucking conscious input on.

Sabe is the person I am when a crisis hits and I have to deal with the chaos. Sabe is the person I am when I need to lead. Sabe is the person I am when I am desperate to be known and loved by those I consider family. Sabe is the person I am when I want to be sure in where I came from, where I will return to, and the things that I will always be. Sabe is a man of darkness who knows the light as an acquaintance and nothing more, who is cruel and careless and kind.

Sabe is a warpriest of Zamorakian philosophy, because it took me twenty fucking years to put into words how I see the world, and now that I know, I will argue them to death and use them to help others. Drakath may have wanted a messiah to share the hivemind with others. Sabe is a warpriest, spreading the word and calling home the broken and the damned. He is the Last Rider, not the last of the Ilujanka but the one who keeps riding towards the chaos and never falls, no matter what.

Some of who Sabe is I have conscious input on. A whole lot of him was unintentional and perfectly reflects me.

So when it comes to terminology... I don't know what he is. A self-insert, yes. A linktype, maybe. A kintype, also maybe. Sabe doesn't feel like my past linktypes, because Sabe isn't always catharsis and comfort. Until he made up with his dad, Sabe was brutal and hurt a lot and constantly yearning for his foundation and slowly going mad. It wasn't fun. I just refused to do anything but see the story through. I was going to get it right. I wanted to see it to the end. I wanted to be the Last Rider, even though I didn't phrase it that way.

But to answer your actual question, of what he feels like when I'm not actively being him out of necessity, desire, and active thought. If it fades into the background.

And like... it can? Sabe as he is, recognized for what and who he is, is kind of a new thing. Sabe as a concept is very old, but Sabe as what he is right now is new, and confusing, and honestly I'm still trying to figure out what to make of it.

Like, seriously. Sabe is Zamorak's son. Am I Zamorak's son? Is he keeping an eye on me as I am? Would he be proud of me? Would he offer his approval of my progress? Does that make me, in some way, the World Guardian?

I have not a clue, buddy. Not a goddamn clue.

So what it means is that I've been paying attention, really. I don't just become strong in times of crisis. I've been trying to do better. Be better. Learn, and listen, and rethink myself. Break out of lockstep, of doing things the way I've always done them. Try to always do better than I did, build habits I like, stop waiting for things to change and just do it. Become the chaos, instead of waiting for it to hit me.

It means I need to live up to what Guthix told Sabe to do. It means being gentler, being kinder, not burning bridges when I'm not sure. It means keeping an eye out for any sign Zamorak's listening, in case I am his son, in case I really have to decide what I'm gonna do about being the son of chaos incarnate.

But other than the questioning, what it feels like is just... what I was already dealing with, just a little more at arm's length and easier to deal with. Once I recognize that his issues are reflective of mine, if I solve his, I have a pretty good idea of how to solve mine. Some of it won't work exactly right - Zamorak will always forgive him for not being the son he expected he might have had, my own parents may not, yay I'm queer and pagan - but it's a good rule of thumb.

It's also just comforting to know that when in doubt, nothing can kill me, because I simply refuse to die. I am World Guardian, I am a demigod of chaos incarnate, all the hellfire in the world can do nothing but strengthen me. And if I present those to myself as unshakeable beliefs, because for Sabe they are, then I'll be okay. It probably couldn't stop most disasters or tragedies, but I got hit by a car, broke five bones, and walked away with a record recovery time, so I mean... I can't prove that I can't die by some accident or tragedy, but you also can't prove that I can. (Trying to do so usually falls under what we call 'murder', and I personally believe I can't be murdered. Only assassinated.)

But really, I think the worst that could possibly happen with a new linktype is that you learn what not to do. It's new, it's scary, it's chaotic, and from where I'm standing, that's the best way to learn.

[whitewolfofwinterfell]

hi, shannen. it's been a minute, but i was reliving some buffy nostalgia today and wondering if watching tvd for the first time at 28 is worth it lol. and by this i mean that i remember you saying a while back that tvd is one of those shows that might not hit for you the same way if you saw it for the first time now. i realized today that at the end of the day i'll always kind of be "meh" about btvs since all the platonic relationships (i.e. buffy and giles, dawn, faith, etc.) always grabbed me more than the love triangle. is it worth it starting tvd after liking but not necessarily loving btvs? is it worth it just to see what everyone on this site is talking about (i use the word is because of legacies lol)? some of it looks interesting but i'm not looking forward to the love triangle.

Hey Fatmia! It has been a while. I hope you’ve been well.

Tbh, there’s no simple answer to your question because there’s so many factors to take into consideration when deciding whether or not to watch TVD. So please bear with me whilst I break this down.

Reasons to watch TVD

TVD has a lot of great aspects to it:

A strong cast of characters

Well written character arcs

Interesting plots

A great setting

A distinct TVD aesthetc that I just love in terms of music, tone, setting and production

Lots of great relationships (platonic and romantic)

Intruiging lore and perspectives on the supernatural

If you’re a fan of the vampire genre, TVD is well worth a watch because it plays with the genre in a fun way and does some interesting stuff with it. Although it’s commonly perceived as a typical “teen” show, it goes beyond that. @sulietsexual​ watched TVD for the first time two years ago and it was interesting to see her views as someone going in to the show with a completely fresh perspective. She made a great video essay on this topic and spoke about how her perceptions of TVD changed after she watched the show. She also addresses the triangle and how she felt that it was written and handled well. Although I don’t necessarily agree with all her views, my history with the fandom and attachment to Stelena as a ship is so entrenched that this hugely impacts my perspective of the triangle so I’m really not the best person to ask. So if you don’t mind spoilers, I’d recommend watching the video to get an idea of the redeeming qualities of TVD.

Reasons not to watch TVD

But like any show, for all its good, there’s also bad:

The quality goes downhill from Season 4 onwards

A lot of the original cast (and best characters) leave

Some characters are done a huge injustice

Some poor relationship choices

If you are a big shipper and strongly dislike triangles, that in itself might be a reason not to watch. Although there’s a triangle on BTVS, it exists more within the fandom than on the show itself. When Buffy is with Angel, they’re exclusive and Spike is a supporting character. By the time Buffy and Spike become canon, Angel has moved to L.A and has his own show, so the two relationships exist separately from one another. In comparison, the triangle on TVD is established in Season 1 and continues until Season 4 and there’s a lot of emphasis on it, particularly in Seasons 3 and 4. The triangle is used as a way to provide the Salvatore brothers with character development and is very central to their relationship with each other. Whereas the BTVS triangle is never really part of the narrative or development of the characters in the same way.

However, I do feel that the triangle in TVD is handled well in a lot of ways. I just personally didn’t like the way it was handled from Season 4 onwards. And that’s not just because my ship wasn’t endgame but for a lot of other reasons. Putting that aside, it is an interesting, well-built triangle and the dynamics between Elena, Damon and Stefan are fascinating and believable. I actually really liked the triangle in some ways (and wrote a whole fanfiction about it!) but there were some choices were made that I disliked.

Comparing TVD and BTVS

In terms of comparing TVD and BTVS as a whole, they are very different shows and your feelings towards BTVS won’t necessarily have any impact on your enjoyment of TVD. I like both shows but for very different reasons. BTVS is an older show (it aired in 1997 and TVD in 2009) with a more comedic, young and simplistic tone and premise. TVD feels like a more mature, complex show to me. It also has a more developed lore and nuanced perspective on morality and vampires. Overall, if you’re looking at the two shows in their entirety I’d say BTVS is stronger because I really dislike the later seasons of TVD, but I think that Seasons 1-3 of TVD are better than the whole of BTVS. There’s genuinely not a single thing I dislike about the early seasons of TVD but with BTVS, I love a handful of episodes and the rest is just a middle of the ground “good” for me.

Conclusion

I still think TVD is worth the watch. The fandom soured a lot of things for me back in the day, but it has changed a lot over the years and is a generally positive fandom to be part of. Watching it now so many years after it ended and when the fandom is less active will all work in your favour. Although the triangle might be off-putting, it is one of the better triangle’s I’ve seen in terms of the perspective it brings to the characters and their relationships. There are also a lot of other things to love about the show. Despite not enjoying the later seasons, I’m glad I watched the show if only for the great characters like Katherine, Klaus, Rebekah and Stefan. There are also a lot of incredible platonic ships on the show, so if you’re a fan of platonic ships, there’s a lot of them for you to enjoy. If you dislike it or the triangle becomes too much, you can stop watching. But if you’re curious about the show I say give it a go and see what you think.

[mineshaft-birdie]

omg after seeing ur recent post for devil muriel I gotta ask, what are the dets for zora and devil muriel. I want moreeeee! 😳😳😳

I have a 4 page google doc about the play by play of their relationship progression so I’ll try and shorten it for this. After talking about my hcs with @apprenticing, I made a lot of mental changes to their story.

- In any reversed end she’s in, Zora has communication issues. She infantilizes her S/O and tries to handle all of their problems herself. 

- This reared its head when she came up with a plan to defeat Lucio by temporarily binding herself to him. It might have worked, too, had she told Muriel ANYTHING. She overestimated his trust in her and, not long after, Muriel took Lucio’s heart and his place as The Devil. 

- To Muriel, Zora was sacrificing herself for him. Something he didn’t feel he was worthy of. He trusted her but he felt she was doing something irreversibly stupid.

- After Muriel ate Lucio’s heart, Zora was transported to The Devil’s realm along with him.

- Even though the succession process is magical, I HC that the alterations to the body are ungodly painful. That being said, there was a lot of blood as Muriel's new horns and teeth grew in.

- As she was blocking out Muriel’s screams, she was questioning her entire worldview. Luckily, she kept it together just enough to understand that she couldn’t show any weakness. Whatever force was causing Muriel such pain surely wouldn’t leave his mind unscathed.

- She was right.

- The traits of The Devil had immediately entrenched themselves into his personality and she could barely catch a of glimpse of the person she knew.

- From that point onwards she was focused on getting out of there. 

- Zora also made it clear that she would do everything in her power to piss him off. It wasn’t that hard to do either. She just had to tell him the truth.

- “I love you, but I could live without you.”

(This feels long so more under the cut)

- From the start, the specific wording of her deal with Lucio made it so she could leave if specific criteria were met.

- Muriel knew that, so he did all he could to fortify the realm. Not to keep anything out, but to keep Zora in. He knows personally how crafty she can be with her magic. He also felt that, with enough time, she’d come around. 

- His actions were in direct conflict with Zora’s core trait of wanderlust, though. She absolutely cannot remain in isolation. It causes the brain to atrophy and no amount of comfort Muriel could provide would change the fact that she already was deteriorating.

- Zora’s magic is the art of construction and deconstruction. Breaking things down, be it household objects, magical formulas, or concepts, and transforming them into something similar but fundamentally different.

- For example, Zora transformed the ledger in Asra’s shop so that it could do the math itself for @apprenticing​‘s Erin. She basically made a magical excel sheet.

- This ability, however, is solely tied to her mental fortitude. Should she lack the proper mental stimulation(i.e. taking in new information by TALKING TO DIFFERENT PEOPLE), her magic wouldn’t have anything to deconstruct. It’s a bit like how the body processes energy. If one fails to provide external nourishment for the body, it’ll take it from the internals.

- There’s some crucial lore about her backstory I don’t wanna reveal yet, but nothing he had within his realm could’ve save her body form devouring itself. So Muriel found himself pushed into a corner, let her go and potentially lose her forever or leave her as is. The latter would be easier for him in the long run because she’d become a doll. Less work for him.

- At this point, he had already attempted to act like the ‘old’ him for her. He’d been ‘nice’ and ‘understanding’ and ‘patient’ as she looked for a way to save him(that magical attachment hits hard). Still, there came a point where he could tell she saw through his act. He could only push her so far without her hating him. He knew that there was a growing chance that she would get out of there. Her magic eating away at her mind would’ve been a saving grace. But he loved her too much to see her lose herself in that way.

- Instead, he chose the third option and made her his Thrall. This bound her to him in body and soul.

- She didn’t take it very well.

I’ll get into the Thrall portion of everything in another question since this is already a lot for me -_-. I wanted to get the(most) lore heavy stuff out of the way for now.

The specifics of Zora’s magic can get a bit confusing so feel free to send a follow-up question if there’s something I need to elaborate on!