#so apparently I answer questions now

[baejax-the-great]

Need some fanfic inspiration?

Spin the Wheel

Get a fanfiction trope or three to get yourself started!

[wodniars-void]

Twitchy I saw these tags and want to enable you. Please say more? (If you have the spoons.)

Thank you for enabling me Cori!! I have brought you a very large ramble :3 This was so fun to expand on!!

I was mostly inspired by the ideas of Social Darwinism in the early 20th century. Extremely basically, the elite thought they were rich because they inherently deserved to be, and the lower classes and poor had something inherently wrong with them that made them poor. They were strong and thus became stronger, the weak only got weaker. To be extremely honest, total horseshit. But interesting to draw from for fictional societies!

In Scala ad Caelum, Keyblade Wielders are the dominant class. In fact the inferiority of Non-Wielders literally defines them in the sense they are Not Wielders. They are the non-default, the Other, the Lesser, the amalgamate masses. To be a keyblade wielder is the default, valued state, and to not be one makes you worth less. It's evident in the language we use to discuss these societies, even out of game- we define them by what they are not. If you're not a wielder, you're lumped together into one massive undefined group.

In contrast, within the Keyblade wielders are different rankings of superiority. In Dark Road this is possibly signified by the different colors of emblems that each student wears*. KHML appears to have its own emblem code, but it's difficult to tell as we have so little footage. Purely based off Dark Road and hoping it applies retroactively, there appears to be three classes within wielders. Bluebloods like Eraqus with gold emblems, Vala with the only silver emblem, and those with white emblems. Xehanort has one that is dark grey, but given his unique situation, we can assume a dark grey emblem is an outlier when signifying class. For our purposes we'll be excluding him and focusing on the other three groups.

Bluebloods are the highest class within the wielders, and have long bloodlines of keyblade wielders. Think "blood purity" or castes. It's commonplace for families of wielders to marry each other in pursuit of maintaining keyblade wielding abilities in families of "good standing", societal power, etc. They're like the nobility of the city, and as a result hold the most political control. The most politically powerful group of Bluebloods are Ephemer's descendants, since he founded the city. In a room full of Bluebloods, everyone listens to them.

Then there are wielders from mixed families, people with only one wielder parent or a "diluted" bloodline. Obviously they can be and are just as competent wielders as Bluebloods but they're by default an inferior social class. This is the majority of keyblade wielders**- by Scala times keyblades aren't exactly rare, and a lot of people don't have the hangups that the Bluebloods do about social standing. Really, as long as you can claim the heritage of at least one Wielder and are a Wielder yourself, regardless of other economic or social status, you're in this group.

Lastly and lowest are wielders of no social standing. They're often people who's keyblades just appeared to them one day, with no notable lineage of previous wielders. Sometimes the keyblade just chooses someone new! They're socially higher than non-wielders, but with no bloodline to stand on, they have to work to be recognized as highly as their peers.

Now to get the discriminatory part.

The upper class of Bluebloods generally holds the belief that Keyblade Wielders are such because they deserve to be in some way. Their hearts have a lot of very strong light, they come from families of very high standing, they hate darkness more than anyone else, etc. They're superior because they inherently deserve to be. The light deigns them superior by their very nature as Wielders. This bleeds into the inverse- Non-wielders aren't wielders because they have some inherent flaw. There's something inherently lesser about non-wielders that makes them undeserving of keyblades. They're weak or susceptible to darkness. The keyblade scorns them, which is makes them Lesser. Being Lesser makes the keyblade avoid them. It's a cycle, at least in the eyes of high society. (Needless to say, all of this rather untrue. A keyblade is either passed down via bequeathing or chooses a wielder. Literally anybody could get one.)

Only the most intense corners of the Bluebloods get particularly persnickety about this, at least publicly, but the effects of this attitude resonate through Scalan society. The societies are sort of a product of this strict class system. Keyblade wielders tend to mingle with others of like standing. For example, the Baroque society appears to be a particularly lower class society, largely comprised of wielders from mixed familes or no previous lineage. This is a bit of headcanon, but I would assume that Nept is the "highest class" among them, given he was able to become an Operations Master and is a member of the "Society Legal Investigations Committee". (yes, I watched the beta cutscenes to quote that directly, lol) Regardless, Nept being both in a position of leadership and in some sort of organized committee indicates he's probably of higher status than the rest of the Baroque society. Freya is possibly next highest, and Remus the lowest- he's kind of the one who gets bossed around and all. In my heart Freya is an Ephemer descendant though <3

Similarly, Player is almost definitely on the lowest rung of the social ladder. They'd fall into the category of wielders who's blades just Appeared to them, disregarding the whole reincarnation/fell from the sky thing. As far as anyone's concerned right now, they're some random kid who got their hands on a rusty old keyblade, and that's it.

This brings me to Brain. Brain is a notable exception to the extremely strict class dynamics, because he isn't engrained in them the way Scalans are. He's almost elevated above the class system because of his status as a Union Leader. He is at the true top, the most idealized place in society. Even the Bluebloods and Ephemer's descendants have to respect that. Not that most of them are very happy about that, but hey, societal conventions bind us all. Really the only person who rivals him in terms of political and societal importance is whoever leads the city- like say, Frigga in Fallen Stars.

I originally went down this train of thought as some Brain's Twitter Takeover worldbuilding, and I really quite like it, so I'm holding myself back a little to try and sift out what's general KHML ideas and what's potentially BTT :3 I cut a couple paragraphs of accidental spoiler overflow lol. I'm really excited to see what KHML does with these ideas of bloodlines!!! I'm sure it'll be a great story!!

*Side tanget: I tried to figure out if the emblem colors would correlate with my groupings, and that is a whole ride. It essentially comes down to which class the white and silver emblems represent. The gold emblems almost defiently indicate Blueblood or other high class status, as Eraqus wears one, but the other two are much more up in the air. For convenience I've included the list I compiled glancing at all the Dark Road sprites. It's my personal thoughts that the order is Gold -> White -> Silver -> Dark Grey, but hey, you do you. Gold: Eraqus, Baldr, Hoder, Urd, Vor, Heimdall, Helgi, Vali, Odin White: Hermod, Bragi, Sigrun, Vidar Silver: Vala Dark Grey: Xehanort

**second tanget: I know I said the middle class of wielders is the largest and then showed DR was mostly upper class so I had to make some clarifying comments. I believe that the Dark Road class is top-heavy because 1) Xehanort and Eraqus' class wasn't the only one at the academy (To quote the khwiki's DR summary, "Odin summons the No Name Keyblade from its display overhead, and leaves the room to evacuate other students.") 2) the process of different groups of people having more kids at different times 3) the many socio-economic aspects of going to Keyblade School and 4) not everyone WANTS to be a wielder and thus might not go to school for it if they don't have to. For all intents and purposes assume that the events of Dark Road happen at like, a fancy private school. The sample sizes there are Different.

This is all speculation and I may even have a bit of a conspiracy board going here but I had fun and that's what matters! KHDR they could never make me hate you <3

[mosspodge]

HELLO @okartichoke I AM HERE WITH MOSSY'S GUIDE ON HOW TO START SEWING: A VERY MESSY TUTORIAL

I am extremely self taught, so this is gonna be a lot of links and infodumping!!!! Hopefully this helps a even just a little bit :>

SO! I honestly got into sewing through youtube during covid, largely bc i wanted silly fun clothes! There are a loooot I could recommend to you out there, but I personally find that the more chaotic and learn-as-they-go people help me the best! Rachel Maksy and The Stitchery are, to me, some of the best to learn from! Which is honestly pretty funny since they tend to just fully wing it most of the time lol. While i could recommend excellent sewists like the amazing Bernadette Banner (who is actually the first sewing channel I watched!), I find that the more loosey goosey the process, the more i can learn, if that makes sense? I find it helpful to watch people trial-and-error their way through projects and show where they succeeded and failed since I get a better grasp on their process that way.

The best way to start sewing, in my humble opinion, is to grab whatever sewing machine you can get your hands on and play around with it! Read the manual, find a tutorial video on how to thread the machine, grab some scrap fabric and play around! You don't really need any special needles or feet (the little thing that holds the fabric down), unless you wanna get started sewing denim or velvet or something Speaking of which, learn about fabrics!!!!! I learned mostly by going to joanns, touching the fabrics, and looking at the content labels. Everything has different uses, and while two things might both be cotton, one could be knit while the other jersey (tshirt fabric). I like this video for learning the basics! Tbh this one took me a while. Usually patterns have recommendations for what fabrics to use, so that's always a good place to start!

Patterns. Ah my arch nemesis. Unless you decide to start drafting your own patterns (or get a mannequin and learn how to drape fabric), you're probably gonna need to use one. There's two major things i recommend for this: 1) Make sure there's a video tutorial online before buying, and 2) start with something you might actually use/wear. Pattern instructions are notoriously vague, but thankfully many wonderful people make video tutorials for them! And while you might be tempted to grab one of those beginner friendly patterns, they can sometimes be. real ugly and not well fitting. Also boring! Finding something you like will hold your attention better and make you actually wanna finish it!

Ok SO. getting into more of the cosplay sewing stuff. First things first my knowledge here is a bit more limited, unfortunately. Fortunately there are many wonderful people out there with tutorials!! So if you wanna learn more definitely look there!!! General tip for cosplays + more complex sewing: MAKE MOCK UPS PLEASE IT SUCKS BUT IT HELPS SO MUCH. Go find the ugliest fabric in the sale bin and buy a few yards, then use it whenever you wanna test patterns. It might be tempting to immediately start cutting and sewing the finished garment, but the truth is that patterns rarely fit perfectly well (especially if they're fitted/tighter on your body). Make an ugly, barebones version first with your bad fabric, take notes, and then start making the finished piece. It'll save you money and sanity.

As for cosplay youtubers, I heartily recommend Sarah Spaceman, since not only do her videos show her process, she also does segments teaching you more about sewing!! She tends to tackle more complex projects, and watching her take those on has helped me a lot :} For cosplay patterns etsy usually has quite a few! I like Indigo Patterns (they have a good array of loz patterns I need to buy) as well as Alice in Cosplay Land. Please note that I haven't bought from either, but both their etsy shops have wonderful reviews and I plan to buy from them in the future!

not gonna lie I am getting very sleepy so I'm gonna cut it off there for now! Hopefully my rambling helped lol. Feel free to ask me any questions or for any clarification!

[ares-protector]

OMG WAIT! I have another similarity between The Underland Chronicles and Alice in Wonderland! I had completely forgotten about it, but Return to Regalia's reblog of please-help-this-little-lesbian post about Underland sounding like Wonderland reminded me of it! So credits to @please-help-this-little-lesbian for the inspiration and @returntoregalia for reminding me of it!

So, last semester in my critical thinking class I learned about the Katabasis model. The Katabasis model has 3 things to it. It begins with the protagonist having a crisis and falling into an underworld-like place. Then, they must pass through the underworld to reach their goal. Finally, they leave the underworld, having fulfilled their quest or goal, and often leave the underworld transformed.

First I am briefly going to go through Alice's story, and then compare it to Gregor's. This is Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, the book. As the story goes, Alice "falls" into Wonderland. Alice repeatedly runs into the issue that the Wonderland does not have the same set of rules/logic/public agreements that the real world does, and has multiple mental breakdowns about it.

(This is where things get a little weird and a bit hard for me to explain, so bear with me.) What I learned in Critical Thinking is that you can't find the world's set of rules/logic/public agreements within yourself also known as Semantic Internalism. In other words, Semantic Internalism is finding meaning with out external sources and only using your memories (Which is bad). The opposite of that is Semantic Externalism, which is means that meaning requires an external anchor and is not in the head. So Alice doesn't have external anchors anymore in Wonderland because everything is different. And I believe in Chapter 2 she has her first crisis where she realizes that if everything has changed, how does she know she hasn't changed. She starts trying to remember herself through memories(forced into Semantic Internalism) which is bad because memories can't self certify. She has another crisis later talking to the Caterpillar. In short, they asked her to recite a poem. She does, and the caterpillar says it's wrong. She can't use her memories to confirm the poem. Then she has a crisis of identy where if the poem is not the poem, then how can she be sure she is still Alice. Unfortunately, in the class that is as far we went into the book and we didn't talk about how Alice was changed by the end. On to The Underland Chronicles! Which I find this absolutely cool because I realized that TUC is 4-5 Katabasis models in one giant series long Katabasis model. Gregor falls into the Underland, and just like Alice he's in a whole new world. There's some overlap between the Overland and the Underland "rules" so he isn't forced into Semantic Internalism like Alice is, but he has his moments and is met with new rules and ways of speaking and slowly figures it all out. Gregor also experiences crisis and mental breakdowns multiple times because of this new world throughout the series leaving him completely changed by the end. He also helps fulfill a quest/prophecy every book, and fulfills his roll as The Warrior for the series at the end.

Book 1: The intial crisis of this book and the entire series happens before the book even starts. When Gregor's father falls into the Underland is the initial crisis. Gregor then falls with Boots into the Underland. Is sent on a quest, faces mental and physical challenges, fulfills the prophecy, and returns for the first time back to the Overland, changed.

Book 2: This time the initial crisis is losing Boots in Central Park leading him to "fall" back into the Underland a second time. Another quest, even harder mental and physical challenges, fulfills the prophecy, and returns to the Overland a second time, changed.

Book 3: The intial crisis is the plague starting, and Gregor finding out that Ares has it. Once again, he "falls" into the Underland where there is another initial crisis of his mother getting the plague as well (I consider it a second initial crisis even if he has already "fallen"). Another quest and more physical challenges. But now the mental challenge is completely different from before. Sure, he had mental challenges with being the Warrior, but now he has to deal with being a rager, a natural born killer. Thus, having to control an aspect of himself he hates. He helps fulfill the prophecy, and he goes back to the Overland a third time, changed.

Book 4 & 5: I believe that book 4 and 5 are one Katabasis because the books themselves are like a part 1 and a part 2 to a large story. There is a question mark on the model because there might be another Katabasis of the questers going deeper into the earth through Hades Hall, but that might be a stretch. So, I think the initial crisis of books 4 and 5 is the first 3 books because they set up to this final story, or it is Gregor's mom getting the plague since that the reason he keeps visiting the Underland after book 3. I don't know what to consider the fall in book 4 since he's regularly in the Underland at this point and isn't forced. It could also be that the initial crisis is the return of Luxa's crown, making the "fall" them looking for the nibblers.

Then he experiences extreme physical challenges, and extreme mental challenges. One mental challenge leading him to develope and entire new sense(echolocation) he can use to navigate the Underland. He fulfills the last prophecy, and returns to the Overlanda final time, transformed. No longer the boy when he initially fell into the Underland, but a traumatized, mourning child soldier that fulfilled his role as The Warrior.

TL:DR TUC and Alice in Wonderland are both Katabasis model stories where a protaganist falls into the Underworld, completes a quest, and return to the Overworld transformed. TUC also has 4 Katabasis models in 1 larger Katabasis.

[lloydfrontera]

Im so curious

What about BK Moon gives you so much beef with him like the misogyny I understand but you talk about him like there's more

it's all the untapped potential. that's all it is. bk moon can be such a good writer at times and there's some genuinely interesting and fascinating ideas in his work, but man do they get buried under some of the most bizarre and tedious plots he can come up with.

he comes up with some amazing dynamics, concepts and characters and then does shit with them. he writes incredibly passionate and heart-wrenching relationships between his male protagonists and then shoves them into the most boring and/or underdeveloped straight romances possible. he describes utterly horrifying scenarios (affectionate) with such vivid detail you can almost see them play out perfectly in your head and then goes on and on about very boring topics with too much detail that you can skip without losing anything for it.

his novels could be so good... if only they were good. there's something there but you have to grab a shovel and dig them up by yourself because he's not gonna help you do it.

he's a good writer! but he could so much better. and that's what makes it so infuriating! because i see the potential, i see the seeds being planted, i see what could've been... and i can't do anything about it but make silly little posts about it! i wanna be his editor and beta-reader soooo bad.

but to be clear i don't have,, real beef with the man. like. i don't know him. i just read what he writes and sometimes stalk his fb but that's it. my feelings about him are completely based on what his writing and his novels tell me and nothing more. and i do like his writing! i genuinely do enjoy his style and the way he writes! some times more than others but nonetheless!

and also sometimes i just like being dramatic. sometimes i'm mildly annoyed by one of his writing decision and i say i'll stab a man. doesn't mean i actually hate his guts or anything aksjhdka

i will even admit that maybe if his novels were better i wouldn't be so into them as i am. take orv for example. i love it, i definitely binge-read it, cried my heart out and it remains one of my favorite webnovels of all time. but i didn't dedicate two years of my life to talk about it, y'know? it's so good i don't really have anything to add to the conversation. unlike with tged and cpsm where i have entirely too much to say about them.

i guess i just... mourn the wasted potential of his writing. and like with a lot of other authors i can't help but be bitter about the hetero/amatonormativity that seeps into it. if he were just a little bit more open to write his protagonists as anything else than straight or at least stopped adding romance for romance sake, his novels would stand out from many others even with his rather run-of-the-mill plots.

also i'm salty that he keeps catering to whiny dudebros with such fragile egos they can't handle an emotional scene without calling it cringe. when he could be catering to me instead <3 i, unlike them, do appreciate how he writes incredibly deep and passionate friendships between men willing to risk the whole world for one another <33

tldr: he gives me brain worms. and i'm mad about it. he needs a better editor and it should be me.

[azaracyy]

one of my finished ych commissions. other finished artwork can be found here. the tailmon is based on the twitter meme / trend of tailmon with pikachu build

[copia]

i can't come back here until the afternoon of the 29th, posting this to hold myself accountable (& i'll be embarrassed if i turn up again)

[bookishjules]

i don't care how big a company is, the response to an employee asking for an advanced warning before they are affected by changes made by the company should never be "get used to it."

[tealfruit]

another day another dealing with management scrambling about their own poor decisions and supply chain/budget issues even tho I'm really fucking not paid enough for all that

[msburgundy]

[protectoroffaeries]

at my local public library reading as i am wont to do & overheared someone returning a book late saying "sorry it's a little late" & the librarian saying "no worries the library police isnt gonna come after u" but then as soon as they left the librarian turned around to his coworkers & goes "this book was due in november 2008"

[nicepersondisorder]

torn between asking in the t groupchat if its still possible to get hrt withouy changing documents/gender marker (which is now illegal) or if i have to leave the country completely to finally get hrt

[midshipmank]

SUCCESSFULLY APPLIED FOR A NON-KAISER HEALTHCARE PLAN, FUCKING HELL

[todayisafridaynight]

NO YEAH IF ANYONE'S EQUIPPED TO KICK ASS IN THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE IT'S THE ARAKAWAS LMAO

Okay, in terms of Aoki's actual arrest, that would've been chiefly for (as the news ticker says) incitement to murder and, y'know, taking a police officer hostage/assaulting a police officer.

I believe incitement is weighed the same as perpetration. While the gang survived the explosion, Ishioda didn't (I think?), so it's more than "attempted" murder. And because of the number of people involved, it would probably be considered incitement to aggravated murder, which narrows the options to a life sentence or the death penalty (or, at the very least, marks them as strong possibilities).

While normally incitement is difficult to prove (as it would be for most every other instance he did it; Jo would never talk, Ishioda is Kind Of Dead, and for Arakawa Tendo was, yeah, acting of his own accord), they have some pretty solid evidence + probably a confession, given Aoki's intentions to turn himself in.

So in terms of the original question, there isn't really much else that needs to be considered, since it's not like it can get any worse than a life sentence no matter what else he confesses to… Aside from the death penalty, but if Jo managed to avoid one, Aoki probably could? Unless Jo's age was a consideration since realistically a life sentence would probably kill him in the same amount of time it'd take to carry out an execution.

But for the sake of completionism, Suzumori's murder could very much be argued as a case of self-defense. Being assaulted after his body had already been pushed to its limits absolutely could have resulted in his death, so it'd probably be down to possession charges. I can understand Arakawa and Jo being dead set on keeping him out of prison even with that being the case, though; prison lowers the average person's lifespan as-is, and it could very well have killed Masato.

After that it's mostly a laundry list of collusion and corruption charges I'm not crazy enough to unpack, but. Yeah. I think Aoki and Jo would've been in for life… Kinda makes me wonder how it all would've played out if Aoki'd had that change of heart and they spent those last years together and Jo inevitably died first...

essentially, for the Quick Byte version for the mate who initially asked: life sentence if not the death penalty

[thepandalion]

weirdass dreams squad unite