#tags because theyre very relevant

[alltheoutsinfreeeee]

let characters be dedicated to other characters without making it romantic challenge (impossible)

[localcoffeeshop]

i canr srop doodling and i have nothing to do but stew in my mind palace so heres a dump of various adventure time drawings across like 5 or 6 different canvases

[fury161]

portraits for a de au i think about a little bit

[yume-fanfare]

angels

[tombware]

seeing like a mini debate about ast*rion vs daer*n ar*ndae in regards of quality and i might be specifically seeing only one sides opinion because. i do not think Mr. D is more compelling. ultimately i think theyre quite different as well so idfk

[anachronistic-falsehood]

whiskey you have GOT to stop sanders sides posting bc im getting more andmore tempted 2 watch it (<< SLASH SILLY i love ur liveblogs theyre so fun hehe :])

MAC. MAC. GRABBING U BY THE SHOULDERS AND LOOKING U DEAD IN THE EYE. IF U LIKE PHILOSOPHICAL DEBATES AND STRUGGLES WITH MORALITY AND CATHOLIC GUILT AND RELIGIOUS IMAGERY. YOU WILL LIKE SANDERS SIDES. the first season is very silly lots of fun filler episodes, kinda cringey (lilly singh and butch hartman are guests in a couple episodes) but after the accepting anxiety episodes we get more PLOT and it's soooo so so good. i am putting these guys in pringles cans and shaking them around ALSO THOMAS SANDERS MADE PLAYLISTS FOR EACH OF THE CHARACTERS AND U KNOW I LOVE CHARACTER PLAYLISTS AND ANALYZING SONG CHOICES/LYRICS

[shotmrmiller]

Multiverse part 3

You sat in a small room on a padded chair, with equipment set up around your arm, chest, and fingertips. A polygraph test. That's what you were being forced to take. And to your chagrin, Ghost is in the room with you and Captain Price.

"Try to relax, yeah?" Price commented. He must've noticed your restless leg.

"I'll do that, shall I? I've done nothing wrong, other than exist and I'm being interrogated. Because that's what this is— an interrogation." You finally turn your attention from Ghost to look at Price, who's sitting at the desk by your side. "Tell me, Captain. Did you get this same treatment when you came back after spending all that time locked up in the gulag?"

His dark eyebrows furrow in confusion. A sigh escapes your bitten lips. That's only in your...world, for lack of a better term. Dimension? Universe?

"I haven't been to the gulag here." Yeah, obviously.

With an impatient wave of the hand that doesn't have cables strapped to it, you mutter, "Let's get on with this circus act, then. Ask your questions."

Ghost steps forward, his arms unfolding as if he's about to speak to you, but Price swiftly intervenes, halting him with a raised hand.

"Alright then. Baseline questions first. Name." Ghost gives away nothing when you say your last name is Riley.

It goes like this for a few, then he switches to the control questions, until finally moving on to the relevant ones.

"How did you get here?" I don't know.

"Do you know why you're here?" No.

He pulls up a photograph. "Recognize him?" Captain MacTavish.

Another photo. "Him?" I don't know.

"What do you mean by that?" If that's Roach, I've never seen his face unmasked.

"You're sure you don't know him?" Unless that man's name is Gary Sanderson, no. I do not know him.

Price acknowledges your response with a nod, then shifts his gaze towards Ghost, whose head slightly tilts forward. Returning his attention to you, he retrieves a final photograph. "What about him?"

As you look at the picture, your eyes begin to well with tears, lip trembling violently. A new fracture reverberated through your tender heart, intensifying the ache in your chest. Yes.

"Who is he?" Price softly asks.

"That's my Simon," your voice broke on the last syllable. It was hard to not use a possessive adjective when the face of your husband was in that picture.

Blinking the tears away, you clear your throat. "Anything else, Captain?"

Price purses his lips under his hefty facial hair and responds, "Just a few more questions."

Once finished, you sat unabashedly staring at Ghost in the tiny room. "I wear Roach's tags alongside yours, in honor. He was with you until the very end, and for that, I couldn't be more grateful."

Ghost is completely silent, but you continue talking anyway. "I've been married to you since a bit after you came home on leave that one time. You know the one."

His eyes are emotionless, blank, as he stares at you. But you know him like the back of your hand. You've got his full attention.

"I accompanied you to your brother's wedding. He married a woman, Beth. She was good for him. They had a baby, your nephew, named Joseph. The love you had for him was one of a kind. I had told you later that evening that I dreamed of the day you'd look at our children like that."

With a shuddery breath, you tell him how none of those matters. Because your husband is dead, and you're stuck here. With his counterpart that hates you.

With a hushed click, the door closes shut behind him as he leaves, yet its resounding noise fills the compact room you're in.

You begin to fidget with the sizeable ring that hangs on a thin necklace beneath your shirt— the metal is warm under your touch as if it had never gone cold in the first place.

As if Simon had never taken it off his finger to go find Makarov.

ah theyre short but hurt. much pain.

taglist: @1mawh0re @sae1kie @darkravenqueen98 @chinuneko @thestartitaness @bowtruckleninja @hawsx3 @uyudunmuyavru @prettyoatmeal @arael-asuka @spencerreidisbae123 @beau-min @lovefks @maliakealoha @kit-williams @clear-your-mind-and-dream @theloneshadow24 @wolfieisacat @littlebunie @bloobewy @kkaaaagt @sadsackssss @hypernovaxx @halobaby @lildemon475 @animarix @just-pure-trash @catatemyslideshow @hayleybarnesx @sasagehoes @thigh-o-saur @youdontknowe @destroyer-of-za-warudo @maxisqq @k4marina @onlineoutcast

[rivalcobalt]

Okay actually yknow what, I'm just gonna do this on here cause I've been agonizing over this for too long

Firstly to prove I'm not insane, and I guess to his credit, the author has mentioned ONS as an inspiration-slash-thing-with-similar-vibes on twitter (archived):

That said, I feel like this really undersells it. Like, you can argue about how much inspiration you can take from a work, and ONS itself takes insane amounts of shit from Devilman, but even still it feels very much like a different story, and not like... the entire first half of the book being largely what you'd get if you just ported the plot of S1 of ONS over into a YA novel with and then altered who the love interest was.

This is long enough already (talking like nearly 4 pages point form on google docs) so I'm just copying it over as is. I only read the book once, so honestly this may have even missed some things. I'd put more effort into this but honestly idk how many people are gonna see this anyways.

Tl;dr no fucking way did you just "watch this while editing"

The Flood || unnamed apocalypse virus

Man-made virus

Kills most of the human population (ons' explicitly kills off 90%, the Flood has killed near 9 billion (earth's population when it was released)/appears to be a comparable rate)

Intentionally caused by Angels cult/Hyakuya Sect + JIDA (revealed in manga/LNs only)

Angels cult || vampires:

Signaturely wear white robes/uniforms + capes

Ons vampires are associated with (fallen) angels

New Nazareth/Sanguinem (city for cult/vampires that protagonist escapes from)

Don't want any more of their kind made (Angels forcing Angel parents to drown their newborns, vampires noted to be generally opposed to making more vampires for unexplained reasons; iirc only progenitors are able to sire and they're supposed to get permission from the vampire council first)

Angels cult || Hyakuya Sect

Religious cult

Doing human (S)eraph experiments

Benji & Theo/Yuu & Mika are children of cult members who use them as test subjects

Causes virus on purpose (manga/LNs only)

Responsible for creating Graces/Horsemen of John (manga/LNs only)

Benji || Yuu:

Only successful version of the (S)eraph experiments

Not fully in control of powers yet/powers emerge over the course of the story

Child of Angels/Hyakuya Sect cult members

Brought to New Nazareth/Sanguinem under the age of 12 and lives there for 4-5 years before escaping

Grow up in New Nazareth/Sanguinem with Theo/Mika during those years

Important family member dies as they try to escape together

Son of cult members

Posesses (S)eraph abilities from being experimented on by cult

Joins ALC/JIDA in their front-line forces after escaping and being found by Nick/Guren

Seraph || seraphs (humans possessing seraph gene and have ability to turn into them)

Aim to wipe out humanity (but this can be controlled by protagonist with effort)

Very powerful

Created via human experimentation on children by the religious cult that caused the virus

Picture of Yuu in complete seraph form in ons tweet from author

Theo || Mika:

Curly/wavy blond hair and blue eyes

Protagonist's childhood best friend

In love with protagonist, debatably reciprocated

Child of Angels/Hyakuya Sect cult members

Grows up in New Nazareth/Sanguinem with protagonist, but didn't escape with them

Wants to get protagonist away from ALC/JIDA and live with them

Seen in whites of the vampires/Angels for the majority of the story

Remains affiliated with the vampires/Angels (Theo sides with Angels & Mika is turned)

Soldier for the Angels/vampires

Protagonist often recalls memories of being in the cult/vampire city together as children

Protagonist thinks of them as someone they'll never see again after escaping (Theo stayed with cult, Yuu thinks Mika is dead)

Mika is revealed to be the son of the first vampire, a fallen angel, meaning he's also an angel (manga only)

Other (S)eraph besides Benji/Yuu, but not a fully functional one (Theo injects himself with a failed version of Seraph, Mika's seraph gene is dormant)

Theo's angry outbursts may be based on Mika's anger (though who they lash out at is very different)

Theo's character differences from Mika are almost all traits commonly found in other characters also influenced by Ryou Asuka (betrays protagonist, parallel to protagonist due to similarities but on opposing sides of conflict) (not sure if author knew about Mika being heavily from Ryou or just subconsciously knew the archetype via consuming other anime/manga/JRPGs/etc or just a really funny coincidence)

Upon escaping New Nazareth/Sanginem, Benji's dad/Mika is killed

Nothing can be done to save them

Bleeding out as Benji/Yuu tries to save them as a specific similar imagery (plus I guess gaping hole wounds specifically mentioned (from being shot in the head/arm thrust through stomach respectively))

Specific memories of looking at a map together to plan their escape

Yuu/Benji is forced to keep running alone to the only way out (only bridge out of Acheson/only tunnel out of Sanguinem)

Cult is using human experiments to create humans with the seraph gene/martyrs to turn into Seraph

(S)eraphs aim to wipe out the rest of humanity

The name. Are you kidding me

Protagonist is the only fully successful experiment

Main character and childhood best friend are children of parents in cult

(In the end) main character and childhood best friend are both (S)eraph experiments

The way the Flood is killing Benji has similarities to Yuu in his incomplete seraph form

Dripping blood and black fluid (Yuu: from wings and left eye, right sclera filled with blood and left eye may have burst upon transforming, Benji: from wounds from Seraph decomposing him)

Spitting up black fluid

at a later incident, Yuu's seraph form is triggered by multiple organs rupturing. Benji's organs are liquefying inside him and coming up in chunks as part of the Seraph transformation

Theo's death after injecting himself with Dominion-12 focusing on his shot-through left eye looking like a black hole is similar to Yuu's left eye blacked out by anime gore censor circle in incomplete seraph form

Same type of post-apocalyptic setting: 

Plants beginning to cover over a wrecked city (only a few years after the virus broke out, so not super heavily overgrown yet)

Skyscrapers and concrete brutalist architecture specifically shown. Downtown core type of stuff

Graces || Horsemen of John

Created by Angels/Hyakuya Sect (result of Flood virus/called by 6th trumpet (seraph) of seraph experiments)

Beasts that kill humans, just to finish killing off the population

Can be called upon/created/controlled by (S)eraphs

Described as both horselike and spiderlike

Ribs protruding out of chest, fangs, mouths in unusual places, and I think wings (not sure about Graces on that one) are common traits

Picture of a Horseman included in author's tweet about ons

ALC || JIDA

Wear all black

Surviving humans outside of New Nazareth/Sanginem

Fight against Angels/vampires

Rescue Benji/Yuu after they escape New Nazareth/Sanguinem

Secretly aim to use Benji/Yuu's (S)eraph abilities for their own gain

The Watch || Shinoa Squad

ALC/JIDA Moon Demon Company front lines squad

Comprised of teenagers

Protagonist joins them after escaping New Nazareth/Sanguinem to fight back against the Angels/vampires

Cormack is debatably based on Kimizuki (red/pink hair, asshole personality, rare bits of kindness show through exterior (when Cormack prioritizes giving Benji his jacket to block smoke while ALC is on fire, but not nearly as nice of a guy under it all as Kimizuki)

Aisha is like… maybe bastardized Mitsuba if you just take her emotional outburst parts, but I might be reaching on that

Nick || Guren 

Leader of ALC & the Watch/Moon Demon Company (strongest section of front-line soldiers in JIDA)

Black hair & eyes (Guren's eyes are dark purple, but could be interpreted as stylized black)

Finds Benji/Yuu after their escape and brings them into their group

Nick is literally just Guren in personality if you age him down a few years and add autism and make him nicer under the exterior. Like even the way he talks and him being mentioned dramatically stomping his leg up on furniture during speeches 

Heading ALC/JIDA's intentions to use Benji/Yuu for their own gain

Dehumanizes protagonist yet also having a bit of affection towards them (more debatable for Guren, but he has some rare moments of being caring towards Yuu in a more older sibling/fatherly way)

Erin || Shinoa

Another leader within the ALC/JIDA (though Erin isn't a soldier/in the Watch)

Sympathetic towards Benji/Yuu, protests against Nick/Guren directly for how they treats them

Pastel pink/purple feminine aesthetic

Wears hair at least partly in braids

Benji & Theo's reunion in Reformation Faith Evangelical Church || Yuu & Mika's reunion on the battlefield in Shinjuku

Reunite at first major battle protagonist participates in, but not their first (iirc both only have one minor fight between joining ALC/JIDA squad and this one)

One approaches other from behind, other only realizes who they are a moment after turning around

On opposite sides as ALC/JIDA vs Angels/vampires

"[Name]? Is that you?"

Benji holds a knife to Theo's throat || Yuu stabs Mika through the chest

Theo/Mika went along to fight specifically to find Benji/Yuu

"Abandon everything and run away with me" || "I came here to follow you. I couldn't let the city take you alone. If it wants you, it has to take me too."

Theo/Mika wants to separate Benji/Yuu from the ALC/JIDA (but Mika has good reason, while Theo wants Benji to come back to the cult)

Forced to separate again at end of fight

Picture of Yuu stabbing Mika from this scene is also on ons tweet from author

In general, first half follows the escape from Sanguinem/New Nazareth leaving behind a dying family member who tried to escape with the protagonist but died to let them get away -> get found by JIDA/The Watch upon escape and rescued by Guren/Nick with the intention of using Yuu/Benji as a weapon against those he escaped from due to his nature as a human experiment -> join JIDA/The Watch, meet other members and the leader Guren/Nick -> do some missions with them -> reunite with previous friend-slash-love interest they had left behind (Mika/Theo) at first major battle as soldiers for opposing sides and are forced to part again progression, which isn't super unique but still very specific, and given everything else... yeah

This is by far not the first time an English work has copied a Japanese work and was praised for originality, but "gay trans YA novel rips off mediocre gay vampire shounen" has to be conceptually the funniest and yet there still seem to be 0 google results about it

[horrorknife]

that dumbass post going around that says shit like “well sometimes its transphobic to hc a character as transmasc because theyre in a prison of masculinity :/“ “sometimes trans hcs just arent appropriate” “trans hcs should have thematic relevance” WHO GIVES A SHIT. WHO FUCKING CARES. you guys know we hardly get rep in the first place right? you guys know that headcanons arent fucking real right? why do you CARE so much about someone elses headcanon why does it matter. you don’t have to like it but saying shit like “ummmm actually it’s transphobic to—“ you are not smarter or better than anyone else. most people do this for fun and projection and comfort. it is not a big fucking deal. honestly very disheartening to see that it has as many notes as it does when you can simply look away and block people and mute tags and mind your own goddamn business. like please shut the fuck up. do your own thing with your own group and let others do theirs. is it so hard

[otterloreart]

Art Prompts: 

1-TV Headed Men

2-Moth Dolls

3-Planet Themed Mermaids

4-Milkshake Dragons

5-Ice Cream Themed Superheroes

6-More Magical Pony Art (I Love Them!!)

7-Ocean Themed Space Aliens

8- Sea Snakes (They’re awesome! Here’s a link to an article about them: https://blog.padi.com/sea-snake-facts/) 

9-Snakes With Prosthetic Arms

10-An Otter With A Cute Little Bow In Her Head

I got way inspired by the sea snake prompt apparently and spent way more time than I meant to on them! I included the whip snake (highly stylized) as an example of a "land snake" (opened up one of my herp books to a random page).

If they were toys like the other snake designs they would include stands to represent the fact theyre "swimming" whereas the land snakes would have slightly more flat bottoms so they can "stand". The sea kraits have round bodies with flatter tails while the seasnakes have vertically oval bodies.

These designs are not 100% accurate to real snakes, obvi, they're artistic reinterpretations of the snakes design. For ex: the whip snake has a stripe, but also has very distinct scales, so I made them diamonds. And the eyelash shapes are just for cuteness.

ok facts about sea snakes I want to add to clarify some things stated in that article (just adding my own knowledge/clarifying things (PLEASE do not take offense to this i am glad to read facts about snakes i just have brain worms when it comes to snakes))

put under cut because it was getting too long

"to keep things simple" isn't... right: theyre split into different categories because they're separate evolutionary lines! And there are a handful of other differences (although the article does go into those later, but ngl thats why i dont like lists organized this way). Anyways, it makes it sound like these categories are not relevant to the evolutionary history imo

I would have clarified that while they all do have paddle like tails, the kraits actually have bodies more similar to land snakes, whereas the true sea snakes have vertically elongated bodies to make swimming easier and are bad at being on land.

Okay so this is true mostly EXCEPT we built a huge canal through panama and there have been sightings of sea snakes on the "wrong" side of the panama canal, specifically yellow-bellied sea snakes which live on the pacific side. There are no breeding populations, but due to human intervention there's potential risk of them being introduced.

See this is why I was like the categories aren't for "simplicity", the sea kraits are separated from the other sea snakes because of their many differences: a major one being that they come on land to lay eggs! A number of snakes all over the world give birth (though yes, not in the ocean) to fully formed (not "nearly") babies!

I would just add that this is part of why they can't cross over to the Atlantic! here's a paper!

...all snakes are carnivores (hence, weird thing to say)? unless you count eating eggs as being "not a carnivore". in which case this would be untrue because the turtle-headed seasnakes (genus Emydocephalus) eat primarily fish eggs!

and this one isn't quite right because of turtle-headed seasnakes again! They have almost no teeth except tiny fangs and as far as I can find are either mildly venomous or nonvenomous. since they dont hunt their venom glands are vestigial.

Sea snakes and kraits are elapids, which include other highly venomous snakes like cobras, coral snakes, and all of the highly venomous Australian species!

While doing research on realistic snake plushies, sea snakes made by WildRepublic were one of the major clear attempts at a retailer trying to be scientifically accurate.

Kraits DO actually look like cartoon animals

and yeah the olive sea snake does really look like that:

(although the olive one has apparently been taken off their website?)

although the way they title and tag their products continues to piss me off to no end, like this is an EEL not a SNAKE, they're just out here spreading misinformation and confusing things.

they completely rebranded in like 1999 because their wildlife plushies took off so personally I think they have a responsibility now to scientific accuracy since they took on that mantle. but i digress.

[weirdmageddon]

OK OK SO!!

First off!!! Hello fellow davejade enjoyer i see you. Second off—what sort of things do you wish you could’ve seen with these two in canon :0. Could be expansion on canon scene, arc direction, or just a new scene entirely. for me personally I would’ve loved to see some genuine fighting collaboration going on. I felt VERY teased with all the magic combo’s in collide.

Third! I know they do a lot of music collaboration in canon, and I’ve seen some things with them making a band together post canon. What sort of sound do you think they’d have/what artist do you think they’d sound like?

Thank you :))

okay god theres so much i wish was expanded on in canon with regard to dave and jade

this post is swan dive into homestuck meta and took me over a day to write. so i would appreciate feedback or discussion on this if you'd like, reblogs appreciated!

despite this question being posed as davejade related, my answers here are actually relevant for anyone interested in homestuck meta as well.

it’s just recently come to my attention that there are a a handful of people on twitter who are vocal davejade dislikers. i didnt know it was actually disliked until i looked it up on twitter, i honestly thought it was a joke blown out of proportion but no they exist! it surprised me a lot to see people think they "lack chemistry". not only because knowing what i know about them thats a ridiculous insinuation, but also i haven't seen the vitriol on tumblr. probably because we can actually poast about it on here in an unabridged manner which thus enables better, deeper critical analysis and engagement with the media. i think also people forget that dave strider is canonically bisexual and are too yaoipilled + facing the consequences of the epilogues to even give davejade a serious look/analysis. (dave dates terezi and karkat in separate timelines, thinks jane is hot, thinks roxy is a babe but shoves it down when he discovers she’s his ectomom lmfao. davesprite—an extension of dave himself—dated jade! but i'm going to cover that in more depth in this post since theres a lot of misunderstandings about the nature of that relationship in fanon.)

(as a side note according to what some people have told me in inbox and what ive seen lol i think that ive been inadvertently been getting people into davejade. it's all in my davejade tag here in chronological order if you'd like to get a Whiff. be sure to read the tags on posts in there too!)

even though theres a lot in this post as it is, it doesn't cover everything ive talked about wrt davejade, and i think it would benefit readers to have complementary posts alongside this for the full picture with stuff it doesn't cover. there's a ton about why theyre cute and why i think they work well together in that tag.

here's some highlight analysis posts, but be sure to check the tag because there's a more in there:

post a / post b / post c / post d / post e / post f (← one of my favorite ask responses ive ever gotten)

i think a huge chunk of the issue has to do with how the narrative handles dave and jade. one of the most damning things to me is how glossed over their canon interactions were in act 5 despite them collaborating on one of the most important things in the story. i haven't talked about this yet but i'm going to do so here. because they’re put on the backburner by the focus of the narrative during act 5, people who don’t read carefully will miss the implications that are there all along in canon but easily passed over.

under the cut ive separated it into multiple parts

1. Jade’s Quest: What Frog Breeding Entails

this is an analysis examining apart exactly what jade and dave did while frog breeding. i wrote it while high which was extremely enlightening and it allowed me to comprehend it and hopefully explain it in an understandable way. i also discuss how shitty the lack of on-screen communication between jade and dave was for this part and the next.

2. Jade & Dave vs. Jack Noir

ive discussed this one before on my blog so it's not as dense (see davejade tag). but i still sewed the gifs together and discuss how unfortunate this was to be be delegated to a banner at the top of mspa and the neglect of that whole arc despite the outcomes of it being reissued by characters thousands of pages later

3. Davesprite and Grimbark Jade

i get into davesprite's head here and try to make his motivations about the breakup clear to the extent that i can infer because jesus fuck i love these characters way too much ive known them for a decade i understand their core personality structures and why they think what they do and what is most likely to happen when extrapolating? i also talk about how grimbark jade changed the way the fandom perceives their relationship, leaving davejade on a low note instead of a high note. and then hs epilogues had even worse consequences for davejade but i wont get into it because it was character assassination all around and doesnt deserve my time or yours. but if you wanna know what i think, here

4. The music question

where actually answer this ask like it's an ask and not an essay

1. Jade’s Quest: What Frog Breeding Entails

i wish we could have seen what collecting frogs entailed for the two of them. what exactly were they doing? jade’s quest is one of the most interesting.

before i start i want to take a tangent and say the frog breeding reminds me of back in 2020-2021 when i would breed hybrid flowers in animal crossing new horizons to get a very specific gene sequence for these flowers to not only use to breed for hybrids, but to get known gene sequences that i could use to “check” the genes of other flowers. the goal is to get two parent flowers whose sequences when bred would make a specific phenotype 100% of the time.

this sounds complicated but here’s what i did for the lilies:

(“rare island” refers to one of the first acnh patches that removed a nook miles island from the pool that had hybrid versions of your native flower of very specific phenotypes for each color. i wrote out the breeding chains to get parents that would always breed that exact flower found on the rare hybrid nmt island that is no longer available.)

the cleanup ALL TO GET the white 2-2-2 lily looked like this. and after i got white 2-2-2 lily it was smooth sailing

after all that i could use the orange 2-2-0 lilies and white 2-2-2 lilies made in the black lily process and get rare island orange 2-2-1 lilies 100% of the time. in mendelian genetics these numbers (2-2-1) are quite literally RR-YY-Ww.

RR-YY-ww (orange) x RR-YY-WW (white) = RR-YY-Ww (orange: heterozygous Ww gene)

and all that effort into getting white 2-2-2 lilies enables me to get it over and over again now. i don’t have to repeat that process to get rare island pink lilies. all i need to do for the pink 2-0-2 lilies is breed two default bag red lilies (2-0-1) together. 50% will be red (2-0-1) lilies, 25% will be black 2-0-0 lilies, and the last 25% will be pink (2-0-2) lilies.

anyway sorry back to the main point. FROG BREEDING. it just reminded me of it. now that i think of it the frog breeding process also reminds me a lot of artbreeder back from when AI was only a fun little toy 4-5 years ago

ok so have a look at what kanaya says about what jade must do. this is the coolest quest imo because of how it progresses and how long it actually is

here’s how it works. remember back in act 2, when the wayward vagabond needed to tie a longer cable to descend down the ship (and refused to give up the ones that made up his mayoral sash)? he used the appearifier in the ship to appearify the extra cable across the gap to his location? that’s how the appearifier normally works when when it’s locked to the present. it’s very straightforward.

when jade appearifies a frozen frog, it shows us this exact thing. she appearified the actual frog itself (the same way WV appearified the actual cable across the gap) to her exact location. it can get the frog out of the ice in the way WV could untrap serenity from the amber. if something’s destiny wouldn’t otherwise be changed, it will not be paradoxified, it will just simply itself be warped to that location, with precise carving if it is somehow trapped inside of something else.

if you could appearify it to your location right now, you wouldnt be able to take it out the appearifier’s crosshairs in person later to alter its destiny because the object won’t be there at that time. it wouldve been with you the entire time. unless you decide to take the appearified item back to that location so that you could appearify it in the past, but that’s the most pointless time loop ever and doesn’t change its destiny.

for this icicle frog jade and dave weren’t capable of changing its destiny anyway, because it was completely encased in ice, and just didn’t bother to go after it. partially because it was with jade at the appearifier the entire time anyway and she can’t exactly put it back in there in the future. the point is, besides jade appearifying it to her location, the frog had no other possible routes of destiny. in that part of lofaf where she appearified the frozen frog from, the ice is too deep to get anything out of it (other than appearifying it) and i’m not sure the forge would have melted it in time before their reckoning ended anyway.

the goal of jade and dave is to target frogs on the appearifier screen and trust that their future selves follow through in altering the frog’s destiny. if so, then the frog’s paradox slime will appear instead and its genes would be collected in addition to creating offspring between multiple paradox clone frog genes. then, dave and jade would necessarily have to go out adventuring and find the frog so that they end up following through for their past selves.

if i understand correctly, jade is creating all the frogs on her planet that grow up with manually modified genes. these frogs must be genetically altered from their parents so that the frogs she creates don’t grow up to become one of their parents (as they’d be identical). the mutant offspring frogs “generation A” she ectobiologizes will eventually mature from tadpoles to frogs, assisted by dave’s time travel. then she will eventually target “generation A” with the appearifier to get their paradox slime to fuse with some other frogs’ paradox slime and create new slightly altered frogs “generation B” (and then follow through on altering the “generation A” frogs’ destiny so their slime and genes can be paradoxified by jade and dave’s past selves). repeat until the genes are fine tuned for the genesis frog.

this is why i compared it to my breeding in animal crossing. getting the genesis frog reminds me of the blue rose paths. i worked with the garden council back in the day and i used backwardsN’s “cesspool” method, except i honestly gotta say my white 2-2-2 lily thing was much more involved and carefully maneuvered in a way that i imagine frog breeding is more like. backwardsN’s “genepool method” was basically making a red-orange-black rose primordial soup and waiting for a blue rose to emerge out of it, just increasing the chances seeing a blue rose sprout the next day after watering with each generation of offspring. you KNOW my ass was using time travel, even if i happened to get lucky and got a blue rose without even finishing the big turtle plot. without time travel, most players (95%) will get their first blue rose before these # of days. (open up advanced tag)

there must be so many daves running around to help her going back in time all within the span of a few hours while still having their own linear, older timelines that are much longer than the “time stage” they’re actually functioning in. this sounds complicated but it’s not. think of this “time stage” as analogous to the 3 days until the moon falls in majoras mask. it’s the “time window” all the time travel takes place within, but link doesn’t become a day younger when he travels to a day ago. the timeline of his “self” is older but is kept within the confines of the 3-day timeframe. similarly, in tears of the kingdom, two master swords exist simultaneously for most of history, but the one on the light dragon’s head (who was above the cloud barrier before the upheaval btw) is further ahead on its own linear timeline: it starts as the other, pre-gloomed master sword → broken by gloom → sent to the past to be repaired → renewed over time, existing at the same time on the “time stage” as its own pre-gloomed past self but ahead on its own linear timeline

now imagine this but within the “time stage” of just a few hours within the same 24-hour period. kanaya says frog breeding ordinarily takes weeks. multiple daves can exist simultaneously because they’re operating in the same few-hour-timeframe but one can linearly be days ahead of another. it’s the exact same thing as breeding flowers in animal crossing for irl days but to your game it’s whatever date you have it set to. your irl progress isn’t lost if you go back a few days in settings. i’d often find a week in june to use as a “time stage” to loop through when it would rain at least one hour on each day of that week which would save me the hassle of watering my flowers every day before time traveling to the next.

it must’ve sucked for dave to hear jade say the same things over and over again. the novelty probably wore off pretty fast lol…… dave says he saw his future self fighting and dying to jack and knew that’s what he’d eventually have to do as well. every single dave at all points of his linear timeline understood that and it probably settled something horrible into his heart.

im imagining during the original run dave was thinking to himself: “im bored but cant alter anything about this without creating a doomed timeline. if i dont see my future self hugging jade then i cant hug her even though i really fuckin want to. note to future self: hug jade. aww shit look at me go guess i remembered. hell fucking yes cant wait for that to be me in a few hours” and gives a thumbs up

future dave pov, hugging jade and watching his past self give him a thumbs up from afar thinking to himself: “ahaha i remember exactly what i was thinking there” and gives a thumbs up

but anyway. goddamn. JADE AND DAVE. what did hussie do to you.

this is a goddamn atrocity.. what the hell man. i wish we could have at LEAST seen the text file jade sent to kanaya. we got to see ConversationWithAVeryStupidGirl.Txt but not daveisafunnyguy.txt?

i mean i GUESS the humor is delivered through this

and like, yeah that is pretty funny? but i feel like the single laugh this gives me is nothing compared to the joy i wouldve gotten out of seeing what dave has to say about the cloning apparatus for ants here and talking himself into circles about frog procreation enough to make not just gigglehouse jade laugh, but kanaya too

we spent so much time learning about the mechanics of the punch designix and hardly anything about creating the seed of the actual new universe. we learn about it through kanaya and karkat messaging jade, instead of dave and jade working that out through SHENANIGANS. even though this is JADE AND DAVE'S session. it’s fine that kanaya is helping them, as she should, but we’ve seen parallel pesterlog conversations before so i dont get why we didn’t get that here! jade and dave frog breeding is one of the most important events in homestuck, and yet it was terribly glossed over. everything in the story, their futures, are predicated on their success. not just in their unwinnable session, but the one they split up for 3 years and escape to.

at first i thought, maybe their lack of shown interaction has to do with hussie working out the intricacies of pesterlog/dialogue thing? as he once stated on tumblr:

shoshaumbay asked: In the intermission of act 6, it says that they get to talk. Does this mean that their guardians couldn’t talk to them before and that is why they left them notes all around their houses?  The achievement badge only upgraded their ability to speak to each other as presented through the comic. I.e. it permitted them to speak to each other… WHILE WE WATCH! Do you think all the trolls were hanging out together, not talking at all? Or Dave and Jade were doing all that frog hunting without a single peep?? That’s ridiculous. On the other hand, abstraction weaves itself through the Homestuck reality, and it can be hard to pin down where abstraction is to be taken literally. The truth is, there is not much distinction between the layers of abstraction and the reality they are meant to stand for. John was both literally named on his 13th birthday, and not quite, because that’s silly. The guardians are both literally silent automatons, and not really, as there is indication through allusion they function as normal people too. And the kids went through a huge adventure, achieved immortal god status, and even then had to gain a few more levels just to gain the achievement of simple dialogue as a literal upgrade, as well as not literally, because that makes no sense. The reality is inseparable from the way the story is presented and the way the “game” is played. But those abstractions are also a facade for a more life-like reality beneath it as well.

then i realized, this is not only an arbitrary cop out that affects my enjoyment of the comic in retrospect because they wind up being able to talk later anyway and that makes me feel cheated in these moments, but also still actually awful within these parameters because hussie breaks his own rule here, proving he could have shown us dave and jade talking in person at any time regardless of needing the gift of gab achievement for us to watch them as readers. recall this is also the first time john and rose met in person (at least when rose wasn't asleep):

2. Jade & Dave vs. Jack Noir

this is where i take out my frustration over this being delegated to a banner at the top to the point where readers forgot it occurred.

(also i want yall to take a moment to acknowledge this ^)

i wish their time on lofaf frog breeding and fighting with jack was front and center and wasnt just in the banner at the top of the page. it makes it seem not as important when it completely was, considering that characters brought up what had happened in that scene multiple times.

it is significant because it is at that point that jack noir has killed all of the kids at least once. the only one left being jade who he refuses to kill due to bec’s loyalty

THIS IS WHAT THE REFRANCE (foreshadowing)

jack noir killed john on his quest bed which allowed him to ascend to god tier. then he killed john AGAIN but it wasn’t a heroic or just death so john was revived

jack killed grimdark rose. john smooched rose’s corpse, allowing her to take over on derse.

jack killed dave by redirecting jade’s bullets into dave’s body instead. jade smooched dave’s corpse, allowing him to take over on derse.

after jade shoots him through jack, he’s down for the count. she kisses him and he wakes up on derse; all he and rose have left of “themselves” in an existential sense are their dreamselves. they didnt know they were going to ascend to god tier delivering the tumor. they assumed they were just going to die like for real and not come back which is why dave went with rose since he didnt want her to die alone.

it was also an important point since her time spent with dave on lofaf is the first in-person contact jade has had with another living human since she was probably 4 years old with her grandpa.

for jack noir, we got [s] seer: desend and [S] ==> (3696) which were hella impactful. seeing jade and dave essentially go through the same thing but with an extended battle sequence honestly kinda warrants a flash in my mind. (the sad thing is that unite synchronization was originally written with those pages in mind (the track was originally called redshift) but of course malcolm brown couldnt have known what was going to happen unless hussie commissioned him for a specific track for a specific story beat, probably like whatever he did to coordinate cascade’s music with toby ahead of the 10/25/11 release of the flash and publication of volume 8 on bandcamp)

i think one of the worst parts is that entire conversations were referenced, but cut or never written.

this is a real forgotten homestuck fact: jade was completely freaking out after filling dave with bullets until karkat had talked her through it. very easily forgotten since even though it being referenced twice we never actually saw the conversation. (i overrode the black scratch background so it's easier to read)

wow thats so crazy i as a member of the audience dont in fact remember! would it have killed to write it my guy

and we find out thousands of pages later dave was thinking more about how it wouldve made jade feel to watch him die than knowing he was about to fucking die. if you even care btw

i wrote more about this here

3. Davesprite and Grimbark Jade

davesprite—an extension of dave himself—dates jade but breaks up because he feels inadequate at being the dave that he thinks jade deserves. NOT because they fought or anything. they were still on good terms. davesprite just felt inherently unlovable. john seemed more upset about the breakup frankly.

what davesprite did was because he thought it was in jade's best interest. there is nothing to suggest it was a fight / clash break up. they still seemed to be on good terms, davesprite asking where she went and all. jade says the breakup “is complicated” and “hes going through a lot of stuff”. given the context i think it's reasonable to assume that davesprite's thought process was: “we're coming up to the new session soon and youre going to meet up with dave again and i dont want to make shit awkward with you dating knockoff dave. you deserve to be with real dave instead so im gonna cut what we have going here in advance and distance myself from your life”

jade probably protested about saying how he's just as real as “real dave”, but davesprite made his decision already. im sure it wasnt easy for davesprite to break up either. with emotions running high (sadness, not anger) he probably just left to be alone and distance himself from jade, and seems to harbor guilt about it as we see in the log. that's probably why he wasn't at john's movie party. this is just speculation on my part but it doesnt seem in character for the breakup to be explosive because jade seemed more understanding than john. sad, but understanding.

i feel like a lot of people forget this. grimbark jade made it seem like davesprite did it to hurt her, or for this to mean that dave and jade are not actually good for each other, which is a wild mischaracterization of what happened but the one that stuck with the fandom nonetheless.

not only that, but davesprite's existence tragic and he's understandably depressed. after spending about a year in sburb (accounting for time travel) without john or jade, only to go back and give up your personhood to advance the alpha timeline and become forgotten is fucking crushing, and i think the breakup is also about davesprite coming to terms with that trauma, being okay with his existence as a sprite instead of being a bootleg stand-in for the dave that jade knew.

basically what vintagegamebro says,

it was such a tragic way for them to part for 3 years with no communication, and it was only proceeded by more tragedy because jade then had no one but davesprite to turn to, and davesprite needed anything but romance at that point

grimbark jade isn’t a good reflection of jade’s actual self. she pushed the mayor into lava for fucks sake which normal jade would never dream of doing, grimbark jade is straight up unhinged. i’m sure jade was hurt because all breakups hurt, but it was blown out of proportion (see how calm she was above a few days after the breakup?) because of Evilness. but also as @vintagegamebro mentioned it also felt somewhat … “off”? or out of left field? especially seeing what the nature of the breakup was from both sides in the above screenshots.

when dave says “theres no way i would have done that to you” i genuinely believe him. i have no reason not to believe him. look at him above asking for questions and clarification. thinking about how what davesprite did, a version of himself beyond his control and how it reflects on himself, i think it's obvious dave cares a lot about how jade feels about him

even after this confrontation in the game over timeline, dave laid down his fucking life to defend her corpse from the becs in he hope she could be revived by jane

and to think that after all this he still chose to save her, like always, probably knowing he had little to no chance, just because he cares for her, her life and who she is beyond this moment, really meant a lot for them. i really, really was mad that this would be the last time they would truly ever be together in a way that to me mattered

4. The music question

i wrote this post regarding instruments with this song in the back of my head if its anything. takes about 12 seconds to start after you press play for some reason

this too, closer to the “style”. i like imagining dave going apeshit on drums

[puckpocketed]

my friend u seem 2 know about new caps guard dog dewy

i am eager to love him but i know little bc he was out west and no one reports on 4th liners...

can you tell me of the brandon duhaime vibes??

im low low lowwww key about following mn because im insane about them in a way that concerns me + there are better people to ask but um. time to go mask-off i suppose <3

take my hand link. he may be a 4th liner but he is the peoples princess on here LMAO. his tag on tumblr is an incredible treasure trove of memes and content and thirst traps so i'd say go and mess around in there if ur really interested, u will NOT run out of content. linking some relevant posts below <3

he is one half of a matched set (with connor dewar, now a leaf!) and they were torn apart at last szn's trade deadline <- for the rpf girlies this is your narrative!

speaking from outside of all that i think they're Peak red string because they aint superstars or nothing, they're just some guys. which made them more vulnerable to being traded away to different teams - boybestfriendship just doesn't hit the same if there's no tragedy for flavour . seasoning.,

and, u know, i think he's a pretty compelling guy on his own. i think hes a very hard worker and hes always putting his whole ass on the line for his teammates, and they all know it, and MAN i think he'd really fit in with the whole (gestures homoerotically) thing the caps got goin on!

he fights. he does NAWT win them. but he sure does try!!!! <3

on that topic. i think about simmyfrobby's webweave at the time of his trade semi-regularly. my... complicated feelings about guys who fight in this league have this guy at the nucleus and its 50% because of this post LMAO

if u remember the prank war with flower, hes the guy that got his tires stolen

hes uh. very popular so i suppose i should tread carefully here but honestly.... i want very badly to see how caps fans love him on his own. im always so interested in how these guys do when separated from the guy theyre paired with. i hope everyone likes him :( <3

[doyouremem8erme]

Heyy this is @agalychnisspranneusroseus I saw your tags on that storyboard of the sashanne divorce swordfight and YES it's striking how Sasha doesn't attack ONCE. At least during those first shots, iirc she did swing her sword once or twice later but that fight as a whole is Anne attacking and Sasha always on the defense trying to stop her without hurting her. See how she grabs both her swords with one hand and uses the other to grab Anne, keeping the weapons away from her face. WHICH REMINDS ME -> Anne has always been much more brutal with Sasha than Sasha's been with her in their swordfights. Like in both cases it's understandable lmao but I still can't stop thinking about how Anne left Sasha with a very noticeable scar on her face and Sasha deliberately kept her swords away from her face as to not hurt her. Because she loves her. Because she doesn't want to scar her 😭 Anne is trying to actually kill her out of pure rage and she's just thinking about how to stop her without hurting her.

honestly tho theres such a difference between their two swordfights bc in reunion anne is really on the defensive almost the whole time

sasha makes the first move and anne only raises her sword to protect sprig

like especially in the first parts of it sure shes pissed off as hell at sasha but shes mostly like. hold on are we seriously doing this gladiator style.

like look at her face when grime annouces the trial by combat. she doesnt want to fight her!

and meanwhile sasha is the one who makes the first move and runs at her and anne is like oh SHIT i gotta not get stabbed to death that isnt supposed happen to anyone until next season finale!

like you can tell just from their stances here. anne is just trying to defend herself and the frogs but sasha has been living this toad life for months now and has gotten wayyy into the warlord teen lifestyle. even tho shes super pissed in some of these scenes every time sasha tries to land an actual hit shes super shocked and betrayed looking.

this is her bestie who she was so excited to reunite with! how did things go so wrong?

but sasha being so so willing to resort to violence against anne and the plantars is too much for anne and shes like ok fine. were doing this. and she pushes sasha back and disarms her but scars her in doing so.

i wouldnt say anne is more brutal overall in this fight because like. sasha was the one trying to kill her frog family and actively trying to win this literal battle with literal swords this whole time! and sasha almost won but anne stood up to her at that last moment.

honestly they shouldve both been hurt in this fight but a disney show isnt gonna show cuts and scars unless theyre plot relevant. matt braly had to FIGHT for darcy to get the cut on its face in all in and made the blood green as a compromise. i see it as more symbolic than anything i guess? like any of those other moves couldve left scars--annes aiming for sashas weapons anyways and slashes her face at the same time bc of the angle--and it serves as a reminder of who sasha is now and what happened between them.

true colors though. true colors is where things are different.

anne has finally given up on sasha being her friend. she gave her a second chance and she still betrayed her. just like last time shes been put in a situation of sashas making where the only way out seems to be violence. theres something to be said abt what happens when you put these kids in a war environment and give them swords and then tell them to work out their feelings. the soldiers surround you and you both have sharp deadly weapons...what choice do you have? every sign is pointing towards doing what you need to survive.

and so sasha tries to talk things out and anne just wont hear any of it. the toad army is already on their way! sasha betrayed her sasha is causing all of this she cannot let sasha get in her way

and for once! sasha is actually in the RIGHT! before sasha was doing some really terrible things and anne absolutely needed to stand up to her. but sasha wants to talk things out peacefully so they can work together to take down the king! she loves anne but also she doesnt NEED violence to win this. at least she SHOULDNT. she wants anne to be on her side! on the RIGHT side! she doesnt need her swords to do that!

but anne is in a place where she will not listen to anything sasha has to say because what reason does she have to trust her? shes proven time and again that shes a ruthlessly manipulative backstabber and will use that to get what she wants. shes put this entire kingdom at risk--full of newts she met and befriended and her own friends and allies in the castle--and she needs to be stopped at any cost.

man i dont even know where to finish all this with partly bc i cant fully get into anne and sashas heads there and also because i cant get true colors to load to get screenshots lol. its just such a moment from that episode that often gets overlooked for the calamity powers and stab scenes during the battle in the castle but... yeah i believe the storyboard artist actually confirmed that anne was intended to be actively going for sashas vitals there like damn

[wizisbored]

Hi Wiz :)

I wanted to know more about the netherworld in your netherborne au, like, what's the hierarchy there? Are there people in power? How about laws, rules and customs

I understand that it's not the focus of the story, but I just wonder about this kind of stuff. Especially in stories I really like, such as yours

<3

yesss i love talking about my worldbuilding lets goo. ive got shit to say im putting headings in this bitch

general (lack of) structure

so the netherworld in netherborne is what i think is called anarcho-capitalist. theres no government, no official positions of power, and no official laws, but there are very much unofficial ones. demons stick to a strict ettiquete because even demons dont want to piss off demons, and playing nice with each other is the only way to keep their society running. i kinda explain the basics of it in chapter 4 when beeltejuice and lydia are talking about why he cant take the tags out of lydias ears:

“Looks like a pain,” Beetlejuice admits. “Not my call, though.” “How is it not your call? I thought that was how this whole slavery thing worked.” “There’s certain standards, kid.” “From what authority?” “‘S just how it is.” Lydia grumbles, folding her arms. “Sick of this demon etiquette shit,” she spits. “Yeah, well, it’s etiquette or getting ripped to shreds by stronger demons. This whole place is only held together by us pretending to respect each other. Y’ don’t think I’d tell all those shitheads I hang out with that they’re shitheads if I could get away with it?” “You should. I’d love to see you get your head torn off.” “As much as I’d love that too, it’d probably come with a side of lost connections. And I hate to break it to ya, kid, but I need to stay in business to feed you. Speaking of-”

the thing to note here is that this system is fragile. the respect demons show each other is often an act, and sometimes a very thin one. they are constantly on the verge of that facade breaking.

debts

the most important aspect of the demonic social contract is debt. nothing is done for free, every favour must be repaid, and any slights must be compensated for. beetlejuice pays the guy who gave him the name of a doctor for lydia and refuses to let the maitlands take her out for a walk for free, because then he'd owe them. its agreed that ogrien owes beetlejuice for messing up lydias vaccinations and also somewhat for overvaluing her at the start. when takta punches her the argument is essentially wether lydia biting was the initial slight and the punch was repayment, or if the punch was the initial slight and takta now owes beetlejuice. that whole social group is formed of business connections who are in a constant state of owing and repaying each other, so their get togethers are partially just to ease the tension there a little. kind of a display of trust.

identifiers

demons have three identifiers: name, signature, pattern. names are mostly important for deals and contracts, signatures are symbols used for signing contracts and for brabds, and patterns are for recognisability. the three may or may not relate to each other, for example beetlejuice's signiture is a beetle which relates to the pronounciation of his name, and appero's signature is a small segment of his damask pattern, but in both cases only 2 of the 3 identifiers relate to one another.

territory

most if not all demons' houses are completely isolated. this is because theyre territorial as fuck. and because of that theres a lot of money in netherworld real estate because youre pretty much in control of the territories. i dont have that much to say about this but it will be relevant later so i thought id mention it.

currency

money in the netherworld is assorted defunt living-world currency. its original value doesnt matter, just its physical properties. in coins, bronze or copper are one, silver is five, and gold is ten. for anything else id need to go and actually research some defunct currencies so thats all ive got on that for now.

wealth and power

the most physically powerful demons are often also the wealthiest, but there are also a few cases of weaker demons gaining influence through wealth. money is power and the rich are on top. shocking, i know. as a general rule wealthy demons are far from humble and tend to flaunt their money and power via the entertainment industry with big bets, gambles, and sponsorships (again this will be relevant later)

entertainment

speaking of the entertainment industry, its a big one. the two main aspects ive put thought into are racing and bullfighting, with bullfighting being the main one since it has some story significance whereas racing is more flavour. its pretty much just horse racing, except the 'horses' are predatory beasts and so it involves the occasional mauling of the breathers generally used as jockeys. bullfighting is more significant because its something charles was forced to partake in before he met emily. its more or less jusy fighting with the only weapons being along the lines of brass knuckles, and theres very few rules or regulations. various forms of magical doping are fairly common. 'bull' here is a gender-neutral term, in fact lydia herself is technically a bullcalf being the daughter of a retired bull.

ghosts

demons may be the dominant species here, but the netherworld is still the human afterlife. plenty of ghosts around. most newlydeads will find themselves talking to demons who make their money processing - basically doing their best to steer clueless new ghosts towards the services of other demons who will pay a comission, and offer loans. the number one rule of being a ghost in this netherworld is to not piss off any demons, because demons have a habit of being quick to banish any ghost that annoys them enough back to the living world. hence, the majority of ghosts that are still around have either bought into the system or hide their distaste of it.

what happens to the ghost of a living slave after death is dependant on their slavers opinion of them. best case scenario, they might be offered a paid job. worst case, theyre banished the moment they manifest.

breathers

non-netherborne humans are enslaved by demons via decieving them into signing contracts that trap them into servitude. those contracts then act as proof of ownership, and are almost always written to include the ability to transfer them to another demon so that they can be bought and sold. netherborne have no contracts and at birth belong to the birthing parent's slaver, with that slaver paying dues to the other parent's slaver, if their identity is known. when appero found out emily was pregnant he explicitly told her not to tell him to the father was, which is a pretty common way of dodging those dues.

there are also three identifiers for slaves, which are sort of an extention of demons' territorialness. brands, nametags, and ear tags, the latter of which are netherborne exclusive. brands are the signature of the demon who first trapped them, or for netherborne the demon they were born under. theyre done via magic rather than branding iorns, through skin to skin contact with a demons hand. theres no standard for placement, though the hand or arm are fairly common as a handshake after signing the contract is often taken advantage of. mediums are also given an additional brand of an eye symbol.

nametags' exact appearances vary but are always some kind of band bearing the name of the persons current slaver. for non-netherborne they are partially another expression of demons' territorialness and partially an easier item to reference than contracts, but for netherborne they are the only proof of current ownership. an untagged netherborne is technically fair game, but owners will generally still be pissed about theft. nametags also indicate a slave's status. pets wear them around the neck, personal assistants/servants or favourites wear them around the wrist, and the rest wear them around the ankle.

netherborne tags are essentially a pedigree, another expression of territorialness as well as indicating that the slave is netherborne and there's no contract. the actual piercing is above the lobe, through the cartilidge of the ear, with a thick stud that has to be cut off if its ever removed. a cord is attatched to either side of the stud to make a loop, which is what the tag hangs on. the left tag shows the birthing parents brand, and the right the other parent. if either parent was a medium the eye symbol will be put on the back of the tag. im yet to figure out the system for if either parent was netherborne themselves (second generation netherborne are uncommon but not unheard of).

one thing about live humans in the netherworld that im unsure if i have a way of including is religion. obviously most living-world religions did not predict the demonic void, so pretty much all of them have a netherworld sect

[evorathesylvurr]

Hm. Perhaps i should make a tag specific for Elpis (my limbus self insert) so that if i get followers they can filter out my cringe.

If anyone is interested in them:

This is them ^_^ their name is Elpis and they’re based off of Pandora’s box since i tend to go for names that start with E for my self inserts (E and S names, for Evora and Sora lol)

Their whole deal is that they had a class (its either a class or an orphanage, haven’t decided) where they spent most of their time w/ the vices in the box until the Bad Things Happened (tm) and Elpis is the only one left :(

They love faust. they are very sweet together and it is very autistic.

They're very much nonbinary and use they/them but they’re often referred to as a girl/by feminine terms (for an example in a oneshot i wrote of them, they are called "faust's girl").

Elpis is a character outside of the fact that theyre a self insert/self ship oc!! Their whole thing is flower language and that’s the a big thing in the way they express their (platonic!!) feelings towards the other sinners.

One of the little flower language things they do is at the end of a sinner’s canto is give them a flower that has a meaning relevant to them… i have a small list and reasons on my Elpis google doc but i dont have that available atm because mobile tumblr is weird lol.

Their little icon is meant to be both a flower and a butterfly! I didn’t want to just go with butterflies since butterflies mean hope BUT butterflies are already kinda taken by *checks notes* ryoshu’s icon, and every single ardor moth and other butterfly/moth themed abnormality.

Also the skirt is very much not super efficient in battle but hey. It works for them. and also they refuse to get rid of it.

Their primary weapon is an olive branch type thing with a lantern at the end. Like the SINGLE most stereotypical staff lantern thing. it also has a branch that they weave medicinal herbs onto :3

The lantern has easy break glass panes, though there is no door. The way the lantern works is they have to reset the Greek fire like substance (half a copout on what it actually is composed, half because Greek fire is interesting, and also half because she's from greek mythology), relight the candle carefully, and then put the panes back in. Her Big Attack(tm) lore wise is them smacking the enemy with their staff and the lantern shatters onto the enemy. I guess combat wise it would be a one time use inflict bleed & burn. like

[on hit] inflict x burn, inflict y bleed (can only occur once an encounter)

They still do damage just no burn/bleed :3 this is for balance purposes (and gameplay/lore integration because DAMN the PMVerse is great at that shit keep it UP /pos)

However because theyre really easily startled if you approach them from behind and they don’t see you, they have a really nasty habit of “swing first, ask questions later”. It’s to the point on the Elpis google doc i literally have a table of how many times they’ve set a sinner on fire by accident (as well as how many on purpose). It’s a source of comedy until it’s Not.

[voidzphere]

🧡🧡🧡Hello!!!! i was a big fan of yours for a while now! Over time Ive grown to be concerned by the amount of stories i hear from…No pressure to read or respond, but i did want to open a door to hear from you about this as i’m concerned. I’ve been told i should be careful about interacting with you (i already have been interacting for a while now) but i’m honoring that concern until i (maybe-?) get an answer or just, confirmation that it’s safe

(Again no pressure!!)

A lot of circles talking about how much harassment they’ve (or people they know or witnessed) received from either you or your friends…

Especially in regards to hit lists that floated in the past? Talk of doxxing? Rumors being spread? Gossiping to people? Callouts on people who don’t associate with the things they are being called out on?

I hope it’s not true i would like to think you’re as chill and easygoing as you portray most times. A lot of people including myself look up to you this kind of…sucks to hear /gen/not accusatory /is there a tag for that lol🧡

I’ve interacted with you freely until recently and now i’m hearing stories that are indicative of you being unsafe and i hope that’s untrue

I’m genuinely so appalled by a lot of these stories and it confuses me because these are people i love and trust a lot and several separate people have had the exact same stories to tell

(These are people who are also disgusted by problematic content on a personal level, in case that’s relevant, i am very careful to not interact with dangerous people or toxicity)🧡🧡🧡🧡(ig either way allegations of doxxing and harassment would be bad but it’s especially heartbreaking to hear from people who’ve done nothing wrong)

I haven’t seen those posts myself but have grown to be concerned. The people who have talked to me about these things are really down to earth people kind people and i couldn’t imagine them being accused of things or threatened?

I could understand if they were creeps but…I wouldn’t expect to hear that from them.

Was wondering if you could offer some insight on this. If not that’s alright as it’s your life and this is an anon ask🧡🧡

I’m just growing to be increasingly concerned and kind of appalled by how much stress and upset is surrounding your user name behind the scenes, Id like to think it’s a misunderstanding or something!

Either way, take care of yourself and have a nice day or night voidz!! ^_^🧡 /all love

-greenery anon

first off dont call me "voidz" thatz not my name

second, itz really funny to me how these said people are sayin that im spreadin rumorz n shit when they are also question mark ? if theyre talkin shit abt me that countz as gossipping and spreadin rumorz

the "hit list" thing is ancient as fuck and i havent even thought about it since then. either way, it wasnt even me who did any of that. there are multiple postz explaining that, if you bothered looking ‼️‼️

and like ive said a million timez before, i am strictly anti-harassment and will never tolerate any of that. if anyone doez i suggest they leave my page.

if i see one more person bring up any of this shit on my page im literally blocking you like im not kidding

srry if i sound passive aggressive or upset thatz cuz this was such a long time ago n im so sick of hearin this !!