#that's why she's not part of the sins

[primordialchoice]

When I see her being referred to as a spirit, I personally don't take it literally. The way I envision the word 'spirit' to mean is similar to the act of breathing life into someone. She is definitely an entity wearing a meat flesh that oozes a type of influence. The Lilith 'spirit' is the one that protests against something. It's quarrelsome and argumentative. She is the counterargument to everything that exists.

She's both the critical voice that scolds you for fucking something up, and also the enabler (known as tempter/seductress) that cheers for you to give in to your impulses. Her influence is the reason why people shun her away. She's a disruption of peace, but also momentary pleasure. That's why addictions exist & also why she's the gateway to them. Her influence will turn your world upside down, and she's got the cure (the sins) to sooth you.

Feeling poor? She's got Greed on speed dial! How about a chat with Mammon?

[dykedvonte]

Honestly a sorry from Curly would mean nothing to Anya.

I’m not saying she wouldn’t want to hear it, it’s a hollow vindication. She told him and he couldn’t hear her. He saw it and he couldn’t understand it. They both experienced it and he should apologize that it took that for him to get it. She already knows he’s sorry but what’s the point if neither of them can do anything about it? It’s earnest but at the same time what she wants an apology for is what Curlu can’t apologize for.

He can’t be sorry for what happened to her even if he is. Even if he carries that guilt with him until the day he dies it’s not all his to bare. The most heinous parts aren’t his weight even if he tries to balance it. A part of her bitterness is the fact he can’t be sorry for it all. She can’t just direct it all towards him even if she wants to. She was failed in so many ways by all of them. It hurts with him the most cause he had the power but they all did nothing in the grand scheme of things.

The one person who should apologize would never and could never, it’s not something you can be sorry for. She wants an apology, she needs one but what would it fix?

[aetalk]

[abyssal-author-and-artist]

i reblogged ONE mabifica post and now half my dash is them.

the other half is dipcifica lol

[good-beanswrites]

LCSYS ask again(undercover asker here hiiiiiaufhghghgn)thank you for responding!!!! ilovfe seeing your ideas theyre such good fuel in between trials❤️❤️

i was wondering how th prisoners would react to es’ usage of violence, like some of the younger prisoners complaining about it while the older are concerned because Hello Where did that stem from???? you cant tell me es’ “phew, i feel so much better” after hitting shidou didn’t send his mind racing a million miles per minute

ALSO curious about YONAH………… similar to how red’s violence towards es was scripted, was kotoko’s monologue about es being imperfect Also scripted, or was it on her own? yonah is probably my favourite voice drama of all time and I’m curious about how it would be interpreted in this au 🫶

Ah hello again! Thank you so much for reaching out -- every time I think I've covered everything you guys hit me with a new insane detail that makes my brain go brrrrr >:3

Because OMG I spent so much time thinking of the faked violence, I don't know why I never put as much attention on the flipside! I love the idea of Jackalope assuring them, "there will be no physical punishments. We'll talk about restraints but that's all fake. We'll make up injuries between trials but that's all fake. You don't have to worry about any real pain." And then this 15yo strolls up, interrogation one, ready to smack someone😅😅😅

Seriously though, I think it would come as a pretty big surprise to the group. They knew it was a possibility, but didn't think Es was that likely to attack, since they've made a few comments about being against violent punishments. Haruka comes back to mention the slap, and Yuno follows their instructions and says she also suffered violence, and the group is Shocked. I think it would just kill Fuuta that he wasn't allowed to hit back and avenge the others. He probably has the most complaints about the situation (and is insanely relieved that he get by in his own interrogation.) In a feeble attempt to get back at Es and make them feel bad, he encourages Muu to cry and make a big show about being afraid of them. Muu is frightened enough that it doesn't take much persuasion... I think Kotoko and unfortunately Amane wouldn't mind the threat, they both have lives in which authority showing power isn't out of place (and maybe Haruka?). Mahiru, too, thinks it's just the way a prison guard can run their prison if they want, though she's determined her charm will keep things running pleasantly.

Kazui reaches out asap* to question the legality of the experiment, since they're allowing children to get hit, even if by other children. There's a tangle of signatures and consent from everyone involved so it's okay, but the whole thing still rubs him the wrong way. He knew the experiment was a bit shady, but he(Though, this does make his first vd kind of funny -- instead of actually talking through his theories on the prison, now it feels like he's just egging Es on to see if they'll actually hit him...)

And I really like that idea that Shidou's dad instincts kick in (or maybe it's doctor instincts)! He'd understand if it was a child trying to play the role of an intimidating adult, but the way Es is doing things, the things they're saying, it all points to something deeper going on in Es' head. I can see him sitting down with the others and Jackalope to discuss. Of course Milgram gives him very little to work with, but this still kickstarts everyone's efforts to make sure Es is also taken care of post-Milgram.

*I just realized I'm still a bit fuzzy on communication during the trials. Jackalope can definitely get information to the prisoners (most commonly the 'voices' they're supposed to be hearing based on Es' notes, but also in case of emergency changes or things). I was picturing the prisoners unable to communicate outward until the trial ends, as it builds up the feeling of isolation and imprisonment. The issue is, I feel like Jackalope would want to keep that line open in case the prisoners had questions/issues with the experiment that affected their acting. So idk if the prisoners voice these concerns about Es mid-trial or they're forced to wait. I'll get back to you on that, hm

And Yonah!!

I wasn't avoiding spoilers, I actively looked for snippets here and there, but it was this ask that finally motivated me to sit down and watch it through -- and I'm SO GLAD I DID 👀 It's really well-written and wonderfully acted!! I'm floored with the whole thing omg

I really like the idea that the Milgram team instructed Kotoko to mention Es' imperfection to rattle them a bit, but left the specifics to her. Jackalope thought she'd just make some quick comment, and does a double take when he listens in on the interrogation and realizes she has a lot to say on Es and the way Milgram is run.

Jacklope told her to be harsh with Es, and she thought that was no problem at all. She felt those opinions strongly and wasn't going to go easy on the criticism just because they were a kid. She goes into the interrogation ready to stay completely put-together... and then surprises everyone and herself when Es' distress moves her to pull them into a tight hug and tell them everything's going to be alright ;---;

[cowboy-robooty]

not going to name names bc thats messed up but omfg i was tryna find records of old heta fandom shit to show inu right and i found a hetalia iceberg and I SAW MY 2019 OPP ON THERE. IT WAS SO FUCKING FUNNY LIKE MY EYES BULGED OUT OF MY SKULL BECAUSE IM NOT EVEN JOKING I HATED THIS BITCH SO MUCH WHEN I WAS 14 AND NGL I STILL HATE HER. I DIDNT SAY NOTHING AND KEPT CURTIOUS AND NORMAL OBVIOUSLY BUT ON THE INSIDE I WANTED HER ASS DEAD EVERYDAY AND WELL... you all know im never in the loop with things and had no fucking clue that she was just the antichrist for an entire group of people lol. SHE WAS MY ANTICHRIST THO. I HATED HER AND SHE HATED ME OKAY AND IM LIKE RODF SEEING HOW SHES ON THE FUCKING HETALIA ICEBERG I WAS LIKE OMG.... I THOUGHT ONLY I FUCKING DESPISED HER

[itstimewehavesomesoliddick]

Of course when there's a 50/50 chance of hitting either Trump or Musk nobody wants to take a shot anymore, for such an armed country you guys suck

[undefeatablesin]

Dealing with the tail end of another artblock by brainstorming feral Good Hunter Aloysha looks. Because she was not already feral enough for me I guess lmao ✨️

[fictionalcreator]

You know you have a special kind of tragic character when one of the least devastating backstory reveals is the fact that he killed his own dad

[tevatron]

i'm so glad i won't be working with my pi after this month. i think i've reached my limit. i just can't deal with her anymore

[honey-olive]

A moment of silence for all of those Kiane fans who expected to see kiane’s kids after this draft from the grudge of Edinburg

My pain is too deep and my disappointment is unmeasurable

[theinfernalcalypso]

I'm a dog that would be better off put down

I bark too loud

When I lash out I don't just bite, I maul

I yank at my leash

But at the same time

I just want someone to look at me

And call me a good dog

[ourladyoftheflytrap]

Thinking about the gay Mormon kid I met in middle school and how all the other Mormons were convinced he was gay-faking and actually straight

[turtlemagnum]

when i was younger and hung out around my uncle a lot more than i do now, i remember whenever he referred to things regarding his native heritage, he always just called it "indian". called himself an indian, called the words he taught us indian, so on. since i was a little kid who didn't know any better, i didn't know that "indian" in the context of indigenous americans was a very broad, frankly bastardized term to paint a vast variety of cultures spanning two whole damn continents with one brush. it only occurred to me as i got much older than i was at the time that there'd be more than one "indian" language, and up until now since i had no idea what tribe(s) he even is i couldn't even begin to know where to look unless i found a download of every goddamn interlingual dictionary available and painstakingly checked every godddamn one for what their word for "thunder" is

the word he taught us meant thunder was hiloha. i didn't even know how to spell it until now, because he only ever said it aloud. literally just a few minutes ago, i decided to ask my grandma (his sister) if we knew what tribe(s) he belonged to. and apparently he's a mix of choctaw and makah. which gave me a lead, which led to me finding a dictionary on libgen, which led to me word searching "thunder" in the choctaw to english dictionary. it's the only word i remember him teaching us, and i'm unsure if he ever tried teaching us others. but it was his dogs name, and he was a damn good boy, so i remembered it clear as day. though, they normally shortened it to "hilo".

so, i guess what came out of this is that i now know a bit more about my uncle's heritage, and where to look for more research. so, if you're gonna have a takeaway from this, i'd appreciate it if you remembered the word "hiloha". it means thunder. and aside from being the name of a very good boy who deserves to be remembered, i think it's even more important to remember the histories, cultures, and of course the languages of all the indigenous folks who came before us and did their damndest to preserve their cultures in spite of it all.

[widevibratobitch]

uh ohhhhhh getting all in my head again aha

[randomnameless]

That is racist of Dheginsea. Othering the children who aren’t responsible for their parents choices and demonizing them so they have no place to go, and so those children end up with resentment to the Laguz for the way they’re othered and treat. Not to mention it wouldn’t stop Laguz from willingly being with a Beorc despite the consequences, which further leads to both sides hating the other. Of course the narrative of how both sides wrote history to say they alone are descended from the Zunanma rather than admit both are closely related sub species itself furthers the othering as well, as it means there’s no reason to view the other species as deserving to exist when they’re the Goddess chosen people.

I think Dheginsea at least meant well, but he never truly considered the idea that his actions to preserve his species at the cost of a new species(as that’s what the Branded are) caused the same problems he feared for an even smaller minority.

No pbs anon!

That's why I really really really hate the Tellius situation, it's a "divide by 0" equation where no matter what, some people will be screwed at the end.

And that's the issue!

Of course protecting a minority from being persecuted is an obvious step on a path to protect everyone - but it's the ultimate railroad dilemna where you have to choose who is going to be rolled over.

Sadly I've tried to find the chapter from which the Misaha quotes were ripped off on SF but it's not from the endgame?

It's those lines :

"Misaha: All of the apostles have borne this brand. It is our greatest secret. The senators must never know. Because of this brand, I thought that I had been born of some great sin. It plagued me always. Guilt tore at me every day as I hid my mark from my people, deceiving them constantly about my true nature. Lehran: Oh, child...how can I apologize to you? Misaha: And yet, now that I’ve met you, I understand. There is no shame in my heritage. None at all. I will not live in hiding. I will reveal to the world that I am one of the Branded. They must see there is no shame in who I am."

Misaha thinks she was born from a "great" sin because of her brand, most likely hearing the stories of Deghinsea about brandeds being "parentless" children and "sins against the goddess".

But why is Lehran apologising here?

Is he apologising because he participated in that lie, or more twisted- Lehran apologises because if Misaha has a brand and cannot pass as a beorc in Begnion, it's because of "him" for not being a beorc? Is Lehran actually apologising for being born a laguz?? For befriending Altina and getting their first kid?

Granted, when Lehran has his breakdown because of chaotic energies before making the decision to erase both Laguz and Beorcs, it goes like this :

Dheginsea: “You, who have lost your birthright?”

Misaha: “And yet, now that I’ve met you, I understand. There is no shame in my heritage. None at all.”

Ashera: “In deference to you, I will place my faith in your kind one last time.”

Altina: “You… are the gentlest soul of them all, my sweet Lehran…”

Lehran: “Why? Why did I lose my power? Why? Why was my tribe stolen? Why, why, why?”

More than 800 years later, Lehran is still "not over with" losing his powers. Lehran who is kind and gentle, but who wants to help - loses his birthright, he cannot fulfill his promise to Ashera anymore - thus cannot help - his descendant is proud to be, well, his descendant - but he cannot help/save her (as if he had the possibility anyways!) because he lost his powers - and Deghinsea who inadvertently (I think Deg had no malicious intent here) reminds him that he is powerless...

Imo, it encapsulates everything - there is nothing wrong about Laguz and Beorc accepting each other, but why the fuck Laguz lose their powers? ?

As for the lie in itself and crossbreeding...

What do you mean by "weren't taught properly"?

That's precisely the point of that lie, the truth, if taught to the world, would be unearable for both Laguz and, to a lesser extent, Beorcs. Like, telling the truth to Laguz? "Don't fuck Beorcs or you will end up losing your abilities forever" ? But for Beorcs it's just "you're free to fuck Laguz, you'll create another being with superpowers and cripple the laguz that way!"

(also, I think it is most likely taught around, there's the joke UST between Elincia and Tibarn, and Bastian cockblocks Tibarn because they remember this tale?)

Yes, each side think they are the ones who descend from the Zunama - instead of learning the truth of how they "both" descend from the Zunama, but if both sides try to return to, idk, Zunama roots and the original "we were both one" myth, well, one side loses all of its powers, while the other get away scot-free.

So, are they that "closely related" as sub-species as they are supposed to be, in one species "dies" when it breeds with the other? We know they are, as they both descend from the same "ancestor/species", but the result of the two breeding says the inverse.

Of course the lie wouldn't stop Laguz and Beorcs who like each other a lot to live together and get kids, but the Branded's sheer existence, regardless of Deghinsea's words and edicts, is something of an anathema to Laguz, as we see with Vika and Miccy's base convo :

Micaiah: You always run away from me… Did I do something to offend you? Vika: No, I’m so sorry. I can’t explain why this happens. I get so jumpy around you. There’s just… something about you. Micaiah: Oh… Vika: Oh, but please don’t be sad! It’s not you. It’s me. I get… confused… sometimes. I really admire you, and then I get a bizarre feeling, and… Micaiah: It’s all right. Sorry to bother you. Vika: …No. Wait. Micaiah: Hm? Vika: I want to overcome this. I don’t like that I feel I must avoid you for some inexplicable reason.

Why Laguz, in general, feel Branded are people "they must avoid"?

Is it because to Laguz, even subconsciously, a branded's existence means one of them "died"? Or in a more metaphysical sense, because Brandeds herald the end of the Laguz race (because if more brandeds are born, it means more laguz "die" ?)

Misaha didn't only want to end injustices and racism against the Branded, she wanted to stop racism in Begnion against Laguz (thus by proxy, against Brandeds).

In conclusion, Deginshea's lie created discriminations against Brandeds, but I think it's more nuanced than a general "to protect one race he put another under the bus".

When Soren goes :

Hate… That I could understand. This was denial. They made me feel like I wasn’t supposed to exist at all. That my simply being alive was an affront to the world.

It's painful to read, because no one should ever think they shouldn't have been born, or their mere existence is "an affront to the world".

Tibarn puts it this way, talking about "an old song" :

It is said that the goddesses forbid laguz and beorc to procreate. If a couple breaks the taboo, the punishment is dealt to the laguz parent. She or he loses the power of the laguz and becomes something that does not belong to either species.

Deghinsea created the "taboo" and the decree, but he wasn't the one who created the "punishment".

Heck, the punishment is the reason why the "taboo" was created, to reduce the number of "punished" people, but also, and maybe, to find a reason why those "punishments" are given?

The sitation becomes unbearable : we have people who are shunned hated and at times even killed for "existing", and we have people who "die"/lose their abilities/are "punished" automatically when the first people mentionned start to exist (iirc Almedha lost her powers when she became pregnant).

For what it's worth, per Nasir, both Beorcs and Laguz came to accept the concept of Deginshea's decree :

Nasir: Even so, the taboo was broken several times over the next few decades. Usually no child was conceived, but when there was, it was swiftly covered up. The parents soon learned what it meant to bear a child who possessed both laguz and beorc blood. After they learned of the consequences, none of these parents ever rejected the edict forbidding it.

Of course comes the obvious question of did anyone even thought about asking a Branded their opinion on that decree ? Miccy is part of that conversation too, and reacts when "honor killings" of brandeds are mentionned.

But afaik, we don't have Miccy's pov about that edict - after this conversation - and the game sure as hell doesn't want her to talk to Lehran (all of his convos are reserved for Sanaki!) - whose fault is it that Lehran lost his powers, thus direct line to the goddess, thus will to live? Hers because she was born (or her ancestor's)? His, for loving Altina? Whose fault is it that Brandeds are shunned? Deghinsea, who made that decree, or Laguz in general who can sense what they are and see through them the extinction of their race, or an unfair "punishment" from whoever ?

As always, with complicated questions, Ike is nowhere to be seen, but even without Ike, what would be the best solution?

Of course, stop persecuting and denying the existence of Brandeds would be a good start.

And then?

When Laguz and Beorcs will argue againt about something stupid, reject coexistence because, to Beorcs, Laguz are beings that "stop existing" as soon as they shag? And to Laguz, who will feel cosmically "cheated" because they are the only ones who receive "punishment" from miscegenation, to the point of thinking maybe Beorcs are really the superior race?

It's why Lehran's tale is so sad, he wanted coexistence but was punished for it by his very own world - why did he lose his powers?

What kind of solution can be found in a world that pushes for equality between races, but also reveals when they coexist, only one race is "punished"?

That's why I mentioned the divide by 0 equation -

The Tellius equation has no solutions.