#the actual reason is that i was originally going to name him blake. after the pokespe bw2 protagonist

[receding-tides]

🖋 jake !!

Jake decided on his name because his deadname began with J and before he had chosen a new one Rollo would just call him 'J' as a nickname instead. And he liked that so much he just put some extra letters at the end :]

(The powers that be stopped his name from remaining as Jay because I already have an OC from another fandom with that name)

[alphajocklover]

Possessed by the Power of Thor

**hey guys! This story was requestioned by someone in my dms who prefers to remain anonymous. I still wanna give them a shout out for helping me refine the story and challenging me to try something new. I’ve never done anything with macro or giant growth before so here goes nothing! Hope you like it!**

Ronald Blake loved superheros. He absolutely adored them. That might not seem so unique at first, after all most nerdy teenagers love superheros. Hell with the movies and the popularization of what was once considered fringe, geeky culture, most people loved superheros. A lot of jocks liked superheros. But Ron was absolutely obsessed. His bedroom was a shrine to his favorite heros, with posters and shelves of memorabilia covering the walls. His meticulously cared for comic book collection took up 3 closets, and was only allowed to be read with gloves. Ron would spend every day in his room, reading and rereading comics, dissecting how they worked and the tropes they used. Ron’s favorite superhero was Thor, the joy of almost sharing a name with his original secret identity (yes Thor had a secret identity once, as Ron will happily tell you) having sparked a lifelong love of the character. Normally none of this would be a problem. Sure Ron was fairly obsessive, but a lot of people got that way about their hobbies. The issue was that Ron used comics as a way to avoid life. Ron was, to put it crudely, fat and shy. The 19 year old had been overweight as long as he could remember, and though he had plenty of online friends, could barely talk to other people in person. He spent almost every day holed up in his room, losing himself in the fantasy of his comic books to try and forget how depressed he was.

That's what made the fact that Ronald was outside today so surprising. Usually the only time Ron left his room was to see his mom or to go to a convention. But today Ron was after something special. He had found someone selling a perfect replica of Thor's hammer, Mjolnir. There were plenty of people selling replicas like that, but this one was incredibly cheap, high quality, and even came with a base that it would be stuck to unless someone used special gloves to remove it. It was literally perfect and so cheap that Ron couldn’t resist. Normally he’d be more suspicious but the sellae had great reviews, and the pictures of the replica were many and detailed. Still he had insisted on seeing it in person before buying it. Ron had expected to open the door to find a fellow out of shape geek excited to show off his latest work and get some money. What he found instead surprised him. The man towered over Ron, and looked more like he belonged in a gym than talking to someone like Ron. He grinned confidently and greeted Ron with an incredibly firm, manly handshake.

“You’re Ron right? Ronald Black?” He asked with a charming grin

“Uh, B-blake actually. R-ronald Blake.” Ron said, shaking off his shock. The jock in front of him grinned wide before continuing.

“Like Donald Blake from the earlier comics. I guess it’s fate that you’re buying the replica. I’m Clark, Clark Keen.” Clark said with a charming grin as he hesitates for Ron to come in

“Like Clark Kent. That’s a c-coincidence. T-though you look more like Superman than I do like Thor…” Ron said with a slight self deprecating chuckle. Clark didn’t seem to notice

“Thanks man! I spend a lot of my free time working out. Muscle helps a lot when you're making things out of metal.” Clark said with a grin as he led Ron to his backyard “Now, there is something I have to tell you about this replica. The reason I’m selling it for so cheap. It’s… flawed.” Clark admitted. Ron’s heart sank to his chest. “I would have told you online but by the time I realized I hadn’t included the mistake in the seller info you were already here. See, the guy who engraved the writing on Thor's hammer made a typo. A big one.” Clark said. Clark opened the door, and revealed the hammer.

It was an incredible replica. Detailed, made of quality, lightweight, but realistic looking materials. Despite its intricacies it still looked just as intimidating and strong as it was supposed to in the comics. Ron could swear he even felt an aura of power coming off of it.

But the inscription was… off. It was supposed to say the phrase ‘Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor.’ There had been some small changes to it throughout the years, like making the he into a she when Jane Foster became Thor for a while, but that was the original words, the iconic ones that had lasted through the years.

That wasn’t what the hammer said

It read ‘Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall BE POSSESSED BY the power of Thor.’

Ron was devastated. He thought he had finally found an amazing cheap replica of his favorite comic book weapon, only for it to have a huge flaw. Sure it was a simple typo, but memorabilia like this was all about the details. It would be the first thing all of his online friends noticed. Clark could see the heartbreak on Ron’s face and tried to soften the blow

“I know it’s a bummer, but it’s still quality work. You’ve come all this way, why don’t you at least hold it. See how it feels in your hands.” Clark suggested. Ron was skeptical… but he might as well give it a try. Maybe he could ask how Clark made it. He seemed like a nice enough guy. Ron went over to the hammer with a strange sense of trepidation. As he wrapped a hand around the handle of the replica and lifted it up, he felt… strangely accomplished. He knew it wasn’t actually Mjolnir, that being able to lift it didn’t actually mean he was worthy of anything, but he allowed himself to lose himself in the fantasy and feel proud. That was until a horrible shock surged down his arm, causing Ron’s arm to seize up. He groaned in pain, and tried to drop the large hammer, but was unable to let go. What was happening? He felt like he was being electrocuted. He looked over to Clark in a panic, only to see a satisfied grin on his face. Ron began to panic.

“W-what did you do? What is this!?” Ron asked in fear. Clark calmly walked over to Ron, grabbed his hand, and led the disoriented man out to his backyard as he explained.

“See Ron, you may not know it but you’re a very lucky person. You live in a world without supervillains. Sure, you have your own issues, but you aren’t terrorized by city destroying monsters in shitty masks. Not every reality is so lucky.” Clark said cryptically, before continuing “There are worlds out there, other realities, that need heros. I find these world heros. Or, if there aren’t any to find… I make them.” Clark explained. Ron felt another shock wrack his entire body, like electricity in his veins. He was so consumed by his pain that he barely noticed as he began to grow, shooting up in height until he was an inhuman 10 feet tall. His shoulders widened to span more than 3 feet between them. Simultaneously, his fat melted away and the space it had occupied and more was soon taken up by enormous bulging muscles. They each grew to inhuman proportions: biceps alone like watermelons, pecs so large and jutting out so much they were in size similar to pillows…very hard pillows, abs so defined there are no words and legs long and wide enough with muscle to make all the muscular proportions fit, even look handsome. His jaw sharpened as his hair grew longer. He didn’t look like himself anymore or any human for that matter. He looked too tall, strong, handsome…like a god. Suddenly Ron understood.

“You’re… you’re turning me into Thor?!” He asked in shock. Ron had fantasized about being a superhero before, especially being Thor, but the actual prospect of being Thor was overwhelming. He couldn’t be a superhero! Before he could further panic, Clark interrupted

“While, not exactly. See the world you’re going too is one where people can grow to incredible size. You’re not just going to be Thor. You’re gonna be the biggest version of Thor ever.” Clark said with a smirk. Ron wanted to panic, but he felt strangely… confident? Almost cocky even. Suddenly Ron felt another shock as he shot up even higher, becoming even taller and more muscular. He continued like this for a while, growing in increasingly large spurts. First he shot up to 20 feet, then 50, then 200. By the end of the growth he was, well…

…600 feet tall, with muscles as big as mountains. Even with his massive height he had the proportions of a bodybuilder. No, of a god. That’s what he was after all. A fucking god. Somewhere in all the shocks and growth spurts Ronald Blake had been lost, and Thor Odinson, the giant cocky god, was born. This version of Thor seemed to have quite the ego on him, even more than his regular version. He ran a hand through his long, thick blond hair, a smirk on his handsome face. He chuckled as he saw the SHIELD helicarrier fly nearby. Midguardians were so puny it was almost pitiful. Still, he was a merciful god and loved playing the role of superhero. A familiar voice broke his train of thought as an equally gigantic version of Superman appeared behind him, a large grin on his face.

“So, you ready to save the world?” Superman asked. Thor held his giant hammer tightly, a confident, charming grin on his face. Fuck yeah he was.

[nyxshadowhawk]

The Red Book, Liber Primus: Part One

This is going to be a long series of posts in which I interpret Carl Jung's Red Book! Jung has been a cornerstone of my mystical practice for basically as long as I've been practicing, and a major inspiration for my creative work, so imagine my surprise when I learned that Jung had his own grimoire of mystical experiences! This is maybe the most important book I've ever read.

Introduction

I owe a lot to Carl Jung. I read one page about him in a book about symbols that I received when I was about twelve, and something just clicked. In particular, the idea of the Shadow Complex really stuck with me, and has absolutely defined the last decade of my life in terms of my personal spirituality, my approach to interpreting media, and my creative writing. It’s kind of hard to overstate the impact that Jung has had on me, but despite that, I haven’t actually read that much Jung. You all know how much I care about primary sources, so I was uncomfortable with the fact that I was using Jung’s ideas as the basis of my own work without being intimately familiar with his.

I’ve made some missteps. I originally really loved the idea of interpreting gods as archetypes, and claiming that all of humanity worshipped the same gods under different names. I saw that as a beautiful uniting feature of humankind. But the concept did not hold up under scrutiny, for a long list of reasons; the short version is that I was ignoring nuances that distinguished gods from each other, dismissing some of their defining qualities as cultural quirks, as if entire human cultures were “hats” that gods put on and not the thing that makes them what they are. I didn’t start having real relationships with gods until after I started viewing them as individuals, rather than archetypes. And then there’s Joseph Campbell, and his whole “Hero’s Journey” idea, which seemed extremely profound until I actually read The Hero with a Thousand Faces and realized how flawed the Hero’s Journey framework really is. (Spencer McDaniel has a great article about that over on her site, so I recommend you check that out.) So, that was all another strike against Jungian ideas. The third strike is that people like Jordan Peterson use his ideas a lot. That in particular has made me afraid that I’ve been misinterpreting Jung this whole time.

There’s also the fact that Jung’s ideas are difficult to understand and apply, and frequently misunderstood. Clinical psychology has mostly disregarded Jung’s ideas of the collective unconscious and archetypes as more mystical than empirical, despite Jung’s efforts to prove his ideas empirically. Fans of Jung will sometimes downplay his mystical leanings to try to lend more scientific credibility to his ideas. But to me, Jung’s mysticism is a feature, not a bug. Turns out, Jung was a mystic. Jung had mystical visions and prophetic dreams since he was a young child, and his entire brand of psychoanalysis was developed specifically to explain said mystical experiences (which honestly explains a lot). Not only was Jung a mystic, he was basically the William Blake of his day! He chronicled his mystical experiences in what is basically a personal grimoire, written in the style of an illuminated medieval manuscript, with stunning illustrations.

It’s called The Red Book, or Liber Novus, and it was published in 2009 (translated by Sonu Shamdasani). I got the really expensive version that’s about two feet tall and contains a facsimile of the actual illuminated manuscript. To call it an eye-opener would be an understatement. Reading it is infinitely more valuable to my spirituality and my writing than reading any of Jung’s psychological essays. The Red Book is the real source of most of Jung’s ideas and theories, and the purely mystical nature of them explains why the concepts themselves resonate much more for me than the psychoanalytic application of them does. Reading it is immensely validating, because it proves that I was right all along! Not only were my interpretations of Jung’s ideas spot-on, but my UPG aligns with his — though some of that alignment is undoubtedly a result of his influence on me, I’ve also come to many of the same conclusions entirely on my own.

I hope that the field of modern psychology will eventually do mysticism its due diligence using modern methodology, but until then, Jung’s attempt to ground all of this weirdness in psychology is the best we’ve got. I’m no psychoanalyst, so I’ll interpret Jung as a fellow mystic, because that is what I am most familiar with. I can compare his own experiences against my own, and hopefully get something valuable from my interpretation of them.

Disclaimer: These are mostly my notes and impressions; I’m not responding line-by-line (because that would take forever), I’m responding to what stood out to me. This is my interpretation of The Red Book based on my own mystical experiences and mystical knowledge, not based on Jung’s other writings. I’m using Jung’s name as shorthand for “the person writing this” or “the dreamer” — I don’t mean to suggest that what Jung expresses here is indicative of his personal spiritual beliefs. I know he had a complicated relationship with mysticism, science, and religion, so I won’t even touch that here. I’m going to be looking at this from a strictly mystical angle, and everything that follows is subjective.

The Way of What Is to Come

Jung began by introducing two spirits. One is “the spirit of this time,” a literal translation of zeitgeist (Jung’s manuscript is in German), which represents the conscious mind and conventional thought. It’s a reference to Goethe’s Faust: “What you the Spirit of the Ages call / Is nothing but the spirit of you all, / Wherein the Ages are reflected.” It’s called “the spirit of this time” because the times that we live in influence what and how we think, and form the foundation of our conscious faculties. I might define the Zeitgeist as the set of assumptions we make that defines our base-level interpretation of the world around us. So, when I complain about “latent Christianity,” I’m calling attention to the Zeitgeist. To put it in my own mystical terms, the Zeitgeist is the part of you that thinks like a human, instead of thinking like a god.

The opposite of the Zeitgeist is what Jung calls “the spirit of the depths,” which represents the unconscious mind. The Spirit of the Depths is both a personification of and Jung’s guide to the unconscious. It is something like a collective Shadow combined with a chthonic god, that encompasses all of the hidden and buried parts of humanity (or at least of Jung) that can be accessed through dreams and mystical visions. It operates independently from the Zeitgeist, and therefore can introduce Jung to secret information and concepts that fall outside of the Zeitgeist’s purview. A lot of what it tells Jung is harsh, but he understands that it’s necessary to listen to the Spirit of the Depths and internalize what it tells him.

Only a page in, and we’ve already got a mention of the Shadow concept. Since everything has a Shadow, God also has a Shadow. Jung defines God as “supreme meaning,” so God’s Shadow is lack of meaning — nonsense, void. The Spirit of the Depths tells Jung to notice the small things in life, which is pretty banal spiritual wisdom for most of us nowadays, but it’s very hard for Jung to accept. He writes, “It completely burnt up my innards since it was inglorious and unheroic. It was even ridiculous and revolting.” Everything has their own thing that they’re working through — I have to work through issues related to power and sexuality, and what Jung has to work through is issues relating to meaning vs. meaninglessness, greatness vs. mediocrity, sensibility/respectability vs. foolishness. The Zeitgeist of early-twentieth-century Germany insists that only great deeds, great men, and great ideas are the ones that matter. Jung was taught to think that things must be “glorious” and “heroic,” larger than life, for them to matter. The Zeitgeist encourages Jung to dismiss the little things as part of God’s shadow. The Spirit of the Depths informs him that the small things are still part of God and not God’s Shadow because they are not nonsense. The mundane is still divine, because it is not nonsense.

The Spirit of the Depths tells Jung, “all the last mysteries of becoming and passing away lie in you.” It’s a big deal to be one of the people of this time who can experience the Mystery the way the ancients did, or near enough. Actually, wait — Jung isn’t quite a person of this time. There’s a solid century between Jung and me, which is enough time for the Zeitgeist to have changed considerably, but not that much time. He’s essentially my immediate ancestor, the most recent entry in my mystical tradition. It is absolutely wild to be reading the Mystery filtered through a specific, named person who lived only a century ago, as opposed to ancient mystics of Antiquity who didn’t write everything down so I have to blindly guess at what they might have experienced or how they might have interpreted it. But there’s enough time in there that I keep wondering, am I in the time that is to come? Is Jung receiving this information so that I can be primed to receive it?

Jung says, “It is true, it is true, what I speak is the greatness and intoxication and ugliness of madness.” Yeeeeah! We’ll get back to divine madness, but I love that it’s being brought up this early. However, it’s a lot harder for Jung than it is for me to admit that these words or visions might come from a place of madness, because Jung is a person who really likes for things to make sense. On that note:

I must also speak the ridiculous. You coming men! You will recognize the supreme meaning [God] by the fact that he is laughter and worship, a bloody laughter and a bloody worship. A sacrificial blood binds the poles. Those who know this laugh and worship in the same breath.

Hmm, this doesn’t sound like any god I know at all… I love that phrase “a bloody laughter and a bloody worship.” That’s Dionysian worship in a nutshell, right there.

My speech is imperfect. Not because I want to shine with words, but out of the impossibility of finding those words. I speak in images. With nothing else can I express the words from the depths.

That checks. Mystical experiences often come as floods of insights and images, but few words, I think because words are literally processed differently by the brain (don’t quote me on that). Putting it into words literally requires a translation, and it can be very difficult to find the right words to do it justice or record every aspect of it. I’m also reading an English translation of Jung’s German, so that’s another degree of separation, but two degrees of separation is relatively little.

Jung has a vision of a sea of blood blanketing Europe, which is obviously a premonition of WWI. He also dreams that he returns to his homeland (Switzerland) from a “remote English land,” to find it covered in frost in summer; he makes wine from iced grapes, which he shares. The first part of this is a premonition — he was in Scotland when WWI broke out, and hurried home. As for the second part, “…I found my barren tree whose leaves the frost had transformed into a remedy. And I plucked the ripe fruit and gave it to you and I do not know what I poured out for you, what bitter-sweet intoxicating drink, which left on your tongues an aftertaste of blood.” Not sure exactly how to interpret this, but it’s a striking image, especially to a Dionysian like me.

Reassuringly, Jung insists that he is relaying his own experiences, not mine or anyone else’s:

It is no teaching and no instruction that I give you. On what basis should I presume to teach you? I give you news of the way of this man, but not of your own way. My path is not your path, therefore I cannot teach you. The way is within us, but not in Gods, nor in teachings, nor in laws, Within us is the way, the truth, and the life. Woe betide those who live by way of examples! Life is not with them. If you live according to an example, you thus live the life of that example, but who should live your own life if not yourself? So live yourselves. The signposts have fallen, unblazed trails lie before us. Do not be greedy to gobble up the fruits of foreign fields. Do you not know that you yourselves are the fertile acre which bears everything that avails you? Yet who today knows this? Who knows the way to the eternally fruitful climes of the soul? You seek the way through mere appearances, you study books and give ear to all kinds of opinion. What good is all that? There is only one way and that is your way. You seek the path? I warn you away from my own. It can also be the wrong way for you. May each go his own way.

Thank the gods for this! It’s too common for mystics to assume that their own personal revelations apply to everyone else, because mystical experiences really do make you feel like you have all the answers to life, the universe, and everything. Hearing straight from Jung himself that he is only speaking for himself, and that what he says here need not apply to me or anyone else, ironically makes his words more validating. Also, my biggest criticism of Jungian psychoanalysis is that it seems to apply the same symbols universally (the gender essentialism in the anima/animus concept comes to mind), so I assumed that Jung was extrapolating from his own mystical experiences. It seems as though he actually had the wisdom to admit that these symbols apply only to himself.

Refinding the Soul

Jung feels distanced from his soul, because surprise surprise, 20th century patriarchy is spiritually bankrupt. At the time he had the bloody-flood vision, Jung was forty years old and had accomplished everything that patriarchy says you should want in life — he had honor, power, wealth, knowledge, and happiness. He succeeded. He won the game of life. All he was left with was abject horror and the question of what to do with himself, a midlife crisis. (From a quotation in the footnotes, Jung defines the midlife crisis at the moment at which the Shadow first asserts itself: “A point exists at about the thirty-fifth year when things begin to change, it is the first moment of the shadow side of life, of going down to death.” Buddy, I’ve gotten way past that and I’m not even twenty-five!)

Jung thus came to the realization that he had dedicated his life to the wrong things:

I had to accept that what I had previously called my soul was not at all my soul, but a dead system. Hence I had to speak to my soul as to something far off, and unknown, which did not exist through me, but through whom I existed.

“A dead system” is a great way of putting it. It reminds me of the Fight-Club-esque dissatisfaction of having ticked all the boxes within the system and done everything you’re supposed to, and receiving absolutely no real fulfillment from it. (I bet Fight Club also owes a lot to this.) It also reminds me of my new favorite Terry Pratchett quote, from Small Gods, “People start off believing in the god and end up believing in the structure.” A structure by itself is completely hollow — what’s scaffolding for if it doesn’t support anything? I also like that second line. You exist through your soul, by means of your soul, and not the other way around… That suggests that it’s more real than you are.

Jung explains to the reader that if you seek external things – money, success, validation from other people — then you will not find your soul, and will enter midlife crisis. The soul is only found internally. So go inward, and do the work. Pretty self-explanatory at this point, but must have been earth-shattering back then because he spends a lot of time justifying it. It’s the Spirit of the Depths who tells Jung to look internally and reconnect with his soul:

Therefore the spirit of the depths forced me to speak to my soul, to call upon her as a living and self-existing being. I had to become aware that I had lost my soul.

I think it’s interesting that Jung uses feminine pronouns for his soul. That makes sense, since I use masculine pronouns for mine. I’m not sure how this relates to the anima/animus concept, whether it’s the same thing or a slightly different thing. It’s probably the same idea, because “anima” is the Latin word for “soul.” I checked, and Jung uses “seele” and not “anima,” possibly because he hadn’t developed the concept yet.

I interpret Astor as my Shadow and associate him with my repressed personality traits, but Jung would say that he was my animus, because I’m a woman and Astor is the man that exists in my mind. Jung conceived of the Shadow and anima/animus as separate figures — the repressed aspects of the personality and repressed femininity/masculinity, respectively — that need to be integrated separately. For me, they’re the same figure. The anima/animus is one of the concepts that I think hasn’t aged well, not because the concept is inherently bad (internal repressed qualities that one associates with the opposite sex) but because the way it’s presented and describes falls along strictly gender-essentialist lines. This is especially because the anima/animus is less personal and less “universal” than the Shadow, which inevitably means projecting Western gender norms (such as “women are more emotional and men are more logical,” which Jung expressed as Eros and Logos) onto everyone in the world and calling it an inherent psychological feature of humankind.

I think it’s is one of those concepts that was progressive for its time but regressive now with our more nuanced interpretation of gender. For example, the anima appears in men’s minds as a sex symbol, but the animus apparently does not appear as a similar sex symbol in women’s minds: In Man and His Symbols, Marie Louise von Franz says “…the animus does not so often appear in the form of an erotic fantasy or mood [as the anima does for men]; it is more apt to take the form of a hidden “sacred” conviction.” Yeah, that’s bullshit. I’m willing to bet anything that this interpretation is the result of women being sexual objects from men’s perspectives (as the “anima���) but denied any access to or expression of sexuality within their own minds. Women aren’t culturally allowed to desire men, so the animus is the unsexed voice of her father giving her very judgemental advice and rigid solutions, instead of a seductive incubus. That doesn’t check. Astor is basically a sexual fantasy with a mind of his own, and if Lestat, Rhysand, Edward Cullen, and Azhrarn exist, I’m clearly not the only woman who has a relationship with this specific archetypal lover.

Actually, I also have the “nightmare woman,” a separate entity from Astor that is a textbook example of what Jung would call a “negative anima”… if I were a man. Maybe having an opposite-sex Shadow and same-sex anima/animus is another sign of my gender identity being a bit screwy. Or maybe the reason why Jung’s soul is female is because his gender identity isn’t that straightforward, either. Either way, I think the anima/animus concept needs to be redefined to make it less cishet. It’s not universally applicable to say that your Shadow must be the same sex as you or that you have repressed femininity/masculinity. That was probably true back in the early twentieth century when anyone would repress any inclination towards cross-gender expression for fear of social disembowelment, but now? “Hey, turns out men/women have feminine/masculine traits, too” is not an archetype.

I digress. Back to The Red Book.

I came upon an interesting revelation while reading this section — if Jung’s soul is feminine and he has to “refind” her, then that’s why the hero of every fairy tale gets his princess at the end of the story. The princess is his soul, which he is given a right to by having completed the self-actualization process through the events of the story. The “half a kingdom” part of the Standard Hero Reward could represent control over part of the unconscious mind. I got a prince and half a kingdom from this process (maybe it’ll be a whole kingdom if I ever finish a version of the map that I’m happy with). It’ll quickly become apparent that this whole book chronicles Jung’s own Hero’s Journey. That means… in a manner of speaking… the the Hero’s Journey isn’t based on Jung’s ideas – Jung’s ideas are based on the Hero’s Journey. Because the Hero’s Journey is the ancient mystical process of self-actualization.

[Edit: I was getting ahead of myself here. Pretty much all of this will be addressed later when we get to Liber Secundus.

If we possess the image of a thing, we possess half the thing. The image of the world is half the world. He who possesses the world but not its image possesses only half the world, since his soul his poor and has nothing. The wealth of the soul exists in images. […] My friends, it is wise to nourish the soul, otherwise you will breed dragons and devils in your heart.

I interpret this as meaning that in order to “possess” the world in full, to have our princess and half-a-kingdom, you have to have both the internal and external aspects of it. To put it in alchemical terms, unite the fixed and volatile. (Unification of opposites is going to be a big theme throughout this book.) If you don’t “nourish the soul,” then it festers like a wound and you start projecting unaddressed Shadow aspects on the external world. (We’ll get back to that, too.) Without your Shadow or your unconscious mind, you’re half gone.

[inkyquince]

Hello I’m back I set a timer it has been 24 hours tell me about your listeners please

(Please don’t feel pressured get to this when you get to it I know your still settling in and junk)

RA Anon

I DID NEED A NAP AND A DR PEPPER AND A MOMENT.

But first of all, my favourite story line is forever Sam and Darlin'. Like everything with them and Quinn is so good, and them growing closer. Like fucker, let me suck them both silly that's so good. I do love the marcus storyline cuz something in me does think we shall meet him again and mans is just crying and grovelling, like he was in james' office. Also that storyline is just to juicy, with Anton, i know he has his own listener, but lemme kiss, and JamES- IMPERIUM JAMES ALSO BEING LIKE AN AWFUL PERSON WITH HYPNOTISM FUCKING AHHHH

Also the Vega storyline with Pet and Baby is great, imperium or not. The Cutie one is heart wrenching cuz like... I love Geordie but also there's also something obviously up with Cutie. Like WHAT THEY DOING ISNT NORMAL AT ALL, ESP IN THIS SOCIETY WHERE ITS AGAINST THE LAW, SO THERE IS SOMETHING WEIRD GOING ON WITH THEM.

Like the entire arc of David is so good too.... Nibble...

ANYWAY, THATS MY BEING AN IDIOT, MY LISTENERS are UNDER the Cut

Angel: Morgan, she/her

An actual trash goblin. Friendly, open, flirty and horny. Mixed, half Japanese and half Islander from Turks and Caicos in the Carribean. Some real daddy and mommy issues. Was sent alone to American to be with an aunt has had limited contact with her parents since. Instead of becoming a good child, she got a bit rebellious, cutting all of her hair off, getting piercings and a tattoo and being OPEN AND UPFRONT AND FLIRTY, hence David. She went from prepping to be a doctor for her parents, to picking the simpliest office job, because she didn't want work to be her life, even though she now enjoys it. She is now an Actuary in a consulting firm.

Baaabe: Dorian, he/him

Originally frmo Kuwait, his family changed their name to fit in. Quiet, somewhat stoic, but also has a subdued snarky and flirty streak. Likes to watch Asher dangle. He's a lawyer, and dear god let him REST. He's soft.

Baby: Theo, he/them

Theo is a genderfluid mess. Albino, sweet but has a rough side, especially after Ivan. I do miss Baby, AND NOT THE FLYBOI IVAN BABY, and somewhat wish for them to come back into the story, even if it's better for their mental health to be free again. Oh, yeah, they're from Baltimore.

Bestie: Wyatt, he/him

Blake's bestie? You better believe it. Wyatt has always been kind of a mess and sickly, so no wonder Blake's blood pressure is so fucking high. He's just tryna reconnect with his friend, mans doesn't know Blake is deep in the shit pool. He moved from Denver up to Dahlia as a kid.

Cutie: Azra, she/her

I DONT KNOW WHEN, BUT IN MY HEAD, CUTIE AND SWEETHEART ARE COUSINS. IT MAKES SENSE TO ME. TO ME. STEALTH AND MIND READER, THEY'RE COUSINS. So, yeah, Azra is Chinese, and a mess. Big ole mess. Traumatised and quiet and sad. Flings herself into relationships with a lot of intensity. She's from Shenzhen and her family moved to be with her cousin's in Dahlia.

Darling: Riley, he/him

THE MYTH, THE MAN, THE LEGEND, HERE HE IS. My favourite fucking Listener. Child of a messy divorce, father abusive. His mother left with her boyfriend turned husband to Dahlia to be with the Shaw wolfpack, and left him with his father and younger siblings. Was in and out of foster care, but CPS got in contact with his mother after his shoulder was shattered from physically fighting with his father. She took him and his siblings to Dahlia, where he struggled to fit in and was stand offish. Loyal but hates being included in the family of the Shaw pack. Isn't until the Sam story line does he try not to be as much as a fuck up. Scarred up, is trying to unlearn toxic behaviours. Very sexual, very snide, very rude and for some reason this cowboy decided to top him. Obviously, originally from Washington.

Deviant/ Freelancer: Inez, she/they

Another messy bitch. Hated Gavin VERY MUCH at first, before just kinda accepting him then it turned into fwb and then dating. In my heart, they were rivals to lovers. I do love her. Left her family to go to Dahlia and go to D.A.M.N. In a perfect world, the D.A.M.N crew are poly but yknow. She wanted to be friends with Kody, did find him intresting but yeah, would kick his teeth in now. Originally from Phoenix, Arizona, with a family that's orignally from Venezuala.

Love: Eli, it/its, he/him

Our puppet robot boy. Flat, but questioning. After the entire fiasco with Marcus, he's far more reserved and sad and distant with everyone, except maybe Anton and James. Wishes for their genitals to be removed, due to the event.

Lovey: Ajax/Matheo, he/him

THE FRESH NEW VAMPIRE ON THE BLOCK? YES, HE IS. His nickname is Ajax, from when he was in school and was apart of a small ancient history class and they studied the history of Troy, and they assigned each other a hero. He got Ajax, and almost always introduces himself as it. Flirty, questioning and smug. A photographer who just wanted to take some snaps of the abandoned amusement park, and now he's got fangs. His family has Dutch origins, but he's lived in Dahlia his entire life.

Starlight: Maeve, she/her

StARLIGHT AND AVIOR! Snarky, fun, and questioning about every little thing. She's way too interested in throwing herself into situations, just enough of a daredevil to be worrying. She's originally from Haiwaii, and lived in Honolulu. Forced to move at a young age due to their house being bought up and resold to be made into a touristy hotel.

Sunshine: August, he/him

I love Elliot and Sunshine. The picrew isn't that accurate, he has a grey streak in his hair and vitiligo. Likes that he has a weird ass dream hopper boyfriend and ngl... Would brawl bestie. Moved away from San Jose, and became childhood friends with Elliot, and they've been inseperable ever since.

Sweetheart: Kai, she/her

The OTHER HALF OF THE POWER COUPLE. She grew up in Singapore, but her family moved over to Dahlia when she was young. She joined the department ment and my god. Powerhouse. She is a menace. Loves horror, loves scaring people, is a bit weird, almost fey-like. Menace menace menace. Tries her best to look after Azra, but is worried about her. Aggro is her baby now.

THERE ARE A FEW OTHERS LISTENERS I HAVEN'T FULLY FINISHED, LIKE SMART ASS, BUT CAN YOU BLAME ME, I GOT SAM AND DAVID TO THINK ABOUT. PET IS FULLY DONE BUT I STILL GOTTA DO THE PICREW SO WILL REBLOG LATER WHEN THOSE LADS ARE DONE

[dragynkeep]

Twiins: "Respect ALL Asians!!!"

Also Twiins: "But not dark-skinned Asians!!!"

~

Twiins: "Stop erasing light-skinned Asians!!!"

Also Twiins: "Yang Xiao Long, Taiyang Xiao Long, and Sun Wukong are NOT Asians! Their skin is too light!"

~

*Blake is not Asian Coded. She was designed with European features and clothes, an English first name and an Italian last name, and was based on a French fairy tale - meanwhile her background was openly based on specifically the African-American background and civil rights, and they did it TERRIBLY but still, so arguably Blake is way more "black-coded" than anything else. Twiins is probably just going REALLY HARD on denying it so that she can continue to plug her ears about Adam after the tone-deaf white-ass stuff she said about him.

*Meanwhile, Sun was one of the darkest-skinned characters within the first three seasons, and his skin was only lightened later (which is racist) and his character allusion that he SHARES HIS NAME WITH is from one of the most famous works in Chinese literature, and his weapon is based on that exact Chinese character's weapon. He IS Chinese coded, it's just that Rooster Teeth are so racist that they didn't handle it respectfully from the start and then tried to retcon it out of him later. To a much lesser extent, Taiyang and Yang are also at the very least "Asian-Coded," because of their names and because one of Yang's character allusions is a character in Japanese Anime, WHO WAS HIMSELF BASED ON THE ORIGINAL SUN WUKONG FROM CHINESE LITERATURE. Admittedly, I do not consider Yang and Taiyang to be actual Asian representation in canon (though I too always attempt to respectfully portray them as Chinese and half-Chinese in redesigns of my own) BUT THEY'RE MUCH CLOSER THAN BLAKE IS!!!

*The only "Asian Coding" given to Blake is that she has an inaccurate katana and inaccurate pajamas. So why is it that people look at Adam's Katana and call it "cultural appropriation of Blake's culture" but then they point to Blake's katana as the ONLY PROOF that she's "part of that culture?" If having a katana is appropriation for Adam, it's appropriation for Blake, because THEY HAVE THE EXACT SAME FEATURES, CLOTHING DESIGN ELEMENTS, AND FAIRY TALE.

*One could presumably argue "But Blake's Parents are Asian!!!" And to that I say a) Blake's parents were kind of a retcon in the first place lol. b) Blake's parents also have an unfortunately high amount of European features in their designs (since they had to make them look like Blake) and the only thing that "codes" them as Asian are their clothes, names and house, so that's sus. c) Blake's parents are based on Indian-Asian culture, not Japanese, so if we're just going by aesthetics alone, they do not have the same culture as their daughter for some reason, and I'm counting that as both "Blake's CLEAR English/French/Italian design" AND as "The three or four instances in which she was drawn to hold or wear a vaguely Japanese item." AND FINALLY d) - racism CW for the rest of this paragraph - Ghira was based on the fictional character Bagheera, from the racist novel "Jungle Book," which appropriated South-Asian culture and was written by a white colonialist - not ONLY a white colonialist, but a pro-war, pro-invasion, pro-colonialism white man who was famous for writing the horrifically racist poem "White Man's Burden" in which he literally paints non-white cultures as subhuman devilish half-animals and laments how "sad" it is that White people "aren't shown any gratitude" for "rescuing" such "inferior" people from themselves. imo that fact makes Ghira's entire character more racist than if he'd just been white like his daughter, rather than "good rep," and the entire concept should be thrown away.

*If having a katana and Japanese-inspired clothing is the ONLY THING that it takes to call Blake "Asian-Coded," THEN RAVEN BRANWEN IS ALSO "ASIAN-CODED" (even though she also is given European features and names and her character allusion is partly from Welsh mythology and party from Norse) WHICH MEANS THAT YANG HAS TWO "ASIAN-CODED" PARENTS JUST LIKE BLAKE!!!

*I was under the impression that Twiins' original statement was something along the lines of "it's okay to re-design fictional characters to reflect a more diverse background, but the problem is that it's ONLY Blake who gets this treatment, when she's the ONLY Asian-Coded character among the main four." BUT NOW that people are informing her "Actually, two of the other four characters have MORE Asian-coding than Blake does, and they frequently have that background represented in redesigns," she's changing the discussion. The points she made were proven wrong: "Blake is the only Asian-coded character," "Blake is the only character who is drawn as non-white by fans." SO NOW she's trying to DISPROVE THAT YANG AND SUN WERE ASIAN-CODED (so that she can pretend she was correct in saying Blake was the only one) and she's IGNORING THAT YANG AND RUBY ARE DRAWN AS HALF-CHINESE IN REDESIGNS (so that she can pretend she was correct in saying Blake is the only one.)

*And yes, she is also COMPLETELY ignoring the numerous works of art which depict Blake as a dark-skinned Asian character or an otherwise non-white character.

Twiins seems to have this weird disconnect, where she does not understand that her experiences are not universal. She constantly just announces things that "EVERYBODY" "ALWAYS" "ONLY" does, with absolutely no regard or consideration for people who don't do that?? It's so weird. She did that with her Adam video, and now she's doing it about Blake, too. And then when she gets called out for being dead wrong, she gets so fucking fragile and defensive, and she DOUBLES DOWN ON BEING WRONG because she refuses to admit it's even an option - and thus ends up being super bigoted as a bonus. :/

It really sucks because I did like her before she started showing this side of herself. Funny how often the things she says go right in line with the words of people she condemns though lol like where's the self-reflection???

Thank you for putting it all out so I didn't have to do so, anon.

I personally think that even Yang is shit as Asian rep, and after the whitewashed Sun debate, we really are running low on actually good Asian characters in this show.

BUT, if Twiins is adamant that Blake is "Asian-coded" (which is a term I absolutely hate, it's like calling Weiss "European-coded", it sounds dumb as fuck), then Yang, Sun and Taiyang absolutely count as Asian-coded too, which just blows her whole argument out of the water.

If they are Asian too, then Blake isn't the only one having her skin darkened in redesigns, because Yang and Ruby has that done to them just as much. But Twiins can't accept being wrong, so she'll move the goalposts and scream at the fans who point that out.

The amount of cognitive dissonance in this whole thing is wild, because she holds herself as the Mighty Whitey protecting the poor Asians, but when actual Asian people tell her she's wrong and being racist, she'll immediately start being racist towards them. Make it make sense.

[thealmightyemprex]

Top 10 Favorite Westerns

I love westerns ,but I recognize not everyone is .So I wanna show off my favorites as recommendations for people getting into westerns

1.The Good the Bad and the Ugly (1966)

My second favorite movie .Three men after some treasure in a cemetary during the Civil War .Great music, great scenery and three great central performances by Clint Eastwood,Eli Wallach and Lee Van Cleef

2.True Grit (2010)

Ayoung girl sets out with a drunken one eyed marshal to capture the man who killed her father. Had to choose between the original and the remake ,both are great,but the remake is really the movie that made me love westerns and Jeff Bridges makes this movie

3.High Noon (1952)

A town marchal on his last day before his retirement learns an old foe is coming into town to kill him and for various reasons no one will come to help .THis is my favorite classic western ,while on the surface a simple good guy vs bad guy western ,its really about a man left behind by the people who claim to be his friends

4.Tombstone(1993)

A romatacised retelling of the true story of Wyatt Earp,his brothersVirgil and Morgan ,and friend Doc Holiday as they take on the criminals known as the Cowboys. THIS MOVIE IS COOL .Amazing cast (In cluding Val Kilmer in his best role) and extremely qoutable ,I highly reccomend this film

5.The Ox Bow Incident(1943)

A town goes hunting for three men with intent on hanging them. This is a film about the dangers of mob mentality .I reallly reccomend this if your inn the mood for a heavier western or one with a great ensamble cast (With Henry Fonda in a good hero role )

6.Silverado(1985)

Four men travel together to the town of Silverado ,which is being run by bad guys .This is the BEST "White hat vs Black Hat " western ,a fun romp about good guys taking on bad guys ,with great performances by Kevin Kline,Danny Glover,Linda Hunt,Kevin Costner ,John Cleese ,Brian Denehey ,Scott Glenn and Jeff Goldblum

7.The Magnificent Seven(1960)

A small village recruits seven gunfighters to take on a group of bandits .Based on Akira Kurosawas Seven Samurai ,this movie has a cool cast (Yul Brynner ,Steve McQueen ,Charles Bronson,Jame Coburn,etc ) ,a phenominal villain in the form of Eli Wallach ,and an interesting view on the idea of the heroic gunslinger

8.Dead Man (1995)

An accountant who shares the name of the poet William Blake ends up with a bullet in his chest ,being chased by bounty hunters ,and hanging out with a Native American named Nobody who is convinced he is a wandering spirit .This is a darkly funny and very odd film with a frankly bizarre cast (Lance Henriksen ,John Hurt,Alfred Molina ,Iggy Pop,Billy Bob Thornton ,Crispin Glover,Jared Harris , and Robert Mitchum just to name a few ) .The scene stealer of the film really is Gary Farmer as Nobody

9.Once Upon A Time In the West (1968)

.....Im kind of at a loss to how to describe this plot ,needless to say its an epic about a nameless harmonica playing gunslinger with revenge on the mind ,a recently married and recently widowed woman ,a framed bandit ,and usually heroic Henry Fonda as one hell of a slimey villain .

10.The Man Who Shot Liberty Vlance (1962)

I am actually not gonna describethe plot cause this one is great going in blind .Will say ya get western veterens James Stewert ,John Wayne ,Lee Marvin (As one hell of a villain ) and its directed by western legend John Ford

Any one got any favorite westerns,feel free to share them

@ariel-seagull-wings @metropolitan-mutant-of-ark @marquisedemasque @theancientvaleofsoulmaking @princesssarisa @amalthea9 @sunlit-music @filmcityworld1

[just-call-me-the-intrusive-thot]

Some Fun Teacher AU tibits me and my friends came up with on call:

First, I think I have solid surnames I wanna use so we have (btw you are free to go with your favourites if you write for this au! I’ll still love them!):

Mr. Roman Prince - Gym and Drama (mostly coaches basketball, runs fencing club)

Mx. Virgil Blake - Music (former English teacher, had to change subjects due to stress, uses he/they)

Mr. Patton Foster - Woodwork and Home Economics (prefers sewing to cooking but he’s trying)

Mr. Logan Baird - English (is originally from Scotland because fight me)

Mr. Janus Dolon - History and Modern Studies (will absolutely destroy you in a debate)

Mr. Remus Duke - Art (he and Roman’s parents divorced and he took his mother’s name, originally went to college to be a crime scene investigator)

Mr. Remy Moreno - IT (has probably been to jail for )

Prof. Emile Picani - Science (mostly Biology, helps out with the other sciences too)

And now for more info! Most of this was born of a joke about Logan having a tattoo ehe.. [tw: drinking mention!]

- One day, Roman lets it slip to his drama class that Logan has a tattoo from he and Virgil’s band days. The class go WILD with this information.

- They immediately go to Logan to ask to see it but he denies it; “who lied to you” “I don’t have tattoos, they’re unnecesary and unprofessional”, etc. Basically he deflects it entirely.

- The students start to think Roman’s joking with them. Until sports day.

- Logan gets picked for the teacher’s basketball game and Roman rigs it for him to be on team skins. He’s reluctant but Logan hauls off his shirt and on his back is a full colour unicorn tattoo. 

- Now the focus is on Virgil because they’re convinced he has to have one. Like he has lots of piercings and stuff so why not a tattoo?  - And Virgil tries to get Roman to call off the hoard of students asking about it, but Roman thinks its so funny, he doesn’t ever tell the students that Virgil’s actually super anxious about needles.

- The tattoo talk reaches Janus (who has a half face tattoo of scales that he uses to hide his skin condition) and Remus (who has whole sleeves of tattoos under the beat up leather jacket he usually wears), and Janus is happy to add, “Oh, didn’t you know? Mr Foster has a tattoo too” - No one believes him, until Remus backs him up, “I tattoo’d him myself in college!!” and NOW they’re convinced.

- So they ask Patton and he’s like “oh they’re just teasing you, I’m too nervous to get tattoos!” and the students assume Remus was joking with them. But then one day Patton’s changing out of his cardigan and he’s wearing a tank top.

- And on his left shoulder is a tiny tattoo of a rat. Just a simple line tattoo. This is how Patton finds out he got tattoo’d by Remus while they were both drunk after finals. Patton keeps it anyway because rats are lil squishy babies and he loves it secretly. - Remy has tattoos of constellations on his wrists that match his freckles, and Picani doesn’t have tattoos but he likes to draw on himself with sharpies when he’s anxious. - Principal Sanders comes to visit the music department often, usually talking to Virgil and checking in, but almost everyone knows he’s only there to sneakily find ways to talk to another music teacher, Mr Flores.

- Virgil has told Thomas just to suck it up and go speak to him, but Thomas just tells Virgil he should take his own advice and Virgil can’t really say anything in response.

- Eventually, the whole staff work together to get them on a date. Turns out Nico’s also really into Thomas too. 

- Joan and Remy get coffee every morning, they’ve tried to get Virgil to join them, but Virgil’s still bitter about the time Remy invited everyone to his sleepover in high school EXCEPT Virgil.

- The reason was super petty, Remy was mad Virgil beat him in the talent contest that year.

-----------

Thats what I have for now but yeah, I’m getting super into this AU!!

I FORGOT THE TAGLIST I’M SO SORRY @thankgodyoudonthaveamustache @give-it-up-for-the-purp-man @agender-in-a-van @mx-sugar-pink @jadespeedstar17 @amintyworld @queerly-fluid-fan @im-a-dragon-cawcaw @zaythesnek @thatguycalledvin @kawaiikiwi984 @baka-monarch @captainmylifeisfandoms @ice-flower-angel @just-some-spoopy-shit @the-goddess-of-annoying @did-he-just-hiss-at-me @koalas-in-coffee @december-rains @grayson-22 @khadij-al-kubra @itsadastraperaspera @sourshadowling @perfectly-practical @count-woe-laf @private-snippers @ewatsonia @nekai-aori @logan-pie @logan-nisa @yokemybaroque

[theradicalace]

💕 tell us about one of your favorite characters and why you like them!

i see you talk about those funny kids from fnf (talk about lotsa characters itll be fun im interested)

"lotsa characters" you say 👀? alright, you asked for it /lh

this is gonna be decently long, cause it'll be a mix of headcanons (in bold) and other nonsense

so let's start with my personal favorite: pico (my beloved)!

-this orange haired man has rotted my brain entirely.

-oh my GOD i just want him to be happy

-canonically schizophrenic which i actually didn't know until now

-he's totally at least partially latino and can speak spanish change my mind

-he/it pico lives in my head rent free

-he can actually sing really well but usually doesn't around people

-secretly a massive theater kid but shh don't tell anyone he has a reputation to uphold

-taller than blake (bf), the same height as nene, NOT taller than gabby (gf) and darnell

-didn't formally graduate high school for obvious reasons but he did get his GED

-IN A HAPPY POLYAM RELATIONSHIP WITH BLAKE AND GABBY SHH THIS ONE'S CANON IN MY HEART

-they encouraged him to go to therapy

-learned sign language for blake the first time they dated

-taught sign language to gabby

-i think he's genuinely a very responsible gun owner. i normally don't like people who open carry in public but for some reason it doesn't bother me as much this time

-he canonically would have majored in computer science if he went to college i hate that he was robbed of the opportunity

-he goes back to college after he starts dating blake and gabby, at their encouragement

-he graduates top of his class

-he picks up ukelele as a hobby while he's in college because i think it suits him

-canonically wants to be a dj

-successfully becomes a dj as a side gig after graduation

-I SO DESPERATELY WANT HIM TO BE HAPPY

alright this post is gonna literally only be about pico if i don't stop so let's move on

the little beep bop man himself, boyfriend! (i call him blake):

-canonically bi we love that for him

-i know that his name has pretty much been confirmed to literally just be boyfriend but i refuse, i cannot call him that

-for some reason i seem to be the only one who wasn't surprised to find out he was 19

-a lot of people seem to think he was like 15?? i don't see it

-his concept art originally had bright pink hair what a king

-half japanese

-i accept the "miku is his sister" bit as canon it's just cool and fun okay

-the blue hair runs in the family

-he's CONFIRMED to be autistic and adhd i just found out i thought that was just a headcanon of mine but it turn out that i'm right as i always should be

-frequently nonverbal, communicates a lot with sign language

-japanese is his first language

-he learned spanish for pico bc it's pico's first language and LOOK im a sucker for "person learns their partner's first language for them"

-trans (but everyone knew i headcanoned this right? how could i not)

-he's actually the one who broke up with pico the first time around bc fuck those boring ass "pico breaks up with bf to keep him safe/bc he thinks he's not good enough/doesn't deserve him/whatever" hcs and fics, those are boring

-breaking up with pico was hard on him, but he did it because he recognized that pico was not ready for a relationship emotionally with regards to his trauma and everything, and staying would only hurt them both

-he was right, but that didn't make it any easier

-is him being a college dropout canon? i dont remember if that was canon or not

-i think his parents are probably not bad people, but they're the kind of parents who let work come before their kid. they were there, but not really THERE. trying to win him over with gifts and stuff when he just wants to spend time with him

-but they turn themselves around when he gets older and they realize "oh shit we actually weren't there for most of our son's life"

-it doesn't fix everything, obviously, but they put a sincere effort in and adult blake has a much better relationship with his parents than he did when he was younger

-hm maybe i'm projecting my own desires a bit with that last one haha what i didn't say anything

anyway

girlfriend! (i call her gabby):

-once again, it seems like a bunch of people thought she was younger than she is and i don't get it

-lost her SHIT when she found out that blake and miku are siblings

-she's a huge miku fan

-she tried to learn sign language on her own, but really struggled with it until she started getting lessons from pico

-she once dyed her hair blue to match with blake

-most people assume she's the fashionista of the poly trio, but she literally just wears her mom's clothes, shes not the fashionista

-she's also not the "brains of the relationship" like many people seem to think. that's just weird creepy language that i reject.

-SHE'S NOT MANIPULATING BLAKE FUCK OFF

-blake was her first partner, and she knows so little about being human, so when things got... let's say intimate for tumblr's sake, between them she needed a lot of guidance on what was good, what was painful, what walked the fine line inbetween, etc

-i mean, you should having those conversations and communication with your partner about intimacy regardless but especially when they're a demon who's never dated a human

-even outside of the bedroom, blake has taught her a lot about being human, and really helped her grow as a person

-it's growth she COULD have done by herself, sure, but it's a lot easier and faster when someone's helping you through it

-SHE IS ALSO CONFIRMED AUTISTIC AND ADHD EVERYONE SAY THANK YOU PHANTOMARCADE

-her parents homeschooled her

SPEAKING of her parents

the dearests! (i don't have names for them lol):

-lumping them together because i really only have one thing for them and that's that

-they're really not bad people either. they love their daughter to bits, and if they had someone to guide and teach them the way blake did to gabby, they would absolutely come around. they honestly think they're doing what's best for her. obviously this doesn't make it RIGHT, but they do say the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

okay moving on

the spooky kids, skid and pump!:

-i'll be real i don't know much about them or their source material

-i just think they're cute

-they stay on good terms with blake and gabby after their appearance in week 2

anyway

senpai, our favorite slender bishonen ;) (i call him seth!):

-HE'S NOT DEAD FUCK YOU

-canonically an entirely different character from spirit, which is good, because idk fuck all abt spirit

-i want him out of that video game right now

-when i tell you this guy gives me such "gay and homophobic" vibes...

-he's also trans

-i accept "monika is his sister" as canon in my heart

and rounding off with...

tankman!:

-i dont know anything about tankman. literally zero.

-HOWEVER.

-he has this line of dialogue

-which implies that he either dyes his hair or at least used to, and has gotten hair dye in his eyes

-i love that for him

-also he's canonically asexual. king.

-like yeah the tweet that confirms it is a little bit mocking but confirmed representation is confirmed representation.

-okay i like tankdad a little bit

-i saw a really good tankdad fic with him apologizing to pico about the school shooting comment because that was genuinely fucked up

-look i just want pico to have a father figure of some sort because his actual (unnamed) father is implied to be a shitty dude who doesnt love him and

-dammit, i'm talking about pico again

-i went back like 6 times to add more stuff to the pico part of this post and now i can't even keep it contained to one section

[ordinaryschmuck]

Marvel Facts That You Probably Know, But Also Probably Don’t #2

Hey, are you a casual Marvel fan who gets most of their information about Marvel characters from movies and TV? Well, here are some facts about some classic characters that you probably know, but also probably don’t. Facts involving their history and a few odd stories you might not have heard of.

Today, we’re going to be talking about facts connected to the following characters/groups:

Hulk

Iron Man

Spider-Man

The Avengers

Thor

Ant-Man and the Wasp

Doctor Strange

And one quick fact about Cyclops

Here are the facts:

What's technically the first big Marvel crossover is when the Fantastic Four went up against the Hulk in issue #12 of their 1961 run.

The Hulk's first solo run in 1962 only lasted for six issues.

And you know Hulk's sidekick Rick Jones? HE formed a team of teenagers called the Teen Brigade, who send messages around the world. And it's them who inadvertently brought the Avengers together when calling for help against the Hulk...I'm not kidding.

Like Thor and Ant-Man, Iron Man made his debut in an anthology comic, with his stories often taking place in Tales of Suspense.

Iron Man didn't get captured by the Nine Rings. He got captured by a Wong-Chu, an evil Vietnamese general...it was a different time.

Tony Stark used to need to wear an entire iron chest plate to keep himself alive, rather than just a small arc reactor.

He then painted his MK I suit gold after his lady friend Marien suggested it.

And if you think his suit in Avengers: Infinity War was OP, wait until you see his MK I suit from 1963. It was basically Batman's utility belt as it just so happens to have a dozen tools and attachments that allow him to do anything. It's kind of cool but also insanely lazy.

Did you know Steven Strange wasn't the first Doctor Strange? Because he wasn't. There was actually another character called Dr. Strange, who actually came close to killing Iron Man if not for his daughter ruining things.

Spider-Man was initially a one-off character in Amazing Fantasy #15. It wasn't until many fans demanded more did Stan Lee and Steve Ditko give him his own series in 1963.

In the very first issue of The Amazing Spider-Man, Peter Parker is referred to as Peter Palmer.

J. Jonah Jameson published both The Daily Bugle and Now Magazine.

Odin explicitly states that Thor is his favorite son...what a dick.

If Thor lets go of his hammer for sixty seconds, he'll revert back to Donald Blake. But if he's in Asgard, which is beyond Earth's time, Thor can stay as Thor indefinitely.

Also, Thor doesn't like publicity and crowds of photographers. He was too scared people would see through his god-like physique and see him as Donald Blake.

Loki was a blonde once...that is all.

And alongside telling stories of Thor fighting the villain of the week, Journey Into Mystery would have Tales of Asgard, which basically had stories of adventures the Norse gods went before Thor's.

Hank Pym's Ant-Man used to be married to Maria Trovaya before meeting Janet Van Dyme...Maria was murdered by communists for betraying communism...it was a different time.

It was retconned that the main reason why Hank Pym became Ant-Man was because of Maria's death.

It was The Wasp who came up with the name for the Avengers...I bet she doesn't get enough credit for that.

Doctor Strange also started on an anthology comic, but it wasn't in his own like Iron Man, Thor, and Ant-Man. Instead, he shared a slot on Stange Tales alongside the Human Torch.

Unlike most superheroes, Doctor Strange's first story wasn't an origin. Fans didn't figure out how the good doctor came to be until his third appearance.

Doctor Strange also didn't start with his cloak of levitation. Shocking right? To find out that an iconic piece of a hero's costume didn't even exist when that hero was made.

Scott Summers, Cyclops, was originally called Slim Summers.

[asmallermorehonestsoul]

RWBY: Roman Holiday review

Before she was a criminal wrapped up in the end of the world, Trivia Vanille was the daughter of disappointed parents who wanted nothing more than for her to be normal. Locked away and pushed into the shadows, Trivia has no one to keep her company. No one, that is, other than Neopolitan, her best and only friend.

But things change after a chance encounter with the young Roman Torchwick, a criminal on the run trying to make a name for himself before his mistakes have a chance to catch up to him. As an uncertain alliance slowly turns into a true partnership. Trivia finally begins to grasp the freedom that she had always longed for. And while her parents always insisted that Neo was nothing more than a figment of her overactive imagination, Trivia realizes that she might be a larger part of her that she ever could have guessed...

So we got the villain origins of beloved criminal duo Roman and Neo, wow, what a ride.

So Roman’s backstory is that he was born in Wind Path, Mistral, and his mom dropped him off at the local orphanage.when he was young. When he was seventeen he moved to the city of Mistral and ended up being recruited by Lil Miss Malachite into the Spiders a year later. He started dealing behind her back and moved to Vale to avoid her wrath. A neat little backstory! Explains why he isn’t quite supervillain level like Cinder and the others in Salem’s faction, but why he would be willing to go along with her for his own survival.

The scene of his first attempt at crime in Vale was so funny. Bank robbery nearly ruined by an inept bank teller, oh Fred. He was just excited till Roman shot the gun.

It was also interesting that the two bumbling Huntsmen got their licenses revoked for reckless endangerment and excessive force. I guess we saw pretty competent Huntsmen in the show… well Dee and Dudley were pretty dumb. I wonder what the rules for students in training are? Though I guess it reflects more on the school given what happens in the Volume 2 finale with the train fiasco.

Meanwhile Neo was born Trivia Vanille, to Jimmy and Carmel Vanille. Trivia was another name for the Roman (fitting) goddess of crossroads, with trivia or tri-via meaning ‘three ways’. Fitting for both her ice cream and triplicity motifs. Her dad is the rich city manager for  the city Vale, and is ashamed at having a heterochromatic and mute daughter. He and Carmel definitely seem like hard parents, so no wonder Trivia developed a troublemaking streak. Neo first began as an ‘imaginary’ friend that her Semblance manifested from those desires, which was pretty neat. There was a hilarious irony to her favorite story being ‘Girl in the Tower’, because just wait till you meet her, Neo. 

The idea of Lady Browning’s Academy was pretty interesting, though it also sounds horrible. But I have wondered about other higher institutions besides the Huntsman academies. Speaking of, there was a joke about paying that tuition, which does make me wonder about if they do have to pay. How did people like Blake, Sun, Ren, or Nora get in? Scholarships? I also appreciate the explanation of how the Malachite twins ended up in Vale, as I was wondering about that ever since the Volume 6 commentary confirmed they were the daughters of Lil Miss. I assume they decided to stay in Vale rather than return to Mistral? The revelation of the school’s true nature and the surveillance network using the body cameras hidden in the pins was pretty cool too.

I guess this book does seem to vaguely imply Roman/Neo romance, though I think you could also not read it that way if you want. Well, at least it does also confirm she was 18 when they met so I’m ok with it? Well, I did love their dynamic here either way. While it was clear they cared for each other we didn’t actually get too much interaction between them in the show if you think about it, but it’s easy to see why Roman left such a deep impact on Neo and why she is torn up about his death.

It was fun to see Lil Miss again, I did like her in the show, so it was fun to get to see more of her being a ruthless queenpin. Roman responding to her threatening him while caressing his cheek by wondering if she was flirting made me laugh. It was also fun meeting Hei Xiong senior, Junior’s much more competent dad. Roman’s partner in the Spiders, Chameleon, felt like a knockoff Ilia, for obvious reasons… given she is a color changer (though with Semblance, not a Faunus) with an unrequited crush on her partner in crime. And less competent than Ilia, honestly.

The climax went by fast, but it was pretty interesting. Poor Neo wanted to believe her parents would actually help her, though at least Roman suspected the trap. Carmel and Jimmy having been secretly working with opposite sides all along was pretty interesting too, though I can’t say I feel much sorrier than Neo when the house gets blown up with them inside.

All in all, an enjoyable read featuring two well-done villain protagonists. I wouldn’t say they’re any less villainous than in the show, but it really fleshes out their characters and their bond. Worth the read.

[littlemisssquiggles]

...Sooo...about Rosegarden again...

As I was discussing with my good daikon buddy and fellow Rosegardening Pinehead @jealouscartoonist​, you might as well fit Oscar with a shirt that reads “WHEN LOST, FIND RUBY ROSE” only to pan over to Ruby sporting a matching shirt that says “I’M RUBY ROSE” since at this point, I think the only person who has managed to successfully keep Oscar out of harm’s length is Ruby when she makes that her priority like how it was back in V5.

I’m not just saying this as a Rosegardener, I think it’s worth noting that each time Ruby has taken her eyes off Oscar or left him under the protection of someone else, he’s either gone missing or ends up separated from the team in some way or form. It is also worth noting that each time Oscar disappears, Ruby is more or less the first one folks make sure to inform. 

Back in Argus, it was her Yang and Blake called out to first after they found Oscar gone. The same can be said for when the JNR Trio discovered Oscar missing from his room and Jaune tried to tell Ruby before Ironwood cut him off. 

I also love the added detail that Ruby was also the one Yang asked regarding Oscar’s feelings about their decision to deceive the General.  Though it wasn’t actually stated in the series, the implication I got from that moment at the start of V7 was that Ruby’s choice to deceive the General came from a place of her mistrust in him given the treatment of the Mantle and possibly a need to protect Oscar as well since, on two occasions, Ruby has witnessed Oscar being hurt both physically and emotionally for Oz’s mistakes after the truth came out.

The fact that she chimed in with a lie the instant Ironwood started questioning Oscar about Oz gave me this vibe. That and the fact that Ruby glanced in Oscar’s direction with an almost guilty expression following what she had done. It’s these little things that speak volume about this dynamic.

It is for this reason why I get peeved whenever I hear antis claiming that Rosegarden is forced. It is very evident from previous seasons that Oscar and Ruby have been shown to care deeply about one another. While they may not share the same history from the Beacon Days back in Vale as Ruby's other companions since she's only known Oscar since they met in Mistral. However it is notably impressive how protective and supportive Ruby has grown to be of Oscar since the two first met and the same can be said of his attachment to her.

While this season seems to be testing that loyalty, it is for reasons such as this why this squiggle meister is highly fond of the dynamic between the Rosegarden friendship and why I pay so much attention to it. While you can possibly deny the two might not be interested in one another romantically at the moment, you can't say they don't care about each deeply as close friends.

For Pete's sake, above any other character on the hero team, Ruby was the first one to volunteer to go pick up Oscar from the slums. While she was accompanied by Weiss with Maria as their certified Granny Urber driver, it was sweet how Ruby was the one to greet Oscar first when he originally pegged the airship to be a threat based on Oz’s initial warning. 

Not to mention that Ruby was also the only one to stand next to Oscar on the entire plane ride back to the bar and show him support and comfort while Maria flew the plane and Weiss stood in the corner and let the two beans have their moment. 

I’m going to chock this up to mean that Weiss must’ve known how concerned Ruby was for Oscar after learning he had disappeared again (especially since Blake’s remark was that the group thought something bad had happened to him after he didn’t arrive on the ship with JNR) so out of respect for her “best friend” and teammate, she kept her distance and allowed Ruby to be the one to have her time with Oscar. At least, that’s how I’m interpreting it.  

You cannot convince me that Ruby isn't the closest thing to a close confidante or best friend that Oscar has on the hero team. Nevermind that he also shares her with characters such as Weiss and Penny. In respect to Oscar's affiliates, Ruby is his closest. She is the true rose in his little prince story; assumingly.

He's not even that close with Oz and Oz practically lives rent free in the little prince's head until the Merge.

Bottom-line, given the development of the season so far, I'm curious to see what little or more the showrunners may do to continue to progress the budding bond between our two, smaller more honest souls. 

While I understand that Ruby is more or less the leader of the team and Oscar is a member of the team, I still find it pretty interesting that when Oscar disappears, Ruby is one of the first people to be informed. Makes me wonder how it will be for tomorrow’s episode in the event that YJR fail to rescue Oscar from the Hound and they’re forced to break this depressing news to Ruby and the others JUST AFTER they had reunited with Oscar earlier that very same day.

Should be interesting to see Ruby’s reaction to Oscar getting kidnapped by a monstrous talking Grimm to be taken to Salem (since who else would send a Grimm of that threat level after Oscar who is the incarnation of Salem’s former lover from a previous life turned mortal enemy).

I’m hoping that either during this volume or afterwards (especially after the group rescue Oscar from George the Hound) that Ruby takes a more overprotective stance towards Oscar. I mean she already looks out for him a lot but imagine if…the little red rose’s overprotectiveness of the little prince is dialed up to like a 50 after Atlas.

The group keep losing him!  Someone’s gotta keep the little hazel eyed wandering sheep of the hero team in check, especially from all the wicked witches and big bad wolves out there trying to get him!

I’ve seen other Pineheads refer to Oscar’s animal counterpart as a deer given his name. But I dunno. To me, Oscar’s more of a sheep since he keeps getting separated from the herd. Plus a sheep fits Oscar given the Little Prince reference too. Why not?

Now I wanna squiggle some Stray Sheep Boy Oscar fanart. I think I’ll do that later for my own amusement. Until then, those are my thoughts.

~LittleMissSquiggles (2020)  

[hamliet]

So about your (very deep) RWBY analysis you said there were a few plausible ships in consequence, could you write on that too? I'm curious to see what those are if we follow that analysis

Sure! Firstly, thanks for reading that lol.

So I’ll just come out and say that I don’t fully trust the writers in this aspect, but the main ships that I see set up for in the alchemical sense are, of course, Yang/Blake and Ren/Nora, but also Ruby/Oscar and potentially Emerald/Mercury and Jaune/Weiss. (I will touch on Pyrrha/Jaune, but I don’t think Pyrrha is going to or should come back so... :( ) This all depends on how they stick to the alchemical structure, but just to reiterate: it’s extremely unlikely an alchemical story with a fairy tale basis is going to end with most characters single. It could and could do it well, but I’m skeptical lol.

Just to add a disclaimer: this is all theory and speculation; I honestly do not care about ships in this series besides Ren and Nora and hence am not emotionally invested. I could be wrong, and I’m fine with it. Please don’t come for me. 

Let’s begin by going over what romance is in alchemy. I talked about this in my previous meta, but the key principles of an alchemical work are the solar king and lunar queen. So who are they? What is their role in alchemy? 

Behold, the symbol for the philosopher’s stone:

Or more clearly: 

The large circle is the macrocosm, or universe as a whole. The triangle is body, mind, and heart (originally it was body, soul, and spirit). The square is the four classical elements (fire, air, earth, water). The smaller circle is the microcosm, wherein the two people inside are the Solar King and Lunar Queen, opposites conjoined in harmony. Together two conjoined opposites (yes it’s related to yin/yang, but eastern alchemy focuses more on the Elixir of Life rather than the actual stone and there are five elements, not four) create the philosopher’s stone. 

I talked about this in the past meta, but we know Ruby is a philosophical child because her father’s name literally means sun and her mother’s defining trait thus far is her silver eyes. She’s the stone itself, but also team RWBY is the stone, and other characters are on their own journeys to becoming philosopher’s stone. Things overlap. 

I didn’t come up with those designations of silver=moon on my own, though. Generally the two principles that are combined in a philosopher’s stone are marked by one (or more) of the following: 

Male: Sun, Sulphur, fire and air, hot and dry, Red, gold, heart.

Female: Moon, Mercury (or quicksilver), earth and water, cool and moist, White, silver, mind.

Don’t read too much into the genders, because that tends to matter the least and plays into antiquated views. Obviously. Characters rarely meet all the marks as well, but if marked with one should be paired with someone from the opposite marking. 

Let’s talk the obvious ones first: Ren and Nora, Blake and Yang, and Jaune and Pyrrha. 

Ren and Nora are pretty perfectly matched. Ren is mind, earth (“Lie” means “plum tree”) and water (“Ren” means “lotus,” a water-based flower). Nora is heart (her shirt, plus her brave qualities), fire (Thor and the association with electricity, plus “Nora” means “light”), and air (she flies, and a Valkyrie is a mythical flying creature in Norse mythology). 

Yang and Blake are also a good match. Yang is sun, gold (her name), fire and air (”Xiao long” means dragon), and heart. Blake is moon (Belladonna is a nightshade), earth and water (think of where her home village is), and mind. Blake was also a match for Sun Wukong, however, and this is why I’m skeptical about the writing of ships in this series--because they teased Sun/Blake for little reason (and I remember being confused). However, they did know that Blake’s partner needed to be her opposite, so Yang or Sun could work, and I think it’s clear that Blake/Yang is endgame and I like it. 

Pyrrha is red (her name), gold (her outfit), heart and mind, and her shield had a sun on it. 

Jaune was white (the dress he wore to the dance), body (differing from the norm, but fit because Pyrrha was both heart and mind; a body character tends to be either lusty or cowardly, the latter of which was Jaune in the first season), and moon. Look at Jaune’s shield, which so happens to match the silver/moon symbol in alchemy: 

However, Pyrrha has now died, and I’m still sad about it. However, also of note: fitting with the characters they are based off of, Team JNPR are have reversed gender dynamics from the alchemical norms. Again, I would bet that was done on purpose. 

Onto my speculations: 

For Ruby... well, I said she was the philosopher’s stone. 

In some ways, Ruby and Weiss are the philosopher’s stone together, but I think this is more platonic than romantic (it’s a lovely ship though and I see why people ship it). The reason for this is because while Ruby is Red, air, and Heart, and Weiss is White, water, and mind, Ruby and Weiss are both silver. They don’t compliment each other in this, which is why I don’t see it as a likely endgame romantic ship (but, like Frodo and Samwise Gamgee, I do see them as alchemical partners who help stop Salem together). 

But her romantic partner should be someone who is also both sun and moon, who is white where she is red, gold where she is silver, earth where she is air (she flies), mind where she is heart. Ideally they would also be a philosophical child. There’s one character I can think of who is marked as sun and moon, white, mind, and earth, and that’s Oscar Pine. See: Ozpin’s cane, which Oscar uses on his own quite a bit (that’s a sun and moon motif):

Additionally, in the scene where Ruby and Oscar meet for the first time, the paintings on the wall are a sun (fire) with distinctive air around it and a crescent moon over earth and water. 

If Weiss ends up in any ship, it will be with a person marked as heart, red, fire, and gold to her mind, white, water (ice), and silver. Neptune is water too, so this one is unlikely. Sun seems like a possibility on paper, but they haven’t interacted significantly at all (maybe they will in Vacuo?) But the most likely option to me is actually Jaune Arc--but a lot depends on the coming arcs (heh).

Wait, you said he was white! Key word: was. Jaune was never mind and will never be mind, but he has become brave as opposed to his initial fear, and I’d go so far as to say he’s heart now thanks to Pyrrha’s influence. Since Pyrrha’s death as well, he’s started incorporating gold and red into his outfit in a likely homage to Pyrrha. (It is actually possible for someone to shift markings; Daenerys in A Game of Thrones is white and moon, but becomes red and fire and all that by the end of the novel). 

Jaune’s arc of grief over Pyrrha is unlikely to end with him being forever alone, and while there are plenty of ways to show this that don’t involve him in a relationship with someone else, it’s the most obvious way to show this. It also fits from a narrative perspective that the only way Jaune could ever be with Weiss is through integrating with Pyrrha’s traits and qualities. We’ll see, though, because as of now he’s still marked as moon, and he’d need to become sun or fire. Cinder also directly compared Pyrrha and Weiss, and immediately after this Jaune unlocked part of his soul to heal Weiss, playing the role of the prince in Weiss’s fairy tale (Snow White). However, as Cinder’s own story shows us, not all princes in their retellings of these fairy tales are romantic. So this might not play out, but it has the set-up to do so. 

Lastly, Emerald and Mercury I think are alchemical partners regardless of whether or not they end up together romantically. Mercury’s name says it all, and Emerald’s eyes mark her as red. He’s mind, she’s heart. I’m adding this to the questionably romantic ones because I’m curious about the fact that Emerald and Mercury are now separated in the current season, just like all four of the above ships I mentioned. 

Also to keep in mind: sometimes writers say eff the tropes. See: Harry and Ginny, who are both red and air (but Ginny’s name also marks her as white, so). 

[wu-sisyphus-gang]

Motion Sickness Chapter 70

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"So they're letting you out?" Ruby asked.

"Well I've been in out-patient care and I got out of in-patient care." I shrugged. They were giving me my weapon back with a hefty fine and time-served. I guess they were desperate for reformed huntsmen on the right side of the law.

And my psychiatrist had eagerly pressed me through as truly reformed. I'd had to sit in front of a judge for my sentencing but my psychiatrist had explained who I was and the extenuating circumstances I had been through. A mind control semblance was the declassified word.

Horrifying.

"That's it then? You're free?" Ruby wondered.

"All horizons," I told her.

"Atlas law requires you to see a therapist for nine weeks minimum," Weiss cut in on my other side. "For the PTSD related issues."

"This fucking continent." I clenched a fist.

"It's for your own good. Better to not fight it and come out of it with something." Weiss said.

"I can't believe you're getting off so easily," Blake muttered.

"Hey did you get a deal like this once?" I asked. "And you weren't even mind controlled."

She looked away and said nothing. Truly reformed huntsmen were hard to come by and it was easier to snatch them up where they appeared. My psychiatrist, therapist, and neurologist all greenlit me.

"Speaking of, how are those meds they have you on treating you?" Weiss asked.

"They're sedating. But I'm managing. The ones they had me on before this batch gave me terrible nightmares."

"Is that how it works?" Weiss wondered.

"It's not an exact science. There's some guessing involved to find some that work for you."

"And these ones work for you?" Yang asked.

I waggled a hand. "I miss THC and CBD but this seems like a close second."

"The doctors said that those were both exacerbating your symptoms," Weiss wedged in.

"Those doctors have never had an alien goddess in their mind." I was met with a loud silence. They weren't sure what to say when I said something like that. No one was. Because no one knew what I was going through besides my sisters wherever they are. I paced forward. "So this is Atlas Academy?"

"We'll have to talk to the General about getting you a room," Ruby muttered.

"Oh I'm sure he'll be happy to see you." Yang rolled her eyes. "I mean, no offense."

"Yeah well I have to serve my time somehow. Military service is probably it for somebody like me. With my particular set of skills."

"But will he trust you?" Weiss asked.

"Better question. Should I be trusted or will I sell you all out to Salem again?" I asked.

"You didn't sell us out. You brought us the relic," Ruby said.

"I… I killed Ren and Nora, Ruby." I couldn't believe her. She still believed in me.  

"That wasn't you," she denied. Maybe she even believed it. I couldn't be sure with Ruby. Well I could. She was just hard to look at because of it.

"It wasn't not me. I have a lot to atone for, and I might do it again."

"You broke her control over you once," Weiss reminded me. She led the way through grey halls up to the headmaster's office.

"I keep telling everyone I have no idea how I did that though."

"You're not exactly selling me on this. On you," Blake informed me.

"Not really trying to. I'm trying to remind you how dangerous I really am. How much of a liability I could be. It's important."

"Cloud, how does this whole time served thing work?" Yang asked.

"That's a little up to Ironwood. He could send me anywhere but he sort of has to accept me somewhere. That's what the judge ruled. He's not a dictator. Not yet at any rate."

"It'll probably be better if you don't talk to him like that," Weiss said. "He won't appreciate it."

"You're probably right." I sighed. We took a grey elevator up to his office. It provided a scenic look out over the tundra and parts of Mantle.

Neo was out there somewhere. I contacted her and let her know I was watching for Cinder from this side and promised to let her know if anything was going down. I was sure she was managing just fine without me though. I was on the inside now. I could watch for Cinder better from here. I'd just have to trust that Neo would show up when it was opportune. I just hoped she wouldn't think I was abandoning her or the cause. Because I wasn't. I was still in camp ‘murder Cinder’ and she was a big girl, she could look after herself if only for as long as this charade lasted. It couldn't go on forever. Eventually I'd slip up and something Salem related would happen.

I also let her know I was getting some serious psychological help for the psychosis. She seemed neutral about that, though. Maybe she thought I was doing just fine. I hadn't been but I was glad she thought that.

Ironwood wasn't in when we arrived. That left us waiting outside for a bit. You couldn't really expect him to be in at all times.

Winter Schnee was there though. She gave me an icy glare and I just smiled back at her wolfishly.

"Oh, it's you," she said.

"Right back at you. How's the throat?"

"Just fine, thank you. You won't surprise me again."

"I don't need surprise to beat you," I told her. "You're fragile. Like glass. I was worried about breaking you. On accident. And don't think that becoming a maiden will bail you out. I almost killed Cinder and I was weaker then by a country mile."

"Weiss, you told him?" She looked shocked.

"He already knew. All about the bunker and what was in it." Weiss responded calmly.

"Neo and I did some digging in that department," I said.

"Ah yes, your criminal partner. Any idea where she is right now?" Winter asked.

"I have no idea." I told her honestly. "I have had no contact with her since my voluntary imprisonment," I then lied. I mixed the truth with lies.

"I see. Well should you remember anything Atlas would consider that necessary information."

"Yeah, yeah."

"I ought to teach you respect."

"Many have tried. Like my Mother. "

Her eyes gleamed, spotting weakness. "You meant Salem, I am sure."

"I did…" I trailed weakly.

"Winter, that's enough. Leave him be. Family is complicated and he didn't ask to be born to that monster. You and I should have some empathy for that," Weiss said.

Winter sighed down at Weiss. "Weiss…"

The general walked in and spotted us. He noticed Jaune armed with his weapon.

"They gave you your weapon back, so soon?" Ironwood asked.

"A week and half isn't that soon," I muttered. "I'm here for my assignment."

"I see. And team RWBY is…"

"Moral support," I granted.

"Have a seat Mr. Arc."

"It's Strife now."

"You changed your name, then."

"Arc was a fake name anyway. It was the name my parents gave me." I took a seat. There was a lot to unpack in that sentence I just said. Most people were given their names by their parents. Most people just didn't hate their parents like I did.

"I can respect that. Ozpin has recommended an assignment close by for you. I'm less convinced."

"He did? Why?" I asked.

"He wants to see if you are capable of his and Salem's kind of magic. He wants to train you if that is that case."

"Oh," I hadn't thought of that. "Well I did give his current body some training. Maybe he just wants to pay it forward."

"Perhaps. And he's done a great deal to protest your innocence. You should be grateful to him."

"Then I am."

"I have decided you will work out of this Academy. For the time being at least."

"You want me where you can keep an eye on me," I deduced.

"Things will go smoother if you have more trust in me than that. I am sure your therapists will have been trying to work through your paranoid thinking with you. Not everyone is trying to watch you, Mr. Strife." He steepled his fingers.

"But I'm pretty sure you are." Weiss elbowed me fairly hard in the side. "Regardless of your reasons for doing it I am grateful."

"I was hoping we could talk more about how you were made. You explored Merlot's laboratory and might have insights for me," he probed.

"I actually explored two different labs. I ran into someone in the second, near here in Solitas. Near a place called Nibelheim. He was a man with a mustache and a navy suit with yellow trimmings. He had green eyes and dark hair. I didn't see his weapon, though. He never used it. He said he was the one who made my sisters before he tried to use the laboratory…” I struggled for the word. “Defenses? To try and kill me."

"I see. But you found no more information on you or your sisters there?" He asked.

"No. Just more of my father's usual experiments on the Grimm. Something to do with turning them blue. I'm really not sure. The lab in Anima was like that too except he was turning them green and there were humanoid Grimm that he had designed. They were loose and in tanks in the facility. Tanks not dissimilar to the one he grew me in."

I felt a hand on my shoulder. Weiss's comforting aura drew in beside mine. She tasted like whipped cream and clear crisp crushed ice.

"And he grew you in one of these… 'tanks?'" Ironwood asked.

"An incubator of some sort, I'm sure. But to me they were just these sort of pods. Merlot's book has more notes on the one he used for me. It was a bit different than the others. He grew me from a fetus until I was nearly an adult in just a year," I said.

"That would make you young. Like Penny Polendina." His brow went up at me.

"Yeah. Something like that. I'm between three and four years old. I don't have an exact date for my birthday either. Don't remember if they ever gave me one or if it really matters considering I didn't have a birth," I informed him. "Anything else you'd like to know?"

“A great deal. About your origins. How you came to Beacon. Whether you have any insights into Salem’s weaknesses.”

“I don’t really know. And I’ll remind you that I am just a failure, after all." I wasn't really meant to last. I was just a prototype.

"Cloud..." Ruby whined behind me. The noise she made sounded like she was sad for a dog. It wasn't a good sound.

I ignored her. "I don’t really know how I came to attend Beacon. I don’t have any insights into Salem’s weaknesses. From my perspective she seems pretty unstoppable."

"It's impossible to say." Ironwood returned. "But if we should come up with a way to divorce you from her we will let you know."

"Thank you for telling me," I said.

"Of course. Now, let's see what you can do Mr. Strife."

"Finally, something I'm good at."

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I glid through the training chamber at one of the Ace Ops members. I hadn't learned their names but he had a boomerang rifle and he was a dog faunus.

I caught up to him and swung twice horizontally in two enormous strikes that buffeted him around when he tried to block.

He jumped back and tried to fire at me but my profile was low as I came at him in an unrelenting fashion. I palmed a dust crystal and hit him with a lightning bolt that knocked him to his knees.

I came at him with a diagonal cut when another Ace Operative grabbed me with extensions of his aura. He tried to stop me in place but I jumped and twirled and cut at his golden aura. I severed the extended hands and the removed parts dissolved into fading golden light.

I front-flipped, moving on to the new target. I landed up on some of the glowing cubes in the training room. He reformed his hands and tried to beat me but I just sliced through. I flew at him with both hands on my broadsword.

My sixth sense called out to me and I flicked my sword up to block the boomerang rifle. It rebounded back to its user and he opened fire on me as I went after the wacky inflatable arm guy.

I closed the gap on the pillar he stood on and slashed through his aura arms that got in my way. I kicked him off the pillar and brought my sword down on his head.  I cleaved deep into his aura and still I chased him as I blew him to the ground level with a massive overhead attack.

He had a lot of aura. He might be the only person I'd ever met in my own percentile of aura. He might even have more than me.

I chased him as he fell from when I slammed him and I beat him to the ground. I Cross Slashed him before he hit the ground. The devastating combination caught him up. The five move slashing attack tore away at his golden aura.

My Limit Break activated.

The dog faunus came around a corner and opened fire on me. I switched opponents again as I flew at him. I held my weapon between us and blocked most of his bullets. The few that got through pinged off my aura. I slashed upwards at him and he rolled to the side with a yelp.

I just stepped up on him again and swung upwards once more. Once he was airborn I had him right where I wanted him. I juggled him once. Then twice. Then again. He couldn't escape from the aerials I swung up at him.

I jumped up to match his height and Octa Slashed him with my Limit Break. He flew towards the ground and slammed into a pile of the boxes.

His light blue aura flowed to place over him before it vanished. I flew down on him in a swooping fashion and tackled him and carried him all the way to a wall of the arena. I stabbed my sword into the ground and beat the aura out of him with my fists. I punched him in the jaw. Then the stomach. Then I picked him up and slammed him into the ground.

Golden arms wrapped around me and picked me up and threw me across the room. I slammed into a pile of boxes back first. My head rocked back against the boxes. I stood up and put my sword against my shoulder.

The wacky arm guy landed next to the dog faunus and helped him to his feet. They turned to stare at me. I stared right back.

A golden arm slithered towards me across the ground and snagged my leg. It picked me up and slammed me face first into the ground. Then it rotated me and slammed me into the ground the other way.

Then it held me in the air and I got rocked by a boomerang to the face.

I snarled and cut myself free.

I landed on a pocket of air and descended towards the ground. I flew at the two of them through machine gun fire. An arm slashed at my side and I grunted but I cut through the next one and kept flying.

I landed between them and just to flex I charged my semblance to full. Then I swept my sword through the dog faunus's aura. He went down in a light blue crackle. He was lucky I hadn't hurt him for real.

I came at the next guy with a front-flip. I brought my sword down on him and he blocked with his aura. Even still my sword bit deep. I kicked him in the middle of the chest and he stumbled back a step. Then I flew at him with a knee and caught him in the face.

A golden claw slashed me to the ground but I never hit. Instead I floated on a pocket of air and rotated in place. I swept my blade around me and forced him back a half step.

The dog faunus stood up. "Marrow, don't!"

'Marrow' opened fire right into my back.

I whipped around and glared at him. I snarled. I hit him in the head with the blunt side of my weapon and he crumpled like a sack of bricks with a large bruise forming on the side of his head.

"Do you want to call this here?" I asked the one still standing. "Or do I have to beat you into unconsciousness, too?"

"I'll surrender. You fought well." The remaining man said sibilantly.

I nodded and put my weapon in the harness on my back. I hope there was more to Ace Ops than this.

pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq

-WG

[ravenadottir]

I think you have done this before but can you profile the girls from Casa Amour? The ones we didn't get to see? Names, age, maybe how they look like? Love your blog and your headcanons! At this point, they're canon to me 🤷🏼‍♀️🤷🏼‍♀️

oh? i love this so much! the fuck!

first of all, thank you anon! you’re really sweet.

now, about the girls. i only named them a while ago, and i can’t draw for shit, but i can do some designs for them and profile their data, just like the game (name, age, hometown and key phrase), then add some headcanons.

i have a new app and i’mms use it to give you looks and features, because you know what? it’s really fun!

‘emily’

23, new castle, fashion designer, “wants to find a pin for her pin cushion”

the funny girl the boys wanted to have a chance to come back. she had sex with jakub on the first night. 

cat person (her underwear had two pussies in it)

had a hard time connecting with anyone else but played cool about jakub not wanting to crack on with her anymore

couldn’t bear when jakub had to kiss siobhan on the villa x villa challenge

‘elladine thicc’

‘i’m here to make friends and maybe find someone special’

bright eyes and very much into the idea of soulmates

public liked her but thought she made a mistake with jakub. not because of the sex, because of jakub

found out later he had no intentions of cracking on with her for real

.

‘laura’

21, liverpool, keytarist in a band, “i know when to drop the beat’

she shared the bed with gary

gary was made fun for sharing a bed with someone who reminded everyone of hannah, looks wise

she got mad at that, saying she had nothing to do with hannah and her hair is not even a natural red “you guys need new repertoire”

it made gary give her the loudest high five ever

they had fun since both were goofy and she had a crush on noah, but gave up after he said he wasn’t interested

she talked to him about going back but didn’t push it to happen

became close with siobhan almost right away since they were both into the thickest boys in the house. that sparked more conversations

the type that the public wants her to be taken back ‘cause she had the banter with every boy and the girls would’ve liked her

.

‘siobhan’

23, from cork, med student, ‘has heard all types of ‘playing doctor’ pick up lines

the girl that reminded noah of hope

shared the bed with lurik on the first night, then jakub for the remaining days

she cracked on with jakub for the rest of the casa amor days and was into him since he came in the main villa and she was watching back home

she’s a sweet girl once you get to know her

she was shy at first, but gary and bobby made all the girls feel comfortable, playing truth or dare to break the ice

‘bobby and gary are like younger brothers, i don’t care about their age’’

they were the ones to make it happen with jakub without knowing he had spent the night before with emily

the public went insane when jakub decided to stick with hope because siobhan and him clicked really fast

.

‘erica’

22, from cardiff, business major, ‘known to run away from a date that asked her ‘why not just printing more money?’

she shared the bed with noah but wasn’t interested in him

she had tons of fun with the boys like gary and bobby making fun of jakub

cleverest jokes but ther worst deliverance

learned how to shove five bread rolls in her mouth thanks to bobby

that facial expression is the one she gives to every bobby joke, just to make him uncomfortable and laugh it out later

practical but still believes in small lovey-dovey things, like soulmates

loves math pick up lines/jokes

connected to laura really fast and wanted to take rahim to the hideaway but he was smitten

didn’t 

.

‘shannon’

24, from dublin, professional poker player, ‘that girl who loves true crime podcasts’

originally interested in lucas, but he wasn’t into her

went for ibrahim for his looks and because he was charmingly dorky

she saw and opportunity and took it

started liking him more, but wasn’t all in with him

the girls weren’t so keen on her, she seemed too competitive

blake liked her since day one and they became an item

.

‘blake’

22, from kensington, her occupation and phrase depend on mc’s choice at the beginning:

human rights campaigner, “does good, looks better”

graduate student, “i’ve got the brains, i’ve got the looks…”

singer-songwriter, ‘not just here to promote her new album’

beauty blogger, ‘claims she invented ‘on fleek’’

went for the li you like but settled for your actual partner (noah, lucas or henrik)

‘headcanons’

felt like the leader of the group of girls, sort of exercising leadership like graham, except here the girls weren’t having it 

part of the reason she warmed up to shannon was her competitivity

gary and bobby didn’t like her but didn’t say anything

i hope this is what you were looking for anon. i had fun making these up. thanks for the ask!!

[kitkatopinions]

OZPIN

Ozpin for the RWBY character asks.

My top three ships for the character

Note: For these ships, I’m exclusively talking about gray-haired Professor Ozpin, and I’ve long written Oz to be at least somewhat affected by the age of his hosts, I’ve long written him to be around the same age as Ironwood and Qrow (I mean, he looks the same age and I missed Raven’s lines suggesting he was a teacher or headmaster when Team STRQ was in school,) and I’ve also long headcanoned that when he first hosted in Ozpin, the person he was hosting in chose to merge with him right away. So while he was Ozpin, there was no ‘Ozpin talks sometimes, Oz talks sometimes,’ or sharing a head. I’ve never done much shipping for Oz, but all that kind of lines up to at least make that version of him pretty shippable.

So yeah, Ozpin/Glynda could be a power couple of wholly devoted, tired, stressed caregivers trying to mentor sixty some kids at once. XD Ozpin/Amber has literally no real content, but they could look good together and she’s a non-character like Summer, but I see them as having had a lot of similarities in being kind and soft spoken. I also don’t mind Ozpin/Roman as a ‘once upon a time, Roman used to flirt with him all the time before anything went bad and Ozpin responded with amused tolerance and never really took it seriously, but a lot of their acquaintances thought they were seeing each other... Which would just make it hurt worse and be one more thing Oz blames himself for when Roman falls into a life of crime, 

My three least favorite ships for the character

Oz/Cinder, as previously stated, once someone kills someone, there’s no coming back from it. Also, he doesn’t need to get romantic advancements from any abusive manipulative magic girl who just wants to use and hurt him and abuses children on the side too. Oz/Hazel. Hazel is an abuser! He beat Oz! He blamed Oz for things that weren’t his fault and used him as an excuse for all his vile actions. Gross. And Oz/Salem takes the top spot for very obvious reasons. This one’s even more gross than Oz/Hazel.

My biggest criticism for the character

Honestly, the way he’s treated by the narrative of the show with much less sympathy than he should be. I love flawed characters, leaders that do their best but make lots of mistakes, but the narrative treated him as one hundred percent in the wrong, no discussion, and therefore deserving of Qrow hitting him (out of character moment!) and Team RWBY ripping his secrets from him forcibly, making him relive his trauma in high def, yelling at him and then being glad he was gone, and not wanting him back and then only begrudgingly and seriously accepting his apology (out of character, especially for Blake!) Especially since Ruby also didn’t have a plan and lied about potentially life saving information to an ally and then even when she made her broadcast to the world, she left out tons of information there too! Which, don’t get me wrong, is understandable for her, but the narrative should’ve recognized that she was doing the same things Ozpin did and they should’ve had her gain sympathy and understanding for him. And the narrative also gave credence to Hazel somehow, treating it seriously when he warns Oscar ‘no more Gretchens’ despite Hazel being a super abusive, murderous bastard who was trying to murder kids and making the world a worse place. I’ve had so many people tell me ‘Team RWBY are going to apologize to Ozpin and realize they were wrong to treat him the way they did,’ but it never happened. Because the writers wanted us to think of Oz as a morally gray person who had to be taught a lesson by Team RWBY, rather than an abuse victim who deserved some sympathy and understanding who shouldn’t have been abused again just for making a mistake. I don’t know why the writers thought pretending Team RWBY and Qrow were in the right would be okay, but I hate it.

My favorite thing about the character

I love Oz so much, but my favorite thing about him might be his dynamic with Qrow in seasons 3-5. Of course it all went bad in season 6, but I love a close friends, almost brothers dynamic where one does everything for the other and is wholly devoted to him, would die for him at the drop of a hat. And I love a mentor-father figure always throwing himself into protecting a kid and leaning on his shoulder while the kid is nervous, but excited and happy over it and wanting his affection and approval... And with Oz (and the headcanon that he’s affected by the age of his host,) I get both! There’s a lot more to love, but that’s my favorite thing. God, they flourish in fan fictions...

A headcanon I have about them

I already touched on some of my headcanons for him and his host, but also...‘Ozpin’ was that host’s last name, and his first name was actually Orpheus, but his team in Beacon and his inner circle only ever called him by his last name.

What I would change about them if I was making a re-write

Okay, so hear me out, I’d still have people get mad at him for all his secret keeping and having no plan to defeat Salem, and I’d probably still have him temporarily retreat. But A. I wouldn’t have the punch, and instead, I’d have Qrow more ‘quietly disappointed’ than anything else and he’d regret it almost immediately and feel guilty about it (even though in that case, his feelings would be valid,) and B. Blake would be on Ozpin’s side. Seriously, Blake knows what abuse feels like, she knows it’s hard to trust after, she knows Oz has been through worse, even more than she can imagine. She should’ve been standing up for him, saying that even though he was wrong to lie, she gets why. And C. I’d have the people who have a harder time understanding and especially Ruby learn and grow and start to realize how much weight was on his shoulders while they make many of the same mistakes. D. I’d have Ozpin start coming back in V7, and apologize to Qrow in private (and have Qrow apologize back,) and then I’d have him mostly silent, ‘coming out to talk’ only really to James or Qrow and communicating through Oscar when the need calls for it, and he’d kind of step down and let James (and kind of, Ruby) make the choices for the group. Ruby at the very least would apologize to him by the end of the seventh season. And I’d totally still have him kidnapped and taken to Salem because I love that sweet sweet whump, but I’d have Hazel die like the unredeemed asshole he was and I think I’d have Qrow involved in the rescue somehow.

What I I think of their character allusion and what (if anything) I would change about it

Oz acts as both the Wizard of Oz and the Princess Ozma character merged into one allusion, and I honestly think some of it is really cleverly done. The Wizard of Oz had arrived in Oz and was treated as a god, and decided to lean into it due to Oz’s lack of current leadership and used his magician tricks to make it seem like he had magic (reflecting Oz agreeing to Salem making them seem like gods by using what was - in their world - perfectly ordinary magic, which Oz did in an attempt to grant leadership to a world he was tasked with improving.) The Wizard is treated as a king in Oz and is presented as a magic infallible solution to all of Dorothy (and her group’s) problems, only for that to be proven to not be the case, as he can only grant temporary pacifying placebos (reflecting Oz’s attempts to keep Salem back and present a false time of peace to the world while fighting a secret war that he has no plan to be able to end.) The wizard temporarily leaves the Land of Oz only to return to it later (like Ozpin dying only to come back,) and when he returns, he acts as a guide to Dorothy and dumps plot exposition about his origins (guiding the kids, the Lost Fable,) and is then permitted to remain in the Land of Oz by a magic girl who is the true leader (reflective of Ruby and the group ‘graciously’ letting him stay in their group.) Then, there’s Princess Ozma, the extremely benevolent and kind ageless fairy princess, descended from a long line of fairy princess’s, who is the rightful ruler of the land of Oz. Princess Ozma was friendly to outsiders and disliked violence, preferring peaceful solutions to conflict, and when she was first introduced in the books, it was while trapped in the body of a young boy named ‘Tip’ with no recollection of the life as Princess Ozma. I think all of that pretty obviously lines up with Ozma/Ozpin the RWBY character really well! I don’t mind this conjoined character allusion. I’m actually pretty dang fond of this one, I think this (along with Sun) is one of the few well done character allusions in RWBY.