#these two actually know each other personally including their own flaws

[holydrakes]

You know beside Soul always teasing Maka about her appearance (likely to make it clear there's supposedly nothing between them) everything else Soul does when it comes to Maka looks more like he's in love with her so the teasing ended up looking like Soul is doing a piss poor job hiding his feelings from her.

Same with Maka, she always gets unreasonably pissy whenever the topic of Soul and other girls come up (wether it's him just idly flipping through a fashion magazine filled with bikini-clad girls or his fangirls or Blair) some stuff she did also make waaaay much more sense if you just think she too, has a crush on him but has no idea how the handle it like the emotionally-stunted, likely romance-traumatized-cause-divorce teenager she is.

There's also how these two are devoted to each other despite knowing each other's flaws very well and they still managed to admire each other so much that Maka wished she could actually understand music so he'd never have to leave her for how dependable he had been to her and Soul admired her bravery so much that she is the figure that inspired him to be brave in the first place. Their attraction to each other runs so deep that thinking they are actually an item (who just happens to have long been past the honeymoon stage) is actually very believable.

[tossawary]

Thinking about missed opportunities in the "Star Wars" prequel trilogy again: it's weird with hindsight that Count Dooku doesn't appear in "The Phantom Menace".

Dooku was a Jedi, so it's perfectly reasonable for him to be at either the Jedi Temple or the Republic Senate when we visit Coruscant in TPM. It would have been easy to move a few things around and include him even as a member of the Jedi Council when initially constructing the films, if you were planning ahead when writing.

As Qui-Gon's former master, Dooku is in the perfect position to ask questions onscreen about Qui-Gon's conviction that he's found the Chosen One and Qui-Gon's decision to put Obi-Wan up for knighthood, both publicly with the Council and privately from a more personal standpoint. Dooku could be used as a tool of interrogation to better lay clear for the audience some of Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, and Anakin's characters, their motivations and fears and their potential flaws. An intimate conversation with his master's master could definitely be used to give Obi-Wan some much-needed character focus and inferiority before his climatic fight with Darth Maul.

As the future leader of the Separatists, this is also the ideal point in time to have Dooku act as a voice of criticism, someone who laments both the greed of the Trade Federation and the inaction of the Republic. Dooku could have easily been the representative of the Jedi in the Senate, watching everything, offering grandfatherly sympathy to Padmé Amidala, remarking on the effectiveness of unrestrained power, perhaps even making a warning observation of the dangers of that as Palpatine becomes the new Chancellor. We don't have to see Palpatine and Dooku interact directly, the film could even suggest that Dooku finds this ambitious politician slightly distasteful, but it sets up an explanation for how these two might know each other.

And if we have reason to know and like Master Dooku, then it would actually hurt more when he becomes Count Dooku and betrays both the Jedi Order and the Republic. Even briefly, we could have seen him show frustrated affection and concern for Qui-Gon, give warm advice and praise to Obi-Wan, stand up firmly against the unfairness of the Jedi Council saying Anakin is too old at nine years old. We could have seen Dooku support Padmé in her struggles to make the corrupt Republic take action. We could have seen him as dignified and wise, perhaps one of the only members of the Jedi Council to immediately take the return of the Sith 100% seriously after Maul appears on Tatooine. We could have been made to feel like this experienced, slightly embittered, but righteous older man was the only one "speaking the truth" here.

It really wouldn't have taken all that much shuffling and reassignment plotwise to add him in as a supporting character.

We would feel intrigued at the beginning of "Attack of Clones" when we learn that Count Dooku has left the Jedi Order after Qui-Gon's death. We could see Anakin and Obi-Wan briefly exchange lines about how they miss Master Dooku as well as Qui-Gon (there is already an exchange in the films where they state they miss Qui-Gon), and how they haven't seen or heard from him in some time now. Anakin could suggest that Dooku is hunting down the Sith Master; Obi-Wan could counter with how Master Dooku has simply returned to his life on Serenno, which he couldn't have as a Jedi Master, which Anakin casually calls unfair and he suggests that Dooku can do far greater good as a powerful count (a parallel to Anakin's marriage to Padmé and own Fall). Dooku being established earlier in the trilogy would better highlight how he and Obi-Wan went completely separate directions after Qui-Gon's death.

And again, the reveal that Dooku has Fallen would hurt so much more, if we had actually seen him be affectionate and righteous and wise. If we had any point of comparison for how Dooku's embittered desire for peace and justice has been warped into the pursuit of control and tyranny. It would hurt to see that formerly good man sentence Padmé to death as "just politics, my dear".

"This will start a war!" Padmé tells the man who helped her help her people once.

"I know," Dooku replies, with ominous satisfaction.

It would hurt to see Obi-Wan beg Dooku to stop this (a prelude to him begging Anakin in the next movie: "Anakin, please, I cannot lose you too!"), only for Dooku to attack and nearly kill him when Obi-Wan refuses to join him. It would hurt to see this grandfatherly figure cut off Anakin's hand, someone he knew and was kind to as a child. Seeing where Dooku fell from would also make everything about his fight with Yoda hurt more as well. We wouldn't have seen Dooku's struggles directly, offscreen in the time skip between TPM and AOTC, but this Fall would help prepare us for witnessing Anakin's Fall onscreen in "Revenge of the Sith", illustrate for us how power and grief corrupts, how the desire to take complete control and "start over" corrupts.

And all of this would also make Dooku's death in ROTS hurt more: to see Anakin execute an unarmed, injured man who had once been kind to him, who had once had good intentions a long, long time ago. We could have even had Dooku perhaps try to warn Anakin about Sidious, as the fear cuts through him as he realizes Sidious has betrayed him, only for Anakin to kill Dooku out of anger (Dooku is responsible for so much death, Palpatine reminds Anakin) just before the ruined man can finish speaking. Dooku's former goodness underlines Anakin's arrogance in thinking that his own fate will be any different.

The novelizations of the prequel films and other extended universe materials build up an image of Dooku's life as a Jedi and his Fall for us. We can assume and imagine a lot. We can retroactively apply knowledge gleaned from "The Clone Wars" with Dooku as a major villain. But ultimately, Dooku as a more sympathetic and emotionally relevant character is just not in the films.

When "Attack of the Clones" reveals to us: "Oh, no! Dooku has betrayed the Jedi Order and the Republic!" I think that most of the audience is like: "Gonna be real with you, chief, I have no idea who that is."

He's only been mentioned before once maybe? In Palpatine's office? Master Mundi assures Palpatine that Dooku is a good man (or something like that), but we have seen no evidence of this ourselves. This line mostly just becomes really funny on a rewatch, rather than poignant, because the prequel films audience only ever gets to see Count Dooku as a Sith Lord and rather underdeveloped villain. We don't ever get to see him be a "good guy" first. We're told but not shown.

The audience has no solid reason to care that Dooku specifically has betrayed the Order, as opposed to any random Jedi, because we haven't seen him before at all, much less interacting with any of our protagonists or establishing himself as an opinionated player within the story. Which is a shame! Because he has strong opinions that stand in interesting ideological conflict with so many other characters, generating fun and dramatic exchanges! He has direct connections to and parallels with other characters! He's potentially a really useful storytelling tool within these films, and his character just doesn't get used to that full tragic potential.

In conclusion...? I wish I'd actually been sad when Dooku betrayed everyone and died at Anakin's hand, instead of mostly just confused and then vaguely pitying. I want to see some of the love between characters beforehand, so that it hurts more effectively when that love turns to hate.

[utilitycaster]

It's become stunningly clear with this most recent episode that Imogen and Laudna's insularity, mistrust of everyone else in the party, and refusal to take responsibility for their actions is at the heart of the disconnect and lack of bonding within Bells Hells. It is not the only reason - I think Orym's constant smoothing over of issues in the interest of forward motion has certainly exacerbated the situation - but it's a significant and unavoidable factor. I'm hoping that while the actual exercises of the team-building probably won't themselves fix the issues this party has, addressing the various secrets that are now out, specifically the ones that touch on issues that affect the functioning and dynamics of the entire group, actually might.

As this post notes, their unwillingness to question each other or develop any conflict resolution with each other means they tend to, even if unwittingly, dogpile the rest of the group by acting as a singular voice. In a small conflict-averse group, this tends to constantly overwhelm the conversation. This is worsened by Imogen's psychic abilities, which permit her to glean information about the others without the need to have a conversation; it means the others in the party frequently start with two votes against them before they've even said anything.

They also both suffer from a pretty profound lack of boundaries. Again, Imogen's psychic abilities are invasive, frequently unwelcome, and often lead her to both jump to conclusions and to police the behaviors of others without considering their actions nor giving them any chance to have a full conversation. It also means she controls what information the rest of the party knows, as her interpretation of someone else's mental state is the only thing they're given when she reads someone's mind. Laudna, meanwhile, is extremely quick to trust, while also taking any deception as profound betrayal. As a result, they both tend to take a hot-or-cold approach to the others in the party based on the other person's most recent thought or action. They are prone to black-and-white thinking and snap judgments, which, as the next paragraph indicates, has serious ramifications.

Imogen and Laudna are terrible about actually talking to people and getting anything out in the open. This includes each other; again, see their frequent unquestioning support or the claim that their relationship defies words (which it does not; as of last episode this has culminated in Imogen revealing that, in fact, she is disgusted by a fundamental reality of their relationship, which is absolutely not something that can be addressed without a pretty intense conversation.) We also see this in how they've taken Fearne's choice not to take the shard. While, arguably, they had heard Fearne express her concerns about the shard to Morri by the time of the honesty exercise (which would make their behavior even worse), even if they hadn't, that's two voices shaming her for without hearing her side of the story. It's in sharp contrast with Chetney, who also expresses his disappointment with Fearne in episode 3x78, but immediately follows it up by asking her why she didn't want it. Imogen and Laudna never take it upon themselves to ask her how she feels or why she made that choice and let her explain; they jump straight to judgement.

That failure to ask ties into the final element of why they are the weak point in Bells Hells' communication: they are just as guilty as Ashton of "violent projection of responsibility", but unlike Ashton have not realized the depth of this flaw and the consequences it has not just on their own life but on the others in the party. This is less of an issue with Imogen with regards to Bells Hells (in fact one might argue she takes far too much responsibility in that she apparently sees policing the party on the basis of their thoughts to be her duty, though I would note that unattuning the circlet leaves her, the person with the clearest ties to the Vanguard, vulnerable to the powers of others within the organization) and far more so with the gods, from whom she apparently expects instant gratification. However, this is at the core of Laudna. It's true that she is by no means the only powder keg within the party; Chetney and FCG's abilities are also dangerous. However, one must take into account that Laudna has been aware of Delilah's presence for, as she has repeatedly stated, over three decades now, and only now realized the implications thereof, whereas Chetney became a werewolf less than a year ago and immediately took steps to mitigate the threat he posed, and FCG only learned of their condition within the past few months. Like Chetney, she has learned to remove herself from situations in which she could pose an immediate threat, but that slow learning curve and lack of proactivity is not promising for the future. It's also true that, keeping all other circumstances identical, the impact of Laudna's loss of control is far more dangerous. If Chetney bites someone or FCG attacks, unless they kill someone, the damage and curse can be undone and the power within them is unchanged. The same is not true with regards to what happens if Delilah makes Laudna absorb a magical item or a soul.

While everyone in Bells Hells shares some responsibility for the current state of affairs, Imogen and Laudna are without a doubt the primary source of toxicity. I think the others have become aware that they are in an environment in which Imogen is likely to either shoot them down, read their minds nonconsensually, or make insensitive suggestions, and that Laudna will nod along next to her as she does. It does not feel coincidental that Fearne chose not to voice her concerns and that Ashton avoided the group conversation entirely. This again does not absolve Ashton or Fearne of their deception of the party, but it does explain why they might feel an honest conversation is impossible. Unpacking what was said during the Honesty exercise might finally allow Bells Hells to excise this rot and to begin a new era of group conversations in which everyone feels they can say what needs to be said without fear, but it will be an effort to be sure.

Because it's me, I think it's worth noting that the fandom emphasis on absolving Imogen and Laudna of any accountability (which I've spoken about at length and have had on my radar for a long time now) is obviously not the cause of this behavior in-game, but does echo it in interesting ways. I'm not sure I would have realized the extent to which they evade responsibility in-game without this mentality being so prominently in the fandom. It explains why they are never expected, by many fans, to even achieve as minor a task as "asking Fearne how she feels instead of letting their own feelings dominate what they think she should do", let alone set boundaries for each other. But ultimately, that is the key: I think the only way for this party to achieve the trust they need is through the assertion of those boundaries. When Bells Hells know that they have the freedom to disagree with each other without being accused, dogpiled, ignored, or told to get it together, only then will they be able to actually come to true consensus rather than the fragile and tenuous teamwork they have had so far.

[loverofstufflof]

Black Myth: Wukong rant because I’m just… so tired of you people.

I hate the community this game has cultivated. I hate looking through the tags and seeing people tearing each other apart over a game based on a story I love.

There’s two stances:

Those who say that merely interacting with the game is in support of all the terrible things the developers have (allegedly) done. Who parade accusations that many have stated were mistranslated and that the situation is far more complicated than it appears.

Those who mock the former by making a straw man of their concerns while simultaneously displaying their misogyny, racism, homophobia, and general traits that make it clear they’ve never touched a woman in their life.

One is slightly more tolerable than the other. Neither make me feel welcome in enjoying this project I’ve been looking forward to for years.

I will be talking more about purple, because I don’t speak Chinese, and feel that I have no authority speaking too much on orange.

Purple people are beyond insufferable.

I think that most of this came from a Screen Rant review that listed one of the game’s flaws as “a lack of diversity.” This is an accurate analysis, and has been warped beyond belief.

I can understand the outrage… a bit. When playing a game surrounding Chinese culture, in which you play as an inhuman character fighting equally inhuman enemies, it doesn’t make too much sense to request racial representation. And when there isn’t any romance, representation for sexual orientations also wouldn’t work. Including anything in those merit would feel forced and out of place, I agree.

But you wanna know what the reviewer wrote?

She was concerned about the lack of women.

She felt unwelcome when playing a game made by rumoured misogynists because there were no women at all.

And she explicitly said that the game was still enjoyable despite this.

She gave it such a “low score” (3/5) because of the performance issues and repetitiveness. By her own rating, the game was listed as “Worth a shot despite its flaws.”

Everything got so bad they had to take down her name for her safety.

People in the purple category took this review to mean that the “woke left” was “pushing an agenda” and “trying to cancel this game for not having pansexual nonbinary black people.” Which, as I’m sure you can now understand, was not the case. The boycott surrounding this game is purely based on accusations targeted towards the developers, not the game’s content.

Of course, I don’t expect many of the aforementioned people in this category to care too much. I’ve seen the Steam reviews where they praise the lack of women. I’ve read the Reddit threads where they feel grateful that there’s “finally a company who understands the male authority.” I’ve scrolled through post after post on Tumblr that “no one would want to play a game where females jiggle their tits around while doing nothing.”

That last one gets me. It’s really telling what you can learn about a person when they say things like that.

The point is, these people make me feel very unwelcome in a community that previously made me most comfortable.

So let’s recap:

The people who I would find community with are portraying the mere interest in this game as a sin that’s worthy of being blocked and shamed over, and the people who are actually in this community remind me why I’m terrified to walk alone.

I have a lot more that I want to say on this, but I don’t really have the words quite yet, and still need to do a fair amount of research (which I probably won’t be doing because holy shit I’m so done with this). Maybe I’ll come back and add some more, but for now I just might block the tag entirely.

I just feel shitty ‘s’all ʅ（◞‿◟）ʃ

[myun-saidthoughts]

8TH House Synastry VS 12TH House Synastry

(More Info In my eBook)

The main difference between the 8th and 12th house is that with 12th house synastry, it may be hard for one another to fully know where they truly stand with each other, and the planet person (or the one who has more Pisces/Neptune/12th house influence) might create false narratives or fixate on the desire of saving the house person, and the house person may not know how to respond or won't know how to really articulate how the planet person makes them feel; especially if they feel uncomfortable within their own mind/spiritual self.

12TH House

This post focuses exclusively on a 12th house relationship between two kind and evolved individuals. While there are other darker themes associated with 12th house synastry — such as deception, substance abuse, hidden affairs (like being the other woman or mistress), lies about one partner’s true nature, or fear that one partner is withholding information or their true self — I won’t be discussing those here. I might explore those themes in a future post, as they are important to note, but for now, my main focus will not include those themes.

“Though I barely know you, it feels as if I do. Your eyes and body language seem to speak your thoughts, even the ones I can’t fully grasp. There’s no visible thread connecting us, yet this feeling remains.” — Planet Person

With this synastry, it's likely that the planet person will constantly question and imagine the relationship. It is blurry and somehow the energy between the two of them becomes boundless and confusion can erupt. Both can experience showing up in each others dreams, both can overpower each others thoughts, and they both might find themselves sitting in unexplainable synchronicities that tie themselves to one another.

(Allowing and accepting this energy is the only culprit for deep mutual spiritual occurrences to happen, both parties have to want one another on some level; if not, unrequited love can occur, where one person is emotionally unavailable or distant and the other person has this innate drive to fix, save or love their soul in hopes of healing all of their flaws, which in most cases than not, impossible)

To add, the individual (usually the house person) who struggles with accepting their shadow self may experience a persistent sense that their partner is invasive or somehow withholding important information from them. If they are uncomfortable with embracing this energy, they may perceive it as a violation of their privacy and have an aversion to such intrusiveness from the other person. Now with the other person (usually the planet person) who is more spiritually inclined and open may always question where they stand with them. A part of the planet person is able to just feel how the house person feels (without words) and yet there's no solid, tangible reason to justify or clarify those thoughts or feelings that the planet person has towards them. The house person will ask themselves, "can they actually heal and erase my pain, or will their presence cause me more?"

Both might experience an underlying uncertainty about the true intentions of the other person; making it difficult to discern their genuine feelings or motives. As a result whoever is more affected by this type of intensity might constantly question the authenticity of their relationship, fear might seep in since there's a quiet voice in the back of their mind just whispering to them a false truth they can't make go away, especially if there is a lack in communication or open honesty between the two individuals.

In the extreme sense of it, the intensity of this dynamic can be amplified by an underlying presence of lies or deception, which in turn may affect the relationship. Secrets may become a recurring theme, causing both individuals to hold back certain aspects of themselves or their lives. These secrets may not necessarily be intentionally created, but could arise from external circumstances.

On one side of the spectrum the planet person can either fixate on healing any inner mental struggles the house person subconsciously holds onto. This can become one sided if the other person feels they don't need to be "saved" or "fixed," they might look at them in confusion, wondering what the planet person is holding onto, why they won't let them go, or why they have this drive to heal aspects of them they (the house person) isn't even aware or comfortable with.

So, the shadow side of this synastry depends on the individual. That itself would better showcase how intense 12th house synastry will manifest for each individual. If one is not used to being completely seen past the 3D (for both parties involved), then this would cause uncomfortability. If one is spiritually open and aware about how deep and ethereal this type of love can become, then the chances of dealing with deception or confusion is less likely.

Another aspect that this synastry may manifest is the inclination to hold onto this connection because the house person may believe that the planet person genuinely sees the real them even before they could fully see themselves (but it can also be vice versa; depends). If both are accepting of this love, the planet person can accurately read the house person and vice versa, words are not a necessity when it comes to the two of them, the planet person will know the house person's exact deep rooted innate fears before the house person was even aware they had any. The house persons presence just screams to the planet person's all of their inner mental challenges, and all the planet person wants to do is heal that part of them, the planet person will just know what their soul needs to hear and they want to give the house person that care and reassurance (especially if the planet person has strong attraction on their end/have natal 12th or Pisces placements).

This bond (when wanted on both ends) can create a soul binding connection where the house person would feel like no one else can ever understand them the way the planet person can. No one else would be able to read them like the book they secretly are, no one else can look into their eyes and bring solace into their bones, which in-turn can cause the dynamic between them to consistently become something that is impossible to let go of. How do you let go of the one soul who speaks to the parts of you that you don't even know?

They'll both feel that they've known each others souls before, leaving them to hang on and stay even if it gets destructive. If the energy between them both lack, then constant wavering thoughts and "what if's" can take over, and when the energy between the two of them feels grounded, that type of love is unbeatable and can feel ethereal. The overwhelming level of unexpressed intimacy between the two of them can be especially intense for someone who isn't accustomed to experiencing such boundless love.

Everything is unsaid but between them, there’s just a given understanding of each others inner mental struggles and pain, and having that kind of depth can bring in fear of what it would mean if this person leaves. Therefore self-sabotaging or escapist attitudes can occur, leaving this relationship to enter a side neither of them truly wants.

Be conscious and aware that (especially if you have 12th/Pisces house placements), a part of you wants to be seen without having to say a word, a part of you wants to feel connected to someone mind, body, and soul; and so with that brings in the intensity of this synastry and could be the reason why you choose to stay with someone that can ignite these feelings in you.

(In general to fully grasp how 12th house synastry can manifest, a deeper analysis is usually needed, by understanding your chart and your persons. I have an eBook that perfectly describes and answers almost any question about 12th house synastry so if you'd be interested in learning more about that, the link is pinned on my page).

8TH House

With the 8th house, it is an engulfing type of love. A clear and known relationship with deep intense feelings and emotions. You see it, other people see it and it’s hard to control and hard to let go of.

Usually, instantly, the house person is aware that the lack of planet person will feel like the worst loss there is, but they'll remain indifferent to that consequence. The house person can’t hide their feelings toward planet person, and they can't help but allow their feelings to flood out into the open. They want to showcase their undying desire to have the planet person because the want for them is the deepest thing the house person has have ever felt. A look from them rushes in emotion the house person never knew was possible. This synastry makes the house person accept any and all flaws that they have, and because of that, the loss of them can feel like they are losing a part of themself that they've always wished they could fix.

Nothing is hidden when it comes to this type of synastry, the feelings that preserve can’t help but be outwardly known by everyone in the vicinity of them. The threshold of the vulnerability that the planet person creates in the house person is untouchable. For the house person, nothing else matters but the planet person, and even though they are painfully aware about how transformational the planet person's absence will be, they'll stay anyway.

In another sense of this, if one or both of you struggle with insecurities/fears or have self-worth/value issues then the dynamic between you can erupt power struggles and control issues. The type of control and need one might have depends on how deep the internal pain the individual has (more info in my eBook).

The planet person gives the house person this serene and peaceful feeling where the house person finally can fully accept themself, so if the planet person leaves their presence. the house person will feel a pain that's worse than death; and the culprit behind that is because of fear. Constant battles of power/trust may emerge between the two of them. They' both might share this jealousy that they didn’t know was even possible and especially because without the planet person the house person won’t feel this specific “high” and that alone creates the intense need for them even more.

This intimacy is deep, almost instant, it can't be a lighthearted connection, their actions and the expectations you expect them to uphold too will create these high and lows you can't escape.

Loops and cycles are likely to occur, you will constantly go through ego deaths; you let go of them then you can't, you say you don't miss them then you do.

The love and hate spectrum is constantly wavering over your head, their smallest action can create a ripple effect of intense emotion, you start to depict every thing they have said or done to you, leaving you to go back and fourth with wanting them; to wanting nothing to do with them.

A part of the house person knows that the lack of them would disrupt their peace, yet their soft touch brings them the sense of wholeness and home they've only ever wished they had. If both are accepting of this type of love, they can elicit both the best and the worst aspects of each others character, and if the love for themself is lower than the desire to be loved; they won't be able to walk away.

(Who ever struggles with self love/self value/self worth/or have a broken attachment style because of past partnerships or parents OR has strong Scorpio in their natal chart/8TH house placements/Pluto influence will feel this type of synastry deeply)

This synastry needs desire and attraction on both ends to fully feel the effects of this kind of love, unrequited love can still occur and obsession/obsessiveness can happen on BOTH ends if each person just allows this type of energy in when both of your souls meet

While both types of synastry can bring in intense desire and lust, the differences exude in the type of person you are at your core. The healing (or lack there of) will dictate what type of relationship you'll experience when it comes to this individual.

Moving on or learning to change bad patterns is difficult but through the process of understanding your souls needs, everything else will follow.

(Understanding exact transits, synastry aspects or house overlays between you two will help you better understand if the person you're with share these karmic ties more info in my eBook and the link to purchase is pinned on my page)

[riemoi]

Twisted Wonderland Royalty Au

It's the fishes time!

Tw: Yandere, Ooc?, Cringey

Reader has no gender

OctaVinelle Characters, SavannaClaw Characters, Heartslabyul characters

Summary - You are royalty of a nation that each year holds a festival for all to come and enjoy. Guests are coming from everywhere to celebrate this joyous event! Even the sea.

Relationship with the kingdom — The wonderful kingdom of the sea. After the whole mermaid lady coming to land and marrying a dude happened. The sea kingdom has been making friends with every nation they can. Yours included. Despite the king and queen of the nation being known for always meaning well. Their people are known for being cunning, two faced assholes. who’s only motivation for doing anything is greed or maybe that's just the business fishes. Actually, no. It’s probably just them.

Azul Ashengrotto - Representative

Ah, Azul. Where do I begin with him? Do you hate him or love him? You honestly don’t know. I mean, you know every person has flaws and goods no matter the species. But this man. Oh, this man. Let’s start off from when you first met him. You were nine at the time. Your parents always forced you to greet the guests that would be staying at the castle for the festival. Azul was with his family. They own a famous restaurant under the sea and came to serve food from said place for the festival. He was much different from now, he was more anxious, friendly, and sad. But most importantly he was cute! He had a cubby soft frame. Even back then you had to resist the temptation to hug and squeeze him. You guys didn’t interact much. Usually only having short moments together. But now. My god! He wouldn’t leave you alone. Unlike back then where he worked in the kitchen now he was a representative of the sea kingdom. Being successful in climbing the ranks. He now had time to bombard you with deals, advice and contacts that you should sign. (According to him)It annoyed you mostly because you don’t know how to feel about him. He was terrible. But admirable at the same time. Working hard to climb to the top, never stopping not no matter what takes. Even using people. You loved but hated that cunning smile where everyone always knew he was planning something but never what. Hey! Guess what! Did you know that, that! Mindset it the same one he uses for you. Can you guess how many disgusting, vomit inducing, ungodly worms he had stepped on just to be talking to you right now. To be able to walk through the door of your house and get to see you. No! No, you don’t. After all, you still insist on not signing the contract. Like come on, my precious shining pearl. Sign the marriage contract! He worked so hard to be here before you. Hurting so many people. Just to be able to catch a glimpse of you again. In my personal opinion dearest, I worked my ass off hard enough to be not just standing in front of you kneeling at ur feet but rather standing at your side as you rightful partner! As a child I knew when I first saw you sitting on your father’s throne, even if you were just playing. I knew right then and there that I was meant to be in the other one. (Your mother’s throne.) So excuse me rudeness but why is the one that should be kneeling kissing your feet. Standing right beside you? You aren’t going to choose that leech over him right? You cannot leave me. I refuse! So…please don’t go. Talk to me! Smile at me! Praise me! Not him.

Jade Leech - Butler? 

Jade and you officially met two years ago. At first you thought he was just an employee under Azul because he acts like the typical butler. But he isn’t. Jade is a picture perfect butler in every aspect. Might you say one “hell of a butler”.(lol get it…pls laugh) until Auzl mentioned his past with the twins and that Jade has always acted that way. You felt bad that you had just assumed he and his brother were servants and didn’t introduce yourself. Then Auzl mentioned his last name. Your face fell in horror. You dropped what you were doing and started running to the twins room. With Auzl yelling for you. You knew the leech family as they were famous for being related to the mafia or so people believed. In fact, one time the Leech’s asked for you to come to their son's birthday because they wanted to play with you, but your parents turned it down because your kingdom was dealing with important stuff. You finally made it to their room, knocking on the door Jade answered shortly after. You then introduced yourself and apologized to him. With a laugh he introduced himself too and that was the start to your guys friendship. He is quite a lovely person to be around if you turn a blind eye to his weird habits. He would save you from Floyd, go on nature walks, and even help with your work. You liked having him at your side. He likes it too, of course. He was not really interested in you at first, he mostly was interested in the effect you had on his brother. He still remembers the day before their birthday when his parents sent an invitation to your family at Floyd’s command request, never had his brother had and still hasn’t thrown such a tantrum before after hearing that you weren’t coming. But now… now he knows why his brother was so upset because hell, does he want you. He wants you so bad that he doesn’t know if he could share with Floyd. It’s just the way you react to things, the way you dress, the way you struggle with some of your work, it’s just you are so fascinating and beautiful. He doesn’t mind being a butler for you a bit longer as long as you make it worthwhile and you make him yours at the end and not his brother. I don’t want to see my brother as a rival but if he keeps clinging to you like that he just might have to take you away sooner but the way he makes Auzl feel just by standing next to you is just hilarious. Ok, just don’t be with his brother more than him. “Floyd you might break their bones if you squeeze that tight”.

Floyd Leech - A Leech

You also met this thing two years ago. He would leech onto you like crazy. If he wasn’t around you then he was around Riddle and heaven forbid if you two were together. My dude is everywhere, It’s scary. Usually when you're with people you would pray that they wouldn’t get bored of you. But with him! You were praying he would stop giving a fuck about you. That amount of times he would almost squeeze you to death is not even funny. You will always remember the first time he came to the festival, he was with you all time. Always muttering about not wanting to lose you or something? And when you were out of his sight even for a second! He would throw a tantrum, only stopping when he could see you. Not even his Jade could stop him. Anyway he is  just an annoying not so little bug in your ear. Though he was fun. The only thing you could predict was when he would make Riddle mad. Other than that you didn’t know what he would do next, making for annoying but fun adventures with him. Him on the other hand is always having the time of his life with you. Unlike you meeting him two years ago Floyd met/saw you at the age of ten at a firework show. Yearly a firework show happens on a beach by the coral sea for both merpeople and land people to enjoy. You went as a kid after begging your parents to bring you. That when Floyd saw you were playing by the water collecting shells. After a while of just watching you he decided to bring shells from the water, taking the shells to the shore. He was about to throw them at you to get your attention when his parents called for him. He didn’t listen till Jade grabbed him, dragging him back to his parents. Ever since then he's been trying to meet you. Throw tantrums every failed attempt, not now. He is going to keep you at his side for eternity. You're too entertaining not to. He didn’t know why he was so insistent about meeting you. But now he knows why, you were meant to be by his side. He hates the idea of you leaving him, not being by him. So what do you do when you don’t want something to go? You stay by them forever. They can’t leave you if you never leave them. So of course it takes hours to get him to go home after the festival is over. “Hey shrimpy!” “What Jade.” “oh I’m squeezing them too tight? I don’t think so.” “You’re just jealous I’m hugging them.” I usually don’t get mad at Jade, look at what you do to me shrimpy. “Hey I know, let's go get food.” “I don’t like what that green guy made and since I’m on vacation I don’t have to listen to Azul!” “What do you mean you have work?” “No, you don’t.” “Because I said so.”

[randomlydreamingsblog]

Thinking about Kakashi and Sakura’s relationship in canon (no shipping) and how my perception is so much different than most people. Some claim he’s like a father figure to her. I strongly disagree because to be honest Kakashi didn’t really pay that much attention to Sakura during her genin days. Yes, he cared for her because she was his student but that was it.

His first impression of her was that she wasn’t so serious about being a ninja and that she cared more about her crush on Sasuke (a true Sakura fan know that it wasn’t exactly like that but I’m talking about his POV specifically).

He noticed she had a lot of potential (incredibly smart, great chakra control, great with genjutsu and he recognized that her will to fight was just as strong as Naruto’s). But that was also just that, throughout all part 1 there was no development or any scene that was focused only with the two of them (I know that it was the writing and also Sakura was meant to go to Tsunade anyways, but you know what I mean).

Actually he was a little rude to her sometimes, even though it was understandable why he did it. But he had very low expectations of her, in his own words “fragile little Sakura”

The OG Kakashi -even though he was an outstanding jounin and a great observer - could be a little judgmental and thought he knew better just because he was older and more experienced. But as he goes through his journey with Team 7, even though he was the sensei, he gradually realized how much he has learned from them. All of his 3 students made him reflect about his perspectives and actions in a way he never imagined he could. They help him heal and grow to be even better than he already was.

What I mean is that just like everybody else in the story, Kakashi also had his flaws and personality development (which to me only makes him even more interesting and relatable) and that’s what makes him such an amazing beloved character.

It’s a little weird how he had no idea on what kind of training Sakura was doing with Tsunade. He was so shocked about her new abilities and growth that infers they didn’t spent time or even talked to each other, that he had never checked on how she was doing, even though she was the only one his old students that stayed in Konoha for all those years.

And once again just like part one, he recognized all her potential but when it comes to real action, he doesn’t let her do much (but with Naruto he’s more than willing to include him, the writing is very contradicting and we all know it’s a little sexist, but anyways).

THIS right here is the moment that I think he really starts to SEE Sakura for who she really is. All of team 7 (him, Naruto, Yamato and Sai) had made a decision regarding Sasuke (go to the Raikage) without including her in the process and also hiding the truth about Itachi from her. I know that they wanted to protect her in a way, but we see how much Sakura hates being protected, all her hard training is exactly because she wanted to be a part of the team, not just watch them from their backs.

I like to think that his apology to her means more than just failing as a sensei on keeping the team together, but also failing at understanding her feelings and not taking her into consideration. From that moment on, especially in the war, we see moments of Kakashi defending her from Sasuke’s harsh words and finally including her on the final teamwork that successfully sealed Kaguya for example.

This moment when he reflects about the 3 of them really showcases how he has a completely different POV on them, meaning that he learned that he wasn’t always right about everything and how proud he was of them. It’s really beautiful how they all grew and matured together.

That’s why I could never consider Kakashi being a father figure, he was barely a teacher to her, and maybe that’s why it leaves an opening on shipping them later on (I’m not talking about the weird problematic people who ships them when Sakura is young, to me Kakasaku is only possible from the Blank Period forward, when she’s very much an adult).

Anyway this is only my interpretation of things, I’m just sharing it and I do not expect anything, I’m not really interested to know if people agree with it or not.

[bg3ficreviews]

The Wilted Dreams of Baldur's Gate series - BG3 Fic Review

Review by Apollo (@apollo-stories)

Good news, dear readers, after taking it outside and fighting the other reviewers in a Wendy’s parking lot, I have won the rights to review this wonderful collection with our favourite vampire, Astarion. 

Wilted Dreams Of Baldur’s Gate is a seven-part collection examining Astarion and Tav’s relationship across the game and post-canon written by author emicha on AO3. You can also find emicha here on Tumblr at @wilteddreamsofbaldursgate.

There’s something for everyone in this series with some fluffy slice of life here, a little angst there, and a generous portion of smut. The series beautifully explores the ups and downs of a relationship between two traumatised individuals trying to find healing and hope.

A note from the BG3FicReviews team: As always, mind the tags! Our review is continued below the fold due to the NSFW nature of the content in some of these works.

This incredible virtual photography of our favourite vampire spawn was taken by @astarielx over on Twitter. Shared here with her permission.

This collection reminds me of a Studio Ghibli movie. If you’d like, you can read it once and enjoy it for the warmth and romance of the domestic, mundane life. That said, However it speaks to the talent of the way the author has that they have managed to create a story that feels so effortlessly natural, yet still includes weight and depth to both the characters and the plot is truly remarkable.

The series begins with You, Blinding Like The Sun. 

We dive into Astarion’s feelings and conflict in the early days of his relationship with Tav. The feelings are new, and difficult to manage. We can see some initial comparisons with Cazador here as Astarion sees Tav as some perfect being he cannot hope to emulate, someone superior to him. He creates his own power imbalance because he doesn’t know any other option. Astarion has been shoved into the sunlight both literally and figuratively. Overwhelmed by the situation he finds himself in, his immediate response is to lash out. 

As their journey progresses, however, this balance shifts. The author shows the reader the imperfections in both characters and how their relationship adjusts around those personal flaws. 

Astarion decides that Tav is someone he wants to have alongside him through the blinding difficulty and the imperfections. It’s a wonderful beginning to a well-rounded relationship. 

The following two works - Steady Hands, Frame My Love and A Gift That Keeps On Giving - focus on the developing relationship between Astarion and Tav. More specifically, the author demonstrates how the pair navigate complicated situations together. 

The reader sees Astarion’s flaws and Tav’s love for him because of them (rather than in spite of them), with Astarion mirroring the sentiment about the ever imperfect Tav.

You can also see Astarion’s healing with the way he views Tav. There is little focus on appearance, more on the smaller inflections and imperfect edges. After Astarion was used for his good looks so many times, this is a refreshing contrast. The reader can see this in several of the works; as the relationship develops, we can see how they prioritise each other over appearances every time. 

This collection was surprisingly relaxing to read. The work Darling, Mind if I Enjoy Myself? is a lovely smutty treat with no small amount of teasing and fluff. It’s easy enough to enjoy for the smut alone, but a deeper read reveals the depth of their affections for one another and just how much the pair enjoy being together. They are in love, and every moment is drawn out as they relish every moment.

Starlit Skirts is the end of the timeline of this series, but it is not the final story. It’s a beautifully sweet climax, with a lovely surprise at the end. 

The sixth work in the series, The Scent of Missing Buttons, is actually a prequel to the previous five, and touches on the night Astarion was taken by the nautiloid. 

In the prequel, the author shows us Astarion’s life as Cazador’s spawn. Astarion’s trauma is made manifest, reflecting how deeply he has been dehumanised, even to himself, to the point that he scolds himself for not grovelling enough in front of his abuser and tormentor. We are introduced to a version of Astarion that has been shattered into a thousand different pieces over the past two centuries. 

Once you’ve read The Scent of Missing Buttons, the entire story unfurls like a flower in bloom. The writer has sewn links and connections into each work like the pearls on a wedding dress, and you can enjoy finding each Easter egg on your re-read (which I highly recommend). For example, you’ll find a change in sentence structure and shorter paragraph length in The Scent of Missing Buttons. It reflect Astarion’s dissociation and disconnection while under Cazador’s command, his mind numb, focusing only on what is necessary to his survival. In contrast, once Astarion meets Tav, the author’s writing becomes increasingly descriptive and poetic as Astarion starts to see the world with new eyes. The Author’s work is a fascinating example of how even something as simple as formatting and sentence structure can convey depth and nuance. 

As a character, Astarion is remarkably malleable, and I’ve yet to find an interpretation of him that I don’t enjoy. His journey towards a healthy romance with Tav makes for a beautiful story with a great deal of depth, akin to a thousand fragile threads linking together with the strength of steel and creating a beautiful tapestry of their love for one another. 

With the work’s excellent depiction of Astarion’s struggle to survive, his panic in a new relationship and the active choice he makes to choose loving Tav over fearing Cazador, I would happily read each chapter again and again.

Not to be outdone with the already excellent six works I've already mentioned, emicha has now added a seventh work (published only a few days ago) that I have yet to read, namely Springtime Caresses. If it is anything like its predecessors, I absolutely can't wait to sink my teeth into it.

We have included a snippet of the first work in the series below for your enjoyment. As always, please remember to support the author's work with comments and kudos. 🫶

----------------

You, Blinding Like the Sun

He despises you.

From the moment Astarion first laid eyes upon you—confident, selfless little elf, blinding like the sun—he has despised you. You with your dazzling golden eyes, the sweet flush on the tip of your pointy ears. Your artfully arranged hair, kissed by the sun to make it shine like fine silk. The cute little freckles sprinkled all over your unmarred skin—skin that has never been touched by undesired hands. You who lived long enough to choose a name for yourself—to make a name for yourself.

How he despises all of it.

The way you win anyone over with nothing but an honest smile; the sheer purpose in your every step. That nasty confidence of yours that isn't some skill you ever needed to acquire because, to you, it comes all-natural, of course—you were born with it. Astarion can tell it's true because he’s spent two centuries mimicking the behaviour of people just like you.

And he despises you for it.

Before you were even born, the gods have bestowed their gifts on you, and here you are, not even knowing what power you hold, how very blessed you are. You wouldn’t even care if you knew, because the fact of the matter is that you have no need for gods nor gifts nor skills. Not when people gravitate towards you as if you have hung the stars. And how dreadfully inviting you always are, so very accommodating.

You can find the entire series here on AO3.

Review edited by Aivu (@aivuthedragon).

[thepringlesofblood]

Ayda Aguefort character sheet!

I went through FHSY transcripts and wrote down every spell she used and figured out what level she was and made a full character sheet for my beautiful wife, Ayda Aguefort.

Actual character sheet and plaintext description below the cut: here's how I figured it out.

Ayda has one (1) 7th level spell slot, and presumably no 8th level spell slots, since she can only cast Teleport once per day. This puts her at either 13th or 14th level, the only difference being that at 14th level, Divination wizards get "Greater Portent", aka an extra Portent roll per long rest. Looking through the transcripts, she never uses more than 2 portent rolls per long rest, so we will assume she is 13th level.

In terms of background, "Sage" makes the most sense. Like, you roll to determine your “specialty” and one of the options is librarian. She’s gotta be a sage. This gives her proficiencies in arcana and history, two languages of choice, and the "Researcher" feat - “When you attempt to learn or recall a piece of lore, if you do not know that information, you often know where and from whom you can obtain it." Extremely in character

Wizards pick 2 proficiencies from Arcana, History, Insight, Investigation, Medicine, and Religion. I picked Investigation & Medicine, since she already gets Arcana and History from "Sage".

Spells are tricky - I included every spell she uses in the series, but wizard spellbooks are weird in that there's kind of no limit to the amount of spells you can know, the limit is just on how many you can prepare. You automatically learn two new spells per level, so I went through and added other spells (in italics) up to the minimum amount of spells she would know, and then made a list of other spells that seem likely for her to know, or that you could switch in if you like. she does fully live in a library so like. who knows what she could know?

Also, there's a spell she uses during the fight aboard the Goldenrod that sounds a lot like Steel Wind Strike, though it isn't 100% confirmed, so I put a question mark next to it. We also don't know what exact spell she was going to use to "flood hell" - I chose Tidal Wave because it seemed most likely, but it could also be a spell of her own invention.

Final product below the cut!

the reason these don't have image IDs is bc I'm putting the IDs after the images bc there's so much text. also sorry the resolution's shit i don't know why that happened it looks fine on my computer. also i don't know how passive wisdom works im sorry its probably just her normal wisdom (11)??

image/page 1:

Character Name: Ayda Aguefort

Class & level: Wizard (Divination) 13

Background: Sage

Player name: bleem

Race: half-phoenix

Alignment: Lawful neutral

Experience points: [blank]

Ability scores Str 18 (+4) Dex 15 (+2) Char 16 (+3) Int 20 (+5) Wis 11 (+0) Con 14 (+2)

AC 14

Proficiency bonus: +5

Inspiration: [blank]

Initiative: +2

Hit point total: 72

Hit dice: 13 d6 Speed 80

Saving throws:

Strength: +4

Dex: +2

Con: +2

Int: +10 (proficient)

Wis: +5 (proficient)

Cha: +3

Skills

Acrobatics: +2

Animal Handling: +0

Arcana: +10 (proficient)

Athletics: +4

Deception: +3

History: +10 (proficient)

Insight: +0

Intimidation: +3

Investigation: +10 (proficient)

Medicine: +5 (proficient)

Nature: +5

Perception: +0

Performance: +3

Persuasion: +3

Religion: +5

Sleight of Hand: +2

Stealth: +2

Survival: +0

Passive Wisdom: [blank]

Languages: Common, Phoenix, + two others of your choice from Sage background (I chose Infernal & Elvish)

Personality Traits: amazing

Ideals: [blank]

Bonds: Fig (paramour), Adaine (best friend), Kristen, Fabian, Riz, Gorgug (transitive best friends), Garthy (parental figure/guardian/adopted child of a previous incarnation of herself), Arthur Aguefort ("father")

Flaws: [blank]

Features & Traits:

Flight (see: Half-Phoenix)

Fly speed = 80

Fire Immunity (see: Half-Phoenix)

Ayda is immune to all fire damage

Portent (Div. lvl 2) - roll 2 d20 at the end of each long rest. You can replace any attack roll, saving throw, or ability check made by you or a creature that you can see with one of these rolls (once per turn)

Expert Divination (Div. lvl 6) - When you cast a divination spell of 2nd level or higher using a spell slot, you regain one expended spell slot. The slot you regain must be of a level lower than the spell you cast and can't be higher than 5th level

Third Eye (Div. lvl 10) - choose one of the following benefits, which lasts until you are incapacitated or you take a short or long rest. You can't use this feature again until you finish a short or long rest.

- Darkvision: You gain darkvision out to a range of 60 feet

- Ethereal Sight: You can see into the Ethereal Plane within 60 feet of you.

- Greater Comprehension: You can read any language

See Invisibility: You can see invisible creatures and objects within 10 feet of you that are within line of sight.

Attacks & Spellcasting

[formatted like] Name, ATK Bonus, Damage/Type

Fireball, +10, 8d6 fire (+1d6 per lvl)

Steel Wind Strike, +10, 6d10 force

Tidal Wave, dex save DC 18, 4d8 bludgeoning & prone if fail

Equipment: so many books

image/page 2:

Spellcasting Class: Wizard (Div.) 13

Spellcasting Ability: INT

Spell Save DC: 18

Spell Attack Bonus: +10

Prepared Spells Limit: 18

(spells in italics are speculative, based on the min # of wizard spells she would have at this level. the rest are canon. feel free to add or subtract as desired!)

Cantrips (lvl 0)

Prestidigitation

Message

Mage Hand

Mending

Control Flames

other potential cantrips: Lightning Lure, Dancing lights, Minor Illusion

Spell Level 1

slots total: 4

Find Familiar

Synod

Protection from Evil and Good

Detect Magic

Shield

Ayda's Comprehend Subtext

Comprehend languages

Identify

Illusory script

Snare

Spell Level 2

slots total: 3

Invisibility

Enlarge/Reduce

Misty Step

Hold Person

Spell Level 3

slots total: 3

Sending (pirate)

Counterspell

Dispel Magic

Clairvoyance

Remove Curse

Fireball

Tongues

Tidal Wave

Spell Level 4

slots total: 3

Greater Invisibility

Banishment

Scry

Arcane Eye

Spell Level 5

slots total: 2

Steel Wind Strike (?)

Legend Lore

Spell Level 6

slots total: 1

True Seeing

Spell Level 7

slots total: 1

Plane Shift

Teleport

Spell Level 8 [blank]

other good potential spells: Unseen servant, Thunder wave, Tasha's hideous laughter, Knock, Locate object, Scorching ray, Shatter, Web, Animate objects, Symbol, Bigby's hand, Storm sphere, Control Wind, Mordekainen's Private Sanctum, Conjure Elemental, Dimension Door

Spell Level 9 [blank]

Flood Hell [level & specifics unknown]

image/page 3:

Character name: Ayda Aguefort

Age: 17 (present), over 300 (total)

Height: 6-7 ft

Weight: [blank]

Eyes: fire

Skin: dark brown

Hair: fire

Character Appearance

“A Resplendent, Beautiful Woman”

Digitigrade ankles

bird feet

golden talons

orange runic tattoos

books in bandoliers like guns

undercut: fire

wings: fire

ear cuff (from Fig)

resembles Arthur Aguefort, her father

Character Backstory

perfect :)

Allies & Organizations

Compass Points Library

The Bad Kids

The Gold Gardens (Garthy)

Fig & The Sig Figs

[a screenshot of Ayda's official junior year character art (standing), taken from her wiki page]

Additional features & traits

“a resplendent beautiful woman who from the knees down has large talons, she also has digitigrade ankles, she has those ankles that kind of kick back like a lot of animal feet do. So from the knees on down become these almost like metallic golden talons. She bears a striking resemblance to Arthur Aguefort the moment you look at her”

“She looks kind of harpy-esque until you realize that she does have arms in addition to wings. So she has these incredibly, and as they spread, deep red wings that as they approach the tips of the feathers sort of change into orange, and by the time they get to yellow, flicker in a little edge of flame on the outside of the wings. She's dressed in sort of like white linen pants with a pirate's sash on them. No guns or anything you can see. Sort of vest, a lot of sort of orange runes tattooed on her arms, you see that she has a short shock of red hair, it seems to be not on the sides or back as much, almost like a plume of red fiery hair that comes off the top of her head. And her eyes have pupils in them but are otherwise clearly roiling balls of flame.”

“You see that she does have two scrolls at the side on her bandolier, and similarly to the guy downstairs, but sort of like she has it on those leather harnesses you would have for guns, but it's two small books strapped under each arm.”

Treasure: [blank]

[wathanism]

Your ideals are going to kill people. The only thing refusing to vote is going to do is ensure that the republicans win and their project 2025 gets enacted. This is not a conspiracy theory. They want a theocracy. They want authoritarianism. They want fascism. You and everyone you convince to not vote is letting that happen.

I don't know who convinced you that its impossible to care about two things at once, but abandoning the vulnerable here in the states because you care so deeply about the vulnerable on the other side of the world doesn't make you more righteous.

Refusing to vote for him is a foolish act that will do nothing to stop what is happening. Even if he finally pulls back all aid for Israel at the eleventh hour, no one will vote for him now, which means the vulnerable right here at home are fucked. Thanks.

i was really close to not answering you at all because i have a hard rule about not talking with selfish cunts who are commited to misunderstanding everything a non-white person says to them. but since you had the good sense to realize that you were being an ass right then, i'm going to assume that you're worth engaging with, and i'm going to hope you'll talk with me in good faith and read everything i have to say rather than blow up at me again. if nothing else, i'm going to use this as an opportunity to say all the things i've been wanting to say since i made that post. that said, i'm real pissed and i'm not gonna be all nice and palatable in my answer.

first of all, no i'm not a US citizen. i live in west asia. y'know, where all the wars are? gaza is five hours away from my hometown of damascus, which is also being bombed with your tax dollars, by the way! in fact, i grew up living under a textbook authoritarian theocracy. so don't sit there and talk to me like i don't know what it's like to be afraid of your own government. we're in this shithole world together, and you and i are a hell of a lot more like each other than the politicians putting our lives on the line.

second of all, i should have been more clear about what i actually would like for US voters to do. contrary to small-minded liberals' assumptions, i'm not republican nor am i anti-voting. i'm saying people should vote third party. i even have a preferred candidate in mind, jasmine sherman. they even have strict and well-defined policies to protect trans rights and provide universal healthcare that includes gender affirming care and reproductive care.

this is usually the point when usamericans talk down to me like it's my first day on earth, so let me be clear. i know about the electoral college. i know about the flaws of the first-past-the-post voting system. i know about ranked-choice voting and why that's a better system in almost every way. i know that until there's drastic changes to the US voting system, there is no chance a third party candidate could even win. i'm not delusional about that. and i'm asking you to protest-vote anyway. which, yes, i realize is a big ask, but consider that this is a big fucking problem that requires pretty drastic actions.

several absolute dumbasses who i refuse to engage with said some very interesting stuff that made me realize why so many people are quick to dismiss the idea of refusing to vote for either major party. some examples:

they describe the push to vote third party as us lashing out at biden. in their eyes, we're not politically aware adults with a righteous passion for justice. no, we're petulant children causing problems for everyone whose rights actually matter. maybe a nicer person than me can give them the benefit of the doubt, but i find it extremely suspect that they truly seem to believe that non-white people are irrational, easily-angered, thoughtless creatures with no understanding of the complexities of the situation. there's a complete refusal to consider that there might be an actual coherent strategy behind the activism of indigenous and black people.

and again, because this is not my first day on earth, i know about the "but trump!!" argument. i honestly am BAFFLED that liberals seem to genuinely believe they're offering anything novel or valuable to the discussion at hand when they parrot talking points that we've been hearing since 2016 with quite literally nothing to show for it.

but i digress. the important thing is: yes, i fucking know. i know trump would have a near identical policy on gaza. he'd also have an identical policy on the police, on covid, on immigration, and on most other issues. you worry about project 2025, and you're right to! but the thing is, and you'll forgive me for quoting imani here but she is the most correct person ever always, "everything in project 2025 relies on biden doing exactly what he's fucking doing right now. the more successful this genocide is, the more likely project 2025 is to happen." because at the end of the day, it doesn't require a republican president. it requires a CONSERVATIVE president. and that's what biden is.

i don't know if you're missing it or if you don't care, but democrats benefit from you being terrified, and that's exactly why they'll never keep you safe. you will always be one election away from being killed by the system because that's what keeps you complicit. democrats won't shoot the gun, but they will ALWAYS make sure it's loaded and that you're trapped in a room with the person who'll shoot you. don't forget that roe v. wade was overturned on biden's watch. trans rights were rolled back on biden's watch. covid deaths skyrocketed and protections were dismantled on biden's watch. he'll find every loophole in the book to funnel weapons to israel's military but he'll never lift a finger to fix the problems ruining your life, because he needs you to be as scared as you are. that's exactly what's keeping you from showing an ounce of compassion or solidarity to palestinians right now. and no, your fucking lip service and crocodile tears don't count as solidarity.

liberals have managed to completely forget the most important lesson about social justice: none of us are free until all of us are free. you've been so busy yelling at arabs to even realize that this moment in time is one of the greatest pushes against the two-party system. do you not get how important that is? right now, when damn near everyone who's even mildly left leaning (and many who are right leaning) is so deeply unsatisfied with both major candidates, is the perfect time to be thinking of ways to break out of this system. to organize, to advocate for your mystical fucking ranked choice voting!

palestinians aren't asking you to lay down your life and throw away your human rights so they can mildly spite joe biden. they're asking you to grow a fucking spine and stand on principle and god damn DO SOMETHING to tear apart the two-party system. make people realize that a third party candidate IS a viable one, so that one day they can be.

you're framing this as a matter of pitting palestinians versus americans, which couldn't be further from the truth. maybe instead of directing your hate towards palestinians and their allies, show some gratitude. palestinians are uncovering the veil of all the atrocities and all the corruption in the world, and they're giving the people of the earth a banner to unite under. there have never been so many people (afaik, at least) pushing against the systems of corruption in america. that kind of thing ripples out. standing with palestine isn't easy, but all of our lives will be better for it, including and especially the lives of minorities living in the US.

there is so, SO much more i can say about palestine, and it will inevitably turn into a very spiritual rant about the uniting force of the holy land. but i'm instead just gonna leave you with this tweet that i think sums up everything about this.

[theweeklydiscourse]

What did Alina’s dream sequence in Siege and Storm signify for her character arc?

So there’s one scene in the grishaverse trilogy is especially puzzling to me. In fact, I find it so bewildering that if I ever got the chance to meet Leigh Bardugo and ask her a question in person, it would be: “What did Alina’s dream about the pony cart even mean? And what was your reasoning for writing it?”

Here is the scene in question:

I don’t actually think this scene is bad. In the right context, it informs the reader of some critical character details that prove to be significant later in the story. Also, it tells us a lot about Mal and Alina’s relationship. Firstly, it shows us that Mal loves Alina and imagines a future with her, he wants to solidify their relationship through marriage so they can always be together. But, it also demonstrates Mal’s flagrant disregard for Alina’s well-being when it comes to their relationship. The fact that he expresses a desire to marry Alina directly after Ana Kuya compares being a wife to being a donkey (or cattle) tells us how Mal is content with compromising on Alina’s well-being if it means they stay together.

It just seems so contrary to the actual ending. Why would you, as a writer, include this scene when it seems to make a case more against your endgame couple than in favour of it? Especially when the message from this dream is echoed later on in the book when Alina and Mal clash over her responsibilities to Ravka. Mal consistent in his negativity towards Alina’s powers. He is visibly in a better mood when she hides her abilities and becomes agitated when Alina is either using her powers or embroiled in matters concerning them.

You might brush off this scene as the ramblings of a little kid too young to understand what he’s saying. But since Mal is a fictional character, his actions and words (in whatever context) carry meaning that is linked to the greater themes of the story. Why have him say this if not to point out the major flaw that defines the Malina relationship?

Truthfully, Mal doesn’t know who he is without Alina. The two of them became each other’s everything when they were very young and have bound their identities to one another. Because they experienced tragedy very early in their lives, they cling to each other for safety to the detriment of their individual development. It makes sense, but this codependency is only ever romanticized by the narrative and is never examined critically.

The ideal conclusion of the Malina narrative would be the two of them finding independence and ceasing the sabotage of their current relationship. Because if they stay in their current state, they will never leave the meadow of childhood and remain trapped in a state of immaturity and underdevelopment.

There’s something to be said about Mal finding the courage to go in his own path and grow up into a fully fledged adult. His statement in this scene is a reflection of the childish attitude he maintains through his adolescence. It is demonstrative of a self-centred and codependent mentality Mal has and why he must outgrow it,

Except that never happens.

[butchxdaddy]

It seems like you're thinking of a partner as more of a therapist than a partner...

noo big difference, but there are similarities. i’ve seen a lot of avoidants have this response, where they are comfortable dumping trauma, work difficulties, family issues, past relationship issues, mental health issues, etc on partners but then when their partner has issues and goes through mental health crises, they leave them.

in therapy, there isn’t a mutual space. one person pays the other to listen, advise, validate, etc. the dynamic is inherently manipulative- you’re seeing the best part of someone. it is their job (and an important one). but there’s a reason couples therapists give out homework… the actual work is between the two partners

partners should also include this- but on a mutual level. there is space for both experiences. partnership should be safe spaces where forgiveness, healing, acceptance, and accountability exist. you don’t just dump emotional baggage on your partner then leave them the way you do a therapist. it’s a mutual experience, where you both share and work through emotional, mental, spiritual experiences together. sharing vulnerabilities and being there for one another during tough times is literally a major component in relationships.

even just in friendship, this should exist. whenever a friend of mine hurts me, i don’t point fingers that they’re a bad person. i reflect on why that happened, how they grew up, what i know about their past, what would have informed that response, why they maybe haven’t been feeling safe, etc. i communicate immediately (not wait a month to bring it up) and hold them accountable to hurting me while also extending forgiveness and empathy, thinking of the little kid that’s hurting inside them. if they’re willing to accept responsibility for their actions and can reflect on what’s going on, willing to work to do better- amazing! an opportunity for trust and growth :) if they fire back, blame shift, shut down, withdraw, etc- then that’s someone who isn’t emotionally available for growth.

therapy can help build, strengthen, and repair relationships- but only if those actions are also happening in the relationship. a partnership without active forgiveness, mutual healing, a desire to work to understand the other, & to become better partners for each other, isn’t partnership.

the perfect partner doesn’t exist. in reality, people fuck up. they hurt each other. those that love you will recognize this, take responsibility for it, and express a desire to do and be better. those that love you will stay. those that give up, that leave, that don’t own up to their mistakes, that can’t extend forgiveness, that don’t care to understand why their partner functions a certain way, that don’t care to heal and be better… those people aren’t built for real, authentic partnership.

so, to conclude.

there is a stark difference between leaning on your partner for support & having your relationship needs met by them vs having them be your therapist. unfortunately, many ppl who run more disorganized/avoidant can shut down when their partners need to rely on them and start showing their own wounds. then they will say “you didn’t want a partner, you wanted a therapist” … in reality, they wanted a partner who genuinely meant for better & for worse, who loved them enough to stay when it got hard & support healing- not be responsible for it. those people who shut down when their partner has emotional baggage, wounds, and flaws need to reevaluate what relationship means to them, what it looks like, and open up communication instead of withholding, ruminating, and withdrawing from their partner

[thoroq]

no because anakin was never dealt with a winning anything, my dude spent years as a slave’s kid working in the junk shop building droids as a form of fun.

i always enjoy the whole “Anakin just expected Obi-wan and Padmé to trust and listen to him?? Asshole” discourse because like… yeah??

not trying to self insert here but as a mentally I’ll individual 🫡 who in a fit of mania sometimes believes they are absolutely, 100% right and has the irrational thinking of; “im right, and you love me, you’re the person I love most, you should get it” & is totally irrationally emotional when they DONT, yeah… I GET THAT SIR!!

Even if it’s completely understandable, deep down I know they’re not at fault for not getting my own emotions, I’m in control of those — not others. I know this. Still, when my partner says something that goes against me it’s like nails against chalkboards sometimes

Again, when looking at Anakin he had nothing. He was a slave all his life, just to a different master each time. on Tatooine, to the Jedi/code, Palpatine and even to the Darth vader suit, he is never of his own free will. It was Qui-gon’s choice to win Anakin, to take him from his mother and home to what he thought would be a better life. granted it is, but he also finds himself isolated from what is imo what is supposed to be his “placeholder family”

MORE IMPORTANTLY Padmé is the love of his life, telling him that what he thinks they need, what he’s done for her and their family etc to be at peace/alive was actually WRONG!! BAD!! All meanwhile he doesn’t have any of his support at his side; Rex is off with ahsoka, obi-wan is fighting grievous on utpau meanwhile Palpatine has puppy Anakin at his every whim and call ((lets not forget that Palpatine had to have been grooming Anakin from a relatively young age)) They don’t get it, they didn’t see Padmé die before their very eyes, they don’t know what’s waiting them. Anakin is trying to save his family. Obi-Wan going against him is salt in the wound, even if Anakin himself knows it’s wrong and against the code and just completely evil.

I mean, Padmé FORGAVE him for the whole tusken massacre smh is it such a stretch to believe she would stand by his side as he waged war against the galaxy? i mean… isn’t that what love is…..? selfish, passionate, narcissistic, messy? she herself is a politician who often prioritized Anakin over her own duties I bet my man expected some “if you have a body in your trunk I’ll bring the shovel” type beat which also, i reiterate, WHY WOULDN’T HE when his wife forgave him for mass genocide, children included?,

he is emotionally/mentally fragile, he just recently slew younglings and killed Mace — you think this mf is thinking logically? Stop giving him the benefit of the doubt; he was a mess throughout the series, not once did he ever have his feet on the ground. He isn’t suddenly going to make the “right” decision, especially if it means sacrificing his loved ones. He’s an extremely flawed character, stop expecting him to make the right call.

The blocks of Anakin’s character have been set up to fall, Obi-Wan and Padmé are two of his most beloved relationships aside from his MOTHER that are completely dogging on his only hope of SAVING THEM. Anakin was never simply, “you have to do what I say or else I’ll get upset!” that’s a disrespect to his character — he can think logically. He isn’t a child. He is strategic, effective, in tcw he is the most efficient victorious warrior making Palpatine’s efforts look even better as leader of the republic. He builds droids from the time he is a young child all throughout his formative - adult years to the extent where knows how to understand their bleep bloops.

Anakin is flawed deeply, he was doomed from the get-go, never had a chance. His feelings are complex and deep and he questions the faith he swore to follow/protect. His character is so interesting to me and I have such a difficult time depicting the raw duality of man he wears on his shoulders everyday. Our desire to do good, yet to be evil; our desire to be unselfish, yet we are selfish.

This beautiful, scarred, monstrous mosaic of a man who from the very beginning, had a huge amount of pressure on him was meant to be so horribly dismantled. What other choice did he have? He is the chosen one, how could he be wrong? How could his idea of saving his family be any less honourable than the Jedi of the Galaxy?

He isn’t simply angry at them for not agreeing with him/falling with him, he feels betrayed. Personally. Obi-Wan and Padmé are pieces of Anakin, people that he loved so fiercely he labeled them as his enemies once they hurt him, he is too far gone to give them any semblance of second chances

anyways yep happy Thursday guys

[callipraxia]

I was just asked to share a favorite writing tip, and as I wrote, it sort of organically expanded from the realm of writing tips I have received and into the realm of writing tips I’ve worked out for myself. I cut most of that from the original response because it wasn’t really what was being asked, but for anyone who might find it helpful - here are six notes on writing from someone who’s been doing it for twenty-something years and has no Agenda, financial or academic, to steer me much astray from confession of my actual practices:

Tip #1: my favorite writing tip I ever got from an outside source is (paraphrasing) “if you want to write like Tolkien, the key isn’t to stick a bunch of dwarves and elves in a low-medieval setting. The key is to write about subjects that you love as much as Professor Tolkien loved Northern European languages and mythology and the pre-Industrial English countryside and Catholic theology and etc.” It isn’t the details of what creatures you have in there that gives something that particular engaging quality that will carry it through and overrule a lot of its inevitable flaws - it is, instead, a subtle, difficult-to-define sort of energy the work will have that, as far as I can tell (and I’ve tried, many times, with concepts and projects that just didn’t work out), cannot be faked.

Tip #2: Based on my own experience as it applies to Tip #1, start trying to figure out what your interests are as early as possible and never stop looking even once you think you’ve found them. There’s a plethora of low-to-no-cost, low-to-no-commitment ways to pick up at least the basics of topics you know nothing about***, so give something a try every now and then, you might surprise yourself. For another personal anecdote, I grew up with the firm belief that physics was something I would a) find really boring and b) not be smart enough to get even the vaguest grasp on no matter how hard I worked, and that even trying was therefore probably a waste of time. I still can’t do the math and would probably flunk any real exams, but physics writing, obtained from the public library’s New Arrivals section, has ended up being one of the richest sources for my writing that I’ve ever encountered.

Tip #3: if you truly can’t find a subject in the world you find yourself especially interested in, that’s probably either the depression or the after effects of bad educational experiences talking. Or both - both is always an option. Start addressing that stuff and the world will most likely become a much more interesting place and you will most likely become a much more interesting writer.

Tip #4: if you find yourself with a sort of author crush, with someone (including other fan authors!) whose work you really, really admire, and you desperately want to be like them when you grow up - find out what they read and read it, too. This doesn’t work 100% of the time, but it is often a productive exercise; the reason I tend to include so many footnotes in my fics is because I’ve benefited so much from other people who left footnotes with reading recommendations or trivia explanations on their fics.

Tip #5, the Big One: Combine multiple things you are geeking out about into one story. The best writing I probably ever did began with how certain characters were represented in three different fanfics in two different fandoms. The presentation of Character A from Franchise 1 in two fics reminded me, in ways she normally wouldn’t, of the presentation of Character B from one fic from Franchise 2. I also just really liked Character C and thought it might be fun to introduce some elements of Character D to him and then see what happened, so I isolated some of the things I liked about those characterizations and combined a character trait or two from each in order to form two ‘new’ basic characters who would form the ‘center’ of the story. I then ran them both through additional filters: the first filter was some specific other interests (ornithology and tea culture) I happened to have, and then the second was the general impressions I’d gotten of family lives and dynamics from reading a couple of blogs for several years****. And then I topped this concoction off by dusting it lightly with references to and elements from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and an old Cage the Elephant song. Yeah. Other sources of musical inspiration have included, but are far, far from limited to, songs from Breaking Benjamin, Foster the People, Hozier, Lana del Rey, The Mountain Goats, The Offspring, and The Smashing Pumpkins. Even I kind of roll my eyes at that list, but hey, if it works, it works.

Tip #6: Don’t get the wrong idea from Tip #5 - I don’t recommend approaching stories or subjects with the aim of finding something to combine with something else in mind. The example I gave coalesced in my head over the course of several years before I ever put any of it into writing. The ideas will form in their own time, and I think the best thing to do is to just absorb as much enjoyable media and neat information as you can and then let your brain gradually do its own thing in its own time. It’s frustrating, but trying to think of things to jam together for a story or character idea on purpose doesn’t work nearly as well in my experience - maybe it can be pulled off for a one-off, preferably one that is a direct homage to or parody of the original, but when it comes to longer-term and more nuanced stuff, it’s rare for a deliberately sought out mash-up to ever quite get that Certain Something that I talked about back in Tip #1.

*** I can only really speak for the U.S. here, but with that caveat - I cannot overstate the utility of public library resources like inter-library loan and Friends of the Library bag sales, along with the contents of the library itself and particularly the New Arrivals sections if one is fortunate enough to be within reasonable driving distance of an even moderately well-stocked public library. If they’ve got a subscription to something like JSTOR or another academic database, so much the better, though you can find a surprising amount of information just through free articles and excerpts on JSTOR at least. The website and app Coursera also has a modest but useful collection of free courses, some of which are designed to be completed in as little as two days, and the similar website/app edX has quite a few classes where you can access the materials freely enough and just won’t get credit toward any professional certificates unless you pay them. I’ve done some studies also through Modern States, which is completely free as far as I remember and aimed at preparing people for exams that could, in theory, allow someone to test out of their freshman year of college or university. I have the very vague impression that Khan Academy sometimes gets mixed reviews, but I’ve found it a useful resource before. I’m sure this list also only just scratches the surface of what’s out there, too, since these are just resources I’ve personally used.

**** One of these was a LiveJournal, to give you some idea of how long ago this was…The other, in the category of “less obvious places to look,” was a collection of tea-tasting logs from a website called steepster; some users use/at least used to use their logs as a sort of journal/social media as well as a place to review teas, and some of those people are really good writers. Haven’t been to steepster in a while, though, should probably peek in sometime to see if it and/or any of my favorite loggers are still around….

[bobbydagen24]

a little list of some things I Hope to see if they do a 4th film.

also if you have any ideas of little things you'd like to see in the next film I'd love to hear them.

anyway my list would include.

its gotta still be a Bro zone centered adventure no side-lining them or any of the same crap they pulled with the world tour characters their still very much the focus. on whatever Journey the plot requires Poppy and Branch to go on and this way we see more of them learning abut each other like the other Bros being surprised by Branch's survival skills. and how he came to learn them and finding out just how dorkish Clay has become in his interests and how pampered and sheltered Bruce has been. to the point he's totally out of his element when they have to travel through forests and such. 2. a main villain that Judges Bro zone as a family this is a bit of a petty desire of mine lol but I'd love it if we had a villain who openly looked down on B zone. maybe the main villain is some sorta loner who believes in family being a weakness and nothing else so they judge Branch for letting his Brothers back into his life when he proved he was capable of surviving on his own. and also they just have a bitterness towards the concept of family for personal reasons so they see how flawed Bro zone are yet the fact that their still together as something to be mocked. 3. an actual none comedic mention of Grandma given how TBT sorta used her as a comedic gag in the two scenes in which she was relevant. so I just want her to for once be brought up without a bad Joke ruining the emotions of it like FR I just want one scene where she's brought up. and you actually just let the characters be serous about it maybe Branch finally tells them exactly how she died after refusing to talk about it for ages. and maybe he still blames himself somewhat for her death and was worried the brothers would think the same if they found out. 4. I've said about this one before but I Hope we see other Grey Trolls in the society it doesn't have to be a major plot point just something we see in the opening briefly. like I said before maybe Branch just casually Hanging out with other permanently Grey Trolls from different Tribes or even them having their own little group or something would be nice to see. I think the group idea would be a nice bit of worldbuilding and development as it would kinda show how differently Pop Village handles these kinda things now. where they aren't just about toxic positivity and brushing serous stuff to the side anymore but are actively encouraging people to talk about their darker emotions and such. 5. this one is probably the most unlikely on this list but I'd kinda like it if we saw Branch's colours get worse again and him actually feeling somewhat ashamed of it. maybe trying to hide it from his Brothers out of fear of either being judged or pitied. I just love the angst idea of him being found out and in a somewhat upset and frustrated way saying that he doesn't know why its happening again. claiming he's fine and that it must just be some kind of mistake on his bodies part and that it isn't his fault this time as that isn't who he is anymore. upsetting Poppy and his Brothers seeing him so clearly upset but obviously desperately trying to hide it and also the notion that he's ashamed of his Greyness and he sees it as something other people would blame him for is pretty sad. like I said it probably won't happen but Honestly I love the idea of actually showing his colours get worse again and him being insecure about it. especially in front of his Brothers it'd be emotional to see them see him this way. 6. another one that's maybe a bit out there but I kinda wanna see Peppy die as I feel him dying has some good story potential. for one it gives some angst to Poppy for a change she could blame herself as his death could happen as result of her actions maybe her not listenening to other people again. and trying to solve the conflict with the villain her own way results in them all being in danger and her dad dying to save her. and as a result her actions actually have permanent consequences for a change and she blames herself tho maybe on the outside she tries to slap a smile on her face.

but Branch sees through it and he can actually have a nice moment of helping her through things and even relating a bit given he blamed himself for what happened to his Grandma for years. plus it'd give Viva some heartbreak since she only just got him back in her life after all these years and now she's lost him again. which I feel in the end could bring her and Poppy even closer together. and like I said after TBT and the first film I'm desperate for some Poppy angst to balance things out a tad and actually give us some more scenes of Branch supporting her again. 😅😅😅😅 anyway those are some things I'd kinda like to see in a future film what about you?

[into-the-fraymotif]

Fraymotif Introductory Megapost

Wow, cool, an intro post. 

This is a Homestuck blog, with a lot of spoilers. A LOT.

This is your warning.

So what’s this all about?

Fraymotifs are powerful battle techniques used by Sburb's Heroes. They are basically super god-like combo attacks between multiple Heroes of differing aspects. In canon, they are shown to be 2 to 3 player combos, but it is theorized that they can include up to 12 players.

Interactions between Classpects

The way I look at Fraymotifs is as a synergy between synergies. A Hero’s Class is how they interact with their own Aspect, while a Fraymotif is how two or more Heroes interact with each other’s Classpects (Jade, a Witch of Space, changing the space in which Dave’s, a Knight of Time, protection through time is used into a single concentrated bubble; slowing time within a bubble around Bec Noir via Adagio Redshift).

My Goal with this very ambitious blog

There are 144 unique Mythological Roles (Classpects) within Sburb, and a Fraymotif involves 2+ of them. Let’s do the math for a second. The equation to figure out the number of combinations there are between r elements of a set of n items, ignoring differing permutations, is: C(n,r)=n!/(r!(n−r)!). So, 144 choose 2 comes out to be 10,296. That's actually 10 thousand different Fraymotifs for just combos of two Heroes. It shoots up to 400k+ once you include combinations of 3. There’s probably a lot less when you disclude combos between Heroes of the same Aspect, but its still an astronomical number. On top of that, there are at LEAST 36 single-Aspect Fraymotifs, meant to be used by a single Hero, and I do not wish to cover those, simply as a personal preference for what I find interesting. Sorry, I’ve got enough on my plate with the 10k+ I already intend to do, and those are at least wacky goofy combos.

I wish to at least cover what I think ALL 2-Player Fraymotifs there can be, in this blog. That is over ten thousand, so I will be covering many at a time within a post. There also may be more than one possible Fraymotif per Aspect-Combo, but for the sake of brevity (the irony is not lost on me) I will limit it such that each Pair of Classpects only get 1 Fraymotif assigned to them. That narrows it down to a measly 9504, and I do not feel sorry for making each of them special.

I don’t know if I will have the brainpower to cover 3+ Player Fraymotifs as thoroughly, so I will only cover them upon request! So please ask if you really wish for my take! I will be glad to nerd out some more. Hell, you can ask pretty much anything you want about my efforts, that's what the askbox is for (^-^)b

The Fraymotif design process

This will develop the longer I run this blog, but as it stands now, I start by analyzing the Classpects of each Hero involved and take note of their abilities in their own right. Witch of Space naturally has control over the properties of physical Space so their abilities could localize and/or expand the area of effect of other physical powers, stuff like that. Of course, this requires a comprehensive understanding of Classpecting first. Classpecting as a magic system is defined in-world by flawed/biased narrators, so most of it is left up to interpretation. As a Mage of Heart myself, I am very Classpecting-pilled, and I feel as though I grasp the concept very naturally. For areas in which my understanding is a bit thin, I do like to reference Ouroborista’s take on the system, and I am especially fond of the Class symmetry proposed therein, albeit a bit contested throughout the community. But hey, most of it is up to interpretation anyway, so if you disagree, please let me know in the asks, I would love to hear your opinions! Classpecting is all symbology lol.

Next I look at how the abilities of the Heroes interact with each other, obviously. A Witch of Space localizes the time powers of a Knight of Time, and constructively interferes with the powers’ purpose of protecting, keeping the Target trapped in a bubble separated from the outside world (Adagio Redshift). A Seer of Mind may use the Knight of Time’s protection as a guide to see through the various alternate outcomes to find a version of events where things went a little better, and the Knight would then lock-on to that timeline to bring their partner to refuge, perhaps re-doing a section they struggled on before (Assylum Dal Segno). It is mostly a case-by-case basis, but a HUGE part of Fraymotifs are the Motifs themselves, that is to say, a theme or recurring element. The motive behind a power or ability. A Knight of Time would have access to Time shenanigans (That’s the theme of their powers), but the leading motive behind them will be for Protection, even though they are a solid combatant by themselves.

Edit: I forgot to mention that while non-godtiers are able to use Fraymotifs (See: Dave and Terezi with Assylum Dal Segno in [S] Collide), I will be designing these under the assumption that all participants are godtier. Some Fraymotifs will be simple, despite everyone's access to their full godtier kit, but seriously there's 9.5k of them they can't all be perfect.

There are obviously a few Fraymotifs that are defined in canon. But I mean. Come on. Canon is a tangible thing that can be messed with in Homestuck, and mess with it I shall. There are 11 2-Player Fraymotifs that we see in HS, and when you treat June and Rose’s and Dave and Terezi’s duplicates as a single Fraymotif each (as I will because they are consistent in how they utilize the abilities despite a different graphic (well, except for Rose and Roxy but that’s a whole different beast I will address in the next section)), that lowers it down to 7-technically-8 Fraymotifs that have been shown, and only 4 of those are named. I will try to keep-in-line with the Fraymotifs we actually do see, and interpret them in a way that matches the tone with the rest of the ones I design, because its 7-technically-8 out of 9.5 thousand, and I don’t see you out here doing this.

Following that is the fun part -- the name. Fraymotifs are music-themed, and thus have music-themed name schemes. Ivories in the Fire (Heir of Breath + Knight of Time), Mixolydian Maelstrom (Heir of Breath + Seer of Light), Fantasia's Inhale (Heir of Breath + Witch of Space), and Adagio Redshift (Witch of Space + Knight of Time), to name a few (that’s actually all of the named ones in-world). So keeping with that theme, I will come up with equally badass and/or ethereal names for the other 9.5k. Such as: Assylum Dal Segno (Knight of Time + Seer of Mind), Sostenuto Spotlight (Knight of Light + Mage of Heart), Flash Sforzando (Page of Light + Mage of Heart), etc.

Preemptively addressing my personal biases

Hussie outright stated that before the events of [S] Collide, Fraymotifs were a piece of throwaway worldbuilding, and are referenced as a hard magic system, despite the fact that it is anything but. This frustrates me to my core, like, fricking, for example: Both of June and Rose’s Fraymotifs shown in [S] Collide can be interpreted as the aforementioned Mixolydian Maelstrom, which is just varying forms of attacking with wind and lasers. And Dave and Terezi’s (Assylum Dal Segno) can both be interpreted as allowing a Target refuge in another, better timeline, because they both either bring Dirk back or send themselves to another timeline and both are actually part of the same series of events. So that’s all fine. But. The Lalondes. Rose and Roxy have two separate Fraymotifs together, one where Roxy does a Voidey thing and removes the nonexistence of a bunch of perfectly generic objects in a laser-cube made by Rose, and another where they just do a bunch of Aspect-related attacks.

In fact, a lot of Rose’s powers seem to just be “lighty magic attack:” when that is far from her role as a Seer, and goes against that whole “leading motive” theme I brought up earlier. It seems that she was just around to do laser stuff. Which is cool! In a fast-paced epic fight sequence! I liked it! But I want to get a bit more creative with these, moving past the “they hit them a lot with their Aspect” for those Classpects where they can do so much more than that. I said that canon was something to be messed with, and I’m going to tweak things as I see necessary because there are 7-technically-8 that are shown out of the 9.5 thousand I’m going to do so who cares.

Another thing I want to bring up goes more into the Classpecting side of Fraymotif design. In the 12 Aspects, they are aligned along the Time-Space axis, but something that I rarely see focused on is the Breath-Blood axis. Time and Space rule the physical world, but Breath and Blood rule the nonphysical world in a way I find really cool and interesting. I see Breath and Blood operating not only under their commonly understood Freedom/Bonds mechanics, but also messing around with causality. I think that Blood is very fate/destiny-coded and that Breath is very unrestricted from such matters. Karkat and Kankri both had a personal arc based around the fate/destiny of their people, and feeling responsible for it when all that got messed up, while Tavros and Rufioh both had a personal arc about becoming detached from who they were “supposed to be”, June especially becoming fully detached from deterministic causality with her retcon powers being able to mess with past events without dooming the timeline (and her being removed from who she was due to that broblorone making her transfem). You may be thinking “Oh, but Doom is for outcomes and fate” but really only with destruction and bad endings. Hope and Rage deal with positive/negative emotion but Heart does ALL emotion indiscriminately. When chopping up the whole universe into just 12 pieces (13 if you count Piss. (I do not count Piss.)), there’s going to be some overlap on account of there being more than 12 Things in the universe. Them’s the breaks.

Last thing here is the names. A lot of people, and I mean a LOT of people, look at Hero-specific names as being taken from a pool of words that have to deal with their Aspect. Like, a lot of people will interpret the name Ivories in the Fire (Heir of Breath + Knight of Time) as having the components "Ivories" + "in the Fire", where "Ivories" is a "Breathy word" and "in the Fire" is a "Timey word" and will just toss them around until there are like 50 "X in the Fire" Fraymotifs. I'm not a huge fan of that. Another way this is seen is in Land names, where people will read "Land of Maps and Treasure" and will automatically throw in "Maps" into a big grab-bag of Light words and "Treasure" into a separate bag of Thief words, as if this was a cheap flash name generator instead of a deeply specific thematic choice. Perhaps I'm being melodramatic (very real chance there), but I think that each name should be about what the Fraymotif does more than what it's made of. "Redshift" isnt specifically a Space word or a Time word, it's a phenomenon that is deeply tied to both Space and Time, and Adagio is a reference to the time-slowing effect of the Fraymotif. Obviously, with 9.5 thousand to come up with, there will be a lot of names that are similar, but they'll be on a case-by-case basis.

How in the world will I go about posting all of this?

There’s over ten thousand of these damn things, so I will come up with a whole bunch in one go, and make that one post, tagged appropriately ofc. These posts will be queued, so there will be at most 1 per day, and any asks will be answered as soon as I get them, skipping the queue (unless your request is in the queue, then you gotta wait :p).

There will be many Fraymotifs per post on some posts, like 15+ 12 max, so there will be at least 1.7-ish 2 years before this blog is full-up on Fraymotifs. Wack.

Edit: fixed the stats

Alright, thanks for reading, again please ask anything in the askbox, and I hope you enjoy my handiwork B)