#this is kind of a reverse of her parents alignments

[rist-ix]

Thoughs on bloom being the one with an obsession towards valtor first? (a switch to honestly all fics I've read)

S-Tier trope, I’ll take ten.

I think the reason fics (my own at least) tend to position Valtor as the one who falls first and harder, is that Valtor doesn’t really have a lot of obstacles towards that mindset. His villainy isn’t defined by some external moral structure or selfless goal — he wants power for power's sake, and basically just seems to do what he finds entertaining/fulfilling at the moment. His quest for world domination is kind of just to prove that he can, not because he has a grand vision for the future. If his desires were to change or shift towards a different goal, there would be no larger consequences for him if he indulged in that. Except for maybe the Trix rebelling, but he doesn’t seem very attached to them anyway.

Bloom meanwhile is motivated not by her own ambitions or personal desires, primarily. She's much more reactive rather than aggressive, responding to Valtor's attacks because he is upsetting life she's already built for herself with her friends. She's defending a moral good, on the large scale, and her friends' happiness on a smaller one. That's not to say she doesn’t have a more selfish investment in this fight! Where it does get personal for her is her wish for knowledge about her home, her parents and her past, something Valtor is irrevocably tied to.

The point I’m making is that, for Bloom to fully indulge in her — very canonical! — obsession with Valtor, it would have to keep its adversarial context, or she would be betraying her own moral code and loyalties. Valtor, on the other hand, loses nothing by committing to the bit. So it’s much easier to approach their dynamic with him being the aggressive pursuer, since it works well with his established priorities and goals.

That being said, just because it would require more set-up and b-plots does NOT mean a reversal of their roles wouldn’t work. On the contrary, it would be DELICIOUS in my opinion, and there's 2 ways it could go down I can think of, right now.

1. Hard Denial

Bloom keeps her moral code and personal loyalties intact by pouring aaaaaaaaaall of that festering obsession into pure! sleep-deprived! animosity! She is non-stop pursuing him to the ends of the world, drawing the ever-growing concern of everyone around her for her well-being, because fighting the good fight is good and all, but for god's sake, Bloom, chill. But she can’t! Because she hates him so much, and she just HAS to find him, and every second that she doesn’t spend throwing spells at him is a second of her life WASTED. Out of her way, gayboys, she's about to liberate her divine self from this mortal shell!!! Read: bite and gnaw at Valtor's shield spell while snarling obscenities that would make even the Ancestresses gasp. Valtor is both confused by the intensity and a little charmed.

Any and all thought is focused on the enemy she has to destroy, to the point he becomes the center of her universe. And if she lies awake thinking about him, that’s just because she is planning his demise, don’t u dare suggest otherwise!

2. The Angsty One

Bloom goes all in on her newfound fixation, fully self-aware, and thus has to deal with her moral code and other relationships suffering. I'm a firm believer in the Winx being inseparable ride or dies no matter what for each other, but since Valtor is very directly opposed to both Layla and Stella, aligning with him, defending him, or even going easy on him would definitely throw a wrench in the works. I'm too much of a wimp to write actual, substantial conflict between the girls, but I do think it would make for a GREAT plot. Alternatively, Bloom might split from the group for a while without telling them to go stalk do reconnaissance on Valtor, and learn more about their shared origins.

Anyway, great ask anon!

[killedbyfrank]

Inside Out Iceberg

Inside Out is an amazing movie with a deep message and a dedicated fandom, or what's left of it. While the movie explores Riley's mind far and wide, it still leaves a lot of questions unanswered, some simple, some dark and complicated.

So I made this iceberg to explore the dark side of Inside Out. The iceberg concept is a metaphorical framework often used to illustrate the idea that what we see on the surface is only a small fraction of a larger, hidden and often disturbing reality.

This iceberg includes some known facts, known and lesser known theories and even a couple of headcanons, just for fun.

The Surface

Emotions Shipping: Just like in any fandom, fans usually ship characters together and Inside Out is no different with ships such as Starnerve, Brickoli, Joyness and more.

Sleeping Quarters: A simple yet difficult question to answer. The emotions are shown to reside in a tiny little house up the ramp in HQ. What's in that room? How big is it?

Glow: Joy and Sadness are the only emotions that glow, with the former being much more visible. A theory states that Joy's glow intensity depends on her mood.

Fanfics: Inside Out has a lot of rich and diverse fanfictions, with a few becoming iconic such as Intercom and An Emotional School Year.

Mind Candy: Some simple but cute snippets of the emotions interacting alone or with each other.

NSFW: Artworks that depict the Inside Out characters engaging in sexual activities or gore and mutilation. Some should be banished to the shadow realm.

Below the Surface

Parents' names: Riley's dad is named Bill, while Riley's mom is named Jill. Nice one, Pixar.

Pixar Shipping: Even those at Pixar ship Inside Out characters together. I wonder if some ship Brickoli...

Surprise?: Surprise was supposed to be in the movie, but was cut off due to being too similar to Fear. Maybe Inside Out 2 will bring it back.

Riley's clothing: Throughout the movie and not only, Riley wears different shirts representing her state of mind. During the first day of school she's seen wearing a yellow jacket, forcing Joy upon her. At the end, her mood darkens, reflected by a black hoodie.

Easter eggs: It not uncommon for Pixar to put Easter eggs and cameos in their own movies. Hard to notice at first.

Advertisement Campaign: Inside Out had a pretty aggressive marketing campaign, sponsoring brands such as Clorox and Subway, even encouraging fanarts. Pixar was trying to hype it up.

Into the depths

Fear & Joy outside of HQ instead of Sadness: Originally, Pete Docter intended to explore Fear, since he as a teenager was mostly afraid.

Alternative Titles: In Latin America, Inside Out is known as Intensa Mente. In Spain, they called it Del Revés (Reverse). In Russia, it is titled головоломка (Brain Breaker), and in China, it is 玩轉腦朋友 (Fun with Brain Friends).

Emotions had names: Initially, Emotions were supposed to have proper human names. Fear for example was known as Freddie and so on. Joy is the only one that kept this idea. In the Italian dub, she's known as Gioia, which directly translates to Joy and is also a proper Italian name.

27 emotions: The movie initially was supposed to have many more emotions. This idea seems to have been picked up again for the sequel. Bad idea.

Unlikable Joy: Joy was supposed to be very unlikable, saying things as "We should spit on that girl's face". This was done on purpose so that the viewer would align with Sadness.

Nightmare Productions: Dream Productions is in charge of Riley's dreams and nightmares as well. In theory, they could give endless nightmares to Riley and all kinds of nightmares. Some may call this sadistic.

Into the Abyss...

The Subconscious: This is where Riley's worst fears are kept. They're locked behind a flimsy wooden door, lightly guarded and protected. This could mean Riley is weak minded or very susceptible to her fears. If everything escaped from there, it would certainly mean apocalypse.

The true villain: Joy's aggressive need of control, leaving behind Sadness, causing destruction within Riley's mind, forcing happiness upon every situation, using a ladder of imaginary boyfriends sentencing them to fall into the Memory Dump... These are just some of the things Joy did throughout her journey. Her philosophy crumbled like a house of cards.

Disgust/Joy rivalry: These two probably aren't the bestest of friends. They often have disagreements, and are the opposite of each other. As shown in some clips, Joy seems to enjoy it when Disgust is having a bad time.

Parents' jobs: We don't currently know what their jobs are, how they maintain the family. I've seen a theory that Riley's father used to be an US soldier, due to his mind resembling a Cold War nuclear submarine.

Genderfluid Riley: According to some individuals, Riley is genderfluid, due to her having different gendered emotions. This is highly unlikely.

Schizophrenia: Riley can actually hear her emotions talking, even see them. She's imagining everything in her mind...

Flesh mech: Riley has no control over herself... she's simply a meatbag controlled by her emotions, not guiding but controlling Riley's every single movement and action. This is especially shown in the "5 seconds rule" clip.

We all are the same: There is no divide between the mind workers and the emotions. The mind workers have probably never even seen them. There's no hierarchy, just work, work endlessly for Riley and nothing else matters. What exactly is everyone working for? What are they driven by? Are they all... expandable?

The Bottom...

Anger is the antagonist: He causes Riley to be angry, he often abuses Fear, yells at everyone, dislikes everything. He indirectly caused Bing Bong's demise by destroying the various islands of personality, making it harder for Joy and Sadness coming back, KNOWING that him touching the console would have destructive consequences. What if he did it on purpose?

Stalinist Dictatorship: Riley, Riley, Riley and nothing else. Everyone works for Riley. Everything else comes second. There are cards with her face on them, her initial on Goofball Island, everyone works constantly, every day, all day for Riley, with possibly no retribution. Endless amounts of workers, in a society where Riley is everything to them, similar to a socialist state.

Emotions can't quit: Quote by Disgust. They were never meant to leave Headquarters. They are meant to stay confined there, without ever having the chance to go outside their residence. Why else would the Headquarters be suspended on the Memory Dump, with one way in and out? There is no escape.

There is no happiness... none. Riley was never truly happy in her life. No happy life with only sad moments in between, but a sad life with only happy moments here and there. The true Riley was the one we saw at the end. Depressed.

[2n2n]

I really love that Tsukasa can remember very precise nitty-gritty things with Amane (suchas watching Frankenstein), but is too ambivalent or scattered to remember much about their parents care. Selective memory for what they value most is endearing....

but speaking of memory, I wonder how Nene-chan will remember today's events ... will it go into her brain as though they are hazey, childhood memories? Will Tsukasa feel like an old friend or babysitter... will it feel vague/obfuscated in general? Nostalgic? Between the good and the bad, what associations will she have deep down.... ?

It's interesting to introduce Mirai.. I was thinking that the only way to reverse this would probably be the peeling of the Yorishiro, but Mirai can send Nene-chan's time forwards if she wants, so she could bring Nene-chan back to 15; or she could turn her into effectively a corpse. So fascinating that Nene-chan's situation means she can't be made any older! If Mirai or Kako want her more orderly or sane for the courtroom, Nene-chan could be adjusted ...

I was talking to my husband about the alignment of the Clockkeepers with 'law/order/rules' and we were marveling at how appropriate that is ... time governs, time makes the rules, time makes demands. Amane's fight against time is some criminal aberration. I love what time represents to Amane; it's something you're forced to answer to, it's something enforced upon you... something threatening to tear you and what you love apart. It is cruel, it has no sympathy for your circumstance, your emotions, your pain, or wants. Like the Minamoto's judgement on all kaii, it is simply a hammer sweeping down, and it will continuously crush forward no matter who is begging and pleading. Of course a court is a property of the Keepers....

But the Red House-- operating outside of time, twisting time-- becomes some ultimate alternate force!! Tsukasa feels so infused with this timelessness. Working in that. It's soooo interesting! It kind of makes him Amane's ultimate ally, as soon as Amane starts seeking timeline interruptions again...

ah I really love how JSHK treats rules/strictures. I really love this timeless Godliness operating without regard for right or wrong. Tsukasa's chaotic capricious nature is very good as it's representation... it's not about right or wrong, it's about what you wish for. Aligned towards desire. Opposing things like time, which stand between you and desire. I love it!!!!

[dyketectivecomics]

Dont you have an old au where Renee Montoya becomes Stephs parent or am I hallucinating

YES ME N TEE’S HELENA & RENEE ADOPT STEPH AU MY BELOVEDDDDDDDDD 💕💕💕💕💕💕💕

I’ve settled on a couple things (& also to catch y’all up a bit on the AU which I’m gonna use the tag at the end so y’all feel free to take a dive into it):

Helena & Renee do keep pulling Steph back n forth on the whole vengeance vs justice issue. I’m looking for Steph’s character progression to be still fairly similar to her canon arc, just through the lense of having mentors who ACTUALLY care abt getting her on the right path & giving her the outlet that she was begging for lol

Steph doesn’t die!!! She doesn’t become Robin or Batgirl either, all of them are more bop-aligned than bat-aligned but they still help when the whole city’s in Disaster Mode™️ obvsly

Speaking of, kinda still debating bumping up NML in what’s usually my personal canon/timeline amalgamation in my brain (NML being the kinda inciting Incident for Helena & Renee to take Steph in, it’s kinda Bombshells-like in that respect I think 😅 Altho it also means rip Crystal probably 😭😭😭 I’m kidding, I’m cooking up a whole dramatic reunion!!! )

Okay, now I’m thinking abt Babs pulling an uno-reverse on Bruce in this AU and after smthn War Games-like happens it’s BRUCE who fucks off outta gotham for some time!!! YA HAVE IT COMIN BRUCIE BOY!!!! PUSHIN EVERYONE AWAY IDIOT!!!!

Anyways, yea, Helena joining bop a bit sooner (I think it was originally a little while yet after NML for others to join, but I want it to be sooner/almost predating NML potentially??? Idk we’ll see) also similarly, Renee stepping away from GCPD & becoming the next Question being bumped up. (Possibly Vic mentoring her even while a detective??? I’m playin around with the idea!!)

How Helena & Renee meet prior to gaining A Whole Steph is another question I’m not prepared to answer!!! But we’ll figure it out!!!

Obligatory StephCass mention bc 💕💕💕💕💕

Omg wait 😭 Steph being like kind of an older cousin figure to Charlie instead of just a Cautionary Tale 😭😭😭 I’m in my FEELS now ahhh!!!!

I probably COULD go on, but I’ll cut it off here bc I wanna ruminate on these thoughts 💕 LOVE this au aaahhh

[nostalgicfortomorrow]

Random Taylor Swift songs that align with Harry Potter Ships (joking… kind of…)

Random TS songs that align with Harry Potter ships. 

Cardigan: Romione during Half blood prince and Deathly hallows during the lavender debacle and the locket incident. Literally that yes they were endgame and somebody got between them with a silly stupid romance that seemed ridiculous.  

The 1: Hinny during Deathly Hallows before they realised they were endgame like that *kiss* on Harry’s birthday and his whole marauders map pining thingy

August: Hinny during the half blood prince era. Not that Harry was cheating on anybody, I just like the wistful lyrics about summer love and I think that matches up with early Hinny as basically both are trying to forget everything and just live their youth now before reality catches up to them. 

Enchanted: Cho x Harry during Harry’s pining era. It’s just funny and also Cho is in ravenclaw so her skill set is enchantment. Harry’s POV btw. 

Blank Space: Bellatrix Black for some stupid reason. I dunno. Just the way she goes full mad woman on Randolphus and Voldie. 

Love Story: Astoria x Draco? IDK I guess I kind of got the reverse roles where Astoria kind of sweeps Draco off his feet and his parents don’t approve of her because Astoria is kind of a happy, life-ful person who rejects pure bloodism and they end up together. 

You Belong With Me ((edited)): I know I said hinny before but NO. YBWM is about Deamus. Seamus wants Dean. He's known dean forever. They literally live in the same dorm together and knows everything about him. And this new girl Ginny picks up Dean and they date leaving a very annoyed and bitter Seamus. Of course Dean realises who's been here all along and it's SEAMUS!!!!!!!!!!!

[viinas]

Next set of cards!! Once again, explanations below if ya wanna know about my kids~

III THE EMPRESS: Avril Zyll Fruitfulness, initiative, action, long days, clandestine, the unknown, difficulty, doubt, ignorance Reversed: Light, truth, the unraveling of involved matters, public rejoice, vacillation  Avril brings a sense of levity to the group through her cheerful demeanor and charisma but one of her defining characteristics is how she uses humor as armor. Avril deals with trauma by not-dealing with it. She buries her old blood family under her new found family without properly dealing with her own baggage. She pushes Kithara away instead of embracing her when she returns because of fears she doesn’t quite understand. All of this stems from her abandonment issues and being made to feel like she should have never been born. In her desperation to make herself useful, she, a shapeshifter, takes on different personas, losing the Avril at her core. She begins to define herself through clandestine bonds with both those around her and herself. Who is Avril? What does Avril want? Is she brave enough to take it? Her story is about self acceptance as much as it is about facing your own demons to find the light and truth that exists at the center of her vacillation.  

V THE HIEROPHANT: Stephen Craddock Marriage alliance, captivity, servitude, mercy and goodness, inspiration, the man to whom the Qucrent has recourse Reversed: Society, good understanding, concord, over-kindness, weakness

Stephen was bred to be expendable, like all the other pack orphans. A seat filler. A messenger. A human shield. Whatever Lyptic needed him to be. When the story begins, the pack needs him to be a killer. A compliant weapon. But by nature, Stephen is not a killer. He isn’t even violent. He’s a protector. He speaks up for those who are too afraid to speak for themselves and is empathetic to a fault which often is to his own detriment. He is the very picture of Caros’s vision of werewolves’ silent servitude to society which clashes head on against Lyptic’s warped ideals. He represents a thread of goodness persisting in darkness, be that through his protectiveness of more vulnerable orphans like Costanza to his loyalty to Ellard, his very best friend even after defecting. When he meets Helena and fights alongside her, he does it in part because his love for Ellard extends to those Ellard loves too, but also because her mission of creating a kinder world aligns with his ideal future. 

X WHEEL OF FORTUNE: Mason "Ace" Spade and Penelope Oliver Destiny, fortune, success, luck, felicity  Reversed: Increase, abundance, superfluity 

Our gang goes to Ace and Penelope after acquiring a memory from the Prophet. The two of them plus Kithara are able to read and decrypt it, thus, telling the crew how to negate the blood ritual that is the central conflict of the story. Their success hinges entirely upon their knowledge and the secrets they are able to uncover. Ace and Pen are, in a sense, the catalyst for that. Through their divination and intervention, our protagonists’ odds increase by leaps and bounds. Psychics are and have been invaluable allies to the spell casters in this war. Ace and Penelope, who don’t really have any interest in the war itself and just want to live normal human lives, enter the fold because of Charity’s involvement and a desire to keep her safe. For them, the stakes are high and very personal so they will contribute their power in whatever way best illustrates an ideal destiny. For their friend and for the world.

XVII THE STAR: Luna Griam Loss, theft, privation, abandonment, hope, bright prospects in the future Reversed: Arrogance, impotence, haughtiness

When Luna died, her parents lost their child, Ilum lost his twin, and Luna lost all prospects of a future. She exists in the After World for ten years, unable to let go of her own losses, afraid of what awaits her on the other side. She feels helpless watching Ilum destroy himself and just as he deals with survivor’s guilt, she has to confront her own misplaced guilt for having left him. Both of them were named after light, Luna for the moon, Ilum to illuminate. Luna, true to her name, lights a path for her brother in his own darkness, acting as his True North. To a certain extent, she does the same for Charity. She is a poltergeist and is able to bail them both out of ostensibly hopeless scenarios, becoming a hero in whatever capacity she’s able to be. Through Luna, Ilum is still the child he never got to be. Through Ilum, Luna lives the life she was robbed of. Crossing over for her means no longer being his guiding light when they both still need each other.

[apocketfullofdnd]

Miiren

Ex Lloth-Sworn Drow || Circle of the Land Druid

---character profile below the cut---

Background:

Miirara was raised in one of Menzoberranzan's smallest, most insignificant houses. Her mother, Llothmiiren was ambitious, not caring about public attention or status, but entirely focused on gaining unseen influence, circumventing the social warring of the houses, and holding power over them without drawing their ire. She was talented at this, using Mirrara as a pawn at times in her larger schemes and hoping to hand them down as a heritage to be built on. Loving in her own way, she demanded excellence in all areas.

As an adolescent, Miirara was singled out from her peers. She was taller than the others, and broader (Type 3), but also faster and had a natural affinity for moving through shadows that, alongside her mother's skills, earned her the favor of the Yor'thae, Lloth’s chosen. As she grew, she became her agent of sorts, an extension of her blade, both in force and in shadow.

The Chosen was never trusting though, true to patron and culture, and eventually centered her suspicion on Mirrara's closest companion, a male, who had been beside her since birth. Tav'arath, always in her shadow, was not treated as less despite his nature or unspoken status as her second, and this raised curiosity that Mirrara's natural inclinations might not align as closely with Lloth's as they seemed. Amused by the idea of testing her, the Yor'thae set a trap designed to force a choice, betraying loyalty, and when the moment came, Mirrara chose Tav, and in doing so, killed him outright according to the Yor'thae's design.

Many outcomes were accounted for, but Mirrara's disillusionment with Lloth ran deeper than realized, and enraged by his death, she abandoned everything and fled Menzoberranzan in a fury of grief, leaving even her mother behind.

In the absence of Lloth's protection, revoked by the Chosen, the Underdark turned on her. Landscapes she had walked with ease turned deadly in an instant and she was forced above ground, taking weeks to find an exit unguarded by her kind or Lloth's. By the time she finally escaped, she had only her life, and even that, only by a thread.

Luckily for her, Mirrara came up one fateful night in the southernmost region of the High Forest, not far from a small grove of druids, and was happened across by one out on a moonlight walk. She was nearly killed on sight out of fear and principle, but her helpless state saved her instead and half wary and half pitying, the man brought her back to his leaders, passing her off on them. Even more fortunately, one of the grove's Archdruids, Berthen, had a history with surface drow and advocated for her, taking her under his protection against his counterparts.

With his support, she was allowed to stay.

Over time, that refuge slowly became more. It became home and that protector became mentor and friend - even parent in the cast of a certain light. Mirrara found the druidic beliefs fascinating, almost a complete reversal of Lloth’s teachings, and she eventually became one of them, formally shortening her name to Miira as an indicator of a new life. She spent more than half a century with them, absorbing every bit of knowledge she could find - a ravenous academic to make up for time spent in opposite environs - and eventually earned a place as her savior's second, falling into a similar role as she had under the Yor'thae, but in a much more peaceful capacity. From early on in her time rest in the grove, the rest of Miira's life seemed set. These people became her people and their life became her life.

Things would have stayed that way, except for a nasty encounter in a nearby community which was brutalized by a spider who came topside in the night. Miira was part of a group sent to bring home the survivors, but the scene stuck in her mind. The tension between her two lives took on an identity of its own in the months that followed. It began to bother her that she was seen as an exception and irritate her that the druidic gods turned such a willful eye to the Underdark. Her memories of the caverns below were chaotic at best and burdened by the cult of Lloth, but also nostalgic and uniquely stunning. She became adamant that darkness does not equate to evil. (Ffs, can we get past that theme in fantasy already?) Any evil there belonged to Lloth, whose influence went unchallenged, suffocating the natural order and providing the only real shelter for people as a collective.

Still holding to the rest of her Druidic beliefs, Miira eventually decided to leave, channeling the principles of this new life into the landscapes of the old.

With her Berthen's blessing, she returned and spent nearly two centuries alone, cataloging everything she could about the flora and fauna of the dark and hiding in its shadows to keep free of Lloth and her followers. There were no illusions about her ability to overthrow Lloth's cult. She focused instead on nurturing small ecosystems, considering that her life’s purpose, a cause she willingly sacrificed everything to.

In returning to the Underdark and seeing her former world in a new light, Miira began to meditate on the culture she came from and in this, reached an evolution of thought about her mother, Llothmiiren, also. It occurred to her for the first time that in her fear of being expendable to her mother's purposes, she had reversed their fates and condemned Llothmiiren on the altar of her own instead.

It hadn't been intentional, or planned, but her flight from Menzoberranzan had likely resulted in Llothmiiren's execution. Unable to return to confirm this due to fear of retribution, Miira struggled with this reality alone in her wandering work and slowly came to terms with the consequences of those actions. In this time she was able to reconcile the two sides of herself, the druid and the drow, and learn what it meant for her to walk the two paths together. After two centuries in solitude with this task aside from the odd, random encounter, she struggled to answer even the question of her own name. Miira was a name made of sunlight and close kinship, still part of her, but distantly. So much time and shift in thought.

Just before the start of the game, Miira passes underground near Reithwin and rumor reaches her through creature speak that Lloth's influence is gathering above ground. Concerned about this new development, she surfaces immediately, bent on investigating, but before she gets the chance to even locate this Reithwin, she finds herself on the Nautiloid with the others.

-----

In-Game:

When asked for her name at the crash site, at first she first gives Tav's instead, invoking his memory in a moment of lighthearted deception she thinks he wouldn't mind. Once she gains her footing though, she reestablishes herself by the name Miiren, one last and final evolution, marking the marriage between all the pieces of her past.

Miiren is a tried and true druid, but an unorthodox one at best. She has some (very) rusty skills in stealth and subterfuge and is terrible at all charisma- related tasks. Two centuries alone will do that to a person.

It takes Miiren a while to get comfortable in the group, but the early members defer to her because of age and she eventually gives up on convincing them otherwise. Of them, she finds Astarion’s opinions a bit too similar to Lloth’s for comfort and is clueless about a lot of society (a theme with my characters, because I know no DnD lore lmao), but is naturally caring enough to support everyone's autonomy and try her best to bond with them. Lae’zel and Karlach each remind her of her younger self in different ways. She leans on Halsin a lot through Act 2 and they end up being weird counterbalances. She’s a little grittier and more cynical, but also more of a genuine optimist than he is. Opposite ways of coming to the same place. All that. They become lifelong partners, but not in a way that will ever settle down and do the cliche thing. She has her chosen purpose and he has his. Their lives and love are very freeform, just finding ways to circle back and stay close and create crossover wherever possible. 

-----

Post-Game:

In the dock scene, Miiren insists on going with Karlach and Wyll as an impulse, not willing to let them go alone, but Karlach counters her, citing personality and saying the Hells are a place a druid's craft is at disadvantage, especially in the fight they're in for. She says she wants Miiren to stay and live instead.

Miiren makes the natural choice to go with Halsin post-game and settles into Reithwin for a short time, building and connecting and becoming a community and a family not dissimilar to the one she left with Berthen. That name weighs heavily in her though, and as planned during Act 3, she and Halsin part ways for a while as she goes searching for him to reconnect after so much time.

Upon returning to Halsin and Reithwin, Miiren's itch to return to the Sussur comes back fierce and she starts making seasonal trips down there to continue her work, but this time in better balance, spending six months at most down there a year, doing the work she loves. Halsin joins her sometimes, when years allow. Reithwin and the community Halsin's poured his life into are home always after the game and others join, some for seasons, some forever. Zevlor becomes a fixture, among others. Jaheira visits often. Karlach spends a year or two there. Astarion for a while.

I'm kicking around the idea of Halsin suggesting a check-in on Llothmiirren (who was killed as suspected) and a scouring of Menzoberranzan's library for their horticultural knowledge with the help of Astarion, but I'm undecided because that's SUCH a bad idea and I'm not sure they could pull it off, but its so tempting I might do it.

I also think Berthen might retire his position as Archdruid and come live with her for his old age, righting his past wrongs by offering to come down with her once and learning to love her world.

Thoughts. Lots of thoughts. Nothing consequential though :) Anyway!

-----

Music:

Have a link to my current playlist and playlist guide, because I'm batty and I have to write these things down for my own sanity. I like to laugh about my ships as much as I agonize over them, be forewarned.

-----

Appearance:

The most important thing for me with Miiren's appearance was that it be able to swing a variety ways, differing by circumstance. She's been very different people at different times and I wanted her facial structure to reflect that - easily intimidating as Mirrara, but also easily softened to Miira. And both masculine and feminine, as she's most comfortable in neutral space, but leans one way or the other depending on a myriad of circumstances. In my head, her skin tone is darker than the game allows, inspired by the coloration of this gorgeous piece of Drizz (which may or may not be exactly what she looks like in my mind).

The tattoos came from her time in the grove, normative to their culture, but since leaving, she takes very little care of her appearance. She stays clean, but beyond that, her hair gets lopped off when it starts getting in the way and that's about it. Midway through the game (entering Grymforge), she starts tying it up again in a modified version of the way she wore it under Lloth (see below).

And eyes - I know the idea that drow dissenting from Lloth being stripped of their red is a controversial decision Larian made, so I go back and forth on that, but considering her direct connection to the Yor'thae, I think there’s a case for it either way. Undecided. I lean toward leaving them red atm.

Below is Miirara (top row) and Miira / Miiren (lower rows).

[thethrobbingmembers]

THE THROBBING MEMBERS REVIEW: The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

Love it when a boy is doomed to be King. -Catherine

Put #1 Madoc fangirl on my gravestone. -Sarah

If I could go back in time to middle school, I wouldn't give myself any hints or information about the future, but I would tell myself to read this book. Even though it wasn't out yet. -Margo

I didn't think I liked this book and then I IMMEDIATELY read all of the sequels. -Lily

Dream Cast

Jude

Cardan

Theme Song: Cruel Summer by Taylor Swift

Summary: Spirited away to the world of Faerie after the murder of her parents, Jude learns how to adapt herself to survive, shedding kindness for cunning and empathy for ruthlessness. Her greatest tormentor is also her greatest teacher -- Prince Cardan, the youngest and cruelest son of the High King, who rips wings off of subjects and promises Jude a grim future should she not submit.

Yet not everything is as it seems. Just as Jude is about to prove herself as worthy of her place, a coup disrupts the High Court, forcing new alignments. Now Jude's ambitions rest in the safekeeping of her enemy...

And she can use that to her advantage.

Review:

I can't be objective about this book. After the horror that was A Court of Thorns and Roses I never wanted to read a book about fairy romance again. I could have died never having to hear the words "dark and mysterious and cruel" ever again and been HAPPY.

Thank God I decided to ignore those emotions and give this book a chance.

What to say that hasn't already been said? I could be clever and analytical, waxing poetic about the reversal of gender dynamics between Jude (power-hungry and desperate to better herself through strength and violence) and Cardan (babygirl helpless with a sword but cunning and insightful, able to endear himself to his kidnappers with his bratty wiles). I could talk about the cycle of abuse and how it affected Jude and Cardan differently, or the wickedly brilliant manner in which Holly Black approached Madoc (he may show up to your fencing tournament covered in blood but he will show up). Or how just like all the best books about the fair folk, they are beautiful and frightening and irreverent of gender norms -- queer and rich in a way most boring heteronormative dark YA novels are not.

But what I will say instead is this:

Thank you Holly Black for restoring my faith in YA fantasy novels about morally grey fruity cunty characters. I read this book within a 24 hour fever dream, cackling and drinking wine and experiencing a high I have not felt since I was in middle school. You're a real one.

-Smurf

10/10* stars

*I cannot be objective about this book so while this rating is not by unanimous consensus, everyone rated this book extremely highly

Additional Ratings

Hot Dad: 10/10

Madoc may be a murderer but he is such a supportive dad -- the opposite of left baby. No notes. (Honestly we forgot we were supposed to hate him)

Lore about the fair folk: 8/10

Loved the vibes, but could have done without the over-explanation of how fairies don't have periods.

Notes: Cardan is babygirl.

[tivonasworld]

Ting Mama’s Nagging Voice · 05｜Bare Exam vs. Cheating: The Hidden Rules of Marriage

Who ever taught working-class girls how to marry?

No one.

They’re simply pushed into the wolves’ den—alone.

People say marriage is between two people,

But in reality?

A girl is often fighting against an entire collective interest system—

on her own.

⸻

01｜Men get “coached” before marriage. Girls take the exam bare.

You think love is about feelings.

But to some families, marriage is just a strategic operation.

Once the groom’s side has a family meeting, the script is set:

• “Get her pregnant first—then we can lower the bride price.”

• “Don’t spoil her too much. Your parents will lose status.”

• “Always listen to your family. Don’t get tricked by a woman.”

• “If you give too much in bride price, it looks like your parents are beggars. You okay with that?”

They’re not helping him build a family.

They’re helping him minimize cost—

turning love into a game of “how to marry cheap and stay in control.”

And this boy?

He’s never been taught empathy, respect, or responsibility.

He grows into a human microphone:

One thing from Mom, he repeats.

A comment from an uncle, he echoes back louder.

No thoughts of his own. Just a mouthpiece—

Living more like a broker than a man.

⸻

02｜Men live in confusion. Girls live in raw reality.

On the girl’s side?

There’s no extended family teaching you how to protect yourself,

no aunties schooling you on reverse strategies.

Before marriage, they tell you to be “good,” “sweet,” “understanding.”

After marriage, they tell you to “endure,” “sacrifice,” “think of the bigger picture.”

So many girls enter marriage dreaming of love—

Only to become a chewed-up gummy bear,

passed around until there’s nothing left.

You don’t play along? You’re called “immature.”

You set boundaries? You’re called “cold-hearted.”

Try to be kind? You’re treated like a pushover.

Ask for fairness? You’re labeled “difficult.”

This isn’t because you’re not good enough.

It’s because you were set up from the start to be the compliant one.

⸻

03｜“One Woman, Three Uses”—More Like Seven

There’s a term: “One woman, three uses.”

Meaning, within the marriage system, women get squeezed in three major ways:

• Married off as a status token for her parents

• Used by in-laws as an emotional and physical laborer

• Pressured by society to reproduce and carry family responsibilities

But the truth?

Three is a joke. Try seven or eight.

Some women’s lives are so constantly extracted,

they can’t even catch their breath.

The worst part?

Some men think this is all normal.

They even join in—aligning with their parents,

stripping their wives layer by layer.

This isn’t love.

It’s a joint venture of ignorance and entitlement.

Mental age: three.

Emotional intelligence: undeveloped.

Such men have no business speaking of “marriage.”

⸻

So, girls—wake up.

• Not all “love” is clean.

• Not all relationships deserve your total vulnerability.

Love is not a negotiation chip for family gain.

Marriage is not a sequel to filial suffering.

See the rules clearly—so the rules don’t eat you alive.

Become strong for yourself,

Only then can you carry the kind of life—and love—you truly deserve.

《婷妈妈的��叨声·05｜裸考 vs 作弊 》

谁教过基层女孩怎么嫁人？没人。只有被推着进狼窝。

很多人以为婚姻是两个人的事，

但现实是——

女孩往往是一个人对抗一整个“集体利益体”。

01｜男人婚前是“有老师”的，女孩是“裸考”的

你以为爱情靠感觉，但在某些家庭的眼里，婚姻是场“策划案”。

男方亲戚一开会，策略就定好了：

• “你先让她怀孕，彩礼钱就可以压一压。”

• “别太顺她，不然以后你父母没地位。”

• “你要听家里的，别被女人骗了。”

• “彩礼多给一点你爸妈像是下人一样，你愿意？”

他们不是在帮这个男孩建立家庭，而是在帮他“规避成本”，

把爱，变成一场“怎么娶得便宜、控制得牢”的��弈。

而这个男孩从小就没有被教过如何共情、如何尊重、如何承担，

于是就成了一个在人群中随风摇摆的“传声筒”：

父母一句，他回去传一句；

亲戚一句，他变本加厉转述一句。

自己没有想法，只有转述功能，活得像个中介。

02｜男人活在混沌中，女孩活在血肉里

女孩这边呢？没有亲戚教育你怎么反套路，也没人教你如何自保。

婚前告诉你要贤惠、要懂事、要让着点。

结婚后告诉你要忍耐、要付出、要顾全大局。

于是，多少女孩带着对爱的幻想进入婚姻，

然后一步步变成被吸干的橡皮糖，谁都能来揩一口。

你不懂人情世故，她们说你不懂事；

你一旦想守边界，她们说你不近人情。

你想做好人，却被当成了软柿子；你想要公平，却被当成了麻烦制造者。

这一切，不是因为你不够好，而是你从一开始就被设定为“顺从”的那一方。

03｜一女三吃，何止三吃

所谓“一女三吃”，说的是女人在婚姻体系中被多重压榨：

• 出嫁被父母当嫁妆换取面子；

• 结婚被夫家当工具人付出情绪和劳动；

• 生育被社会当责任捆绑，养孩子、养老人、养家运转。

实际上，哪止三吃？

很多女人的人生，七吃八吃不带喘的。

最可怕的是，有些男人还真觉得这一切是理所当然。

甚至加入坑老婆的队伍，和父母站在一起，把老婆“剥一层再剥一层”。

这不是爱，是愚蠢和混沌在合谋。

认知三岁，情商未成年，这种人哪来资格谈“婚姻”？

所以，女孩们要警醒：

• 不是所有的爱，都是干净的。

• 不是所有的亲密关系，都值得你毫无防备地走进去。

爱情不是拿来换“集体利益”的谈判筹码，

婚姻也不是“孝顺式忍耐”的剧本续集。

看清规则，是为了不被规则吃掉。

你得先成为一个强大的自己，

才能撑起一段配得上你的人生。

[anghraine]

#fascinating discussion#i don't get the star trek comparison because i don't go there hehe#there is far more textual evidence for lady anne being more like lady catherine than the late mr darcy#and yet she is definitely spoken about like a perfect sweet angel a lot#in my opinion i think it's because people want darcy to be nice and sympathetic so him being so conceited made him an outlier in his family#when it's highly likely the reverse was true#especially with a family with as much wealth and status as the darcys and ofc lady anne had more and a title#but i do think it comes from a sense of wanting to view darcy as a sweet baby angel and that being extended to his family#very interesting though!! (via @bennetsbonnet)

Thanks!

I'll admit, my opinion of the function this serves wrt Lady Anne and Darcy is pretty much the exact opposite. At least in my experience, the soft, pure Lady Anne characterization has nothing to do with softening Darcy by association with her, and everything to do with distancing him from her, no matter how he's characterized otherwise (it serves essentially the same function as the also-common villainization of Lady Catherine, I would say, just in the opposite direction).

If anything, this concept of Lady Anne tries to link her with the extremely feminine, meek, devoted Georgiana rather than with Darcy or Lady Catherine, even though that makes less sense in-story (we don't know exactly when Lady Anne died, but we do know Darcy was an only child for many years and Georgiana is 12 years younger than him, so he had far more time in which to be influenced by their mother, and Lady Catherine had still more).

Where I've seen this approach to Lady Anne combined with especially sympathetic Darcy characterizations, he's all about masculine virtue and/or pitiable wet cat male love interest vibes that, if anything, involve him being associated with his father, by contrast to his mother being defined by sweet, mild, endlessly nurturing femininity, with Lady Catherine as the outlier family villain (the earl and his family + Anne de Bourgh are often romanticized as well in these cases, in a way that suggests Lady Catherine is individually bad rather than the extreme representation of the flaws of her family and class).

OTOH, I've also seen this soft, idealized maternal figure version of Lady Anne appearing in cases where Darcy is depicted as vastly more of an aggressive alpha male asshole than in the novel, or even some kind of "bad boy" figure. What really matters in this framework is that he's aligned with masculinity, far more than that he's endlessly noble/pitiable or a brooding sex god or whatever—so contrasting him with an ultra-feminine version of Lady Anne serves that end regardless of how sympathetically he's depicted.

There's a pretty common attempt, I think, to detach Lady Anne and Lady Catherine in exactly opposed ways from Darcy, even though the incredibly obvious context for his snobbery and arrogance and active interference in the lives of those around him is exemplified in Lady Catherine, who herself represents the extreme, absurd version of aristocratic entitlement virtually the entire family shares to some degree (they stand in for an entire echelon of society, not just incidentally flawed individuals). And all evidence is that Lady Anne got on just fine with her sister while Darcy's father was the more personable, good-natured, giving, and universally beloved of his parents.

I think a lot of Austen fans are much more comfortable with the idea that Lady Catherine is basically just like Mrs Bennet, or like some other female character in Austen, or was just always this uniquely obnoxious snob among otherwise forward-thinking, enlightened aristocratic relatives for no particular reason beyond being a bad penny, than that Lady Catherine and Darcy and implicitly Lady Anne share similar faults and overlapping snobbish perspectives because they're closely related elites and all of them have a stronger allegiance to class than gender.

So you get a lot of takes where Lady Catherine's snobbery and Darcy's snobbery are somehow disconnected, and Lady Anne was this sweet angel who of course only ever wanted her son to marry for love, and the streak of entitlement Elizabeth notices in Anne de Bourgh and Colonel Fitzwilliam is just her being judgmental rather than, hey, this family of extreme socioeconomic elites share fundamentally classist flaws regardless of the particular idiosyncrasies of their personalities because their function in the novel is about class and not about someone being uniquely shitty/flawless.

And Darcy is overwhelmingly defined by gender in the general consciousness, I think, even though the importance of socioeconomic power and how the assumptions around it are reproduced into the next generation across gender lines are so important to the novel (there's a reason that Elizabeth's sense of herself is so profoundly bound up in her father, as well). The gender essentialist read on what's going on with Darcy takes a lot of forms, but I do think one of the more pervasive ways involves this effort to distance him from both Lady Anne and Lady Catherine. You even get weird variations on this like the push inside and outside of fandom to link Darcy's socioeconomic interests more with people like Mr Bennet or Bingley than ones like Lady Anne and Lady Catherine, something that's gone on for years at this point but is patently absurd IMO.

But Darcy's interests and values and character are very much aligned with his family and their class without as much regard to gender as, I think, a lot of readers would prefer. Hence the novel's implication that his mother, like him, was the more difficult personality and that she and Lady Catherine planned family alliances together when he was a baby—even as the current Darcy tries to maneuver Bingley's marriage choices more towards advantageous alliance, and Darcy's plans for his own future very obviously involved allying himself with a much more prestigious family than Elizabeth's, even if not Anne specifically—and that the extreme version of his flaws are Lady Catherine's rather than another man's. And I think all of these things get conspicuously ignored or denied for pretty clearly gendered reasons.

[Note: this post is grumpy and eventually also about Star Trek, it just takes longer than usual to get there and is generally rambling.]

There's something tickling my brain about how my main fandom—to a large degree, sole fandom—for years was Pride and Prejudice, and one of my most intense and long-lasting, yet niche grievances with Austen fandom fanon was over Lady Anne Darcy. It was specifically around the fandom image of her as this absolutely idealized mother, a sort of Madonna figurine brought to life.

I've talked about this many times, but: we know little about Darcy's mother in the book, and that little doesn't really suggest this ideal modest, easy-going, selfless, soft maternal figure. Multiple people in the novel allude to her teaming up with her sister, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, in arranging the betrothal of Lady Catherine's daughter to Lady Anne's son to consolidate the status and property of the sisters' husbands, as well as their own aristocratic ancestry. Lady Catherine is really the only one who goes out of her way to mention Lady Anne. Late in the novel, Darcy very carefully talks his way around filial respect towards his dead parents while also trying to explain how they affected him, insisting they were good people while adding that they not only allowed, but encouraged ("almost taught" him) his arrogance and narrow preoccupation with his family circle. He also specifically says that his widely beloved father was the more generous and pleasant of the two.

It's a small thing in some ways: Lady Anne is an incredibly minor character who is dead before the novel starts and whom we only hear a little about that's easy to overlook. At first (long ago), I didn't care about individual fics or headcanons or whatnot working to distance her from Lady Catherine (and even Darcy himself), and instead envisioning her as a sort of generic maternal ideal. But it was impossible to avoid noticing what seemed an oddly pervasive fannish investment in this quasi-Madonna image of her, even though a) we hear so little about her and b) it doesn't fit very well with what we do hear.

And honestly, Lady Anne being the more abrasive and haughty parent, whom Darcy resembles more closely, makes perfect sense with her background and with the structural mirroring of Elizabeth-Mr Bennet and Darcy-Lady Catherine (each parental figure embodying extreme versions of each lead character's flaws and in some ways, warped versions of their virtues).

But it's not just that there's no reason to assume she was so utterly dissimilar from and superior to Lady Catherine, and that both Lady Catherine and Wickham are independently manufacturing the Pemberley family's cooperation with the planned marriage between Darcy and Anne, or to think that Darcy's implication that Lady Anne was the more difficult personality is mistaken. The thing that always puzzled me is why so many P&P fans want to idealize her this way in the first place, when she's barely referenced in the novel. Why would so many fans care so much about this dead offstage aristocrat being defined entirely in terms of Being a Good Mother (maybe even a perfect mother) despite the obvious unnecessary complications this creates around the characterizations of her sister and son?

It was never a universal fanon, to be clear, but common enough that I couldn't help noticing it and finding it strange. Like, did this whole weird fanon arise solely because Lady Anne is Darcy's mother, and marginal and ambiguous enough to allow fans to default to the most comfortably gendered image of female parenthood? Is it related to the hyper-gendered interpretations of Elizabeth and Darcy themselves, even though both are most strongly associated with cross-gender parental figures in Mr Bennet and Lady Catherine?

(A tangent, but for the record: I'd also argue, and have before, that Elizabeth is most temperamentally similar to Darcy's male friends, while Darcy himself is far more like Jane and Charlotte than like Bingley or Fitzwilliam. And just about every time that either Elizabeth or Darcy makes an assumption about the other based on generalizations about men/women rather than particulars of each other's personalities, they get proven very wrong. So understanding either of them wholly in terms of masculinity/femininity seems dubious in the first place.)

There are probably other possibilities for why there's this investment in idealizing Lady Anne, but in any case, the reason I'm rambling about this is because a lot of the sense of Amanda Grayson's character post-"Journey to Babel" that I've seen reminds me a lot of Austen fandom's representation of Lady Anne.

It's not as baseless with Amanda, for sure. She is initially somewhat set up that way only for that image to get painfully undercut later, when she tells Spock she'll hate him forever if he doesn't step down from his responsibilities to risk his life for Sarek's (she also hits Spock in this scene, though "I'll hate you forever" feels worse to me! ymmv!). And later official ST productions have moved more and more aggressively towards this "Madonna" image of Amanda (while Spock himself has also been increasingly stripped of the messy, complicated ways that TOS Spock himself interacts with gender, in-story and out of it).

But even versions of Amanda that appear almost exclusively based on TOS Amanda seem to lean heavily into an image of her that reminds me much more strongly of fanon Lady Anne Darcy than the Amanda of "Journey to Babel." And I guess it's one of those things that I not only disagree with but don't really get the appeal of. I like both Lady Anne and Amanda quite a lot, despite all of the above—or rather, because of it. They seem to be difficult, imperfect figures within messy family dynamics—great! Messy family dynamics are a lot of fun, and being good mothers is not the only metric by which to engage with female characters who have children.

I don't think either Lady Anne or Amanda are good parents, but they're no worse at it than their husbands, and I find both of them more interesting to think about than their husbands. One of my first fanfics ever was a trollish little fic about Mr Darcy cheating on his wife, who has returned to her father's house with a premature baby nobody expects to live, only to increasingly hint and then reveal that the betrayed wife is Lady Anne and the supposedly doomed premie baby is Darcy himself. There's a TOS-only concept that regularly plays in my head about the cut "City on the Edge of Forever" scene where Spock invites Kirk to Vulcan to rest and heal for some indefinite length of time, only it happens at the end of the five-year mission when Kirk is even more ground-down than he transparently is becoming in S3, but this becomes interwoven with Amanda as this personable but ambiguous figure, and with the complications around how she relates to Spock, Sarek, and even Kirk.

Anyway. I don't know if there are other fandoms where people have noticed that drive to idealize rather than villainize flawed mothers, but I was very struck by how much the cleaned-up Amanda reminded me of cleaned-up Lady Anne.

[leahs15]

I was scrolling on instagram the other day and I was puzzled by this post from Hollywoodunlocked’s page. The headline was “Australian Journalist Names Her Newborn Baby ‘Methamphetamine Rules’” and I immediately thought this had to be fake! Why would any parent want to name their child after an addictive drug that is responsible for ruining so many lives? And the fact that the middle name is “Rules” makes it seem like she’s purposely praising the drug. However, I considered that this picture might be real because it seems to show an actual birth certificate with this name.

After my initial shock, I started my research by reading the caption which claimed the mother, Kirsten Drysdale, named her baby this as part of an experiment for a TV segment (since she is apparently Australia’s ABC journalist) to see if New South Wales Births, Deaths, and Marriages Register would reject any names - apparently this name was approved. I have been following hollywoodunlocked’s instagram page for a while now and I know it’s not the most reliable source of information because it’s a celebrity gossip page, kind of like TMZ and Theshaderoom, so I’m not fully convinced that this information is correct based on the shaky reliability of the source.

Next, I did a reverse image search on google with the screenshot above, but I couldn’t really find anything; it just brought up images of other moms holding their newborns. So instead I searched “Kirsten Drysdale names newborn Methamphetamine Rules” to see if any other sources covered this topic. I find an article by 7News, which I noticed was an Australian news site - this aligns with the story so far. Just to be sure the information could be trusted I searched “7news reliablility -site:7news.com” and no sources said it was fake news, but they did mention the news being more right-winged. Wikipedia had a page pop up for it as well, which seemed to verify it’s reliability - it’s an Australian TV news service founded in 1958 and was the highest rated in the country in 2021.

Now that I established 7news’ reliability, I read through the article and not only did the stories align, this article actually had direct quotes from Kirsten Drysdale herself and the article provided multiple different pictures from the incident. The article also concluded with a quote from the NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages claiming that they have “‘since strengthened its processes in response to this highly unusual event’”.

Lastly, to fully cover all ends, I searched Kirsten Drysdale’s social media accounts and found a link to her instagram which further verified my findings. Her most recent post, in fact, was a video on the baby name and it was a collaborative post with abc, and obviously abc news wouldn’t just collaborate with a fake/ random page.

In conclusion, based on my research, this image proved to be real in the end, as crazy as it sounds. But, with context given, it’s a bit more justified and believable.

[luxettenebra]

no -- no listen -- Revan being raised at a Laterano monastery and eventually she ends up working for the Notorial Hall (which she only does because she was convinced by her brother), but circumstances cause her to fall in the wake of breaking the Law and she decides to head to Kazdel to learn more about the forgotten Prince that was her father

[dayseternal-blog]

Fic Author Self Rec! When you get this reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, or some snippets from upcoming WIPS. Let’s spread the self-love! Love ya and thank you for all you do!! 💖

:D my 5 favorite fics that I've written?? okay.

"It's No Secret" - Hinata returns to Konoha after 5 years studying abroad in the Moon Kingdom. She just wants to enjoy her last year of high school as a normal girl, but blossoming love forces her to confront her future. (Rated M). - My baby fish. A high school AU for which I was really trying all different kinds of things and making all kinds of mistakes, finding my writing style. As a fanfic writer newbie, I felt so free to do whatever I wanted! Every scene for me was gripping, and I was so immersed in the world I was trying to create. It has an original, lengthy plot that I still hope to finish one day!!! I love this fic just because it was so instrumental to helping me improve. It's definitely NOT my best work, but from the first chapter to the most recently published chapter, my growth in writing is so apparent. All of the comments I got on it, even the ones that criticized, were encouraging for me and I cherish those readers who've followed my fics since then 💞

"Nightdreams" - Naruto and Hinata find comfort in each other after the war. (Rated E). - The easiest multi-chapter fic to write. Ever. Since then, I've never had quite as much fun writing a fic (I think Catskin came close). Certainly never as easy a time. "Nightdreams" had its moments of growth for me for sure, though, like the mission chapter, the argument chapter, all of the smut! It had its challenges, but the story flowed so easily, from beginning to end. I think there were only a couple of small writer's blocks. Overall, "Nightdreams" easily takes fave #2 just because it was so fun, and I think readers can tell that I really enjoyed writing it.

"Awkward Jocks" - She knows that if he were to ever ask her out, she would accept in a heartbeat. After all, he's the star quarterback and basketball player. Plus, she's liked him since...forever. But when her home phone rings, and he's on the other line, she hangs up. (Rated G). - The sweet and funny love story based off of my ex-coworker's life...bittersweet now, don't remember if I shared on Tumblr why. But I wrote this fic full of my love for her, so it takes the spot for fave #3.

"About You" - A summer job at the Dole pineapple cannery, graveyard shift 10 PM to 6 AM. A long bus ride into and out of town. Two teens, shy beside each other. (Rated G). - One of my most personal fanfics, though many of them are super personal. This is possibly the MOST personal because it's slightly based off of my parents' stories, I set it on my home island, and I experimented with writing the dialogue in pidgin. The only reason it's not higher on my list is because I somehow feel like I didn't do as good a job on it as I would have liked. It's like, the cultural/historical details are not accurate enough for me. But this is definitely a fic I wrote for myself, and it's been a joy to see other people love it, too.

"Matcha" from "Shared Vows" - Naruto calls Hiashi "father" for the first time. (Rated T). - ooooh it was a toss-up between this one or "Finally Home" from "Shared Vows," but I decided on "Matcha" as my fave #5. I love how I framed this fic, its ending reversing the beginning, and I somehow managed to communicate exactly what I wanted to say about Naruto's new family. This fic gives me such feel-good vibes, and I'm so glad it captured the feelings I felt.

I know that my personal faves do not align with readers' personal faves. Except for maybe "Nightdreams" haha. That one is easy to love. I know people loved "White Lilies," "Friend of Mine," "Tell Me of Forevers," and "Undercover," ...those exhibit some of my best technical writing, so I'm glad readers recognized that effort! My personal faves have more sentimental value, I guess, so that's what makes them special to me.

[glagger-true]

Howdy dear reader! I'm your host Glagger, and today I'm very excited to bring you the second intermission of my medal analysis series for Password VN.

In this intermission, we'll discuss the connection between Aquarius, Libra and Gemini, the medals associated to the three members of the cast whose shared trauma is being victims of people who were meant to love them.

Just like intermission one, it is recomended you read the individual medal sections for each medal intersected in this post first. This intermission has SPOILERS FOR THE NOVEL as well, so please, if you haven't read the novel yet and don't want to be spoiled, leave for now.

A brief intermission on the victims trio: Aquarius, Libra and Gemini, the positive aligned, repressed trio:

The first connection that stands out for these medals is that they all have air as their element, which makes their polarity positive as well. They are also route exclusive, and the characters that are connected to them all share the trauma of being victims harmed by people who were meant to protect them and love them. This trauma caused them to externalize the most repressed aspects of their identities in unhealthy ways. Another argument that supports the connection between these medals is that they are found precisely at the beginning, middle and end of the paths. This contrasts the sinners trio being the reverse, all found on the same day at the same time.

Orlando, who's tied to Aquarius, is the victim of emotional abuse. He is very expressive of his surface emotions, but reserved about his deeper feelings. This happens because the abuse of his family is based on the constant rejection of his feelings and desires. He is ignored as an individual and seen only as a recipient for their expectations, but that recipient is already full of all the things that make him who he is. Realizing he won't become what they wish, they ignore, neglect and verbally harm him, seeing and treating him as a failure for just being who he is. He always validates and is considerate of the emotions of others, comforting them when they feel overwhelmed by them, because he lacked that comfort, consideration and validation in the one instance he was supposed to receive it unconditionally. This ruined his self-esteem and made him passive and cowardly.

Hoss, who's tied to Libra, is a victim of psychological abuse. His parents use his love and devotion to family to try and manipulate him into being what they see as the correct and best version of himself. They claim not to reject his bisexuality, while also openly stating they hope he ends up with a girl, disguising their rejection and disappointment with "advice" and "worry". His parents "just happen" to say out loud that being queer is a bad example to children "coincidentally" in front of their bissexual son that loves his siblings to death. This behavior makes it obvious they are attempting to gaslight him into believing he's in the wrong for not "choosing" to do what's "best for the family". But Hoss isn't stupid, he got their true message with his talent for reading people, and is utterly tormented by the idea that someday his family will openly reject him and abandon him. Even if unintentionally, they completely destroyed Hoss' mental confidence using various forms of disguised emotional manipulation, causing him to become dishonest and insecure.

Tyson, who's connected to Gemini, is the victim of physical and sexual abuse. His mother abandoned him with an awful man, that abused of his status as a father to hurt, punish, rape, and do many more unspeakble things to his innocent son. His actions and her abandonment destroyed any semblance of kindness, trust and empathy Tyson had in his heart, causing him to develop an extremely prickly and violent shell to express all of the negative emotions he felt, and hide away his vulnerabilities so others can't abuse him again. In the wolf's mind, if his own father could do this, others are certainly capable of doing much worse. His queerness was also negatively impacted by this abuse, making him develop severe internalized homophobia and an incapacity to properly feel and express romantic affection and sexual attraction.

These three medals not only all belong to The positive polarity, but also to the same element, air. Air signs are all about communication and sociability, making it fitting that the three characters being connected to these medals suffer severely in social scenarios thanks to their traumas. The fact these three are associated in-game supports this connection. Tyson and Orlando have a very difficult relationship despite how similar their traumas are, which reflects the difference between Tyson's mutable sign and Orlando's fixed sign. Both however get along very well with Hoss since he sits in the middle with his cardinal sign aspect and middle-ground trauma. Tyson develops significant respect and admiration for Orlando after he grows courageous enough to fight back and endanger his life for the sake of Dave and the group, much like how Orlando started accepting Tyson once he showed that his change was something solid he was willing to stick with permanently.

When Roswell takes advantage of their emotional instability to kill Tyson and accidentally kill Orlando, Hoss is the one most affected alongside Dave over their deaths. These paths are the ones where Hoss' psychological state deteriorates the most, to the point he breaks down violently in fear and sadness because he no longer has his most important support pillars in the group. His death in path F could have also been avoided if Tyson and Orlando were still alive to emotionally ground him and keep him stable in the presence of Memphis' gun.

I would like to conclude by saying that abuse tends to mix together, and that Orlando and Hoss suffered both emotional and psychological abuse to different degrees, while Tyson also certainly suffered all three, however the ones that impacted them the most were emotional, psychological and physical respectively.

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Artworks were made by Xernok on Discord, https://twitter.com/_Gabu4Play_ , https://twitter.com/CaitNyz and https://twitter.com/hhsyan on twitter respectively.

[eye-cri]

Aidma is usually hard to read, but it definitely wasn't hard to tell the physical appearance shift had a significantly positive impact on her mental state. I don't think she remembers what her father looks like but she was always being mistaken for him and not in any good way, despite being a victim of his as well.

Sometime ago I had the thought of "what if Aidma's magic was tied to her attachment to her environment?" And it basically manifested as "Whatever/ Whoever Aidma feels closest to results with that / them being her magical conductor." So yea, because Aidma has strong attachment to her friend is why the eye works as her conductor. She was (and still is to some degree) grieving the loss she experienced and wanted to hold Iron tight to what she had left, so she made the eye into a ring (using Alchemy, without having realized or knowing how).

Aidma is fond of Lucious and Clive for the same reason she is with Zett and Caesar, she can tell life hasn't been kind to them either. Granted they're all in different worlds of the type of pain, but sympathy comes easily to her in regards to them.

Najlynn would probably meet up with Lars and Ted as Prefects of the Academy. She and Glenn probably see each other on and off as their jobs would allow. After the new gen Prefects probably some other ocs that actually aren't apart of the clan.

Probably that Adima is not her name, and maybe almost slipping into telling him that it's Aidma. (Again, pronounced differently and no spelling being given is why she was initially able to get away with it.) And that she's sought refuge in Gedonelune with her clan together, not that they just moved there gradually. Maybe she'd have hid the fact they were a clan to and end up giving an implication that they are one. All that and her being taken aback by her new appearance and what she's achieved so far.

I think he'd be mad but need to calm himself to focus on getting her memories back. Though she'd probably be more expressive and emotional, which he would try to see more of during and after the event.

I'd have to imagine that they do know about her business, as it is international. I don't think they'd trust her, but they also would trust that Zeus knows and trusts her enough to be able to fall asleep in her presence.

I don't really think about his parents all too much tbh, one day I'd have to think about it tho bc last night I got the idea that since Zeus hates business and the politics behind them that Aidma would take control as becoming the head of the house of Brundle alongside ruling over her homeland. Good opportunities for her there.

Though I also had the hc that one of the twins would inherent the head of estate. Idk I really like both options so I'll probably come up with a comprise.

These posts by mcl-mia are some head canons I really like tho.

As for their thoughts on Aidma, I think that it'd be tainted by the fact she's visibly not feeling well (they would see it as her being sad). Which sucks, bc I think otherwise she'd treat them as her own little sisters (they probably remind her of her own little sisters too) and they would want to be like her in their own ways.

I LOVE TAROT CARDS YYAYAYAYAAA!!!!! From what I understand of the Empress card, the reversed is more so overbearing rather than negligence. I think that's what power Imbalance that you mentioned could be interpreted as. I think negligence would more so align with reversed Emperor. I don't know if you see these cards this way too, but I personally was introduced to the Empress and Emperor as representative of (common experiences of) motherhood and fatherhood.

I think I'm gonna imagine Zeus as the knight to Kajal's Queen, bc I think from what you told me already it kinda represents his unpredictability rather than a simple one step King piece :3

It's not often I see morally gray characters in this fandom; this is so AWESOME❗️❗️❗️one day I HAVE to see Kajal lose it, maybe even with your permission I'd love to draw her doing so.

This how I see your description of Zeus facing the consequences of his actions:

I DO wanna see her wings one day!! Very curious if their design will play into the symbolisms you've laid out for her so far or if they would carry another meaning.

I think them getting back together would be a really sweet scene...... I keep on kinda saying this, but it's such a vivid image that I could just see a picture of it already 😭😭

And!!!!! The scene with Kajal saying she still loves Zeus!!! (JUST as I was typing this the song I associate with Zeus's love life turned started playing omfg) Just so sweet 😭😭 I need to see them even more lovey dovey ASAP or I'll STARVE.

I think you could have both ideas!! Maybe like she decided to stay to help but needs support from her friends because she couldn't stand having to solely work with him at the moment. After all the wound of betrayal would have been barely hours (or minutes) old at that point.

Is Kajal closer to one person in the oc friend group or are they all close? Could I hear some stories of what they've went through together? How they all met? What about their dynamics? (It sounds like Yesseina and Kajal are kinda implied to be pretty close, but I don't want to assume(it ALSO sounds like they don't always hold eachother back when it comes to payback, has that ever gotten out of hand?)

I think that being able to control situations from behind is ultimately a good trait to have, because then she'd be more of a wild card of a target. (Remember! People are out to get Zeus and his family, I don't imagine they'd be above targeting partners of the Brundles)

I could unfortunately imagine Scarlett getting into that type of situation,, I think her guard would be due to her position in her house as a Canon. What was Lynn's guard rooted from?

Btw,,,, *mischievous smirk* I know what to include in- *gets hit on the head whith a pan*

But instruments!!! I need to see you go deeper into how they could tie into her sound wise.

To be fair!!! Kannu kinda seems like she's also really similar to Kajal (it might just be Kajal having rubbed off on Kannu tho, I keep on seeing ppl saying cats take some traits after their owners)

For me I actually got inspired by an art work I got of Zeus tucking a Hibiscus flower in Aidma's hair to make that her representative flower. It was the first artwork I've ever gotten of them, let alone of Aidma so it holds a precious place in my heart. Plus while they're commonly associated with delicacy I personally see them with the strength to have a powerful presence. I think she deserves to be both 🧡🌺

Sound, probably the sound of waves. They're beautiful and comforting, but also so deadly. Hehe kinda surface level but idc.

As for weather, while she really likes the heat I'd associate her personality with either rainfall or snowfall. Generally for the same reason as waves but i also feel like I could get deeper into this,,, hm.

Animal! Black Jaguar!! I am not biased bc I have 3 black cats one who literally looks like a mini Jaguar!! I don't really know exactly why either, but I just know that one time I sketched a full face masquerade mask for her that was of a Black Jaguar (with 3 gold diamonds under each eye to represent her piercings)

notes on safiya (one of my WH / multifandom oc)!!

anywaysss im answering a few questions i got from @eye-cri (eeeee bc im so happy to :3)

okie so yes!! safiya is a prefect (she becomes one around the same time as liz (so, after rem) when her friends convince her to try for it. honestly, she kinda is like joel TT. safiya is so fun bc she says whats on her mind and will sometimes manage to do it in the most unbelievably tactless way possible but shes rarely ever intending to be flat out rude. like she just says things sometimes, its great. she, like liz, got an acceptance letter, started off as a provisional student and then got her place at the academy (she and liz pretty much have the same starting tbh, they’re both from villages tho safiya’s family is still very much alive). also she’s pretty good friends with joel, luca, amelia, scarlett and augustus- she and liz get along but they tend to argue from time to time.

also about the boots omg what was i thinking looking back at it, it rly is smthn but honestly its so very safiya in a way i can’t fully articulate rn TT

additionally, i’ve decided i may ship her w/ elias :DD idk just think that’d be a cute pairing-

(also note: some of my oc lore does change from time to time depending on the characters and whatnot tbh but usually it doesnt- unless i forget stuff HELP-💀)

[gildedmist]

So, I feel like fandom has totally been sleeping on Jewish Harry and/or Hermione.

Think about the potential!

Last night while trying and failing to sleep I had thought of a whole bunch of really interesting reasons for Jewish headcanons for both Harry and Hermione, and of course now that it’s day time I’m much less eloquent. But still, here are a few of my favorite reasons for Jewish Harry and/or Hermione.

(Also, for the record, I’m half Jewish patrilineally myself.)

For Harry:

He’d probably be half Jewish ethnically, and if his Jewish parent is James then Harry probably would have never had any idea (the Dursleys probably wouldn’t have told him if they knew, but it’s also entirely possible they never knew at all.)

There’s a whole thematic parallel there with not knowing he was a wizard, in that finding out later in life that you’re Jewish is an entirely realistic thing that some half ethnically Jewish people (especially those that are patrilineal) have to deal with.

It also parallels the wizard thing in general, in terms of having to hide a part of who you are due to persecution, something that has been (and still is in many places and situations) a very real necessity for Jewish people.

There’s more subtle stuff to explore about being half-blood and also half Jewish, the issue with patrilineal Jews not being recognized by some people as Jewish, the lower social status that half-bloods have compared to purebloods etc etc. This would be a reverse of the main parallel of the blood purity thing, but it lines up in an interesting way with the problems that half ethnically Jewish (especially patrilineal) people sometimes have in regard to not fitting into either ‘world’, an issue that half-blood wizards might sometimes face as well if they have muggle family they’re on good terms with.

Culturally, it’s very important for Jewish people to stand up for people who need help, especially those who can’t help themselves. This is for a lot of reasons, but one in particular is that because Jewish people know what it’s like to be persecuted and discriminated against, it’s a moral imperative not to stand by and let other people be treated the same way. Harry’s deep sense of responsibility in terms of fighting for and protecting others, treating others equally, etc all work really well with that, as well as lining up with the other theme of how Harry has been mistreated his whole life and yet shows such kindness and forgiveness toward others.

On a sillier note, Daniel Radcliffe is half Jewish himself (though matrilineally) so that would also make perfect casting.

For Hermione:

Her love for learning fits in perfectly with Jewish cultural attitudes toward study and learning. Seeking knowledge and understanding are important parts of Jewish culture, including learning to question even authority figures (like, say, professors) which aligns well with Hermione’s growth through the series.

Like I mentioned with Harry, Hermione’s intense need to stand up against injustice, and to fight for people who are disenfranchised, discriminated against, etc, is also a very strong cultural tenant.

The blood purity parallel was never subtle at all to begin with, but Hermione being not just muggle-born but the Jewish witch daughter of two Jewish muggles would be incredibly thematic in a story about prejudice.

The ball was dropped hard on Hermione’s situation in DH in regards to her being on the run for being muggle-born, since that danger was overshadowed a bit by the fact that she was also in danger just for traveling with Harry. But there could’ve been really interesting potential there for how she might’ve dealt with the obvious historical parallel if she were Jewish as well. 

A sillier one but although the ‘Jewish hair’ thing is a stereotype, it’s also entirely accurate for a lot of Jewish people, and Hermione having bushy brown hair could easily line up with that.

For Both:

I mentioned this for them individually, but Harry being half ethnically Jewish, Hermione being fully ethnically Jewish, and Ron not being Jewish would line up exactly with them being half-blood, muggle-born, and pureblood.

For the record, there’s nothing at all wrong with being a Jewish witch/wizard, especially not in the sense of how it works in the HP universe.

The very thought of either of both of them being Jewish would probably piss off JKR and that’s funny.

Now all of this said, I totally would understand why people would be super wary about Jewish headcanons if they aren’t Jewish themselves, and might be afraid of doing something insensitive, being wrong or overstepping about Jewish issues, etc etc and those are very good things to be cautious about! But I’d still love to see more Jewish headcanons because I feel like the idea is so interesting and has so much potential.