#this is more just basic info. stuff specific to their personalities i'll post later

[midnight-mourning]

1000 kudos/100 Follower Special!

wow so um, there’s a LOT of you now

👀👀👀

WHERE DID Y'ALL EVEN COME FROM LIKE?? HI!! 👋👋👋

AND ALSO

THIS???? CRAZY, incredibly appreciated <3 but also wild

anyway, I think that deserves celebrating! So, here’s a couple ideas I came up with for y’all to vote on, with the option of sharing other ideas in the comments, I’ll do the top two and save the others for the next milestone :)

If the 'other' option gets the most/second most votes, I'll do another poll with ideas that people suggested and we'll go from there. You can scroll down and click the read more if you'd like more info on each option! SO, having said all that:

Letting you guys make the call with this one! I have stuff prepped for all of it, just a matter of people voting since this is ME showing my appreciation to YOU. And again, next milestone will have the opportunity for the other choices :)

Also, this isn't just for followers/the moots either! Anyone is welcome to vote and participate if they'd like to 💙💙

Please also feel free to ask questions in the comments if that helps you with voting! Can't wait to see what you guys pick :D

I will expand on each option here for clarity in your decision making:

CS one-shot: I will write a one-shot (3,000-5,000 words prob) based in the CS universe. It will be canon to the fic but will never be mentioned/referenced in the fic itself so stand alone to read. It may be a future scene, may be based somewhere in the current timeline. Open to ideas on the POV and such (though I have some floating around that I can do ;))

Q&A/Ask the Cast: a classic, I know my ask box is open but here's also a clear chance to ask something that you've been really curious about! I won't share spoilers for the story, but everything else is on the table, including stuff about me, writing etc. Just no super personal questions is all! Additionally, you can ask the cast questions and answers will be in character, perhaps with a little doodle as well ^-^

Finished refs/busts for the cast of CS: I'll post the finished versions of the rough sketches I shared a few months ago, along with the remainder of the cast! This includes the rest of the engineering team, the division heads, the glamrocks, and the DCA! I also will include little blurbs for all the characters as well. This will probably happen eventually anyway BUT if you want them sooner rather than later this is you're chance if you're curious :)

Spooky Season one-shot: something halloween-related that again I'm open to ideas for! Would also be about 3,000-5,000 words in length, could be related to CS or not

Writing Requests: similar to the requests I did for reveal day, same rules apply (no nsfw, suggestive is fine, be specific if you want specific) but a little longer in length (500-1000 words)

Doodle requests: I provide you with a little drawing I made with tender love and care (would be lined, colored, shaded, etc.)

A peek into the drafts: I do in fact have a couple other fic ideas floating around in my brain that I simply haven't started so that I don't get bogged down/focus on CS. I would share those and a little bit of concept art

Other: explained above

[plumomi]

Fankids incoming

(For fanfiction purposes. Whether they all exist in the same universe or not varies. Depends on how messy I want things to get. General notes below).

Felicity (Fizzarolli/Blitzø child)

Name meaning: "happiness"

Nicknames: Lis, Lissy

Age 14 (nearing 15) by show TL. Born post-circus fire.

Fizz did not know she existed until after the events of 'Oops.' Shit's complicated... shit gets even more complicated.

Amorita (Verosika/Blitzø child)

Name meaning: Portmanteau of 'amrita' (immortality) and 'amor' (love).

Nickname: Rita

About 10 (currently). Dunno if we'll ever get canon info on how long ago Blitzø & Ver broke up, but that'll effect her age.

Verosika didn't know she was pregnant until after the breakup.

Neither she nor Blitzø had a desire to reignite the relationship, but they attempt to coparent. Goes about as well as you'd expect.

Verosika has primary custody.

Philomena (Asmodeus/Fizzarolli child)

Name meaning: "To be loved"

Just a lil baby. Not born yet via current show events

Nicknames: Pippa, Pip, Mena

Nova (Stolas/Blitzø child)

Name meaning: "New" (also has space association)

Also a baby, same boat as Pippa. Lot of drama surrounding her conception ofc though.

I regret trying to draw a side profile for her as a baby. She's the one I'm least satisfied with currently and will definitely be getting design changes.

[emocl0wnpp]

The hyperfixation is getting worse soooo

Time for a terribly written infopost about my creepypasta oc Claws :D

☆Basic infos☆

Before "shit went down" infos(the red head and the purple ghost pics basically):

Name before death: Nicolas Marshall Rhodes Nicole M. Rhodes

Date of birth: 29th of October, 1978

Age before death: 27

Pronouns: He/Him She/her

Gender: MtF transgender

Sexuality: questioning everything

Nationality: Hungarian,British

Height: 195cm/ 6"3

Personality: naive,anxious, shy, nervous, smart, quiet, people-pleaser, workaholic, overworked, tired, reserved, introverted, a bit loud around friends

Other stuff idk how to categorize-

She lived in Hungary until she was 6, after that her family moved to Britain(specifically Liverpool)

She had 2 older brothers(they were twins), and a younger sister(she's on the picture with Claws before her death-)

Her dad was Hungarian and her mom was british

HUUUUUUGEEE horror fan, ESPECIALLY a BIG BIG fan of IT and Pennywise in general-

Owns every exsisting piece of merch of Pennywise

Wanted to become a detective

She studied at Oxford University and got her diploma there too :3

(The plush doll on the picture of her as a human will later on become her body)

Picked up the habit of smoking and drinking out of stress

Ended up in hell as a purple ghost/soul like being (i will talk abt this more i promise--)

Cause of death:

Stabbed by her ex 15 times on her back (i will make a post/edit this one with her backstory I PROMISE😭😭)

Date of death: 25th of December,2005

☆After death info :D☆

Name: Claws

Age: doesn't really matter anymore cuz yk she's dead

Pronouns: still She/her

Sexuality: demisexual,panromantic

Species: now a plush ragdoll

Height: 300cm/ 9"8

Personality now: sarcastic, smart, cautious, observant, still workaholic, honest, loyal, obedient, competitive, sharp-tongued, secretive, serious, stubborn, sometimes violent, rather cold hearted (though she's a real sweetheart under those sharp claws and teeth)

Uhhhh random fun facts cuz im terrible at writing bios-

Still a huge IT and Pennywise fan

Best friends,later on dating with Laughing Jack(ironic considering how much of a Pennywise fan she is)

Best friends with Laughing Jill

Works as Zalgo's proxy (not by choice tho-)

Literally no bones or internal organs,just plush stuffing

She's hella flexible too

She doesn't need to eat or drink but still does for the taste

Still smoking and drinking at times

Zalgo makes her do all sorts of jobs, not only is she an assassin,she's also his secretary and the babysitter for his kids-

..cannibal-

She's a shapeshifter :D

A playlist for her:

I'll probably edit the post when more stuff comes to my mind lol

Thought i'd add this here too-

[childofsardior]

Hai-! Saw that you temporarily opened up asks for your AU and stuff here, and, just curious, since I saw that lovely OC of yours kinda added in for your koopa week doodles, and if you weren't already planning on info dumping about her, theeeeen... Can we see some of your headcanons and stuff about her??? I saw her and immediately wanted to know more, I really like seeing people's OC's!!

Hello!!! Thank you for asking ^w^ I'm always happy to talk about my girl Estrela >:3

I'm very much willing to infodump abt her UwU but I will do it in separate posts, step by step! So feel free to ask more - even specific things about her you want to discover and her surroundings/family/background/relationship etc!

Now! I introduced some basic info in this post! I will now proceed to expand it with some fun facts about Estrela's origins as an OC!

Origins: Estrela is actually a very old OC of mine. I think I created her "beta" version in 2010 or so? I never posted her online but I still have some old drawings of her somewhere at home - not going to show them since they were, hu, the opposite of good-looking x3

I literally created her in the first place just because I needed, at the time, an excuse for Ludwig to have a random girlfriend and a daughter later in life. Her original name was Stella, the Italian name for "star". She was a sort of Royal Koopa/Tarrasquin but shorter, without spikes on her shell and without horns (maybe I thought of it as a softer subspecies of Royal Koopas? I really can't remember rn).

Let's say that A LOT of things changed from 14 years ago!

The only details that I kept are basically her hair and eyes colors and her name's meaning - "Estrela" comes from the Spanish word "estrella", that still means "star". I now see her having a star-shaped birthmark on the back of her shell - something I want to show you if I'll do a reference sheet for my OCs and HC versions of the characters x3

Still talking about names: Estrela's sisters, or half-sisters to be accurate, share a similar style for their names: the older one is named Dorada, while the middle one is named Celestiel (I can't wait to show them to you, as soon as I'll be able to draw decently again on PC). Their mother, that all the three share, was the one naming them.

Intro abt her relationship with Ludwig: In my 2010 version, I think they were just childhood friends that ended up in love when teen/young adults if I remember correctly, but it was a bit plain and too straightforward for my current tastes.

Nowdays, instead, (the new) Estrela met Ludwig thanks for a shared passion: music, specifically playing in an orchestra! In fact, she was able to enter the young Tarrasquin's personal orchestra as a violist at some point, after she could not join any of the Mushroom Kingdom's orchestras due them being already full. Here she met the director himself, he noticed her skill and... what happened next it's a long and complex story, I'll maybe tell you one day ;3

[amaranthine-wrath]

˗ˏˋ ❌ INTRO POST ❌ ´ˎ˗

The name's April (she/her). Welcome to my sideblog. I'm an alter in the Apartment System and this is my personal space for whatever I want. Gaming, music, miscellaneous thoughts, pixel art, and more will be shared here. I'm also conceptkin and will probably post about that now and again which is why I've used the tag.

Be warned: This blog may contain sensitive content (like mental health talk and occasional horror themes) but everything will be tagged to the best of my ability. Minors do not interact, you WILL be blocked on sight.

Read on for my basic info and other fun stuff. Kinda long but whatever, feel free to skim or skip around.

(Last updated: 9/2/24)

˗ˏˋ WHO AM I? ´ˎ˗

As stated above, my name is April, I use she/her pronouns, and I'm an alter. Physically 25 and Black-Latino. Since this is a sideblog, I like and follow from the host's main blog (found here).

I identify as conceptkin. Specifically, I am rage personified. The special kind of rage that comes from intense hurt and grief. From wounds that may never heal. This doesn't give me any fancy form, though. I'm just some girl. I've felt this way since I first came to be over a decade ago and since it hasn't changed in all this time I feel comfortable saying this is a solid part of my identity.

I don't mind talking to people so go ahead and send asks but I've gotta warn that sometimes I can be a little flat through text. I'm not mad, I just don't feel like using a million emojis and exclamation points. I won't really answer messages though because holding 1-on-1 conversations with strangers is hard.

˗ˏˋ INTERESTS? ´ˎ˗

Art is a growing interest of mine. I love pixel art and doodling and someday I'll get into Blender/3D modeling and animation. I'm starting to get into code (HTML and CSS). The Sims 4 and Minecraft are my current games but once I've got an actual PC I'll be playing a lot more. I also enjoy poetry, alternative subcultures, and word games like Scrabble and Boggle.

I listen to a decent mix of music (metal, rock, breakcore, techno, etc). Here's my playlist if you wanna get to know a chunk of my music taste. I also update the playlist fairly regularly these days and I love recommendations. Some things are only on YouTube so they didn't get included but it's whatever.

˗ˏˋ DNI? ´ˎ˗

Minors, bigots/TERFs, "endos", ableists, etc. I'm not putting a big ass list. Make me uncomfortable or annoy me and I'll block you. Feel free to block me, too. Curate your own spaces and all that jazz. Involve me in discourse of any kind and I blow you up with my mind for real.

˗ˏˋ EXTRAS! ´ˎ˗

@devotional-devouring - Plague's Blog (Host/the main blog) @doll-disjointed - Mason's Blog (another alter sideblog)

#April's Chatting - Tag for text posts

More to come later. Here's some cool images.

Thanks for reading. Have a good day.

(Icon Credit)

[thatonepikminperson]

So, remember Wraith AUs? GUESS WHAT, MY BRAIN GOT ONE

So, this Au is for the Ground and Stars FanPik, but it can go pretty much on any story about Pikmin if y'all get inspired (Go wild home slices) and the huge new thing is Mixed Wraiths (see more below) so I'll just tag it "mixed wraith au" to not overflow the Pom Wraith AU.

In which, I should probably explain the whole Mixed Wraith thing. In short, it's when a Wraith mixes or fuses with another creature, most commonly another Wraith. There is more info on how they work and some new wraith types.

It is based off of that so @splitster thanks for getting me a bit too obsessed over this concept (Read more for the art and stuff)

(More art and Mixed Wraith lore below!)

So, as you can see, stuff has changed. This AU really starts at Chapter 9, the first 8 chapters are basically the same. Pom is now a wraith, and is hiding among the crew as a totally real space person. Pom himself is called what is known as a Mixed Wraith, or the mixture of a wraith and another creature, most commonly a wraith. Pom is specifically the mix between a Plasm Wraith, and a Water Wraith, which creates the Oil Wraith.

Mixed Wraiths are a bit complicated, but simply, there are mainly two kinds. The first one is the mixed wraith, but two streams of consciousness . This type of Mixed Wraith has the consciousness of both wraiths, and they work together to keep themselves safe. (Let's call this Type 1 Mixed Wraith) The second kind is what is known as the Combined consciousness Mixed Wraith, which is the two wraiths that make up the mixed one coming together and making a new Combined Consciousness (Or CC). Of course, these wraiths can take over separately at any time, but they usually just use the CC to get closer to prey. (Let's call this Type 2 Mixed Wraith) Pom is the second type of Mixed Wraith

So there's more wraith lore. There are four main types of wraiths, Liquid, Solid, Gas, and Plasma. Each one acts and behaves differently from each other, and some of which are not total assholes.

(The Liquid Wraith includes things like the Water Wraith, the Honey Wraith or Colored Ink Wraiths. Solid Wraiths include things like the Reflection Wraith, the Gemstone Wraith, or the Floral Wraith. The Gas Wraith includes things like the Oxygen Wraith, Chloroform Wraith, and the Iodine Vapor Wraith. The Plasma Wraiths include things like the Plasm Wraith, the Star Wraith, or the Flame Wraith.)

Wraiths survive with their cores, which are practically their hearts. These are generally the same as the Pom Wraith AU, but if a Mixed Wraith's Core breaks, then the two wraiths/creatures that made it up will separate, taking half of the core with them.

Also, depending on the personalities of the Wraith and the other creature, they might fight from time to time. If the two created a combined consciousness, and they fight, the consciousness is kicked out of control and one or both of them take over. If it gets too unstable, or the Core is broken in half, then the two Wraiths will split up, in most cases leaving any wraith perfectly fine and the other creature dead.

There is also a way to fix a broken core, but those who try to do so will probably be hunted down by several angry Wraiths. (Wraiths look down at this, as they think if you died, you need to stay dead)

Wraiths are also garbage at disguising themselves, like really. Most forgot that ears exist, or they have some sort of wild color for skin, like grey or pink. Though, thank god Pom was able to find a human before he lifted off into the stars.

I do have more wraith lore, but those will be separate post, probably without art because I've already made several pages of this stuff, and it's more fun to draw characters compared to lore (Sorry lol)

Oh yeah, and I do have wraith forms of the Rescue Corps, don't worry. THEY AREN'T SAFE FROM THE BRAIN ROT EITHER! (But they will be for later, as I have to get through a far amount of other posts about this AU first. Sorry about that.) MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA ow my back

[qllie]

people who are like "we need to teach x in school we need to teach y in school" bother me because I think it's kinda missing the point of the problem...

like I've seen stuff that's like "americans can't name all fifty states/most countries" you know, stuff like that. And I don't think adding "memorize this list of countries" will help students to become more globally aware? because I had to memorize countries in like 7th grade and I aced that test. But now I don't remember most of them. SOOO like my point is school giving you a massive list of stuff to memorize just isn't gonna be all that helpful for most people. Like there are better ways to teach "global awareness" than memorizing a bunch of countries, since a list of countries doesn't really tell you much anyways... (I mean it's important to know where places are to situate them in current/historical events. but like just knowing names doesn't make you "globally aware" you know)

Also stuff like "media literacy, critical thinking, etc" I think is already being attempted to be taught in schools? you can argue about whether it's being taught well, but to say it's simply not there is not true. Like stuff like history and English (composition/literature) generally attempt to teach some form of critical thinking/media literacy. I think my problem with those kinds of posts is they want there to be some kind of "critical thinking" class and like. That's not really how it works? like critical thinking is a skill you learn to apply, it's not like math where it's like "2+2=4, triangles have 180 degrees, etc" like these skills are not just "here's how to critically think boom done."

Okay also another thing I've heard (from people at my school) is stuff like "high school didn't teach me how to write in this specific format we're writing in now nothing I learned is useful." And like okay maybe your school really did suck idk. But like high school isn't aiming to teach you every single type of writing you will be doing in your career (they can't do this since like there are people who are gonna be doing wildly different kinds of writing). It's more about giving you tools that you can apply to what you're writing later!!!! like for example no one ever will ask you to write a five paragraph essay after high school. But like transitions, learning to research, knowing how to outline, forming arguments, etc etc ARE gonna be helpful!!!!

Like basically I think a lot of the "school didn't teach me this" want school to just be like. A list of every single task you will have to perform and exactly how to do it. And like school cannot do that, partially because it'd be boring as hell (and you would remember 0 of it), and also because that's way too much shit to do. I think the point is more to set you up with the skills to figure out how to do things.... you know? And you can argue it's not doing well at that (yes schools are flawed in several ways)...

like okay for example "schools should teach us how to do our taxes!!!!" (people said this at my high school. which had a personal finances elective. which would teach exactly that). Is kind of a bad idea? In some ways I mean teaching students to be familiar with tax forms is good, but they're not gonna be able to definitely tell you how to do your taxes forever... like as your life changes (eg: job, income, disability, family, injury, on and on) your taxes are gonna be done differently. And also if I'm a 10th grader learning about taxes no way in hell I'll remember all of that (or even most of it). Like I think it would be good if schools familiarized students with tax forms (actually) but it's not gonna be able to tell you "do this this and this every time done yay!" like I think it's more about teaching you "here's where to find more info on how to do this" or "here's kind of what you can expect from forms like these"

[nervocat]

—INFO!! (general rules for my blog)

— dni if you do the following: you fit the basic dni criteria, consistently write/reblog dark content, fetishize lgbtq+ writings, minor who writes/interacts with nsfw posts, a fully nsfw account, mdni accounts (I don't interact with you, you don't interact with me) (more will be added as time goes on)

— If your account looks like a bot (default pfp and banner) and you follow me, I'll block you with no second thought. At least change your pfp and banner if you don't want to be blocked

— FEM ALIGNED DNI WITH MY MALE READER WORKS OR YOU WILL BE BLOCKED WITHOUT HESITATION

— Mutuals feel free to tag me in tag games, but it depends on if I'll rldo it or not, don't take it personally if I never get to it

— I don't rlly care if you spam like my stuff, just maybe not too often

—RULES!! (for requesting)

— I'll write sfw, fluff, angst, hurt/comfort (for both readers and characters), male and female characters, trans male readers, male readers, gn readers

— I won't write nsfw, dark content (kidnapping, yandere, etc), any reader female aligned, and stuff I just in general don't feel comfortable with writing and I will deny your request if it does

— I'll write for the fandoms Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail, Omori (strictly platonic), TBHK (also strictly platonic), Orv, Wuthering Waves, Saiki-K (strictly platonic as well) and Twst

— any characters who are minors or look or act younger than 18 will only have platonic writings, no romance at all even if it's “young love/crushes” and the reader is requested to be the same age

— characters I'll write for;

Genshin: Kaeya, Diluc, Lisa, Klee, Zhongli, Tartaglia, Itto, Hu Tao, Baizhu, Qiqi, Kaveh, Alhaitham, Tighnari, Cyno, Wanderer, Neuvillette, Wriothesley, Sigewinne, Lyney, Lynette, Freminet, Navia, Chlorinde, Furina (might not write for Genshin anymore)

Honkai: Star Rail: Welt, Himeko, Dan Heng (+ IL), March 7th, Stelle/Cealus, Blade, Kafka, Silver Wolf, Firefly, Herta, Serval, Gepard, Lynx, Sampo, Hook, Natasha, Clara, Qingque, Guinaifen, Jing Yuan, Huohuo, Tingyun, Yukong, Bailu, Yanqing, Yunli, Moze, Jiaoqiu, Feixiao, Lingsha Argenti, Acheron, Dr. Ratio, Aventurine, Sunday, Robin, Black Swan, Boothill, Gallagher

Omori: Sunny, Basil, Hero, Mari, Aubery, Kel

Omniscient Reader: Kim Dokja, Yoo Joonghyuk, (caught up with Webtoon, slowly reading novel (on ch24), don't spoil me pls. Will add more characters at a later date)

Wuthering Waves: Rover (male + fem), Aalto, Encore, Verina, Jiyan, Baizhi, Sanhua, Jianxin, Yinlin, Yangyang, Danjin, Lingyang, Taoqi, Mortefi, Calcharo, Scar

Twisted Wonderland: Riddle, Cater, Trey, Deuce, Ace, Leona, Ruggie, Jack, Jade, Floyd, Azul, Kalim, Jamil, Epel, Rook, Vil, Rollo (more characters will be added as I progress further)

[ this means prefer to write for those specific characters ]

— In the requests you send it'd be nice if you could specify if you want it to be platonic or romantic since I write for both, unless it's obvious

— I don't care if you're over 18 and interact with me or my works. As long as you're ok with me being a minor and you don't make me uncomfortable, interact with me all you want. Also pls be under 30 and over 13 pls, much appreciated 🫶🫶

BYF!! (some stuff to know before you follow me)

— I do mostly write for hoyo games (mainly hsr at this point), but I've started to ramble abt other stuff like Link Click and Saiki-K, so keep this in mind (I might make a tag to categorize these posts later)

— I get a bit personal sometimes here, I don't like to be serious but I don't rlly care talking abt some personal things happening in my life. I never get to to serious tho, and I put disclaimers abt the stuff I talk abt as well

[ ★ - rules of any kind + fandoms I write for may change overtime ]

★ — © nervocat || I appreciate any reblogs made, and pls don't repost or translate my works anywhere, ty — ✦

[autumnalwalker]

Writeblr Intro

So, apparently intros are a thing people do? Guess I'll give it a shot. I like to keep my online and offline lives pretty separate though, so I guess I'll just skip the personal info and go straight to talking about what I'm working on.

My current (and only) WIP is The Archivist’s Journal. The basic premise is that it's the journal of someone who washes up on an island in what appears to be some sort of fantasy other world, and on that island is a nameless Village whose inhabitants claim is the only settlement in the world.

Being a journal, I'm writing it with a gimmick of sorts where each day's entry that I write and post here IRL corresponds with one day passing in the story. So far I'm 35 days in and have managed to maintain that pace. The plan is to go for one year.

Honestly, my approach to writing this is less like setting out to write a book and more like a longform solo roleplay. Some key points I might plan out a week or two in advance, and I might make mention of bits of world-building to revisit in more detail later, but for the specifics of what is going to happen on any given day I often don't know until I start writing that day's entry.

While there are supernatural elements, there's no obvious spells or magic or wizards or anything. While there's the looming mystery of just what this place is, it's secondary to the question of how to just go about living. While there are unseen places to explore and adventures to be had, the greater part of the narrative tension is internal and existential. At the end of the day it's ultimately about simply living life, one day a time, and finding peace with that (albeit in an unusual setting).

So, yeah, that's me and what I'm working on. Here's to another 330 days. In the meantime I'll continue to use this primary blog for social stuff and the occasional author's note while I keep the story on its own separate blog that I linked earlier.

[littlepinelangblr]

Present Tense المُضارِع

Watch me make a blog in January and then take until May to actually start posting.

I was actually thinking what I should be posting about and where I should start, but I decided that if somebody’s coming on tumblr to learn a language from a scratch, then they must be really naive, so I won’t attempt that. I suppose I’ll use the post format as a way to revise material as way as note new interesting info I might be learning. And we’ll see where it will bring me, I guess?

So let’s get started!

The first post will be about present tense because I probably need a good remainder of that.

Present tense is indicated by a prefix. The vowels in the present tense are not always obvious, so Arabic dictionaries (the ones that go alphabetically by roots) sometimes give the vowels of the present tense. I might actually make a post about Arabic dictionaries later, they're pretty neat.

Back to the المضارع!

Because I lowkey hate the فعل way of showing the patterns—because let's be real, the 3ayn in the middle is not making it any easier to hear whether it's فَعل or فَعِل or فِعَل etc.—I will use an easy verb as an example.

"To study"! It fits the purpose of the blog well, doesn't it?

I study – 'adrusu أَدْرُسُ

You (masc.) study – tadrusu تَدْرُسُ

You (fem.) study – tadrusiina تَدْرُسينَ

He studies – yadrusu يَدْرُسُ

She studies – tadrusu تَدْرُسُ

We study – nadrusu نَدْرُسُ

You (pl. masc.) study – tadrusuuna تَدْرُسونَ

You (pl. fem.) study – tadrusna تَدْرُسْنَ

They (masc.) study – yadrusuuna يَدْرُسونَ

They (fem.) study – yadrusna يَدْرُسْنَ

(side note: I think I will make a post about alphabet or more specifically the transcription I use because it might not be obvious to anyone)

So, that is a pretty typical stuff and everybody can read, but I want to draw your attention to a few things:

– the final short vowel is not said in spoken variety. i wrote it as a technicality but normally they're not said. saying all the final vowels (which in case of verbs tell us whether the verb is an indicative or a subjunctive; it's something I'll surely write about later) is ONLY done in FORMAL arabic. think Quran and such.

– notice that 2nd person sg masc is exactly the same as 3rd sg fem, which means you have to figure out from context which one it is

– notice that تَـ prefix usually indicates 2nd person (other than that 3rd sg fem) and then the suffix tells you more about the gender and number

– meanwhile prefix يَـ indicates 3rd person and then suffixes give you more information

– suffix for 2pl and 3pl masc. is the same and so is the suffix for 2pl and 3pl fem.

– mind that if the first vowel is different, then it will be different in conjugation, for example "I travel" would be "usaafiru – أُسافِرُ" with a damma, so a short "u"

That's just basic present tense conjugation, to get myself started on writing more stuff!

We'll see if I'll actually get around to write another post this month, shall we?

[frostbite-the-bat]

Okay so, I'm starting off my Swatchling headcanons here!

Very inspired by @/gatorbeast's amazing Addison headcanons, and somewhat inspired by Irkens/Invader Zim!! (And kinda my hcs for that too, but it doesn't matter)

(If you know Invader Zim you'll probably see some similarities with PAKs and what I'm going to talk about)

Also, this is very messy. Please excuse that. I don't wanna be whiny in the middle of this so I'm adding it here, but the longer I went on the harder this got to write. Expect more posts from me soon that make it easier for me!!!

So, what many people headcanon as masks - which I initially did too - actually aren't masks at all, they're their faces. They are born without them and are attached shortly after birth, but some aren't given one for a few reasons. I'll get into that later because this requires another detail from my headcanons to be introduced first.

It's called a mask though, but Swatchlings don't actually like it being called a mask after it's been attached. It's just their face. If you call it a mask to their face when it is not a mask, it's considered very rude. God forbid you ask them to take it off.

But!! There are Swatchlings without "masks" as I've mentioned earlier. They're called "maskless" sometimes even "faceless" by some who really don't like calling it a mask, but maskless is the most commonly used term to describe a Swatchling who has grown up without being given one.

The mask is actually a kind of horn that grows on a parent's nose that detaches itself around the time a Swatchling is hatched and has grown up enough to be given the mask. (Which is only a few days as they grow up quite fast. Around their 3-7 days of being alive they should be able to be given the mask, but of course there's rare exceptions who have gotten their mask a few days after this, but it is very risky to do. This I will also explain as to why later.

The small horn that grows on an parent's nose is actually curved and shaped perfectly to fit on top of a chick Swatchling's face.

Anyways, maskless Swatchlings! They were never given the mask.

These contain important information (genetic info, code, all that stuff) (They have some genetic info even without this, by the way. But it's the same as a Swatchling's parent's code if they were cloned to being a result of a single parent.)

They're basically data packs that need to be installed. Like drawings or art tools/programs which they represent, they can be molded to become anything. The mold being the code. They've got so many possibilities! Art programs can also install brushes and brush sets, so, this works out too.

This code and masks have been utilized in a way, however, and there's specific job/type data pack masks being made. They mostly code a Swatchling's physical body and their abilities, and what things they excel at and sometimes also parts of their personality. For example - All the butler Swatchlings in Queen's Mansion have been given the same data packs. Physically, they're all clones in that case. They've all got different stories growing up and different parents so there may be SLIGHT differences between them which help with telling each other apart, otherwise they're the same in terms of their basic mask code.

For example there might be a type of Swatchling who's a guard, so there's some baby Swatchlings who are given this same guard datapack mask after being born. It provides a lot of the energy/"nutrients" needed and gives them basic info about their tasks and obedience to obey someone who's an higher up giving out said tasks. (Like a boss at work for example.) It downloads all of it int their mind/body/core, however you might want to call it.

These are called datapack Swatchlings. Each datapack Swatchling type is different, but they all have a few things in common. Though they do EXTREMELY well with their main purpose, it is harder for them to learn new skills that are very different from what they're already set to do. (Which regular Swatchlings are KNOWN for - their adaptability and love to learn and having many odd skills at once.) Like a butler Swatchling is going to have a hard time learning how to do more artistic things or how to bake or fixing cars. But they do very well with cleaning, communicating, setting things in order and all sorts of management. This is kind of why for many of them it is annoying when Queen makes them do crazy stuff for her entertainment, but they're going to listen to the commands anyway. It makes them feel fulfilled and they have like an instinct to do it. If they don't like it they're free to quit, that is an option. They'll just take a bit longer learning something new, but they can do it, Swatchlings are very adaptable.

They can still think for themselves, of course. They're still their own people. Even between the same type of datapack Swatchling you can find very unique individuals. They just look the same and usually have the same exact job. It's hard to tell some apart if they have very specific uniforms they can't customize (Which Swatchlings LOVE doing. They're all naturally artistic. Also I feel like I am explaining this wrong, but let's not dwell on that. Please do ask if you want a clearer answer/definition where I can focus on explaining one thing instead of knowing I have to worry writing about the rest.)

Let's talk about masked/regular Swatchlings, who have received a parent's/some other Swatchling's mask that does not have a specific datapack. They're basically tailored to learn VERY FAST on their own and find a thing they like doing! They're also often very successful and in charge of things! For example, Swatch, who is the head butler, is a regular Swatchling. (They're actually like, super popular and looked upon between Swatchlings as a whole. They're like this cyber world's. "main art program" representation. Again, this is stuff I'll detail more later.)

They're definitely more curious and like standing out more than datapack Swatchlings. They enjoy finding things to learn about and they're very VERY adaptable. Getting kind of tired of explaining this all in dumb detail, so I'll just... Try to keep it short from now on. Starting to have issues with how long this is any my motivation. Speed speed speed time!!

But yeah, they aren't coded to look a certain way and get even more genetics from their parents if they had two parents. It gives them some info their parents know already, so they can get a jump-start! They also can learn things faster as a whole. Good for them that they usually look visually more unique than most datapack Swatchlings because normal Swatchlings love individuality and standing out very often. Also, a datapack Swatchling can have kids, of course. Some of that they know gets passed down onto their kid if they receive their parent's mask - but they won't be a datapack Swatchling. They're just... Gonna be a regular Swatchling who naturally knows a lot about a certain thi

And then there's the maskless Swatchlings! Let me ramble about parents a little before I go back to maskless Swatchlings again. Some parents loose their horn too early, or it doesn't grow at all. Some even have more kids than they have masks since a Swatchling can grow ONLY one horn mask when they have kids. Some two pair Swatchlings even have just one kid, but they both grow a mask - so they donate them for other Swatchlings to take. To Swatchlings it does not matter that their kid is like them. As a whole havig a kid isn't too big of a deal, it's jsut a thing that happens. Not randomly, of course - but still it's seen as a normal thing that's done to keep Swatchlings going as s species and community, y'know. Also, when they have kids it is not in a sexual way, and many Swatchlings are not even romantically interested in their partner, which is normal. Some just have a kid, raise it during the time they need it and leave each other be. Unless they of course want to have kids because they are romantically interested in one another. This doesn't even take interspecies relationships into consideration quite yet.

Anyways, maskless Swatchlings! They were never given the mask. The second a chick Swatchling's eyes open withut their mask, they cannt be given the mask anymore and will grow up without it. They gro WAY slower than masked Swatchlings as they need more time to learn about the world and the things they can do. The mask installs some basic understanding of the world into a Swatchling, which these little guys don't get. So while they may be the same age as a masked Swatchling, they will look younger and still act somewhat younger.

They aren't provided exactly everything they need, so they won't grow to full size either. Swatchlings can have diverse body types even if masculine ones are the most common. (Though, they do not have genders like we do! If you call a Swatchling a man they might not know what you are talking about lmfao. Though, Swatchlings do use different prononouns and gender expressions if they want! :D)

So, if you see a very small Swatchling without a mask, chances are it's an adult maskless, and not a child. Between Swatchlings this is known and well respected, though some others might not know and think maskless are children.

They take way longer time to grow and a tiny bit longer learn, and are physically smaller, otherwise they're nearly the same as normal Swatchlings.

--- Divider because I do NOT know how to add what I wrote below in, lmao ---

When Swatchlings are grown up they're ready to go out and do things and they leave their parents behind to live their lives. Some donot have strong bonds with their parents, and some have strong ones and keep in touch. This all depends, really. It's not exactly like us humans, but they're not emotionless animals either.

MAKING NEW POSTS AFTER THIS WITH THE #SWATCHLING HCS BECAUSE I AM GETTING A BIT STRESSED ITH HOW LONG THIS IS AND I DON'T KNOW HOW TO INJECT MY OTHER INFORMATION IN THIS HERE.

[githvyrik]

Excited about the Zariel headcanons. I’m a dm who isn’t running avernus but Zariel became plot relevant to one of my pc’s personal arcs, so I wanted to consult someone with a lot more knowledge and opinions about her than me. Thank you again!

Hiiiiiiiiiiii I'm so sorry it took me so long to get around to this but here it goes. Also tumblr ate your original ask when I tried to post this the first time #cringe. Fair warning I do not refer to the Nine Hells in a consistent way through this post. (also I know like 2 of my players are on here but they're not super active but if you happen to read this then KEEP SCROLLING lol) This is like 7.5 pages of me analyzing a villain from dnd admittedly a bit too seriously and I think that’s really cool and epic of me 

First off I want to clarify some stuff about the lore I'm using- I'm going off of what was established in MToF and expanded upon in DiA, BUT I've also taken a lot of inspiration from the Alexandrian remix of DiA (in general I'm following neither in their entirety I'm putting my own spin on them because I have issues with both the official adventure and the remix but we didn't come here to talk about that) plus my thoughts will probably evolve as I run DiA. Sorry this is kind of a ramble and DEFINITELY way too much info and also I don’t fully remember what I took from where and what I made up. The first part of this post is like an overview of her history (you can change whatever you'd like, of course, this is just for my setting), then at the end I put together some more disorganized thoughts.

Sooooo, let's just start with the basics that you probably know- Zariel is a fallen angel who is currently the archduke of Avernus, the first layer of the 9 hells.

Zariel was actually a solar, which are the most powerful of the angels as far as d&d is concerned. As this tiktok puts it, "When god goes on vacation, he leaves [them] in charge and nothing changes" (which is in fact a line I'm stealing to have an npc explain to the party how fucked they are if they try to fight her on their own directly tbh). Zariel was a solar of Lathander (also called the Morninglord), who is a god of the sun (dawn specifically but I'm expanding his role to include the sun in general), rebirth, renewal, creativity, vitality, etc etc etc basically all the goody-two-shoes shit that you'd expect a god of the sun to have in his portfolio. HAAHAHA she's a SOLAR of a SUN GOD. According to Reya Mantlemorn, an npc in DiA, her name means "companion of light" (which is a nod to the Companion, the device that dragged Elturel into Hell, wow they really should've been more suspicious about the convenient ball of light that randomly appeared in the sky and wouldn't leave which the leaders of the city made all the citizens swear allegiance to). First and foremost, she is a soldier, she was created that way and it is her nature (which sounds kind of fucked up when I put it that way but I'll try to expand on this more later). She was basically a cosmic being forever tasked to fight for what is Good and Righteous.

Currently, she's an archdevil, specifically Archduke of Avernus. Archdevils do, in fact, include more than just the archdukes, and they're the most powerful in terms of infernal beings- their power is almost on par with deities. While most devils result from mortals who sold their souls, archdevils sometimes have different origins. Archdukes are just the ones who proved themselves to be the Baddest Bitches and most capable of being in charge, typically through displaying their cunning or power. Among the archdevils, and especially the ones who actually rule layers of hell, Zariel is voted Best at Kicking Your Ass Physically. The majority of other devils use deception, trickery, and cunning to get their way, and while they are definitely strong if it comes to a fight, they prefer indirect methods. Zariel typically skips all that bullshit. She can be cunning and manipulative, but her real skills lie in her martial prowess.

So, the thing about Avernus is that while it's the first layer of the hells, it's not exactly Baby Mode. I'm personally of the opinion that considering the hells to be Worse just based on what number you're on removes a lot of nuance. Avernus is the first because it's the one you go into first- there's no getting to any other layer of the 9 Hells without going through Avernus first. As a consequence of this, Avernus is the front lines of the Blood War, an ancient cosmic battle between the evil sides of Law and Chaos- Devils representing lawful evil and demons representing chaotic evil. They've basically been at a stalemate for Literal Eternity (except also not eternity because technically it did have a starting point somewhere- idk time is weird in d&d but on like a Cosmic Scale it makes sense sort of whatever it's handwaved because mortal minds aren't rly meant to make sense of it). Demons come into the Hells by way of Avernus, but almost none of them can make it any further than that; and Devils have held them there but haven't made any real progress into taking the fight to them in the Abyss. Yugoloths, essentially beings of neutral evil, sometimes hang out to fight with whoever the Hell (pun intended) they want.

Zariel's current job is to be The One In Charge of the devils' side in the Blood War- in this task, she only answers to Asmodeus and in a lot of cases she's kind of free to throw his advice aside if she sees fit. Personally, I think Asmodeus is smart enough to know that this is a fight that can never be won, but he recognizes the importance of keeping it where it is. Even though the devils can't win, the demons can't either. Not, like, in the "it'll be bad if either side wins" way, I mean it literally cannot be done.

Now, let's cover how she got from one point to the other (again, I'll say that I'm taking this both from DiA and the alexandrian remix of the setting while adding some of my own stuff):

Zariel fought in the legions of the Seven Heavens of Mount Celestia before the universe really Was Anything and the planes fully became what they are in settings that use the Great Wheel Cosmology. She was a soldier under the command of a celestial marshal named Ashmedai, who would later become Asmodeus (there are like 6 bazillion different origin stories for Asmodeus, I'm going with the one where he's also a fallen angel because Themes or whatever). Avernus was previously a paradise and eeeeeeverybody wanted it to add to their territory. This is a really complex chain of events that mortal minds can't really comprehend (wow this is becoming a running theme) and tbh it's not like. That Important. But it does make it so Zariel has a connection to Avernus from the beginning. What is important is that Ashmedai pulled a fast one and took Avernus for himself and ditched Heaven to align with the (at the time) Eight Hells. A bunch of angels followed him, but Zariel didn't. Stuff happened and Asmodeus became the leader of the Nine Hells, overthrowing whatever leader there was before him (Zargon in my mind but it doesn't really matter, there are also 6 billion versions of lore for this and it doesn’t come up in the campaign really, it’s just a cool tidbit you can throw in if you want). Zariel gave him the middle finger and refused to follow him.

(Important to note that Avernus actually remained a paradise for a long time, and Asmodeus kind of used it as a way to tempt mortals, showing that Hell was really no different from Heaven. This changed when the Blood War started, and now it basically sucks to be there because it's a war-torn wasteland, but traces of this paradise still remain in pockets of the plane.)

Ashmedai and his followers' betrayal made Zariel really bitter, so she was basically given a court-ordered chill-out time. During this time, she met a hollyphant named Lulu, who became her best friend and war mount. Eventually, she found some kind of peace, but it was really only temporary.

Time passed and eventually the forces of Heaven dragged Asmodeus out of the Nine Hells to stand trial for a) his betrayal, b) lying to mortals and beguiling them to evil for nefarious purposes, and c) generally being an asshole. They called in Primus, who's like the Head Bitch in Charge of Law, and it was basically an eternity of angels testifying that Asmodeus was an asshole. Primus eventually got bored and decided he was done with hearing testimonies, but Zariel hadn't gotten a chance to testify to what she personally witnessed and she got pissed, which started a brawl and disrupted the proceedings for a hot minute. As her former commanding officer, Asmodeus had possibly had his eye on her since the beginning, especially since she was one of the few to defy him during his initial betrayal, but this is probably what really drew his attention to her for the first time. After things settled down, Asmodeus' defense was basically that he hadn't violated any principals of the Law, and he never lied to anyone, not even once. He also said he was doing the universe a favor by using the souls he earned to keep balance between the evil sides of Law and Chaos. Primus was like "I'm a little lost but fair enough" and let him off with a warning, but he does basically have to keep a baby monitor on him for the rest of time (a ruby rod that bound him and all other devils to uphold any bargains they made with mortals).

This is important: Asmodeus never lies. At worst, he simply doesn't make plain the whole truth because he expects you to read the fine print and he and the universe at large consider it your fault if you don’t. He is just extremely good at getting to the heart of what people want and he knows how to manipulate that desire so he gets what he wants. Of course, all archdevils in general have an incomprehensible amount of skill with this, but Asmodeus like. Fuckin INVENTED that shit, he was THE first #malemanipulator.

Another eternity passed during which Zariel kept at her Divine Warrior thing, until at one point, the demon lord Yeenoghu decided to start fucking around on the material plane, having his demonic army just murder a bunch of people. (In my version of the Lore, gnolls aren't actual animals, they're a form of demon.) He'd probably done it before, but this time Zariel and a force of planetars were sent to stop him. She caught him at a village called Idyllglen, where her force beat him back into the Abyss, but they had help- from some devils, actually. A small force led by Glasya, Asmodeus' daughter, showed up, and they allied briefly to massacre Yeenoghu's army. After the immediate issue was over, things almost came to a fight between them, but Zariel and Glasya had a private conversation; no one really knows what was said between them, but they agreed to call it quits and go their separate ways.

Before, Zariel's duties as a soldier of Good had been abstract to her, but now she was convinced that something needed to be done about the Blood War. It had led to incalculable amounts of mortal suffering, and to her, that was unforgivable. She was frustrated that the tides of the war never changed and she was convinced that the Heavens could do something about it. Her superiors didn't agree with her; they told her they would let Evil annihilate itself. But she felt that Heaven was complicit by turning a blind eye to the suffering it caused mortals. Evil was not annihilating itself, it was simply continuing. She felt it was Heaven's duty to fight it, and if the other celestials wouldn't help her, it would be her duty alone.

That’s the thing about Zariel. If she believes her cause is righteous, there is damn near nothing that can convince her otherwise. This can be a good or a bad thing, there’s a lot of nuance to it. She will not be intimidated into putting it aside, it is very difficult to persuade her that her path is anything but just. It turns out, it doesn’t matter to her what angle this is approached from. She sees fighting the Blood War as her duty, and it started when she was an angel, it didn’t happen out of nowhere when she became a devil.

So, following her battle at Idyllglen, the villagers there grew to see her as their angelic champion and their guardian angel. A few centuries passed on the material plane and Idyllglen came under attack again, this time by the forces of Bel, the (at the time) Lord of Avernus. The villagers prayed to Zariel to save them, particularly a young woman named Yael, who had organized a militia of sorts. Zariel and Lulu did arrive to help, and over the next few months, the militia grew to attract the attention of surrounding settlements as they fell under threat (though they were also drawn to fight alongside Zariel because it’s hard to just ignore it when an extremely powerful warrior from the upper planes comes to ask you for backup). Eventually, Bel’s forces were beaten back and Zariel said goodbye to Yael and returned to Mount Celestia, though not for long.

This encounter with another force in the Blood War only made her more eager to truly get involved. She had seen the passion mortals had despite how fleeting their lives were, had seen their determination, and it made her even more frustrated at how apathetic Heaven was in comparison. She and Lulu hatched their plan- since the celestial forces didn’t seem to care, they would lead a mortal army into the midst of the Blood War and create a third front. They didn’t have to win, just upset the balance of the war enough to spur Heaven into action.

Zariel returned to Idyllglen soon (though, soon for her is like 20 years for mortals tbh) and told Yael of her idea. Yael was all for it, and suggested she knew ways of bolstering their forces. They grew their army over the next few years as Zariel taught her new mortal followers how to fight fiends. Their cause attracted mortals who wanted to make a difference, to deliver true decisive blows to evil; many in the area even had personal experience with the suffering the Blood War caused the material plane. It can definitely be argued that Zariel was using them to further her agenda, I can’t disagree with that, but I think her true motivation was just the desire to see something done about it and she felt this was her best option- at this point in time, what she wanted was to see her fellow celestials caring about the mortals they were meant to protect. 

Yeenoghu had this massive grudge against Zariel, and when he managed to hear of her plans, he once again attacked the material plane, essentially baiting her into going through with it. They met in combat once again at Idyllglen, at which point Zariel threw him back into the Abyss- though that wasn’t necessarily a bother to him. His job had been done. She decided it was time to mount a full assault into the front lines of the Blood War, and so, soon after, she led her army into Avernus. 

They fought for months, battling the endless onslaughts of demons and devils alike. They certainly did make a dent in the tide of the war, but it wasn’t enough. One of Zariel’s soldiers, a vampire named Jander Sunstar, eventually had enough. He’d watched his friends and subordinates die for an unwinnable war and he had barely seen any real progress. He decided they should cut their losses and leave. So, they did, deserting the army and leaving only a few forces behind. This was where they truly started to lose. 

Zariel’s remaining forces were quickly whittled down, but it took until they were in the single digits for her to give it up. She infused her sword with a spark of her goodness and had Yael and Lulu flee the battle, telling them to escape back to the material plane however they could and hide her sword so the fiends wouldn’t claim it. 

Asmodeus had been contacting Zariel ever since she arrived in Avernus, beguiling her to seek him out, promising her power. She decided to face him herself, and she fought her way through each layer of hell until she got to Nessus, whereupon Asmodeus’ forces finally proved too much for her. The Lords of the Nine all gathered to see her defeat, intrigued by who this invader was. Asmodeus gave the still-living but incredibly injured Zariel to Bel, who was given freedom to torture her in retaliation for all the havoc she caused him. His motivation for this was seeing that Zariel still had it in her to defy him, and he wanted to see if she could be broken.

Eventually, she did break. An eternity later, Asmodeus ordered Bel to bring her before him, and he gave an extensive villain monologue. The way Asmodeus tempted her isn't something that I think can be boiled down very easily. After all, we're talking about two cosmic beings who are meant to be beyond total human comprehension. They conversed throughout multiple planes of existence, and this conversation probably took what the human mind would experience as eons. In the end, it really comes down to the fact that he offered her the ability to continue her fight, but for him this time, and she took it.

Zariel was taken to become a pit fiend- these are basically the top of Hell’s hierarchy, second only to the archdevils and actual lords of the hells. Pit fiends are made from worthy greater devils, who are scorched in the Pit of Flame (the main volcano in Phlegethos, the 4th layer). In my mind, she actually emerged as an archdevil, which Asmodeus thought was pretty cool. Despite that, however, he still had her serve in the Dark Eight, a group of pit fiend warriors that had a lot of duties but mostly were the generals of the Blood War. This meant she was under the command of Bel, but she frequently defied his orders, choosing to pursue more aggressive strategies that pretty much always worked better than his original ideas. This really pissed him off and he kept throwing her into more and more trouble, hoping she’d just die or become too inconvenient for Asmodeus to keep around, but she bested every challenge.

So, there’s this thing called the Reckoning. It’s kind of complicated and a lot of the details probably aren’t super important to whatever situation you have, but essentially, it was a conspiracy orchestrated by Glasya in order to win herself more power, up to and including the possibility of her overthrowing her father and taking rulership of the Nine Hells for herself. She essentially managed to convince one half of the Lords of the Nine that the other half was planning a rebellion and vice versa. She involved Fierna, Malagard, Tiamat, and since she already had interest in Zariel, she got her on board as well. They believed they could seize considerable power for themselves if the archdukes all warred against each other.

Bel was the target of a failed assassination, which left him in a magical stupor. Everyone pointed fingers at Dispater (though in reality, Glasya was behind it, and the assassination was planned to fail). This gave Zariel and Tiamat the excuse to lay siege to Dis. The rest of the Reckoning happened around this, but Zariel spent pretty much all of it in Dis, and since this is supposed to be about her and I’ve already gone on too many tangents already, I’m not going to explore it too much. Essentially, the important bit is that Tiamat betrayed Zariel. The siege of Dis was broken and Zariel became Tiamat’s prisoner. Glasya, Fierna, and Malagard were able to frame Moloch, the Lord of Malbolge, as the mastermind. Asmodeus deposed him and installed Malagard in his place, but Glasya soon betrayed Malagard and killed her, taking her place as Archduchess of Malbolge. Meanwhile, Asmodeus demoted Belial, Fierna’s father, and installed Fierna as Archduchess of Phlegethos. (For the life of me I can’t remember if the Fierna part is actually canon in any official lore, I think I made it up???) 

Then, there was the Rift War. Essentially, a rift opened in Avernus, and a massive force of Baatorians invaded Avernus. (Baatorians are basically just baatezu, the difference really isn’t that important for most campaigns, but they were the ones who inhabited hell before Asmodeus’ time. You could get into it more if your campaign really dives into the nine hells). Asmodeus had Bel and the Dark Eight sent in to deal with it.

Bel’s a fuckin chump, though, so he blew it. Since Zariel had been imprisoned by Tiamat, he left the areas she had managed to conquer vacant and the baatorians were able to seize them. No alliance was made between the demons and the baatorians, but Bel was unable to fight both forces at once. With the situation rapidly deteriorating, Glasya took the opportunity to orchestrate Zariel’s release from Tiamat. There isn’t a solid conclusion as to how she did it.

Zariel went in and almost immediately took control of the situation. She was able to gather the scattered remnants of her legion from when she was a Dark Eight member and reclaimed the fortresses Bel had lost. She cut off the baatorian’s biggest lines of communication and sacked their most important strongholds. The baatorian’s strength was broken. This show of power attracted the other Dark Eight members to her side, who decided to answer to her to handle the situation instead of Bel. They attacked the Rift and defeated the last of the baatorian invasion; the remaining baatorians swore fealty to Asmodeus and the nine hells as a result, as it was the best course of action to avoid being wiped out entirely.

Asmodeus demoted Bel to Zariel’s position in the Dark Eight and promoted her to the position of Archduke of Avernus. She is now the absolute commander over the Blood War, answering only to Asmodeus. He is massively pleased with his decision, seeing her as far more successful and efficient than Bel ever was. I’ll clarify that “successful” doesn’t mean that she’s “winning” because, as discussed, neither side will ever win the Blood War. She’s just a lot better at keeping the demons off of Asmodeus’s turf so they’re less of a distraction to him.

That’s the basic history, now let’s get into some like. Headcanons and disorganized thoughts.

-I made a post saying this but basically, the way I like to view Zariel is that she’s like if Lucifer was the Doomslayer and also a Girlboss.

-THE most important thing to understand about Zariel is her Wrath, followed by her Pride. Both of these elements of her character can be good or bad, depending on her motivations behind them. Zariel as an angel was, like, basically created as a condensed form of the universe's anger at unrighteousness, and this is what I was talking about earlier when I said it's in her nature to be a soldier. It's what made her defy Ashmedai, it's what made her defend mortals from the forces of cosmic evil, it's what made her defy her superiors to go fight in the Blood War, and it can be argued that it's what made her Fall to continue fighting. Her pride is another factor that made her decide to fight in the Blood War, because she believed she could end it and win. This is something she still believes as Archduke of Avernus and general of the infernal armies. This doesn't mean she's, like, stupid or anything; she's arrogant. And she's meant to be. She may know on a logical level that nothing will ever change, but it literally can't stop her from trying because it's what, not just who, she is.

-A lot has been said about what alignments in d&d mean and it is literally impossible to reach a consensus. I personally have chosen to see it as good being selfless while evil is selfish, at least when it comes to mortals. At the core of Zariel's being is the will to fight. In my mind, Zariel fell because her fight in the Blood War came to be motivated by selfish reasons rather than selfless ones. She wanted to continue her fight, but she has lost sight of who and what she was fighting for.

-Asmodeus basically trusts Zariel completely. In his mind, his corruption of her destroyed her former self and bound her to him- she won't destroy him because she doesn't want to, because he gave her what she wanted. Whether this is true or just arrogance on his part is up to you if it comes up. For my campaign, it depends on whether the party wants to go the redemption route or not.

-Zariel is the jewel in Asmodeus’ crown. A fallen solar serving as his best general is one of the best prizes and “fuck you”s to the rest of the planes he could imagine. In his mind, the fact he won her over helps prove his superiority.

-Zariel really wants her sword back. Her motivation for this is nebulous, but it pretty much comes down to the fact that it holds the spark of her Goodness. She either wants it back to destroy it completely, or to redeem herself, or just to prevent it from falling into the hands of anyone who would use it against her. She’s pretty sure it never made it out of Avernus, but with all the searching she’s done, she’s never found it. 

-In DiA, if Zariel shuns redemption but gets her sword back, she destroys it and forges a new sword called the Blade of Avernus. If you think it sounds cool I can send you the stats for it if they haven’t been posted online.

-Fun fact! In DiA, she has the demon lord Kostchtchie’s hammer, Matalotok, and has imprisoned him in a ravine in Avernus. This led to him really hating her but she doesn’t really give a shit about him tbh. (And she shouldn’t considering his lore seems to indicate he’s a misogynist????? idk why that’s necessary but I guess if you’re gonna be a demon lord you can only get so scummy or whatever)

-Glasya considers Zariel to be very valuable to her, and Zariel doesn’t seem like she’s interested in becoming a threat to her for the moment, so Glasya wants to stay on her good side and keep her in power as long as possible (unless she starts encroaching on her territory). Probably a similar case with Fierna. 

-Zariel’s biggest enemies are Yeenoghu and Bel- she and Tiamat also aren’t fond of each other. The only reason Zariel never outright starts shit with Bel and Tiamat is because they’d be a distraction and upset the balance. She usually just avoids dealing with them whenever she can, but tries to keep a watchful eye so they don’t try anything. 

-She's large size category. Just a fun fact. Just saying.

-I have this idea that she never particularly emotes. Like you might get vague hints of emotion when she feels strongly about something, but she’s largely stoic to an extremely unsettling degree. I’m planning on using this to make some moments very dramatic (like in my campaign, if Lulu or Haruman or Olanthius die, she’s gonna lose her SHIT- I think it could make for a sympathetic moment).

-I also included an idea that when she walks, she makes no sound, but her feet burn into the ground and leave footprints glowing with embers. This phenomenon also happens to anything she touches- surfaces burn on touch.

-In terms of her voice, my plan is to make it kind of low and subdued, yet commanding. Even though the tone she uses should make her voice sound quiet, it booms louder than a human’s would. Not necessarily practical to act out, but I’m also adding the details that her voice echoes slightly and that behind her voice you can hear shrieking voices in infernal, like a choir in hell screaming with her, but they’re quiet so you can understand her. (As an angel, it was celestial voices.) She also has fire glowing in the back of her throat.

-Asmodeus’ body is reportedly covered in wounds that never heal. I’ve decided to extend this to all fallen angels, as these are horrific bruises and scrapes they received in their fall from grace. While most didn’t literally fall from an insane height and hit the ground hard (it’s usually like. metaphorical), they have wounds as though they did. Most of them, including Zariel, cover this up with their armor. 

-Zariel as an arch devil has never taken a war mount. She could have any number of fearsome, powerful creatures as a mount into battle but she never has. This is partly cool-factor; imagine someone walking into a full battle on horseback and absolutely dunking on their allies in terms of kill count. The other part is that she has never found one that could take Lulu’s place. It’s mostly subconscious; none of them ever measure up to what she wants and she’s not sure why.

-I personally refer to her with mostly masculine terms- Lord of Avernus instead of Lady, Archduke instead of Archduchess, devils and worshippers call her “my lord” or “sir” instead of “my lady” or “ma’am”, etc. The source material also does this sometimes, but they flip around on it. Idk, it’s just my personal preference, I think it’s fun. She’s a celestial/fiend in a fantasy story, I have zero reason to think she’d conform perfectly to the real-world western gender binary. 

-Zariel is metal as hell. I personally think at least 90% of songs used in moments with her should be metal, if you’re the kind of dm who uses music. The Doom 2016 soundtrack is your friend.

-My top 4 songs I like to listen to while planning for DiA are Archangel by Amaranthe (because duh), Baldur’s Gate 3 by Ilya Bov (just bc I listened to it while reading through DiA for the first time so now the two are permanently connected in my mind but tbh I think it has Vibes), One Winged Angel in the Style of Doom Eternal by Geoffplaysguitar (seriously this song kicks ASS, I’m absolutely using it if my party decides to try fighting Zariel), and The Only Thing They Fear is You by Mick Gordon (also using this in the final leg of the adventure, specifically if they redeem Zariel and have to fight their way out of Avernus).

[tempoaryblogformightyjensblog]

After a Longass time, I'm gonna make a response post to a post from @itsclydebitches. Not sure if I'll acknowledge All

Of it, but still..

1.Thats, the opposite of what the First episode shows, the first episode shows that the Military presence in Mantle dosent really do anything to actually help them with the Grimm. With it even being joked about as usual for the Military by Nora. The next episode also states that wasn't even the reason James had for it. It was to handle the 'eventual' Panick.

2.This and the recurring point of this later on is something I kinda want to address, because it's sort of what I was trying to say in My ask but I should go into more detail.

The point is basically that If James was shady for what he did, then So is Ruby for being willing to work with him for that long...I kinda want to mix this with a different Criticism I heard. That Ruby not trusting Ironwood was horrible and ungrateful because of all the good stuff James had done and how sympathetic and well meaning he was. The issue is that they are both 2 halves of the picture that ignore the other half, wich was what the heroes actual response was.

Him being sympathetic, clearly just trying to help and all the Good stuff he was doing is why they are willing to work with him and help with things. But Ruby didn't like his shadier actions either, wich is why she didn't trust him completely. And also? ""Nora dosent agree...But Ruby, the leader, does. She pushed Ironwood to finish Amity somwhow", that....isnt What happens, we see After Nora yells at James, ruby walks up to him and tells him more calmly that his actions, his management of Mantle and such were only helping Salem and it's what was making it easy for Salem to frame him. And earlier on we saw her with the other protags suggest working with Robyn. That's not 'Reaping the benefits of his actions even if they don't like them', that's not liking some of his actions but still trying to Understand him, and hope to reason or talk him down. Basically...Well it's a display that the other charachterization for Ruby, that she was a judgmental child who considered anyone who went beyond her standard of perfection to be Evil, isn't true. She tries to help and Understand James because she knows despite his flaws he is trying to do good, she tries to reach out to him and get him to see his actions were flawed.

Hell, the Jobs they were actually given were jobs where they could actually help soften the consequences of James actions, like Ren and Nora guarding the wall. the Robyn thing was a direct display that they weren't just doing anything James asked or were perfectly fine with his morally ambiguous actions. When ordered to attack a Huntress who was just trying to help, they instead went against his orders and even tried to actually fix things in a better way.

3.This is a few different issues, I'll start by saying that, that wasn't Ozpins problem in the Previous Volume, Some fans and some of the Heroes in there Angrier times think that, But the big thing was basically that Ozpin wasn't trusting anyone With that Info, that's what separates it from Rubies situation with James, Ruby wasn't trusting James because he actually did have many traits that made him look untrustworthy. And...well Finishing Amity and the plan is not pointless even with Salems immorality. Ruby dosent 'Know' That her being immortal means that the whole plan is pointless for 2 reasons, 1 is that she never had the mindset that it made it all pointless, she was actually distinctly against that when the others thought that under the Apathies influence, and makes her stance clear later, that Salem being Unkillable doesn't mean she's unstoppable. And 2, she dosent 'Know' that because....Its not true. Even if they can't directly kill her like James is planning...Were explicitly, directly told in Salems first actual appearance in the show that Humanity United was a threat and that was why she was going to ensure she divided them. Not to mention that...It isn't even all about the plan? It's made clear that global communications being down was a really bad thing and fixing that alone would help.

4.Im just gonna address one point here...It was not 'The Majority of Mantle' Being taken, were told that they were not even close to being done evacuating.

5.Basically what I said at 2, But to also state, James wasn't an Unambiguous Bad guy in Volume 7, He was in the Wrong In Volume 7, but he wasn't meant to be a Villain yet. The point of James charachter is basically he's someone who meant well but was highly flawed and made bad decisions, and instead of growing from his mistakes, he doubled down on them and let his flaws consume him. I'll get to it more later, but, that doesn't mean he was always evil or meant to be, Also...Jaunes license was given to him by James but, he was not part of the Military being fused with Huntsman, especially by this point. And with Winters words in her and James fight, I have my own issues with that fight or Winters Arc, but I don't think that point holds up either because we weren't meant to see Winter as unambiguously a good guy in Volume 7. Her words in there fight was after she had changed, that dosent mean we're supposed to believe she was a hero while working under James. It just means her POV changed after leaving him, now she wasn't following her programming of being blindly obedient anymore. Penny called out Winter for her being willing to follow through with euthanizing the Winter Maiden, Marrow calls her out in Volume 8 asking the Weiss question.

6.Well, to answer the questions there, were told in episode 5 what the recources were. Clover says how they were taking 'Construction resources', were told this again by Penny in the Car ride, wich makes total sense. They are changing Amity so that it could serve as a shuttle, so needing Construction stuff makes sense. While we may not be told how much power James had explicitly, they do give us a decent idea, that he had way more then he should. It's said in the Council meeting that they set in Checks and balances to keep him from overstepping with his seats, and that he basically just Ignored them to pull the actions he did in Volume 7. And Watts gives us both one Major decision that shows James flaws and gives a Clue as to part of the reasons Mantle was crappy as it was, saying how James updated most of the code in Atlas after the fall of Beacon, but 'As Usual' None was updated in Mantle. Aside from showing a...Truly Spectacularly callous move on James part, it also gives a big clue as to part of the reason Mantle is as crappy as it is, That Atlas and James basically treat Mantle like an afterthought and neglects changing things there to make things better, resulting in the City's state that we see. And, I imagine that being surveillanced and patrolled almost constantly wouldn't be ideal, and it's established by Winters line in that first episode that not cooperating with Personal was a punishable offense. I think you also....Picked a really bad example with Rhodes, if anything, Rhodes is probably a perfect demonstration of why being complacent or loyal to a system is bad for Huntsmen. I think if he would have loved to help Cinder more, it's just that he was loyal to the System and wasn't doing anything to upset the status quo despite knowing it was wrong. If issues like that existed, then it makes James specialist program, wich is specifically supposed to be Huntsmen trained to be loyal to the system, an even worse idea. Also I sort of feel like the bits at the end are sort of a false equivalency. I explained Ozpin amd Rhodes but also...Well for one, while we don't see portals line up in those specific areas, the plan was to have Jaune explain what was going on with everyone. And Qrow, Marrow and Robyn were still taking in the other Ace ops,they knew the plan so they would likely just head over to the nearest portal after, and...Maria and Pietro weren't there. And in James case, it wasn't just him 'saving who he could', it's that he could have tried to do more but didn't because he didn't want to risk it, and as Volume 8 showed, they really did have lots of time to evacuate people and could have found a way to Launch Amity. And...Well in his case there's the little fact that, as his Convo with Oscar makes explicit, James plan involved leaving the rest of Mankind To the dust and at Salems mercy.

There are problems with RWBY, but I don't think it's shoddily written, partially because I don't really find it 'particularly' flawed and think the good far outweighs the bad. And you know what? To some degree, I agree. I do think there's a weird bias towards authority in the FNDM, but maybe alot of fans are too dismissive of criticism, I do think to some degree we should acknowledge the RWDE and such aren't all right wingers and there's now a Vocal part of it that are on the left or members of minority groups. I don't agree with a ton of the things they say, and think most of it dosent hold up, but instead of just dismissing, perhaps it's better to look at things in detail and give proper arguments agaisnt them. So I won't treat you like an idiot, I'm going to give a full rundown on why I don't feel like it holds up under analytical scrutiny.

For one, while it doesn't have those specific issues like in the real world, I don't agree with this Criticism because I feel it is the one that sort of ignores the worldbuilding and what's been shown or said about the Military and the world itself and not the show, It sort of feels like people just bring up the basic concepts that would seem reasonable and ignore how the show executes certain things. For one, the military was a leftover from a time when they were meant to fight against other humans, It was something an Authoritarian state held over after its defeat and reformation, James and the Military helped Jac as he turned the SDC into the horrific corporate empire it is, Covordin shows that Nationalism is indeed a bit thing and that there were high ranking officers who were fully comfortable with the possiblity of just waging war on the other Kingdoms again. And then there's the specialist program, I've seen people sort of distill it to its very basics to make it seem more reasonable, describing it as just stuff like Huntsmen having rules and such, when the show displays it being way more screwed up then that. It literally involves indoctrinating people as students, were shown Elm reprimand the protagonists saying how they don't need to think about Orders just follow them. As both Volumes show, the culture of the program is deeply screwed up and unhealthy for them, were shown how they taught stuff like repressing your emotions and how deeply unhealthy it is for them.

And...Furthermore? If we're judging by how things are In Universe with the show the world built...James way of doing things is, completely absurd. I already dislike Cynical 'This is the REAL world 'Types IRL. But....In the world James is in, his strategy is just....

He lives in a world where negativity causes monster attacks and the villains whole Shtick is manipulating narratives to cause disarray and ensuring people stay divided. James strategy involved closing off Atlas from the rest of Remnant after they were framed for causing the Fall of Beacon, never bothering to clear there name when sleet and Camilla say he could easily do so, he dismisses both his image across the Globe and in Atlas, and dismisses what the people of Mantle want and the stuff his actions currently cause, all as Neccesary sacrifices when that's all completely insane and Relies on basically ignoring absolutely everything about the situation they are in and how there enemy works, wich again, Ruby points out, that he was actively playing into Salems hands and making it easier for her.

I think it's a decent display of the Tunnel Vision James has, he's prepared for the negativity of the END result of his plan and made preparations for it, but he...Basically ignores the consequences his actions are having right now and how that will affect his ends.

Overall...I think the issue is that James is not meant to be the Bad guy through Volume 7, and I feel like its not that the show 'contradicts' it's pure black and white take on things, it's just that it wasn't there to begin with. Whenever a Major flaw Ironwood had from the start is brought up, it's claimed that it means he was supposed to be 'Always evil'(admitedly some fans as well), when it dosent, it just means his flaws and darker aspects were always there and he didn't jump off the slippery slope instantly like some claim.

Were meant to sympathize with James, understand him, ECT. We're meant to want to see him get better, to be escatic when he does almost get better.

Overall, I don't agree with the idea that James was a reasonable charachter who was bastardized, the show set him up as flawed pretty well already, he's sympathetic because he's designed to be sympathetic. He's not potrayed as a Villain through 7 because he wasn't meant to be til the end.

Also...Well, even if you still felt that him 'Just' abandoning Mantle was still just morally gray...That isn't dropped in V8, it's bascially dropped not 2 episodes later. Where not only does he shoot Oscar but Oscar pointed out not only was he abandoning Mantle, but abandoning the rest of Mankind. Wich James just responds calling it an 'excellant philosophical point'.

[alatismeni-theitsa]

Can I low key rant? It's not a big rant, at all! I think...just, I'm a non greek Hellenic Polytheist, and I think I've got decent knowledge of stuff, but I've got problems with memory and thinking and such, and I feel like I'll never be able to get to an acceptable level of understanding. It sucks cause I try hard, but then the "deeper" stuff is fuzzy in my head, and I end up worrying I'm just appropriating your culture, if that's the right wording :/ (Your blog is lovely btw!!)

Hellooo

Being in STEM I have learned the most two basic lessons it has to offer 1) It's valuable and brave to admit when you don't have the answer to something 2) Your brain is dumb and won't remember all this information you've been taught. Being in STEM and working with huge amount of information, I am reminded all the time about my brain limitations. "You have only one mind for Winter and Summer" we say in Greece, and it's a perfect phrase for when our limitations get to us.

To sum this up, I totally understand your situation. You already recognise that you don't know something and this is great. Now on to solving it!

Firstly, I suggest making a list with all the things you want to learn. E.g. "Apollo's myths", "Zeus' actions during the Trojan war", "Aphrodite's birth". Find information online about those things and keep it on digital or actual files. Maybe make files for each god, area or era you want to study. Once you find the information keep it in the file. You know that you are going to forget this information so keep it there to revise it. Add info there when appropriate.

So you have to give some time to finding information or categorising the information you already have. This way you don't have to struggle to keep the info in your head all the time. You know where the info is and how to access it. Now you have more free space in your head.

After that, maybe you want to have some days for revisiting this stored information. It won't stay in your mind forever but repetition can help remembering things for a bigger period of time. So, you may want to go like "I will devote Tuesday to Ares" and then you sit for an hour or more (with breaks or none) and take a look at the information you have in the Ares file. If your mind is tired you can just go over the basic points, you don't have to study heavily.

And if you don't remember stuff after this process, that's fine. You still have a repository for refence every time a question arises. You may study a recent article and there might arise a need to go to one of your files, to combine new with old information. If you reach a conclusion after the combination of points, note it down to the appropriate file before it leaves your head. You may want to write "I read in book X and article Y that this god was honoured this way because thing Z was popular in Greece. (See file "festivals", summer_festivals.txt)".

You may also need to combine different conclusions, so you can deepen your understanding. Obviously start from basics and general things and then go to more specific ones. For example, first learn about the birth of a god and then about his lovers. (Actually, what is most important will be defined by your worship or the discussions of your community).

Think of the whole process like building a ladder one step at a time. After a while, you find yourself at the bottom of that ladder. Then you don't need to rebuild it in order to add another step on the top. You just need to step on the existing steps and add one more to the top. The higher you go, the deeper your understanding.

Have references for your future self on those notes. Make it as easy as possible for yourself to navigate information you have stored. If you want to use another method of organising information, such as graphs, boards etc, feel free to do it!

Let's be realistic, ancient Greek religion and tradition has a ton of information. Many times I don't remember things I took tests on. It's just of my long term exposure that some information has stuck more easily. But I still forget most of it on a good day 😂 it's possibly you and I will never learn all the information that is out there about ancient Greece, so we can be a bit lenient to ourselves.

I think that if you apply this method you will realise you will become more confident in your knowledge. I firmly believe you have knowledge - you said it yourself. You are just overwhelmed by the amount of information available and the fact that you won't be able to keep it all in your head and that makes you doubt yourself.

Worst case scenario: If you NEED to remember something but it's not accessible to you at the time you can say "Sorry, I don't remember/know this. I will come back to you after I have studied a bit. Can we speak again about it later?" It's a perfectly normal thing, as most of people can't remember tons of stuff. That's why we invented writing, summaries and analysis in the first place. I wish we could hold whole libraries in our heads but we can't :/

Another Greek saying: "The person who has no brains has feet". It means you can compensate for your weak mental ability with your actions. It can also mean that, since you recognise your mental weakness, you should be prepared to do a different kind of work to achieve the same results as someone else. One of my weaknesses is that I forget things all the time. What I do to compensate for that is leaving notes everywhere and easily accessible. Ofc I can also apply the phrase to the time I forgot to bring my wallet to the market and I realised it just before a purchase. Then I had to run back home to take the wallet in order to complete the purchase. I can say for sure that day I used my feet more than my brain 😂 But, hey, I got the job done!

Sorry if this post was too long! I hope it will help you ♥️

[jamiebluewind]

Charatcter Descriptions and Summary 2.13

As always, let me know if I need to edit or add anything and tag/ask/PM me about art and stories so I can check them out! I'll try to add warnings later. Also, we have 8 episodes left including this one, so the last one should be number 20.

***

Things

Dusk Moss

Hallucinogenic moss with very few alchemical properties that puts the user into a state of lucid dreaming where they are also concious of waking world (basically fantasy marijuana)

Is a flammable powder that cannot be unlit once lit

Crumpkin said his brother swears by it and that everyone should try it at least once.

It will even you out if you take a little bit and a quarter of teaspon will send one of them on a trip all day (so what about the size and race of the person?)

Can buy in a massive block from Tinkerer's Hall where a dose of the powder can be shaved off the block to use

Mystery Rune

The rune was abjurative magic: metamagic school (instead of protection, wards, and shields) which shapes the nature of magic itself. Specifically, the rune involved curses and a way to mask powerful curses and spells. One can take a tremendous amount of spellcraft (or the ability to cast multiple spells), put it into a curse, and have the curse ride under other curses. In other words, if connected to an object, the object would have been "cursed" to be a vessel for a wealth of other spellcasting (flash drive), but hidden under another curse (advanced encryption and a virus).

The larger and more permeable the curse, the more able it is to ride under another curse.

The curse on top (dummy curse) works best the more widespread, static (can't be easily ended or doesn't have random frequent spell effects), ambient, and passive it is like using a magical landscapes or creatures instead of a spell made by a spellcaster.

***

PCs With Datemates

Kristen

Took a picture on her crystal of the unknown goddess mural (originally wondered if it was a tequila advertisement)

Kissed Tracker and the tree she was hiding behind

Wanted rosé with the cold fratatas, but thought it was weird that he put both kale and spinach in them (as did Tracker)

Looked through the medical papers Adaine and Riz found and figured out how to cure the Kalina infection (greater restoration due to studying records or a tinsure that requires dusk moss, the alchemical supplies Gorgug got from the tinkerers, some things Adaine can pull from her jacket, and one or two things they'd only be able to find beyond the wall)

Her and the group decided on the tincture method despite the risk of curing behind the wall as she can only cast greater restoration once per day (only one 5th level spell slot and 5 infected: Tracker, Sandra Lynn, Ragh, Riz, and herself), but the option of using greater restoration on herself and Riz while leaving the others behind or inside Van was discussed (side note: could she team up with any of the locals bards/clerics/druids/artificers/celestial warlocks who know greater restoration and teach them the specifics of the altered spell while they wait on the others to get back?)

Suggested they pretend they all died after they take the tincture in order to give them an advantage due to Kalina thinking the party was cut in half (all but Adaine agreed)

Owns little handcuffs with her and Tracker's initials on them

"I don't know why I'm saying this, but Go Ball."

Assumed that the team in hell were just stuck in a waiting room, possibly drinking pina coladas

Investigated where Aelwen, Adaine's mom, and Killian entered the briar wall. It was much more tangled, far from Arborly, up a cliff with difficult rocky terrain between them and the temple. It was a place where they wouldn't be looked for, but it would take them longer to get there.

Tracker

Said the thing with Vraz made her werewolf issue with the Shrine of Thorns the second weirdest thing that's happened

Started transforming after glancing at the uncovered mural image of the unknown goddess, growling as half her head transformed as she fought changing before rolling off and hiding behind a tree (per Kristen's suggestion)

Couldn't go to hell because she couldn't enter the shrine

Gorgug

Got springs put in his shoes by the gnomes which gave them thick rubbery soles (Spring Coiled Sneakers of Bounding) and also asked for shock thing from tinkerers which would have a spare the dying effect (unknown if he got it)

Wears size 19 canvas shoes

Looked through a big log book with the alchemic ingredients in tinkerer's shorthand before buying the same alchemical ingredients that Killian bought (magnesium, antimony, and mercury which are used in magical candles) for 350 gold. Killian also bought two huge blocks of dusk moss incense (600 gold for both which he split cost wise with Fabian), but he was nervous about buying it (dusk moss details above).

Explained cell towers to the tinkerers

Considered jumping into space to either get to or place a satellite

Found a picture of his parents launching their satellite into space (Wilma and Digby giving double thumbs up, the van tipped on it's nose with it's back doors open to launch the satellite from the back of it, a lot of papers and a mobile desk in van's glovebox) and found space tech-esk routing info for the satellite in Van which allowed him to make a satellite phone

Originally left his crystal and the info with the tinkerers (original timeframe 1-2 days), but came back to help which speed up the process

Was curious why Gilear wasn't infected by Shadow Cat like Sandra Lynn and was later sorry he brought it up

When they found out they couldn't enlarge/reduce Van, he considered making a massive vest with massive pockets he could wear that everyone could jump in before they used enlarge/reduced on him, but the idea was scrapped

Suggested that if they played dead after taking the tincture to not warn Gilear so he wouldn't be acting when they "died".

"Hey, this is based on nothing, but I feel like Gilear is dead."

Believed that hell wasn't as bad as people said it was, just unfamiliar and like 5 degrees hotter

Ran into the briars after the portal closed

Likes a hot hot tub because warm ones just makes him wonder what's cooking in there

Was up all night sweating with his hoodie off (first time in a long time) working on his phone before finishing up the crystal pack (made his phone into a satellite phone). He felt pretty good about making it work.

Got a slew of unread messages once he turned his phone on (few old ones from Zelda, some from his parents checking in, and tour stuff)

Called Zelda with a video call, putting his hoodie back on as it rang and rang (most of the call is in Zelda section)

Told Zelda he loved her for the first time (after she said it first). Said he wished he was there, but hadn't figured that technology out yet and admitted that he might not have service once they went into the forest ("I'm here to communicate")

The gnomes erupted into cheers over the crystal working, but he was equally exciting over Zelda saying she loved him. They popped some gnome wine (pink fizzy champagne that smelled like cloying sweet strawberries) and shared it with him in celebration

Got a bunch of DMs from the other seven maidens saying "Way to go big guy"

Zelda

Was at Ostentata's house at night for a party (everybody was telling the story of when Gorgug jumped the fire elemental there and when he backyard wrestle smashed the beer pong table while time was stopped) when Gorgug called

Told her adventuring party he was calling before she went outside, but they followed

Answered her phone while still wearing her earbuds and assumed he was back, but was told he figured out how to make his phone work. He did it because he felt like it was important to be able to talk to her, the world, and her (not because it was part of the quest). She asked if they had cell towers, but Gorgug said that he had been working on artificer stuff and used his parents' satellite.

Started crying over Gorgug doing a whole bunch of new science to make his phone able to call back, apologized to him over getting upset, and said she missed him and he was the best

Was embarrassed by the other maidens eavesdropping (they called out "Good lookin out Gorgug! Stand up thing to do! You did it!"). Gorgug went on speaker and said "Well hello guys!" before she shooed them off to talk to her boyfriend

Made sure that Gorgug's friends weren't in danger over him working on his project, but was reassured that he was having down time and it would also help them in the long run

Told Gorgug that she loved him for the first time and freaked out (insulting herself) before he said that he loved her too. This was followed by her saying "oooh I just wanna... I just wish you were here."

Said the Red Waste was super hard, but they were done and thought they would get a good grade on it

Called Gorgug cool (and was called cool by him). Said what he did meant a lot to her. The call ended with one last quick I love you from Gorgug.

Fig

Subpoenaed to be a witness for Gortholax before a tribunal due to him being negligent for his infernal domain (after his 9th and final request for appearence lapsed). The print of her subpoena got so fine that it was mostly illegable without a magnifying glass. It was also in infernal (which she can read)

Asked Vraz if she could leave the door to hell open with them following later (left open, but was yelled at)

Considered disguising herself as Gortholax and offered to disguise herself as a famous lawyer from billboards to help Gilear

Wanted to know more about law so she could defend Gortholax domain and yelled "THE CHOSEN ONE!" when she discovered that Gilear knew the law

Wanted to start a grass roots campaign about the demons working with the nightmare king (as devils hate them both)

Asked her mom why Gilear wasn't infected and discovered her parents had slept together many times, but not in the last 3 years

Got upset with Riz over his opinion on devils (quote in dialogue link)

Had to be the first through the portal to hell, but straddled the flaming doorway with Riz on her back to try to keep it open

Tied a rope around Hangman so she could wakeboard while smoking a clove, library card behind her right ear

Thought Gortholax's home was tasteful and knew the door code.

Blamed herself for the quality of Gilear's life (quote in dialogue link)

To Vraz "What going on with you? Do you need a hug?"

Lit a cigarette in court, told them that Gortholax was trapped in a gem, put her feet up, and said Kalina the Shadow Cat used a proxy to trap Gortholax with the assistance of demons (but was able to hide the fact that she was the proxy from Vraz)

Asked for help getting into the forest of the Nightmare King, but got yelled at because calling a recess does not mean the trial is over

Cut her arm and offered the tribunal her blood as proof she was Gortholax's daughter, but the blood sizzled when it hit the ground and either summoned or created an imp which served as proof

Ayda

Told Adaine what the rune was (details below)

Still working on plane shift

Got upset over Fig getting sucked into hell, insisting that they had to go rescue her "Well, we should do whatever we can to make it happen as fast as possible because I'm going to get another kiss, whatever happens"

Said Fig's lips are the softest things she's ever felt (grossing out Adaine) and "If I don't smell Fig's hair again, I'm going to incenerate"

Asked Adaine for advice as the Oracle, wanting to know how many potential futures there were were Fig wouldn't want to kiss her or be around her anymore and if they could be avoided. She was also worried that Fig might have kissed her, but not felt attracted to her.

"If we kissed a bunch of times over the course of an hour, does that mean we are girlfriends or wives?" (potentially but ask to clarify)

Was worried that she would look sad, weird, or not normal from a social standpoint for asking Fig to clarify if they were girlfriends (to which Adaine said she was not and was in face very very cool).

Worried about her mind being foreign to other people and despite not being the same as Adaine, felt better after talking to someone who understands not being like everyone else.

Told Adaine "You're a very special person to me and your friendship means the world to me. I hope we study magic together for a long long time" and that she loved her.

Has notes on how her brain works and built an entire friendship section in the library because she was so lonely.

Went to the Synod to be alone because she lived "on a dirty pirate island"

***

Other PCs And People In The Party

Adaine

Released an aura in the crime scene and might have put on gloves

Found the non detection runes her mother had placed (to keep elves off the trail) and the remains of two rituals, one to kill Killian and one to put the Devil's Heart (with Gortholax) inside Killian. The rituals happened 24 hours appart, meaning they left the night the teens arrived or her mom knew to kill Killian before Aelwen arrived.

While looking for something in the room (something nice her mom might have said about her), she found a blank piece of parchment on a small desk and revealed a message using "the pencil trick" ("Aelwen is with me. You are betrayed. You have no other choice darling. Come with us.") which she believed was probably for her dad. Later got the original copy (wrote out for a sending spell) by using mend on ashes she found in a trashcan

Suggested a cold fratata picnic

Pulled beautifully printed pamplets out of her jacket for Fig's grass roots campaign, but they had a typo so she tossed them

Told the group to give a thumbs up to someone who had the message spell (currently only Fig and Adaine) if they had something to say to keep it from Kalina

Was caught by briars and ejected from the hell potral, keeping her from entering, but decided that heaven and hell were just reflections of each other so she wasn't worried

On dusk moss, said "I've heard it's good for anxiety." and suggested that they all got high while waiting on their friends to return from hell (but was unable to convince the others)

Discovered that the unknown goddess' spellbook had a distinguishing mark on it, an occult rune that was in a lot of stuff at Compass Points (which Ayda would have studied) and on the coin given to Kalvaxus (more info under mystery rune)

Liked a hot tub that started off very warm at first and then got more comfortable

Messaged Ayda late at night for help "Avast ye scurvy devil. How is plane shift going? Also, need info on rune. It looks like [x]" (answered back "I'm not a scurvy devil. Let's use the synonym. Right jacket pocket.")

Found a key made of glowing blue crystalline energy in her pocket as the keyhole on a nearby door started glowing slightly blue.

Was given a scroll with a first level spell by Ayda that granted her access to the Synod of Spyre which is a meeting place for wizards

Told Ayda "I think your great",  made her laugh by telling her that curses were "ten a penny", and told her that she enjoyed talking to her about their magic as Ayda is someone who gets it and is not mean to her

Asked Ayda to tell her everything (about the kiss), but then realized that she didn't want or need to know everything. She did say (about Ayda and Fig) "I support this. I am happy about it. I am amazed. Oooo she's secretive!" and that while on a macro level, some people will kiss without caring, Fig wouldn't because she cared about everybody (she did kiss those two older guys though?)

Admittedly that being oracle only let her help out a little every day and occasionally she got a terrifying vision, but she doesn't know when the event will occur or what will cause it

To Ayda, "If you like a person and they like you and the relationship is good, it shouldn't matter how other people feel about it? I think."

"I want to be alone and also surrounded by my friends at all times."

Riz

Worked the crime scene in the Owl and Harp with Adaine (putting on gloves before starting)

Found that the rituals were specifically to get Kalina into Silvar by bypassing the need for permission from a devil authority by using petrismosis to move from an infected creature into a gem to commandeer the devil within it

Petrismosis: The body's ability to start having elements of the magical gem within it to start permiating orgainic membrane; the process of an organic body and gem to become one which includes osmosis of blood to gem (ragh mom constrantly fights against the being within her gem using her rage, blood, and soul)

Told Adaine "It's great to fin- be around someone who just focuses up. Me and you? Everybody else is super horny. Super emotional. But me and you? *slaps hands together* No emotions between the two of us." (she was looking for something nice from her mom)

Discovered that Adaine's mom had packed WAY more rations than they needed to get to the temple, some alchemical ingredients, and all primary work, leaving only hints behind as well as some research and medical diagrams (which Adaine and Riz took). The medical diagrams were extremely old velum grave robber level medical stuff written in a character based pictogram language (think hieroglyphs, almost like emoji) that was most likely centaur. One medical diagram was of a disected and dismembered centaur with dark, very scary looking cat symbols (refered to as the disease or infection) behind eyes, in ears, on tongue, deep in sinuses, and on spine. It also showed that the brain was carefully taken apart and looked at, but the infection was not present there.

He and Adaine deduced that Kalina could only look through one person at a time using their senses and couldn't get into their brains, but could cause paralysis. The only safe place would be the moon haven/Kristen's hallow, but Kalina might be able to ride one of the infected into the haven if she was actively trying to do it. They could however talk anywhere using telepathy (such as the message spell).

Was worried about going to hell while infected, but later said "I meantioned that I was concerened about going to hell and her possibly being able to see the trial, but hell is also bad so I don't really care if they end up fighting and killing each others. Let's just go to hell. Also, they're super far along already. They have Gortholax and they're in. So it's not like... yeah."

Might have internalized racism/goblinphobia and has bias towards devils (both from his reactions in this episode and his reaction to Gortholax in season 1)

Suspicious of devils and doesn't think they should be super cool with them (quote in dialogue link), later becoming upset over what Hangman said about goblins ("Oh like goblins have such a great reputation.") and the others reaction to his and The Hangman's statement.

Road into hell holding onto Fig's back.

Upon seeing Gilear knocked out, said "See I told you that hell was bad! I mean, this is awesome, but this is bad." Pointed out the irony of Gilear getting mad at him a long time ago for stealing the first aid kit that gave him the healing feat.

After Hangman said the evil souls were murderers, thieves, and liars, he started sweating and said "Liars huh?" (side note: Riz has actually done all three)

Grabbed Gilear's face and investigated him to figure out why he was so confident (he said no to an offer from Sandra Lynn). Hissed at Gilear and then apologized, saying they were in hell, it was weird, and the things said about goblins earlier made him feel kinda crazy

Hissed at Vraz repeatedly, even after she threatened him.

To Vraz "Well I'm Riz The Ball and I'm just gonna ROLL WITH THIS! We're here! We're here for your trial thing! *hiss*" Is held back by Gilear while Fig tried to push him forward towards Vraz (told her to stop it)

Hissed at Vraz again (when she was mean to Fig) saying Vraz calling somebody in the middle of a trial was weird before the pair got in another hissing/screaming match. Asked The Hangman to hold him back and got his foot run over.

Fabian

Ownes 250 to 312 pairs of shoes (depending how many have been thrown away or given to childen), has size 5 feet (and is self conscious about it), said he had delicate feet and was lithe and dexterous, and his father had small feet and mother had normal sized feet

Said "god damn it" when he discovered Krumpkin wore the same size shoes as him, lied and said he had big toes and wore a 5.5 because he didn't to exchange shoes with a gnome, and quietly said "...let's go" when Gorgug asked if he wanted little bells on his shoes (side note: was he teased in the past?)

Completely confused by tinkerers logbook, so he deferred to Gorgug. Tried to help by rubbing his sheet on the gold coins they were buying supplies with, but nothing happened

Was nervous about buying or using dusk moss, saying he knew a guy who tried it while wearing a hat and now he always felt like he's wearing the hat. Told the rest of the group "We bought so many drugs." when they dot back.

Fabian's bardic "You feel the power of Fabian's support and care for you" (the explanation of his new stats is linked below)

When asked if he wanted to stay in the Tinkerer's Hall, he answered "Absolutely. With all these weird little men and women. No thank you. Ragh, let's go!"

Has a bunch of private stuff on his phone that he doesn't want anybody seeing

Tried to ride Hangman into hell, but caught by the briars and ejected as the portal closed

Told Hangman "You are literally the sweetest meanest thing ever."

Mutters "Go off The Ball, go off" while Riz was in a different dimension from him (yelling at Vraz in hell)

Said he didn't worry about his father as he was thriving, but he missed him. When told he could get word to him, originally assumed Bill would be busy, then agreed but asked Hangman not to be needy about it, then tried to pretend that he was cool either way and that he didn't need it and it wouldn't fill him with joy, then admitted that it would fill him with joy, and finally just asking "yes please do it"

Likes a warm hot tub due to it being better for his skin and he can stay in there longer

(Multiple quotes can be found in the dialogue link below)

Hangman

His presence (a devil) closed the portal to hell, seperating him from Fabian. He could still talk to Fabian telepathically, but freaked out. When asked to turn it down, he replied "I can't turn it down, I'm sad!"

Said that the portal was created for the dark tribunal and afterwards the devils are required to deposite them from where they came from

Gave Gilear his mark by making his eyes glow dark red pinpricks and etching an infernal ruin of blood and fire on his forehead

Got pissed off over Gilear having to ride on him, but did it to stop his complaining. Meanwhile, Riz also road on him (with a "Huzzah!") and Fig tired a rope around him so she could wakeboard on her skateboard behind him

Approved of Riz hissing at Gilear

Said the souls falling into The Bottomless Pit were evil and of murderers, theives, and liars

Got the tribunal to allow them to stay at The Bottomless Pit (as Fig was both Gortholax's daughter and she had passage there) instead of prison

When he was told only Fig was going to go in the hot tub, he pouted and said "I want to go too!"

Offered to send word to Bill Seacaster for Fabian

Gilear

Made fratatas (with both spinach and kale) immediately, but they all got very cold due to the teens being away for hours (were so cold that they thought he put them in the freezer)

He was not "the face" when he worked in Fallenel at the elven counsel (where he said he was a glorified paralegal), but was still an expert in international and interplaner law

When Fig told him that it was his moment and she needed him, he immediately replied with "Nope!". He eventually gave his word to help, but was confused about how they got into trouble in Arborly, discovering the trial was both in hell ("what? what? oh no.") and delivered by a really keyed up woman who was probably working through something ("I...what have you done?")

From Adaine's jacket, was given a barrister wig from Fig ("None of the cultures I've worked for use these wigs"), a gavel from Kristen, and a black robe from Adaine

Found that the subpoena had no clause concerning ther souls, but hell would send people to get Fig if she didn't go

Wears boat shoes and had a powerful aura of disease coming from his feet (again Gilear DOCTOR! or have a healer greater restore!)

His bald spot was hit by a bit of fire before a blast of fire hit him and knocked him out, setting his wig on fire. He was healed by Riz, but left with burns.

Was given the Mark of The Hangman, which was an infernal ruin of blood and fire etched on his forehead which caused a red force field to appear that protected him from the fire as long as he was with The Hangman

Noticed how Fig was acting (library card behind ear) and started asking her questions, but she dodged them until Riz confronted him about his confidence and got him to confess "I got confidence because Sandra Lynn asked to sleep with me and I said no!" Said that he and Sandra Lynn talking until morning and towards the end she made an offer, he said "No. Thank you", and everyone was still happy and fine afterwards

Told Riz he was very scary and intense sometimes, resulting in Riz hissing at him

Did not actually help during the trial due to fear.

(Has multiple quotes in dialogue link.)

Sandra Lynn

Covered for the teens messaging by talking about finding where Adaine's mom entered the forest as the teens nodded along

Had to explain to her daughter that her and Gilear slept together, but she could have gotten the Kalina disease anytime in the last 3 years and Gilear wouldn't have been infected ("I love you. It's weird. Sorry for all this weird info.")

On Kristen attempting to handcuff her "So help me god Kristen Applebees. I understand that I work for you, but so help... wow."

No longer with Jawbone, but ended on good terms

Was very kind to Gilear the first night in Arborly. She offered to sleep with him at one point and was turned down.

When she asked what the teens were messaging about (dusk moss), Kristen said Spring Break and suggested Sandra Lynn have a spa day with a hot tub soak and a massage with cucumbers on her eyes. Gorgug suggested cucumbers on her ears. Fabian said they should get the weird gnomes to pound her (dear god Fabian! XD) with Kristen saying "gnomes all over your body", Adaine adding that they would walk on her back, and Fabian adding that the little shoe bells would be meditative

Ragh

Asked for a lost spring from the tinkerers

Wears a size 17.5 shoe (quote in dialogue link)

Was paranoid about buying dusk moss (ARE YOU A COP!?), but after Crumpkin's reaction, he grabbed Fabian and Gorgug's arms and said "I think drugs are legal here"

Took a solid chunk of dusk moss and was found staring at his hand ("My hand is just little animal on the end of your arm")

Came into the van later, shirtless and looking like he'd sweat ten gallons. Said "Everything in the world is connected", (on Adaine thinking of trying it) "Adaine, for real? I can never be anxious again because I don't even know if I can ever be fully in my body again.", and (response to Fabian saying it sounds scary) "No no. I'm part of the universe dude" before drinking a glass of water and going off to go to bed.

***

Gnomes

Crumpkin Springbill

Head Tinkerer of the Tinkerer's Hall of Arborly

Confused as to why anybody would be mad about people buying or using dusk moss

Told Gorgug that it would take a long time and a lot of materals to build a cell tower

Size 5 shoes (but likes a little toe room) with curled toes so he can puts little bells on them (sounds like the general style of shoes for the gnomes there as well)

Said hello to Zelda enthusiastically over a video call

Polly Pullypad and Osmand Wobbletrouble

Accidentally flew into where they stacked all the old pots and pans (Polly)

Brought Gorgug his altered shoes back and bowed to Gorgug

Asked to examine Gorgug's crystal in exchange for the spring shoes (Osmand)

Suggested they try to skip building a cell tower and connect directly to a satellite

(Unnamed Twins)

Shallower cone hats with tufts of fur on the ends of springs

Took gorgug shoes off his feet

***

Devils

Vraz the Mean

Sarcastic erinyes with a +13 insight and a beautiful but uncannoy vally porcelain face with a beauty mark

When Fig and Kristen asked if she could leave the door open so they could follow "Are you guys having a fun time? BECAUSE YOU SEEM PRETTY FUCKING GLIB! Keep your sass to yourself!", but still left the door open

Got hissed at by Riz a lot (multiple quotes in dialogue)

Said she is having a bad time between her title (Vraz The Mean), species (Erinyes), running hell, and her title (Arch Secretary)

Called the tribunal into order (with her two co-jurors in a room with a small 3 seat judges bench), stating that it concerned the issue of Gortholax's infernal negligence

Tried to call her boss Blozo, but he couldn't come due to traffic

Found that being trapped in a gem counted as extenuating circumstances and he would not be punished, but they needed a new regnant for the Bottomless Pit so they called a recess while they consulted the bylaws.

Yelled at Fig for asking for help after the recess saying (in a durr voice) " *points at temple* Do you know what words mean!? Do you know what words mean!? *jacking off motion* Huh?"

Was going to imprison "the mortals", but was convinced by Hangman to put them under house arrest at The Bottomless Pit

Kystrona (Ky-stron-ah) The Chained

Vaguely humanoid figure that is just like

A person with chains coiled where arms would be as well as the torso and head, making a massive mound of chains

Moved with a lot of strain (including trying to shrug) and voice is muffled from all the chains

Lorzug (lore-zug) The Impaled

Bone thin naked person with incredibly pale skin and translucent vains all over

Impaled through the stomach about 10 feet up a jet black iron spike as they kick and scream

Only responded with screams

Retch Rot

Tiny blood red imp with a scorpion tail summoned by Fig's blood (calls her mistress)

Might look like a red Boggy with really long legs for his size (Ally wondered if he looked like "a really famous mouse", including suspenders, but I personally give Emily's description more weight as she is in fact in hell as Fig)

Valet to Fig while in the Bottomless Pit

Wanted to show them to their quarters and the many doors of The Bottomless Pit (but had to make it clear that the doors were just rooms in the pit and not portals)

***

Other Stuff From 2.13

***

<- Prevous

Next ->

[To be added]

[almasexya]

Carnivorous Plants and the Things I Know About Them

I've been kicking around the idea of making a post like this and I figured it was of enough general interest to folks on Tumblr to go for it.

So

One of the things I do is grow carnivorous plants, like these

From top left to bottom right we have a Venus Flytrap, a North American Pitcher Plant, a Sundew, and a Butterwort. All of these are pictures I've taken of plants during the growing season.

Now if you look at these weird looking plants you probably wouldn't expect them to be native to North America, but they are. You can find pitcher plants all over the southeast up to the northeast into Canada, flytraps in the Carolinas, and butterworts and sundews all over the continent.

These plants are a lot of fun and easy to grow once you understand their requirements, but before we get into that, I want to take a moment and explain how they came to be in the first place.

To keep it short, carnivorous plants are carnivorous because they grow in soils that are lacking in the nutrients plants need to put out new growth. Because of this, they evolved to find their nutrients a different way - by luring, trapping, and digesting insects. While these plants still photosynthesize, they supplement this with the nutrients they absorb from insects.

Now that we've got that out of the way, I'm going to go into the basics of growing them, point by point. A short disclaimer - I'm specifically talking about temperate North American plants, since they're what I have experience growing. I can provide basic info on how to take care of tropical plants like the southeast asian pitcher plants, but as of this post I don't have experience with them yet.

Soil: For carnivorous plants, a good soil mixture is a must. These plants grow in nutrient-poor marshes, and the soil they call home is constantly wet. The main ingredient in basically any carnivorous plant soil mix is sphagnum peat moss, which is slightly acidic. The second part of the mixture is often perlite or horticultural sand. Some nurseries use a mix of equal parts peat and perlite while others use 80% peat and 20% perlite, but I've had success with both. The most important thing to ensure is that your soil doesn't have any fertilizer added to it. Because carnivores grow in low nutrient soil, any kind of medium that contains fertilizer can actually kill them.

Water: The other vitally important part of the equation (and the one that kills lots of plants when incorrectly applied) is water. Generally, unless your tap water is soft, water carnivores with distilled or reverse osmosis water. The minerals in tap water or even bottled drinking water can eventually build up and kill your plant in the same way fertilized soil does. Carnivores love waterlogged soil, and some even get flooded in nature. To approximate this, set your plant in a tray of water no more than an inch or two high. This ensures your soil stays wet without having to constantly water it.

Containers: Plastic pots are your friend. Avoid terra cotta clay pots, since they can leech minerals into the soil and also tend to dry out your substrate faster. Glazed clay containers can also work. If you're using the tray system, make sure to buy pots with drainage holes, so the water can get in. Also, a trick that lets the water in but keeps the soil from escaping is to line the bottom of the pot with long-fibered sphagnum moss. If you go with an undrained container, make sure to keep the soil wet at all times, but allow some of the water to evaporate in order to keep the water table fluctuating.

Sunlight: Since carnivores evolved their leaves to catch insects, they're pretty poor at photosynthesis. As a result, these plants love sun - the more the better. Many a store bought flytrap has perished as a houseplant due to lack of sun, so if you can, put these plants outside, in the sunniest spot you can. Generally, it's good to give most carnivores around 6 hours of sunlight per day. Many can get by with 4, but they don't often thrive with that amount of light.

Dormancy: Plants that grow in temperate or warm temperate climates tend to buckle down and hibernate during the late fall and winter months, conserving energy until spring. Generally speaking, the large traps die off, or in some cases the plant dies down to the roots, or forms a small bud that rests on the ground. Plants grown outside respond to colder temperatures and shorter photoperiods, while plants grown inside usually need some help. If you're growing your plants on a windowsill or in a terrarium, move them somewhere cold or cut down on their heating, and also diminish the amount of daily light they receive. You can also slow down on watering, though they still need some water to get by.

Temperature: Temperate and warm temperate carnivores can tolerate a wide range of temperatures, despite what you might think. My pots survived the freak snowstorm the Pacific Northwest got this February without a single dead plant. Most species can tolerate temperatures up to 100 degrees Fahrenheit and down to 20 degrees, though not for prolonged periods of time. If you see long spells of hot or cold weather coming, try and move your plants to a protected area until they pass.

Feeding and Fertilizing: Now I know what you're thinking. Fertilizer? He just told us that stuff was death! And it often is, but there are ways to fertilize your plants. Generally, a fertilizer made for acid-loving plants can be diluted and applied to the leaves during the growing season. I use Maxsea 16-16-16 on plants that are too young to easily catch prey (diluted down to a half teaspoon per gallon) and haven't had issues. Try not to spray the soil unless you frequently water your plants from overhead, as the dreaded mineral buildup can still occur. That said, if your plants are outside, they'll fertilize themselves. You can also "feed" your plants insects using tongs - keep in mind that some plants require their prey to be alive in order to secrete digestive enzymes. I'll get into prey in more detail in other posts about specific types of plants.

Flowering and Propagation: For a lot of carnivorous plants, flowering is an exhausting effort that tends to deplete the energy they would use creating traps. As a general rule, if you're not interested in seed, clip the flower stalks off. Many plants can be propagated through leaf or root cuttings, which produce genetically identical plants. Some plants also clump and form their own divisions over time, meaning all you need to do to get more is wait for a year or so, depending on the age of the plant.

Pests: Carnivores can be targeted by various pests. For insecticides, I've seen neem oil recommended, as its generally less harmful to the plant and the environment. I haven't had to make much use of these yet, so my information on insecticides is a bit of a blind spot. Generally, try and stay away from soap insecticides and aerosols, and stick to less concentrated varieties. If you're dealing with squirrels or rodents digging up your plants, I found a generous sprinkling of cayenne pepper around the plants works wonders, and does no harm to the plants.

This is a basic rundown of carnivorous plants and how to take care of some of them. I must stress there's a ton of information out there - this post is geared more towards starter plants that are fairly forgiving and simple to grow.

So why grow carnivorous plants when you can just go out and buy some petunias?

They're active: Carnivores are showy, unique plants that can move on their own through some incredibly unique and complex evolutions. Watching a Venus Flytrap snap shut or a Sundew curl around an insect is a truly special thing to see.

They're a conversation piece: The relative rarity of carnivores in cultivation means the average person doesn't know much about them, despite maybe having heard of a Venus Flytrap before. A 12" pot of flytraps, sundews, and pitchers is a surefire way to grab attention.

They can control certain pests: Carnivorous plants can act as natural pest controllers. North American Pitcher Plants gorge themselves on flies and wasps, and considering some pitchers can grow over two feet tall, they can hold plenty of them. Sundews and butterworts specialize in catching smaller prey, such as fungus gnats, fruit flies, and even fleas. These plants can work as limited, natural pest controllers, though they won't eradicate a yellow jacket nest for you.

They're endangered in the wild: The wet, marshy habitats carnivores call home are rapidly dwindling due to improper land management and development. Some are nearly extinct in their home ranges, kept going through dedicated nurseries and attempts to naturalize them in other locations. By caring for carnivorous plants, you're raising awareness of these unique, underappreciated organisms and aiding in their conservation by keeping them alive.

Phew, I realize this was a lot, but I hope it was a fun read! Let me know what you think about carnivorous plants, or if you have any questions about them. I'm going to try and go into more detail on specific plants later, but for now, I wanted to bang out the basics.

If you're looking for more information, Flytrapcare.com is a great forum, and the r/savagegarden subreddit is very helpful as well. For books on the subject, the Savage Garden by Peter D'Amato is the go to source. Nurseries I've used and can vouch for are Sarracenia Northwest (located in Oregon) and California Carnivores (located in California).