#tldr none of them have to fight alone

[arkiwii]

I personally don't think that an offensive Saria represents a bad end, but rather a good end, where she stops relying on only herself, and trusts that after all this time that the people she's trying to protect can actually protect themselves, that she's not the only one wanting to correct the mistakes they made with Rhine. That she doesn't *have* to be the lone shield protecting everyone.

It would depend on the context of the alter then, either she goes bersek, either she learns from it

But an entirely offensive one, like a DPS Guard? That feels too stubborn even if it's that she realized she can trust the ones she cares about, Saria is naturally someone who is strategical and always think in battle rather than throwing hands without thoughts

Something like another kind of Defender (Dualist for exemple) or a Supporter/Specialist would, I think, fit way better for that kind of scenario. Something that would allow her to have a synergy and gives buff/boosts to other operators, maybe just Rhine Lab operators. She doesn't have to be the only one to protect everyone, yes, but she doesn't have to fight alone neither! The best possibility would be if she can have a perfect niche along other Rhine Lab operators

[gayofthefae]

I realized something tonight: If Byler wasn't endgame,

Season 2 wouldn't. exist.

Not the way it does for Mike and El anyway. There is absolutely zero reason to separate them. None at all. We've been over this before: any event that does not change the outcome is cut. Do you know what that implies?

Mike and El's separation CHANGED THINGS.

When they get together at the Snow Ball, it is DIFFERENT than it would have been at the end of season 1. Otherwise, they would have cut it, nay, never written it in the first place. They would have EITHER gotten together as they did in season 3 in season 2 OR gotten together for the first time after the Snow Ball after two seasons of buildup together.

Not what actually happened. What actually happened is that Mike spent a year's worth of sentimental alone time with Will - especially in that last week - culminating in him telling Will that he is the best decision he's ever made, and it changed how he felt about El.

I cannot emphasize enough that the previous paragraph was a factual recounting of events. The plot tells us that he spent a lot of screentime with Will. The narrative structure tells us that it affected his relationship with El upon her return.

Their separation was not used to build up their relationship. It wasn't used to deteriorate it really either. It was simply a pause. It served no purpose towards their relationship as they were already together conditional to her being alive. To serve a purpose for them would imply there was something missing in the first place, which they could have done if they hadn't yet been together. They were separated and fighting to get back to where they were as of the end of season 1. Changing nothing. Moving forward 0 steps. Even the Snow Ball itself represents that in being his intended ending to season 1. They are picking up where they left off. After they resumed their "pause".

Her absence from his life implies that his relationship with Will as it was in season 2 could only have occurred if he was single, supported by it changing drastically and suddenly as soon as he isn't, and it states that his relationship with El WOULD have stayed the same if it weren't for Will.

tldr: In conclusion:

*This epiphany was brought to you by Me Rewatching My Own WILDFLOWER Edit

[trashcan3001]

They aren't the same at all, lol

I keep seeing people trying to compare Wind Breaker and Tokyo Revengers for some reason. The only thing they have in common is a focus on kids who are delinquents.

They are different in every other way, so here are simplified plots so you can go and read/watch whichever one you like lol. (If you don't like one, don't interact with it, isn't life so nice when you are in control of what you see? :P):

Tokyo Revengers: Time travel fix it where the main character goes back in time to save his middle school girlfriend from a death via gang violence in the future. Realizes something else is amiss when the perpetrator is just a normal dude as a kid and ends becoming his friend. As the plot moves forward, it is clear that the gangs he and his new friends are fighting with are being created specifically to make his new friend a bad person and he needs to stop them. Or are they? It seems the power to time travel isn't as simple as he thought and by the end of the plot it is this supernatural phenomenon that becomes the deciding factor in if the future will be happy for all and not just some.

Main character is not a good fighter, eats punches like a champ though and literally refuses to back down even when he looks ready to die via blood loss, is kind and compassionate and cares deeply for all the people he becomes friends with and grows stronger as he continues on his time travel shenanigans, packing strength readers will be very proud of.

The time travel is the main feature of the plot, not the gang fighting. The gang fights is actually a part of the time travel things as the first main antagonist created these fights for their own agenda.

Manga is finished anime has completed its third season

Wind Breaker: Main Character enrolls in a delinquent school to prove that he is strong and can get the top dog spot even on his own. Gets a reality check when it turns out the students of this school are loved by the town because they take care of the common folk by taking out the gangs that are running rampant. Main character, having a bad past where they were always alone, now gains friends and learns that he doesn't have to be alone and that he isn't the unlovable thing the world tried to make him out to be. Journey with him and his first year team as they battle with the gangs on the streets to keep people safe and grow as people.

Main character is a very good fighter who has a mild form of albinism(I think) where only a part of his hair and only one eye is affected. This made people in his past treat him terribly and thus he learned to fight or he would be hurt instead. He is a tsundere in the most non annoying way (I was shocked that I liked him that much!). He is kind but due to his past and social anxiety, he has a hard time understanding people liking him and their compliments. He learns over time.

The gangs and school delinquency is the main focus of the plot as it is in joining this school and gang and fighting for others that makes the plot move forward.

Manga is still going and anime only just started

TLDR: Tokyo revengers is about time travel fixing things, gang stuff is just the backdrop where this happens. Wind Breaker is about getting to the top of a literal delinquent school, making friends and growing as a person is the consequence of this school situation.

They are not the same, so watch/read both or one or none, just know what your getting into before complaining lol.

XOXO,

TC3001

[y-rhywbeth2]

Death and the Afterlife #2

Link: Disclaimer regarding D&D "canon" & Index [tldr: D&D lore is a giant conflicting mess. Larian's lore is also a conflicting mess. There's a lot of lore; I don't know everything. You learn to take what you want and leave the rest]

Dying/Pre-Judgement | Judgements | Afterlives [WIP]

Judgements, not necessarily just Kelemvor's job: • "Go back and try again" • The False • The Faithless • The Faithfull • Why resurrection has a time limit.

So there are two schools of approach to this. We have lore where Kelemvor and the Fugue are the be-all and end-all of the beginning of the afterlife.

And then we have "that's Kelemvorite propaganda", "Kelemvor cannot actually manage to judge all of those souls, god or no", and all the death gods judge their own people:

"The time requirements of stewardship over the dead tax even [the gods of the dead], however, and [social] visits [between them] are rare." - Faiths and Pantheons

The Prince of Lies novel also stated that Cyric had no jurisdiction over demihuman souls, and he resented non-humans for it.

"Kelemvor’s clergy will tell you that Kelemvor governs the fate of all souls. However, this is (honestly believed by those who say it) church propaganda. In other words, it isn’t true; the truth is that Kelemvor can’t even keep up with judging all Faerûnian pantheon-worshipping human souls. "So, yes, the souls of nonhuman beings go to other judges and judgments, some souls get lost and “wander,” and humans who worship the Mulhorandi pantheon or other deities not of Toril encounter other judges. It seems to vary on a case-by-case basis, which really means mortals are struggling to understand the afterlife, and various faiths are attempting to provide answers which likely have more to do with reassurance and doctrine than reality." - Ed Greenwood

So if he's calling in the other death gods to handle their own people (presumably according to the standards of their own pantheons):

Sehanine Moonbow, who begins to call to elves in their reveries as they reach the end of their life, summoning them to Arvandor. -

Urogalan, the halfling guardian of the dead and Yondalla's judge and advisor. He collects the souls of dead halflings and takes them to his realm, where he sorts them out and assigns them their appropriate afterlives. -

Segojan Earthcaller is the gnomish god of the dead. -

Dumathoin is the dwarven protector of the dead. -

The Mulhorandi are literal Ancient Egyptians, although there's been some cultural divergence. Osiris judges the souls of the dead alone, and there's no mention of the weighing of the heart and such. -

Chultans believe that at the end of the maze that is life, they will exit that maze and stand before Ubtao, who will ask them to draw the map of the maze they walked. If they do it correctly, they are welcomed into the gods home to live with him in paradise. If they get it wrong they are cast out back to Toril, to wander the earth as ghosts and ghouls. (The Tabaxi - a human tribe, not the cat people - often doodle these metaphorical life mazes throughout their lives as practice and contemplation) -

I'm not sure who handles the drow, because none of the Dark Seldarine are going to tolerate any of the rest of the pantheon going anywhere near their followers' souls. Eilistraee tends to pick her followers up personally anyway. -

Null is the death god of the draconic pantheon. if you worship Tiamat you probably know him as Faluzure, the Reaver (who blesses those who have taken the most lives) and if you favour Bahamut then you probably know him as Chronepsis, the Guardian of the Lost, who guides souls to the Dragon Eyrie where they will be protected and no longer troubled by enemies and in-fighting. -

Yurtrus is the orcish god of the dead

Some souls may also have unexpected judgements:

“Kelemvor himself has been known to (for unknown reasons) pluck certain souls away from the usual fates of his judgments, to serve him. Often they end up sent back into mortal life on missions, often in bodies of a different race and/or gender than that of their previous life.” - Ed Greenwood

So, the Judgements:

Being sent back to Toril: The gods may restore a soul back to its original body.

“Sometimes, the being’s own desires or the will of a deity cause it to be ‘sent back’ to life, or stuck in undeath (e.g. a revenant) to take care of unfinished life business.”

These people have a sense about them that is noticeable to the supernaturally attuned, especially divine spellcasters and the zealous. A being is usually returned when a deity still has need of the soul's service in the mortal world. Most of the death gods don't care very much for deities creating undead this way, but what one or a few gods think of things historically matters very little as far as godly rules go. This also happens in the case of “disputes” – due to Toril being a polytheistic setting where everybody worships the entire pantheon, sometimes more than one deity has an equal claim on a soul. Usually people have a single patron god, but occasionally they have more, or happened to live their lives in line with the doctrine and aims of a different deity giving that god grounds to claim the soul suits them better. In this case the soul is resurrected and will be tested and watched carefully to see which god they’re the best match for. Some deities will also go for more traditional reincarnation, and the soul will be reborn as an infant with a new life, such as the Companions of the Hall, who were given the option to move on or be reborn again. Some physical traits and subconscious memories may carry over to the next life, and I think there are cases of people recalling who they used to be. ---

Being judged False The False are those who have made a commitment to a deity (clergy, chosen, paladins, etc), but then deliberately betrayed their god and their teachings and so the god either will or can not claim them. As they have nowhere to go, the False remain on the Fugue plane serving their sentence in the City of Justice. Their punishment is determined by how severely they have betrayed their god: it may range from horrific eternal torture that would kill a living person, to minor punishments like having menial tasks assigned to them like serving as guides or servants for beings they hate. The sentence is usually eternal, however occasionally it’s a temporary sentence and eventually “a deity” sends servants to recover the soul for resurrection and another chance at life. It isn’t specified whether this deity is the one they betrayed, or if it's a different god that has a claim on the soul but had to postpone this claim until that soul had finished serving their punishment for their broken oath. ---

Being judged Faithless The Faithless did not worship any gods and actively reject and shun them all. Some of them flat out refuse to acknowledge that the gods exist, or claim that the gods are simply powerful beings pretending at divinity (which most of the population of Toril views the same way most people view flat earthers.) If forced to pray, they went through the motions but nothing more.

Some of them are Faithless because they did not further any god’s aim in life, which is impressive: “Many gods consider mortal deeds to be worship, even if the mortal didn't intend them so.” So never trying to do anything with your life, never actually doing more than lip-service to living by, supporting and furthering morals, values and ethics you claim to care about, whatever they are, I guess. Or being so apathetic you don't bother to form any opinions or feelings on anything. In your entire life. Parents in the Realms will have their newborns blessed by priests as soon as possible and give them toys featuring the holy symbols of one of the gods in the hopes of getting them attached to it (so stuffed animals in the shape of the god’s sacred animal/s, surrounding them with certain colours and symbols etc). For an infant, lacking much comprehension of the world, these things count as being faithful.

Deathbed conversions are also valid - petitioning a god just before expiring, assuming your life choices and desires/beliefs are compatible with the deity you are petitioning, will allow them to claim your soul. Traditionally the sentence is for Faithless souls to be mortared into a wall of screaming souls (the Wall of the Faithless), where their identity is slowly and tortuously dissolved until they are absorbed into the structure and cease to exist. Faithlessness and hubris ran rampant amongst ancient empires such as the Netherese and Imaskari, who probably make up large chunks of the Wall. Myrkul came up with it during his tenure as Lord of the Dead (While controversial amongst fans, this is actually far from the worst fate one can meet in the afterlife imo.) Furthermore, demons occasionally invade from the Abyss and forcibly tear souls from the wall en-masse to take back to the Abyss. If the stolen soul was one that was of interest to a deity – who for whatever reason couldn’t claim it in judgement – they will send their servants to intercept the demon and fight it for the soul. There is talk of the Wall having been removed in 5e, but the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide still mentions it being there. ---

Being collected by your deity Being handed over to their deity, who takes them back to their home plane. Generally this is the patron deity, the deity the mortal worships most out of the pantheon and/or whose worldview, drive, ethics and etc they themselves align best with as a person.

The Fugue plane has connections to the divine realms of every god on Toril, and deities send one of their servants - celestials, fiends, undead, other petitioners - to the City of Judgement to wait for the soul and bring it to their domain.

Petitioners, by default, have no memory of their past lives and lack true individuality unless a deity intervenes to maintain their identity. Or identities, if they've been subject to reincarnation and lived more than one lifetime: elven spirits, for example, consciously maintain knowledge of all the lives they've lived while in Arvandor.

From there are a few fates, the specifics of which depend on the god:

Petitioners, without intervention, slowly lose their identity as they are continually assimilated into the plane itself and are absorbed.

Some petitioners just live in their deity's realm forever, I guess.

Some petitioners are absorbed into their deity's divine essence (I don't know whether they have any consciousness or sense-of-self within the god; if they're anything like the Bhaalspawn situation, then they are.)

Gods may convert the mortal soul into another being: fiends, celestials and etc.

Sometimes they eventually send them back to Toril to be reincarnated into a new life, or to serve certain tasks as undead.

The many ways a soul can be lost is part of the reason resurrection spells come with time limits.

"A successful resurrection heals a brain and a body, and the soul and animating spirit return to the body, the spirit linking brain and soul together to the body and “life as before” is back again."

For a successful resurrection the body (especially the brain) must exist and not be too heavily damaged (not a requirement for true resurrection) and the soul must still exist as an independent entity to be recovered. The longer a soul is gone, the higher the chance it is no longer a mortal soul, or has lost its individuality. Both the soul and the deity must also consent to the soul returning.

A resurrected person has no memory of the afterlife, or anything that happened to them from the moment they died to the moment they lived again unless a deity wills it otherwise.

[volo-thereforeiam]

why are you so buddy buddy with those trans medical torture enthusiasts if youre not one of them?

Because we're feminists who agree on many things and disagree on a few. I've called out some radical feminists here for using slurs against trans people and for obsessively focusing on them, yet none of them has ever wished harm on me, let alone rape, unlike some in the trans-positive crowd. So yes, I will still speak out for trans people when needed, but it's clear why I still choose to hang out with feminists. I know you don't have friends irl, but we can have a lot of disagreements with our friends. What we don't do to each other, however, is to wish rape.

I know who you are, anon. Although your replies no longer visible, you said this.

Since you mentioned "red state," I'm assuming you're American. Let me, as a non-American, share some reality from outside the US: resources for social justice are scarce. This means we have to prioritize our battles. Even then, I believe trans people have the right to transition. Just because my focus is on one issue doesn't mean the other is less important. Maybe this is hard for you to grasp because you never had a real issue before in your life and are retarded, but to think about gender is a privilege. Most people here, especially women, haven't even secured sex-based rights and protections like contraception and abortion. Rape kits aren't available everywhere, and in some countries, women are still forced to marry their rapists.

Since your activism seems to be centered only around yourself, let's consider this from a trans person's perspective. You said rape isn't comparable to being forced to go through the wrong puberty, but have you ever thought about a trans man forced to live as a woman and mother a child he didn't want because of rape? In your ideal world, that's "not so bad" as long as he can eventually transition. In my ideal world, he could get an abortion and then transition to live as his preferred gender. For a lot of trans men here, fighting for abortion and contraception is more important than the right to transition. But you don't know that. Why? Because you're a male and being raped to the point of getting pregnant is the least of your issue. You have male privilege, something that trans men don't have. And no, I don't get off to hurting kids but you sure get off to women and trans men being raped. TLDR; I'm buddy buddy with radfems because we fight for the same cause and can have healthy disagreements—something I can't seem to have with the trans community on Tumblr. Keep crying about your life being ruined because you can't transition, though. I have no sympathy for people who wished rape upon others.

[apompkwrites]

I'm having Lil Bat and Silver's twin thoughts again.

To be fair, I've had some of these on the back burner waiting since October/November/December haha I totally didn't forget that I did not send them before haha haha.

I'm gonna do some retconning for my previous brain rots.

Vanrouge(Name) pretty much has the same backstory in the other Vanrouge(name) brain rots I sent in this and this (I think, idk they could be the wrong ones)

a as brief as I am capable of TLDR for those two posts because they are long and made while brainrotting, so they might be hard to read lmao (plus some bits I added because I feel like they add a bit more to them idk help): Lil Bat was a sick child; who grew up separated from their brother because of the nurse's fear of them getting even sicker because of their brother's carelessness leading them both to become distant from each other and making Lil Bat long for freedom which then prompts them to start traveling once they get older and strong enough where they aren't sick constantly anymore, so that way even if they do eventually die of sickness or some other reason they won't have any possible regrets (for the most part)

ok so in the Neverending Halloween Event, which I didn't 100% complete, and I am still mad at myself because I am bad at time management, Silver says that in his childhood, he and his father (Lilia) lived in a little cabin in the woods and his father (Lilia) would be out traveling for months at a time leaving Silver alone during that time, and now I need to add some things.

Imagine Lilia never really staying anywhere long during his time as a general, one reason because of his job having to go off to fight many battles, and the other being the fact that he is a free spirit who seems to be physically incapable of being tied down unless he wills it; after his retirement as general and even as he started taking care of Malleus, he would go out traveling and would bring back souvenirs for Malleus, ( Malleus says in the Fireworks event that Lilia got him souvenir flags). None of this changed when Silver and his beloved twin came into the picture.

Imagine that when Lilia found Silver and his twin, they were holding each other's hand, as though they refused to be separated, and after he took them in, they were very close during childhood. They both took care of each other, even with their own curses of sleep individually; they relied on each other when they were alone, and it seemed like they were going to stay like that forever; they cleaned together, learned how to make edible food together so that they could avoid accidentally dying from food poisoning after consuming their fathers cooking, slept in the same room and sometimes shared a bed when one had a nightmare and didn't want to be alone, they had a structured routine that they would do to take care of the place that they lived in yet flexible enough that it accommodated for both of their sleeping curses if one or both of them fell asleep or passed out then the schedule wouldn't be affected that much.

During their childhood, Lilia started teaching them swordsmanship, though Silver seemed to enjoy it more than his twin did, it just wasn't that fun or enjoyable for them, and it seemed that it was tedious for them; Lilia noticed this and stopped getting (Name) to join them. Initially, they were happy with this and didn't mind that much, though they quickly started feeling left out. Their father was out traveling a lot + his job as the princes retainer and would come back in small periods to check up on them, when he did he spent a lot of his time with them training, and since they were no longer training with them, the time they spent with their father decreased significantly.

They didn't feel much jealousy or envy for their brother though, they were happy that their brother had time to bond with their dad and plus it's not like Lilia didn't spend time with them, and as a even bigger plus they had all the time in the world to spend with their brother when their father left.

One night during one of their father's visits, just as they both were about to fall asleep in their respective beds, (name) heard their brother tell them that they wanted to become a knight and that he was gonna talk to their father about it in the morning. They didn't think much about it and was just happy that their brother figured out what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. In the morning, Silver told their father. Their father was shocked, but (Name) could tell he was happy.

It was not long before Silver started to officially train at the palace; he initially seemed nervous, asking his twin if they could come with him. This wouldn't be his first time going to the palace or their grounds; when they were both toddlers that were this close to doing something that would get them killed, Lilia would often bring them along to the palace so he could do his job as a retainer and make sure his children didn't die prematurely at the same time, (name) thought that their brother was simply just not used to being without their presence yet. (Name) agreed anyway, and Silver promptly asked Lilia if they could bring his twin, to which Lilia also agreed.

Their time visiting the palace had been nothing but pleasant; they enjoyed watching their brother have fun. It was nice to see him befriend a half-fae who was kind of mean with hair that they would later learn to describe as radioactive named Sebek, who was two years younger than them, and all the servants were nice to them and were more than willing to help. That was until one day, they got bored, and the hallway leading to other parts of the palace looked really tempting; they slipped away and started walking through; nothing new, just an unending hallway. They heard some talking, and although they knew it was wrong to eavesdrop, they couldn't help it.

What they heard genuinely shocked them; some of the palace maids were complaining about them, how it was a shame that the retired general had such a useless child, how they were holding their brother back with their presence; at least Silver was doing something to help the royal family, there was more complaining about anything and everything about them. In hindsight, it was baseless gossip, but it could be more than true to their little child mind.

They wanted to cry, felt humiliated, and just ran, the servants in question probably saw them and knew they heard it, but they didn't try to comfort or chase after them. After a while of running, they went into a random room and just hid, not wanting to be seen or found. Did they want to be found? Was what they said true? Is that why their father doesn't as much time with them? Because he sees them as a failure, as useless? Sebek had previously said something like that to them, but they didn't listen because they didn't realize it. They thought he was just mean. Does their aunt/uncle also think of them like that?

They stayed like that for what felt like forever before being found, and when they were found, it wasn't by anyone they knew. They were found by a fae with horns with an appearance similar to the prince. They were confused and shocked after finding the child, yet they attempted to comfort them. They were awkward; they obviously had never interacted with a child before, especially a human one who was also crying. Nonetheless, their comfort attempts had worked, and they had calmed down enough to confide in the fae. They had talked for a while, and after hearing the cause of the human's tears, the fae had apologized for the two maids' behavior, telling them that they were just old fae clinging onto their youth with nothing better to do than hurt an innocent child. They had very quickly become close. Silver's twin had tried to get the Fae's name, but they seemed hesitant to tell them, so Silver's twin dropped it for a while and waited to ask them again, however before they were able to ask again the horned fae asked where their parent(s) was, Silver's twin answered the training area and the fae helped calm their swollen eyes before escorting them back to the training area and disappeared.

(Name) returned to the seat they sat in before they left and continued watching their brother train; it seemed like what just happened was a nasty nightmare that turned into a pleasant dream, and it seemed that no time had passed since they left with neither their brother nor their father seeming to notice or acknowledge their brief disappearance.

Once they returned to the cabin they called home, (Name) couldn't stop thinking about what happened that day, and despite the words that the fae had said to comfort them, they still thought and considered the words the maids had said. Nonetheless, they slipped away In search of the fae they conversed with the next time they returned to the palace to accompany Silver. They did eventually find them in the garden and they continued their conversations becoming closer.

The two kept meeting, even finding and tending to an injured bird they found in the garden. That was until Silver told them that he felt comfortable at the palace and that they no longer needed to accompany them after today. So when Draconia(Name) and Silver's twin met that day, they bid farewell and promised to write to each other. They did write to each other regularly, their conversations carried through by the letters. Eventually, Silver's visits to the palace got longer and longer, hours turned into days, and then days turned into weeks, cementing the idea in his twin's mind that they really were holding him back and that if that one of the things they heard was right, then the other things must be right.

Silver's twin was shocked to learn of their friend's bloodline during the NRC dorm assignment but was glad that they were in the same dorm and could see each other again. They both were very awkward around each other; the last time they had seen each other in person was when the human was a child, and they were both more talkative on paper than in person. They both have phones now and most of their conversations take place there.

Back to Vanrouge(Name) I think that they knew their brother now preferred his cabin but were always shocked whenever they didn't see him around the estate anymore; they always saw him around, through the window when he was training or just taking a walk, in the library, during dinner, etc... and now that he wasn't there, it just felt lonely.

One day they returned from a long exhausting, and very stressful trip, and they were half asleep ready to just eat dinner and pass out on their bed; they entered the dining room after asking one of the servants to prepare their food, and to their surprise, their brother was there.

They sat down and started eating their food as their brother started talking about something; about what? They weren't paying much attention; they were just nodding and eating. Eventually, their brother asked a question, and they nodded, and the (onesided) conversation ceased. Lil Bat finished their meal, and as they were getting up to head back to their room, their brother also got up and rushed over to them; grabbing their hand, he dragged them from the house to his cabin. Lil bat, though, who was not paying attention to what they had agreed to, was very confused and mildly scared. Did he notice that they weren't paying attention to what he was saying? Although he no longer lives in the mansion, he's still technically the head of the family. Is he kicking them out? shit shit shit shit- wait isn't that his cabin? why did he take them here again?

When they got into the cabin Lilia let them go and left into one of the rooms, they walked over to the couch and sat on it, noting that it was comfortable and a few seconds later Lilia walked out holding two babies and gave them one.

A baby...?

Their brother did mention something about children... did he? they were cursing at themself for not paying attention to what he was saying earlier; nonetheless, he had two children. Children...? did he get married? that would explain moving to the cabin, but why weren't they invited to the wedding? Did he get eloped? that would also make sense... these children are human, aren't they? So their sister-in-law must be human. Where is she? Wait- these children are humans? But if he had children with a human, wouldn't the children be half-fae...? where did he get the children? Step-children maybe? If so where is his wife? is she out? Did he steal these children? Dear seven... they weren't awake enough for this shit.

"I think they like you" was what drew them out of their thoughts; they snapped their head away from the child in their arms whose hands were making grabbing motions at them towards the voice, their brother, who laughed at their reaction he told them that one day as he was living his best life he found two abandoned children and he couldn't just leave them there so now they're his children.

I feel like Lil Bat would babysit for Lilia, if we go with my previous hobby hc's for Lil Bat I can see Lil Bat teaching Silver's twin how to paint and letting a child Silver's twin sit on their lap as they painted, it was messy but the child enjoyed it and liked being close to them.

I can also see Lil Bat popping up out of nowhere like it's 12AM, and Lil Bat would just enter and pass out on the couch because it was closer than the estate and would stay for like 2 days. Also, Lil Bat would 100% tell Silver's twin bedtime stories about their travels and the tales they previously heard of to help them fall asleep, and I can see them sitting and talking at night because Silver's twin couldn't fall asleep.

Also, I can imagine Lil Bat and Draconia meeting during a gala; Lil Bat was bored and was way too tired of pretending to be interested in what others were saying, so they escaped into the garden, where they found a horned fae child just vibing. Since the child was very obviously of Draconia bloodline, they very cautiously approached and asked the child why they were sitting alone out there and not inside with their family, to which they got the response, "I was told to stay here until the gala was over as to not tarnish the Draconia's reputation."

Lil Bat's first reaction was, "Oh shit" and recalled that there was some drama with an illegitimate child being born along with some outrage, the whole thing was pretty dumb in their opinion and very messy, but they always felt bad for the child as they did not ask to be born in this situation. The conversation had ceased, and the air was pretty awkward. The silence was deafening until Vanrouge(Name) asked how life was in the palace; they didn't know why they asked that it was the first thing that came to mind. The child stayed quiet for a moment before saying, "Um... it's not bad... Miss Leah is nice. She takes care of me." a look of anger appeared on Vanrouges face before turning neutral, and a small smile appeared "Yeah? tell me about her" and so the innocent child did, they talked about all the thing's Miss Leah did, how safe they felt around her, and how they wished for more people to think like she does and Vanrouge listen.

They went on for a while before adding, "...but the others-" "They aren't as nice, are they?" the older fae said "No... I don't understand it." Vanrouge took a sip of their wine and let out, "Agh! ᵗʰᶦˢ ᵗᵃˢᵗᵉˢ ʰᵒʳʳᶦᵇˡᵉ ʷʰʸ ᵈᵒ ᵖᵉᵒᵖˡᵉ ˡᶦᵏᵉ ᵗʰᶦˢ? Anyways... Don't listen to them; they're old and decrepit, rude and inconsiderate, clinging onto their youth- pathetic if you ask me. Nothing better to do than hurt a young, innocent child." The child looked at them. "No, really, they've probably never left the Valley. Never able to change their world views because they've never been challenged, staying as insufferable their whole life" The older fae laughed, "pitiful is it not?" "you've been outside the Valley" The child inquired; it seemed they had the child's attention. "Yes, I have. I've been almost everywhere; I've met many people, some nice, some mean; it's a mixed bag. Would you like to know some places I've been to?" The young fae nodded, "If it's not a bother." They stayed walking in the garden, Vanrouge telling the illegitimate Draconia child of their travel with the young fae asking questions every so often for hours, only stopping when the gala had long ended, and Vanrouge(Name) could only assume Miss Leah was looking for the child as they had wandered into the labyrinth while talking. "Oh... It seems that we're lost in the labyrinth... My apologizes" "No, it's okay. I know the way back." The child said in reply to the older fae's musings. "Well then! lead the way then, my liege." Once the pair had escaped the maze, the calls for the child by Miss Leah could be heard the older fae had bid their farewells and started to walk away before the hem of their sleeve had been tugged on. They looked back. "Um... is it alright if you visit again...? I would like to hear more..." the child asked, clearly nervous at the possible rejection. Vanrouge hummed, "Of course" they crouched down to look them in the eyes. "I would also love to write to you if you allow it, as I am not often in the Valley of Thorns; I could inform you of my next visit." The child's eyes sparkled, and nodded, "Okay!" The bat fae laughed, "Great, who should I address it to?" "Draconia(Name)" the child replied

Since then, they would write to each other regularly, with Vanrouge(name) writing about their travels and Draconia(Name) would write questions about the places they visited and would confide in the older fae. During their in-person visits, Vanrouge(Name) would give them personalized souvenirs of things they thought or knew the young Draconia would like. When they learned of their niece/nephew and the Draconia's correspondence, they were pleasantly surprised, glad that the precious children they cared for deeply became friends and could confide in each other as they both had their own burdens. sorry for this being so long. This has been sitting for a while, and I didn't want to just forget it all, so it was better to just let it all out at once lmao

waaaa more lil bat and twin silver!! gotta love the black sheep fae family <33

imagining how heartbroken twin!silver would feel after being told that they weren't needed to go to the castle with silver anymore. they continue the routine they set up with him but suddenly it doesn't work because there's only one of them :((

and and them meeting draconia!(name) in the castle and becoming friends :OO + vanrouge!(name)!!! ugh i love them

[thejoyofseax]

A brief account of Pennsic 50

TLDR: Fantastic event, pity about the climate zone it's in.

Let me get that negative bit out of the way: I don't handle heat well, and Pennsic has absolutely punishing heat and humidity. I was basically unable to do anything useful between 13:00 and 17:30 on any given day (and right through the evening in the lower-lying lake-adjacent parts of the site). I tried to tough it out, but that didn't work, and I ended up sitting in the air-conditioned internet café for many of those hours through much of War Week. I didn't as much as see the battlefield, let alone the opening ceremonies, field battle, etc, because I would have just passed out on the field. As it was, I pretty much passed out on the day we were packing down because I was lifting and moving stuff in the heat, and couldn't go sit in the aircon. It was quite frustrating, and there was absolutely nothing that could be done about it.

So what I did do was go to classes in the mornings, do shopping at hours when I was able, and either hang out at our own camp, or go to various parties in the evenings.

The array of classes was downright incredible. There was no topic, as far as I could see, that was not touched upon at least. I went to about eight or ten in total, plus the sizable Arts & Sciences display. All of the classes I went to were food-related, and one of them, given by Magister Galefridus Peregrinus, jumped one of my longer-term projects forward by, I estimate, about two and a half years (it was about non-baking use of Fertile Crescent grains in Medieval Europe, and is relevant to my pre-Norman Irish Cooking stuff). I have good notes from many of the rest, too, and a raft of things to look up.

The shopping was also unbelievable. 200 stalls or so, and while some of them were more LARP or gamer-oriented, most were relevant. for myself, I got a basket-backpack of a kind I've been looking for for years, a pair of turnshoes, two small cast-iron pans, a new tooled leather belt, about six different kinds of smoked salt, various bits of Pelican bling, many metres of Drachenwald trim, and (appropriately) a very nice seax as a kitchen knife. Probably a lot of other stuff, too - I haven't unpacked yet - but those are the things that come to mind. I also bought a veritable pile of stuff for other people, and have taken note of a host of merchants for online buying later. There were some interesting gaps in the market, too - I would have thought that pre-strapped or bossed shields would be commonly available, and saw essentially none, and that there would be more period-ish cookware and camp equipment for sale (there was some, but not very much).

Speaking of cookware, it was notable how few camps had any period cooking arrangements. I saw some very impressive modern camp kitchen setups (the East Kingdom State Kitchen was essentially equivalent to the best indoor kitchens I've cooked in), but I saw precisely two period-ish kitchens, out of hundreds of camps (although I didn't see them all; that was just not possible). Given there were more than 11,000 people there, it was essentially not a thing that was done.

Some of the camps and buildings were terrifyingly fine, though. The Pleasure Pavilions were a set of absolutely beautiful tents, and Casa Bardicci is an actual miracle of construction. There were a varierty of other buildings, as well as gatehouses, ships, and so forth.

The social side of things is a slower burn. Putting faces to names, and meeting many of Nessa's fighting family was excellent, and there've been a number of conversations started that I think will go on for years (and a plot to try out various porridges on people with Baron Cormacc Mac Gilla Brigde). I also caught up with a number of people I haven't seen in years, and decades in some cases. I was particularly pleased to get to spend time properly with Duchess Qamar al-Nisa and Lady Alina Rose, who are two of my favourite people.

I expect I'll have some more thinking on various aspects of the event in time, and how some of the things there can be transferred to events here. I'd like to particularly note that climate aside, the site is fantastic, in terms of both geography and facilities. It also had fireflies and crickets, which made up for a lot.

[torchickentacos]

DEEP BREATH. OK. So, a while ago, the hit game Breat of the Wild came out. Yes? Okay. Hear me out here. Spoilers, rambling, excessive zelink thoughts regarding the utter doom and romanticism of it all. TLDR: the only way for Zelda and Link to be happy is for them to fail at stopping the calamity. Only through the destruction of Hyrule and their own failure could they find a life worth living together. Explanation and more under cut.

We know that the calamity happened and Link didn't make it. We know it failed, and there was never any hope to be had. BUt here's the thing. In the final memory, Ash Swamp, Zelda and Link are running through the swamp... away from the castle, where the calamity was happening. Away from where the world 'could' have been saved. Towards Hateno, where Link had a house. And maybe this is a cold take, or alternately one that everyone else already knew but I just don't run in zelda circles, but... they were running away from it to somewhere they could be safe. Somewhere ONLY they could be safe. Running to Link's house, in Hateno. I choose to believe they were abandoning their duties and the world around them in hopes of saving whatever semblance of a life they could live together in the midst of calamity. In the end, Link died for Zelda and Zelda alone. There was no hope for Hyrule. It was in shambles already, everything crumbling around them. There was nothing to save. Nobody to be a hero for. NO kingdom for the sword of zelda's powers to save.

But even if there was hope. Say that things could have been saved, say Hyrule had a chance... and only their hero Link could save them..... I think he'd have died for her instead a million times over, by that same guardian, time and time again, prioritized over saving the world.

And here's the kicker. The real stinging part of it all. The downfall of Hyrule, them running away from it instead of staying to fight a (losing) battle, it wasn't just a flash decision for their own safety.

It was them seeing a chance, an opportunity, and GRABBING IT. It was a flash of light, a decision they made.

If Hyrule was safe, if they won the battle? Well, things would go back to normal. The Silent Knight and the soon-to-be-Queen, likely to marry other royalty while her bodyguard just did his job. Both of them miserable in their sucess. Succeeding means preserving the very thing that keeps them apart.

The only way for them to be happy is if everything around them was gone. In a sick and twisted way, the only way for them to be happy is to fail.

And I think that's a choice they made.

Granted, it would have ended the same no matter what. Nothing they could have done would have saved them OR Hyrule. But at the time, I think they didn't know what and chose eachother. An utterly gripping example of heroes whose utter devotion to eachother outweighs everything else until their morals and duties fall aside out of sheer desparation and love. Good choices, bad choices, none of it matters to them at that point. Not that I condone not saving the kingdom if given the chance but I DO condone games and media giving me tragic love stories for me to think about in my pajamas with a wicked smile on my face, as I smash my blorbos together like barbie dolls, a mastermind puppeteer of blorboesque misery.



[tsugarubecker]

Preview of a fic I’m working on! This is gonna be a long one. Just spat this out in a bit of a writing sprint, it will undoubtedly be edited later on. But for now, check it out if you’d like. TLDR it will eventually be the story of how Mike and Will wind up talking about The Painting. Chapter one is from El’s POV. Enjoy

------

None of them have been doing much of anything useful since they got back to Hawkins.

There isn’t much to do at the moment, frankly. The Upside Down is spilling into Hawkins through massive, sickly, gas-retching gashes in the earth. Red and pulsating like lava. The spores get thicker every day. They stay in the house. All of them. The Wheelers’ house is big enough to house the whole party and all their family members, partners, and tag-alongs, thankfully.  

It’s been three weeks. Max hasn’t woken up.

Vecna also hasn’t made a move. El is grateful for that, at least. She’s recovering – physically, mentally, emotionally. She’s gained Hopper back. She’s lost her first big fight, causing her to wonder if Papa was right about her abilities.

She’s lost Max. Maybe for forever.

When she’s not putting on a mask and braving the spores outside to go out and see Max at the hospital, she’s at home. Mostly sleeping. Her body and mind are tired. She’s recovering, and she thinks – she hopes – Vecna must be doing the same. She’s grateful, at least, for the reprieve. She knows it can’t last long. Before long something is bound to shift – she just hopes she’s ready for it when it does.

When she’s not with Max or sleeping, she’s with Hopper or her brothers or Joyce. Sipping coffee, eating toast or eggos, talking quietly. Sometimes she’s with Dustin. Or Lucas, at the hospital. And every so often with Mike, although things have been awkward between them.

They haven’t exactly… Talked About It, yet.

And she knows they have to. She just can’t even begin to decipher what words to use to say what she needs to say. She can barely even tell, most days, what it is she needs to say. Let alone what she actually wants to say.

It’s easier to pretend she can’t see his eyes trying to catch hers across the hallway as she moves past, headed to the bedroom she’s sharing with Holly and Nancy for another long nap.  

But today is different. She couldn’t scoot by. He caught her off guard while she sipped coffee at noon with Hopper. She was peering over Hopper’s shoulder, trying to catch a glimpse of the funnies when something moved in front of her eyes, blocking her view. Her eyes refocused. Comic books.

“Want to come read with me instead of trying to read over yer Dad’s shoulder?”

She looks up at Hopper. Catches his eye. She swears six different conversations fly between them as he raises his eyebrow at her. “...Yeah, go on, kid. I’m not gonna be done with this paper for a while.”

Trapped. She makes a subtle face at Hopper that Mike can’t see and resists the urge to roll her eyes. “Okay.” She gets up. Mike is standing there bouncing a little on his toes, looking nervous. “...Where are we going,” she asks.

“Oh! Uhh. To my bedroom, I guess. Lucas is at the hospital and Dustin is watching TV in the living room with his mom.”

Was the house cramped? Yeah. Did the people who didn’t live there sometimes venture back to their own homes? Yes. But none of them knew what would happen next. It was safer to stay together in case something happened very suddenly. It was safest to be close to El. She had a lot of complicated feelings about that, but she knew it was true. She had heard the adults discuss it, too. She knew they were right.

Her thoughts had wandered – she found herself following Mike to the bedroom he now shared with the other boys. Other than Will. Will had asked for the basement, with Jonathan.

Once upon a time she would have thought that was odd. Nowadays, she thought that Will not wanting to share Mike’s bedroom was one more mental check mark on a list she was silently keeping in her mind. What she knew of romantic feelings, she had learned from TV. When it clicked for her that she might have missed something big, a whole lot of things started to make a whole lot more sense. She had not shared these thoughts with anyone yet. But they were a big part of her avoidance of Mike and her avoidance, specifically, of any one-on-one time with him – let alone any real, honest conversations.

She came back to the present again. (She found this was happening a lot lately. But she figured she could give herself a break – a lot had happened recently. So no wonder her thoughts were all over the place.) Mike had climbed up onto his bed and propped himself up on an elbow to read. He held out a comic to her. “Come read with me?”

In spite of herself, El smiled. The idea of lying comfortably on a bed with someone, reading comic books, gave her a warm feeling of nostalgia that she couldn’t immediately place. Then she glanced down at the comic Mike was thrusting toward her.

Wonder Woman.

Oh, she realized. Oh, okay. That’s why.

Ignoring multiple signals from her body, including desires to cry, run out of the room, or smash something through a window, she forced herself to reach out and take the comic book. She climbed up onto the bed, lied down on her stomach, and started to read.

[independentzaun]

Random plot idea for Jinx...with, surprisingly, Ekko, that I had. Post Arcane.

Obviously my Jinx hates Ekko, but at the same time with Silco gone post arcane she's all alone with basically no one. On one hand that technically makes her more vulnerable than ever with no allies/friends/family/pack, but on the other hand Zaun also descends into chaos which makes it real hard to get to her. Also with that shimmer pumping through her body she's also less vulnerable at the same time simply because she was already very dangerous, and now she's even more dangerous than ever before. So Jinx is more of a wild card than ever with arguably no real loyalty to anyone, or anything other than the memory of Silco and the general concept of a "free Zaun" that she doesn't really understand in the same way Silco did (that's a whole other conversation) which means she's just doing her thing and messing with Piltover basically.

This has the potential I think for a kind of "no if anyone gets to kill you after all this time it's ME no one else gets that privilege" thing in which she stumbles across Ekko, and saves him or something similar. At which point maybe Ekko actually is something along the lines of "look I KNOW there's SOME part of Powder still in there that CARES about Zaun. She always wanted to fight and push back against the enforcers and I know something in there in some twisted fucked up way wants things to be better than...than this....You want to get to kill me? Fine. But let's fix Zaun first so you ARE the one that gets to kill me, and not some scummy chem-baron."

And Jinx agrees because she remembers Silco talking about how he "hated having to share the air with parasites like Finn" and the chem-barons are just a bunch of greedy assholes. Does she hate Ekko? Absolutely. Is she also angry, and looking for an excuse to hurt people and bonus points for maybe helping Zaun cause Silco always wanted Zaun to be better? Also yes. Is she also so void damned lonely and wants someone to talk to? Shut up that's none of your business.

TLDR: Enemies working together for the betterment of something they both on some level care about because everyone around them is ripping it apart is interesting to me.

[crimswords]

✧      ⸻      [    jonathan  daviss,    cis  male,    he/him    ]          ;          congratulations  on  surviving  the  parapet,  cadet  LUCIEN  NICHOLS,  and  welcome  to  the  rider’s  quadrant  !  at  TWENTY-THREE  years  old,  you  should  know  exactly  what  it  takes  to  make  it  to  graduation,  especially  being  so  RESILIENT  and  SELFLESS.  though,  i  do  suppose  your  tendencies  to  be  OVERANALYTICAL  and  DISTANT  may  make  it  hard  to  survive  until  threshing.  other  cadets  say  you  remind  them  of  your  heart  skipping  a  beat  when  you  miss  a  step,  talking  too  fast  when  you’re  excited,  and  love  persevering  through  grief,  but  we’ll  have  to  see  how  true  that  is.  remember:  if  you  want  a  dragon  —  earn  one.      ╱      

OVERVIEW  ;   full  name:  lucien  patrick  nichols nickname(s):  luc age:  twenty-three sexuality:  homosexual   family:  pierre  nichols  (  father  ),  evelyn  nichols  (  mother  ),  astride  nichols  (  sister  -  deceased  )occupation:  cadet,  first  year  wing:  fourth  wing,  flame  section,  first  squad signet:  unknown bonded  dragon:  unknown

PHYSICAL  ;   face  claim:  jonathan  daviss height:  5'10 eye  color:  brown hair  color:  dark  brown tattoos:  none

PERSONALITY  ;   positive  traits:  resilient,  selfless,  calculating negative  traits:  distant,  overanalytical,  doubtful character  parallels:  eddie  kaspbrak  (  it  ),  will  byers  (  stranger  things  ),  milo  thatch  (  atlantis:  the  lost  empire  )

BRIEF  HISTORY  ;  

lucien  is  the  youngest  of  two,  born  into  a  long  family  line  of  scribes.  their  family  has  always  valued  knowledge,  honesty,  and  determination.  

growing  up,  lucien  was  always  following  his  older  sister,  astride,  around.  being  only  a  year  and  some  change  apart,  they  were  inseparable  since  the  beginning.  

his  sister  was  always  the  outgoing  one,  pushing  them  both  to  the  limits  and  doing  things  that  would  have  given  their  parents  a  heart  attack

lucien  would  never  do  these  things  alone,  but  with  astride  by  his  side,  he  felt  invincible  

with  his  sister's  attitudes  and  overall  nature,  the  family  shouldn't  have  been  surprised  when  she  said  she  wouldn't  go  into  the  scribe  quadrant  and  instead  was  going  into  the  rider's  quadrant

it  was  nerve  wracking  to  say  the  least,  not  being  able  to  hear  from  the  person  he  thought  was  his  other  half.  she  even  almost  made  it  to  the  threshing.  but  the  day  before  her  name  was  called  as  they  all  mourned.  

none  of  the  family  knows  exactly  what  happened,  but  since  lucien  is  here  now,  he's  going  to  try  to  see  if  he  can  find  anyone  who  knows  what  exactly  happened.

now,  as  a  cadet,  lucien  has  no  idea  how  he  made  it.  he  almost  fell  off  the  parapet  so  many  times,  stumbled  to  the  ground  as  he  finished.

he's  also  a  staunch  rule  follower,  has  memorized  the  codex  word  for  word  at  this  point  and  is  working  on  the  types  of  dragons  next.  

he's  not  the  most  physically  fit,  nor  is  he  good  at  fighting,  but  his  intellect  is  most  likely  what's  going  to  help  him  get  farther  into  the  program.  

TLDR  ;  

a  ball  of  anxiety  who  only  joined  the  cadets  to  find  out  what  happened  to  his  sister.  he's  incredibly  intelligent  (  beetee  from  thg  tbh  )  but  he's  also  so  so  awkward.  doesn't  know  what  he  got  himself  into.  

WANTED  CONNECTIONS  ;  

friends  from  home:  maybe  these  people  were  also  around  scribes  a  lot  ?  lucien  spent  so  much  time  there,  people  probs  know  of  him

enemies:  people  in  his  squad  that  may  think  he's  the  weakest  link  !  give  me  the  pain  

allies:  they  don't  necessarily  have  to  be  in  the  same  squad/wing,  but  they  partially  feel  bad  for  lucien,  so  they're  going  to  help  him  out

crushes:  lucien  is  gay,  so  he'll  go  full  panic  mode  when  everyone's  sparring  and  they're  all  so  attractive.  (  he's  also  never  been  kissed  so  ...  marinate  on  that  ;)  )

[unreadpoppy]

So i´m not the greatest at dog behaviour and I think this question is too specific so I´ll just pray someone here knows better. The TLDR is: when my brother walks with Malta (one of our dogs), she will bark and try to jump at other dogs on the stree. I walked with her today, we passed by 7/8 dogs, and she only barked a little at one (and it was because the other dog barked at her first). Is there any explanation?

Context: I have 3 dogs, but we only walk 2 of them, cause the other one is a senior dog and he gets tired real fast so we rather not risk it (and he also never really liked walking to begin with anyways). The dogs we walk, Malta and Billy, are 8 and 3 respectively, and while their not bitters, they do tend to bark. A lot. They are also like medium sized dogs (no specific breed cause one we rescued them from the streets). My brother is the one who always walks with them, because he is strong enough to do so (Billy is a very strong dog and very hyper, so it´s hard for me to control him on the leesh without getting tired fast, while Malta is very chill). A few times I have gone with him and I walked with Malta, and I´ve seen first hand her getting very nervous with other dogs on the street (even though all of them were with their owners). My brother and I made a deal that I´d go out with the dogs, but I made two rules: I´d go only with Malta and it would be at the time I wanted.

The thing is, my brother walks the dogs at like 7/8 pm, and we live in a dangerous city, so I do not feel safe walking alone with the dogs at night (especially with one of them who i have a harder time controlling). The reason he goes so late it´s because at this time there a fewer people on the street. Today I walked only with Malta, doing the same course my brother does, but it was at 5 pm, while the sun was still out. And as soon as we stepped outside, she spotted another person with a dog.

At first, I didn´t even realise there was a dog there, I jsut noticed after I saw her ears picking up. I just held onto her leash a bit more firmly and wrapped more of it around my wrist, didn´t say anything and just kept walking. Malta did nothing. She just looked at the dog for a bit but she soon looked forward again, completely not bothered. And then we passed by like 6 other dogs, and again, I did the same stuff, and she did not react.

There was one dog tho, that because of his size, I think it was a puppy, that when we passed close to him began barking at Malta. Since I was already holding on firmly to her leash, when she began barking, I used a more strengh to urge her forward. She barked like 2 times and let go and we kept walking. We even passed by the same puppy again, and this time his owner noticed us before and put the puppy in between his legs and started to talk to him, so when we passed by them, neither one of our dogs barked. We even walked behind a dog for a good portion of the course and she wasn´t bothered by it.

Does anyone know why she seems to react this way with my brother but be completely chill with me?

Also, we never formely trained our dogs to not react. Like when they interact with other dogs, we are always paying close attention, and we will intervene if something happens, but they never got into trouble with any dog besides just barking and playful fighting (again, if I felt it became too rough, I would pull my dog aside).

I know we could have socialized them better, but they are mostly stay at home dogs (none of them are of breeds that need constant going outside besides like walking once per day so they exercise a bit and they do mostly like staying at home anyways and since we have 3, they play with each other at home).

[chryso-poeia]

The following text might be triggering for some but i felt like writing, so enjoy or don’t.

TLDR - Normalize everything and become your ideal self; you can keep your culture puppeteering and group identity. Raise up the individual.

-

Gay trauma. Growing up without representation or acceptance at large causes people to internalize what is projected on them by the weak, thus understandably one rebels against normative society. LGBTQ plus individuals then have to build themselves up often alone, from the ground up. At which point it should be understood that a certain reactivity will be inherent for a reason. Because if you grow up with ideas force fed to you about how you’re wrong in who you are as a baseline; a level of defensiveness is then warranted. This is manifested through subtle to severe trauma; the extensions or byproducts of weak minded masses. The same straight masses that often haven’t had to grow up behind a glass pane to everyone and everything else. To me yet still, i extend understanding to people by the very fact that indeed, we can all just operate in accordance with our consciousness.

Now i can only speak for myself but when you have to try everything in the way of rebellion without any established structure or if there is, it’s likely to be laughably psuedo-progressive resources shared by people that labor under the same subconscious homophobia or conservative ideologies that lay the ground work for the prosecution, witch hunting and discrimination of the LGBTQ that is still very much alive today, to extreme extents in some parts of the world. To be kindapped, tortured, humiliated and murdered for your sexuality?

Anyhow, by going through the LGBTQ+ process of finding oneself in society; you will break down, at which point there’s a crossroad betweem evolving or withering. The building up process after the fact is what has often created amazingly lucid, liberating and creative expressions and works of art within Queer culture, by individuals whose awareness and insight is nothing short of acute and crucial in western culture. Also, none of this accounts for other types or trauma neither, which might add layers upon layers or complexity and disorder upon the existing. That being said; we are nothing without the past but only in the way of lessons and healing

Alas, i will never understand why my private life is anyone else’s concern unless i allow them in. These same masses will preach acceptance but they do not share the queer experience. Besides, it’s not anyone else’s job to accept oneself, that’s all internal. Now counter culture provides safety and acceptance. But for me, i never had a sense of belonging because i was either too little or too much. So i came to realize that i was fighting invisible ideas perpetuated by people whose ideas mean nothing (when you know who you are and you understand intrinsic human value). Because most people only give meaning to things based on the context of their conditioned bias.

Now the importance of representation, education, normalization and external support cannot be overstated, especially resources for kids, created by LGBTQ individuals. Because the truth so far as i’m concerned is that, if you do not share my experience, i am not interested in your fake sympathy or half assed acceptance. Acceptance and knowledge of self will always be key and not dependance on some forced conformity by proxy to any one culture or ideology that i do not vibe with. Because nothing and no one gets to play with your value if you draw all power back to you.

So personally, no one and nothing holds power over me, i believe in removing everything that is in any way disempowering from my very vocabulary. I choose my words and meanings and thus; it is then that they are given power. The past is a lesson, not a sentence. So i choose to be free and full of love. Because i get to do so, because i’m human.

[sanisse]

Did Elrond not want to court Celebrian for a while because he thought she could do better? I heard this from somewhere and I wanted to know if it was correct.

I’m going to preface this by saying that we have like three canonical sentences about Celrond, but from those I determine that just can’t be the case.

After the fall of Eregion, Celebrían, Galadriel, and Celeborn fled to take refuge in Imladris, which was originally founded by Elrond right at that time to be a military outpost and refugee camp in the years leading up to the Last Alliance. Tolkien writes that this is when Elrond and Celebrían met: “It was here that Elrond first saw Celebrían and loved her, though he said nothing of it.”

In Tolkien’s other writings, he mentions that it’s custom among the elves not to have children/start families during stressful/chaotic/dangerous times. Baby elves need to be spiritually fed by their parents as well as physically fed or they’ll basically die. It’s very hard for a child to thrive with just one parent, let alone none if something happened, so elves avoid starting families during risky times.

Since everything was so dangerous, Sauron was running amok with a huge army, Celebrimbor was now Celebrimbanner, and Elrond has been freshly assigned Vilya and is Gil-Galad’s herald, general, minstrel, and seemingly a chief military surgeon and was also constantly going off to war and fighting a literal minor god, I assume that he didn’t say anything because he just didn’t want to break her heart. It’s better not to say anything than to say something/begin courting her and then fall in battle and leave her alone until she sails. Elves mate for life.

This seems further supported by the fact that they married VERY shortly after Sauron was defeated during the siege of Barad-Dûr.

Also— I genuinely think he would have been too busy to court, and they were both mourning the loss of Eregion, thousands of friends and family members, most especially Celembrimbor (Elrond was sent by Gil-Galad with an army to save Eregion and Elrond was too late. Sauron flayed CeleBB and hung him out as a banner of flesh. I’m sure Elrond saw this. Cel might have too, as they were escaping the city.) Elrond’s probably wracked with guilt. Both of them have like the mother of all PTSD and trauma.

So basically TLDR: I literally think Elrond just decided it was a horrible time to date and decided it was probably best to wait to say hello until he was fairly certain he wouldn’t die in battle in .3 seconds and neither of them were suffering from grief and severe war PTSD.

Also Cel was homeless and a houseguest…so I feel that would be kind of poor taste to ask her out when they’re literally living in his war camp because there’s nowhere else to go! 🤷‍♀️

[dantelionwishes]

life is full of ups and downs downs downs downs dow

loredump under the cut. not kidding when I say its gonna be long!

oh shit you actually clicked keep reading thank you for your interest 😭😭😭

YOU KNOW THE DRILL tw // suggestive dont read ahead if youre uncomfortable with the topic of aphrodisiacs! 

MIDDLE SCHOOL 

before anything, I gotta explain he was born to parents who had an infatuation quirk (makes them hardcore fall in love with you) and an infection quirk (transmits a virus via saliva)  

developed his quirk late, since they usually get it by the time kids are four 

most people knew him as quirkless before the first incident 

in middle school, his class was preparing for a school play, he and his classmate got cast as the main lead prince and princess 

coincidentally, they both had a crush on each other and had a scene where they kissed

technically they weren’t supposed to, since its just a play, but one time they were practicing in private and wanted to try kissing “for real”

so they shared a super giggly cute middle school first kiss but well UNFORTUNATELY FOR HIM HIS QUIRK HAD WELL DEVELOPED– 

BADABING BADABOOM YOU HAVE AN IMAGINATION USE IT

the only way for the quirk’s effects to go away is to come at least once or pleasuring yourself until it goes away

I DO NOT WANT TO IMAGINE IT BUT. IMAGINE BEING A TEACHER AND FINDING A MIDDLE SCHOOLER WHO DOES NOT KNOW WHAT IS HAPPENING TO HER AND AN ADULT IS FORCED TO TELL HER HOW TO MAKE IT GO AWAY LLLLIKE–

rip now that I’m thinking abt it, I don’t even think anybody would even kNOW HOW TO MAKE IT GO AWAY so lets imagine she painfully stays that way until they figure out how to make it stop :^(

there’s a big fight that happens between the teachers, principal, and parents of both parties 

of course the crush’s parents got mad and called their kid a fuckin uhhhhh sexual predator or some shit despite also beING THE SAME AGE AND NOT EVEN KNOWING ABT HIS OWN QUIRK LIKE HELLLO

obviously an incident like this is going to spread like wildfire but the principal does not want something like this to leak, especially since it was not on purpose and was a total accident 

the other kid’s parents and some teachers did not feel comfortable however, and sato was forced to drop out

but not wanting to spread the gossip about their son’s quirk and the incident, they leave the town and move someplace else

thankfully, the principal gives the sato family his good grades and a recommendation to a decent highschool for the trouble

they’re originally from osaka, but moved to tokyo 

this is where they start taking precautions with sato, basically teaching him to be careful with his saliva 

it was easily taught and learned esp since the mom was already like that around him and others everyday anyway!! she has to take care of her saliva-based infection quirk, after all 

HIGH SCHOOL

he got enrolled into a regular highschool in tokyo

no hero course, no support course, no business, just a regular ol’ school

if before, he loved surrounding himself with people, this was where he was forced to develop a lonely disposition to protect himself and others

at least his parents were very protective and supportive of him and they were generally a happy family!

but in school, pretending to be quirkless was just as difficult, getting bullied or pitied for having no special abilities 

his excuse for wearing a mask all the time was because his mother had a virus-related quirk, and had to be careful 

one day his dad was suddenly got really, really sick

the more he had an excuse to wear a mask because he didnt want to get whatever disease his father started to develop 

sato started thinking it could be his mother (but why?) the results didn’t say anything about an unknown virus killing him (which is his mom’s quirk), and that his father really did contract a strong yet very normal disease 

while on his second year in highschool, his father, yozo sato, died 

apparently, without him knowing anything about his parents, his mother, oba sato, was actually under the dad’s infatuation quirk this whole time

she realised she wasn’t really in love with him when oba had accidentally allowed a drop of her saliva to fall into the meal she was making him, making him sick, and therefore making him weak enough to deactivate his quirk on her 

oba, back in her college years, wanted to marry someone else but yozo, who had a crush on her wanted her to himself, used his quirk to make him fall in love with her 

so in revenge for making her put up with him all these years to the point of marriage and having a kid, she continued to do this to his food 

her quirk doesn’t make anybody sick enough to die, but it made her husband’s immune system weak enough to the point that it contracted a real, serious disease which he ended up dying from instead 

sato only finds out the real story when he graduates from highschool, days right after his graduation the mom confesses it all 

she does say she truly loves him, but can’t stay around him knowing he was technically “unconsensual love”

sato gets reminded of what his quirk does, and true enough, that’s what him and his quirk turned out to be (a sick combination of his mom and his dad) 

they cant bear to be around each other after that revelation and decide to just not see each other again 

COLLEGE YEARS

he enrolls into an education course, inspired by the kind principal who helped him finish his middleschool-highschool education when it all started going downhill 

sato struggles paying for his college fees esp since he doesn’t exactly have his parents supporting him anymore, nor any contact with immediate family 

he has a lot of part time jobs that go all around the clock, he continues pretending to be quirkless so he gets bullied, and has to deal with all that emotional baggage plus being alone so…….clearly my man is TIRED as hell 

his side job hustles include: convenience store cashier, bookstore attendant, bar bouncer, and rookie gym trainer (he went to the local gym long enough for him to get recommended a job as a trainer)

college was that point where he starts developing a hardcore yearning for a companion because oh my god hes so lonELY (but cant)

ANYWAY SO

there’s this bully guy who always picks on him in college (for being “quirkless” and a loner and overall a fuckin weirdo with a mask)

tbh sato doesnt really give a shit he’s so used to it but he doesnt have his mother as an excuse to wear the mask anymore, this is where he starts forming the “I have bad breath” excuse 

“口臭い” (kuchi kusai) translates to “bad breath” or “stinky mouth” so sato unlovingly gets nicknamed “kusato”

one day he’s walking around the campus at night and finds the bully with his gang cornering another quirkless student, with plans of assaulting her 

sato was never the hero type, and was about to ignore the commotion as to not get involved, but something in him moved on its own and he found himself face to face with the gang 

he confronts them, but the bully mocks both him and the girl for not having powers to stop them anyway 

SIKE BITCH sato’s able to easily strike the other two guys, knock them off their feet enough to be able to tug the to-be victim aside, telling her to report them, before asking her to run away as fast as she can

none of the guys want that (they’re all students) so they have a full on brawl (and this isnt hero academy, its a totally normal university so I wouldn’t assume these guys had very impressive quirks)

except the main bully actually has a pretty decent quirk (he’s like a kinda half human half dragon with sharp claws, scales, and dragon eyes) and gets to injure sato with his sharp claws, seriously injuring his face

a part of his ear is also sort of sliced off, which is how his mask gets accidentally removed in the process 

the dragon bully grabs him by the collar and starts angrily shouting at him for ruining his night, being able to do all this shit without a quirk and all and all other derogatory speech 

“Well? what do you have to say for yourself?!“ 

Sato stays silent before spitting right into the bully’s mouth 

The bully drops him immediately, about to angrily fuck him up for doing something super fucking gross but WHOOP WHOOP YOU KNOW WHATS BOUTTA HAPPEN the quirk works immediately and the bully is a TOTAL MESS on the ground 

Im going to TLDR this part cos its…obviously nsfw but like: sato fully embarrasses him in public (beside the bully’s two colleges nonetheless) 

sato stays in the hospital for some time to heal from his wounds 

fortunately, afterwards, the bullies all get expelled 

unfortunately for sato, he also gets expelled for engaging in bad behaviour, and the bully did say what happened to him (and the college principal did not want his…dangerous quirk on campus) so as to lower any incident, all four were expelled 

at least without having to pay for college fees anymore, he could fully focus on paying for food, shelter, and clothes 

minus of course the hospital bills needed to pay plus he got a sick ass scar from it anyway HAHAHAHA BSDJHJRHDHF

ADULT LIFE

he had a lot of jobs here and there, but was more or less doing best as a trainer at a local gym where people weren’t allowed to use their quirks and strengthen their body regularly 

a few years went by and he eventually shrugged off everything that happened in his final college years but one day someone familiar walked into the gym! It was the fellow college student he saved!!!

she became a policewoman who wanted to get stronger in this quirkless friendly gym and hadn’t given up on her dreams of being a “hero,” inspired by how sato saved her that day

sato never really saw himself as some hero, he was left many nights alone thinking about how easily he could become a villain with his quirk, so hearing that really made him happy 

he trains her as her gym coach and she eventually asks him to join her patrol this small part of the city from a gang that was currently going around doing crimes since he’s good at it anyway, saying she could use some extra hands hehe

so yeah!! he does this side gig with her where he patrols alongside her looking for gang crimes and such c:

AND ONE DAY. [WISTFUL SIGH] ONE DAY. HE FINDS SOMEBODY GETTING MUGGED BY A GANG MEMBER AND SAVES………A CERTAIN MAN–

thank you for reading all the way here!!!

feel free to ask for questions or for any clarifications 😭😭😭!!!!!!

[edelegs]

so I have a very specific interpretation of the Edelgard/Hubert dynamic that I don’t think is particularly common, but I feel is worth sharing. This is largely because some people end up diminishing the importance of this relationship when pairing each of them with other people. It’s disappointing because I personally prefer these external ships (namely Edeleth and Ferdibert, for reasons I will make clear) but often see either Edelgard or Hubert reduced to some jealous, cuckoled cockblock in them. Honestly, that’s just . . . boring. 

(Long post under the cut)

TLDR: Edelbert is fascinating because it can be argued that Hubert’s feelings are born from guilt and shame rather than romantic love. This dynamic is unhealthy but deeply interesting, and it deserves to not be diminished in fan interpretations of these characters. 

Something that makes Edelgard so compelling is the fact that she’s full of contradictions. She can’t stand people/creatures with more power than humanly possible, yet she must use her own superhuman power and cooperate with what she despises to achieve her end goal. More specific to Edelbert, this end goal is equality, yet Edelgard is not allowed to be equal to anyone. She is a detached, untouchable princess who needs to learn how to meet her friends where they stand. It is through her connection to Byleth and to the other Black Eagles where she learns how to adapt her ideals to work in reality - and to be human. 

Unintentionally, Hubert does the opposite of this. His devotion to Edelgard began as an inherited role and evolved into something he does out of personal conviction. Either way, he is putting her on a pedestal and addressing her as a vassal rather than as a friend. Many of his supports with others involve him comparing them to Edelgard and telling them they’ll never reach her level. He takes it as his personal mission to protect her from those “unworthy” of talking to her. I don’t think this is intended to be selfish or malicious. I think that because of his role as her vassal and his failure to protect her from the Hresvelg experiments, he takes on this absolute devotion and prescribes it upon everyone else. 

Their relationship is unbalanced as a result. Edelgard makes constant reference to “fighting alone” and being prepared to end up isolated and maligned. The line “the solitary reign of Edelgard has come to an end” in her S-support is particularly telling. While she clearly views Hubert as someone important to her, she does not seem to view him as someone she can be fully open with. Hubert’s constant addressing of her as “Lady Edelgard” implies that he would not take the opportunity to call her “El” if it was presented to him. Edelgard and Hubert are both so caught up in the weight and scope of their revolution that they begin to enable each other’s bad tendencies. Hubert doesn’t dare challenge her, because he thinks of her as untouchable, and this devotion allows Edelgard to take him for granted. It is not a healthy relationship. I don’t think this is a particularly hot take. Their external supports are crucial for shifting these patterns of thought and allowing these characters to grow. 

What I think may be unpopular is this: I don’t think Hubert’s feelings for Edelgard are actually romantic. 

(For context, I am aro and just really hate m/f friends getting shoved together romantically. It may be easy to dismiss my thoughts as just me being bitter that we can’t have a m/f friend pair without one of them catching feelings but allow me to argue my point.) 

Hubert was assigned to Edelgard at a young age and told it was his house’s sacred duty to serve the Hresvelg family. He loathes his father for his involvement in the Insurrection of the Seven, which happened when he was ten. It goes without saying that this largely shapes his devotion to Edelgard. I would even say these events traumatized him to some degree. He mentions this in their A support, where he declares that his loyalty has been to her alone since she returned from the Kingdom. The path that these two share is informed and shaped by trauma - what Edelgard went through and Hubert’s powerlessness to stop it. More critically, these events radicalized them both and created the “shared vision” mentioned in his B support with Dorothea. 

That particular support jumps out to me. When I first played the game, I felt unbelievably validated by it. Hubert denies accusations of unrequited love in an edgily self-aware way (the line ”do I really look like the kind of drooling simpleton to have that kind of motivation?” made me literally cheer) and goes on to describe their relationship as walking the same path. He then highlights the qualities he feels towards Edelgard (gratitude, respect, awe, empathy, trust, and hope). None of these require romantic attraction. Dorothea then goes on to say that “loving another is really about wanting to be loved . . . I’m pretty sure that’s different from how things are with you and Edie”. This scene spoke a lot to my own experiences - my feelings for my best friend largely echo Hubert’s (though way less dramatic, of course) and I found the form of deep platonic love I feel for her reflected in that conversation. The acknowledgement on Dorothea’s part that it was different from romantic love (whether or not she truly believes it) is what blew me away. This is honestly one of the few times where a piece of media made me feel seen which makes me forever mad about the Edelbert A support.Though it could be argued that he’s just closed-off and could easily pull off lying about it, I know those feelings well. Others might see this as definitive proof of Hubert’s unrequited love for Edelgard, but I just can’t and I wanted to articulate this perspective because it means so much to me. Close, all-consuming, and important relationships can be platonic. 

I know better than to claim that the confession scene never happened. It is interesting to evaluate because it shows Edelgard finally calling attention to Hubert’s unknowing perpetuation of the gap between them. When Hubert states his feelings plainly, he is as composed as ever. Edelgard blushes and states that “you never cease to surprise me”. Hubert laughs this off, and that’s the end of that. It clearly is supposed to be a genuine love confession, but I think it’s more interesting to consider a man with only one real close friend misinterpreting his blind devotion towards her as love because he doesn’t really know what it is. I think it adds to the kind of fucked-up nature of their relationship (is it love or obsession? How is he supposed to know if a connection borne from trauma stems from love or guilt?). It also speaks to how difficult it is to identify romantic feelings when you’ve never truly felt them. 

That being said, I actually do ship Hubert with other people. I love Ferdibert because their personality clashes create a sense of mutual growth that helps Hubert learn to openly challenge Edelgard rather than subvert orders he disagrees with and it’s honestly just really funny. I also love Hubernie because the idea of a terrifying man and a girl who’s scared of everything learning to meet each other halfway shows similar character growth. I just think that for many years, Hubert’s devotion to Edelgard gave him a really fucked up understanding of human relationships, both romantic and platonic. There’s a tendency to erase the weight and importance of the Edelbert dynamic when both are shipped with other people as well as a great opportunity to show that strong platonic relationships can and should be perceived as equal to romantic ones. I have read so many Ferdibert things that suggest that their love is all-encompassing and Makes Them Whole. Wouldn’t it be more in-character to explore how they navigate the web of relationships in their lives? I love the Black Eagles’ interpersonal relationships so much and each one shapes the characters more and more. I’d love to see that reflected in ways that center platonic relationships!