#trickster's duet

[daydreaming-optimist]

Thank you for tagging me @permanentreverie, @courageisneverforgotten, and @brekker-by-brekkerr!!

The rules: put 4 of your favorite characters from 4 pieces of media as options, then let your tumblr friends decide which one most suits your vibe! then tag 4 people :)

Tagging: @scatterbrained-daydreamer, @morai-the-swann-king, @just-a-cup-of-anxietea, and @its-me-satine

[goshilovemesomemonsters]

Ya know what. The Entity’s Realm really is a shy voyeurs paradise. Get fucked by a studly killer in front of your friends, they die and you get hatch because fuck yeah you do and they don’t remember anything but you sure do.

[dyke-terra]

I don’t post much about Tamora Pierce here but it’s been on my mind lately— is Trickster’s Duet about a proxy war?

[vaguely-concerned]

Happy Grace/Pan Vibes For The Soul

"How can I, with you in the way?"/"(Laughs) The floor is yours!"

First of all I'm honestly just so charmed by how genuinely delighted Pan seems to be at watching Grace finding her voice and learning to enjoy using her power, I think that's where I started to take a shine to him. (also seems quite central to his character/romance in general because it's a thing that recurs through their relationship -- he tells her "I'm enjoying it if you're enjoying it" straight out at one point and that's definitely always there in the subtext). He buys a music studio for her just in case she ever wants to return to making music again even when she's not the muse anymore just because he loves her singing and has seen it make her happy before, how is that not the sweetest goddamn thing in the world??? Pan and Oracle in shared first place as stans for Grace musically

For real though, 'I Can Teach You' is sooo... even when you don't join forces with him Pan teaches Grace so many things in that song, it's a thematic tutorial as well as a gameplay one in many ways. For me I think the most impactful subtexts are 'This is a tricky situation, change is here and it's difficult, but you have more control and agency here than you think' ("You're in control!" "It's your song!"), and this sense that, y'know... there can be joy and playfulness and discovery in setting out into the unknown, not just fear and uncertainty.

dude... I wanna be in cahoots with & sing playful duets with you for the rest of my life bro (amorous intent)

Pros: Hell yeah look at her go! 🥰

Cons: Uh-oh look at her go! 😬

I love that Grace can bring Pan's motif into 'Challenging A Queen' and be called the fuck out by Persephone btw. why u keepin' your guard up girl uwu

'you gave up the only thing worth having -- for your little mortal friend' he says, giving up everything for his little once-again-mortal friend literally the next day fhsdkjfhsad who are you fooling buddy? not even yourself at this point surely??? (dialogue for if you save Freddie by giving up the eidolon)

my observations on the grace/pan dynamic across the different personality traits (yes I've done a run of each romancing him I am normal about it):

Clever!Grace: Pan seems to set out to be a trickster mentor of sorts, and Clever!Grace flips the uno reverse card on him and goes ‘Not if I trickster mentor you first bitch be honest about your feelings or perish challenge engage’. Probably the most birds of a feather combination (and indeed it’s the Blue version of the soundtrack that shows off his romance — also his tie and glasses are on the cover for that one :) ). 

Charming!Grace: Performative puppy dog eyes-off whenever either of them wants to get their way. 🥺4🥺. Pan is provably a soft touch from the Charming option to find Persephone before Challenging A Queen so I feel he probably tends to buckle faster but it’s a close thing. Local trickster god completely disarmed by someone being nice to him.

Kickass!Grace: “Be real with me or Imma kick your ass”/”Promise? ;)”/"...>:)"

I am always thinking about the way he steps up in The Trial when romanced (and the way it's the only one where Athena is genuinely shocked and appalled fhskadj). there is something about him that's like... he keeps protesting against 'innocent' and he's probably right haha, but there is certainly an almost fundamental lack of any active malice there that he doesn't fully admit to himself or to grace until this moment. he is doing this for grace, but it is also a confession about something really deep in himself that seems to be very vulnerable for him in its sincerity -- that he really doesn't mean to or more importantly want to cause harm (I don't wanna dance/with blood on my hands). admitting to his own basically good heart finally seems to be the bigger, scarier thing for him, more than facing the prospect of dying. he's experiencing the mortifying ordeal of being known and I for one am so proud of him

"I'm just here for the dance"

the way he sings that just to her and completely changes the meaning of it from what he said with it before, from using it to keep her out to inviting her in...

also can you imagine how badly the kill bill sirens must be going off in Grace's head in all variations of this scene no matter who steps up, considering what happened to Freddie just days before....... oof!

*incensed whisper* are you fucking kidding me with this what am I supposed to do with myself here

love these too

I really like the visual repeats of crossing the pond to the tree and back as a metaphor for them getting closer (or rather, him letting her closer, it is very much His Space). he retreats back there towards the end of 'Share This Dance', and that's the point where Grace puts her foot down and essentially says 'no. you come meet me honestly in the middle this time or this isn't happening'. and in 'The Trial' he does and then some!

I meant what I sang. I'm not a good man. If Athena had taken me up on my offer, the Idols would have been better off But I can try to be better. You make me want to try.

fun fact: if you break up with him after The Trial (YEAH you can still break off the romances at that point! it's wild honestly fsjadk), Grace tells him he should try to be better ‘for himself’ not for her... and he calls that (i.e. himself) ‘not much of an incentive’. My guy don’t make me break out the ‘Have you tried therapy’ prompt again. He takes it very calmly and gracefully under the circumstances but he's also like. quietly resigned and subdued. I tried it once for Science and never will again but there you go I bring my knowledge to this altar of sadness lol

you see the thing is I would forgive him for just about anything too I understand why so many of the characters in-game can't stay mad at him for any length of time

he starts the game by asking her to take his hand and he ends it on asking her to take his hand (and she does)...

:') let's share this dance

[clonerightsagenda]

While there are critiques to be made about the Tortall Tricksters duet and I've seen other people with more standing make them, I do think it's interesting for Pierce to take the Great Mother Goddess who was the divine patron of her original main character and have her also be the patron goddess of a group of white supremacist colonizer villains. Like yeah maybe the goddess backing the armed enforcer of fantasy!Western Europe's royal family doesn't always have great politics. When Aly rebels against her mom she does not fuck around

[imsparky2002]

Miraculous Death Note.

I recently got into Death Note: The Musical, and I love it! I found that most of my favorite tracks from the show are the duets between L and Light. As I listened to them, I realized that Light’s voice sounds kinda like Marc’s, and L’s voice is almost IDENTICAL to Nathaniel’s! And that got me thinking. What if I made a Miraculous Death Note AU where...

Marc is a anxious writer who feels that there’s no justice in the world. He sees Ladybug and Cat Noir as not doing enough to help the people of Paris, letting Hawk Moth run rampant. Everything changes when he receives a book that allows him to kill whoever’s name he puts into it. He uses the fake name of “Reverser”, and starts to remove those who he sees as corrupt.

Nathaniel is a intelligent and quiet artist who seems to be the only one in the entire city capable of finding out Reverser’s identity. While he doesn’t take care of himself, and has an odd way of speaking, he’s the best man for the job, and won’t stop until Reverser is found. He and Marc play mind games with each other, overanalyzing everything the other does, and it becomes an admittedly romantic game of cat-and-mouse. Marc wants Nathaniel to keep pursuing him, but to never catch him. Nathaniel wants the same thing.

Juleka is a teenage shinigami whose form is similar to that of Purple Tigress, except with sharper teeth, feral eyes, and real claws. She’s a Shinigami, a sadistic trickster with a love for gothic culture, black licorice, and carnage. A lot more playful and unhinged than Juleka Couffaine. She loves Rose, a peppier and cuter shinigami, and they’re adorable. She’s Marc’s shinigami and eagerly watches him spread death and despair with merely a pen.

Luka is Juleka’s brother and a mellower shinigami. He looks upon humans with more compassion and envy. His form is similar to that of Viperion, albeit with a cobra-like-hood, real fangs, and a long reptillian tongue. He falls for Marinette, who he knows is actually Ladybug. He often tries to rein in the wild antics of his twin sister.

Also it’s all still in highschool, very gay, very dramatic, and lots of death! First, here’s some songs that prove how similar the main two sound to Marc and Nathaniel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWfvuZai2ZY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bbreJTtQPg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhYXk6sn2EQ

And here’s what Juleka and Luka would look like as Shinigami.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NPPOwxCUI8&ab_channel=KappaBird

As usual, reblog, reply, post and ask for thoughts on the content, and I may return to this. @artzychic27 @msweebyness 

[honey-minded-hivemind]

The platonic yanderes I've mentioned before all have nicknames and relationships with their bby (a.k.a. you, the reader!). How they met their bby is considered a special, life-changing moment in their eyes, and they are protective in their own... special... ways. But that story will come at a later date. For now, I think I should delve into some smaller stuff , so let's explore the type of humor and nicknames between these platonic yans and their bby:

• 🧡Wolverine/Logan Howlett🦡: nicknames for his bby: pup, bub, darlin', shortstack (regardless of if you are shorter than him or taller than him)

Nicknames his bby gives him: Lo, Old Guy, Wulv, Mr. Cigarette Duet (the bby might have either been testing the waters with that one, or under anesthesia. People say weird things under that stuff)

Their humor: dry humor and small quips

• 🦁Sabretooth/Victor Creed🦷: nicknames for his bby: cub, fresh meat, whelp, kitten

Nicknames his bby gives him: Vic, Large Lion Man, Shere Khan, Mr. Backstabber (both literally and metaphorically, bby has seen him do both, it was messy)

Their humor: cat puns

• 🦡Wolverine 2.0/Laura Kinney💛: nicknames for her bby: fox, pearl, sibling-in-arms, honeybee

Nicknames her bby gives her: Laurel, Kin-ship, Baby Claws, Little Badger

Their humor: stand up comedy (where you pretty much do a spoken caricature of your life, poking fun at it, or something that happens to you)

• 🐺Daken/Akihiro🌀: nicknames for his bby: beautiful, doll, handsome, my favorite (insert sexuality/gender)

Nicknames his bby gives him: Wolf Guy, Seducter, Nature's Child, Lone Wolf (the bby calls him Seducter because they found out about his pheromone ability. And yeah, the bby poked fun at the fact it failed on the bby, because they aren't attracted to him in the least like that)

Their humor: quips and movie references

• 🔥Marvel Girl/The Phoenix/Jean Grey🦚: nicknames for her bby: sunshine, dear, sweetie, firecracker

Nicknames her bby gives her: Miss Marvelous, Venus, mind games, Jeanie

Their humor: inside jokes

• 😎Cyclops/Scott Summers🚨: nicknames for his bby: kiddo, shortstuff, kid, gremlin

Nicknames his bby gives him: Scout, Shades, Laser-Light, Ruby in the Rough (bby wanted him to feel good about his power, so they say those nicknames in a nice fashion)

Their humor: puns all the way

• 🥈Cable/Nathan Summers🤖: nicknames for his bby: tiny, powerhouse, tyke-bomb, brat (he means these nicely, even if he is gruff and stern)

Nicknames his bby gives him: Back To The Future, Terminator, Metal Man, Mr. Robocop (bby couldn't help themself, they saw so many nickname opportunities)

Their humor: banter and witty remarks

• 🎭Mystique/Raven Darkholme💙: nicknames for her bby: child, precious, dear, little heathen

Nicknames her bby gives her: Karma Chameleon, Blue, enchantress, The Blue Fairy

Their humor: witty and dry remarks

• 🎱Rogue/Anne-Marie🥀: nicknames for her bby: suga', hun, love, sweetheart

Nicknames her bby gives her: Miss-Anne-thrope, Marie, Killer Queen, lovedove

Their humor: Southern stand up comedy and phrases ("sweet Southern heat is not just a flavor", "sweeter than apple pie", and jokes of all the various animals found in the South, especially in weird and concerning places)

• ♠️Gambit/Remy LeBeau♥️: nicknames for his baby: Ace of Spades, imp, bebe, ma moitie

Nicknames his bby gives him: King of Hearts, Sugar and Spice, trickster, Jack

Their humor: poking fun at languages and their relationships (the English and French language are hard to master. Good job if you understand half of it, or even a little of it)

• 🌌Nightcrawler/Kurt Wagner😇: nicknames for his bby: angel, treasure, friend, beauty

Nicknames his bby gives him: doll-baby (it is a Southern nickname, it means sweet, charming, and innocent, in my area), Angel of the Night, fluffball, Blue (Da Ba Dee)

Their humor: pranks. Pranks all around

These are all my opinion, and if you get the references, great job! If not, that is okay! These were my ideas of nicknames and humor for previously mentioned platonic yanderes (plus their bby's nicknames for them!). I hope you enjoyed these platonic yandere honeycomb thoughts!

[charliesinfern0]

some high school ai doodles! (+ bit of a lore dump under the cut ^^)

i think high school ai would be like very deadpan and kind of serious, with a bit of a trickster streak. like, in osomatsu-kun she doesnt have much of a personality and is deadpan (sort of similar to the rice balls before they became neet ai), but shes a a little bit shy and clumsy bc shes figuring out the whole living thing.

then in high school her disposition becomes more intense, on the outside she looks super serious but if you were close to her you’d know how much of a menace she is. she gets straight As and is an impeccable student, but in her free time one of her favorite things to do is to just lightly mess with the sextuplets (though sometimes she does aim to cause psychological damage) she loves scamming and tricking osomatsu and choromatsu the most, and she just likes to confuse the rest of them with her antics. she’s just a little silly ^^

then after the sextuplets start to drift apart, ai starts to become a little distant with them too. she still talks and sometimes hangs out with them, but usually she talks to each of them one on one (except for choro and todo bc they’re still around each other the most). she starts to focus more on her studies and her future, having some kind of bitter awakening to the fact that this wasn’t going to last forever, that at some point shes going to have to start thinking about the future and not dwell on the past.

there’s a moment where ichi, yanagida and their friend group are hanging out and yanagida notices ai and nudges ichi and is like “hey, isnt that your friend? you wanna invite her for karaoke after school?” and ichi is like “uhh…” and yanagida is like “are you nervous about asking her? :O do you have a crush on her?? ill ask for you then!” and he goes over to ai and ichi chases after him and he gets ai’s attention and asks her to join them after school and ai looks over at ichi who is standing behind him and he flinches and looks away and she looks back at yanagida and politely declines, saying that she needs to study and walks away and theres this awful awkward silence before yanagida is just like “…huh, bummer! sorry about that ichi!” and ichi is dying inside but hes just like “haha yeah but its fine we can just try inviting her next time!”

(there is in fact a next time but she declines again, and again, until she finally agrees but its really awkward, especially when yanagida pushes ichi and ai to do a duet together, but they ended up having a little fun by the end of it, but that only makes her leaving all the more bitter)

a year or so after graduation, she leaves for college, with a bittersweet goodbye from the sextuplets, not knowing if they’ll ever see her again :(

[tinkertoysdamn]

Stereo Hearts - We Built This City' Verse

Loki shuddered in irritation.  Things were progressing on the overall plan but the rogue Time Agents still needed help, specifically they needed raw muscle.  Mobius had made a suggestion, a good one in fact, but Loki was unhappy with it.  “I can’t believe we are considering this.”

“She was damn useful on the last mission.”  Mobius pointed out.  Thora Odinson had been not merely useful, but the powerhouse behind that particular success.  The fact that her presence had also annoyed Loki to no end was a bonus as far as Mobius was concerned.    

“Yes but she was also–”  Loki’s face screwed up in distaste.  “Pining.”  He spat out the word with great vitriol.  “Obviously.  Obnoxiously.”

It had gotten a little out of hand.  “Maybe if we pull her from another part of the timeline,” Mobius suggested.  

Loki lit up.  “Excellent idea.”  He clapped his hands together, pleased.  “Perhaps after some distance from those blasted Guardians, she’d be more tolerable.”

Considering how Loki had whined to Mobius about his own long-lost Sylvie, Mobius thought the trickster god was being a bit hypocritical.  Still—  “Here’s a good spot,” Mobius said, looking over his Tempad.  “It’s a few years later.”

Now fully on board with the idea, Loki’s eyes glittered.  “Do it.”

Once again, they teleported onto a spaceship, but this one was considerably larger and of a different make then the one they’d been on before.  “Good,” Loki muttered, “perhaps she’s taken up with new companions.”  

Then they heard the music.  It wasn’t nearly as old as that dreaded Pina Colada song, but it still made them pause.  It was entirely possible that Thora was traveling with others who liked Earth’s music, but it was doubtful.    

“Where’s it coming from?” Mobius whispered.  

Cautiously, they made their way down the hallway, ready for anything.  Except for perhaps that.

Up on a repair catwalk where two figures, one was partially buried in a vent, her fluffy tail peeking out and the other was Captain Brandy Quill.  Considering her state of dress, she had not been expecting company.  She was in a tank top and shorts, work gloves in place as they worked in tandem on a repair.  Every once and while she’d exaggerate a hip swing or a movement to dance along.  

Over the music Loki and Mobius could hear Rocket and Quill singing.  Judging from how they split up the duet, it was clear they had some practice.

“Appreciate every mixtape your friends make.  You never know, we come and go like on the interstate.”  Rocket’s voice was less than musically inclined, but it was earnest, carrying through the ship.  

Loki and Mobius lurked, not certain if they should draw attention to themselves or should sneak away without interrupting.  If they were careful enough, maybe they could avoid the wrath of the Captain entirely.     

It was then that the song shifted to the bridge.  Quill elected to stop her repair to tug on the mechanic’s creeper to get Rocket out of the vent, only to belt more of the song at her.  

“I only pray you never leave me behind—”

Rocket snickered under her breath.  “You always get so dramatic at this part.”

Quill was using her spanner as a microphone now.  “Because good music can be so hard to find.”

Rocket grinned.  “I should be filming.  Thunder Head would love this.”  

“I take your hand, hold it closer to mine.”  Quill was eating this up, chewing up the song and spitting it back out again with sheer unadulterated joy.  She tilted her head back, letting the spirit and lyrics pour out of her.  

“Thought love was dead, but now you're changing my mind!”    

“Okay,” Loki admitted to Mobius.  “She’s actually pretty good.”  Then he ducked as the spanner nearly collided with his head. 

Mobius jumped at the sound.  “Oh my god.”  

The music cut off.  Quill stared down at them with righteous anger.  “Don’t you dicks ever call?”

“Captain,” Loki tried to put on his most obsequious charm.  “Pardon the intrusion but this is only the second—”

“Fourth.”  Quill held up four fingers.  “Four times you flarking jerks have done this.”

“We’ve only been here twice,” Mobius said.  “I think I’d remember the other two.”

Rocket and Quill shared a disgusted look.  “Time travelers,” Rocket complained.  “At least it’s not in the middle of dinner this time.”

“Or when Tetrina’s trying to take a nap.”  Once again, the best friends shared a look, but this time one of a remembered agony.  

Things were getting off track.  Loki attempted to regain control.  “We’re here for—”

“We know.”  Quill pressed a button on her com-unit.  “Thora, your not-brother’s here again.  Collect him before we throw him out of the airlock for real this time.”

“Always with the airlock,” Mobius muttered.  

Quill wasn’t having it.  “Stop showing up unannounced and it won’t be a problem.”  

Less than a minute later, Thora barged into the room, already outfitted in her armor, her ax at the ready.  “Where are we going today?” Thora asked, beaming. 

“You seem awfully eager,” Mobius said.

“This is our fourth quest together,” Thora said.  “Why shouldn’t I be?”

Out of the corner of his eye, Loki could spot Quill making a “I told you” gesture. 

It seemed that his partnership with this variant of his brother would continue into the future.  Someway, somehow, Loki wouldn’t drive her away.  Loki found the thought more comforting than he would care to admit.    

“This shouldn’t be nearly so perilous as before,” Loki told her.  “But we need your strength regardless.”

“Excellent.”  Thora was more than up for the challenge. 

“Don’t bring her back full of holes this time,” Quill shouted down at them.  

“No promises,” Mobius said, dialing up the Tempad.  The Time Agents and Thor stepped through the portal, dodging any verbal barbs that Quill had left to throw at them.

As the portal closed, Thora said with a wide grin, "She's my girlfriend now."

Loki pinched the bridge of his nose. It had begun.

My heart's a stereo It beats for you, so listen close Hear my thoughts in every no-ote Make me your radio And turn me up when you feel low This melody was meant for you Just sing along to my stereo

[princesssarisa]

OTP Meme: Jack and Sally (The Nightmare Before Christmas)

Requested by @paexgo-rosa

When did I ship them: Ever since I first saw the movie at age 11.

Ship dynamic: Two spooky yet good-hearted Halloween creatures who look like opposites – he the flamboyant, terrifying, idolized Pumpkin King, she merely Dr. Finkelstein's shy, melancholy creation/servant – but who actually have plenty in common. They share similar feelings of boredom and emptiness in their current lives (that is, until the events of the plot), and Jack is more soulful emotional than he seems at first, while Sally is more cunning and a better trickster than she seems, making them kindred spirits. Sally's power of foresight lets her recognize Jack's impulsive mistakes and try to stop him for his own good, yet she always wants to support him and make him happy. Jack can be painfully oblivious, both to her warnings and to her feelings for him, but his fondness for her is always clear, and the moment when they finally unite as a couple is beautiful and well-earned.

Theme song: "Sally's Song" Reprise.

Type of date: Singing a duet in the moonlight on Spiral Hill.

Married or dating: Dating, though if the soundtrack album's epilogue that describes them as having skeleton children is canon, they'll eventually be married.

Sexuality: Heterosexual.

Genders: Male and female.

Romantic quotes:

The lyrics to the above reprise of "Sally's Song":

My dearest friend, if you don't mind I'd like to join you by your side Where we can gaze into the stars And sit together, now and forever For it is plain as anyone can see We're simply meant to be

Any headcanon powers: I think all their powers are on display in the movie itself.

Healthy or unhealthy relationship: Well, her shyness and his failure to listen to her aren't very healthy. But they overcome those problems before they become a couple, and in the end, their new relationship seems poised to be a healthy one.

Who is the flirty partner: Jack.

Who is the silly one: Again, Jack, in his macabre way.

[shinagawa-division]

INTO THE DEN Vol. 1

Core Six

Sumire “Venefica” Shinomiya

Janine “Dove” McNamara

Yosuke “Stolas” Miura

“Trickster”

Miyabi “Yūrei” Katsura

Zoya “Saraswati” Anand

ANARCHY -City On Fire!!-

Grateful ★ Dead ★ March (Venefica Solo)

The Sixth Sense (Dove Solo)

Overdose (Stolas Solo)

Rock Bottom (Trickster Solo)

Jishu (Yūrei Solo)

Hell Lazy, Psychology (Saraswati Solo)

God-ish (Castor & Pollux Duet)

Reactivation (Aiko Solo)

Core Six

Sumire “Venefica” Shinomiya

Janine “Dove” McNamara

Yosuke “Stolas” Miura

“Trickster”

Miyabi “Yūrei” Katsura

Zoya “Saraswati” Anand

Outer Science

[garland-on-thy-brow]

Highlights of the week.

Made sweets at home.

Roleplayed about fate and curses.

Made notes for the fanfiction.

Read and listened to Jommelli's Il Vologeso. There is a great scene of Berenice throwing herself into the arena ("né rea né spettatrice chiamerai Berenice", amazing choice of words), the rest is kind of boring. Well, the offstage army revolt was interesting too.

Finished watching Agrippina (Warsaw 2014). Anna Radziejewska is wonderful.

Incidentally, I reduced my list of "currently watching" from five simultaneous operas to just two, meaning I will soon be free.

Listened to Salieri's La fiera di Venezia. It gave great promise with the two heroines singing a love duet from opera seria, but it did not go anywhere. If I were writing this, it Would. With all the costumes/Carnival/opera inside the opera theme going on, the trickster girl should have crossdressed and seduced the noble bride; or vice versa. Either option would have improved the opera and given pleasure to me personally.

Watched Cherry Magic (the anime) episodes 8-12.

Watched The Pharmacist's Monologue episodes 21-22.

Read a chapter from Cambridge Companion to The Age of Nero.

Read Princesses and Others in Tacitus.

Read Tacitus Annals Book 11.

[nerdnag]

the annual national mensa gathering went down this week and i've been having some amazing fun you guys

some highlights:

booked a karaoke room for two hours with a couple others, then managed to (rather easily) convince 10 more random mensa members to come along right before we left! had a lot of fun singing with strangers

did the spiderman pointing meme when someone saw me and went "it's you!! the gossip girl trickster!!" and I, after my brain had loaded for a few seconds, exclaimed, "oh it's you!! the grumpy halfling!!" Apparently we played d&d together last year and she remembered my character better than I even remembered it myself, because she thought my character was hilariously annoying. (she came along to do karaoke, and we sang a duet together in-character. it was pretty awesome)

played a new session of d&d with the same group as last year + a few others, and somehow managed to cheat the system by making the monster laugh so hysterically that we inadvertently skipped ahead to the second phase pretty much immediately

ran into a guy who turned out to be my brother's best friend from high school and who's apparently been to my childhood home over 20 years ago (in an entirely different town many kilometers away)???

went to a masquerade and got to wear my hooded cape with a glittery mask and sequin dress!! and get photographed with many historical figures, superheroes and various others with creative costumes!!

played a session of blood on the clocktower that was so incredibly good and confusing that even the GM (who's done many a game) said it was the best session he'd ever done and he wished we'd live streamed it. it took four hours and we had barely any idea at all about which people were the bad guys until the last five minutes. I was killed the second round because people always think I'm evil for some reason, and they didn't believe that I was actually good until the game had literally ended (and barely even then lol). but i had GREAT fun anyway. though i was extremely shocked when we were done and four hours had passed and it was suddenly 3AM in the morning and i had missed not only the masquerade afterparty, but also an opportunity to get duct taped to the wall. (they duct taped someone else instead 😔) still very much worth it though.

went and bought one hundred cheeseburgers from mcdonald's with two friends at 4AM that we then went back with to the event hotel. few believed us when we said we were going to get 100 burgers, but the rumour spread quickly and we were greeted like war heroes when we returned. many mensa members creeped out of their various mouse holes to snack on burgers and sing together by the hotel's piano. a lot of people chipped in for the payment. many people have since talked about The Burgers like the highlight of their week. all very nice and wholesome. (also i think we made the night for the guys working the night shift at mcdonald's, one of whom giggled like a 4yo when we said "we wanted soft serve and figured, why not buy some burgers while we're at it")

there's probably a lot of other stuff i don't remember right now. but anyway, once again the annual gathering shows just how much of a Silly Nerd Community mensa really is

[lemme-just-oops]

Good morning/afternoon/night! I hope you are not stressing yourself with all the requests! If you have time I want to ask how would the Arcana Twilight react if they found out that MC can see the future? (like a time traveler or something like that)

Alpheratz: Do not spoil anything of the future to him. Not even when he is in danger or someone he holds dear is about to vanish from the living. As much as he would appreciate the concern, just do not. He hates worrying about what is yet to happen, he dislikes having to plan long ahead just to avoid something. And he afvices you to live in the present more often, seeing the future definitely has its burdens on you, no?

Arcturus: He always loved the thought of predicting the future, so he will sometimes ask you if everything will turn out alright. Avoids asking for details , and just asks you if everyone will be okay. But if you mention that someone will not be okay, he needd to know who, just so he can stay with them and ensure that they are safe.

Pollux: He asks so many questions quickly, you do not have the time to answer. There are so many concerns he has, and the more he talks to you, the more he is prone to worrying. And when he realizes this, he will try to avoid ever talking about it again. Asks you something in the next five minutes again though, because the curiosity kills him. But he will improve.

Sirius: This man will discover the boundaries of your ability in no time. This may turn into dangerous situations at times, as he wants to see how far you can see into the future and how a single verbal sentence can change his intentions. "You won't hurt me", you must say when he points the gun at you, and he will ask if you are sure. Of course you are, he may be a trickster, but he holds you dear.

Spica: He asks you to not reveal this information carelessly. Telling you that even with only him knowing, too many people are aware. Of course, he is glad to know, as it helps him with his planning. But if you can turn back time to a point where no one knows, you should. Some people are bound to have an interest in your abilities and will want to use you for it, and he just wants to keep you safe from that.

Vega: Pathway magic and prediction magic is a supportive duet many dream of having on their team. But that mostly depends on the amount of skills such sorcerers have, since future prediction can be extremely vague in less skilled sorcerers, and the pathway magicians are able to make the future happen with 100% certainty, or completely avoid it. You and Vega are skilled on your own, but combined a force that can change the entire world with no combative magic at all. And yet, he only asks you to just tell him when danger approaches you, so he can protect you. He may also ask a few questions about his future when his abandonment issues come to haunt him again, though.

[copperhawks]

I could not agree less, and it's not that controversial of a take. Tons of people seem to believe it and/or agree with it given how popular POTS and Kel often seem to be even in comparison to SOTL and Alanna.

But I personally find POTS to be immensely boring. As someone who genuinely loves fantasy and goes to fantasy stories for fantasy stuff, POTS provides me absolutely nothing except for an easy read because I am comfortable with Pierce's style of writing and I think she's really good at making her stories easy to get into. But this series goes OUT OF ITS WAY to remove the fantastical from this fantasy world.

Even the fantasy elements that exist in it are intentionally written to be incredibly banal. She has animal friends who are smarter than average, but they're also some basic sparrows and an ugly dog and one horse (she gets a few cats at Haven, but they're not characters we really get to know or care about). She takes on a baby griffin for a year and the storyline would've been exactly the same if she'd taken in, say, a baby wolf or a baby lion or eagle or something like that. It's wild and it's difficult to manage, but it's not given the same fantastical feeling as when Daine takes on Kitten, for example. The stories we get about taking care of the baby griffin are all about how annoying it is to clean up after it mostly rather than anything particularly magical or fantastical. Kel's big climactic ending in her first book is a fight against some spidrens, but she's set way back from the more interesting part of that fight. In the second book, her biggest battle is against a few bandits and the climactic ending involves her climbing up and down a tower. Blayce's monsters are machines and aren't taken down by any kind of magical means but just by poking them with something sharp usually.

The point of POTS is to take this incredibly magical world with really powerful sorcerers and demigods and a pantheon of powerful gods and magical immortal creatures and look at it from the perspective of someone who has exactly zero interest or involvement in ANY OF THAT. What does this magical world look like to someone with no magic, no connection to a god, no connection to a magical creature in a way that matters, etc?

I get why people like that, I can see the appeal, but for someone who enjoys fantasy BECAUSE IT'S FANTASTICAL, I don't love POTS. SOTL, The Immortals, and Trickster's Duet just... sing. There are scenes in those books where you can just... hear the backing soundtrack of it in your head as you read because it's so intensely cinematic. I never heard music even ONCE while re-reading POTS. None of Kel's big battle scenes have that feeling of being cinematic to me because the whole point is to make Kel pretty banal in order to look at a magical world from the perspective of someone without any magic. Her story is intended to be "more relatable" in some ways by making her a more average person, so the things she does are more average as a result.

And, crucially, I think a lot of people really love Wyldon's redemption arc and that's a major plus towards this series for them, but I really don't like it. I don't like Wyldon, I don't like his redemption arc, and I would've preferred it if he'd remained an antagonist that Kel never sees as someone she wants to grow up to be like. I can't respect Kel wanting to be like someone who treated her like DIRT, who was racist towards the Yamani (in front of someone with Yamani heritage) for no reason, who disliked her friend because he was educated, who hated Thayet just for existing as a foreigner in a position of power over him. How can Kel, whose entire character revolves around helping the little people, want to be like someone who has spent most of his life as a raging bigot (and who probably still IS a raging bigot in many ways even if we don't see all of them).

So I find it hard to like POTS, and I find it difficult to like Kel, but I re-read SOTL recently too, and I still really enjoyed it. I found new things to enjoy about it that I maybe hadn't appreciated the same way the first time around. The big climactic, fantastical scenes still sing to me. Alanna is still an immensely relatable and compelling character.

I appreciate what Pierce was doing with POTS, I can admire the risks she took with POTS, and I can acknowledge that a lot of it clearly works for a lot of people given how popular it is, but I can't agree that it's the best thing she ever wrote or better than SOTL. I just can't.

The funniest thing to me about Kel, and maybe one of the most interesting because of how understated it is, is that Kel becomes a good commander in the end, not by emulating Wyldon who was cold and implacable and insensitive, or by emulating Raoul who mostly only disobeys orders out of principle or because he has an issue with what the order says about his personal relationship with Jon, but by emulating JON.

Kel doesn't even LIKE Jon, she BARELY respects him as a person. He's a good enough ruler that she's willing to fight for him and swear loyalty to him and to at least mostly believe that he wouldn't work with Blayce to make his own killing monsters, but that's as far as it goes for Kel. If he's kind to her, she finds it uncomfortable and almost untrustworthy because she assumes he doesn't care about her and so his kindness and respect towards her must be fake.

But from the outside, as readers, we know just how much Jon fought for Kel. We know how much he does respect her right to be a knight. Jon is the sole reason that Kel DID get the opportunity to prove herself, if he'd capitulated to Wyldon completely, she just wouldn't have ever been allowed to join. Kel doesn't KNOW THAT, obviously, but we do. We know that Jon did everything he could to find a way to convince Wyldon to let Kel become a page. While Wyldon claims later that the reason he chose to let her stay at the end of the probation year was because his better judgment convinced him she'd earned it, I'd be willing to bet that part of that better judgment also included knowing if he couldn't prove to JON that she needed to go, then he'd be in trouble. Kel was training and working in front of plenty of other trainers and teachers who could easily contradict Wyldon's lies if he'd tried it, many of whom are closer to Jon than they are to Wyldon.

Kel's experiences and feelings about that experience are entirely valid, and she doesn't have the knowledge we do about how hard Jon fought for her, so it's not shocking that she's upset with him for a good portion of her series. She never even discovers this truth by the end of her series, even though she does get a lesson from Jon and Thayet (and Raoul to some degree) about how politics and compromises work in order to make changes happen. So her opinion of him by the end is boiled down to the quote from Squire: "good kings weren't always good men." It makes sense for her to think this, but because Kel's knowledge base is so limited (and her worldview so black and white for much of her series), it makes her an EXTREMELY unreliable narrator about this particular issue.

Kel believes that while Jon generally does his duty and keeps the peace, he doesn't actually care all that much about his people as individuals. But in their only meaningful conversation in Squire, Jon is able to point out that he (and Thayet, who is actually equal to Jon in power, something Kel either doesn't know which would be a failure in her education or just tends to ignore so she can focus her ire on Jon) has to make a LOT of compromises in order to get ANYTHING useful done at all. Sometimes, often, it means making deals with people he doesn't like or people he just fundamentally disagrees with, because it's the first step in a multi-step plan to help more people in the long run. He also points out that just throwing his weight and authority around in order to be able to change everything he wants to change immediately regardless of what anyone else thinks about it is a great way to get himself and his family killed. Because even if he had good intentions, that would be tyranny. It does make Kel think a little, but she doesn't tend to like him much still afterwards, her resentment from her page years will always color her opinion of him a little.

However, then she gets to Haven and she's suddenly tossed into a position of leadership over a lot of other people, many of whom disagree with each other or disagree with her or both. And all of the sudden, Kel has to make compromises. She doesn't LIKE the way the sergeants often treat their men, especially the sergeants whose men are convicts, but there's very very little she can do about it without really pissing off those same sergeants and that's not something she can afford to do. There's a moment when Neal starts getting frustrated about the treatment of the convicts and she takes him out to vent to her so he doesn't vent to the sergeants, something that the sergeants would then take out on their men. Kel's reasoning as she does this is that she "preferred to avoid battles with them now so she would have authority with them later if she needed to use it." Later, Kel is talking to Daine and she says "That's all this job is... Trying to please everyone and pleasing no one. And it will only get worse, not better."

Both of these moments showcase Kel choosing to make compromises. She may not like the way the sergeants treat the convicts, but she needs to stay on the sergeants' good sides because she doesn't have enough resources to butt heads with them nor enough authority to just force the issue, and even if she DID, it could cause the sergeants to become troublesome or take out their frustration with her on the men in ways she can't see as well. But staying on the sergeants' good sides might mean letting some of their maltreatment slide if it's not physically harming the convicts. And even setting that aside, she's dealing with nearly 500 refugees eventually, all of which are from different towns in the area and have different needs, not all of which she can accommodate. This requires compromise. Sometimes she can please some of them and not others, but mostly she probably just ends up not pleasing anybody because that's often how compromises WORK.

She never makes the active connection to Jon and his lesson on leadership from Squire while she's in Haven, but that quote up there about how this job (aka being a commander) is all about trying to please everyone and pleasing no one? It sounds a HECK of a lot like "good kings weren't always good men." You can try your best to help others, but often doing the right thing can involve making everyone unhappy. You can't be everybody's friend if you're going to get anything done.

Some of this she might've learned from Raoul's style of command, but Raoul commands a fairly small amount of people (at least in comparison to a King), and so we see him able to be pretty friendly to the people he commands in a way that Jon is perhaps unable to do. And she might believe that she learned some of this from Wyldon, but Wyldon had a tendency to be very unfair and biased due to his raging bigotry and conservative values, as well as the fact that he doesn't actually even LIKE being a training master and that likely impacted the way he treated the pages (he's almost never that kind to the pages, whereas we see him capable of being quite kind with the refugees later, which is where Kel comes to the conclusion that he hadn't enjoyed being a training master).

But Jon makes an entire speech about how he (and Thayet) have been working THEIR ENTIRE REIGN to change laws that help people. He explains how they have to consider the needs of merchants, nobles, farmers, street people, priests/priestesses, and mages. They have to consider not only what these people might need or want, but also what they could do when they feel sufficiently offended and how that could impact not just the royal family or the nobility but the realm as a whole. Jon points out that they HAVE made changes, for the better, and that just because they don't always succeed at everything or because they have to compromise sometimes, doesn't mean they aren't working at making changes or that they don't care about helping people. Not everyone you have power over is going to be your friend, they might not even be someone you like. But if you're going to take on the job of leadership, that's something you have to be willing to accept and work with, which often means making compromises with people whose needs and values are contradictory to your own.

Jon probably knows when he makes the compromise with Wyldon that it will likely impact a lot of people's good opinion of him. Alanna is right there and clearly angry, and we know Thayet doesn't like the decision, either. And it's entirely possible that Jon knows in the moment that Kel herself will put the blame on him because he's the King. But he also knows that if he insists on Kel being allowed to be a page without trying to compromise with Wyldon, Wyldon will quit over it and he'll end up with ten DIFFERENT problems that could cause a lot bigger issues to far more people than just one girl. So he makes the compromise. He sacrifices Alanna and Thayet and even Kel's good opinion of him in order to ensure that Kel gets the opportunity to become a Knight without turning all of his nobles against him which could ultimately lead to a civil war. Is it fair? No, and he knows it. But it's the best option he has in order to get the outcome they all actually want which is just for Kel to have the chance to prove herself.

Kel has to make similar choices once she's finally in a position of leadership of her own. And whether she realizes it or not, without ever even spending more than a few minutes with Jon, she ends up emulating his leadership style more than anybody else's because it WORKS and it works WELL. She'll probably never admit it, she might never even realize it herself, but she's so much more like Jon than any of the other men she sees as role models. And I love that. I love the dramatic irony of that, that the one person Kel only barely respects because of a compromise he made on her behalf that she'll never even know about, is the person Kel ends up most resembling. Jon is the reason she has the opportunity to become the Protector of the Small in the first place, Jon is the person who created that environment that allowed her to nurture those values, and she'll probably never even really be able to acknowledge that, because sometimes that's what being a good leader means.

[weeklyvocajournal]

Weekly Vocajournal #50 (21/10 - 27/10)

Happy early Halloween!

OSTER Project - Kyoushou Tricksters (ft. Kasane Teto SV, Zundamon, Hatsune Miku)

A new rascal trio has risen... Zundamon is always such a good fit for a fun cheeky song like this. Also check out her other new song, a cozy ballad.

Mafumafu - Sakura Biyori and Time Machine (ft. Hatsune Miku, Ado)

Big fan of vsynth-human duets, and this has to be the most high-profile one of recent. The style is reminiscent of legendary producers like ryo's Melt or kemu's ballads. Mitchie M's hyperrealistic tuning goes great with Ado. The live version is cool too.

IRUMA - jigoku (ft. Hatsune Miku)

Not that new, but the intro to the single got on my radar and I ended up finding this. A math/prog rock style with emphasis on arpeggiated guitars reminiscent of Polyphia or Animals as Leaders, but this is the first time I've heard it with vsynths.

waienu - Tunnel Tonderu? (ft. Yuzuki Yukari)

Always nice to hear a long (5+ mins) Yukari song. Onn is a classic with softer songs like this.

UKAI, Luae - Legacy hero (ft. SeeU)

Song itself was released on a Korean producers collab album two months ago, but the PV was a nice watch. Strong, cool SeeU tuning.

kawauso - Time loop (ft. Hatsune Miku)

Solid Miku rock number. First time with this producer, looking forward to diving into their catalog.

Other Cool Stuff:

yugica - NurseryDancer (ft. Meika Mikoto)

LoA - Crocus (ft. GUMI)

suzumenome - BRAINWAVES’ GAUGE (ft. Kasane Teto)

Twinfield - Junjou Pastel Time (ft. Natsuki Karin)

Sumi - sakasayozora (ft. Kyuushuu Sora)

thus - Entrance (ft. Hatsune Miku)

Haruasagi - Dasaku (ft. Otomachi Una)

DOPAM!NE, picco - Traumerei (ft. Hatsune Miku)

Sukomori - Resurrection (ft. Hatsune Miku) [flashing lights cw]