#vs hollyhock

[starfacedstudio]

IDs in alt text!

ID in alt text!

Though not completely final at this point, I recently got closer to finalizing the designs of Hollyhock & Cinnamon's parents! I need to design some other family members of theirs as well at some point but these two have a much more apparent role in the story and, as such, needed more finalized designs.

Included some of the exploration and older sketches I had of them both as well :) Cardamom is a chef and Chamomile I think might work a corporate or retail job.

[cats-of-eden-valley]

yall a big plot shift just happened,,,holy fuck the way this setup is all sliding together goes so hard

So. Sakenti's (p. Tiger) mother, Locust, is one of the Matrons. Her family's spot is in jeopardy, though, because she doesn't have any suitable successors. Sakenti can't be a successor because he's a tom.

Originally, I was struggling with how Asphodel fits into this, because like. With the new lore and the Coalitions, why would he be considered for a Matron spot. It makes far less sense than in the original.

But you know who is a strong fighter, with plenty of strong, healthy heirs? Hollyhock (p. Speckle).

And Hollyhock's daughters are Calendula (p. Golden) and Amaryllis (p. Lion). The former had strong (romantic? friendship? yet to be determined) ties with Sakenti. The latter ends up dying, but the idea of Sakenti arranging her death because he's slowly picking off Hollyhock's family is extremely good.

Asphodel isn't safe though because now he's Calendula's mate (AND had strong romantic ties with Sakenti) and uh. It's good for Lotus's arc. Sorry, bud, you're still my fave though.

[topbottomswitchblade]

Intro To Knifeplay

I'd been wanting to make a tutorial and then @hollyhocks-hoping asked if I had any tips for getting into knifeplay so that finally motivated me enough. Gonna try to make this seem like a really know what I'm talking about and not get anyone killed.

First things first: Knifeplay is risky. It can cause actual harm. But like, so can driving a car, so we mitigate the danger with things like seat belts and drivers ed. This is drivers ed. (driver's ed? drivers' ed? hm.)

There's different ways to do knifeplay that can make it more safe or more risky, depending on what you want out of the experience and are comfortable with.

On the safest end, you can use alternatives to real/sharp knives. I'm going to give some examples but to be clear I am not vouching for any specific products because I have not used them because I skipped the safety level and went for blood. But that's just me.

Acrylic/resin knives (example 1, example 2, example 3,)

Training knives (example 1, example 2)

This is a knife you can order dull, which is kinda the same as a training knife, but I'm making a separate point to say: I have seen some people give advice on ways to dull a blade so you can use it for knifeplay and um. Don't Do That. First of all, very tedious. Second and more importantly, it's unlikely you'll get it to a safe level of dull and could end up hurting your partner/yourself worse if you get careless thinking it's low risk. And if you get cut, it won't be a clean cut. Also the one I linked it sold out sorry. But this one is a dulled bowie knife intended to be used as a paddle?

Putting a butter knife in the freezer so you get the chill of a cold blade without it being sharp. Pair it with leather gloves so the dom's hands don't get cold.

Of course, there's still risk associated with a dull or non-metal blade. If you're like "let's do a scene where I stab you to death, and baby, I'm going for an Oscar," you can still, like, stab your partner. It just won't do as much damage as a real knife would. Like, getting shot with a paintball vs a bullet. Still hurts, but it won't kill you. Don't jam it in their eyes or whatever.

Next up on the danger level: Using real knives without intending to cut your partner.

Use the spine instead of the blade.

Here's is a v simple diagram for our purposes

This comes with some risk (especially with a clip point) as the point is still sharp

But if you want to flash a real knife and hold it to their throat and whatnot, you can press the spine to their skin instead of the blade. Note: even I, as a pretty experienced knifeplayer, do not hold the blade's edge to my partner's throat. If I want to do that, I still use the spine.

You can also use the flat of the blade, which I'm going to say is a touch more risky because edge will be against their skin. Your sub will have to be good and keep still.

Next level: Making shallow cuts with the tip

What I usually do with my partner is use the back side of the knife (spine towards their skin) and make scratches and shallow cuts with the point of the blade. Keeping the blade edge turned away and only using the point gives me more control of the depth. I don't have to worry so much about actually slicing deep, but it's still sharp enough to draw a bit of blood.

Like so

It gets results like this

Pro tip: Open up shallow cuts wider (but not deeper) by paddling them afterwards 👍

I gave an example of clip and drop point above because they're the most common for folding knives, and also are featuring in my parts diagram, but for this practice I also use a karambit which looks like this

Obviously in this case I would not be facing the blade away to use the tip

Spice it up: Put the blade in your sub's mouth. But watch out!

Questionable method: Light stabbing

So. You can push the point in a bit before it breaks skin (unless it's a really sharp blade). I started incorporating this, but then one time I did break skin and it started For Real Bleeding. I staunched it with a tissue for a minute and it stopped and you couldn't even see the puncture, but uh. Probably won't do that again. Do with that what you will. Don't kill anyone; I don't want my blog to appear in court.

I don't think I should really suggest anything more extreme than that in good conscience. I'm sure there are people out there who go harder, but you'll have to find those people and ask them. Ultimately if you practice it safely and feel confident enough to experiment that is a call for you and your partner when you feel ready, just be smart about it and be prepared for do first aid in case of accidents.

Suggestions for blades:

Knives come in a wide range of types and prices, but you can find pretty good ones for like $20-30. Even name brands like Smith & Wesson can be anywhere between $15 and $160. Or if you want a really fancy one like a Benchmade they can run up to the multiple hundreds. But you don't need that.

I've gotten a few of my knives from megaknife.com

Outdoors/sporting goods stores (Cabela's, Tractor Supply Co, Dicks, etc)

Website for a specific brand (Smith & Wesson, Buck, Gerber, etc)

Exacto knives (craft or office supply stores) or scalpels if you want to do some carving. I have used an exacto knife but I prefer regular folding knives. I have not used a scalpel so proceed with caution.

Be aware of the knife laws where you live! This is more for if you're going to be carrying the knife, but still. Usually blades over 3" fall under concealed carry laws.

Safety tip: Aim for meaty parts. Avoid veins and arteries.

Sanitation:

Use alcohol wipes on the blade and skin beforehand. Wash your hands or wear gloves. Clean the cuts afterwards using a gentle soap and warm water. Do not use alcohol on the cuts afterwards. I mean, unless that's part of your pain play but I don't know if that would even be fun lol. You can use neosporin, bactine spray, etc as well.

In general, use good BDSM practices. Talk it through beforehand to establish what you and your partner are comfortable with. Use safewords, give aftercare with the first aid. Don't hesitate to check in throughout. Take it slow when you start out. Don't feel like you have to go hard and draw blood the first time you try it.

[namedafterflowerstournament]

Botanic Tournament : Main Bracket !

Round 2 Poll U

(Buttercup and hollyhocks)

[chaifootsteps]

I still think it’s an absolute joke that viv thinks ANY of her fanficy yaoi abuse writing no deeper than a piss puddle on the pavement is comparable to Bojack Horseman at all, and I feel like Stella vs Beatrice is the perfect example of that.

In Bojack, it’s established early on that Beatrice was/is a horrible mother to Bojack, the two best examples imo being her telling Bojack as a child that he ruined her beauty and that he better make up for that sometime soon, and her phone call telling him as an adult that he was born broken. But later on in the show, with the episodes The Old Sugarman Place and especially Time’s Arrow, we learn Beatrice suffered a terrible life too, one might argue even worse than Bojack’s, and that makes us sympathize with her. It’s obviously no excuse for what she’s done, especially since she was still actively making people’s lives worse with what she pulled with Hollyhock, we understand why she became the person she is. Time’s Arrow has such a cathartic and powerful ending, I’m never going to forget Bojack choosing to end the cycle of abuse that plagued his family for decades by giving his mother, with her final semblance of lucidity, by comforting her and making her think of fond memories.

Meanwhile in Helluva Shitshow we know jack and shit about Stella other than “i ENjoY tOrMEntiNG yOu” which is just, such a dogshit line. What were her parents like? What was her childhood like? What does she think about her brother? What is her personal life like outside of her family? What are her accomplishments? Interests? Goals outside of murdering the rapey owl bastard? We’re well into season 2 and we STILL haven’t gotten even ONE interaction between Stella and Octavia, mother and daughter, like are you kidding me? I cannot prepare for Hazbin if it’s supposed to be female focused while THIS is how a female writer writes her female characters, unacceptable is it what it is.

So yea, TLDR Beatrice solos Stella and viv should’ve never written for Helluva, things people are already well aware of. Sorry for the long winded rant but I had to get this off my chest after making an essay in my head about this in the shower. Hope you’re having a good day Chai, I’m now reminded of the absolute banger that is Hi-Fi Rush because of your username, thank you

This, this, this.

Beatrice was a masterpiece of a character. It's established very early on that she's absolutely awful, sometimes comically so and sometimes tragically, and also that she and Butterscotch are both miserable characters in a desperately unhappy marriage, and it just builds and builds from there into some of the most powerful writing on the show.

Stella is a character that's not only paper thin, but Vivzie will mock you on twitter if you like her or even attempt to sympathize with her.

[mysterycharacterflowers]

Hello! I am sorry for the delay! The tournament will start at November 18 at 2 pm BRT, the polls will be posted every 10 minutes!

The matches were randomized!

Side A

A bouquet of purple daylily, green carnation, dead leaves, fern, opium flowers and coriander Vs Red Orchid

Violet Vs Red Spider Lily

Dandelions 1 Vs A bouquet of willows and chives

A bouquet of wisteria, black and red carnations and foxgloves Vs A bouquet of buttercup, daffodils, edelweiss and orange

A bouquet of amaryllis, milkweed, bluebells and strelitizia Vs A bouquet of blue and red hyacinths

A bouquet of white, red and black roses Vs A bouquet of white chrysanthemums, orchids and blue hydrangeas

A bouquet of white chrysanthemums, orchids and blue hydrangeas Vs Forget-me-nots

A bouquet of snapdragon, tansy and black eyed susan Vs White poppies

Daisies Vs A bouquet of white clover, chamomile and pine

A bouquet of pink peonies, purple hydrangea and a variety of cosmos Vs A bouquet of asphodel, sage, yellow chrysanthemum, green carnation, plum blossom, stinging nettle, anemone and acanthus

A bouquet of marigold, dandelions, goldenrods and amaryllis Vs A bouquet of sea holly, ageratum, globe thistle, orchid cactus, protea, bird of paradise, mimosa, dianthus, hydrangea and clematis

A bouquet of bleeding hearts and dandelions Vs A bouquet of plastic lemon balm, thyme, hyacinths and anemone flowers, with a single real orange rose in the middle, wrapped in light blue cellophane

A bouquet of snapdragon, yellow poppy and jonquil Vs Blue Rose

A bouquet of yellow orchids, rue, yew, bird’s-foot trefoil, yellow gladiolus, yellow peony, sunflower and yellow amaryllis Vs A bouquet of dandelion, asphodel, poppy, chamomile, red columbine, hydrangea, rhododendron, dark crimson rose and queen of the night

Snapdragons Vs A bouquet of lily, red spider lily, daffodils and milkweed

A bouquet of rainflower, green carnation, camelia, nightshade, mulberry and purple lilac Vs Red Anemone

Side B

Strelitzia Vs A bouquet of blue violets, trumpet creeper, lavender and green carnation

Hibiscus Syriacus Vs Dandelions 2

Desert Bluebell Vs A bouquet of yellow and purple carnations

A bouquet of poppies, daffodils, daisies, ivy, and purple hyacinths Vs A bouquet of gloriosa (flame lily), veronica, jasione, jacaranda, cyclamen, jasmine and freesia

A bouquet of dandelions and buttercups Vs A bouquet of marigold, yellow and white zinnia, phlox, bluebells, cornflower, gladiolus, rosemary, dark crimson rose and purple cyclamen

A bouquet of orange lilies, yellow roses, buttercups, aconite, sunflower, hollyhock and lotus Vs bouquet of jasmine, milkweed, dandelion, poppy and oenothera

A bouquet of oleander, refflesia (corpse flower), trigidia, hyacinth, hollyhock, Iberis (candytuft) and orange tulip Vs A bouquet of lily of the valley and amaryllis

A bouquet of marigolds, tuberose, and dandelions Vs A bouquet of daffodil and pansy

A bouquet of amaranth, orange brugmansia, delphinium, honeysuckle and white aster Vs A bouquet of plumeria, fawn lily, magnolia and star grass

A bouquet of gladiolus, snapdragon, canterbury bells, gloriosa (flame lily) and white chrysanthemum Vs A bouquet of fern, rex begonia leaves, black rose, lily, odessa calla lily and green hydrangea

A bouquet of daisies, butterfly weed, orchids, purple lotus and violets Vs A bouquet of striga, mistletoe, and monotropa uniflora

Thistle Vs A bouquet of chestnut flower, lotus, dandelion, fern, thyme, anemone, geranium, holly, magnolia and bluebell

A bouquet of poppy, zygopetalum, echeveria, dandelion, yucca, twinspur , lotus, tagetes, ursinia, purple hyacinth and hibiscus Vs A bouquet of amaryllis, dicentra, red spider lily and white roses

Oleander Vs A bouquet of blue and purple daisies, desert lilies and black tulips

A bouquet of black eyed Susan, geranium and a tall sunflower Vs A bouquet of forsythia, holly, yellow hyacinth, petunia, viscaria and orange lilys

A bouquet of arborvitae, gladiolus and begonia Vs Spiderwort

[dysfunctional-family-fight]

Round Two

The Homunculi (Fullmetal Alchemist) VS The Horsemans (Bojack Horseman)

The Homunculi

Members: Father, Lust, Gluttony, Envy, Greed, Wrath, Sloth, Pride

Propaganda:

CW: Murder

"All only exist to be their Father's pawns. The eldest (Pride) has been pretending to be his youngest brother's (Wrath) son. Pride is about 400 years old while Wrath is like 60 There have been at least 2 instances where one of the hommunculi ate another. The second time it was on purpose and killed the one eaten. Greed ran away about 100 years before the plot of fma. Wrath killed all of Greed's friends and then captured him. He got submerged in some sort of molten metal but he was fine later. Then he got reabsorbed by his Father and helped to kill him. Greed was not fine this time." More propaganda here

The Horsemans

Members: Bojack, Hollyhock, Beatrice, Butterscotch, Joseph Sugarman, and Honey Sugarman

Propaganda:

CW: Car accident, lobotomy, verbal abuse

"The death of Beatrice's brother Crackerjack sent her family into a dysfunctionally horrific spiral. Honey Sugarman going into a grief fueled mania, unable to cope with the loss of her son. This lead to a car accident where Honey had 7 year old Beatrice try to drive them home, yelling about how she would do anything to feel alive. Both seriously injured, when they were sent home to Joseph he was enraged that Honey would put Beatrice in danger like that, blaming Crackerjacks death on Honey. Honey then begged Joseph to fix her. And he gave her a lobotomy. She became despondent. When Beatrice begs to know what happened, Honey says "Love does things to a person, terrible things. Promise me you'll never love anyone as much as I loved Crackerjack." and Beatrice agreed. Beatrice eventually meets her husband Butterscotch when he crashes her debutante party. They hit it off and they leave her party to well...make Bojack basically. Butterscotch and Beatrice begin to plan an idyllic idea for their future. However they begin to hate eachother, Butterscotch generally neglecting both Beatrice and Bojack. Beatrice in turn takes this out on Bojack, telling him how unlovable and awful he is as a person. Saying he is worth nothing beyond what he can do for others. Leading to the fucked up, mess of a man that is Bojack Horseman." Note: edited for length. Full submission here.

[thettrpgtournament]

Why you should vote for each of them and full art below!

Aurora Byford (by @scattereda for Monster of the Week)

(art by @rosenkranz-does-things)

Aurora is 50's america's most normalest woman who's definitely not actually a changeling eating people in the woods. She was having a great time amongus-ing the group of monster hunters she joined to stay under the radar until the world's worst man dragged her to the moon with him (which will hopefully be exploding very shortly)

Lord Tye (by @bitchyfog for Hollyhock)

(art by @reactorc0re)

Imagine the highest and mightiest elf royalty stereotype. Proud, haughty, obsessed with power and influence, attitude for days, bedecked in fine clothes and jewels. Now imagine all of that stuffed into an adorable three foot tall beanie-baby looking creature.

That's Lord Tye. An Aristocrat Guide of the Winter Court, they attend a fairy festival as an honored guest (according to them) to throw their power and influence around to try and stop a rival noble from laying claim to a small, insignificant territory for curious secret reasons. They will bribe, wheedle, and trade secrets and favors to get their way while being absolutely insufferably full of themself the entire time. Just don't ask them their true name!

[m1ckeyb3rry]

Manifesting you get a bfb Karasu equivalent soon!! Trust all these randos are just preparing you for the real deal dw dw!!! But also LOL OK that’s good I can imagine the insane lore developments that come from your hangouts LMAO expanding the miraverse irl edition

LMAOOO yk aikus hit rock bottom when he’s asking Niko of all people for advice…but y/n and snuffy having a relationship like Lorenzo and snuffy have is so cute…I stand by snuffy on top as coach though but anyways this series would actually be so hilarious

This is so funny because you take two ends of the spectrum with playboy aiku and then losers Hiori and Rin and hopefully their ideas would even out to get someone normal….but yeah there’s no way either of them would go to aiku of all people LMAO the blind leading the blind truly HAHA

Ohhh yeah that’s right…Lowk I never understood that because I wasn’t under the impression that when like his entire class confessed to him that they did so solely because of soccer? Wtv ig middle school drama or something but tbh I thought it was more of his face card pulling than anything else so uh…I need one of those goofy trivia tidbits kaneshiro please I need to know…you’re right though there’s no way karasus considered ugly since he did pull Marisa…hm….also agreed if Raichi just shut up he’d be cool so maybe he only screams on field/in soccer mode??? LMAO but those four getting zero really shocks me like…ok yeah I think Isagi is not super interesting but you’re telling me NO ONE in the bllkverse wanted your average sweet boy (ig??)??? Like I’m surprised that he pulled absolutely no one given his rather easy going personality off field…maybe everyone just thinks like us though LOL

NAGI ISAGI DUO >>> I love them too Lowk nagi has so many interesting duo combos…but KIYORA THOUGHTS I was honestly not expecting that one trust I will be giggling when I see the irl miraverse Easter eggs

Ok but the gagamaru fic was so cute??? Him running and knocking on the window scaring the shit out of reader is so on brand for him too LMAOO another Mira W

That kiyora summary line goes hard….Im not a hardcore kiyora fan but when the reader isn’t normal you know that’s when the fic is gonna serve (this is reminding me about our convo on hollyhock LOL)

- Karasu anon

LMAOO no the hangouts always go crazy…plenty of opps created and situations developed…but it is what it is 🙂‍��️ HAHA one day we will find someone fr but until then i shall content myself w writing abt silly little fictional men 🤩

no literally like aiku’s sobbing to niko and niko is just like ??? bro i’m 15??? LMAOO that poor guy ironically i bet it’s niko’s advice that makes him realize what’s going on because if even NIKO is saying smth then yk it’s bad…like oh man even the kid realizes i’m in love w her maybe i actually am 😭 and YESSS snuffy number one coach easily (although in terms of actual player development it’s lowkey chris prince he just got stuck w reo and nagi in their emo era but he’s helped chigiri mega slay so obv he’s doing smth right) i think it would be so cute if snuffy is like her fun adopted uncle or smth like maybe she knew lorenzo beforehand so when snuffy helps lorenzo out he helps her by extension?? so when snuffy’s like hear me out this aiku kid isn’t that bad and lorenzo is like facts she’s just like umm okay ig i’ll give it a shot??

HAHAHA hiori and rin vs aiku and otoya literally two opposite ends of the spectrum…take the average and you get karasu and yukimiya (definitely d1 piners but at the same time like they’ll do what they have to and actually ask a girl out without taking ridiculous measures to do so 😭)

no literally maybe it’s just because he became so unfriendly/closed off that everyone just felt awkward around him?? like oh chigiri is the emo one so no one wanted to give him a valentine…or maybe he was actively in rehab and barely at school back then 🤔 HAHA karasu is def that guy that’s actually hot but he doesn’t realize it and thinks he’s mid just based on what we know abt him 😭 i feel like people are probably intimidated by him which is why he didn’t get that many valentines or anything…like bro is def lowkey scary even though we know he’d never be a jerk to a girl i can def see girls seeing him be his typical mischievous jackass self and just being too scared to approach him 😓 LMAOO honestly raichi is probably more chill off field/with girls so ig i can see how he got valentines?? but yeahhh idk how isagi didn’t get ANY 😰 like WE think he’s a loser but i feel like in-verse he’s quite chill and pretty tall/athletic so how did he get NO girls?? i can see why bachira didn’t since he was canonically bullied and a loner and ig i can see why nagi didn’t since he’s apparently cursed 😭⁉️ but yeah isagi not even getting one is crazy…ig bllk girls are on the miraverse wavelength in that sense (i wish it said how many chocolates barou got because i can see him getting 0 as well or getting like a fair amount there’s really no in between)

NAGI AND ISAGI >>> second selection is literally my fav because those two are sooo good together i hope they’re reunited soon i lowkey find them more fun than nagi and reo 😓 nagi and barou both make every duo they’re in actively better (which is why their duo is the best) we love them for that…pls i wasn’t expecting kiyora thoughts from a nagi + isagi edit either like it was so random??? but when inspiration strikes ig…i guess that “vague kiyora prompt” entry in my notes app got to me fr 😭 i hope the person who requested it is okay with the direction i take it?? they literally just asked for a kiyora fic which could be anything so praying they don’t hate what i do with it 😩

LMAOO it was the best way i could incorporate what they asked for while still retaining that comedic flair that i tend to use in shorter fics 😵 i feel like gagamaru is one of those characters that’s hard to keep in character because he doesn’t have much of a character in the source material so any expansion feels like i’m taking too many liberties (currently the problem i’m facing w kiyora…like i’m making this up as i go because there’s literally nothing on him even in the wiki so it feels like i’m being way too inventive with how he’d react to situations but it’s just that there isn’t much to go off of??)

I LOVEEE WRITING NOT NORMAL READERS but ik not everyone enjoys them + this reader kind of has a strong character to really play off of how i’m writing kiyora which again not everyone really likes so fingers crossed the anon isn’t like WTF is this because that would be so embarrassing…hollyhock reader is definitely a little/lot worse than this reader though she’s on another level fr 😭

[starfacedstudio]

ID: A lineup of some original characters drawn as Among Us beans. They have been stylized to have differing body types and they have tails instead of backpacks. Some sketches appear showing who in the group would be an 'impostor' by showing their spiky mouths. End ID.

not necessarily hard to find info but did you know the majority of the main cast of Visible Spectrum genuinely used to be among us characters. Yea. anyways (re-beans them)

[original-character-championship]

Bracket H Round 1

Poll 6

Caleb Hollyhock (@lotshusband) vs. Andre Lopez (@sweettoothvn)

459. Caleb Hollyhock (@lotshusband)

he/him

Caleb is the paladin that inspired the popular paladin post I made earlier this year. His childhood best friend Astera ascended to minor godhood, and Caleb swears devotion to them in order to stay connected; he lives out the rest of his days in the service of Astera, becoming the firstborn devotee of a brand new fledgling god that he grew up horsing around with.

He’s a brunette with a twice-broken nose and a mild, warm face. He’s quite plain but nice enough to look at.

460. Andre Lopez (@sweettoothvn)

He/him

He's a very wholesome guy. A little dense but he works as hard as he can. He loves his family a lot and has a pitbull named Pepper. He will fight for Pepper. Pepper is his world. He builds robots or repairs them because he thinks its fun. He's just a goofy lil guy.

He has blonde hair, brown skin, a scar across his face, closed eyes, a stubble, sharp teeth, purple shirt, gold chain

[vonkarma2]

Writing Crow Armitage meta IKR I’m contributing to the problem. God as my witness I will write meta about Kaleela or someone next. But I do think it’s interesting. So with Crow something I think is interesting about his character is two seemingly  very contradictory aspects, which is his excessive humility vs his egotism like ok. He is simeltaneously convinced he can’t do anything and needs external guidance and has a low opinion of himself relative to humanity (and to the people he ranks below ie basically just Dashwood he probably does think he’s better than Hollyhock lmao) + that his own thoughts and feelings don’t matter. But at the same time. He views himself as carrying out an important purpose as part of an important legacy and is condescending to others who don’t share his views, most especially to werewolves of course but also often unintentionally to humans as well. Both above and beneath everyone else.

 I think the layers are like as a child he thought he needed to do something important to help his family. He wasn‘t malicious or anything, but he did have a very high opinion of himself at the time. Thought it was cool that he was nobility, thought he was deserving of praise for his own abilities. And I think he does still carry this to some extent to this day, even though it has been greatly complicated. I think his faith in his own control over transformation + over any dangerous situation he gets into in general can be traced back not just to his success in battle over the years, but also to this time, when he was like 15 and had the overconfidence of a high school boy lmfao. Just genuinely sincerely thought he knew better than everyone else, and had a very high opinion of both his knowledge and his ability. What a fucking loser.

Now as an adult he wants his agency taken away, as we’ve stated before, because he can’t trust himself, because if he does he’ll know he’s made a huge mistake. He is at least generally aware, even if he’s not sure why, that the initial decision to leave his family was wrong. And honestly on some level he probably *does* know specifically that what he’s doing is wrong, because of the regret he would have felt as a teenager the first time he got sent to fucking murder someone with his bare hands. He was canonically very distressed by this, he didn’t actually want to hurt anyone, they had to do a lot of heavy lifting to convince him it was justified both before and after the fact. So it’s the regret from that and the recognition of the initial decision to take the aconite in the first place as where it kind of all went wrong that he started his classic strategy of compensating for internal doubt by quadrupling down on what other people are telling him.

So that’s where you see the start of ignoring his own thoughts and beliefs and actively playing into the ideology as a way to cope with the reality of his situation. The ideology says he’s beneath humans, he’s an extension of the Equipoise’s will, he has to take orders from the Prime Gardener because he’s the one who knows what’s best to protect humanity. So of course he does, he genuinely believes in all of this, starts thinking that not only his own beliefs but also straight up his life is not valuable except with regards to being a tool of lycanthropy.

But that’s not all that other people are telling him, right. Part of the manipulation is kind of stroking his ego a little, or more so, like, exaggerating his importance. The outside world is full of heretics full of killers you’re the only thing standing between humanity and the total violence most werewolves are either actively perpetuating or want to. This idea of his own importance contributes to his conviction, right, because it adds a sense of urgency and necessity, and it also associates that with being above other werewolves. 

The commitment to all of this where the contradiction comes in, right. Because he is so completely devoted to the ideology as a way to cover up his own doubts, he can’t let other people question it or go against it either, so in a way it is like he is believing his judgment to be above questioning whereas theirs is not. He is above questioning because he’s replaced his own thoughts with other peoples’, and he sure as hell isn’t going to question them. He becomes like very condescending and very adamant about the points of view others have given him.

So it’s like both sides of the coin. He’s so convinced he’s right about everything because he knows he’s horribly wrong. 

Tangent that’s only semi-related: Another thing with him that’s kind of funny is that because he has not successfully repressed every single thought and desire he has, he becomes very adherent to the letter and not the spirit of the law, right, which you can see in the main story with taking Lennox with him on one of his missions just because he wanted to impress him, thus putting him directly in danger. He doesn’t see a problem with this because the Sanctum can’t take issue with it as long as they never find out, so he isn’t violating any orders :). This makes him a massive fucking hypocrite and an even worse person, but it’s also very funny. Do not take my word for this last paragraph though because I’m not 100% sure on all the details here. The spirit of what Im saying is correct he is a hypocritical bitch for sure

[thessalian]

Thess vs An Unfortunate Tuesday

There are no words for how fed up I am with today.

Started poorly in that “I woke up too early and couldn’t get back to sleep” way, but I thought, hey, I can check the bus routes and go pick up some mallet meds before I start work, since I am currently out. Except that according to the route finder on my phone, all the nearest bus stops are shut. I found out why when I went out to the corner shop - I’d forgotten they were resurfacing one of the main roads in the area. So every bus in my area that doesn’t require climbing a massive hill is diverted away for basically the whole week, and trying to cross said road is an absolute nightmare because, again, resurfacing the entire road.

(Though I have to say, while I can get away with forgetting about the signs that have been all over the place for a month talking about it because I don’t even drive or live on that road at all, I don’t understand the people who actually park their cars there. One of the things that was going on when I went to find a place to cross the road was somebody’s car getting towed. Oopsie.)

So, yeah, it’s going to be a hellish walk however I do it because such hill, and also raining. I swear, since I’m not crossing the entirety of London, I’m about half-tempted to get a taxi. Okay, more than half-tempted to get a taxi. We’ll see after my grocery order arrives, since I have to be here to pick it up. Might end up having to take a taxi anyway to get to any pharmacy that’s open. Not a problem if I go to a supermarket pharmacy counter; I kind of wanted to go to the big Tesco anyway because they have a better range of gluten-free stuff and there are some things I missed on the big shop.

Anyway, then there was the work itself, which was its usual blend of manageable and really fucking annoying. First thing I got was "Hey, send all these reports to this person, please; the hospital numbers probably won’t be right so use the NHS numbers”. Some of them weren’t registered under NHS numbers either so I had to go by names and wanted to kick the individuals responsible for not providing dates of birth. At least none of the names I was looking for were particularly common. Anyway, point is that there were a lot of names on that list and only about two-thirds of them actually had reports on the system anywhere, so I sent what I had with an apology and effectively, ��There’s this one we have no record of at all from January and the rest of them only underwent surgery on Friday so their reports might not have gone through the system yet”. The email I got back was, “Oh, yeah, I guess if you only got the samples yesterday afternoon we can’t expect an authorised report; and that other guy in January was a no-show so you won’t have his reports because there aren’t any”.

THEN WHY WAS HE ON THE LIST?!?

Anyway, after that, my laptop demanded rebooting twice in quick succession, but in between times I found that Temp was playing her usual game of leaving all the long bullshit to me. She was really blatant about it today, too. I mean, fuck’s sake. So I got a significant portion of the long and aggravating bullshit. I don’t know who got the rest but I had a look and it was not her. I swear, I’m going to have to ask Scruffman to really take a look at what she’s doing because none of this is fair, to any of us that do any typing.

Somewhere in the middle of all that, my Stuff What I Ordered arrived. So I have a new egg slicer (tougher than the last one, thank the gods), a proper salt shaker, two new window boxes, and a bunch of seeds. Hey, @fauxfire76 - I’m planting petunias! I mean, also cornflower and hollyhock and zinnia and forget-me-not and a bunch of other bee-friendly flowers, but you know. Also need to start the basil, coriander, tomatoes and probably the dill (I know I’ve still got the rescue dill but I cannot have too much dill; it is impossible). And obviously the soil to make the planting happen. I am alternately amused and bewildered at the fact that I quasi-regularly buy dirt.

So, yeah, today’s been unfortunate on a number of levels and it’s not even really over yet. Hence the wanting to go to the big Tesco for some gluten-free treat or other.

[namedafterflowerstournament]

Botanic Tournament : Main Bracket !

Round 1 Poll O

Flores is Spanish for flowers

(Dandelion and hollyhocks)

[characterswithcolorsnamesfight]

Hello, please excuse me for barging in with a relatively long text. I'm not trying to be rude, but I will probably come across as smart-ass anon. If I'm horribly wrong someone can correct me. I just want everyone to be aware and to watch out and double check when in doubt.

I think, you should be careful with characters named Aoi claiming to mean blue in Japanese. More often Aoi as a name is not blue and even some fandom wikis have it wrong.

But there is a simple rule...

Aoi written with the Kanji 葵 is not blue. It is a noun meaning hollyhock (a plant with very nice flowers!).

Aoi written with Kanji 青い is an adjective meaning blue, blue-ish. The noun for the blue, the blueness, would be Ao (青) without the "i". You can see the colour meaning with Ao (青) more in compound names like Aoyama (青山 green mountain*) or Aozora (青空 blue sky) for example.

So it might be more common to name characters and actual children after a flower. Instead of the adjective blue-ish.

Finally, there is also the Aoi who is not written in Kanji but simply with あおい or アオイ. As here no descriptive Kanji are used, the meaning is open to interpretation and what might more fitting to the character (is the character more a flowery type or a blue type due to hair or clothes? Or maybe both a flowery type with a lot of blue colour theme in the character design?).

*I use green mountain rather than blue mountain in a translation. Japanese doesn't necessarily distinguish blue and green. Ao/Aoi can indeed mean both blue and green.

This is a japanese dictionary for English: https://ejje.weblio.jp/

You can just copy paste any Kanji and it will put the English meaning. It also works the other way round.

I know it's just a fun tournament and it's not meant to be a science. I just wanted to place this here for the sake of fairness. I hope it was at least somewhat informative or worth knowing.

Hi !

As someone who tends to apologize too much in real life, please don't apologize, it wasn't necessary. It didn't sound rude or mean spirited at all and I'll never blame someone for sharing their knowledge respectfully.

I've worked on a tournament before and got more familiar with kanji (including non descriptive ones) then -I'm still not an expert but I understand the system better than I previously did-. That doesn't work that well with non descriptive kanjis but just copy-pasting kanjis in the images search engine also helps. There are two ways of writing Sakura with descriptive kanjis (one is more used in first names and means cherry blossom and I can be wrong but from memory the other one is about warehouse and help and used for surnames)

I knew for the polysemy of Aoi because you all are champions for saying "I know the original meaning isn't xxx but -" but some submitters didn't seem aware of it (well I prefer to think they weren't. This is a silly tourney and honesty is the basis of courtesy)

I didn't know about blue and green, that was very enlightening. I'm glad many more people think green and blue look quite similar (we have a family running joke about never agreeing on colors, especially not blue VS green. "Look how blue the lake is." "What are you on ? Looks green." "More black-ish imo." "Take of your sunglasses. It's blue-green you all" "What do you mean green, it's obviously teal", "Isn't teal a green shade ??" "No, it's blue" "Wait let me check with my phone")

Thank you for the Japanese dictionary, I browsed a few for tourney purpose before but didn't know how accurate they were.

I wasn't planning to accept characters with wrong kanji without and make you all decide about the ones with a good explanation on a case by case basis. I'm also putting explanations for non English names and rarer English names on all the polls. This is comforting me in my choice.

You're welcome to bang on my door and teach me more about linguistics anytime !

Thank you for your research ! Have a lovely day !

[mysterycharacterflowers]

Third Place, round 7; Plastic/fake strawberry flowers Vs A bouquet of sunflowers, dandelions, ferns, foxglove, hollyhock, lotus, balsamine, green carnation, fennel, black eyed susan and queen of night

First, let's talk about the Plastic/fake strawberry flowers

Why this flower was chosen: Because he is very germaphobic and also phobic of the things that are in flowers and thus hates nature because it’s dirty (his friends even said that he would be would be a plastic flower if he were one) and strawberry because that’s the smell of the shampoo his wife used and that he can still smell on the pillow she slept on that he keeps (in a plastic case) and hugs when he’s sad Description: He’s a detective. His wife was murdered and for three years after that he didn’t leave the house because his phobias that he had before got exponentially worse. He slowly did start coming out of his house and getting better trying to figure out why his wife was murdered while solving other crimes. He has 312 phobias with the top being in order: germs, needles, dentists, milk, death, snakes, lightning, mushrooms, heights, crowds, elevators. He has impeccable memory, doesn’t like people and will 100% put his phobias and needs over manners. He can clean his house in his sleep, literally. At the end of the day he is a very nice friend but annoys the crap outa his friends and often doesn’t realise that they even care for him as much as they do/ doesn’t realise they consider him a friend. He always says “here’s the thing” before saying he can’t do something very particular. He also says “Unless I’m wrong, which you know, I’m not”. He always has his assistant carry wipes around and wipes his hands every time he shakes someone’s hand. He is very tight (as in with money) which is very relatable for me and probably other people and its hilarious when he hasn’t paid his assistant because he doesn’t have money (while still buying copious amounts of cleaning supplies) and because he’s so non confrontational he doesn’t want to ask for a raise even tho it’s a totally legit ask (which is also hilarious in and of itself) he ends up just avoiding the subject in any way possible. He once was forced to decorate for Christmas (which he doesn’t do since his wife died) and he used not a fake tree but a paper cut out of a tree. He doesn’t at all know what would insult someone and rarely knows how to make someone feel better (often failing miserably but occasionally actually helping and being super wholesome). He hates/is scared of nakedness (and doesn’t even “look” when he wees) and there was a whole thing where he had to investigate a nudist and was just finding every possible way to find him guilty and it was hilarious (he was in the end more accepting of it but still freaked out) He also wears the same clothes every day and buys shirts checked by a specific checker in a factory that he actually sent a fan letter to (and helped prove her son not guilty). Anyway he is very relatable for just introverted people or awkward people in general because he expresses the way we feel and does things we wish we could do or want to do and says thing we just think in the most hilarious ways, and if that doesn’t make any sense then he just acts and says things that we all kinda do on the inside. Apart from just mostly normal people, he is relatable for the people who share his mental conditions like my dad who is a germaphobe and even tho people still don’t understand germaphobia really, he knows that he gets it and he relates to him a lot. And he has a lot of other things like anxiety, and little things like not being able to deal with change and other stuff that just make him super relatable to neurodevergent people like me. When people first look at people with mental problems they say they are weak that so little sets them off but in reality, they are dealing with so so much that you can’t see and you don’t need to deal with and they- and he is (are) so incredibly strong. I love him so much and I would say more but I don’t want to reveal who he is.

Check his post here

A bouquet of sunflowers, dandelions, ferns, foxglove, hollyhock, lotus, balsamine, green carnation, fennel, black eyed susan and queen of night

Why and meaning: Sunflowers- very literal in their relation to the sun. Dandelions- overcoming hardship Ferns- magic or enchantment Foxglove- insecurity Hollyhock- ambition Lotus- rebirth Balsamine- impatience Green Carnation- he is homosexual Fennel- strength Black eyed Susan- justice Queen of the Night- enjoy small moments because they do not last Description: Hes sooooo silly your honor. Hes my skrunkly blorbo oongly. THE babygirl. Hes 35 years old, hes the chosen one, he has a sickass sword. He keeps adopting stray children like pokemon cards, hes broke as a goddamn joke. He managed to score a major fucking hottie by being peculiar and having sopping wet cat energy. He’s gay, he's gray-ace, he has a layered, complex queer platonic relationship with his best friend and every single woman he knows could throttle him. He's my special little boy please

Check his post here