#wanted to add my thoughts to this discussion

[sewersewersewercouch]

Microphone and ADHD: yet another very rambly analysis

GUESS WHO’S WRITING LONG TUMBLR POSTS ABOUT MIC AGAIN!!!!

i’ve been trying to formulate this post in my brain for a while and i’m finally writing it. I should add a disclaimer here: while i’ve done my own research for this, i’m also mostly writing from my own experience, which a) obviously every case of adhd is different, and b) while adhd is my only diagnosis at present, there are various other things that i’m questioning and in the process of being evaluated for which might also bleed into my experiences with adhd. If there are any issues please feel free to point them out! Also i don’t want to imply that if you don’t have adhd you can’t relate to mic, i’m just discussing the things i personally am seeing in canon. Also also, if this is weird and disjointed and rambly, well, you signed up to read a very long post by someone from adhd about blorbo from their shows.

I think what first comes to mind with Mic and ADHD traits for me is her impulsivity. This is something we see trip her up again and again—for example, when she yells at Fan in Tri Your Best, not considering how the noise could boost him into the air and ahead of her, or in Mazed and Confused, when she calls after Knife in the maze without realizing that Test Tube is in there as well. (And yes, she didn’t hear Baseball say that Test Tube was in there, but if she’d thought before she’d acted she might have considered looking around to make sure there were no Bright Lights missing as well.) Hell, another example I noticed was that during Mine Your Own Business, when Taco and Knife are arguing, Mic physically shoves Knife into the gem, and like, not gently, either—he slams into it pretty hard. It’s been pretty well established at this point that Mic is very averse to physical violence, and she definitely wouldn’t do anything like that intentionally, but the fact of the matter is, when she’s stressed like that, she just kind of makes a snap action without using her head.

This also ties into my second point, her difficulties with emotional regulation, which is something that’s very common with ADHD. I kind of struggle to describe how this shows up in Mic, because honestly, a lot of her seemingly overblown reactions are more of a “straw that breaks the camel’s back” type of situation where she takes so much shit from her teammates that obviously, who wouldn’t be upset? However, I do think it’s fair to say that she’s someone who’s quite easily frustrated, and can have a tendency to lash out quite harshly when she’s in this state. For example, in A Kick In The Right Direction, she’s pissed off about being relegated to goalie, which is fair, but she takes this out on Dough, who wasn’t involved in this decision, just because he happens to be near her, and she’s, like…pretty mean about it, too? Like, when he says he’s bored she says “so am I but not enough to talk to you” and then later flat out tells him to jump off a bridge. Yes, this second one was after he was distracting her and the Bright Lights got a goal past her, but still, it does feel like a pretty dramatic reaction. Especially as in general, Mic’s demeanor is friendly and outgoing, she clearly is someone who cares a lot about others’ well-being, and she’s just a nice person all around, but when something gets under her skin she’s immediately on the defensive and says stuff like this.

Also, just in general, Mic is very outwardly emotional. It’s one of the ways the narrative contrasts her with Taco, who for much of the story is incapable of giving up her facade, whereas Microphone is incapable of not wearing her heart on her sleeve. You can usually at any given time tell from Mic’s expressions and tone exactly what she’s feeling. This is especially noticeable as she’s frequently in a position where she has to lie, and she is…not good at it. Some of the time she falls back on the aforementioned defensiveness—for example, in Alternate Reality Show, when Suitcase asks what she’s painting and she replies, “Uh, zilch! Why are you picking today to talk to me for the first time ever?” and when Knife immediately after asks why she was late, she says, “I got other places to be? What’s it to you?” A lot of the time, though, she just gets all nervous and awkward. Adorable, undeniably, but not helpful when she’s in the position she’s in. (I was very charmed to find that she keeps this trait even after the game, what with her telling Taco to act natural and then going “Heyyyyy!!!! I, uh, found someone! :))))” as if that’s at all acting natural. Never change.) Mic feels everything very strongly, and she can’t naturally hide that like Taco can.

I also wanted to bring up Mic’s extreme sensitivity to negative feedback, or what’s often referred to as Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria—which, yes, I know that isn’t actually technically a diagnostic trait, but I would say it’s kind of an offshoot of emotional dysregulation combined with a response to being ostracised for being neurodivergent in a shitty ableist world. A lot of the time when Mic shows the traits I’ve mentioned here, and they trip her up, her teammates show her very little patience and compassion. (Baseball and Nickel are particularly guilty of this—Cheesy does it as well, but he also apologizes to her and it seems like they get along afterwards. Baseball, however, will be on thin ice until I hear a goddamn apology from him.) And while she tends to respond to their disparagement with anger externally, as mentioned above, it also clearly really upsets her in a deeper way. For all the amount she takes it out on others, she takes it out on herself tenfold: look at the words she uses to describe herself in her diary. “Annoying, harmful, random, useless, insignificant, loser.” This treatment, along with her previously mentioned sensitive emotions, make her very reactive to any form of perceived criticism or failure. Even in the finale, when she’s been through her own arc and had a while to heal from the toxic environment of the show, the image shown in the red line game shows that this is still what upsets her the most—the idea of being ignored and rejected by others.

I think this also goes the other way—she’s so sick of being disparaged that it turns into a desperation for approval and connection. This is kind of the foundation of her entire arc. I noticed this one moment in Mazed and Confused, where Taco offers to help her out and Mic says “Really? You would help me out?” as though she’s completely shocked by the idea of someone offering her help. Which makes sense—the only person who’s actually been there for her is Soap. And one could ask, why does Mic stay in her alliance with Taco? Clearly she realizes, deep down, that what she’s doing is unethical. Mic is someone who has a strong moral code that I think in most circumstances she’d care about more than the money. (Yes, I know, I know, the twist, but it’s been proven several times that contestants are more than capable of putting other things above the game. Look at Marshmallow, Clover, Lightbulb, and obviously, eventually Mic herself!) But I don’t think what keeps her pushing her cognitive dissonance down is actually anything about the money. It’s the approval she gets. Baseball, who as I’ve said is normally quite hard on her, compliments her when she does something right as a result of her cheating, and in so doing cements in her mind that cheating=people liking her. She also gets approval from Taco, which fuels this even more. And as this alliance goes on, it transforms into…well, I don’t know if I’d call it a friendship, per se, but it seems that Mic really does value Taco’s company and wants to connect with her on a more personal level, rather than just as a means to an end. This just muddies matters further, as Mic now has not only approval at stake, but also one of the few actual relationships she has in the game. It takes Taco killing two people in front of her for her to decide that’s not worth it.

I think I maybe got a little sidetracked from my point there, as I am very much wont to do, but I think this leads Mic to display some kinds of masking behavior. One facet of this is politeness/friendliness—and this is not to say that Mic isn’t genuinely an outgoing, friendly person. In my own experience, masking isn’t as cut and dry as “not acting like yourself”---rather, it’s often more putting certain, more socially acceptable aspects of one’s personality forward and suppressing the less acceptable ones. Her politeness also comes off as very stilted to me. For example, in Theft and Battery, where she says, “Guys, not to sound rude, but didn’t MePhone5S and 5C just try to kill MePhone4? Didn't this guy create them? Why would he support us if he just tried to kill us?” It seems like a weird thing to have to tack “not to sound rude” onto—it’s a completely valid and truthful point. But she’s so used to being perceived as rude that it seems she feels like she has to say that. There’s also another example I already talked about in a different post but will go back over here—in Mine Your Own Business, when Mic and Taco are trying to sneak past Knife, but Mic sneezes and then follows it up with “Sorry! ‘Scuse me!” Which, as Taco points out, isn’t something people normally do. And immediately Mic falls back on her other defense mechanism, lashing out. If you listen to what she’s saying when they’re arguing, it’s “What was I supposed to say, ‘bless me’ and bless myself? You’re the one who’s always trying to be proper, what’s your problem?” I think this moment says a lot about her—when she knows she’s messed up, she tries to cover for it with politeness, but she also doesn’t quite get the social rules right. It’s very much something that’s put on, not that comes naturally to her. (This is where I realized she has many parallels with my other favorite Cabby, but that’s a whole different can of worms.)

However, she also masks in kind of the other direction, that is, putting others down to boost herself up. The Grand Slams are not the healthiest of teams, to put it lightly, and Mic mimics the behavior she sees in others that brings them social success. For example, when she jokes to Baseball about not wanting to “pull a Balloon—” Balloon being unpopular as he is, she knows other people will find mocking him funny. And it works! Baseball laughs! She tries this again later, when she says to Knife “talk about emotional baggage” in regards to Suitcase, but this time he doesn’t respond well. Mic seems genuinely surprised at this—this method has worked for her before, so she’s put off by the fact that it doesn’t work this time. And I should say—this isn’t something Taco tells her to do. She does it entirely of her own volition.

Actually, looking at this more, it seems more like part of something she mostly does during her alliance with Taco—an unaffected, jokey front she tends to put on when she’s lying or messing with people, to…limited success, as discussed earlier, but I think she also uses it when she’s lying to herself, or trying to convince herself that what she or Taco is doing isn’t wrong. I had a few examples in mind. The first is in Kick the Bucket, right after the Nickel and Balloon double elimination, when she says, “Well, ha, what a lively experience! Well, not much to gain from sitting around and doing nothing. See ya!” It’s oddly nonchalant when clearly everyone around her is upset, and we see her look concerned for a second beforehand before she goes into this. I interpret that as her…kind of seeing that what just happened messed things up for a lot of people and that it was her fault, but she’s not ready to accept that truth yet. She also uses this affect throughout Mine Your Own Business—both with Taco, as an attempt to get her to open up, and with Knife, I think in some ways trying to mimic what Taco did to recruit her in order to do the same with him. Neither of these are successful. Knife being Knife, he’s someone who’s very able to see right through people (figuratively speaking, that is, because now people can literally see right through him! Get it? Because he’s a ghost? Please imagine the sound of Cheesy slapping his knee from somewhere in the distance). He plants seeds of doubt in Mic’s mind by telling her about Pickle—and she’s still not ready for those seeds to grow, but they certainly are there. In fact, the next time we see her use this behavior, it’s in Hatching the Plan, when she jokes that Taco will “inevitably drop me too or whatever.” She says it casually, but clearly what Knife said is still on her mind, and she’s trying to convince herself that what happened to Pickle won’t happen to her even though she doesn’t at all believe herself. I also think looking at this behavior has really clarified my view of her in the movie—at first I was frustrated at how she seemed much more calm and collected than I would have expected her to, both about the general horrors happening to everyone, and specifically about Taco. I talked about those criticisms in another post, and I do still stand by them to some extent, I would have written her differently. But I don’t think it’s as incongruent with her character as I did before—in fact, I think there’s plenty of precedent for her masking like that in situations of greatly conflicted emotion. (Oddly enough, I think it’s something she has in common with Taco, but Taco’s just better with it.) I kind of doubt she was quite mentally ready to reconnect with Taco yet, but in such a dire situation she doesn’t have time to process all that, so she just kind of shoves that to the back of her brain. Not to say that I don’t think she genuinely cares for Taco, but I do think there’s a lot of processing she hasn’t done yet about her that will hopefully be a topic of discussion later please please please AE please for me???? Anyways, I do think this is a response to her aforementioned emotional dysregulation tending to create problems for her, and it’s definitely a masking technique in my eyes.

I also want to touch briefly on Microphone and Soap’s friendship, because while it’s not evidence for my point exactly, per se, I do think it’s relevant. While unfortunately pretty stereotypical representation, I would say it’s generally considered true that Soap is coded as having OCD. Now I’m not going to say that all neurodivergent people can easily be friends with one another, I know that’s not true. However, looking at the scene we see with the two of them in Rain On Your Charade, it certainly plays a part in this specific friendship. Mic helps Soap cope with her compulsions, and Soap is the only person at this time who really values Mic and doesn’t see her as a burden just because she’s accident-prone.

One minor thing I also wanted to point out was how it’s pretty common for people with ADHD to struggle with controlling our voices, including the tone, speed, and…well, volume. I can’t count the amount of times I’ve had people tell me that I’m talking loudly and I didn’t even realize it. I trust I don’t have to explain how this point is relevant to Mic, and it does very much fit.

There was one specific line that inspired me to write this post, from Everything’s A-OJ: “I’m trying harder than anyone else, so why do I always lose?” One of the diagnostic traits for ADHD is described as making “careless mistakes” in activities, and I never have particularly loved that phrasing. It may look careless on the outside, because it’s often mistakes that other people can easily avoid, but when you have a disorder that affects your attention, impulse control, memory, executive function, et cetera et cetera et cetera, you doing your best might look like someone else half-assing it. Not to get too personal on my blorbo post, but I keep thinking about this one teacher I had in middle school who, when I messed something up in a class, said “oh, that’s such a Clonnie move!” I’m sure she doesn’t remember that, but I do, because when you hear over and over again that people associate you with making mistakes, that shit sticks with you, and eventually when nothing you do helps you start to feel like you’re the mistake. That’s why Mic as a character resonates with me so much. God willing AnimationEpic will bring my girl back because I would like to see how Mic heals from that mindset as time goes on and where she goes from here.

[spiderlot]

okay but hear me out... Iris wanting to top you for the first time

Discuss

she's so nervous when trying to ask you and tries to steer the conversation to a different direction but she can't lie to you when you ask her what's wrong 😇 you immediately agree because duh?! you have to make fun of her first though, asking her how many times she's thought about being on top or getting on her lap and listening to her talk about how bad she wants to do it :)

im jailbreaking her so i can add a built in strap mod idc! also just thought about empathix letting you choose a flavor for the companion's cum 😭 because if her tears are just like wiper fluid like josh said or whatever, surely her cum is just water too. getting the flavor changed every time you take her in for servicing LMFAO

she definitely takes her time and kisses your body like how you kiss hers because she's learning :( testing her and trying to flip her over to take control but she holds you down and tells you to sit still and take her @__@ so shy when she dirty talks like that too oh my gosh!!! she sounds a little unsure of herself at first but she gets so into it that she ends up commanding you around and loves it.

asking her to rough you up a little and she doesn't wanna hurt you 😭 even if you convince her to slap your cheek, it's barely a slap when she does it. maybe you have to fix her programming a little to allow her to hurt the one she loves, or maybe you corrupt her?

[certifiedlesbianvampire]

this week's episode was one that i've been looking forward to for a while, and while not perfect in execution, i still found it interesting, especially how it expanded on matakara and how his and arajin's fight played out.

arajin is a character that is guilty, that flees unless absolutely necessary not to, and would rather save face. he is a character that is meant to be unlikeable. contrast this with matakara, who is kind and considerate, helps his friends, and is willing to reach out, even if someone has hurt him. even their reasons for fighting could be pit against each other: arajin wants to fight to lose his virginity, and matakara wants to fight for his brother, arajin, and his friends.

the difference between arajin’s idealization of mahoro and matakara’s idealization of arajin is that, at the very least, you’re meant to make fun of/laugh at arajin- because you're not supposed to like him. matakara’s idealization of arajin is not put in a comedic light, because you're made to sympathize with him; you're meant to root for him. another example of a character who idealizing another person: mahoro. mahoro is self-aware she’s delusional. she’s self aware her brother doesn’t want her, and because she is so weird about him, her brother doesn’t open up to her as a result. but even mahoro (as much as i hate the brocon thing) can recognize it'll never happen. she still has her core values that don't stem from her brother.

arajin and matakara idealize people for two similar reasons. arajin is in love with the idea of mahoro, because she represents what is expected of arajin, a guy who wants to be un notable because he believes he can’t do more.

matakara idealizes arajin, because arajin represents the simpler, ideal life, the best life one can live as honki person, one that he strives toward. he idolizes arajin because he himself needs something to cling onto after his brother is gone.

matakara and arajin are two characters both stuck in the past. they both keep ideals from their childhood; because arajin couldn’t protect matakara, he believes he is weak and cannot do more than that on his own. matakara believes that since arajin wanted to become honkibito together, he would still want the same deep down and it’s him who’s weak.

matakara puts his faith in people, even if it hurts him. arajin doesn't put his faith in people, but he gets hurt because he doesn't trust anyone. both put their faith in different things because they don't trust themselves, so they let others dictate it for them. both are stubborn about their beliefs, yet fragile, and it hurts them when they are questioned so they double down on it.

arajin is an asshole, hell, he's a bad friend, but he never lied about his motives. matakara seeing their relationship through rose-tinted glasses and arajin being detached harms the both of them; it prevents their relationship from progressing any further.

arajin is *partially right, he is not is not what matakara thinks he is: the ideal matakara holds for himself and him. one of the key things that is first emphasized about honki people is that, "they don't run away." this is what arajin has been doing all this time. even then, arajin has not been tricking matakara in any capacity, because matakara has an idea of what arajin is, and clings to it for support.

*arajin didn’t lie back then about wanting to be honki people together, but since he believes he can’t do more for matakara (he’s used to running away) he avoids confrontation about it. matakara’s used these ideals as support so basically it’s like his beliefs were a lie

arajin is no longer the ideal that matakara saw in his childhood. now that matakara's ideals are shattered, he is vunerable to akutaro's & ichiya's manipulation.

i do think arajin and matakara are capable of being friends. however, they both need time and space to process their emotions. it’s shown that they can look out for each other, but one is overly committed (to an ideal version of the other) and the other is not. they need to find a middle ground to understand each other. i love their relationship because they're made out to be so different, yet they're so similar. i love how messy they both are, and i'm so excited to see how their relationship could possibly contrast ichiya/senya's. more importantly, i can't wait to see how their relationship develops/spirals from here.

[ragazza-paradiso]

okay, my personal thoughts on the jury vote/televote drama (as unbiased as possible):

i understand people’s disappointment when their favourite doesn’t win. i also understand how that disappointment can turn into frustration when it turns out that was the most popular entry with the general public, yet it didn’t result in victory.

for me, the presence of juries in the contest is non-negotiable. i think they help to recognise aspects of the songs that very often get overlooked by the viewing public - composition and vocal ability being the two most important. i think of estonia from this year, a song and performance that most definitely deserved the love they got from the juries to push them up the scoreboard. i think of albania 2018, switzerland 2021, portugal 2022 - all entries that deserved to be recognised, and were not given that by the televote.

all of that is not to say the jury is faultless. i agree with most, that the criteria the jury is told to judge upon should be modified/expanded. i think they should drop the focus on commercially successful songs to help level the playing field for songs in languages other than english (or popular languages like italian or spanish). they should also include people from more diverse musical backgrounds to appreciate alternative forms of music like rock, jazz, folk and music with ethnic elements etc. they could also make the juries larger (i think just doubling the size to 10 people would already make such a huge difference).

i think the biggest change the EBU needs to make regarding the juries is to be much more transparent. the general public has no idea why the juries exist, or what they are even judging on. each show the presenters should explain the criteria the juries judge on. because i’ve seen so many comments on social media over the past 12 hours which seem to fundamentally miss the fact that the juries judge based on criteria which is given to them by the EBU. they do not simply sit down and make a ranking of their favourite to least favourite.

the big point for me is that the jury vote is NOT supposed to be representative of the public vote. there would literally be no point to it if it were. therefore the jury having different scores, and ultimately a different winner than the televote, does not in itself mean that there is a problem with the juries. if you ask me, it means that the juries are doing exactly what they are supposed to do. they recognised the song which best fit the criteria they were asked to judge upon… tattoo.

and i would also add that tattoo was immensely popular with the public as well, it came second in the televote. and the juries placed televote winner cha cha cha in fourth position. so the argument that the juries are out of touch with the european public (at least when it comes to the top spots) just doesn’t add up.

since the juries were reintroduced in 2009 we’ve had 4 types of victories

• where the televote and jury vote agree on a winner (2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2017)

• where the televote winner has won overall despite not winning the jury vote (2011, 2018, 2021, 2022)

• where the jury vote winner has won overall despite not winning the televote (2015, 2023)

• where the winning song has won neither the jury vote nor the televote (2016, 2019)

so, in the 14 contests with the 50/50 jury televote system, only twice has the jury overridden the televote to decide the winner. the televote has overridden the jury vote double as much. in fact, the majority of times (8 times, if you include the 4th category since on both those occasions the winner came 2nd with both televote and jury vote) both have agreed on the winner. overall, the televote has gotten their winner to win the overall contest 10 times out of the 14 contests since the reintroduction of the jury.

therefore i find the conclusion that the jury is tainting the results of the contests’ winners not based in reality.

now, all of that is simply the opinion of one girl who likes eurovision. you can take it or leave it. i don’t think this will change anyone’s mind if they are dead set on the juries needing to perish in hell fire to atone for their sins against euro pop music. but more so i wanted to explain my reasoning behind still valuing the juries as an important part of the contest.

and, two last very important notes:

• käärijä not winning the contest doesn’t mean that he’s lost. it doesn’t mean that you can’t go back and watch his performance a thousand times and revel in the joy it gives you. it will always be there. music is subjective, just because a certain song wins a certain contest doesn’t mean it’s necessarily the best. he has thousands more fans now and you can always support his future career.

• being disappointed with the results of the contest however does not give you the right to send abusive messages and hate towards other contestants. käärijä himself said after the final yesterday that he cannot complain about the rules and he was happy for loreen. this is the same guy who was so distraught when he received one hate comment that he deleted all his accounts on social media. he wouldn’t want anyone to be doing the same towards his fellow artists. the contest was about being united through music, and sending hate won’t change the results, and it won’t make you feel better either.

[thanatoseyes]

My paired down list of spirit work and death magic. (Obviously this is what works for me and I'm kind of a picky person when I aquire written work)

Physical Media:

Cunning Words: A Grimoire of Tales and Magic by Marshall WSL (This one I pre-ordered and haven't gotten through the whole text but it's a good read. It incorporates the art of story telling with distinct spells and magic. I think it's very unique but I wouldn't recommend it unless you want something with flavor)

Riding the Bones by the three little sisters (this one is an anthology of particular practices from different walks of life pertaining to death and transition. I've only read a few of the stories but for what it's worth I think its good insight)

Botanical Curses and Poisons by Fez Inkwright (I only list this because it's always good to know what's good and bad for you. Know what can kill you and you can probably avoid it)

The Bones Fall in A Spiral by Mortellus (again I've mentioned this before but I think this is a good work for someone getting into the field and needs someone that's direct and experienced in what they do. One of my favorites.

Consorting with Spirits by Jason Miller (I feel like this is a staple of the craft and while I personally don't connect with the material it works and it has some good points)

Metamorphosis by Ovid (I think it's always necessary to deal with primary texts. Go with the classics. Ovid has a beautiful way of writing and you get to really understand the stories and myths that spirits of the dead living etc are connected to and if you do any deity work I highly recommend it.)

Of Blood and Bone by Kate Freuler (I have mixed views on this one. some of the stuff is informative and it provides some good spells, but it lacks transparency and depth. I find Mortellus book far more student minded.)

The complete language of flowers by S. Theresa Dietz (if you work with the dead, deities, spirits or hey plant spirits. Chances are you've come across Victorian flower language. I use this book as a reference guide for symbolism/folklore/ and as a way to connecting with spirits)

Encyclopedia of Spirits by Judika Illes (hey no library is complete without an encyclopedia. I personally like this one because it's very indepth without being too overwhelming. Not sure where to go? Just pick up this book and you can do more indepth research later. It's what it's there for. Reference guides are one of my favorites.)

Okay that's it for my physical media.

I also have a list of digital copies I keep.

Morbid Magic by Tomàs Prower (I think if you buy any book from this collection buy this one. It gives you an over all guide of most death practices around the world)

Historical:

Death, Dissection and the Destitute by Ruth Richardson

The Work of the Dead by Thomas W. Laqueur.

(I list these because they are a good source guide to how we treated the dead and spirits in the past. It's always important we learn from those that came before us.)

Greek Customs: (if you're going to do any type of work with Greek chthonic deities I suggest these three articles/books. I'm not saying its mandatory but these are very helpful guides to understanding ancient thought and how to bring them into today.)

Burial Customs, The Afterlife and the Pollution of Death in ancient Greece by Francois Pieter Retief and Louise Cilliers (free on research gate)

Underworld Gods in Ancient Greek Religion Death and Reciprocity by Ellie Mackin Roberts

Inner Purity and Pollution in Greek Religion Volume 1 by Andrej Petrovic and Ivana Petrovic (this one's my personal favorite)

[pain-is-too-tired]

Thinking about Raven curse Michael au again

Things happen similarly when it comes to post-BoM, Percy gets taken, Jake gets hurt trying to reign back Festus, etc.

TLH trio arrive, Leo gets shown to his cabin by Will still, but raven Michael is in cabin 9 keeping an eye on Jake(who still struggling from grief and stress post bom)

Jake still does the whole "I'm your head counselor... for now" line but immediately gets pecked by Michael who's not having his boyfriend talk like that hdgd

He thought he was gonna lose him already, he's not in the mood for that.

Leo's just like ????, why Will's completely unfazed.

"Who's the bird???"

"My brother."

"What?"

"Long story- let's just keep going."

With specifically Raven Prince au, I like to imagine even in human form Michael has places with feathers still he has to hide. Like on his arms and such. Or markings on his back and arms.

Jake's a new blacksmith at the castle who is curious why he never sees the prince during the day, but manages to run into him at night and they end up having a small chat. Jake still doesn't know about the curse, but finds himself liking the prince. Who isn't too stiff about honoraries and such.

One day Michael gets hurt by a hunter or some jerk knight why in raven form and gets found by Jake.

Why Jake isn't an export healer, he tends to Michael as much as he can. Still not knowing it's the prince.

Michael's have multiple late night conversations with Jake by this point, so he trusts him, yet he's also unsure how to feel being held by Jake in his raven form. He's very flustered. Which is new.

When Jake does find out, he's even more flustered. Apologizing immediately to Michael who's just like "my dude?? How you supposed to know??"

Michael ends up hanging around Jake during the day,since he trusts him.

Also. Alternate idea. Three head Apollo kids being fae princes who get turned to animals to protect them from hunters. They each wear an pendant that is taken off by someone else without force let's them turn back.

Michael a raven, Will a mouse, and Lee a swan or wolf

Similar situation to above, but Michael doesn't turn back at night, so he ends up staying with Jake why healing. Worrying about his siblings but being unable to fly. Jake just doing his best to take care of him. He knows nothing of the tales/rumors about the brothers, so he's curious about the pendant but doesn't push.

After awhile when Michael is fully healed, he nudges Jake to show him where to take off the pendant and ends turns to his regular form.

Jake's just completely confused and flustered cause there's a fae now in front of him. A very cute fae-

Michael might just be a bit amused by Jake's reaction gdhdg

[pixiecaps]

so here r my thoughts on qjaiden and her cucurucho missions

i don’t think its going to lead to egg safety. to me the “YOU ARE ONE STEP CLOSER” really was the nail in the coffin. theres something about going through such a treacherous process having to fight in a dungeon presumably you were meant to do alone and probably would’ve died in if u had only to be told good job! thats just one step! and then provide no more context over any of it. it’s suspicious and shitty. i mean even qjaiden was surprised that wasn’t the end of it. to me, at least in this current moment, cucurucho is using jaiden and her trust & faith in it (there is more layers to her willingness to follow along. it’s not as simple as qjaiden being naive) to send her along to do its dirty work. i think it’ll keep sending her to do menial or intense work (like that dungeon we witnessed yesterday) to achieve an end goal. an end goal that favors the federation. i think everything comes with a price and as we know qjaiden cannot go back. theres no way out and shes aware of this. all she can do is continue to do whatever cucurucho tells her to do. what i do find interesting is the ending questions. what purpose do they serve? did it ask qjaiden these first before anybody else because it feels she trusts it the most? are the questions a way to have further control over her? in either case it’s fascinating to watch cucurucho and qjaiden dynamic. i think her journey is going to one of the most illuminating ones i mean look at how much qcellbit learned just by tagging along (for his own mission) i do think by the end of everything qjaiden will either be discarded and never granted her wish for egg safety or maybe they do but it comes at a cost, a cost of joining the federation and never seeing her friends and family again.

out of role i think shes a very complex character and i cannot wait to see where this takes her. its cool to see a woman at the forefront of such important lore! its also lore i’m invested the most in because we learn more about the federation and get to see cucurucho which is awesome! i also love how at the end of each stream we get a neat recap and jaidens thoughts on everything. i always think back to when bobby passed and jaiden said she was going to cook up an interesting character for us and by god did she do that. overall i can’t wait to see what happens and i’d be lying if i said i didn’t want to see qjaiden in a white federation uniform some day.

[siaanme]

Something I've been thinking about lately on tumblr is the tags, and specifically leaving comments in them

Much has already been said about how they're great for making comments without them getting appended to every reblog of that post (unless someone really likes your tags, of course), and that is great. One of the top features of the tags. But there is something that frustrates me about them now, and I think is contibuting to friction between tumblr users

When I first joined tumblr, tags already were being used for impermanent commentary, but (I'm pretty sure) OPs couldn't see those tags unless they went looking for them. Which I honestly think was a good thing

Now, if you have a popular post that blows up, you are going to be exposed to whatever someone is tagging your post as. And that may be mostly harmless, sometimes funny, but I think it negatively impacts someones ability to make commentary. Just speaking from my own experience, I feel less happy making a joke in the tags, especially if I think thousands of other reblogs have also made that same joke. The OP gets it, and they'll be sick of it. And sure, maybe I don't need to worry about one hypothetical individual being annoyed at me for making an obvious and/or trite joke. But I will anyway.

It also affects other kinds of commentary, not just jokes. For example, right now Monster Hunter Wilds is a big topic among certain users. As a major video game, there are going to be people going through different parts of the game at different times. Some of them will be eager to share their experiences, and they may use the tags of someone else's post to do that. But what if the OP isn't as far through the game as the commenter? And they don't want to be spoiled on some of those moments they haven't gotten to yet? Intentionally spoiling someone is an asshole move, but accidentally spoiling someone is more understandable, though still frustrating. And this wouldn't be a problem, if a post's creator wasn't exposed to all the tags by default, instead of having to go looking for them.

Another thing it factors into is negative commentary, or criticism. To avoid kicking too many hornet's nests, let's talk about Goncharov for a second. I personally did not care for the Goncharov posting – happy for those who did, but it wasn't for me. So again, if I went onto a post explaining why someone loved Goncharov, and commented (not in the tags) "This thing sucks and only people with no taste could like it" that would be an asshole move. It would probably still be an asshole move even if was more nuanced and thoughtful talking about why, for example, I would rather dedicate my media appreciation to things that actually exist, rather than this fictional thing where it is being created en mass by so many different people that things are going to be contradictory leading to no one canon for people to discuss. However, that kind of thing feels a bit more appropriate to talk about in the tags, leaving them safely ignorable to the vast majority of people who just want to collectively invent a Scorsese movie. But with the current way tags are seen by a post's creator, they'd see that. And maybe they'd feel like I'm justing coming onto their post and insulting something they love. Which would not have been my intention, rather my intention was just to explain why I, personally, didn't like something.

I think it ties into some friction between people who use this site like social media, or reddit, versus people who use this as a micro-blogging site. That friction exists elsewhere as well on the internet, but I think it's more obvious here. Some people want to express their opinions about something for the sake of expressing their opinion, others want to discuss those opinions with others. I don't think either of those two groups are in the wrong, and I think that if tags were by default not shown in the creator's notifications, there would be a bit less of this

And sure, there's a temptation to just say "well you should just make your own post then (and hey look, that's what I'm doing), but again, things didn't use to be this way. And sometimes what you want to say is not consequential enough for a separate post (like my Goncharov rant above), but you still want to get it out there. It just frustrates me is all

[cononeillbreastingboobily]

I've read this excellent post by @krakensdottir about the scene from s2 where we see Aziraphale's first time being tempted - with human food, and with meat at that.

And it made me think - what implications does that have for the upcoming season?

There's a saying that goes "the appetite grows with what it feeds on". Ever since that first taste of food, Aziraphale has grown quite an appetite for various human foods - sushi, crêpes and hot chocolate to name a few. Ever since that first time thousands of years ago he's been giving in to the temptation time and time again.

What does that mean for him now that he's tasted Crowley?

All I'm saying is that, after that one kiss, my boy probably won't be the best at carrying out the apocalypse the way Heaven will want him to.

And I for one can't wait to see whether they will do anything with that in the third season.

[anxiously-sidequesting]

SPEAKING OF WHICH are there like any chill wizard101 discord servers or group chats that I could join. Or if anyone just wanna add me on discord shoot me a tumblr DM because I'm lonely and I like you guys :)

[greenqueenhightower]

Did you hear the rumor that Alicent continues her affair with Criston after Episode 1 and becomes pregnant with his child, but eventually takes moon tea to end the pregnancy. Given that she's in her thirties and already has four healthy children, it's not entirely impossible. If this rumor turns out to be true, how do you think it would impact her character and her relationship with Cole? I doubt she would want to have a child during wartime, especially an illegitimate one

Ehm, no? Where did you read/hear that rumor?

I mean, some mutuals and I have discussed the possibility of Alicent brewing her own moon tea after she sleeps with Criston to avoid any complications such as a pregnancy that she could not explain (or maybe the show will invent a reason why Alicent does not need to keep on drinking moon tea anymore. Maybe the maesters have told her she will no longer be able to have children? So she feels that from that aspect at least her affair with Criston can't become known).

Now, we may see her drink moon tea in the show, but a whole pregnancy? During the Dance? I doubt it (although I'm starting to fear that the writers are capable of everything).

I don't think there will be enough narrative time to explore this trope in S2 because of the overload of canon events the producers have to get through by the time S2 ends. I don't think we'd go down the pregnancy lane with Alicole (and tbh, I'm glad if we won't because it would soapify the show by a mile).

If we get to see Alicent pregnant in the show, I don't even know what the writers will do with it. It is impossible for me to predict Alicent's or Criston's reactions because I just can't fathom it. I mean, I assume that Alicent will tell Criston and then tell him why she has to drink moon tea and abort the pregnancy. Will that make him mad? Idk. Would Alicent want to give birth to this child? No idea. It's just out of my processing power at the moment. I think that a pregnancy can't be written in S2 (or S3 for that matter) because where will Alicent go to give birth? Back to Oldtown? Or will she decide to not hide herself and blatantly stay in KL? (Good for her actually, that would be a turning point in her character). Will she realize she's pregnant during her imprisonment?! (I don't even want to think about that).

Overall, I don't know. It would mess up the show too much for me and I don't think the writers are going in this direction either way.

Thanks for the ask, and do link the rumors if/when you find them!

[1wn8ure]

making it through life with benchtrio clenched in both fists

[maerrine]

I just read another fantastic post that among other things, talks about the parallels between Sigma and Chuuya (I’ll likely reblog it in a moment) and it made me want to talk about them. So. 

I speed-read the bsd manga in like a day and one of the first things that struck me when Sigma showed up is actually how similar he was to Chuuya, and how many parallels they had! It actually made me start shipping them really strongly despite them not having had any actual interactions with each other yet, but this post isn’t about shipping, so. I’ll put that aside for now.

Lots of people have talked about it already but the first obvious parallel is the way they both have a very nebulous relationship with their own humanity. Chuuya and Arahabaki; Sigma being born from the book... they’re also both lacking childhoods to some extent as well, Sigma most of all. So they have similar backstories.

But more important is the way they’re both looking for a place to belong - and that they’re continuously being used by others. Chuuya is used by the sheep and the mafia, Sigma has been used by pretty much everyone his entire life... and this is imo consciously acknowledged by the author especially in the prison break arc at the moment. Chuuya and Sigma are literally paralleled as being the “pawns/pieces” of Dazai and Fyodor’s plans, playing almost identical roles on opposing sides, and I think that that’s done on purpose. Of course, as it turns out, Dazai isn’t only using Sigma for his power, whereas Fyodor very much sees Chuuya as nothing more than a tool, so there’s a key difference there, too...

I’ve been thinking about the differences between them too, though, and one thing that struck me was - Chuuya tolerates and accepts being used, where Sigma rejects it. Chuuya genuinely seems to be comfortable with his role in the mafia and doesn’t even really hold a grudge against the sheep for using and betraying him earlier. In contrast, Sigma is desperately fighting so that he won’t be used by other people anymore - this is a little muddied in that he did go along with Fyodor’s plans in order to get a home, and was letting himself be used in that sense, but right now in canon he’s completely turned against Fyodor and has made it very clear that he intends not to be manipulated anymore.

I’d honestly really like to see some fic that played with those differences and similarities between them a bit. Like maybe Sigma realizing how similar they are, and trying to push Chuuya to stop accepting the ways he’s used by other people?? On the other hand, Chuuya seems to have found a home in the mafia as well, or at least believes he has, whereas Sigma is still searching, so that’s another thing that could be touched on as well.

Idk. I know I’m just repeating what a lot of people have already said so maybe this post is pointless otl, but. I’m really excited for them to finally meet in canon, because there’s so much potential between them that could lead to some really cool stuff!

Tl;dr sigchuu is superior >:)

[milo-is-rambling]

Me looking at my own mood boards like “oh yeah this guy gets it”

[tracle0]

Next - here Previous - here First - here

[will-the-psychic-type-elite92]

:man: this is a long one, going to put a majority of it under a cut so it doesn't take up a lot of space. Possible TW/CW as I'm theorycrafting/ discussing religious things? Not. Irl religion or anything and its definitely not detailed, just if such ideas make you uncomfortable there ls no reason to read. I care about the comfort of internet strangers <3

So, does anyone ever wonder about Ancient Oblivia ? Like, yeah, we have the multi-player past missions, and the obliva ruins. But does anyone ever wonder more?

Like, we know the fake Dias and the Real Dias with the ho-oh imagery, but. If we go to the past.

We can see the Rainbow Dias design/Ho-oh insignia on the ground of the Cocona Plaza (its worn and covered by grass in the present), and it's the same marking on the doors blocking the way to the Rainbow Grail.

Yes, I know Ho-oh stopped the falling fortress in the past, but. I doubt the Grail and Dias were made specifically for this (especially considering that the past missions seen to take place BEFORE the sky fortress) There has to be some more, especially with the amount of Ho-oh Imagery specifically on Renbow.

I feel as though that the Steelheads/Temple Oracles, along with the arceus worship they seem to heavily associate with (based on how far I got in the missions before my touchscreen has started to give me problems) aren't/isn't native to Oblivia, at least, not the orginal practice and use. That this was something brought in by possibly people from Sinnoh (pre or post hisui age, as we don't know where exactly these two pasts intersect with each other, and which one is first).

I feel the use of the Dias and Grail (along with the amount of Ho-oh Imagery) were originally used in a religious sense, in that I feel the significance of these imply a religious following? Like, like. I can't put it into words. I mean, Ho-oh was so important that a Dias was built in the ocean (there was possibly an entire temple maybe? With the Dias sitting atop it?) And a grail user to summon the Phoenix.

There's a possibility a lot of the ho-oh imagery is answered in later past missions, but I'm struggling on them so I don't fully know !! I just. There's so much in the environments of Oblivia that wave a story, but because we're not given much information, it's a story shrouded in mystery. I just want Answers. Please..Oblivia is so interesting....