#which does not currently have a name. i think it would just be like. 'capital city' in the black speech but there's no canon for that

[bodhrancomedy]

Update: I opened it.

(Dated cira: 2009)

To me,

Hey, how are you! There are so much I want to ask, like what is my job, At the momant, I am trying to publish a book. (I want to be an athor and star in a few plays too!) I like drawing, writing, daydreaming, climbing trees, collecting myths from all over the world, running and playing my D.S, (I just got a new game called "The legend of Zelda, Spirit tracks") do you still have Coffy? How are Mum, Dad [two sisters]? Do I have a pet? I live in [house name], where do I live now? My friends are Chloe, Davide, Hugh, Sophie and Simon. Who are my friends now? Did I get a degree? What is my house like? How much do we get payed? What is the newest tecnoligy? Have you been to Egpt, New Zeland and Norway.

Bodh

To me,

I'm well, thank you. I'm going to do my best to answer your questions even if some of the answers are probably not what you thought they'd be when we were nine or ten (you couldn't have dated this to make our lives easier?).

Currently we are a member of the gainfully unemployed, but that is due to a series of decisions on our part rather than lack of ability - don't worry! However, I think you'd be really pleased to know that we are, in fact, an actor and writing and have a few really cool projects coming up.

I'm excited to hear about the book, was that a series of short stories starting with the Magic Jug? We still haven't officially become an author (yet), but we have punished several plays, poems, and short films! We made our stage debut in Edinburgh in 2021 as a principle cast member in Redraft, but our TV debut on Hope Street in January, 2024. Our first acting job was with the BBC which is incredibly cool of us. We also just finished working for the Royal Shakespeare Company too, making a little digital series about a fake political party. We got to go to a press night in costumes from the RSC costume department complete with a crown and fill in for an actor during a rehearsal for the play we were working with!

We still like drawing, writing, and daydreaming. We have a much bigger collection of myths now, but we've been slacking in our running. We still play on the DS - down to recently replaying Spirit Tracks! Nintendo came out with an update to the DS called a Switch and the newest Zelda games of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom are going to blow your mind.

We still have Coffy - it's OK we didn't have to give him up when we got bigger like you're worrying about. He sits on my bookshelf and watches over me when I write just like he does now.

Mum, Dad, and our sisters are doing very well. Your little sister is going to do a postgraduate degree and your older sister is working her dream job and happily married. We're very proud of them.

We don't have a pet, sadly, because we live in a very cold, very cramped flat in the capital. It's pretty rundown and very expensive, but we live with two very, very cool people so that's all good. You have loads and loads of brilliant friends and, while we lost touch with most of those friends, you still talk to Chloe and she even came to our sister's wedding.

You did get a degree - you got a first class Bachelors of Arts with honours in Theatre and Film from QMU in 2021. You loved the course and I'm thinking of going back to do a Masters in Acting for Stage and Screen this year.

Our last jobs as tour guides and lifeguards paid us minimum wage, unfortunately, but if you saw the pay-cheques for acting and writing your eyes would pop out of your head! They're not as much as you think they are, but they're really fun to look at.

There's loads of new technology but I think the one which would interest you the most is NASA's Parker Solar Probe which just flew only 1.8 million miles above the surface of the sun at 43'000 miles per hour which is faster than any human invention has ever gone. It's so cool.

We haven't been to Egypt, or Norway, or New Zealand, but we have been to Iceland, and Italy, and the Netherlands. We're going lots of more places, don't worry.

Thank you for writing to me, I hope this letter is what you hoped for.

Yours,

Bodh.

So I went home for Christmas and while I was there, I found this tucked away in a corner of my room which is being reorganised.

It’s a letter to my future self.

It’s clearly been opened once, but I don’t know who by or when.

From the handwriting I’m guessing it’s 2010ish because I doubt my handwriting was that good in 2005 and I lived somewhere else. 2010-2025 seems the kind of gap a teacher would assign.

So, I have 2 days before I can open this.

[aran-morinorea]

I have heard tell of the saddest, wettest Maglor and I see the rumors were well-founded. Please please tell me more of this fucking awful roadtrip. How long until Maglor calls this weirdo a bitch. Can I collect bets on that point

calls him a bitch to his face, or in his head? cause he hasn't worked up the nerve to say it out loud yet, I don't think, but there might be some rude names in the narration coming up

The golden stranger replied unhelpfully, “In the city he rules, to the south-east of here,” as though literally the whole continent weren’t south-east of there. I had heard of Ost-in-Edhil, though, and couldn't actually see a reason not to go there. Not if Celebrimbor actually wanted me there. And if I'd shown up and he didn't, he would just have thrown me out, right? He might even have been more angry with the stranger than with me. So I decided that was probably okay.

[transmutationisms]

Hey, I've been delving into anti psychiatry readings but one thing always stands out to me: if there is no underlying disease behind a depressive state, for example, how does that new paradigm not end up placing the blame on the patient? I ask in good faith as I still don't have a clear answer on that regard, and would like to have better conversations about this topic that don't end when people tell me of a close relative with depression who has seemingly had a life free of traumas that could otherwise present as depression.

-materialist (marxist) anti psychiatry identifies the root 'cause' or basis of psychological experiences in the economic and material conditions of existence. depression or other forms of distress, just like other affective states, derive fundamentally from the world we live in, our political situation, the material alienation of estranged labour that underlies 'alienation' the psychological state. this doesn't mean that resolving the contradictions of capitalism (that is, workers' revolution) will magically eliminate all sources of distress, depression, or other currently pathologised experiences. however, it would certainly resolve / eliminate some distress for some people; additionally, it is the only way to overcome the capitalist paradigm that values people by their adherence to a normative standard of ability, which is what renders depressed people (for example) economically marginalised 'failed citizens'

-keeping the above in mind, i would question whether there is really such thing as a person who 'has no trauma' ie, has no material basis for alienation, depression, or distress. capitalism is an estranging system, including for the owner class (though of course this occurs in a different way to the labouring class, and i am not suggesting that the bourgeoisie are the 'victims' of capitalism or some such)

-none of the above is mutually exclusive with the role that an individual's neurobiology plays in their subjective or psychological state. like any base/superstructure phenomenon, the relationship is dialectical, with the material base generally dominating, but both acting on and being affected by superstructural phenomena. economic and material conditions lead to subjective experiences such as depressions; these experiences are also instantiated in, reacting to, and reacted upon by the physiological processes in the brain/body. however, when we say that depression (for example) is not a disease we mean that there is no biological entity---no infectious pathogen, no 'chemical imbalance', no organic lesion, no anatomical defect or physiological malfunction---that is identifiable as a single cause or correlate of depressed states, nor will there ever be; the psychiatric label is a heuristic catch-all applied to a constellation of experiences (symptoms) that are varying degrees of disagreeable to individuals (patients) as well as to medical and state authorities

-i think it's overly credulous to the psychiatric profession to assert that calling something a disease means that no one can 'blame the patient' for it. in fact i would say it would be difficult to name a disease that doctors, state authorities, and society at large does NOT blame on patients

-i also think it's overly credulous to the psychiatric profession to assert that there is a dichotomy between neurobiological diseases and things that are individual faults or failings. in fact i would posit that most subjective experiences, including of distress, are neither

[azullumi]

“affection weaves into the letters on your screen” ; aventurine and ratio

premise — messages and calls between you and him.

content tags — w/ gender-neutral reader, established relationship, fluff, texts and messages, not proofread, 0.8k ; headcanons

note — i needed something easy and nice because everything has been too stressful

If there’s one constant thing about AVENTURINE is that he is an avid fan of messaging, texting, or whatever the proper term for that is. No matter where he is and what he’s doing, he’ll always find the time to type in a message for you and press send—it could be about anything, from the random thing he’ll see while he’s walking which he thinks you’ll be interested in to how his day is going and possibly, ranting about it. The only time he’ll be inactive is when he’s in the middle of something, like completely and utterly busy that he couldn’t pick up his phone to check up on you or update you on what he’s doing.

Would use the most out of everything; calls, voice messages, attachments, everything. He’ll use stickers whenever he can and would use those silly emoticons because why not? He’s very expressive overall; it’s like you can hear his voice, see his expression, and the gestures he’ll do over the screen. 

PHOTOS !! There are new ones added to the shared gallery of your conversations with him every single day. He sees something cool? He takes a photo. He’s currently having a meal? No questions asked, he’ll take a photo. The critters are in this silly position? The camera is pointed at them already and the image of them in a circle while seemingly discussing something is sent. He’ll send selfies of himself throughout the day and he’s the type to pose with random things; there was a time he sent you a photo of himself holding a potted plant (he said it was an addition to his office and he thought you should know). It’s ridiculous, you may say, but he can’t contain the smile on his face when you send a photo back.

Occasionally, it’s videos that he sends.

It’s the late night calls and messages. Aventurine has sleeping problems, struggling to fall or stay asleep no matter how much he physically exhausts himself, so when worse comes to worst and it’s already midnight yet there’s no ounce of anything that makes his eyes heavy, he’ll message you—asking if you’re still awake and if you’re doing anything. It’s your voice that guides him to his dreams, gentle and delicate as a lullaby; by then, you’ll receive no response from him as you call for his name and you’ll have to whisper to him goodnight as he sleeps.

BONUS : on the topic of calls, he likes spending time with you in silence as you do your own thing while he also does his own. Your presence is enough to comfort him and keep him grounded.

VERITAS RATIO is not much of a texter and if he does send you a message, it’s mostly about engineering designs for a machine, requesting that you give him a set of questions if he needs something to simulate his weary brain, sending you links to a sign-up form for a debate that is occuring, or proposals for a certain project as he asks for your input. There are times you’ll find yourself debating with him—all just casual and he won’t throw a chalk at you. However, the line of your conversation between you and him is short and is separated by intervals; he just prefers talking in person or over calls. 

He’s probably the fastest typer you know but he rarely ever makes typos, like ever. He types strictly and formally with proper capitalization and punctuations with the mixture of the words that would require you to bring out a dictionary to understand, always starting his sentence with an uppercase and ending it with a period. It feels like you’re having a corporate or business meeting whenever you’re talking to him due to how formal he is over text (you can probably hear his voice whenever you read his messages too).

“DRYEST TEXTER IN THE UNIVERSE EVER” some would say and maybe you too, however, there are traces of sweetness and affection in your (short) conversations with him. He’s the one to greet you first in the morning, so expect that the moment the sun has risen, there’s a message notification from him displayed on the screen on your phone—the time you’ll rise from your bed, your sleeping and wake-up patterns are embedded in his mind and he ensures that you always wake up with a good morning. 

In note with that, sometimes, you’ll find yourself wondering if he even thinks of you, if you occasionally appear inside his mind and distract him from his work—doubt begins to muddle your thoughts. However, you must remember that he’ll always send you reminders throughout the day, telling you of the agenda you have planned for the afternoon which you told him once or twice the day before, reminding you to finish this task you’ve been procrastinating on, or just simply telling you to take a break or to eat something (especially when he knows that you don’t take care of yourself).

Be kind to yourself, will you? He looks out for you and cares for you a lot even if you may think otherwise.

EXTRA : doesn’t call and is not exactly a fan of it, however, if his phone were to ring and he sees it’s you calling for him, he wouldn’t hesitate to answer it.

tagging the one and only amazing and lovely @toorurs 🗣️ first of all, i’m sorry that i haven’t replied to your tiktoks when i told you i will (plsdonthateme) and second, i actually dont have a second thing to say. anywaysss!! i think we’ve both been busy these days or maybe it’s just me (sorry finals are approaching) but do know that no matter what happens i still treasure and love you as a friend ‼️ i saw this one plant in our trip yesterday and i remembered you i dont know why i think it’s because it was pretty and the color reminded me of you 🫶🏼 but yeah, keep on doing amazing things and amazing works (DONT DIE FELI THE WORLD WILL LOSE AN ANGEL) !! you’ve become one of my most favorite people ever and remember that i will always be here for youu mwa

© azullumi — do not plagiarize, copy, repost, nor translate any of my works.

[nomsfaultau]

I recently got a comment about the use of the term Bird Pope within my charity one-shot Worth far more than your weight in gold, specifically about the world building implied there considering [Kristin] and [Philza] are notably very inhuman bird monsters (Ravengences). Specifically, the question was if there was Bird Catholicism and Bird Jesus died on the Bird Cross of Lorraine. (I think it would have to be a more complex shape given the extra wing limbs! Or perhaps an Orthodox Cross to pin the tail too?)

Anyway, let's examine the text between [Kristin] and [Philza] and the translator's note:

[Kristin's] expression changed utterly to one of delight, kneeling to affectionately bump her forehead against [Philza's]. “Praise be to the gods, I thought I was going to have to [bird divorce] you,” [Kristin] said with a relieved sigh, nuzzling into the crook of his neck.  (*While Bird Divorce is not forbidden, it is strongly discouraged by the Bird Pope.)

To explore Weight in Gold's species’ religious stance, I examined what terms they use:

Techno uses Gods (capital, plural). Ravengences refer to the seven winds (non capital, plural), gods (non capital, plural), and the Bird Pope (Capital, singular (*according to the translator)). Given Catholicism really emphasizes the singular God bit, I deduce Catholicism did not come from Piglins and Ravengences. Thus I am sadly assuming Worth in gold!Jesus was neither bird nor pig (which is good since pork is not kosher!).

As for humans, they are not worshiping Prime (as in, a god named Prime). Church Prime is the first church in the area. Akin to the format of First [Denomination] Church of [Town]. They worship the Catholic God, and centuries ago were very heavy into evangelizing. Has to be a very long time ago since Ravengences are mostly considered legends in the current time period, and aren’t particularly assumed to be sapient beings. So for the Ravengences it’s more of a legacy of cultural exchange than anything that’s happened of late.

Techno makes a lot of snide comments about the human church, and mentions not doing his sacrifices. But he does bite his tongue because the Church holds a LOT of power in human settlements. From this I gather Piglins on the whole are not Catholic, though as minorities have to navigate the sociopolitical power of the religion they don’t practice. Specifically, I note the way Techno uses the term Gods (capital, plural) which feels to me like a linguistic quirk picked up after the emphasis Catholics put on a capital G God, but in strict defiance of Catholicism by making it plural to reflect Piglins’ own pantheon before the humans started evangelizing. Along the line of 'Nyeh! Our Gods are just as important as yours!' Since we don’t see anyone trying to convert Techno, I reckon it’s something lots of wars were fought about way back when, humans eventually giving up (and probably writing Piglins off as demons in the process). Piglins rejected churches, partially rooted in the fact a central part is in money and donating it, and 1. Piglins do NOT give their gold away except in very intricate and personal situations and 2. Piglins think money is stupid. Using gold for fancy banners and clothing and murals (which Catholicism is very fond of) also didn’t fly with the Piglins. So a major part of human worship involves the (perceived!) frivolous use of gold, which is a big rift between human and Piglin culture.

Ravengences however do have a culture around donating gold, so it wasn’t as much as a massive conflict with human doctrine. In fact it helped facilitate the transfers in a way they liked. I imagine early evangelism with them was a desperate attempt to stop temple raids and was shockingly successful all things considered. To Ravengences, Catholic God is yet another god, added into the pantheon for flavor. I imagine they refer to God as god, since as tricky as crossing that language barrier is that particulars of capitalizing god names probably didn’t make it across. (Ravengences are seen only capitalizing names and the term Ravengence). Ravengences didn’t really agree with the whole abandoning their original gods things (what? You want me to STOP worshiping the seven winds? AND NEVER BE ABLE TO SAFELY FLY AGAIN? Are you MAD?!) and tended to eat conversionists who insisted on that point a little too firmly. The humans likely decided to shrug and declare that the Ravengence gods were really just saints if you think about it, so it’s probably okay please stop eating us now. And as the cultures lost contact, likely a lot of changes piled up in the centuries to follow. Ravengences probably lost the Catholic God (because of said lack of capital differentiation, and the lack of a name is tricky to keep track of when you have a lot of gods). But, positions like Bird Pope, which have lots of practical use regarding the distribution of donation gold so that families can have children, are likely vital to Ravengence society, and so remained, albeit looking very different to human popes. And the Bird Pope hates divorces, because Ravengences tend to want to take all of the gold for their new family, and the ex spouses probably tend to kill each other over it. Since, again, Ravengences are fond of the death penalty.

Alternatively: notably [bird divorce] [bird husband/wife] are within the translator's personal choices to explain concepts to a human audience, the mention of Bird Pope being within a translator's addendum. Even to the extent that within [Kristin’s] dialogue [bird divorce] is lower case, but the translator uses uppercase, further cementing the linguistic differences between Humans and Ravengences. So Bird Pope (capitalized) is how a human explains Ravengence culture to other humans, and may not reflect the capitalization Ravengences use (as they tend towards none) or even really the actual Ravengence cultural role being described. So all of what I just world builded could also be scratched out and explained with 'human translator trying to simplify for a human audience'. but one of those answers is a lot more fun!

[cosmerelists]

Candidates if Honor One Day Gets a New Vessel

[SPOILERS FOR STORMLIGHT THROUGH RHYTHM OF WAR!]

So, there is a popular theory that even though Honor is Shattered, he won't be down for the count forever. In particular, people theorize that in the final stages of a Bondsmith's evolution, they'll be able to reforge Shattered shards. And in that case, Honor could be reborn anew! Let's say that there's merit to this theory, and that one way or another, Honor is reborn. Which of our current characters are the most likely candidates to scoop up that Shard?

1. Kaladin

I mean, not only is Kaladin Mr. Honorable himself with his Honorspren and Sense of Honor, but there has also been some possible foreshadowing of Kaladin becoming Honor's Vessel. There's his name, which means something like "Born Unto Eternity" (hmmmm...). There's the fact that he's referred to as the Son of Tanavast (Tanavast being the prior Vessel) and that Sanderson said there was a reason for that. 

So just imagine Kaladin saying something like, oh I don't know, "Honor's dead but I'll see what I can do" before Ascending. You see it, right?

2. Dalinar

In the theories I've seen, people expect it to be Dalinar, if anyone, who decides to Reforge the Shard (with some theories positing that he may one day try to reforge Adonalsium, as suggested by @imtheseventh here!). If Dalinar does go that far, then he may just take up the Shard himself, becoming Honor. Again, there is some potential foreshadowing of this, mainly when Odium says something like "He wasn't supposed to Ascend!" with a capital A when Dalinar gets a power-up. Plus, Dalinar is bonded with the Stormfather, the current Avatar of Honor. So not only does Dalinar have that close connection to Honor, but he always knows the guy who current possesses the remnants of Honor's power.

3. Syl

I've not seen this posited, but I could see it making sense. Syl often refers to herself as a fragment of god--she's the Stormfather's Ancient Daughter and a literal Honorspren. If spren can go through some sort of superevolution into a Shard, then I could see it being Syl. Then Kaladin would have Honor as his spren, and that somehow makes sense too.

4. The Stormfather

Let's say Dalinar does figure out a way to reforge Honor. What if he just uses Honor's existing Avatar, the Stormfather, and makes him into Honor? The Stormfather is already a piece of Honor's power, after all. And then Dalinar's bond would be with Honor, which again makes sense. It just feels like it's gonna involve Dalinar or Kaladin somehow.

5. Taln

Or maybe not. If we put aside Kaladin and Dalinar...what about Taln? If anybody embodies Honor, it's that guy. And if say, restarting the Oathpact has anything to do with needing to get Honor back into a non-Shattered form, I'm sure Taln would be the first guy to volunteer for the job. It doesn't seem like holding a Shard is a good gig, overall, but bad gigs happen to be  Taln's specialty.

6. No one

Or we could all be theorizing into the wind, as it were. Perhaps Shatterings cannot be undone, and Honor is just...gone. Kaput. I could honestly very much see this being true, but it sure is fun to speculate otherwise!

[my-halo-is-a-little-broken]

Now, let me preface this by saying I only really have FB to keep in touch with family and friends, so I try to cultivate it to have my interests on my feed, and Arcane is currently one popping up a lot.

And, uh, some people have "interesting" takes 😬 like, there can be valid criticisms of the show and how it handled some things, but these feel reach-y or even completely miss the point.

1. I don't think the show is trying to say "magic (power) makes disabled people evil." What I do think it is trying to say is that when you get a taste/knowledge of what life could be like when you're more able/powerful, it can be intoxicating and misleading. Viktor genuinely thought he was making things better, and he thought he saw how he could get there, so he took it, in an "ends justify the means way." He tried convincing Jayce to work with him. He didn't truly want to align with Ambessa until he felt he had no other choice. Other examples we see of power infecting people are littered throughout the show. Cait, Jayce, Ambessa, Mel, Silco, Singed, Heimer. Power infects and can twist people.

2. Yes, it did feel hollow at some points. But I don't feel they were saying what the person thinks they were saying. Jayce even essentially says that the Zaunites have no reason to trust them, and he basically begs them to work with Piltover because he knows the destruction that awaits them. It wasn't just "defending the oppressors way of life." A literal apocalypse could happen. It's defending everyone's way of life. As for the "Savage Brown Hoardes" bit, the only people of color we really see of the Noxians are Ambessa, Kino, and Mel, 2 of which prefer talking and seeing fighting as a last resort. Everyone else is (seemingly) white. Maddie is white, Rictus appears to be white, and what we see of the Noxian soldiers, they seem to be white. Even if we go farther and look at the Noxian champions in LoL, a good chunk of them seem to be white. As for the faceless communism metaphor, while I can see it, this was a legitimate threat to Piltover, Zaun, and the world as a whole. Communism is a boogie man in our world, yes, but it wouldn't lead to the *literal apocalypse*. That's more capitalisms' style. And there's plenty of distrust and anger between Pilties and Zaunites, even if we don't get to see as we would have liked. A good chunk of the Zaunites don't join the battle until late because they *don't trust the Pilties* but realize that this isn't going well and will end badly, so they decide to help. We see that Sevika, despite being on the council, doesn't trust the Pilties, and they also don't trust her! Coming together to save the world doesn't mean that all the issues are erased. It simply means they were put aside for the moment. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend."

3. Yeah, they fumbled on keeping up Zaun vs. Piltover, but the Medarda war didn't come out of nowhere. In the 1st season, we have Ambessa trying to encourage war. She's a WARLORD. War within her was coming, one way or another. Mel always stood in opposition to her, even if she loved her and tried to reason with her. Ambessa was always going to be one of the main antagonists and major plot points. Look at her song. If you want something outside of season 1 that points to that there was always going to be war. "No war, no peace 'til I lead them all". She does what she does for her family's gain, yes, but also for herself. She didn't show up to Piltover to visit Mel, ever, until word started to spread. It reflected badly on Piltover, on the council, on Mel, which in turn reflected badly on the Medarda name and *her*. "I can use who I want, and I taste what I please". Ambessa isn't above doing whatever she sees fit to get what she wants/feels is right. She will always try to get what she wants, and what she wanted was war with Zaun. War within Zaun weakens Piltover, which is already partially under a Medarda's control. We've seen that Ambessa takes over places and conquers them. It's never confirmed, but it's not a stretch to make an assumption here that she wanted to bring Piltover and Hextech under Noxus' (hers) control, and what better way to do that than weaken it's defenses and strength? She made Piltover "stronger" but only by putting herself in control of Cait, her puppet, who she, despite not being from Piltover, made Piltovers leader.

4. I don't think this was Jayce saying that Viktor needed to stay disabled. I myself am disabled, granted not like Viktor is, but I didn't feel this was Jayce saying that. To me, this was Jayce telling Viktor that it's *okay* to not be perfect. That it's okay to be disabled. Not that it's a good thing to be, but that it's not a horrifically bad thing either. Jayce *loves* Viktor (platonically or romantically, your choice, but they're soulmates no matter how you slice it). We see Viktor go from a mostly confident and sassy young man to a shell of himself who believes he's unworthy of standing next to Jayce even though they're partners. Viktor was never unworthy, no matter how his disease progressed, and that's what Jayce is trying to emphasize. Jayce is telling Viktor, "You are loved, I love you, and nothing will ever change that no matter what you think." It echos Jinx and Vi in a way. Jinx thinks she's unlovable, bad luck, but Vi doesn't. She'll never give up on trying to help and love her sister, and the same way Jayce will never give up trying to save and love his partner. Jayce isn't telling Viktor he should have stayed disabled. He's telling him that his disability doesn't make him less of a person and who he is, that perfection does nothing but hurt when it requires impossible standards.

[communistkenobi]

This is going to be an extremely messy post, but I’ve been grappling with the argument that “fascism” is nothing more than an exceptionalised label for the cyclical political crises of capitalism, as opposed to an actual historical force in and of itself - just as capitalism has cyclical economic crises which are necessary for its continued functioning, fascism represents the political crises of capital, a bulwark against class consciousness and socialist organising which threaten capitalist rule. Fascism does this by instead emphasising a racial or national consciousness, using white supremacy and the promise of property to divert people away from class consciousness. In Anatomy of Fascism, Paxton talks about how important the promise of property ownership to Italian peasantry was to establishing fascist rule there - class mobility up into the middle classes was used in concert with racial/national politics to stop people from identifying with the proletariat (“homeowners are too busy to be communists,” to paraphrase that American housing developer I forget the name of atm). This is especially weaponised against Jewish people, who are framed as having no national affiliation and are thus eternal outsiders to the bourgeois Christian homeland.

I have encountered a lot of definitions of fascism. The most productive and evocative definition I’ve found is Cesaire’s - colonialism come home. He was speaking of Europe when he said this, saying that Hitler was only doing what Europe did overseas. But what does this mean for settler colonial states? There is no “home” for colonialism to return to for countries like the United States or Canada, because this colonial process has to constantly and at all times maintain itself upon indigenous land in order for the state to continue to exist. The colonialism is always home, always domestic (while also obviously being exercised globally through imperial domination and violence, especially in the case of the United States). Are these states essentially fascist in conception? If this conclusion is true (which I’m leaning towards yes), is “fascism” a useful analytical category at all? If we speak of the political processes of capitalism when we speak of fascism, can we simply just call it all capitalism? It would be like if we called all periods of economic crisis “collapsism” and partitioned these periods of depression or economic instability into exceptional circumstances divorced from the history of capitalism (which we already have done with The Great Depression in the 1930s, or the 2008 Financial Crash - these are exceptional periods where something “went wrong,” where the system “failed”). Sitting with this conclusion for a moment, calling these processes fascist is to divorce them of their material history, to decouple them from the violence and exploitation inherent to capitalism, and to ensure that any analysis of fascism does not conclude with a call to abolish capitalism - for if fascism is merely an interruption of normal capitalist democratic functioning, then preventing future fascisms does not require the abolition of the current economic and political system.

I’ve been engaging with this essay recently, which calls liberals the “left wing of fascism,” and argues that liberalism, far from providing an alternative to fascist rule, instead provides a stabilising quality to it, acting as a stop-gap to the more destabilising right-wing bourgeois elements of capitalism. And despite these conclusions I still find fascism a useful label, both because I think it has a lot of strategic value to engage with particular historical periods (such as right now) as fascist - fascism as a label has widespread recognition, if not widespread understanding - and also because it provides a neat shorthand for the historical process of capitalist political decay. 

Anyway I’m talking this all out publicly because I’m in the process of reviewing a lot of literature on the subject for my PhD, and I keep coming to this conclusion - that fascism is not “real” in the sense that it cannot be divorced from capitalism itself, and in fact is a necessary process to the continued functioning of capitalism - but I’m having a hard time seeing what analytical limitations this conclusion produces. I have so far been the most persuaded by post-colonial and Marxist accounts of fascism, but I wonder if multiple definitions of fascism are still strategically or analytically useful to use in concert with one another, even if I disagree with them

[phoenixyfriend]

Raising the Minimum Wage and Its Effects

Ko-fi prompt from [name redacted]:

So, what does raising the minimum wage really do to the rest of the economy?

Hecking Complicated! I think I might need a doc of just. References for this one. But here are a few elements!

(Also, the Congressional Budget Office has an interactive model of how different changes to the minimum wage could affect various parts of the economy, like poverty rates and overall employment. Try it out!)

Reduction of Benefits

A common claim that is used to argue against the minimum wage is that it will result in companies cutting hours for their employees in order to recoup losses by having to provide benefits to fewer employees. This isn't 'the minimum wage is bad' so much as 'corporations are assholes,' but it is unfortunately still a thing that happens. (Harvard Business Review)

This is not a problem with the minimum wage itself, in my opinion, but these issues are emblematic of the weight that self-serving elements of capitalism carry. The low minimum wage is just one part of many that contribute to the current wealth disparity; if things like health insurance were universal, then bosses wouldn't be as able to cut them to employees in order to save money. Current regulations incentivize companies to hire more part-time workers than full-time, in order to avoid paying out benefits. Some cities have enacted Fair Workweek Laws in order to combat these approaches, though the impact is as of yet uncertain (Economic Policy Institute, 2018). Early reports, like the Year Two Worker Impact Report on Seattle’s Secure Scheduling Ordinance, do seem to indicate positive results, though:

In addition, the SSO led to increases in job satisfaction and workers’ overall well-being and financial security. In particular, the Secure Scheduling Ordinance had the following impacts for Seattle workers: - increased work schedule stability and predictability - increased job satisfaction and satisfaction with work schedules - increased overall happiness and sleep quality, and reduced material hardship. (direct quote from the Year Two Eval)

Unfortunately, these were approved at the earliest in 2015 (San Francisco's Formula Retail Employee Rights Ordinances, which went into effect in March 2016), which means that none of them were in play for longer than five years before COVID-19 ground the planet's economy to a near halt. I tried to find results for the San Francisco laws, but I couldn't find any studies for it; I did find an article from March 2023 that summarized which cities in California have brought in fair workweek laws, though, so maybe someone could use that as a jumping off point (What Retailers Should Know About California Scheduling Ordinances).

Companies prevented from cutting benefits by cutting hours would probably find another way to do the same thing, but let's be real: keeping the minimum wage low won't stop them from cutting every corner possible. EPI has some articles, like "The role of local government in protecting workers’ rights," that talk about how these measures can be, and have been, implemented to protect workers from cost-cutting employers.

Cutting the hours and benefits of part-time employees is a real, genuine concern to have about raising the minimum wage, and those need to be anticipated and combated in concert with raising the minimum wage. However, it is not a reason to keep the minimum wage depressed. It's just a consequence to be aware of and plan for.

Passing Costs On To Customers

A common argument against raising the minimum wage is that companies will raise costs in order to cover the raise in expenses, to a degree that nullifies the wage hike. This is, um. Uh.

Really easily debunked?

Like, really easily.

Over a ten-plus year period, research found that a 10 percent increase in the minimum wage resulted in just a 0.36 percent increase in prices passed on to the consumer at grocery stores. A similar Seattle-based study showed that supermarket food prices were not impacted by their minimum wage increase. - (Minimum Wage is Not Enough, Drexel U.)

I've talked about it before, but in some cases it's just a matter of how US-based labor is such a comparatively small portion of costs for medium-to-large businesses that raising wages doesn't raise corporate expenditures that much.

That said, some companies rely on drastically underpaying their employees, like Walmart. Walmart's revenue in 2020 was approximately $520 billion (Walmart Annual Report, page 29). Now, this report doesn't actually tell us what amount is spent on labor, but it does give us the "Operating, selling, general and administrative expenses, as a percentage of net sales." This is, to quote BDC, "[including] rent and utilities, marketing and advertising, sales and accounting, management and administrative salaries."

So, wages are just part of the (checks) 20.9% of revenue that is operating SG&A expenses. But maybe I'm being mean to Walmart! After all, the gross profit margin is only 24.1%, so only 3.2% is left for those poor shareholders!

Oh, oh, that means the profit is still over 16billion USD? And Walmart cites having 2.2 million associates in that same report? And that's about $7,500 per employee per year that's being withheld? And that's before we take costs up by like three cents per product?

Which, circling back: A study from Berkeley by the name of "The Pass-Through of Minimum Wages into US Retail Prices: Evidence from Supermarket Scanner Data" found that

a 10% minimum wage hike translates into a 0.36% increase in the prices of grocery products. This magnitude is consistent with a full pass-through of cost increases into consumer prices.

Of course, Walmart does sell more than just groceries, but isn't it interesting that raising a minimum wage resulted in such a small cost increase? If we assume this is linear (it's probably not, but I have so many numbers going on already), then doubling wages from 7.25 to 14.50 would still mean only a 3.6% increase costs! Your $5 gallon of milk would go up to [checks] $5.18.

Hm. Those 18 cents might be meaningful to our poorest citizens, but if those poorest citizens are more likely to be raised out of poverty by raising the minimum wage, then it might just be the case that they too can afford the new price of milk, and have more money left over for things like... rent. Or education. Or healthcare.

Maybe even a cost cutting loss leader like Walmart can reasonably increase its wages. After all, they still have 13 stores on Long Island, where the minimum wage is $15, and has been since 2021.

(I could have just cited the Berkeley study and moved on, but after a certain point I was too deep in parsing the Walmart report to not include it.)

But also... minimum wage increases are often staggered. They start out on the bigger companies, which have the resources to accommodate those changes (unless they've been doing stock buybacks), and then later on the smaller businesses, now that a portion of the economy (those working for the big companies) has the spare change to spend money at those smaller businesses that are raising their prices by a little more than the corporations.

And at that point, all I can really say is, well.

If you can't afford to pay your employees a living wage, you're not an oppressed company. You're just a failing company. Sorry, Walmart&Co, your business model is predicated on fucking over poor people, and so it's a bad business model.

Being a dickhead, while successful, is not actually 'smart' business practice.

(This doesn't even get into the international impacts, like what an "American companies should pay higher wages abroad, especially if they charge higher-than-American pricing for their products, but also at factories where we know they're committing human rights abuses" approach could be but this is already long as fuck so that'll have to wait for another post.)

Anyway.

Inflation

This one is tied into the cost argument above, but like...

Inflation is already a thing? Inflation is happening whether we raise the minimum wage or not. Costs go up whether we raise the minimum wage or not. Who is this argument serving? Not the people who can't afford rent, surely.

Quoting the earlier-mentioned Drexel report (red highlights mine):

While the minimum wage has been adjusted numerous times since its implementation in 1938, it has failed to keep up with inflation and the rising cost of living. The purchasing power of minimum wage reached its peak in 1968 and steadily declined since. If it had kept up with inflation from that point it would have reached at least $10.45 in 2019. Instead, its real value continues to go down, meaning minimum wage employees are essentially being paid less each year. Additionally, some economists argue if minimum wage increased with U.S. productivity over the years, it would be set currently at $26 per hour today and poverty rates would be close to non-existent with little negative impact on the economy. However, because gradual change was avoided, the extra funds were instead shifted to CEO compensation. A sudden change in wages now could possibly make a more noticeable impact on the economy, which is often cited as reasoning for a slower increase over time moving forward. Gradual increases with inflation and productivity could have avoided any potential economic ripple effects from wage increases and should be considered in ongoing plans.

Increasing Unemployment

A common argument is that the unemployment rate would jump as employers were forced to let employees go. Assuming they didn't just hire more employees so they could give them less hours in order to cut benefits... not really!

A 2021 article from Berkeley News summarizes the issue, along with several others, covering some thirty years of research that started with "Minimum Wages and Employment: A Case Study of the Fast-Food Industry in New Jersey and Pennsylvania," published in 1993. They also touch on the issue of subminimum wages for tipped workers, though they do not address the subminimum wages set for underage and disabled workers.

“A minimum wage increase doesn’t kill jobs,” said Reich, chair of UC Berkeley’s Center on Wage and Employment Dynamics (CWED) . “It kills job vacancies, not jobs. The higher wage makes it easier to recruit workers and retain them. Turnover rates go down. Other research shows that those workers are likely to be a little more productive, as well.” - Berkeley News article, "Even in small businesses, minimum wage hikes don’t cause job losses, study finds"

Lower turnover rates also save money for employers, as it causes them to have much lower HR expenses. How much money do you think large employers spend on using sites like Indeed or Glassdoor to find new employees?

This article from Richmond Fed does, admittedly, encourage a slightly grayer analysis:

In a 2021 review of some of the literature, [researchers] reported that 55.4 percent of the papers that they examined found employment effects that were negative and significant. They argued that the literature provides particularly compelling evidence for negative employment effects of an increased minimum wage for teens, young adults, the less educated, and the directly affected workers. On the other hand, in a 2021 Journal of Economic Perspectives article that analyzed the effect of the minimum wage on teens ages 16-19, Alan Manning of the London School of Economics and Political Science wrote that although the wage effect was sizable and robust, the employment effect was neither as easy to find nor consistent across estimations. Thus, although the literature supports an effect on employment among the most affected workers, it does not appear to be as sizable as theory might suggest.

The International Labor Organization has a similarly mixed result when taking a variety of studies into account. (I left in their own reference links.)

In high-income countries, a comprehensive reviews of about 70 studies, shows that estimates range between large negative employment effects to small positive effects. But the most frequent finding is that employment effects are close to zero and too small to be observable in aggregate employment or unemployment statistics (1). Similar conclusions emerge from meta-studies (quantitative studies of studies) in the United States (2), the United Kingdom (3), and in developed economies in general (4). Other reviews conclude that employment effects are less benign and that minimum wages reduce employment opportunities for less-skilled workers (5).

And there's the 60-page "Impacts of minimum wages: review of the international evidence" from University of Massachusetts Amherst, which looks at data from both the US and UK. I'll admit I didn't read this one beyond the introduction, because this is very long already.

Not all US studies suggest small employment effects, and there are notable counter examples. However, the weight of the evidence suggests the employment effects are modest. Moreover, recent research has helped reconcile some of the divergent findings. Much of this divergence concerns how different methods handle economic shocks that affected states differently in the 1980s and early 1990s, a period with relatively little state-level variation in minimum wages.

I'd encourage you to think of it this way:

Employer A pays $7.25/hr. Employer B also pays $7.25/hr. An employee works 25hrs/week for Employer A, and 20hr/wk for Employer B. The minimum wage goes up to $15/hr. Employer B cuts the employee. Employer A cuts employees as well, but not this one, and instead increases their hours to 30/wk for greater coverage.

The employee has gone from just under $400/wk to $450/wk. They lost a job, sure, but the end result... They have an extra fifteen hours of free time per week! Or more! With time to level out, you have less jobs, but more employment, because people aren't taking up multiple jobs (that someone else could have) just to survive.

This is a very, very simplified example, which doesn't take into account graduated wage increases (see the NYS labor table) or the benefits issue from before, but it does show the reality that "less jobs" doesn't necessarily mean "less pay" or "fewer employed" people, when so many of those employed at this pay are working multiple jobs.

Even the Washington Post agrees that the wage hike wouldn't cost as many jobs as conventional wisdom claims, and they're owned by Bezos. (Though I recognize the name of the article's author as the same person behind that 60-page Amherst report, so there's that to consider.)

The Kellogg Institute also points out that individual workers were, on average, more productive after receiving the pay increase, so the drop in the bottom line was softened. This is a bit debatable; the results varied based on the level of monitoring, but it's worth noting that most minimum wage jobs are pretty high-intensity, high-monitoring. Goodness knows you don't get a whole lot of time to yourself outside of the critical eye of your shift lead or customers if you're working fast food. They also note a decrease in profits, but I'd point out that they speak specifically of profits, not share of revenue.

To explain the difference: imagine you sell $100 of product in a day. The product cost you $50. Overhead (rent, utilities, taxes) cost you $10. Labor cost you $15. Profit, then, was $25, or $25.

A 16% reduction in the profit does not mean you now retain $11. It means that you retain 16% less of the $25. You now retain $21.

(This is, as with many of my examples, INCREDIBLY simplified, but I need to illustrate what the article's talking about, and I don't have infographics.)

Some other articles on the topic are from The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Business for a Fair Wage, The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco (more critical), the Center on Wage and Employment Dynamics, the Center for Economic and Policy Research, UCLA Anderson, Vox, and The Intelligencer, which cites another Berkeley article. I do not claim to have read all of these, especially the really long ones, but the links are there if you want to look into them.

In the interest of showing research from groups that do not serve my own political views, I'm going to link an article from the Cato Institute; I do encourage you to read that one with a grain of salt, given that it's written by a libertarian thinktank, and they are just as dedicated to hunting for research that serves their political views as I am. There were a few other libertarian articles I came across, but the way they presented information kept feeling really duplicitous so I just... am not linking those, or the leftist ones I am also uncomfortable with due to the whole "I'm totally not tricking you" vibes. Also eventually I just got tired, there are so many articles on this and I am just one blogger who is not actually working for a magazine or thinktank, I am working for my own personal tumblr.

Negatively Impacting Slightly-Higher Paid Employees

Did you know that raising the minimum wage affects more than just those making minimum? It affects those just above as well. It's referred to as the ripple effect of minimum wage hikes by this Brookings article. They estimate that a wage hike would affect nearly 30% of the country's workforce.

"Price adjustments provide the principal adjustment mechanism for minimum wage increases: higher labor costs are passed through to consumers, mainly for food consumed away from home. Such an increase does not deter restaurant customers. Price increases are also detectable for grocery stores (Leung 2018; Renkin, Montialoux and Siegenthaler 2019), but not more generally. The effect on inflation is therefore extremely small." - "Likely Effects of a $15 Federal Minimum Wage by 2024," Testimony prepared for presentation at the hearing of the House Education and Labor Committee, Washington, DC (2019)

This overlaps with general criticisms of widening income equality, citing an AEA article I cannot access since it's behind a paywall. I wonder if it touches on companies like Amazon being headquartered in the city and manipulating the job market by sheer size? I can only speculate.

Plus, there are the health benefits! Which are mostly connected to lessening poverty, and through that lessening stress and increasing healthcare access, but still! Some of these results are debated, but I'd need to know more about the details to know how they're related (University of Washington).

------

I've spent most of the day on this, so if you guys have made it this far and are interested in supporting me, please donate to my ko-fi or commission an article. (Preferably for more than the base price; I'm effectively working at a fraction of minimum wage myself, which is ironic considering the theme of this post.)

(I realistically shouldn't have spent more than two or three hours on this, but I have so many strong opinions on the subject that I couldn't stop.)

(Also: There were so many more sources I didn't even get to read the basic premise of because it was so repetitive after a while.)

[bizarrequazar]

Zhang Zhehan, 813, and Zhang Sanjian FAQ

I’ve been thinking for a while that I should make this as a starting place for people just learning about the situation. Please let me know if you have any corrections or anything you would like me to add.

1. What happened to Zhang Zhehan? / What is 813?

On August 13. 2021, a photo was spread by online water armies of Zhang Zhehan in front of cherry blossoms from a trip he had taken to Japan in 2018. This was accompanied by claims that he had been there to visit the Yasukuni Shrine—a politically controversial shrine which honors WWII war criminals—and that he held right-wing anti-Chinese sentiments. This photo was later joined by others, all either photoshopped or with falsified context, “backing up” these accusations along with further claims slandering him and his family.

In the days following, Zhang Zhehan lost all of his endorsements, had all of his past works taken down, had all of his social media shut down, and was boycotted by the private association CAPA without the chance to defend himself. His name and image were also later banned from social media, he was used as a negative example in schools and on exams, and his name is blocked from registration on some social media sites and certain devices. He and his family have been subject to intense harassment including death threats.

All of the accusations against him have been shown to be false and he is currently pursuing legal action, but he is still unable to speak or appear publicly in any capacity.

Further reading:  -  Talking points pamphlet  -  Wiki page

2. Who was behind 813?

The boycott was issued by the China Association of Performing Arts (CAPA), a private industry association that at the time held sway (but no official authority) over many social media and streaming companies. CAPA is heavily suspected of being the ones who orchestrated the entire incident and related events, see point 4 below.

2.5. Was Gong Jun behind 813?

No, he had no motive whatsoever, was still a small name in the industry at the time, has no industry sway, had his most popular show taken down because of 813, and was targeted by similar attacks in the months after. If he had not stayed quiet about 813, Gong Jun very easily could have been taken down by it as well. Please see point 7 below if you have this belief because of Zhang Sanjian / zhangzhehan_super3, and if you have this belief because of the Twitter account Justice for Zhang Zhehan please know that she is an idiot.

3. Was 813 caused by censorship / homophobia / the Chinese government?

No. There is no evidence for 813 having anything to do with censorship, it was perpetuated by private venture capitalism. The Chinese government had no known involvement—CAPA has no government affiliation, and both the NRTA and MCT confirmed after inquiry that they had nothing to do with Zhang Zhehan’s cancellation. Quite the opposite, it was said by Li Xuezheng that government officials were in attendance during the interview between him and Zhang Zhehan released 2022-01-01.

4. Why Zhang Zhehan? / What was the motive behind 813?

The exact reason is not known for sure, but it is heavily suspected that he turned down an exclusive endorsement deal with one of CAPA’s subsidiaries around March / April 2021. CAPA took this as a slight and, because he was heavily in the public eye at the time, they decided to make him an example of what they could do to people who refused to play their game.

Other smaller parties who participated in 813 were driven by industry competition, private capital, mob mentality, and/or because they’re shitheads who found it fun.

Further reading: Lead-up to 813

5. Does the lack of news about Zhang Zhehan mean he’s given up / he’s lost his case?

Absolutely not, and quite the opposite in fact. Avoiding the public eye is the best thing Zhang Zhehan can do to avoid media frenzy and the potential skewing of the narrative that that could cause. Due to the length of time it has been since 813, whatever Zhang Zhehan first does when he becomes public again is guaranteed to cause a stir, and therefore he has to be very careful about not saying anything publicly until he and his case are at a favourable point to do so.

Further reading:  -  Question about the length of the case  -  Breakdown of the legal process in relation to Zhang Zhehan’s case

6. Could Zhang Zhehan pursue a career internationally instead? 

Until his name is cleared, no. 

Zhang Zhehan did not have enough international recognition prior to 813 to realistically build a career overseas, and he has not shown fluency in any language other than Mandarin with which to do so. Even if he did pursue this, until his name is cleared he will always be associated with 813 and would struggle to find success with how he would be viewed by Chinese diaspora. 

As well, given the nationalistic nature of 813, seeking a career overseas would communicate guilt and/or giving up on his case.

7. Is Zhang Sanjian / the zhangzhehan_super3 Instagram account / the person releasing new songs Zhang Zhehan?

No. There is overwhelming evidence that Zhang Sanjian etc. is a scam using Zhang Zhehan’s name and image, utilizing photoshopping, deepfakes, and impersonators. 

The people behind this have known professional connections to CAPA, and the activities the scam has engaged in have consistently been aimed at further damaging his image. The Zhang Sanjian persona is characterized as having given up on clearing his name, being degrading and rude to both his fans and former costars, and giving up on his career in China to pursue international fame (see point 6 above). Practically every action made by the persona and related parties go completely against Zhang Zhehan’s character and/or make no logical sense for someone in his position.

Further reading:   -  Timeline of the IG’s early activity  -  Deepfake breakdown  -  Collected information about the Bangkok concerts  -  Wiki page for the IG account

8. Why doesn’t Zhang Zhehan speak out against Zhang Sanjian?

See point 5 above. It is likely that part of the original aim of Zhang Sanjian was specifically to try to bait him into saying something against it. The scam has been trying very hard to control the public narrative via buying public screens, commissioning tabloid articles, releasing a ridiculous number of songs and artificially raising hit counts on these, etc.

9. Why go through so much effort to erase Zhang Zhehan / continue the Zhang Sanjian scam?

For CAPA, Zhang Zhehan winning his case and overturning his boycott will heavily diminish their industry influence (not to mention jail time, hopefully). It could, in the best case scenario, even lead to the complete disbandment of the company under Chinese anti-monopoly legislation. (see the first point under [this post])

For the smaller players involved in the scam specifically, the motive is by and large personal financial gain. Many are known to be in debt / have been in debt but are suddenly now making lavish purchases (Sophie for example), some are known professional con men (Peter), and some are seeking other personal goals such as trying to get famous themselves (Lexus), to promote their own businesses (the Chens and the gym bros), or even for sexual gratification (Hewitt). 

As well, it’s important to keep in mind the financial scale of the extremely lucrative Chinese entertainment industry. The amount that has been spent on 813 and everything since is barely anything in the grand scheme of things.

Further Resources:  -  Zhang Zhehan wiki  -  Masterlist of my posts about Zhang Zhehan  -  My ZZH info tag

[recurring-polynya]

For the fic meme! :D <3

5. Quote one of your fics out of context (I feel like this one’s hard, because how does one make a decision about it?? But I’d love to hear what the first quote was that sprung to mind, regardless of whether it’s one you’d have chosen. Tho you’re welcome to choose one, too!)

7. Share the first line of your five most recently published fics

16. What is one of your favorite words or phrases to use in writing?

19. What headcanon do you always include in your stories?

5. A quote without context. I didn't actually want to say the first thing that popped into my mind--I do a fair amount of these memes, so I've had to answer what is my best line/fave line/etc before and naturally those were the ones that floated to the surface. Instead, I tried to just let my mind drift over various stories I had written to see if some particular thing would pop out, and here's what I got:

“I’m not a poet

I can't tell you fancy lies

I’m just a soldier

But there is one thing I know

That girl will run you straight through”

[the context, because I think it would be nearly impossible to find unless you recognize it, which I hope most people who read that fic would]

7. First lines. From most newest to older-est, presented without titles for funsies.

"Why are you asking me?" Rukia frowns. "Renji is a perfectly adequate liar.

"Hinamori," said Renji, "I am not actually going to become an adjunct fighting arts teacher."

"Renji. Renji, wake up. We need to tell you something. Renji. It is the afternoon, Renji, why are you sleeping?"

Unohana Retsu looked on, gently, but attentively, as her Fifth Seat poured her a cup of tea.

"So, the thing about a month-long deployment," said Sixth-Seat Kotetsu, "is that you will not need to be on high alert twenty-four hours a day."

3 and 4 are technically two parts of the same...concept? It's not actually a real fanfic. Anyway, as a bonus, there's the first line from my last big fanfic:

“I don’t know if they’re trying to capitalize on Boy’s Day, or what,” Rukia said, idly inching her hand toward the plate of hot, steaming gyoza sitting on the countertop next to Renji’s stove, “but they’re having some sort of Seafood Festival out in East Sixth.”

I just love a dialogue cold open, I guess????

16. Current favorite phrase. This summer, I feel deeply in love with the writing of Ann Leckie, like, I think she might be my favorite author now. A phrase that Ann Leckie characters use all the time is to respond "Just so," to something they agree with. It's just a great phrase because I feel like you have to have some level of self-confidence, of bearing to go around saying shit like this. It's like "Yes, I am glad you see the truth of this thing that I, obviously, already knew." I am do not feel remotely capable of writing Imperial Radch fanfic, but I do feel capable of making certain Gotei captains say "just so" and now I do. So if you see one of those in my writing, that is me in my Ann Leckie era.

19. Headcanon I always include. "Rukia" is a name that Rukia gave to herself. I don't see any reason that she would know what the name she died under. She was a baby. Name magic is one of my very favorite themes in writing, and this is a very important part of the magic of Rukia's character, to me. I will never, ever say what her original name was, even though Byakuya knows what it is because Hisana told him. It doesn't matter. Rukia is her real name. (Is this why Hisana could never find her...? Perhaps)

(fanfic writer ask game)

[vocalcalibration]

Silver and Blaze need their own game.

This is a topic I, like many Sonic fans, have given a lot of thought. Ignoring for a moment that these two haven't been playable in an official capacity outside of mobile games and spinoffs since... Black Knight? Does that count? The potential for story and gameplay with these two in particular is massive!

Story:

Frankly the plot pretty much writes itself. But let me explain what I specifically had in mind. The story would start with Silver in a burning city he does not recognize. Crisis city would serve as the opening level to the game. At the end of it Silver would be surrounded by monsters and attacked by Iblis before waking up in his home, this is a nightmare he's been having for weeks now. We would then transition to Silver's second level where he runs and glides through the floating islands of his current future. Why floating islands? Because floating islands are cool. We'd meet some new characters who, establish him a little bit of his own supporting cast, that is until a portal opens up and a shadowy individual pulls Silver throufh it.

From here we cut to Blaze who is rather unenthusiastically attending to paper work before someone comes in and informs her someone fell from a portal in the sky. This would star Blaze's first level with her navigating the jungles and beaches of her home island, before coming across an unconcious Silver whom she brings back to the castle. While he's resting the same shadowy figure emerges in the city unleashing monsters onto the townsfolk which Blaze then deals with for her second level in her capital city. After this Silver wakes up and the two exchange notes, with Silver agreeing to stick around so they can figure out what's happening.

From here we can spend time both experiencing visions of 06's future, chasing the new villain through both the sol dimension and Silver's future, and realizing the bizarre connection the two of them seem to share might be more than just weirdly good chemistry.

For some further explanation on my choices here.

I'm building the story as a followup to 06 for a number of reasons. For one it's the game that established them as a duo so if we have a game with the two of them naturally we're going to pull from it.

The series keeps alluding to their 06 partner ship as well. The above is a Colors DS screenshot in which they directly reference their time in 06. Sonic generations has the two both found in the crisis city portion of the hub and has them standing next to each other whenever they're in a cutscene. And they're often paired together in the IDW comic books.

Which is in no way a coincidence. Most of all however is that Blaze's place in 06 is, to this day, one of the biggest unexplained questions in Sonic's lore. Why was she in original timelines future? Why was she so okay with killing Sonic if she was Rush Blaze? If she's not Rush Blaze why does she have such nice clothes in the apocolypse? All questions we've never gotten a proper explanation for.

There's also the fact that I think finally tackling 06 head on would be healthy for the series future. The games impacts on the franchise are undeniable and can be felt to this day. For a while they seemed to live in permanent fear of the game, like it would come back and haunt if they said it's name too many times. Then we had the self flogging era where they "got in" on the joke. Nowadays they seem more comfortable referencing the game in a more matter of fact way, but finally ripping off the bandaid and just acknowledging the game outright in canon may be how they finally put it to rest. In service to that the ending could have Silver and Blaze choosing not to allow whatever past life they had define them, instead focusing on the now and what they can do for it.

Some character stuff you could do could be maybe Silver, due to the events of 06 is cut off from the time line. Everytime he visitis Sonic and co in the past his future is slightly different, the people he does and doesn't know change, but he remains the same. His memories aren't altered to match the current future and so he finds himself in a world of strangers, part of why he spends so much time in the past as Sonic and the others recognize him and he feels like he actually has a place there, but feels as though it's selfish on his part to stay and alter the timeline even more. Meanwhile Blaze could find herself worn out due to her responsibilities as princess, the expectations that weigh on her and finds herself longing for the excitement and adventure she felt with Sonic during their time together. Or something like that, I'm just spitballing here.

We could also reintroduce Marine as a proper "Tails" to Blaze's "Sonic", taking a page (heh) out of the IDW books by having her be much more mature and concientious of her duties in a squire-esk position.

Granted IDW might have over done it JUST little, at least with the tiny bit we see her, so maybe have her keep a bit of that energetic and cocky attitude from Rush Adventure, just toned down a little. You could show her more developed as mechanic, having pick up things from Tails and due to her own practice and training. Also make all her Australian slang incomprehensible to Silver because that would be funny.

Gameplay:

Right out the gate I want the game to be based on the open zone formula of Frontiers, it's the direction I want the series to stick going forward, no more pulling a Sonic Team and jumping ship to a radically different gameplay style for seemingly no reason again. With that said I think I'd like to see it refined a fair bit. Instead of several open zones we have two much larger open areas featuring multiple biomes through which you access the various levels. The Sol dimension would be the first open zone, with the main island and various smaller island surrounding it. Water vehicles from rush adventure could return and exploring would have a bit of a wind waker vibe, sailing from place to place. It wouldn't be as intrusive as Rush Adventure, instead of being their own segments it'd be real time vehicles you can get in and out of whenever and all the major islands would have fast travel points once discovered.

The other open zone would be the same structure, albeit with two main islands connected via bridges surrounded by smaller ones, except they'd, again, be floating in the air and you'd travel via air vehicles. I guess like Skywar Sword... huh.

Blaze would serve as a more traditional Sonic gameplay experience, high speed platforming and action. Specifically base her moveset on 06 Blaze, which featured a double jump, homing attack and grounded fire tornado attack, while also adding in her fire spindash and hover from Rush. Her combat would resemble Sonic's frontiers combat in the open zone, of course with a focus on her pyro-kinesis for her abilities. To put in fighting game terms, she's be a true rush down character with some light projectile stuff.

Silver would be slower. Now let me be clear, Not slow, slower. He'd still move at a good clip but would be outpaced by Blaze easily. In place of that his levels would be more platforming and puzzle focussed. Silver wouldn't ball jump or homing attack, like 06, but he'd have hover, a high jump and a psycho slash move which kept his momentum so as to not slow him down. Also while Blaze would have something closer to the Unleashed-Forces boost, which damages enemies, Silver would have the non-damaging frontiers boost. His combat would be much more projectile heavy, with psycho-kinetic blasts and slashes and aoe attacks. Maybe also some kind of psycho mine that when activated holds ebemies in place? I think it'd be cool. Again in fighting game terms, a zoner/trap character with some light melee and grappling options.

In the open zones you could switch between the two freely, including mid-combo, to tackle the various combat and platforming challenges and puzzles. For levels there are a few options. You could have dedicated levels for both character, the advantage there being that you can taylor each level to their specific abilities. Maybe even take something from Forces Sonic/Avatar stages with select levels using both of them. Alternatively you could have every level accessible by both but with different paths they can take based on abilities. Or you could have it so you can swap freely mid level, kinda' like Sonic Heroes. They all have benefits and drawbacks and I can't really say which one is definitively the best choice.

But now we reach the end of my essay... thing. Thanks for reading. Also all art were taken from official sources including Sega and IDW. Ttfn. Tuh tuh for now.

[vilandel]

Athénaïs Vitrail ☘️

(Black Clover OC Profile ☘️)

@kalolasfantasyworld, @acacia-may, @loosesodamarble, @lyranova and anyone else who loves my Rosette, I don't think you will share the same sentiment towards her older sister... Athénaïs was created because I wanted to try to make not lovable OCs. Not really a villain like Dante or Vanica for example, not a complex person with redemption like Nozel or Langris, but more like a typical noble but smart, arrogant, spoiled and full of herself... It's a bit difficult to explain just like this, maybe it will clearer to understand in her profile. If I like her, only because I like to hate her or when she is put in her place and it's not easy in her case.

☘️☘️☘️

Basic Information

Name: Athénaïs Vitrail

Age: currently 24

Birthday: 27th May

Sign: Gemini

Love Interest: None. She was determined to marry into royalty, Nozel was her first choice, but she got Damnatio instead.

Birthplace: Clover Kingdom’s Capital, city villa of house Vitrail

Current Location: Clover Kingdom, Kira Palace

Affinity: Glass Magic

Likes: Luxury, clothes & jewelry, puddles, balls, wine, being admired and put on a pedestal, controlling others, putting others in their places, having power

Dislikes: Not being in control, poverty, the current state of House Silva, being dismissed, being in the shadow of someone else.

Grimoire Design: A bright grayish white, kinda looking like a lot of light shining through glass with golden complex looking patterns.

Appearance:

Hair Color: Golden blonde

Eye Color: Royal blue

Height: 170 cm

She is considered one of the biggest beauty in Clover. Her skin is like porcelain, lips like a blooming pink rose, her eyelashes black and long, her hair looks like gold in any way and falls in wavy curls over her shoulder. Athénaïs has very pretty curves, considered perfect.

She usually wears her hair down or into hairdos that are currently in fashion. Her clothes are usually very luxurious, mostly with golden patterns, but never looking gaudy. Her fashion sense rivals the one of Nebra. She also barely uses make-up, just a bit sometimes, but she never needed it really with her looks.

She is beautiful, but inside she is rather vain, which mades her not that beautiful compared to anyone with a good heart.

Personality:

Athénaïs is what you can consider a typical Clover noble lady: arrogant, vain, spoiled, full of herself and dismissive to anyone she considers unworthy... In her case it's not only commoners and peasants, but also often other nobles and royals.

But she is also clever woman. She is very admired since she was a baby and she knows that. Since she is also ambitious, she learned to manipulate rather early on. Athénaïs knows how to talk, to compliment and also to put shade on someone, in a way that it sound like a fact. She can also destroy someone's reputation with a mix of fake pity, gossip and amusement. She is a force in noble circles.

When Athénaïs wants something, she usually make sure she has more than one option to reach her goal. So, she is often very calm about her ambitions. But when nothing works, while she remains calm, she starts to be very nervous inside, searching for a scapegoat to blame and she loses a bit of her control.

Don't play gambling games with her. She always wins and not only does Athénaïs knows that, she would never cheat. In her eyes, cheating is unbefitting of royalty. But she is ready to cheat when she can't get what she wants.

She does love her little sister, but it is yet to determined if it's really genuine or if it's just because taking care of her so-called unhealthy younger sister puts her in a good light. Athénaïs actually doesn't know it herself.

Background:

Athénaïs is Rosettes older sister. So, she is from high nobility and the eldest daughter of lord Verre, head of house Vitrail, and his wife Cristal. Already since she was a baby, she was admired and considered growing up one of the most perfect noble ladies in Clover. The stupid nobles are always in awe in front of her, the clever ones admire her.

She got one of the best educations. Unlike many noble girls, she didn't considered her lessons as useless for her future. On the contrary, she took them seriously and it helped to get the excellent reputation she has today.

Like said before, she is a force in noble circles. In fact, her word can quickly become a fact. Especially on the marital status. For example, if she says something like "House Lügner shouldn't try to get married with house Boismortier, house Sandler is the better option for them", you can bet that soon, a betrothal will be announced between house Lügner and house Sandler.

And most importantly, Athénaïs is considered to be one of the best nobles to marry into royalty. So, her parents and many nobles expected and even worked for that. Athénaïs herself is convinced of that fact and also that she could take over any royal house. Especially the Silvas.

Marital Situation:

Since everyone considered her as a perfect candidate to marry into royalty, Athénaïs refused any suitors that weren't royal. And even in royalty, not everyone was good for her. People like Leopold, Solid or Kirsch were unfitting of her. The king as well, not because of his position, but even Athénaïs deemed herself to good for this fool. Fuegoleon and Nozel were more fitting for her ambitions. And since Nozel is already Head of House Silva, he became her first choice.

To be noted, Athénaïs always considered that House Silva wasn't well lead. Oh, not for the reasons that might come first to our minds. No, she considers that Nozel did a stupid job when he took over at fifteen, that he spent too much time grieving his mother instead of doing his duty. In her eyes, children and parents shouldn't be close. She also thinks that he handled his siblings badly and that he should have 1. banish Noelle completely from royalty, 2. put Solid more in the shadows and 3. never allowed Nebra to become a Magic Knight since she has just Mist Magic. She also doesn't think that Nozel is able to properly lead, be it House Silva or the Silver Eagles. But he is head of house and he has presence, plus he is popular. Of course, she wouldn't say things like this out loud, she is too clever for that. But subtle shade is Athénaïs speciality.

She was convinced that she would be the only one capable to make House Silva a great royal house again and also that she could lead it, since in her eyes Nozel was easy to control since he was close to his mother. Here I have to reassure you. Even before he started to change and redeem himself, Nozel never ever once considered Athénaïs Vitrail as a potential future wife, despite the pressure of nobility. He is not stupid, he sees behind her mask and ever since he overheard her talking (subtly) badly about his beloved mother, he grew a big dislike towards her, while never showing it (he was cold to everyone, so...).

When Nozel fell in love with Vanessa (or in Paper Hearts universe, when it will be more official with Helena... sorry to be a bit bold, Lola^^'), Athénaïs first wasn't worried. For her, it was just an annoyance, since she doesn't have a high opinion on witches (or foreigners, even if they are royalty). Instead, she was very bold to give Nozel a daring suggestion. To be noted, she doesn't believe that love has anything to do with marriages, that romance is the only luxury peasants and commoners could have. So, she was convinced that Nozel wasn't in love, but just had a fling. Athénaïs proposed to him that if he doesn't want to get rid of his "plaything", she could allow to have her stay at the Silva Palace. He could have his fun with her, but he should only have children that are legitimate, not bastards. Athénaïs even suggested to give Nozels beloved a proper position, like a governess for the children, but she should never have any power.

You can be certain that not only Nozel refused her proposition, but put her also very harsh at her place, probably for the first time in her life. Showing her his dislike directly as well. Athénaïs was taken aback by it, not expecting it at all and for the first time, there was a shatter in her ambitions.

She still later got married to a royal, to Damnatio. But it was more kinda out of nervous despair than anything. Their marriage is as arranged as arranged could be. And well, Damnatio is not someone to control at all, so Athénaïs was very upset that she couldn't take control over house Kira. Damnatio also doesn't trust his wife and to not lose some kind of power, Athénaïs did her best to remain a force within nobility. Her frustration is always at his peak when she sees or hear about Nozel being happy with a woman outside of his circle. She just couldn't understand and considered Nozels wife a thief that stole her price.

Damnatio and Athénaïs only got one child together (which conception rather coincide with the birth of Nozels first-born children, hm...). A daughter named Esperanza. Who looks exactly like her mother, expect for a little mole on her chin. Since Athénaïs considered that children and parents shouldn't be close, she never got any kind of bond with her daughter, not even wanted to see her every day and only made sure she got a brilliant education, like she had herself. For her, it was normal that her daughter would be another Athénaïs.

But luckily for little Esperanza and to a lot of people surprise, Damnatio came to genuinely love his daughter. Despite his personality, he made sure to spend time with Esperanza, forging a proper bond with her. Heck, he even put a crib in his own office for her. It shocked many people and it is probably Damnatio biggest redeeming quality. He also considered that his daughter needed a proper maternal figure and since his wife was inclined to do so (he demanded it first of Athénaïs and they had such a terrible fight about it that Damnatio lost his calm for the first time), he asked Esperanzas maternal aunt to be that mother figure. Aka, our dear Rosette. Which allowed Esperanza to spend a lot of time with the Silva next generation.

Thanks to all of this, Esperanza became a wonderful, gentle and kindhearted girl (Rosettes or Finesses genes somehow got through). And one day, she will be the next queen of Clover, replacing Augustus.

Family Tree of the Vitrail Sisters:

Trivia:

Athénaïs was very vaguely by the mistress of the French king Louis XIV, madame the Montespan, heck why that name.

I actually created Athénaïs a bit before Rosette, but Rosette came really close afterwards. First I haven't thought about making them sisters, but somehow it felt fitting for me. They both have some similarities, but Rosette has a good heart while Athénaïs doesn't have it.

Athénaïs hates getting fat or getting too skinny, so she has an extra control about each food she takes.

Like madame the Montespan, has sometimes weird methods to take care of her beauty.

Can't cook at all, but would dare to say something dismissive if she considers that a cook has done something dumb.

Is one of the best dancers in the kingdom.

Is of course dismissive of Asta, but gives him points because "he tries to be polite."

Still visits Rosette from time to time, but those visits are rather short.

Is firmly convinced that her little sister is not getting along with Vanessa (or Helena), Zora and Asta, since she is a Vitrail and above commoners and peasants. Is very in denial about that.

Isn't upset or worried that Rosette spends time with her daughter or that Esperanza spends a lot of time with the Silvas. She just thinks that it will be like it was to her.

Hates Charlotte for many reasons. At first, she considered that being married to Yami was the fitting punishment, but then was upset that Charlotte was happy with him. Athénaïs just couldn't understand it.

Is still very loved within nobility, but her power fades over time.

Was very proud that her daughter will be queen, but was very angry that it won't give her any power.

The only things she genuinely loves are puddles. As a princess of house Kira, she got six of them and they got even their own chambers.

Sadly won't change and might end up along with puddles and some nobles who still admire her. Rosette is a bit sad about it, but she has the Silvas who are her true family.

Esperanza was never close to her mother and kept her distance, but still respected her enough to make sure she won't end in poverty.

[transmutationisms]

do you have any thoughts re:the movement to rebrand (so to speak) chronic fatigue syndrome as myalgic encephalomyelitis?

myalgic encephalomyelitis is not actually a new term, it's documented as early as the 1950s and although retroactive diagnosis is almost always a bad idea, it is almost certain that at least some of the people who have been labelled with this term since then would currently fall into the diagnostic umbrella of ME/CFS.

i am not a huge fan of either half of that abbreviation. both are misnomers (which are common in medicine but still potentially harmful) and there is only limited evidence, in a limited number of patients, of the type of inflammation that the ME nomenclature semantically indicates.

specifically, however, the embrace of the ME label, esp by UK activists since the 90s, has been driven largely by the desire to 'prove' that the disease is 'real' ('physical') and that its sufferers deserve treatment, care, and basic respect. i am always 100% on the side of patients and patient advocates here. but i also think it's important to recognise that the reason the condition denoted by ME/CFS is not taken seriously by the medical establishment is not because it is poorly named, it is because doctors are ableist. they are ableist because they are trained and embedded in a culture that is ableist, and medicine under capitalism has a biopolitical remit. making grabs for respectability through superficial means like language changes does nothing to address any of this, and we will not beat ableists by playing them at their own game: there is no virtuous enough sick person to please an ableist, and there shouldn't need to be. i think fighting over the label misses the point and is at best a waste of energy, at worst a manifestation of reactionary currents in liberal disability activism.

however. i also think that most people using the terms ME or ME/CFS are individuals not really wielding it in any kind of harmful capacity, and just as the language change won't lead to liberation, it's also not going to do much harm on its own. it's a superficial difference. this isn't something i go around correcting people on or lecturing them about unprompted, and like i said, CFS is also an inaccurate term anyway. medicalese isn't really set up to handle illnesses with an unknown or multifactorial pathophysiology, so people are just doing their best here. for the most part i think it's basically irrelevant to actual disability activism and justice, which are the things needed in order to secure genuine treatment and care for people dealing with the condition.

[inventors-fair]

Awesome Activations: Tricks of the Grave Winners!

~

Our winners this week are @melancholia-ennui, @nine-effing-hells, and @reaperfromtheabyss!

@melancholia-ennui — Anointed Paladin

Okay, let's get this out of the way straight out of the gate: Afterglow is ultimately a variant of Embalm. However, a) I like Embalm and think there should be more of it and b) I would say that does some serious work in setting itself apart that I appreciate. Principally there's the reversal of the dynamic: while Embalm was just another copy of the creature and Eternalize was primarily interested in making it bigger than before, Afterglow actually makes it considerably weaker, which I feel like opens up enough new design space. Interesting how the illusion self-destruct clause doesn't include being targeted by abilities, though. Was that intentional? Well, at any rate, the card itself is a perfectly fine showing of the mechanic, putting more emphasis on what the creature does than what it is in both forms. I'm struggling to figure out the precise flavor of Afterglow—maybe it's just a memory of them rather than any sort of spirit—but that's not a knock against it; on the contrary, I'm interested enough to speculate.

@nine-effing-hells — Sun-Caste Burgomeister

Alas, poor Reinforce. From a rather paltry showing in Morningtide to cropping up every so often in Modern Masters sets, it's fair to say it hasn't really been given a fair chance. The resurgence of Channel would seem to have thrown a further wrench in that plan, as at its core it's essentially a more restrictive version. That's why I appreciate how you've capitalized on what sets it apart: namely, that always doing roughly the same thing means you can build an archetype around it. While I'm ever so slightly dubious about the language used in the ability (as opposed to something like "becomes the target of a reinforce ability" a la Mirror-Shield Hoplite), but it's understandable enough that I don't end up particularly minding. Life is hardly the most exciting payoff for this hypothetical archetype, but scaling it based on power is an excellent direction for rewarding effective reinforcing. I'm also a bit curious about the setting being suggested here. "Caste" would currently imply Bant, but the Germanic title and being a Dwarf kind of upends that.

@reaperfromtheabyss — Thundering Stormkin

Ah, I see I'm not the only one with a profound fondness for Hardened Berserker. Combine that using the newly introduced tech courtesy of Eluge, and I'm just so captivated by this card that I want to pinch its cheeks. While the ability is ultimately quite similar to simply adding a red mana that doesn't empty, it adds a nice bit of flair and, more importantly, takes up considerably less space to make all the more room for the real star of the show, the second ability. Hoo boy, that's something else. While it's largely lacking in the breaking-the-gaminess of other creature-based copiers like Dualcaster Mage, costing nothing in terms of card advantage is a pretty huge advantage. What really pushes it over the edge for me is that it's an on-board trick, which have always tickled my fancy. Sure, it's powerful, but your opponent is aware of the possibility at all times and can plan accordingly. I also love that if this should happen to die in combat (fairly reasonable given its stats), then you're perfectly capable of immediately copying the spell you just reduced. Great stuff!

~

Runners will follow as soon as I can pay the cost. —@spooky-bard

[amelias-zelda-calamity-quintet]

Would love to learn more about each of the bullet points, but if I had to pick just one, the pantheon around the world sounds interesting

You can send in as many as you like, I will absolutely answer them all. It's one of the reasons I set up the Tumblr blog for my fics, asks like this help me do character voice and worldbuilding and it's good for warmups & breaks from the main writing itself. Very "so y'all found the one NPC I forgot to name" kind of GM exercise. I did it for my book series and I got more worldbuilding done that way than I had in ages, so genuinely, there's not an upper limit to these, I might just have to put them in queue.

That said, I'm going to hand this over to the princess and Marela, I think they'll have the most insight on this topic.

The Pantheon Around the World w/ Princess Zelda & Marela

Zelda: "That is an entire field of discussion. It would take books to cover the full breadth of theological differences across the world. I can give you a summary to the best of my ability, but some topics do require further reading to explore.

"There are some matters of religion that are easy to define in our world. For instance, we have definitive proof of the Golden Goddesses; Din, Nayru, & Farore, along with a handful of other divine beings, like Hylia. But different cultures will value these divines, well, differently. While they all generally share worship for the main Three, and with secondary worship to Hylia for Her connection with the legends and the cycle, it can manifest uniquely based on a culture's primary relation with divinity.

"Take Hyrule for example. Due to our proximity to the Sacred Door, our kingdom has been central to the cycle and the legends as the source of magic evil has always sought out. For this reason, as well as for Her sacrifices, worship for Hylia is more prevalent that in other nations. Many Hyruleans take Hylia's story, of being mortal and of achieving ascension through the forging of the Master Sword and the imprisoning of Demise, as an act of inspiration, of Hope. Now, more recent study would suggest Hylia was already incredibly powerful, of at least two Sage lineages before Her ascension, but Her story still proves primary in Hyrulean faith. That isn't to say that the Golden Trio aren't still highly revered, but many in Hyrule find Hylia to be more..."

Marela: "Personable? Relatable? Achievable?"

Zelda: "Perhaps not the last one, but yes. In that vein. Hylia was the most like us, Her story is the one also most intertwined with our culture, so entangled with the legends as it is. But it's certainly not the only one. And other countries will favor other Goddesses. Unsurprisingly, Rahaal sees Din as a primary inspiration, as does Teromac. Farona chiefly holds Farore in worship."

Marela: "And Naydrana and Kohno hold Nayru in higher esteem!"

Zelda: "Precisely. Then there's Lyberic, which holds the Goddesses in equal value. And Holan, whose current theological debates have put the eight Sages of the Convergence in higher value. For similar reasons that Hylia is favored here, current leading Holanii ideology views the Sages as the most achievable, and thus the mantle most worthy of respect and reverence."

Marela: "It's hard to imagine not having the Goddesses so central to worship. Particularly living here. I know it's true. My family visited the coves in Kohno once. Seeing Din's underwater was a surprise! The lava fissure certainly sold it, if the fire coral hadn't."

Zelda: "Every culture has different centered fixtures in their worship with the Goddesses, none more correct than the others. Like our connection to the Sacred Door."

Marela: "You've been to the other great temples, Zelda. I think you could give some examples."

Zelda: "I have. The closest to us would be the Arborage, the temple within the boughs of the Great Maru Tree in Farona's capital, Pabatta."

Marela: "Great Maru Tree? Like the Great Deku Tree?"

Zelda: "Older even. As old as the Creation, so the stories say. She is an infinitely wise being. And not the only one in the nation. At each of the Goddesses' glades in Farona, one of her daughters has grown. Pilgrimage to them is of both religious significance and part of the ceremony for becoming ruler of the country. Unsurprisingly, Farore holds significant sway. Though I've been to the Endless Ember, it's definitely connected with Din."

Marela: "What about our other friendliest neighbor, Rahaal?"

Zelda: "In Rahaal, the high influence of Gerudo cultures does hold Din in the highest esteem. The Temple of Radiant Fire is said to contain the flames that were used to forge the Master Sword, though the sanctum where they would be held has long been sealed. But in Rahaal, theology and science are opposite sides of the same coin. There are universities built around each of the Goddesses's forges, the University of Arcanum & the Metaphysical for Nayru, the University of Practical & Material Sciences for Din, and the University of the Natural Order for Farore, divided across the nation. Only the University of the Forum is separate, and that's because the Temple of Radiant Fire is so sacred."

Marela: "There are different titles, I've noticed as well. Here in Hyrule we call spiritual leaders priestesses. But in Kohno, they were called anchorites or by a familial title."

Zelda: "It does vary widely. In Naydrana, they call their spiritual leaders mystics, in Farona attendants, and in Holan ministers. Like I said, it would take books to truly delve into this topic, and how widely is varies. I'm afraid I only have so much time to give to this answer, as interesting as its discussion might be. We haven't even had time to discuss the Dreeka and their Goddess, there is truly so much more to explore."

Marela: "I would look forward to continuing this discussion in the future though! Perhaps when we've had more time to travel. And after this little plan of yours in Hylia's temple-"

Zelda: "I think we're getting ahead of ourselves there, Marela. Somethings are better left unsaid, I think."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mark of a Hero (Updates on Tuesdays & Fridays, 1 of 9)

Hyrule is at peace, or so the Royal Family would have its people believe. Something is afoot in the kingdom, and someone needs to do something about it. Least likely would be Marksmen Link Sayre- a mercenary and monster hunter doing his best to get by. Until a job goes wrong, and he gets roped into the secret plans of Hyrule's princess. Now Link must play the part of the Hero to dive deeper into the mystery, and maybe stumble into a legend of his own.

AO3 - Wattpad