#you can just Create More People there's absolutely no physicality required for it

[poppiesforthirteen]

i don't get people who don't like looms because "when two time lords love each other very much they send a formal application to the council to use a machine that is in their house" is so much funnier than a nuclear family

[anim-ttrpgs]

something I don’t get about the disability metaphor is that for eureka monsters obviously it harms another person to eat them. the help a disabled person needs doesn’t actively harm or kill another person. Maybe it’s a difference in perspectives that cannot be resolved

(What I’m about to write could potentially sound very fucked up at first so I’m going to need to trust everyone to read the whole thing before forming an opinion.)

Also this message and response references these two posts.

Eureka’s stance on disabled people is that they (including myself writing this) are, or at least can often be, burdens.

Disabled people often require more resources to live than they are able to “give back,” which, in our capitalist and artificial-scarcity-based economy, is just about the worst thing a person can do.

Anti-ableism sentiment often focuses on the idea that “disabled people aren’t burdens, that they’re just as good and capable as everyone else,” but if they were, they wouldn’t be “disabled” would they? When you say stuff like that, you’re conceding that a person’s worth is determined by how capable they are at doing work, and then having to bend over backwards to justify thinking that a person without arms is just as valuable as a person with arms. Eureka is asking you to decouple a person’s value from how much net resources they can produce.

Often times also, the resources that real disabled people consume are human resources, and those human resources are very much capable of suffering for it. Nurses are overworked, around-the-clock care is absolutely physically and mentally exhausting, people who have to care for their elderly or otherwise disabled relatives on top of their regular jobs don’t get to have social lives or hobbies, etc.

To this end, we wrote the monsters in Eureka to be unquestionably people who “cause damage” to society by literally eating up human resources, because they have to to live, they have no other choice unless they want to just die. Your friend is gone from your life because he has to spend all his free time caring for his comatose wife after a freak car accident. Your friend is gone from your life because a vampire randomly ate him. Providing a metaphor isn't all the monsters are doing, they just work well through that lens.

And then Eureka forces you to look at these people as people, and make up your mind as to whether they have value and a right to prologue their own existence. We can’t force you to agree that they do, but if you think they don’t, then you’ll have to make that argument looking at an intelligent person with a life rather than a pure hypothetical or statistics on a chart.

There are some monsters in Eureka where, if the economy or societal structures were changed, they would stop being such severe drains on resources and could exist harmlessly within society, and there are some monsters where no imaginable amount of societal change would solve the problems they cause. This is true of disabled people IRL as well. Some of them would require no further assistance with living if certain things about society changed, and others would still require a massive amount of human resources.

And even when it’s not necessarily human resources, the extra resources that disabled people need also cause huge energy expenditure and create huge amounts of plastic waste, which are things that contribute to global warming and pollution, which do have significant harmful effects on everyone’s lives. Despite this, they are still “worth it” to keep around.

As for actively causing harm, that happens too. I randomly scrolled past this post after we got this message and saved it so I could link it here.

This person and their family had to cause a big stink in a restaurant just to get an accommodation that they needed, and to us reading it from their perspective, we’re obviously on their side, but I can assure you that the overworked staff at that restaurant didn’t see it that way. They saw the disabled person as an aggressive Karen whom they would never in a million years want to have to provide customer service to. The disabled person & family had to get aggressive, and ruin the staff’s day, to get what they needed. That’s actively causing harm - harm we all agreed was justified to cause - but harm nonetheless.

Plastic straws aren’t that big of a deal for global pollution, but even if they were, the point is that this person still would have needed a straw. It doesn’t line up one-to-one, because metaphors rarely do, but a vampire asking if they can drink someone’s blood, and being told No, may find themselves in much the same position. (And if you bring up that some people find vampires really sexy, you’re missing the point. “I would give them a straw if they had sex with me.” is not actually a great thing to announce about yourself.)

I can also come up with an example from my own life. I personally am very sensitive to noise and noise pollution. If there’s music playing at a public space, I usually can’t handle it. (Earplugs don’t work for other reasons I won’t get into - plus, if I just deafen myself to all sound, how can I socialize with anyone in this public space?)

If I want to exist in this space, I will have to actively cause harm to everyone there, or else stop existing in that space. I will have to go up to whoever is responsible and ask them to turn off the music, actively taking it away from everyone else who was enjoying it. I have to take action to ruin their good time if I want to exist in that space at all, and they might, very understandably, be pissed off at me for doing that. Because, like I said in this other post, the people that monsters eat do have a right to prevent themselves from being eaten by monsters. We aren't proposing that the solution is everyone has to line up to be mauled to death by monsters or else they're a bad person.

Who has a greater right to enjoy themselves in that space? That’s the kind of question that Eureka poses, and makes you consider both sides as human being rather than denoting one as just an ontologically evil villain to be destroyed.

We actually don't know of perfect solutions to all the problems presented by the existance of monsters in Eureka, we just know that "exterminate all people who are parasites and burdens to society" ain't it.

[scentedpeachlandcreator]

Guide for manifesting weight loss:

So an Anon asked me to make this and here it is, it will help others too.

As we all know that we often struggle with achieving our weight goal,doing workout,keeping a strict diet and eating healthy etc...

All of this was created by man, a man-made creation like Times, Machines, names, studies, science and many more.

And of course this was all coming from the imagination.

But i'm here to tell you that nothing is set in stone, your beliefs/assumption are the true fact.

Don't do things that you don't want to, just for you to loss weight ,because some non loa-believe people told you to.

Do whatever you want! Cause you make the rules and you control your own reality.

And you should be grateful that you discovered loa out of BILLIONS OF PEOPLE that are living miserably, believing that they should work hard to have what they want, following society rules.

Knowing your true power:

You need to understand that you are what we call God ,an Infinite being that could do anything without limitation.

You Can be whoever you want, get anything you want and more, even manifest the most illogical things, and this all because you're a consciousness that Can decide whoever version of themselves is gonna be.

But does God need to follow the rules? Does god need to do method? Does god need to do challenge? NO!! ABSOLUTELY NOT! YOU CAN DO WHATEVER YOUR MIND TELLS YOU TO, HELL! EVEN YOU CAN CREATE YOUR OWN RULES AND METHOD.

YOU ➜ God (imagination) ➜ create your own rules and method and Can manifest anything you want into your reality.

You Can be a model, having that pretty face, being a billionaire, living in that penthouse, having a yacht, fancy car, being with your handsome/pretty SP, having that perfect body. Having superpowers, having a little fairy, having a Magic portal in your room and swimming in money and MANY MORE.

All of that with what? Without even Lifting a single little finger, everything you ever wanted already EXIST, there's many versions of yourself with your desires, and with just that pretty powerful mind of yours.

Understanding the Law:

The law of assumption indicate that whatever you assume to be true will Harden into fact with persistence.

Manifesting your desires into the physical reality just requires you to change your inner self so that the outer World will follow.

The 3d is a mirror ➜ changing your self (4d) ➜ persisting ➜ the 3d will reflect your 4d ➜ yay! You have your desires in the physical reality.

It is very simple and easy.

All of this just needs discipline and having faith in yourself and your true power as a god.

Now the important part of this post.

How to manifest weight loss while ignoring the 3d:

We do know that manifesting weight loss might seem difficult for the most of us.

While you're manifesting and there's the people that surround you Always ALWAYS complaining and pointing about your appearance, your weight and that might get you very pissed off and angry.

I am myself suffering from this, my parents Always pointing at my appearance,saying that i look fat (and that not true they are just exaggerating things, my Friends told me that i have a beautiful body but i hide it with over-sized clothes cause i'm insecure), and they force me to go workout when i don't want to (cause obviously i hate sport and socializing) and which caused a HUGE ARGUMENTS with them, and i Lost it (cause i have anger issues) but they didn't listen they told me it for my own good🙄 my ass, so i had no choice but to listen to them but i'm DONE FOLLOWING SOCIETY RULES AND BELIEFS.

So yeah i'm not listening to anybody but my personal beliefs cause i'm the only one who knows the truth, the cheat code to life.

you Can eat whatever you want and with the belief that you won't gain a single weight and it's will become a fact.

Your beliefs and assumption matters and don't listen to anybody.

Okay so now you might wonder how to manifest weight loss while interacting with the 3d every single day and it very simple:

➜ firstly choose what desired weight or body you want to manifest.

➜ secondly knows that you do already have it in imagination and creation is finished, you're already that version of yourself that is skinny or muscular.

➜ thirdly you need to keep persisting no matter what the 3d tells you cause that will make the subconscious really believes you're that desired version of yourself.

➜ and lastly dismiss the 3d, if the people surrounding you keep pointing at your appearance just ignore them and affirm in your head that you already have your desired weight or body and knows that the 3d will change.

You really need to throw Logic in the trash Cane, Logic won't get you anywhere but imagination will.

"Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world." Albert Einstein.

"Logic will take you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere" Albert Einstein.

"You believe in God? Believe also in your imagination" Neville Goddard.

You want to have that perfect body? Yes you Can, you want to have that Chinese standard Body? Yes you Can! You want to be muscular and lean? Yeah you definitely Can.

Just pick and choose, fulfilling yourself in your imagination and accepting it as fact and the 3d will follow.

Seriously it is really simple, just don't overcomplicate it.

Just have faith and trust in yourself and you'll definitely do it.

I don't want anybody sending me Ask in my Inbox After this post.

Go apply and you'll definitely thank me for it. (Read this one)

I advice you to read these post they're really Amazing and it will surely make it click for you:

This, and this, this and this, this one, and this one, this, this, this, this,this one, and this, this last one.

And lastly you're the only one that Can change your reality, no one Can do it for you, you're already a master manifestor and void master and you're on the pedestal.

You were meant to change your life and live in happiness and wealth.

_ Xoxo, Eli

© Scentedpeachlandcreator

[lilbittymonster]

how would a complete complete beginner get into gpose? like how to make npcs appear and pose my oc with them?

love your blorbos and the triad and your gposes and writing btw. thank you and pls keep creating <333

Hi, anon! Thank you so much, that's so sweet 💜

So, I may have gotten a little carried away, but I wanted to be thorough responding and I thank you for your patience. This is going under a readmore out of courtesy to the dashboard.

To start out you'll need to download some stuff.

Programs

Anamnesis:

Install: download

This is an entirely self-contained program, and you could technically stop here and do all your posing from Anamnesis, I know several people who prefer it. It’s perfect for posing with humanoid models, minions, and mob creatures.

The biggest downside is that if you don’t have a second monitor (or have a really small screen like I do), it’s going to get in the way of a lot of your posing. It gets pretty fiddly having to readjust the camera around the doll and move the screen aside so you can see what you’re doing. So if that’s going to be an issue for you, I would also recommend using….

Ktisis:

Install: download

You will also need to install the FFXIVQuicklauncher, which is linked in the Ktisis instructions. It’s a bit more work to set up, but if you think you’ll want to try out using mods, Penumbra works on the same framework and this will save you a bit of hassle later on.

Ktisis operates within gpose from a little dropdown bar on the side of your screen, and the biggest difference is that it puts the skeleton directly over the models in 3D instead of a flat view. It does still have a flat view option, but I am much more 3D oriented so having the skeleton visible right under my cursor works better for me. It’s also helpful for showing all the special bones on monsters and bosses that Anam doesn’t!

I am also currently using the testing build version of Ktisis as it offers the ability to select multiple bones at a time, which I don’t believe the current public release has. This can be turned on by right clicking on the plugin and selecting “receive plugin testing versions”.

There is a third posing program called Brio, and it requires the same level of install as Ktisis, but I personally don’t like using it. I find the posing interface unwieldy and at a beginner level, it really cannot offer you anything that Anamnesis and Ktisis already don’t. The only thing it would be absolutely necessary for is to spawn in actors through Anamnesis.

So now that we’ve got the programs installed, time to get some actors in here.

Importing Characters

You can get characters into gpose one of two ways. You can rock it old school and load a character file onto a pre-existing model, or you can spawn a new one digitally within gpose.

Old School Method:

Use an overworld model! I’m just going to borrow this Temple Knight real quick-

-and now I have successfully freed Aymeric from his office. Time for a lunch date!

If you don’t have any overworld models to use, like in instanced areas such as dungeons, you can use a carbuncle instead.

Using the powers of arcanima-

-I have now brought Estinien into the realm of the Fuath. And he thought the moogles were bad...

New School Method:

In the Ktisis testing workspace, there’s a little plus icon at the bottom left hand corner.

“Create new actor” will make a clone of your model with all the same gear and physical appearances. You can then load a character file onto that of your choice, or you can customise it from there. “Import actor from file” will skip right ahead to loading in a premade character file you’ve saved as it spawns a new model.

Importing/Exporting Character Files

Character files are how your appearance, gear, and weapons are all stored to be loaded in onto an actor. These will appear in your program save files as a .chara file. Anamnesis and Ktisis should create their own save files and will automatically save character and pose information to those locations. You can also check to see that they saved correctly by opening up your files directory and tracing the file paths.

In the “Character” tab in Anamnesis, select the actor of your choice, hit “Import”, and select your file. The dropdown menu gives you some options for what specific parts of a character file you want to import. There’s also the option to import game NPCs.

In Ktisis, right click the actor and select “Import…” then “Character”.

This will bring up the import screen, where you have the same choice between files saved to your computer or NPCs from the game.

Changing Gear

Changing gear can be done through Anamnesis simply by clicking on the item slot in the appearance tab, and you’ll get a list of everything that can be equipped into that slot. Ktisis will require you to right click on an actor and select “Edit appearance” before giving you a similar menu.

This is one of Anamnesis’ biggest selling points because it has the most robust gear filtering and search system of the three posing programs. You can filter by class, job, race/genderlocked gear, items that are Mogstation purchases, and save favourites to the top of each list.

Ktisis and Brio do not have this feature, so I really recommend doing all of your gear searching through Anamnesis unless you know exactly what the gear piece is called.

If you change your mind mid-pose that you want a different piece of gear, changing the equipment in Ktisis will not break the pose, but trying through Anamnesis will.

Posing

Now that you’ve got your dolls in place, it’s time to actually start posing! Like I said above, Anamnesis is mostly a flat view of the skeleton, and Ktisis has the skeleton visible in 3D on the model, so choose which format works with your brain easiest. (And they both can swap formats as well.)

The red/blue/green gizmo is the same across all three posing programs, and comes in three modes; rotate, position, and scale. Body bones will all be manipulated through rotation. Scaling can be done if you want to change how a body part looks and is especially helpful for fixing elbows. Facial bones, however, will need to be moved in position mode due to the new graphical update. And this is really why I recommend you use Ktisis testing build as this gives you the ability to select multiple bones at once to move in tandem.

The easiest way to start learning to pose is by modifying the existing emotes and actions. Cycle through the various emotes and job actions to find something that gets you close to what you want, and then make minor tweaks from there. It’s not impossible to pose from a base standing idle, but it is a pain and takes a lot longer.

Before you can start repositioning bones, you’ll need to toggle “Posing Mode” on. In Anamnesis, this is in the “Pose” tab, and in Ktisis it’s the red/green toggle at the top. You’ll also need to pause character movement in gpose (freeze character).

If you plan on moving models around in the XYZ coordinates instead of leaving them where they are in gpose (especially since the digital actors will spawn directly on top of you), you will need to freeze positions as well. This is found in the top right corner of the “Action” tab in Anamnesis.

In Ktisis, the "Freeze Positions" button is under the character editor. Right click on your character, choose "Edit appearance", then under the animation tab (third from the left), check "Freeze Positions".

Importing/Exporting Poses

Another place where Ananmesis shines is having all of the vanilla pose variations for all of the races and genders available as pose files to be uploaded. This is in the second file button, underneath the list of your original files.

Note: All default expressions currently in Anamnesis are out of date. Take the time to go through the expressions in gpose and save each face individually to be loaded on separately as expressions.

This is the same process as importing/exporting characters. Poses will be saved as a .pose file to the program of your choice. If you’ve downloaded pre-made poses from someone else, make sure they’re in the program files and not your downloads folder just to keep everything in one place.

Note: Pose files from before Dawntrail will break expressions. These should only be imported on body bones.

Loading Select Bones

You can piece together new poses using bits of old ones, too! In Ananmesis, click and drag to highlight the parts you want to transfer (it can be a little finnicky around the hands/hips.)

And in Ktisis, right click select down the list of bones you want to use.

Expressions will always need to be loaded onto a model as selected bones. Anamnesis has the “Expression” option, which will automatically select all the bones on the head parent.

Ktisis will need to have the “Face” option ticked on the “Import Pose” if you’re importing from the actor’s name. If you’ve clicked the parent you want to apply it to, it will automatically tick “Apply selected bones”.

The ideal order of operations is Load Actors > Load Gear > Posing Mode.

Miscellaneous Tips and Tricks

-Ktisis lets you import reference images now! In the same place as importing a new character, you can import a reference image to be on the screen with you instead of tabbing between the game and browser.

-If you like the pose you get while riding a particular mount and think “wow I wish I could have that as a normal sit pose” you can just fire up your program of choice, freeze motion, and save the bones! My personal fave is the sit from the hippo cart mount.

-Don’t rotate your model from the root bone (the one that’s named after the actor), rotate from the abdomen. This will still move your whole actor without compromising the XYZ alignment. Think of the root bone as the little plastic support stand for an action figure you’d put on a shelf. You can pose the action figure however you want, but the plastic stand still has to stay touching the table.

~

That’s it for what I would consider getting started with. A lot of this is stuff I’ve had to learn myself or piecemeal together from various people, so I hope it’s not too overwhelming, but if I can save someone else the hassle I went through then I will!

My final piece of advice is to remember that this is supposed to be fun. If it’s starting to become not fun, take a break and do something else that isn’t gposing for a bit and come back to it.

Wishing you the best of luck in your gposing journey!

[txttletale]

Hey, I'm not here to say ai art isn't art. The whole "you need to be paid for it to be real art!" is goofy. But if I put a prompt into the tool and it makes something based on that prompt then I didn't make it. I didn't put the effort in, and in that sense it isn't mine. What I'm more upset about than whether or not it has soul or whatever (that's up for debate for a lot of human-made art too) is the taking of credit for something you simply did not do. I'm not sure if I've seen you talk about this particular thing cuz there's a lotta silly asks getting dunked on, but I'm curious abt this one.

you can absolutely make art without being the one physically producing it, by "telling someone what to do". directors are artists. choreographers are artists. graphic novel writers who write panel descriptions for artists are artists and indisputably have some share of the authorship of the resulting panels. the same goes for mangakas with apprentices, or for that matter renaissance masters with apprentices, and for art directors. removing the other people involved in such an arrangement gives you a greater share of authorship, not a lesser one.

& the idea that art requires "effort" is reactionary. it's a protestant-work-ethic-esque valorisation of effort for its own sake. art can be easy. many many technological innovations have created easier ways to do things -- did you know that graphic designers used to have to manually place every written character and image on a spread through a time-consuming and arduous process called paste-up? now the exact same work can be done in minutes with a few clicks because of digital typefaces. digital art also saw the exact same arguments being made against it fifteen odd years ago -- 'digital artists have stabilizers and shape tools and layers and filters and brushes and an undo button, they're not real artists because they're not putting in the effort'.

i think it's interesting how anti AI art crusaders have this curious contradiction in their arguments -- they (correctly) identify that a computer program has no agency, intentionality, or creativity, but when a human and a computer both contribute to a finished product they ascribe the computer full authorship. it just doesn't add up! mi-24 attack helicopter blushing demurely

[sirfrogsworth]

No one hates Apple correctly.

This is a ridiculous accusation because I guess they are expecting Apple to... violate the laws of physics?

We have achieved very good energy density. And that allows for the miniaturization involved in creating something like wireless earbuds. But there is no such thing as an infinite battery. And any longer lasting design would have to use more expensive parts or be much bigger.

Also the current lifespan of pretty much all earbuds of this size is about 3 years. This has been mapped out. It isn't a secret. You can google it and it pops up in big bold letters.

The better statistic is actually charge cycles. Years is really dicey because it depends on usage.

If you want something that lasts longer, get headphones. But a short lifespan is the price you pay for such a small product. Perhaps Apple should be more upfront about the limitations of miniaturization, but they aren't actually trying to scam you or hide this information. It's not like they can make a cold fusion battery and are choosing not to.

Apple is actually one of the best at making technology products that last a long time... with one big caveat... as long as they don't need repairs. (Which is why they *actually* suck.)

They keep getting accused of planned obsolescence when they have been supporting their smartphones for pretty much as long as the hardware can run the software. Only last year have companies like Samsung and Google made similar promises.

But Apple refuses to do even the simplest things to make their devices more repairable. And in many cases they actually create hurdles for repairs like pairing parts together so you can't replace them from a donor device.

They have also been very bad at transparency. There is the classic story of Apple slowing down phones. And everybody thought they were trying to force people to buy new ones. In reality, they were actually trying to keep those devices from bricking. The batteries in the phones were too degraded to handle some of the newer software. And since they didn't want the bad press of phones suddenly dying, they slowed down phones. They were actually making the phones last *longer* but for some reason this gets used to make the opposite point.

All that was required was a battery swap. And they could have just told people, "Hey, we can either slow down your phone or you can get a new battery." But they tried to keep it quiet and so everyone drew the wrong conclusions.

They got rightfully sued for this, but it started this idea that they don't make long lasting products when they absolutely do—just within the limitations of physics.

So their sin was never planned obsolescence. It was repairability and transparency. Their closed ecosystem is also an issue, but that is a much more complicated discussion.

[canmom]

How do you live?

I (finally!) saw Miyazaki's new film 君たちはどう生きるか (How Do You Live?/The Boy and the Heron)! It's been out in the States for a while, and in Japan considerably longer, but it took a while to make its way over here.

I remember at the time it came out, people were having fun riffing on the incredibly cryptic marketing campaign, which consisted only of this rather abstract poster...

In the spirit of this, I resolutely avoided watching any trailers or knowing anything at all about the plot of the film. I picked up a thing or two here and there - I knew to expect some amazing Shinya Ohira animation for example, and you couldn't really avoid seeing the bird with teeth! - but overall, I had no idea.

There's plenty of great writing about this film in English already, such as kvin's fantastic sakugablog piece which discusses the physicality of Ghibli's animation, its weight and springiness, as a throughline. The stuff that kvin talks about really stood out to me as I watched this film. You can likewise read detailed interviews with Toshiyuki Inoue (fantastic interview for sakubutas) and Akihiko Yamashita on fufuro.

First up, the credits of this film are pretty much a who's who of the greatest jp animators of the last 30 years, and they've had some 7 years to cook it, so naturally this film looks fucking amazing. This is absolutely the kind of film that only Miyazaki could direct - its design language feels so familiar and yet it's iterating in all kinds of visually imaginative directions that show that yeah, the old bastard's still got it.

And like, god, man. This film's animation is really something special. Its real-world scenes in particular are full of shots that require an unbelievably strong sense of space, of both subtle and broad acting, the classic Ghibli attention to detail on mechanical objects and everyday tasks. It's full of bouncing and squishing and squeezing and oozing things. It loves to draw crowds and swarms of people and animals. It's the kind of film where any given shot would be the absolute star-of-the-show sakuga moment in just about any other anime film. If you wanted a complete statement of the Ghibli school of animation, it would be hard to do better.

And yet, for all that Miyazaki's known for his tight control over animation and heavy corrections to animators, in this film he had to step back from that kind of role and hand over the sousakkan reins to Takeshi Honda, who steps up admirably - as kvin writes above, bringing in more realist elements to the bouncy Miyazaki style to create a really effective unity that grounds all the big fantastical elements of the film and fills the first act with tension.

Alongside all that excellent key animation, the film's colour and photography departments evidently understand that well-chosen colours and good highlight shapes beat all the digital gradients and overlays you can imagine - the drawings get plenty of form from the strength of the animation, and the flat shading really pops. The backgrounds are as delicious as ever, skyscapes and vegetation and opulent interiors with the just-slightly desaturated and harmonious colours that just kind of remind you that oh yeah, it is still possible to do it this way.

Basically it's a Ghibli film lol. You know how it is.

But what of the story...? What's all this technical magic in service of?

The film's story has something of the feel of a serial story, perhaps reflecting Miyazaki's (in)famous process of working out the film gradually as he draws the storyboards. Certain ideas, like the parakeet empire, arrive in the film rather suddenly and then become fairly central to the plot. There's a clear emotional throughline, but this is not a film that is in a hurry to explain itself more than it absolutely has to. It wants to keep its magical elements numinous and mysterious. I would say, though, it's generally more satisfying in this approach than some of Miyazaki's other later films like Howl's Moving Castle, and resolves a lot more clearly.

So what is it like, About? Well, Miyazaki has been pretty open about channeling a lot of his personal relationships into the film, and a lot of it seems to reflect more or less obliquely on him. It's what they call a 'personal film'. The protagonist's position as the son of an aeroplane factory owner during WWII is straight-up from life. What about the old sorcerer, haphazardly stacking blocks to keep a world alive, and looking for someone to succeed him? The reading's kinda obvious, even if Miya himself says this guy is based on his memory of Takahata. Well, he can be both...

To say more I'm gonna have to delve into the spoiler zone. See you below the cut.

OK so! Let's try and get some thoughts in order.

first, a plot summary type of thing

Our first act introduces us to Mahito at roughly the moment his mother Hisako dies in a hospital fire. This is midway through the war, which is present mostly in the background - now and then we see soldiers marching around, and of course Mahito's dad runs a factory producing warplane parts, not entirely unlike Miyazaki's own father although seemingly a bit higher up the ladder.

We jump forward a little and Mahito's father remarries - to his deceased wife's sister, no less, and she's already pregnant. This is Natsuko, who does her best to play the role of mother, but Mahito still has big traumas and he is understandably not entirely on board with the idea of welcoming a mum 2 who looks almost exactly like mum 1. He moves with Natsuko into a huge old house complex, a mix of older Japanese architecture with a more recent Western wing where the family currently sleeps - and staffed by a small army of colourful old ladies who are eager for any canned meat or cigarettes they can get their hands on.

Also there's this freaky heron that keeps bothering Mahito. It seems to have something to do with a mysterious tower which turns out to have been built by his great-uncle. Mahito visits the tower, but can't make his way inside. Natsuko tells him not to go into the tower.

Mahito goes to school, but naturally they don't much take to the new rich kid on the block, and so after being attacked by his classmates on his way home he injures himself with a rock. (His dumbass dad is like, who did this to you son, I'll fuck 'em up.) For the rest of the movie, he has half his head shaved to accomodate a bandage, which is the sort of attention to detail this movie loves.

The heron has started growing teeth and talking to Mahito, telling him to come to the tower. Mahito is convinced it's a trap, and after a maybe-dream sequence in which Natsuko shoots an arrow to drive off the heron, he steals cigarettes from Natsuko in order to get one of the servants to sharpen his knife, and then constructs a bow and arrow out of bamboo - using a couple of the heron's feathers. Constructing the bow and arrow is shown in immense, loving detail.

In the process, he witnesses Natsuko walk into the forest, and also stumbles on a book: How Do You Live? by Genzaburō Yoshino, which contains a handwritten message from his mother. He looks at this book briefly... and this is about the extent of the connection of the film to the book, beyond thematic parallels.

The maids notice that Natsuko is missing. Mahito tells one of the maids, Kiriko, that he saw her go into the forest, and they follow, finding an old road that gives another approach to the tower. They're greated by the heron man, who is increasingly emerging from the heron's beak to reveal a big warty nose. He's some kind of like... heron selkie or something, a gnome in a heron skin. There's some wonderfully grotesque animation around this guy.

Heron dude taunts Mahito with an illusion of his mother Hisako. Mahito threatens him with the bow - the heron guy is like, do your worst, not realising it's a maaagic arrow. The arrow chases him around the room and pierces his beak, fucking up his magic. At this point, the tower master shows up and orders the heron to guide Mahito. Heron guy sends everyone through the floor into a fantastical world...

Mahito arrives in front of a huge, sinister tomb. He approaches the gate, and a swarm of pelicans walk up behind, crawling all over him and pressing him through the gate. This causes a storm to start brewing, since opening the gate seems to piss off the stones or something...

A fisher woman resembling a much younger Kiriko runs up and chases the pelicans away. She takes Mahito under her wing, explaining that this world is inhabited mostly by dead people, but there are also these little round guys called the wareware, who gain the ability to fly when they eat a fish's guts.

Kiriko, uniquely in this world, has the ability to kill, so she catches fish to sell to the other inhabitants and feed to the wareware; she and Mahito butcher a huge fish. Mahito fairly quickly figures out that she is somehow the same Kiriko that entered with him. She has tiny charms representing the other maids, which serve an apotropaic function.

That night, staying on Kiriko's huge derelict ship of a home, they watch the wareware rise into the sky to be born as humans in Mahito's world. They're attacked by the pelicans, but a fire-wielding magic user called Hisa (hmmmmmmmmmm) drives the pelicans away. Mahito shouts at her not to harm the wareware, but Kiriko assures him that more of the wareware will survive thanks to Hisa's intervention.

Later, a singed and dying pelican explains the pelicans' predicament to Mahito in a scene that calls to mind the animals in Mononoke-hime. The pelicans are foreigners in this world, they don't have anything to eat, so they take it as their role to eat the wareware. The heron man arrives on the scene too, offering to help Mahito find Natsuko as Mahito - coming in to his own as a protagonist more - buries the pelican. Mahito distrusts him but eventually Kiriko persuades them to give working together a try.

Mahito and the heron set out. As they pass through a forest, the heron reveals that thanks to Mahito's arrow, he can't fly and do heron shit anymore - and by magic law, only Mahito can fix the hole. Mahito applies his new woodworking skills to fashion a bung for the hole. The heron tries to stage a top 10 anime betrayal, but then the bung needs more work, so Mahito fixes it, and from that point on, the heron joins the party and he and Mahito are fast friends.

(You might wonder why I just call him 'the heron' and not by a name. He never gets named! He's just the heron man.)

Mahito and the heron arrive at the house of a blacksmith who's supposed to help them find Natsuko, only to find it guarded by big buff parakeet men. The parakeets are splendidly goofy round guys - they remind me of the heedra in Nausicaa. The heron draws the parakeets away, and Mahito enters the house, only to find, uh oh! More parakeets. The parakeets prepare to eat Mahito, who is not carrying a child and therefore fair game unlike Natsuko, but Hisa shows up and burns them with fire magic. She looks just like a young version of Mahito's mum! Funny that. Hisa helps Mahito escape into her house through the fire, and then takes him to infiltrate the parakeets' empire.

In the human world, the maids explain the backstory of the tower to Mahito's dad. It's a weird meteorite that came from space, it turns out, and Mahito's great-uncle built the tower on top of it before eventually disappearing inside. Mahito's dad overprepares in an elaborate getup complete with katana, and goes to try to rescue everyone.

Hisa leads Mahito to a corridor full of doors which open into all the different worlds, including his own world. Mahito briefly glimpses his dad coming to try and rescue him - the two see each other briefly, but the parakeets catch wind of the whole thing and attack, and so Mahito and Hisa have to flee back into the magical world. We see that the parakeet guys turn into regular parakeets when they come into the human world. Mahito's dad becomes convinced he turned into a parakeet.

Mahito and Hisa make their way to the delivery room where Natsuko is resting, waiting to give birth. On their way, lightning starts emerging from the stone - Hisa explains that the stone is sentient and pissed with them. Mahito insists on approaching Natsuko despite this being a huge taboo. They have a heart to heart - Natsuko's mask breaks and she tells Mahito she hates him, while he finally starts calling her mother, as he's assaulted by paper charms that tear at him violently. They part, with Hisa burning the charms to free Mahito, but it's too much and they both pass out.

Mahito dreams of meeting the sorcerer, who stacks irregularly shaped wooden blocks, and explains that stacking the blocks is necessary to maintain the world, buying a few days at a time. The sorcerer reveals the huge flying rock that is the source of his power; he also shows Mahito some blocks, but Mahito somehow divines that these blocks are 'stone for building tombs' and stained with malice. The sorcerer approvingly says this is a good sign for Mahito's ability to succeed him.

While they were asleep, the parakeets have captured Hisa and Mahito. One of them is preparing to eat Mahito, but the heron arrives just in time to save him. They Metal Gear Solid their way through the kingdom while the Parakeet King - a big swaggering guy very like the colonel in Castle in the Sky - goes to press a claim on the wizard, using Hisa and Mahitos' taboo act of entering the delivery room as a bargaining chip. There's some very funny scenes where the parakeets cheer for their king.

Mahito pursues the parakeet king, but the king destroys the staircase behind him, and talks to the sorcerer. The sorcerer is inclined to wave away the transgression, because he wants to let Mahito succeed him, but the parakeet king seems to be bringing him around. I kind of forget how this part went, but the parakeet king goes away from the sorcerer for a bit while Hisa is freed from her prison thing.

Mahito climbs back up with the heron man's help, arriving in the sorcerer's little subplane. The parakeet king quietly follows him, after telling his aides to inform his subjects he was a good king. Mahito approaches the sorcerer, who reveals he has found a new set of blocks, unstained by malice, and again invites Mahito to succeed him. Mahito says that his self-injury is proof of his malice, making him unfit for the job.

At this point, the parakeet king intervenes. Angry at all this sorcerous malarky, he desperately attempts to stack the stones himself, but when they don't stack, he flies into a rage and slices them with his sword. This naturally causes the world to start collapsing, and everyone runs to the doors to escape into the human world.

Mahito has by this point figured out that Hisa is his mum, and he asks if she really wants to go back to their world, knowing that she will very definitely die in a fire not much later. But she is naturally on board with this. Young!Kiriko goes with her, suggesting that she and Hisako entered the magical world at the same time. Meanwhile, Mahito returns to his own time, with Natsuko and the heron. All the various parakeets and pelicans come out through this door too. Old!Kiriko is restored from her apatropaic charm.

As everyone celebrates their safe return (and the appearance of a fuckton of birds), the heron tells Mahito that he ought to forget what happened in the magic world. We skip forward again, with Mahito - now with a baby sibling - setting off to Tokyo. Roll credits!

now let's comment on it

This is not a film that necessarily prioritises an internal logic playing out - new elements enter unexpectedly even quite late in the film. The sorcerer's motivation is murky until late on; the parakeets become major antagonists despite entering only halfway through the film.

There is a certain temptation, knowing how autobiographical this film is, to take it is a roman à clef. Mahito is of course a young Miyazaki; the old sorcerer's concern about finding a successor might be about Miyazaki wondering who should take over Ghibli or if it should just be allowed to die. Under this schema, the parakeets might be Ghibli's legion of fans, or the merchandising empire that prints their designs on every possible product. kvin's article develops this kind of reading, finding some angles I wouldn't have even considered, such as how the idea of weight communicated by the animation factors in to such an allegaroy. It's also something suggested in Miyazaki's own comments about the film, where the sorcerer is Takahata, the heron man is producer Toshio Suzuki...

It definitely helps to know a bit about Miyazaki's background when approaching this film. However, I think it would be reductive to go too far with this kind of reading, and take everything as an allegory for something in Miyazaki's life. The film still has to stand on its own feet!

'Coming of age' is the spin put on it by some outlets, like the BBC. And this is accurate to an extent. The arc of this film is similar to Spirited Away: Mahito starts out sullen and traumatised, but like Chihiro he transitions over the course of his journey in the magical world into the kind of determined Miyazaki protagonist we're used to. On this coming of age angle... well, also like with Chihiro, I don't find the Mahito of the first part of the film especially unsympathetic, his alienation is extremely natural given his situation. Mahito's dad kinda sucks! Living in wartime Japan also really kinda sucks, even if you're the son of a rich dude. But definitely over the course of the film Mahito has a change of heart towards Natsuko, and forms friendships that motivate him to try to protect them. His character arc definitely sees him become 'more prosocial'.

However, there's another angle that's pretty important - the idea of the weight of 'malice', the cursed existences of the pelicans and the like, and the fantasy of building a utopian world that is free of these things. This returns to a theme of Nausicaa, the manga in particular, where Nausicaa discovers that the world she knows - the toxic forest in particular - is actually an elaborate artificial system for cleansing the world of pollutants, that the clean world on the other side will be uninhabitable to her and her people, and that the architects of this system wait in stasis to replace them in this utopian future world. Nausicaa destroys them, commiting instead to an uncertain future.

In Mononoke-hime likewise, we encounter the lepers and former sex workers of Irontown clinging on to the 'cursed' world. Their extractivist project proves incredibly destructive, but the film still regards them sympathetically, and the resolution sees them perhaps finding a new way to live - and San, the feral girl, reconciling herself to the idea of humans.

Here, although the parakeet king forces the decision, Mahito has already declared that he doesn't believe he's fit to oversee a utopia, but instead that his place is in the awful, violent human world.

The film, and the book it's vaguely based on, are titled How do you live? In Japanese, that's a plural 'you' (君たち). There's a lot of ways you could read it, depending on who you take as 'you' - a child asking an adult how to live, or equally a future question of how will you live. This is a lot more explicit in the novel - which I have not read, but here is a summary courtesy of wiki:

Junichi Honda is a fifteen-year-old junior high school student, known by his nickname Koperu, after the astronomer Nicholas Copernicus. He is athletic and academically gifted, and popular at school. Koperu's father, a bank executive, passed away when he was young and he lives with his mother. His uncle (on his mother's side) lives nearby and visits frequently. Koperu and his uncle are very close. Koperu shares about his life and his uncle gives him support and advice. His uncle also documents and comments on these interactions in a diary, with the intent to eventually give the diary to Koperu. The diary writing, which is interspersed with the narrative, provides insight into the ethical and emotional trials that Koperu shared with his uncle. The diary entries, which cover themes such as "view of things", "structure of society", "relation", etc. are in the style of a note written to Koperu.[8]

Thinking like Copernicus that our Earth is a celestial body moving within the vastness of space, or thinking that our Earth is fixed at the center of the universe, are two ways of thinking that, in reality, are not only related to astronomy. Even when we think about things like the world around us or our own lives, the truth is that we are still revolving around them after all.

In the end, Koperu writes a decision on his future way of living as a reply to his uncle, and the novel ends with the narrator asking the question "how do you live?" to the reader.

The author of the novel was a socialist, who had been imprisoned by the nationalist government, and wrote the book intending to impart lessons on ethics. The version of his book published after the war was heavily edited to strip the book of political content. But it's also, perhaps paradoxically, a book that centres on very wealthy characters, aimed narrowly at educated boys, though it became a widely read classic.

Studio Ghibli's films, from both Miyazaki and Takahata, have a habit of being framed as imparting something to the younger generation - something the pair seem to have seen as a mission all the way back in the days of Panda Kopanda. For example, while Grave of the Fireflies is seen as the classic tragic war movie, for Takahata it was also aimed at criticising what he saw as the careless, consumerist generation of the 80s; the stubborn arrogance of the protagonist supposed to reflect on this. It's an attitude that also emerges in their comments about Chihiro. And, indeed, one of the first things we heard about How Do You Live? was that it was aimed towards Miyazaki's grandson - and more broadly towards that generation.

So what does this film have to say to the younger generations? Let's have a look at it from Mahito's POV.

For Mahito, the adults in his life are all pretty complicated. His father is enthusiastic and well-meaning but incredibly oblivious to what his son is going through (we might recall some of what Miyazaki wrote about his father in Starting Point, describing him as basically a grifter). Natsuko is masking pretty hard, trying to play the role of Good New Mum and connect to her newly acquired son, but there's an intrinsic distance. It is understandable that Mahito would want to reject them.

Mahito is... not entirely a passive character, he goes to some efforts to for example fashion the bow and arrow and repair the heron man's beak, but mostly he is pulled around by the plot into a strange world he doesn't understand. At first, his instinct is to retreat, even to the point of self-injury. Once he arrives in the magical world, he has acquired something of a purpose (finding Natsuko), but he gets pushed into near-disaster situations (the pelicans piling up to push him through the gate at the tomb) or stumbles into circumstances where something is expected of him (hey kid, gut this fish!). Gradually though his exposure to this world pulls him out of his shell. He runs into conflicts and injustices that seem intractable - the wareware and the pelicans - and has little power to intervene except to bury the bodies.

Eventually, he gets to carry out his main objective - finding Natsuko - but despite finally deciding to accept Natsuko as his new mother, he finds himself rejected, not just by her but also by the earth. Perhaps feeling responsible for getting her into trouble, his new objective becomes rescuing freshly-damsel'd Hisa. But now new adults want things of him - his great-uncle has decided he'd make a fine successor. Mahito has to make a decision here about what relationships he wants to commit to, what sort of life he wants to build - and he chooses the world he found so alienating at the outset of the film, the one which hurt him by taking his mother, not to the secondary-world fantasy.

It could be a 'this world is all we have' sort of statement, perhaps. But also the last act of the film feels like it gets a bit caught up in Castle in the Sky-style adventure-story beats.

I do feel like some aspects of the film ended up a little underbaked - which is an odd thing to say because it's not a short film and there is so much in it already. But Hisa for example - she's got badass powers and all, but I feel we barely get a chance to get a sense of what motivates her. Why did she enter the fantasy world? She acts at first like she doesn't know Mahito is her future son, but rapidly becomes incredibly devoted to him (in a way that reads a little romancey lmao). So much of her screen time is dedicated to having her convey the secrets of the world that it's hard to get a bead on her as a person.

Likewise, Natsuko - why did she enter this world to have her baby in this special ritual delivery chamber? She clearly knows more than most of the characters, but she gets kind of sidelined after Mahito confronts her, with wizard shit becoming more central. The animation does such a fantastic job of selling her feelings in the first part of the film that it feels like a shame that she drifts away at the end.

The progression of the film feels rather like a dream, where everything is arranged by symbolic significance to Mahito. It makes sense... on a magical level, where the secondary world is shaped primarily by parallels in the real one. So the tiny apatropaic statues of the old ladies protect him because they represent the role the real old ladies have in his life. Hisa has fire magic because Hisako died in a fire. Once Mahito has come to his personal resolutions about returning to the world, the magical one is no longer needed, and it collapses.

This is not such an uncommon role for magic in a story. In Miyazaki's own works, we have Totoro and Spirited Away, where a magical world provides direction or relief to a child's real struggles. Or take for example Okiura's film A Letter To Momo, in which the three yōkai recognise taking care of the grieving Momo as their explicit purpose as spirits. This magical world comes to Mahito to help him come to terms with losing his mother, and reorient himself towards living in a painful world.

Meanwhile, the sorcerer, whether he be Miyazaki or Takahata, is quite a distant figure. He may maintain the magical world by stacking his blocks, may be the authority which factions within it must plead to, but he also rules from afar in a vast empty palace full of long halls and open air spaces. His main company seems to be a big fucking rock, with which he made a 'contract'. He's generally handling it a bit better than, say, Ushiromiya Kinzo - he receives the parakeet king with good humour - but he's a pretty flawed god of his little world. So much of this world seems to pre-exist him, it's not something he constructed. Still, when he shows up, you pretty much have to do what he says.

If this is about Miyazaki's relation to Takahata, it seems like quite a sad portrayal. But 'unapproachable patriarch' does sorta describe their role in the studio from what I understand (c.f. Oshii's infamous article comparing them to the Kremlin).

When it comes to the question of who should succeed Miyazaki, we should probably consider the matter of Yoshifumi Kondō, who was being set up as the next big Ghibli director until his untimely death - which allegedly Takahata was willing to accept the blame for. The mythology built up around Miyazaki and Takahata is double-edged.

Here are some rather startling comments from Toshiyuki Inoue's interview. Inoue is one of the most impressive animators who ever lived in my book, the other star of the realist line besides Okiura. Just have a look at his booru page: iconic scenes from GitS, Akira, Millenium Actress; even in more recent films, he pretty much carried Maquia, and steals the show with his scenes in Miss Hokusai.

And yet even he was intimidated to be working alongside Miyazaki when he first came on board for Kiki's Delivery Service, fresh off Akira:

I believe you’ve always been a fan of Miyazaki’s, why were you scared to work with him? Toshiyuki Inoue: I had heard quite a few scary stories. A lot of acquaintances had worked on Nausicaä, Laputa and Totoro before that, so I knew how scary he could be when he got angry – I had heard stories of people being fired mid-production, things like that. How was it actually? Toshiyuki Inoue: Not as scary as I had imagined. He’d only rarely scream in the studio. But he did get angry. I’d sometimes be called to some separate room and lectured alongside Kōji Morimoto and Masaaki Endō. It felt like being in school all over again.

'Only rarely'. Honestly. Inoue describes how difficult it was for him to adapt his logical, analytical style to Ghibli's stretchy, bouncy characters - and how Miyazaki would disparage him if he, for example, drew a ship inaccurately.

For Inoue, coming back to How Do You Live was something like a 'return match'. He talks about how an older Miyazaki was no longer able to strictly correct the animation, and in general age was limiting him, but he still feels that Miyazaki is fundamentally superior:

Toshiyuki Inoue: I’ve always wished for a return match or a way to redeem myself. But even if I say that, I know I can’t even pretend to rival Miyazaki. I just can’t win. He’s extremely smart and learned, and on top of that, as an animator he always transcends common sense: he’s so talented that I know very well there’s nothing I can do against it. The more I learn about him, the more I realize I’ll never be on that level.

Miyazaki's genius is undeniable, but man... it's not a good mindset to cultivate if you want to find a successor lmao. If even Inoue doesn't feel he can measure up, who the hell could?

Mind you, it does rather seem that Miyazaki had mellowed out by the point of How Do You Live?. Here's Yamashita:

Akihiko Yamashita: As I said, the core of an animator’s job is to follow what the director asks, so whenever I had trouble with that, I’d go see Miyazaki to show him my roughs. He’d advise me on the things that were missing and reassure me about those that were good. He really helped me to gain more confidence in myself.

Reading these interviews underlines pretty hard that we shouldn't get too caught up in the mythology of Miyazaki the mighty auteur. While the story may be all on Miyazaki, and most of the character designs (with the notable exception of Natsuko)... so much of the details of the animation, the stuff that really makes this film land, is primarily shaped by everyone else - Honda in particular, but also the individual key animators who interpreted his scenes. I really need to get my hands on a copy of that Industrial History of Studio Ghibli book to get a less Miyazaki-centric perspective on the studio's history.

I do not feel, having come out of this film, any closer to knowing the answer to that eternally pressing question of how do you live - I guess I'm still working out my answer to that one, and I will be until I die. And maybe that's rather the point. I think this film still carries some of the flaws of Miyazaki's later films - despite having so many iconic scenes, it doesn't quite seem to know where it's going. But I am so glad to have seen this in the theatre (I saw it at the Prince Charles theatre in Soho with friends, the theatre was completely packed!), and glad Miyazaki managed to get this one out before he goes. Whatever happens to Ghibli without its sorcerer, it's been a hell of a thing to witness.

[carowleysposts]

When I tell you I NEED Aziraphale and Crowley to kiss again, I mean it.

Anyone who thinks asexual people don’t kiss (or don’t have sex, but that’s not the point of this post) is misinformed. Asexual people - or celestial beings, for that matter - absolutely can and do express feelings and desires by acting physically upon them. Many ace people enjoy the sensations, the nuances, the feelings involved in the physical expressions of love - the only difference is HOW they experience attraction, which has NOTHING to do with kissing or sex, but with what motivates wanting to do those things.

With that said, let’s go back to everyone’s favorite idiots: Aziraphale and Crowley.

During their kiss, you can literally see them pulling each other in, like they need to be as close as physically possible in that moment. You can see it as Aziraphale embraces Crowley for a split second, and you can see it as Crowley throws himself onto Aziraphale more and more during the kiss. He can’t even pull back for a single second, not even to adjust to the kiss - he just GLUES his lips to Aziraphale’s.

Aziraphale’s look after the kiss CANONICALLY means “do it again, please, right now”, as Rob Wilkins already clarified. And that is writing perfection. It creates the angst - the cue - we need to make sure a second kiss - the reward - happens. I’ve been saying this in almost every post, but here i go again: the whole point of angst is that it HAS to pay off eventually, it HAS to be followed by relief, otherwise it’s just angst for the sake of angst.

Aziraphale mouths “no” as Crowley is leaving. He doesn’t say it, but he wants to. Whatever that means, whatever the reason for the “rejection” after the kiss was, the kiss changed something. He wasn’t expecting it, but he was heartbroken to see that Crowley thought he didn’t want it. You can see him not being able to keep his eyes off the door - and later on, off the window he can see Crowley through. He almost changes his mind - and that is still true even if he had a plan all along, he didn’t think Crowley would KISS him and that blows his mind.

He touches his lips after Crowley leaves. He relives that moment by doing so, but also realizes something completely new: Crowley did what Aziraphale had spent millennia wishing for him to do, but did it in the worst possible moment. He almost loses the strength to carry on with whatever it is his plan required. But he doesn’t. He pulls it together, and goes back to heaven.

Wether Crowley knows he has a plan (the “trust me” theory) or believes he was truly rejected, they both know they crossed that line for good. They both know that, if they’re ever reunited, they will never be able to act like platonic friends again. Aziraphale, in a beautifully made parallel to the ox rib scene, realizes he had been starving for Crowley’s touch. And that is just absolutely beautiful.

If you’ve seen my post about why this couple NEEDS a happy ending, you already know why i think Good Omens is the perfect show to give queer couples back their hopes for love. I think we are all tired of the tragic gays / couple baiting fictional couples. Now we need the happily ever after. The fairytale. The cheesy, chaotic, rom-com-y, EPIC resolution. We NEED them to kiss again. We NEED them to be happy.

I REST MY CASE.

[blommp717]

A message from yourself

Well, your the reason this message is reaching you so congrats on this manifestation, now let’s begin.

But before that, here’s my channel where I’m going to be explaining nondualism in video format yaaay ☺️🤪

Everything except conciseness is just an illusion. The only thing that does not change regardless of pressure, judgment, fear, opinion, circumstances, people, events, emotions, etc. is awareness/consciousness/pure being. Your eyes are scanning the screen but what comes before/beyond that? Like what’s looking through the eyes? Yes, that’s you.

Anything put infront of it/you instantly become real. How?

Like I said, everything is an illusion, an illusion of you/by you, if the only thing that is constant is awareness, it’s the only true thing that’s real. Without awareness there is no world to perceive, there’s nothing to experience, there’s absolute absence. Therefore everything is only possible as an experience because of awareness, it feels so real because that’s also something me as consciousness chose to experience.

The good news? You can feel doubtful, sad, anxious, upset, cry, think the most awful “opposing” thoughts in the world and it does nothing to my manifestation because that’s not me. I am conciseness, all I can do is be aware of those things being put infront of me, but what I also understand is that none of those things on their own matter. I decide what they mean because I created it lol. Anything except being will never have any power over me because I made it.

The process? the only thing required in order to experience something different, is think about it, seriously, there is absolutely no secret, lengthy process, month long journey, manifestation in nature is instant. How long does it take you to be aware of something? Instant moment right? I mean I can say. APPLE. You’ve just became aware of an Apple, congratulations! you now have seen/experienced an Apple. Now, anything after being aware of the apple like “where is it, when is it manifesting,” etc. is completely null and void. You in real time and in actuality just manifested whatever you put infront of that awareness.

If your still doubting just like I used to, listen up, you’re not able to mess it up. You = Awareness, Awareness = Everything. Everything includes imagination, includes “3D”, includes EVERYTHING. You the infinite source of creation are the reason it’s experiencing itself, the moment you become aware of something, as that source, you experience it. The key in making it FEEL better is to understand that THERE CANNOT BE SEPARATION IF ITS ALL YOU. A wave can’t be separate from the ocean even if it takes a different form!!! Come to this conclusion, as many times as you need to and reassure yourself, your not choosing to go down some lengthy progress bar, you are living your life. You effortlessly manifested everything before finding out about nondualism/loa/etc. and now that you know how to get everything you want you think it’s hard?? Girl how the hell does that work.

When you become aware of something and a reaction like a physical feeling in your body or emotion arises or thoughts appear, just LET THEM COMEEE, and as you allow them you remind yourself that it’s okay, it means nothing, emotions aren’t source, thoughts aren’t source, physical reactions are NOT SOURCE, anytime you feel off about what you’ve became aware of you need to remember, MANIFESTING IS INSTANT, BECOME AWARE AND EVERYTHING ELSE CAN BE DISREGARDED. FEEL YOUR FEELINGS AND MOVE ON!!! You know how long it took before I realized I don’t need to attend to every off feeling and thought with an array of relaxing techniques or affirmations to pile on top of it. Even with Nondualism!! K I think that’s enough for this post ima do more later. Hehe

.

[tohwitchesduels]

LOSERS BATTLES OF WITCHES DUELS - Battle 51: Boscha vs Skara

Disclaimer: This is not a popularity contest or which character you prefer, in this tournament, you decide who is stronger/better/smarter/etc. opponent.

information for both opponents under the cut to those who don't know what they can do in their battle

Boscha:

Boscha specializes in Potions magic, but she did showcase the capacity to cast the spells of beast-keeping and illusion tracks (granted very briefly)

Boscha never expected to see Skara here. Now all the feelings are coming back to Boscha. First, it was Amity who left Boscha, and then it was Skara. Both of them preferred to hang out with half-a-witch and a human. And even with these two gone, Skara never bothered to come back to her as a friend and now she does as her opponent. The audacity of this bitch. Skara is going down as Boscha's pride is at stake.

Boscha is an absolutely ruthless warrior who will stop at nothing to win this competition. She does not show mercy towards her opponents. Boscha is also considered by Hexside to be the strongest as proven by her ending up being the leader of the survivors in For The Future. She's also the most popular girl in the school as the captain of the grudgby team, proving she has enough skill both physically and magic-wise, only to be rivaled by the Hexsquad. She did succeed in breaking Amity's leg though.

Boscha does possess a Palisman. It's not however specified how good of a flyer she is, but she's capable of using Maya in combat as proven when she knocked disguised Amity with her staff capabilities.

One of the tools Boscha can use independently of whether or not the other character also possesses are flying boots. She can use them for transportation and aerial attacks even when she doesn't possess a palisman during the battle and she can use them to save herself from fall damage if she ever is knocked out midair.

Telekinesis - Boscha can move objects with ease using it, granted the objects usually were small and not the size and weight of the person so she can use them directly on her opponent, but she can pick up random stuff from the arena to use them as projectiles high speed. Boscha proved in WILW that she can throw multiple objects at once or just one object.

Fire Ball - her trademark ability. She will usually pull out a Grudgby ball and set it on fire only to throw it at her opponents. She can use telekinesis to direct the ball at her opponents and the force the ball can hit is strong enough to create holes in the trees. It's a very strong offensive move. She can also spread the fire further.

Fire Blast - an improved version of Fire Ball which does not require a grudgby ball to use. It was demonstrated briefly in Follies at the Coven Day Parade when she attacked Luz with it. The fire blast appears to be also bigger than the average fireball.

Multiple Fire Balls - Boscha can throw multiple fireballs at her opponents with this ability and control the trajectory of her throws using magic. Also improved the version of her trademark fireball. Boscha can also use this ability specifically to aid her partners with fireballs to increase their offenses, however, this comes only in handy during battle royales.

Fire Claw - as demonstrated in UW, Boscha can transform her nails into fire claws. I'm weaponizing this ability so Boscha can scratch and claw her opponents while also burning them.

Rabid Claw - as demonstrated in UW, Boscha can transform her nails into rabid claws she could use to attack her opponents.

Tentacle Claw - as demonstrated in UW, Boscha is capable of transforming her nails into tentacles. I adapt this ability to let Boscha use those tentacles to grab objects and perhaps even people from long distances with them. Granted the tentacles are not particularly strong so there are limits to how much weight they can pull and how durable they are.

Acid Throw - in FTF Boscha demonstrated she's capable of brewing an acid potion that can melt through abomination goo and possibly not only that. She will usually throw one at a time though instead of rapid firing them.

Sleeping Potion - in FTF Boscha demonstrated knowledge in brewing sleeping potion with sleeping nettles. Boscha can pull out this potion during the battle, letting the smell spread all across the area, knocking down her opponents. Boscha is also immune to the defects of sleeping gas by having a facemask with her at all times. The only people that would be remotely immune to this potion during the tournament are Luz and Hunter as they also have knowledge of brewing this potion and have facemasks with them too.

Ratworm Companion - in Once Upon A Swap, Boscha demonstrated racing capabilities with ratworms. I'll allow her for the purposes of this tournament to be able to summon one to aid her in transport and possibly offenses. Boscha showed to be quite quick and skilled in riding her ratworm covered in scars.

Skara:

Skara specializes in the bard track. For the purposes of this tournament, I allow Skara to have a powerset established by MoringMark's comics due to him fleshing out her capabilities in the "A Hint of Blue" comic storyline and his comics being beloved by the fan base. And not only. Her instrument of choice is lyra.

Skara knew this day was coming ever since she got to face off against the loser of the second round. She feared she would have to face Boscha soon, but here we are, it has come. Skara much like Amity also had very little choice in hanging out with Boscha and ultimately those two did grow apart and stop hanging out. Skara just could never be as mean as Boscha or enjoy herself as much, so she too took Amity's example. However, now she's petrified to see the consequences of that decision hit her tenfold. Can she defeat Boscha? Or is she going to be murdered by her right here?

Skara is established to be an excellent strategist in ASIAS and she's an experienced athlete in both grudgby and flyer derby. She also did show some fiery spirit in LR and judging by her becoming a new teacher at Hexside, she seems to be quite proficient in magic, granted usually in battles she didn't showcase impressive feats.

Skara does possess a Palisman and she showed she is capable of staff wielding. She seems to be a decent flyer but she was also the first one to be taken out during the flyer derby match, suggesting she doesn't have enough skill or defenses to shield herself from being knocked out in midair or performing any serious aerial attacks.

One of the tools I'm willing to give Skara regardless of everything is flying boots. She can use them for transportation and aerial attacks even when she doesn't possess a palisman during the battle and she can use them to save herself from fall damage if she ever is knocked out midair.

Another tool I'm willing to give her is the bag of tentacles she used in Once Upon a Swap to prank people, she can occasionally throw some of them at the battlefield to create tentacle traps. Skara doesn't control them though so the tentacles could attack her as well.

Arrow Strike - MoringMark exclusive ability. Skara can release a single arrow using her magic which can be used offensively. The arrow is strong enough to pierce through magical barriers. Requires an instrument.

Arrow Storm - MoringMark exclusive ability. Skara can release multiple arrows at once using her magic for offensive purposes. Requires an instrument.

Beat Box Shockwave - MoringMark exclusive ability. Skara can release a shockwave all around herself by beatboxing. She can utilise it to push away anything coming her way, including even her opponents. The range however isn't particularly big though.

Willpower Increase - MoringMark exclusive ability. Skara by playing her instrument can regain her strength and clear her mind. Can be used to refresh herself during the battle. Requires an instrument.

Sonic Whistle - MoringMark exclusive ability. Skara by whistling can release sonic waves that can be used to distract or even immobilize her opponents due to the noise hurting the ears of everyone hearing her whistle. It however won't work on deaf opponents.

Thunder Wave - MoringMark exclusive ability. Skara can create a thunderstorm with lightning directly striking her opponents. It's Skara's strongest offensive capability. Requires her instrument. Skara can release multiple lightnings one after another dealing even more damage to her enemies. Skara can also choose where her lightning strikes too.

Thunder Strike - inspired by Skara utilising her palismen in LR, I decided to give Skara the ability to be able to charge up either her fist or maybe a leg or even her entire body with electric energy to increase the force in which she would hit her enemies.

Snow Spell - as demonstrated in Something Ventured, Someone Framed, Skara learned how to create snow. She will usually display it as a simple snowball or snowblast attack

Fire Spell - as demonstrated in Something Ventured, Someone Framed, Skara to create snow can also create fire. She will usually use this ability specifically to throw a single fireball.

Link to the character profile of both of them as they share it.

Return to Masterpost

[yinwaryuri]

Just a non-comprehensive list of all the things P'Jojo touched on throughout the entirety of The Warp Effect:

The harm of forcing teens to promise absolute abstinence from sex while not providing space for safe and open discussions about it

Some people have a strong sense of their sexuality/gender identity. Others don't

Even guys who seem like good ones can do horrible things and be unaware. They are not required to be forgiven no matter how guilty they feel

Being single by choice is not shameful

Fwb is not shameful either

No one has any right to expect more out of a relationship when you have communicated what you are up for up front

Female friendship is a beautiful, wonderful thing, why would we pit so many bad bitches against each other when they're cooler as friends?

Nonsexual kinks are valid and with the right person can make for a beautiful relationship

There are several methods for pregnancy and it's important to discuss things with your donor (if you've chosen one personally)

Listen to your partner! It is actually possible to be together for a decade and still be unaware of something they like/dislike!

You can be forgiven for being shitty in high school but that is not up to you, it's only up to the person you have wronged

Always know the age of whoever you're talking to so you don't accidentally sleep with a minor

Fatphobia and transphobia have never been cool

Trauma hurts and the journey to work through it is difficult. It's not wrong to want to reconcile with someone and find that you can't. It's not wrong to try to push past it numerous times. It is not your fault someone ruined what should be a good experience for you

Nonsexual intimacy is valid and the right partner will work with you to understand your needs

The choice to have children is a really big one and no it should not be an excuse to keep the relationship together. The choice not to doesn't always have to break it up either

Abortion is a personal matter and should be done safely and legally

STDs have all sorts of origins and are an important matter to address in terms of being polyamorous or even going from one partner to the next. They are also not a reason to feel shame and are simply a matter of getting proper treatment and abstaining from sex while healing. Straight couples can get them, it isn't just a gay stereotype

Anyone can have a romantic relationship and not have sex

Parenting from afar isn't being responsible, but it is still possible to create a relationship with your estranged child

Dick size is nothing to be concerned about - you can find someone who enjoys a sexual relationship with you no matter what

It is so important to see your doctor. If that doctor makes you uncomfortable, though, you should be fine to leave and go somewhere else

Gay does not mean pedophile and it's important for you and your children to know the difference because there are gay teachers and coaches who have enough on their shoulders

Cheating doesn't have to include anything physical if you're seeking pleasure from someone who is not your partner and have not discussed such things with your partner or the person you cheat with

Sex work should not be criminalized and more of us need to standing up for the rights of sex workers

Masturbation is normal and doesn't have to be treated as sad or pathetic

Cishet people can be amazing allies. You can have your group of gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and trans people with a bunch of them included and it can be a fabulous group

Casting agents that don't allow for body and gender diversity don't deserve their job

The show gave us a whole PSA on pelvic exams????? HELP??????

ALWAYS PRACTICE SAFE SEX NO MATTER WHAT YOUR AGE, ORIENTATION, OR IDENTITY IS - ALWAYS HAVE A PROPER DISCUSSION AND STICK TO WHAT EVERYONE CONSENTS TO. ALWAYS

I swear I'm still missing stuff but everything that The Warp Effect said is so special to me

[sunflowerhotline]

venus square neptune is one of the most difficult ones to have. squares are always hard to overcome but i feel other squares present themselves in a much more straightforward way whereas the venus-neptune hard aspect presents itself foggily. which makes sense given what we’re talking about.

there’s a sort of seesaw effect with this square in relation to interpersonal relationships. you will realise idealise a person and obsess over “them” or most likely the idea of them you’ve created and be DEVASTATED when the illusion fades. it can present itself as the native being more attracted to people who have little interest in them. these people can be deeply avoidant but not realise it. it is so hard to come to terms with someone’s flaws. if someone comes along that does have interest in them but doesn’t match the neptunian ideal they’ve spent very long creating, they’re not interested (im guilty of this sorry). in this case, they’d much rather live in dream land. they always have a long list of ideals and/or requirements for a partner. love is perfect. love is the ideal. love is forever. love is the saviour. love is incredibly elusive because the natives sometimes have a hard time falling into it. i mean really falling in LOVE itself instead of LIKE or INFATUATION. it is somewhat easy for this person to be deceived especially early in the game. the truth is they like to believe what they want to believe. in others, they want to believe the absolute best and give others the benefit of the doubt. in many ways, this is an act of self-delusion. situationship-enabling placement.

in this one, relationships are a form of performance. i have a friend who said she was relieved to not be dealing with anyone romantically because she no longer has to perform. she admitted that in the past, she would be a bit dishonest about herself and try to mould herself more into the type of girl the guy she was interested in might like so she fudged her interests a bit to match his and tried to make herself appealing from his pov. this is a performance placement. they don’t want to be themselves with that special person because to a certain extent, they don’t want that person to see them for the imperfect individual that they happen to be.

venus-neptune is the aspect that needs love to be a movie. everything needs to go as they scripted it and when it doesn’t it’s devastating. endless daydreams about love. their person coming to sweep them off their feet and whisk them away into an eternity of happiness.

as far as the native’s relationship with themselves, this aspect makes it no less complicated. they often have NO IDEA what they really look like. these people can find much difficulty seeing, accepting or liking their own features but will love the exact same thing on someone else. this is exacerbated if neptune is aspecting the ascendant or in the 1st house. to them, beauty and love are similar in the way it [seems] to elude them. it’s not that they are not beautiful, they just have a hard time seeing it; the comparison generated by this aspect is insane. i’ve observed serious waxing and waning of these individuals’ self-esteem throughout their lives. oftentimes on their journey to self-confidence they kinda have to trick (?) themselves in a way. maybe trick isn’t the right word…they sorta have to fake it til they make it yk. a lot of affirmations. i have a friend with this placement and she said that she just started saying nice things about herself ironically and eventually she started to believe it. these people sometimes have to develop a detachment to the idea of beauty; or even a slight detachment from themselves physically in order to try to see themselves objectively and be a bit kinder to themselves. they will learn to see the positives in themselves as well and when they do, the over-reliance on a romantic dream to complete them will somewhat dissipate and they will focus their energy on themselves and whatever they decide to create.

i know we always talk about saturn and standards (and rightfully so) but we don’t really talk about neptune in the same way. saturn standards may be high but he promises that overtime, if you work hard enough and be patient enough, the standards will be met and the goal will be achieved. in a sense, you’ll be rewarded for your suffering. neptune does not promise you the same thing. neptune’s standards are frightfully high and often unrealistic. these are no longer standards; these become ideals. romantically or personally, it will be difficult or even impossible for a mere human to embody an ideal. even the native will struggle and go through a lot of pain to try match their own ideal. with maturity and time and some heartbreak (sorry…i didn’t want to say that but it’s true), the native will be forced to get real.

this placement is not all doom and gloom. there’s a lot of artists with venus-neptune. this placement also is very optimistic. they do believe in love. they do believe in happy endings. they do believe in soulmates. they are very forgiving (which is necessary in relationships and life itself). they are very romantic. they can create and see beauty in almost everything and everyone. with this placement, the lesson is to be grounded. grounded with yourself and grounded with others. to see people as they are and not what you want them to be. then, all relationships will be much easier. once you’ve learned to accept the humanity and imperfection of others AND YOURSELF, there will be some level of relief. once this lesson is learned, though it may take time, you are not likely to make the same mistakes.

[crippy-tangerine]

-> We are kind of imploding right now excuse us-! This is basically just a ramble/vent about personal medical stuff (diagnoses/misdiagnoses, ableism, trauma, etc.). Feel free to skip this 👍 (/genuine).

Not to sound like we are in denial about being diagnosed with FND, but the way we’ve been diagnosed with it just feels like a dismissal of our physical issues that we categorically could not be consciously/subconsciously creating (which is what we’ve been told we are doing, and is why we “have FND”, allegedly). Like the hypermobility issues we have always had, the gastrointestinal issues and diagnosed malabsorption issues that we’ve had since we were 6, and the chronic pain and fatigue that we frankly refuse to even consider we somehow “fabricated” (which is so shitty to even have said to us but whatever).

No amount of “subconscious” creating of symptoms would make us able to keep up gastrointestinal symptoms for that long beforehand (we allegedly got FND when we were 16 because that’s when we noted our pain levels getting worse, which is such bullshit because it was such a throwaway sentence in our notes and now we have this massive diagnosis based on it, which ignores everything fucking else, but ok!!), or make our joints overly flexible so we can lift our feet to the top of our head or pop our shoulders out of their sockets at command, but again, whatever, the people who’ve known us for 30 minutes obviously know better!! (/heavy sarcasm, but also /not exaggerating- the guy who saw us literally read a summary of a few of our symptoms, checked our reflexes and went “yep it’s FND, ok, that’ll be almost a month’s worth of your money please!” like oh….. fuck you, actually.?).

And yet- we have been officially diagnosed with FND today, it’s on paper. And that makes us (me?) so ridiculously angry, because the process of earning this diagnosis has been a series of medical traumas, dismissals and frankly a lot of ableism. At this point, genuinely do not care for the input of anybody other than us on the subject of our physical health. Or mental health actually. Any aspect of our health. Just feel so dehumanised all the time (we have had alters born from specifically that feeling because it’s been so fucking extensive). We have been poked at and prodded, mentally and physically, on almost a weekly basis for the last five years. We are so, so tired. Absolutely fed up. Unfortunately we do not have the privilege of being able to survive without medical-system supports in place though. So all we can do is just,, engage on a surface level and refuse to give any extra information than we are required to. Except we will have to give extra information literally tomorrow if we want any actual help for our physical health (that we apparently should just “do CBT” for (if he had bothered to ask anything about us he would know we have had around 4 different courses of that therapy, and it makes us even more unhinged because apparently nobody knows anything about autism????)). Actually going to become an eldritch horror over this.??

We have many choice words about the medical system here, and how it functions in general, so you can imagine that our words are even less kind for how they treat disabled people… 🙃.

Just frustrated and livid at everyone in the medical system even if they’ve not personally wronged us,, because hahahah trauma!!! (We are aware not everyone who works in medical care here is evil incarnate we just cannot afford to give people the benefit of the doubt anymore.)

*screams in “unable to advocate for ourself and nobody else knows enough about us to do it for us”*- like we type real well on here because we have the time to draft, edit, rewrite 5 times, reword again and then finally post a semi-formed thought?? In person there’s this pressure to give responses in a matter of seconds or you’re told you’re being difficult/slow/whatever else people want to throw in your medical chart to hang over you for the literal rest of your life.??? Just. GRRRRR. Going to try and write something up semi-formally tonight before we explode all over the place like a rage-balloon.???

[glxyqst]

AI Art vs. Human Art - Irreplaceable

"Why isn't it done yet? It's been a week."

"You're gonna get replaced by AI, haha."

"I'm not paying $10 for a drawing, bro."

Any of these comments sound familiar? If they do, you're either an artist, a supportive friend of an artist, or the ignorant asshat sending such comments to an artist. An artist who: - Has spent YEARS of their life practicing and improving their craft, honing their skills, and otherwise DEDICATING themselves to what they love. "Talent is cheap. Dedication is expensive." - Spends time to create something for you, when they also have: other clients, other projects, other jobs, other things going on in their lives as do we all. They aren't your personal bitch, and EVEN IF you were paying them MORE MONEY FOR MORE CONTROL, at the end of the day YOU went to the THEM. THEY are the artist, THEY are the professional, THEY are the expert. Shut the fuck up and don't try to break them away from their integrity. If they don't want to do something for you, either thank them for their time, or take 50% of your payment back and start your own personal art lessons. It's only too late to learn a new skill if you're dead. - Is doing something that you sure as fuck can't do, because otherwise why would you be asking them? - Is a person and deserves respect, even if you don't like their style or can't afford to pay what they have determined to meet their basic wage requirements so they can create.

An artist is a person and deserves respect, even if you don't like their style or can't afford to pay what they have determined meets their basic wage requirements so they can create.

Don't ask me why, but I desperately desired artwork of Android Cat Gavin wearing water wings and splashing in water. I already knew who I wanted to commission (the fabulous @cptjh-arts, powerhouse artist and amazing person).

Apparently, water wings are actually DANGEROUS and you shouldn't use them. So there's that. But I digress. https://swim2shore.com/the-false-security-of-water-wings/

My concept drawing for Android Cat Gavin with water wings.

For the purposes of this post, I used two AI https://magicstudio.com/ai-art-generator/ and https://hotpot.ai/ai-image-generator/create (two free sites that do not require accounts).

First AI prompt: cat with water wings

Second AI prompt: cat with water floatation device

Third prompt (which is the specifics of my commission request): cat android gavin from "detroit: become human" wearing swimming floatation devices on his front legs, splashing in water, Nines holding him.

Are all of these AI-generated images cute? Sure as fuck they are. Were they free? Yeah, they were. Fantastical elements aside, do they all follow the laws of physics / imitate life? NOPE. Don't recall asking for Catvin to have two weird tails up there (Also I am scared of the flood apparently happening inside my house?). And that one flotation device does NOT look sea-worthy.

Crop of the commissioned artwork from the amazing @cptjh-arts. <3 See the full image here: https://www.tumblr.com/cptjh-arts/710889609313255424/just-finished-my-latest-commission-for-the-lovely?source=share

Absolutely fucking PURRRRFECT. Exactly what I wanted. And all it took were brief conversations of excitement and clarification with my artist. Win-win all around. I get fabulous art, they get paid for doing what they've dedicated their lives to doing, and we both get a pleasant social interaction.

AI-generated art will continue to be refined, but it will never replace a sentient human being.

I am a sci-fi and fantasy fan. I love stories of robots, of true artificial intelligences---or rather, artificial sentience---of "different, not better". When Connor Detroit or Sonny or Data come around, I will be the first in line to greet them and look at their created works with awe. We aren't there, though. And in the meantime, artists are being shunted aside in favor of AI-generated art managed by non-artists---people who do not understand dedication or creativity. AI-generated art will continue to be refined, but it will never replace a sentient human being.

If you can't afford to pay an artist, that's okay. They understand, because they too have bills to pay in this capitalist society that puts money before people.

What's NOT okay is when you talk to them dismissively, disrespectfully, or degradingly.

Grow the fuck up, get over yourself, and go support your fellow human beings.

[the-authoress-writes]

Family

(AKA some of my Tom “Iceman” Kazansky headcanons)

Warnings: Tom “Iceman” Kazansky’s father’s A+ parenting (not), mentions of cancer.

Author’s Note: This was instigated by @callsign-skydancer, after she sent me a very insightful message, and I just had to go with it, until, voilà, I churned this out in an hour and a half.

I’ve had these headcanons for a while now, but it’s because of Sky that I decided to get them down.

I’ll be using these in some later stories, so if you see some copy-pasting, you didn’t see anything, self-plagiarism doesn’t count, 😂.

I have no idea if this makes any sense, I wrote this in what I feel is a weird tense, but I have to get this out of my head, so I can finish “Wherever You Go”.

Enough of the Authoress talking, here we go!

Family has a great deal of meaning for Thomas Kazansky.

It affects and has affected him in more ways than one, and it continues to influence and shape him.

It was why he joined the Navy.

Most people assume that his father was Navy, because they hear higher-ranking officers whisper “He’s related to Kazansky” or things like that, but they’d be wrong.

His father was not Navy.

His father is Dr. Vasily Kazansky, a prominent Honolulu cardiologist, who detests all things military, who wanted nothing but for Tom to follow in his footsteps, demanding utmost academic excellence in preparation for medical school, creating a habit drilled into him that carried over into Tom’s service.

His grandfather, however, was Captain Sergei Kazansky, a highly decorated US Navy officer who served during World War II.

As a child, during visits to his Dedushka Sergei and Babusya Anya, young Thomas could be found in his grandfather’s arms, listening wide-eyed to Sergei’s stories of his time in the Navy.

It was Sergei Kazansky who instilled in Tom a love of country, and the desire to serve.

Tom’s decision to join the Navy and attend Annapolis was what drove a final wedge between Tom and his father, who detested the military for taking his father, Sergei, from him, in more ways than one, both physically, and emotionally, Sergei not knowing back then how to handle his trauma.

It was his grandfather who pinned the Lieutenant Junior Grade bars on his uniform, and Tom will never admit it, but he had tears in his eyes when Sergei embraced him and whispered in his ear, “Я так горжусь тобой, Томас,” words his own father never said to him.

It broke his heart when Sergei died of lung cancer three months before he was slated to attend TOPGUN.

But his memories and the lessons his Dedushka taught him would stay with him forever.

Most people would never assume that Tom “Iceman” Kazansky would have an artistic bone in his body, but they would be absolutely wrong.

One of Tom’s best kept secrets was that he is a very accomplished pianist.

He was taught by his mother, Yelena, how to play the piano, and music ran in her family, her own father, Oleg, having been a violinist with the USSR State Symphony Orchestra, before his defection to America.

Tom’s fondest memories of his mother are of afternoons spent with Yelena teaching him to play the piano, after dragging him from his homework, which enabled him to play Chopin at twelve, followed by the two of them listening to recordings of classical music, some of them featuring his grandfather Oleg’s playing, his father’s long hours at work enabling this time away from studying without censure.

One of his most prized possessions is a vinyl record which he inherited from his mother, of Shostakovich’s “Leningrad Symphony”, where his grandfather Oleg can be heard playing second chair violin.

In general, Tom’s favorite pieces to play are Chopin, but depending on his mood, what he plays varies.

When he’s at his most neurotic, Bach comes easier, the precision required to play those pieces giving his mind something to fixate on.

When he’s upset or angry, he hammers away at Scriabin, and some pieces of Rachmaninov, like “Prelude in G Minor (Op. 23 No. 5)” and “Prelude in C Sharp Minor (Op. 3 No. 2)” and Beethoven’s “Piano Sonata No. 8 in C Minor (Pathétique)”.

When he’s feeling a little drifty, he goes for Satie and Debussy, or “The Lark” by Glinka and Balakirev.

When he’s happy, Chopin’s “Heroic” polonaise is a must.

When he’s lonely, Chopin’s “Nocturne No. 20 in C Sharp Minor (Posthumous)” is a standby, because of how it reminds him there’s always light at the end of the tunnel.

He’s proud to say he can play his dream piece from his early high school years, Liszt’s transcription of “La Campanella”, though he still thinks he can get it just a little bit faster.

His most recent dream pieces are Rachmaninov’s “Piano Concerto No. 2”, and Liszt’s “Rondo Fantastique (El Contrabandista)”.

It’s because of him that Bradley is as good a pianist as he is, having been the Baby Goose’s teacher on the instrument.

He wishes Bradley would show off the classical pieces he knows more than his rendition—great as it is—of “Great Balls of Fire”.

Family has shaped Thomas Kazansky for better and for worse—there are still days he can hear his father telling him an A- wasn’t going to get him into any half decent Ivy League, or that he had to try harder, that his best needed to be better, and those are the days he plays Bach, or Scriabin, Rachmaninov, and Beethoven—but it was also what made him who he was, what led him to what he loves doing, and what led him to the family he chose.

Taglist

@valmare

@callsign-skydancer

@permanentlyexhaustedpigeon88

@tadomikiku

If you’d like to join my taglist, just send me an ask!

[nickeverdeen]

hiiii could i have an arcane matchup?

i'm agender (they/them, but feminine terms/titles are fine by me) and queer (STRONG preference towards women), and i'd prefer a romantic matchup but platonic works fine as well. i'm 5'5" (average height queen), i have curly, black, shoulder length hair and bangs. sometimes i straighten my hair if i have the time and energy but usually i just leave it natural. i have fairly pale skin with slight pink undertones, and a few freckles on my nose. my eyes are mostly blue with a little bit of green (my mom used to say i had some gold specks in there so idk what color they are really tbh). i have a pretty casual/somewhat athletic style, since my job does require me to be active, but i accessorize to high heavens with necklaces, bracelets, earrings, and any ring i can find, pretty much. i try to look as androgynous as possible at any given time.

a basic list of my interests: animation, digital art, creative writing, acting, broadway, theater tech (such as running lights/sound/spotlight, being a stagehand, just all of the cool backstage stuff), painting, cosplay and costume making is a BIG one, really anything artsy.

now the weird interests that don't really fit into the above category: roller coaster mechanics/accidents and how to avoid them, herpetology (mainly snakes but other reptiles as well), self defense, airports (not anything specific about them, i just really like the environment in airports)

i really like music! music is a HUUUUUGE part of my life. my favorite style personally is fast paced punk rock kinda style, but any sort of alt rock fits my vibe. i really like MSI (the music, not the people themselves, screw those guys), and some various songs by FOB, The Used, Pierce The Veil, Destroy Boys, etc. I do also love music of other, more undefined genres. I'm absolutely in love with Panic! at the Disco's Vices and Virtues album, specifically Sarah Smiles and Nearly Witches. And a few other songs/artists here and there (like will wood? and jack stauber) but those are my main ones. Sharing music I like is such a big deal for me in literally any relationship.

Speaking of relationships! My love languages are mainly physical touch (receiving) and acts of service (giving). But other "love languages," or just little things that I do with people I'm comfortable with are: rant about my interests/try to get them into said interests, sharing music (like i said), sharing memes and things that remind me of them, and (here's a really niche one) making cosplays of their favorite characters (if applicable, there are some cosplays i just can't do). the way i love is just pure devotion. if i'm in a relationship with someone, they are my everything, i would do anything for them.

i'm an enfp, 6w7, i'm extremely outgoing and have a tendency to strike up conversations with random people. i'm a performer, an actor, everything is a performance to me. i'm an incredibly artsy person, constantly creating something (mainly in the form of writing or physical art/drawings and sketches). my humor is very much just one-liners that are kinda hit or miss, depends on the audience. i understand very well the concept of masking who you are for the sake of acceptance, progress, etc. in public, i'm a completely different person, putting on somewhat of a professional, agreeable front for the sake of getting people to like me. i'm a performer with connections, i know the right people and they'll give me a huge advantage in my future as i try to get where i want to be. i'm not afraid to abandon some ideals and morals to get there. this is not something i'm proud of.

i'm neurodivergent, but incredibly good at masking it. when i'm around the right people, it's obvious, but i don't usually let myself unmask in public. to really know me is to know two different sides of me. anyway, i'm surprisingly organized. i have a meticulous morning routine (i'm a morning person through and through) that requires me to wake up two hours early every morning, but i don't mind (even though i don't really sleep). i get easily overwhelmed specifically by temperature. if it's too hot, i shut down, it makes it hard to function. i'm also somewhat prone to anxiety attacks, and i have bad paranoia, so it takes me a while to really trust someone.

i think my main personal struggle is that i focus on other people more than myself. relationships tend to feel like a sacrifice. i will abandon my own mental and physical health if it means helping someone that i care about (or someone who makes me feel validated but thats a different story). i'm also an incredibly hard worker, so much so that getting things done tends to be my main focus, even over essentials like eating, sleeping, showering, etc.

is this too much info this feels like too much info sorry if this is too much

Your Arcane match is…

Vi (Violet)

Vi would love your taste in music, and you’d often share playlists, bonding over bands like The Used and Destroy Boys

She’d even attend concerts with you

Vi would support your artistic pursuits, whether it’s digital art, writing, or costume making

She’d often help you brainstorm ideas and give honest feedback on your projects

She may not understand it, but she’s trying

Given your active lifestyle, Vi would enjoy working out with you

She’d teach you new self-defense techniques and incorporate kickboxing into your routine

Vi would be incredibly patient and understanding with your anxiety and paranoia

She’d create a safe environment for you to express your worries and help you through anxiety attacks

She had experience with them herself so she knows it sucks and don’t want you to have to deal with it alone

Knowing that you often put others before yourself, Vi would remind you to take care of your own needs too

She’d bring you food when you forget to eat and make sure you get enough rest

It’d probably be pizza or something like that as she can’t cook for life

Vi, not being much of a morning person herself, would admire and be a bit confused by your meticulous morning routine

She’d occasionally join you for a morning run or breakfast, though

Vi would try to share your interest in roller coasters and mechanics

She doesn’t understand that stuff, but would let you talk about (almost) all day

She’d be genuinely interested in learning from you and sharing her own knowledge and experiences

Vi would be sensitive to your struggle with hot weather

She’d make sure you stay cool and comfortable, finding shaded spots or bringing along cold drinks when you’re out together

Fortunately she understands as she isn’t a fan of big heat either

Vi would respect your need for physical space initially, but as you grow closer, she’d be affectionate and provide the comforting physical touch you crave in a relationship

Vi would appreciate your acts of service and reciprocate by doing small things to make your life easier, like running errands or surprising you with thoughtful gestures.

Your quirky humor and one-liners would always make Vi smile

She’d enjoy your company and the light-hearted moments you share

She’d attend your shows and be your biggest fan, supporting your theatrical endeavors

Vi would value the trust you place in her, knowing it takes time for you to open up

She’d be loyal and protective, ensuring you always feel safe and respected in your relationship

Vi would help you find a balance between your hard-working nature and the need for relaxation

She’d encourage you to take breaks and enjoy downtime together, reminding you to take care of yourself

Vi would plan adventurous dates, whether it’s exploring new parts of the city, going on nature hikes, or attending underground music gigs

She’d keep your relationship dynamic and full of memorable experiences