#you exist within the context of everyone that came before you…

[starlooove]

Ok so on those previous tags (and the post entirely tbh) that’s what I’ve been talking about when it pisses me off that y’all make shit up for everyone else that already applies to Duke. Like the closest to fanon tim you’ll ever get is his Gotham knights program which y’all don’t know about bc y’all don’t read but Duke has been with it since WAR (which tbh for the tim fans i think tim who grew enough to set that shit up meeting Duke who’s had the mindset but not the means since he was younger would be super fun. But whatever this ain’t about him.) and including the foster system thing it’s always hcs about these terrible families Jason’s been in or him being a flight risk or whatever when Duke is canonically right there and has arguably closer ties to the system itself rn. Like it’s so sick how y’all say u can’t include or give a shit about Duke bc he’s just not interesting to you and then TAKE everything that makes him interesting for ur white faves and I think the worst part is that so many of y’all don’t read enough to realize it which is just proof that you really WANT a character like Duke but he’s canonically too black for you. Like it’s giving making tim the ceo in ur mind based off a comic where he continuously is not fucking with the role and gives it back the SECOND he can. The REAL CEO is simply too black for you 💀

[armageddidnt]

Welcome to My Collection of Random Thoughts during my nth* rewatch of Good Omens Season 2

*only amazon prime knows the exact number at this point but I’m fairly certain it’s in the double digits

Episode 1: Gabriel’s fly lurking in the box when Aziraphale first takes it inside 👀

Crowley’s promise of “two minutes” basically means that he’s been homeless and living in his car for the past 4 years strictly so that he can be within 2 driving minutes of Aziraphale at all times in case his angel needs him I’m not crying you are

So here I think the key word is “fragile,” Crowley knows they are ostensibly safe from their respective sides but that could change at any moment so he’s basically spent the last 4 years in anxiety-ridden terror hovering as close to Aziraphale as he can to try and protect him from heaven, hell, and anyone else that would want to bring him harm after all that business they pulled in season 1 with stopping Armageddon

Episode 2: I just happened to pause the episode while Aziraphale is lying to the angels about his miracle and LOL Michael really outdid himself here (Sheen, not the Archangel)

Gabriel trying to swat flies and almost smashing the repository of every single one of his memories

I’m cAckling

So if Good Omens exists in Good Omens, does that mean Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett exist in Good Omens?? Do you think they based their Aziraphale and Crowley characters on Aziraphale and Crowley??

Episode 3: So I’m trying to find any hints or foreshadowing of the Gabriel Beelzebub thing bc tbh I did kind of feel like it came out of nowhere which is really the only issue I have with them. I found this one scene where Beelzebub almost ?? seems to be concerned about Gabriel ?? But it’s blink and you miss it and there could be lots of other reasons why Beelzebub doesn’t want to fail in locating Gabriel (pressure from/leverage over heaven, etc) so idk

More Foreshadowing Fly content 🪰

Episode 4: So here we’ve seen that Shax can just appear inside the Bentley bc she did it earlier to talk to Crowley. Shax only pretended to be a hitchhiker so she could be invited in because Azirpahale was driving so technically she needed permission to cross the threshold of an angel 👀

This scene will never not destroy me the 1941 flashback is the absolute sOFTEST thing ever to happen on this show

We really need more context here I need to see the Crowley-Furfur Monkey Rides

Episode 5: ahahaha thank you google translate for absolutely destroying my sanity this evening

POP goes the Ziraphale

Okay I know you can’t hear it in the gif but just before Nina takes Maggie’s hand, there’s a very quiet miracle noise, like Azirpahale literally MADE Nina dance with Maggie, he said I’m writing a Mina Jane-Austen-Ball-AU and my otp will KISS godDAMMIT

Azirpahale seems lowkey kind of manic this whole scene tho, he’s controlling literally everyone to force Nina and Maggie together and whenever Crowley says anything that pokes holes in Aziraphale’s Magical Jane Austen Ball Fairytale, Aziraphale just straight up denies it. He wants Nina and Maggie to dance and he wants him and Crowley to dance and he refuses to acknowledge anything beyond that.

Is this just Shax insulting Crowley for how much of a nuisance he’s been or a reference to his former status as an angel ???

They’re both completely dismissive of each other when they’re trying to say something important and that’s the main issue they’ve been having this entire season tbh

Episode 6: I think it’s funny that Crowley describes the angels as bees here because in the book, Neil/Terry describe humans the same way. Guess we have more in common than we thought huh?

So the metatron was the one who originally decided Gabriel would be memory wiped and not sent to hell, and he was also the one that decided not to sound an alarm about Gabriel for some reason and said ‘just go find him yourself’ instead. The metatron has definitely got his own agenda and you can bet he doesn’t want Aziraphale up there in heaven because he’s a “leader” and he’s “honest” like that’s exactly what Gabriel was and look where it got him 👀

There’s just something I can’t quite put my finger on about the metatron bringing Aziraphale a coffee from “give me coffee or give me death” and then asking Aziraphale if he’s going to take the coffee he’s giving him…

I have not seen a single person talk about this since s2 came out but Nina literally calls Maggie “angel” because that’s the term of endearment they hear Crowley using for Aziraphale !!!! I’m still going fERAL over this and I can’t believe no one else is eitHER

Something about this part of The Final Fifteen compared to this scene from the first episode is so representative of the entire season. Azirpahale keeps saying “my way or get out” and Crowley finally hits a wall and can follow Aziraphale no further. So he does just that. He goes.

I’m sure a lot of us by now have seen this post that brings up how Aziraphale literally pushes the remains of Crowley into his mouth and swallows and it’s the only thing I see when I watch this now

We still don’t know for certain if Crowley queued up this song to play on their way to the Ritz or if the Bentley started playing it all on its own and it’s driving me insane

Basically how I am doing after my Truly-Alarming-Number-th watch of this traumatizing episode/season. WELP hope you enjoyed this garbage dump of my thoughts and feelings time to go cry for a bit again BYE

[cyren-myadd]

This concept art has been living in my head rent free

This concept art of Spider with a kuru literally keeps me up some nights wondering what it means. I got so excited over the new D23 concept art that I went looking through some old Avatar stuff I had saved and came across this again, which reignited all the burning questions I have about it.

Concept art typically leads to two outcomes: either it gets scrapped and removed from the plot or it gets refined and is eventually realized within the story. The same is true for this particular piece of concept art. Its existence means it's either:

A) an old idea that they ended up scrapping, or

B) it's an idea they're going with and will eventually be realized in the movies.

The reason I keep myself up at night wondering whether its A or B is because of the context of this concept art. The art was originally shown on a gigantic screen at some big avatar showcase thing in Los Angeles. There's no way showing this was some oversight or mistake. Unlike the script that was shown on accident, this was shown to avatar fans INTENTIONALLY. Which leaves me with the question of why they would show such a shocking concept on purpose?

If option A is right and this is just an old idea they scrapped, why show people? This isn't a minor change (ie switching the Metkayina eye color from yellow to blue/green) that won't really make an impact on the plot. Spider growing a kuru would be a massive change that would radically effect the story. I think I read somewhere that James Cameron at some point wanted the character Trudy to return as a recombinant like Quaritch, but scrapped the idea because the actress, Michelle Rodriguez, didn't want to reprise her role. Could you imagine if before Avatar 2 released, they showed concept art of Trudy as recom, and everyone got all excited to see how that would play out, only for it to be revealed that it was an old scrapped idea and we were never going to see it on screen? That would be such a confusing and disappointing thing to do. This is how I feel about this concept art. If it's never going to happen, why show it at all? Since intentionally showing concept art for an idea they scrapped doesn't make any sense, that makes me wonder if option B is right, but option B doesn't make a lot of sense either.

If option B is right, once again, why show people? That's a MASSIVE spoiler. Showing this image would be like if they showed concept art of Neteyam's funeral before Avatar 2 released, spoiling the major death of the story. It wouldn't make any more sense to spoil a big death than it would to spoil such a radical change like Spider getting a kuru. I'll admit that when I first saw this image, I accepted it at face value and I made this long post theorizing that Spider will get a kuru and that this will somehow be connected to the leaked script where he gets the ability to breathe the Pandoran air, but since then I've rethought my position. It just doesn't make sense to me that they would show it on purpose if they actually do intend to give Spider a kuru in Avatar 3. But at the same time, it also doesn't make sense that they would show a scrapped idea that's so wildly out of the range of what we know is possible in the avatar universe.

Unless there's some secret third option I'm missing, I'm going to keep wondering and wondering whether this image is just a scrapped idea or a real spoiler of what's to come. I guess I'll get my answer when Avatar 3 finally comes out and this idea happens or not, but I'll still wonder why they showed it.

Do you guys think this concept art is depicting a scrapped idea or a spoiler, and why? And does anyone have any idea why they would show this regardless if its a scrap or a spoiler?

[howtofightwrite]

So in a lot of RPG-inspired fantasy, you’ll see this idea that squads of adventurers will have their members specialize into combat roles with one person being good at defending against hits hit and one person who attacks a lot and one person who hangs back at range etc. Is this totally made up for RPGs? Or is there a historical basis for small-unit tactics with specialization before the modern era?

No.

Specialized combat roles existed, in full battlefield combat. Groups like line infantry, skirmishers, archers, and artillery all existed. The thing is, those were entire units of troops, not individual roles, and combat doesn't really scale down to individual characters.

The tank/DPS/healer trinity is entirely an RPG construct. This actually makes some sense when you consider that the first RPGs grew out of tabletop wargaming. So, seeing battalion level combat reduced to individual characters isn't quite as weird as it first appears. Since then, games have adapted to better fit those roles.

So, the end result is that, the combat roles you see in modern RPGs came out of an abstraction of an abstraction of battalion level combat, and then it started evolving into even more specialized roles. Beyond that, concepts like taunts and crowd control only really make sense within the power fantasies of those games.

In a modern context, mixed combat units with a few specialists mixed in do make sense, though, again, it's not the tank/DPS/healer structure of games, because that is still completely artificial.

So, if it's so utterly divorced from reality, why does this model survive? Because it does accurately replicate how fantasy stories frequently fit together. You get a reasonably distinct mix of character archetypes who can work together, with each contributing something unique to the effort as a whole. And, while you're not going to find an example of the Tank/DPS/Healer squad out there in the wandering in the world, you don't have to look too hard to find stories with a warrior who's able to bare almost any punishment, a sage who advises and assists, and a hero who has a nasty habit of striking the killing blow, and, really, doing the bulk of the punishment.

Accidentally or intentionally, the trinity nails how stories are often told.

Distinct roles in a tabletop RPG also, arguably, provide more range for a group of players to have roles that appeal to them, without requiring them all to conform to a single character type. Not everyone is going to want to be a hulking brute with anger management issues, just like not everyone is going to want to play a character who's instantly deleted half a second after an enemy spots them. The trinity gives both of those players a way to participate in the same adventure without making either of them useless.

The roles have become even more entrenched in MMOs because it provides a shorthand for players to organize themselves for group content. At that point, roles like Tank/Healer/DPS become very useful shorthand for knowing what a random stranger will bring to the group, and a way to quickly assess what you still need before the group is ready to go.

So, does this have any historical basis? Yes, sort of, but in a literary context, not from martial combat.

-Starke

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[raxistaicho]

Analyzing Hubert and Byleth's A support

Hey all, been a while since I had the idea to do an analysis post, but I finally had a good idea!

So everyone's familiar with Byleth and Hubert's A support, right? That's the one where Byleth is just minding their own business when Hubert suddenly bursts onto the scene and tells them he'll kill them for being a Nabatean.

Wait, wait, that doesn't sound right, I think we should start over from the beginning.

Now, the way it actually begins is with Byleth standing in the ruined cathedral at Garreg Mach, when Hubert emerges and begins monologueing, as only he can.

Nice place, isn't it, Professor? Standing here, you can almost feel the goddess's absence. Discounting what dwells within you, of course.

I do want to draw attention to something here. The last line there calls back to a line from their B support:

I see something of Lord Arundel in you… When I look at you, I feel I can almost see a second self lurking beneath the surface. It is as if you are in constant dialogue with something inside your heart—something with desires very different from your own. Does that description feel familiar to you at all?

After everything that's happened to Byleth and all their choices, Hubert's made peace with the fact that Byleth is different in a way he can't fully understand, and in a manner that reminds him of the goddess. It's also an acknowledgement that Byleth is both similar and yet different to the children of the goddess and the deity they've foisted upon the people of Fodlan. Because, let's not forget, the goddess Sothis is quite different from Byleth's beloved head gremlin.

But I digress,

Do you think some punishment would rain down from the sky if this monastery were to be destroyed? Of course not. Even if the so-called Immaculate One came back here for revenge… That would only be a result of this war, not the work of a deity.

This is more of the same; the goddess has no agency. Any act, however apparently divine, is simply the actions of Rhea and her kin attempting to appear godly. Because that really is the true nature of the Church of Seiros: very powerful otherworldly beings using their innate gifts to mislead the people of Fodlan into believing an all-powerful goddess is watching over them.

Again, Sothis, the primordial god, is dead, and by now she's forfeited any chance to return to the land of the living. The goddess truly no longer exists in any way that matters.

Byleth then asks whether Hubert hates the goddess, to which he replies,

If it is between love and hate, then I would choose the latter. The goddess failed to properly govern this world. That is why it is necessary for Lady Edelgard to become the supreme leader of Fódlan.

Basically, he's saying that the gods have failed so spectacularly that the only way to fix Fodlan now is through an act of continental war. And really... Rhea has failed. Fodlan was so thoroughly broken that the events leading up to 1180 is a string of calamities even before you get to the Agarthans' direct conduct. Even her own church is falling apart at the seams, with the southern branch extinct after trying to influence Imperial politics, the central and western branches openly in conflict, and the central branch privately scorns the eastern branch for being too even-handed.

Hubert closes this thought with,

Those with power must use it wisely. Is that not a teaching of the Church of Seiros? It's absurd to preach to others what you cannot practice yourself.

This is why I get frustrated seeing people just cutting everything up until this point and focusing only on the soundbit parts of the supports; they're excising the crucial context, that Hubert despises the Fodlan divinity because it arrogantly claims and authority its proven itself unworthy of.

Anyways, Byleth then has two choices as to how to reply, with both reaching the same conclusion,

Hubert then goes on to say,

That is not the case for inhuman creatures with lifespans well beyond our own. We must fight to preserve what makes us human.

This is what lies at the heart of his disdain for the Church of Seiros, and the whole reason he and Edelgard are doing what they have to do: the gods have failed to be godly, so humanity has to rise and govern themselves instead.

Gods are supposed to be wise, perfect, and eternal, and yet Rhea and the Church of Seiros, the true avatars of the supposed goddess, are not; they must make the same flawed hypocrisies as the humans beneath them do, so what right have they to presume they know which path humanity should take?

Anyways, continuing on,

You are the one closest to the enemy. I wonder if you will be able to maintain your humanity to the end.

Now, to understand what he really means by "human", it needs to be contrasted against what he's previously been discussing: the failures of the gods. "Humanity" in most instances it's mentioned by Edelgard and Hubert is in contrast to Rhea and her kin as gods, not as a species.

Edelgard's conflict with the godess of Fodlan and her church is in the way she and they have failed to govern Fodlan, not her distaste for their green hair and pointy ears. She's always clear where she takes issue; their belief that they know what's best for mortals despite being no better than them.

And make no mistake, Rhea does think she knows what's best for Fodlan in Sothis's absence, despite all evidence showing she doesn't,

For another example of Fire Emblem using "human" in a way other than to speak of them as a race, look to Engage,

Celine obviously wouldn't saying that dragons are inhuman, unfriendly monsters. Describing Alear as "human" is a way of expressing that they're humble and personable, which Alear absolutely is, if nothing else.

"Human", in this instance, just as in 3H, is contrasted against the idea of gods as otherworldly, unknowable, and aloof. Naga would be a great example of the latter, while still being a fundamentally benevolent character.

When Hubert speaks of Byleth "losing their humanity", he means losing their connection to other people and becoming distant, the way Rhea did. Dorothea expresses similar fears in chapter 11,

This is directly after Byleth fused with Sothis.

Dorothea worrying now implies that Byleth's unusual behavior is different from their ordinary stoicism.

Edelgard also brings up something similar in her own A support with Byleth, expressing concern that she's grown detached from ordinary people, and while she thought of Byleth as a kindred spirit in that regard, she's also relieved that they can express feelings like jealousy.

Of course, most of the Nabateans aren't quite as detached as Hubert and Edelgard seem to expect; Flayn and Seteth certainly aren't, but their focus is almost exclusively upon Rhea, who certainly is rather detached from ordinary people. That said, we can't fault characters for not having access to every scrap of information that the reader is privileged to have.

Anyways, in response to Hubert's fear, Byleth can implicitly give him permission to kill them;

I wonder if you will be able to maintain your humanity to the end.

If I'm unable to…

Does that mean you know I will do what must be done? You must trust me a great deal.

While this might seem like an "that escalated real fast!" moment, it's in truth an evolution of their C support, in which Hubert threatens to kill Byleth if they appear to present a threat to Edelgard, and their B support, in which Hubert grows more certain Byleth will be a threat to her.

My family, House Vestra, has been sworn to House Hresvelg for generations. Since the dawn of the Empire, we have worked to protect the emperor by any means necessary— both in the open and in the shadows. If you incur our wrath, you will see just what I mean.

With this groundwork in mind, we're meant to read Byleth's vague line as giving Hubert permission to kill them. The game's backstory is steeped in examples of characters gaining and abusing their power, for intentions both good and bad, Nemesis, Rhea, the Fodlan nobility, and Byleth by now would be keenly aware of the corruptive influence power represents, and Byleth at this point is already one of the most powerful individuals in Fodlan.

In contrast, should Byleth express confidence that they won't fail the way Rhea did, he'll accept it almost in stride, a response unthinkable for the man he used to be,

I wonder if you will be able to maintain your humanity to the end.

Of course I will.

You make it sound easy. I find myself trusting you. Even with my life.

I've seen people analyze this support as a sign that Hubert still doesn't trust Byleth, but if anything it's the opposite: after the decisions Byleth has made, and after the way he's opened up more to them, Byleth and Hubert have come to trust each other a great deal. Byleth entrusts Hubert with their life, while Hubert entrusts Byleth with his secret plans for the future.

They've become conspirators in ensuring the success of Edelgard's plans, and it's why they their relationship is one of my favorites in all of Three Houses, if not Fire Emblem as a series.

It's incredible seeing where they begin and where they end. So yeah, I hope anyone who's made it this far found that to be an interesting read of an oft-misunderstood support :)

[ravencincaide]

Special interests 

Summary: You were an encyclopedia of relevant knowledge and an even larger encyclopedia of irrelevant knowledge. The trick was to get you to talk; what you’d say however was a gamble. OR the time Chuuya had to ask an expert's opinion not expecting said expert to be.. well ..you. 

Pairing Academic! fem Reader x Chuuya Nakahara

Inspired by request by anon: Quiet reader who becomes outgoing in a conversation when talking about that special interest. 

Warnings: Hint at a neuro divergent reader, cursing, academia, AU-kinda? kinda sweet,

Enjoy~ ______________________________________________________________

Women within the military were rare; women within military academia were rarer. Women who were top-notch world renown within both were an anomaly. Didn’t exist but for a handful of exceptions that could be counted on one hand. They lived in a different world- reside within the safe space of books, samples and knowledge without needing to dirty their hands with actual field work or real life situations. 

Chuuya Nakahara was not particularly fond of academics. Their snobby behaviour, the way they looked down at everyone as if they were beneath them was annoying. Especially when they directly assumed that someone was dumb or in the very least dumber just because of some paper- or three, that they crammed out in the middle of the night after guidance from equally snobby so-called academic supervisors. That they’d find some insignificant theory, approach or pattern useful within one specific context and then ride that honor until the end of days. Milking money out of students or charging overpriced consulting fees. 

More than anything, Chuuya disliked how comfortable academics could live, while they made demands and analysis about the world he lived in; made claims about the underground society without any understanding of what was going on. Especially humorous was when they advised the government on some new ‘crime mitigation policy’ with the most stupid and stuck-up formulations. All the while they effectively remained clean of bloodshed and loss. 

Sometimes, Chuuya wished he could drag one of those snobs to walk a week in his shoes and then see how comfortable they would be making those insubstantial claims. To show them what true understanding meant, so they would never open their goddamn mouth again. 

Coming to a stop outside the large auditorium, Chuuya went in before leaning his back near the furthest wall. The room was surprisingly full of people; students, other academics and researchers filled up the many seats as they listened to the young, rather plain looking woman on the stage. He had come to the very end of your seminar, right at the moment where the organizer thanked you profusely for your time while at the same time trying to silence the numerous hands full of questions by repeatedly reminding people it was break time and they would resume after lunch. 

Chuuya waited until you were completely alone before he began approaching. He noticed you breathe a sigh of relief at the sudden absence of people, looking a lot more relaxed now. So much so you didn’t seem to notice his presence. For Chuuya however, making the first move suited him and his personality perfectly. 

“ Coffee?” the ginger asked in the most pleasant voice he could master as he came closer and closer to you while raising the takeaway cup from the local off campus cafe as an offer. You looked startled by his voice then tilted your head ever so slightly to the side. 

“ Do you know that drinking coffee can increase life expectancy?” Chuuya raised an eyebrow at your words which you took as a sign to elaborate '' Well some studies show that drinking coffee decreases depression and risk of developing Alzeihmers both of which have a detrimental effect on Disability Adjusted Life Years. Though it could also kill you if you overdose on it” 

Chuuya’s eyes lit up slightly at your last statement. “  Overdose?” 

“ That’s right, you would need to drink over thirty cups within a very short period of time to experience symptoms. Though actual harmful dose would need to be calculated based on the person's physiological conditions. And even then the body would try to get rid of it by vomiting. Other symptoms of caffeine overdose includes chest pain, trouble breathing–” 

“ OKAY okay” Chuuya yelled, raising his hands in an attempt to get you to stop talking. “ I get it, no coffee” 

“ Well coffee is okay as long as you are aware of your body's limitations” you stated as your eyes flickered down to his outstretched hand with the still steaming cup. You felt a certain pressure to take the cup from him but also a deep uncertainty. What if the cup wasn’t meant for you? Wouldn’t you then just embarrass yourself by attempting to take something that wasn’t yours? 

It would be rather embarrassing if you, a famous professor, applied a self-centered approach and just took things from people just because you couldn’t resist the temptation. 

And also very unlike you. 

Tearing your eyes reluctantly from the cup you studied the features of the ginger who so confidently approached you. His eyes told you he was no student or scholar. His clothes reinforced that observation.

 You picked up your speaker notes and notebooks- material you didn’t need but which brought you the slightest bit of comfort. Then you broke the brief yet heavy silence;  “ Was there something you wanted to talk about, or were you interested in my lecture on Mycotoxins presence within the underground railing of the Tokyo Subway systems, mister–?” 

“ Nakahara Chuuya” he stated setting down the cups on the edge of the speaker stand before stretching his hand out towards you with clear intentions of a handshake. You stared down at his hand, then swallowed thickly before gripping your notes slightly tighter, not extending your hand to his. The lightest of blushes dusted your cheeks- a physical reaction to your nerves and discomfort. 

“ oh and I’m doctor Y/S Y/N; Did you know that handshaking has a long historical tradition. Back in middle ages most people of importance were right handed and shaking hands was considered a peace offering and–” 

“ Very interesting facts Doctor.” Chuuya cut you off and did his best not to roll his eyes. He had to appear polite and in the very least interested in the random facts that had absolutely nothing to do with his current predicament which placed him inside this stuffy institute “ I need an undetectable poison”

“ That’s an impossibility” you proclaimed looking at him as if he were a sheltered five year old calling a rock for a butterfly. “ An undetected poison would not be a poison we would know about since we would not be able to detect it, and I can’t make assumptions about poisons we have yet to discover” you huffed in annoyance. 

Chuuya narrowed his eyes at you “ Oj stop acting stupid and being so fucking difficult and just tell me what I need to know!” he yelled the last part making your eyes widen.

 You took a step back from him, your voice shaking ever so slightly as you continued; “ I -I’m not acting stupid. I’m merely pointing out the absurdity of your request!” you replied back with a hint of confusion on your face, clearly not understanding how your reply managed to get him upset. 

Chuuya growled, his eyes flashing red. “ Just tell me what substance wouldn’t show up on a dead body's tox screen!” he hissed through squeezed teeth. 

“ Oh but then it’s not an undetectable poison but rather a poison that would clear the system before the victim is discovered and tested– or one where the chemical make up would resemble the chemicals naturally produced in the body. You should have said that directly. I have a list that might interest you back in my office!” you exclaimed and gathered the last of your materials in a neat little pile before beginning to head out of the auditorium clearly expecting him to follow.  

“ That’s what I said.” Chuuya grumbled, his eyes returning back to blue as he fell into step beside you, keeping an even pace with you.

“ No what you said was–” 

Chuuya sighed heavily as he listened to your ramble; an almost perfect recollection of your short conversation with each other. Making sure to state exactly the areas where he could have been more clear in his communication with you; completely missing that the things he said would be interpreted differently by normal people. Those people would understand the context- understand what he was after by just his name. But not you. Not unless he spelled it out for you. 

Literary. 

Sneaking a glance, Chuuya could feel the edges of his lips inching up into a small smile. The slight shake in your voice and the way you clutched your stuff to your chest reminded him more of a nervous and shy teenager rambling to hide her uncertainty, than a world renown academic. A breath of fresh air among the snobby squinters. And surprisingly, Chuuya actually didn’t mind this conversation all that much.

[mamuzzy]

— Is “psycho” a slur? —

My easiest answer to this question: ASK IF A REAL PERSON IS OKAY TO BE CALLED A PSYCHO. If not, then you are not calling the person with ASPD, BPD, or any other PD a psycho.

Listen to the people with personality disorders, not the people who claim they are allys so they call everything ableist that can hurt our pretty sensitive disabled heart. There is a chance that someone is made the label their own. And someone is not okay with it. No, you don't make a fucking a poll where everyone can vote, and even the neighbours cat can puke on the reblog button. YOU TALK TO A REAL PERSON, YOU ASK. End of story.

Personality disorders and especially Antisocial Personality Disorder are often associated to “being a psycho”.

And you especially met with this term in RepComm while reading.

“EWWWW REPCOMM AND KAREN TRAVISS AND KAL SKIRATA IS FUCKIGN ABLEIST DON’T READ IT OR YOU’LL BECOME ABLEIST YOURSE-“

When I mention TODAY to someone that I have personality disorder, people are being like: okay and you are eating that with fork or spoon?

You call out ableism because you heard it somewhere that being called a psycho is ableist, and calling out ableism gives you browney points on tumblr.

“Psycho” is not a slur. Sometimes not even the self-diagnosed psyhopaths know about the existence of the term of ASPD (that's how personality disorders are not in every speech!!!), they just now that something is wrong, because they always hit walls around people. Psycho or sociopath was the closest that you could name this condition in the early 2000's.

Nulls being called a psycho is not Kal Skirata’s elaborate trick to enslave the nulls or whatever the fuck anti-kal people comes up with. People with pd-s are mostly self-aware. Being always fucking self-aware is why we know that we don’t fit in.

Someone with personality disorder is extremely important to be self-aware, that's why name-erasing, mental-health erasing cause more harm. You don't say shit like to a pd that "you are completely normal, there is nothing wrong with you, carry on" because the next time we actually do something mentally ill™, you will be the first to call us "fucking psychos".

(yeah. I know. so much we, and them, and us, like I'm one with ASPD too, I'm trying to figure if I have more personality disorder than BPD, and probably have.)

In this age where everything is within reach via internet, people truly forget that media is accessible written by different generations, and when I see younger people engaging with the Republic Commando series TODAY in 2024 with today’s tumblr sensitivity standards, I think: vod. Are you aware that the first book came out in 2004, TWENTY YEARS AGO? The accessibility to everything is great but it totally messes up the ability to see TIME CONTEXT. And this time blindness can truly mess up communication between different generations too, causing rifts and we end up invalidating other’s experiences if we are not careful.

“But there were more progressive books even before 2004” - Probably. Only we didn’t have an entire library of progressive labels of genders, sexuality, phobias and MENTAL ILLNESSES AND CONDITIONS.

Not in everyday speech. If no one talks about it, you won't know the concept. You don't know how to ask questions aside from "what's wrong with me?"

WATCH OUT! SLURS INCOMING!!!!

In the early 2000’s and before if your teachers hated you, your parents weren’t educated (or just didn’t care), or your parents themselves never got proper treatment for their neurodivergency, there is chance that YOU ALSO didn’t have a chance to get a proper diagnosis for different types of neurodivergency as a child.

children with dyscalculia were called lazy.

children with dyslexia were called retards who can't even read.

children who were fine playing alone were the weird ones.

autistic people? You mean rain man? Or those braindead retards shitting themselves and throwing fits and should have been euthanized if their parents had any love for them? Oh no you are not autistic, stop being oversensitive to noises and shit and people bullying you for your special interests is not bullying, they are just trying to involve you sweetheart.

ADHD? Problem children with behavior issues.

Antisocial Personality Disorder? Psychos. Problem children. HOOLIGANS. DEVIANTS.

Sounds familiar? No? Then I am truly happy for you.

People like to use this quote to prove that the Nulls didn’t have mental illnesses, it’s just Kal who spread the rumors about them, and the Nulls weren’t more than your ordinary bad behaving children. Because Vau is an outsider, therefore more reliable and objective narrator about the Nulls and because fuckkalskirataingeneral. Yeah. Sure. But we are talking about Walon Vau.

Walon “my father beat the living shit out of me as a child but I turned out fine” Vau.

These kind of abused people In real life with the exact same mentality tell you that you don’t have a problem, you are just oversensitive. You don’t need therapy, you just have to man up. Don’t take pills because pills are for pussies. YOU DON’T HAVE MENTAL ILLNESS, YOU ARE JUST A BAD CHILD. Generational trauma is fucking shit and affects everybody.

Walon Vau alone deserves a separate post about his non-existent mental health. And Sev, now that he was mentioned here. Sev is especially heartbreaking, seeing how Nulls as psychos are treated, and how Sev as a psycho is treated in the books.

This blurb is born from the thought that the Nulls are having Antisocial Personality Disorder and I’ve come to this conclusion because they are constantly called psychos, the most common label people used for this kind of behavior patterns they show throughout the series.

ASPD or Antisocial Personality Disorder and the usage of this name is encouraged in scientific circles because the symptoms and traits of psychopathy can’t be measured objectively anymore. Psychopathy is a neurological/hormonal condition, but no longer its own sickness, because other non-related disorders, diseases and illnesses can mimic the symptoms of psychopathy for eg.: DEMENTIA.

If you ever wonder how can a 80 years old person who never showed any sign of aggression before just go and brutally kill their neighbor for a sole treebranch hanging over the fence and littering the garden with leaves, there is a chance that something is not alright in the brain anymore.

Emotions developed healthy with healthy self-restraints and and self-control will not let you do socially unacceptable things like killing to solve problems, just because your brain tells you: BASH THEIR FUCKING SKULL WITH A ROCK.

Every emotional response are hormones and neurotransmitters in work. Brain is responsible to give the appropriate response to each situation we are facing. If you have hormonal problems, or neurological conditions, different brain structure than a neurotypical people, there is a chance, that these responses are not working as they are intended, you will have different or more extreme emotional responses to things, or not having at all.

So that is why we don’t use the terms of psychopath today as an individual sickness, because PSYCHOPATHY ITSELF IS A SYMPTOM of various conditions! People with psychopathy, the “psychos” are usually on the spectrum of ASPD.

So again, repeat after me like I'm Dora the explorer who put you on gunpoint:

ASK IF A REAL PERSON WITH ASPD IS OKAY WITH BEING CALLED A PSYCHO. IF NOT, YOU DON'T CALL THE PERSON PSYCHO. END OF STORY.

[zeroforest]

IMO one of the most oversimplified parts of bioshock discussion i've seen online is the difference between suchong and tenenbaum re: treatment of the little sisters. yeah suchong hates children and tenenbaum eventually redeems herself, but i wish more people talked about them within the context of the cycle of violence as a whole.

suchong and tenenbaum came of age during the second world war. both were victimized by the axis powers, losing their entire families. both were spared only by a combination of blind luck and their own wits, and both survived by collaborating with the enemy and experimenting on their own people. the cycle of violence is the literal structure of their lives. it's how they learned the world.

tenenbaum is only able to change because she understands her own place within this cycle. the little girls force her to see that you're not free from it simply by no longer being the one that's being hurt. it occurs to her after seeing jack's actions that there might be a chance at a life outside the language of violence. the effort of helping jack fills the chasm that abandoning your whole worldview might leave you with. it gives her a something to do with her own pain.

suchong cannot come to grips with this possibility, even when tenenbaum writes him a letter begging him to, because to acknowledge an alternative way of existence would require acknowledging the depths to which he has been hurt. in order to survive the war years he forms a theory of mankind that moving to rapture does not disprove at all: everyone is only in it for themselves. cruelty is the engine the world runs on, and you, in order to make it, must strike first, establish dominance, and become the mask. if the world is not "just like that", if everyone is not in on some kind of con, then what happened during the war was cruel, and abnormal, and there was no reason why.

the children freak both of them out because kids can tell when you're hiding something, even if they don't know the nature of what that something is. brigid eventually allows herself to crack before the innocent gaze of the children, but to suchong it's unbearable. it's a reminder of his own history of being trapped and powerless. as scientists, they do a lot of looking, but the girls look back.

[betterbemeta]

Not to navigate a nuanced topic or anything but you all understand that 'having a fetish for' is different from 'fetishizing', right? And that being sex-positive doesn't mean that everything's a free-for-all?

'having a fetish' is something that exists within the person who holds it. It's not inherently bad or good to have a fetish. Societal norms define what even is a fetish. A culture that doesn't associate breasts with sex will find a fixation on breasts to be weird, etc.

But 'fetishizing' something is to project over other people's bodies, forcing them to bear or play out those inner beliefs you hold. The fetishization of bodies can be system-wide, bigger than a single person, and often is. It is a form of violence that deletes the agency and personhood of the fetishized body in favor of how that body can be possessed or controlled.

The reason I am bringing this up is that while statements of desire are like... allowed... maybe understand that we all participate in power dynamics on the internet that may not be instantly apparent. Even if you create sexual art, write poetry, openly express your desires to your friends, which ARE all normal... you (probably) wouldn't in real life go up to complete strangers unsolicited and state, AWOOGA! I want to be choked by a redhead tonight! When this does happen in real life, it usually is considered to be sexual harassment, or creating an atmosphere of sexual harassment. Even if you're not talking directly to the redhead you're thirsty for.

And like. There's a difference between "I'm sexually excited by this art, the fat woman in it looks hot," however you want to say that, and getting followed out of the blue from a blog that contains posts like, 'I want to feed her until her belly pops' which is about control of the bodies of others, for sexual gratification. Anybody ethically engaging in that type of play would be doing so with mutual consent, it would be a kink scene and not fetishization of bodies that just exist out in the world, neutral of what someone wants from them.

Before you post or add tags, or follow on your kink side blog, think, am I putting this into a space where everyone's mutually consented? Is it a statement that would be protected by social freedom of expression or would it be considered an unsolicited sexual advance by a reasonable (see: not a homophobic, transphobic, misogynistic) standard? If it came in a large volume, (like, hundreds of messages and not just yours), would that context change?

I'm anything but the sex police; I want everyone to be as nasty as is safe for them to be, but. Typical netiquette doesn't cover this stuff, how power can turn what's normally private and none of anyone else's business into someone else's business in a big way.

[leggerefiore]

cw: angst, hurt with slight comfort, drabble, mentions of past abuse

pairing: Cyrus/Reader

You gazed at him. There was no wind. No sun. Nothing around. The ground was hard and earthen, but nothing lush or green grew on it. Something like a dark sky hung above with impossible clouds. Water poured from all angles, pooling into ponds. Land floated in a noneuclidean manner around the space. It was maddening to consider for too long.

Cyrus had been forced into this world. His horrible plans had met their match by a powerful pokemon who sought to protect this world. No matter what he may try, it would act as his foil. Cynthia had told you that this was for the best. His actions were unforgivable – trying to change the very fabric of this world to suit his own needs. If he could not handle this world as it were, then he should be the one to separate himself from it. Agreeing would have been the easiest solution. Saying that Cyrus was impossible to redeem and deserved to rot away far from everyone else would have easy.

But…

You thought of the pained expressions he would hold in moments of reflection and how he avoided an entire area within Sinnoh, not daring to even assign his underlings there. The pictures of his empty eyes as a child with two hands heavily resting on his shoulders. His constant scolding of himself and holding himself to standards that seemed far too high. His quiet tears. Those silent sobs. How he would turn away from you – lock himself somewhere alone and quiet. His rocking. Everything painted an obvious picture.

Most saw the charismatic leader of Team Galactic – the young president of Galactic. No one saw Cyrus, the boy screaming under the surface. Silence was learnt. Emotions were repressed. Obedience without question was rewarded. Freedom was non-existent. You knew, though. You knew it all. Every small little piece Cyrus wished to burn away and blow ashes into the wind, you knew. The real Cyrus was impossible to say, but a mix between the vulnerability and brick wall was most logical.

Logical… It was always science and technology with him. He was an engineer and praised as a scientific genius. All an escape. You clenched your fist. Cynthia was ignorant. That was fine. If you had been in her shoes, you likely would have done the same. Empathy would run low after a while, especially without context.

His eyes were distant, and his clothing was growing a bit tattered. You felt tears in your eyes. He did not seem to acknowledge you, only bringing a foot up slowly to continue forward. Rushing to him, your arms came around him. Desperation to prove that he was real swirled through your mind. He stopped. You looked at him. His gaze was still focused forward. He began to try to move again. You shook your head.

Nothing you could do deterred him. He kept trying to move. His gaze never shifted. Only short pauses would come if you called out his name. You struggled against him. Why would he not look at you? Why did he not speak? Frustration bubbled up inside you. Enough was enough. Shoving against him, you knocked him to the ground. You fell along with him. Dust spread out from his impact. His eyes remained distant. They stared out in the vast expanse above you both. Your heart screamed. A sob escaped your throat. You grasped tightly onto his shirt.

Maybe you should rot here, too… It felt like you were almost entirely alone. You had been angry when you learnt of Cyrus's plans. It had almost readied you to entirely call off your relationship in an attempt to stop him. You had not been even able to speak with him before all this happened. He stopped coming home – threw himself deeper into his work. You sobbed again. Why? Why did this happen? You knew he was struggling, but you were always there for him… He could have come to you…

A hand suddenly came to rest on your back. You froze. Blinking, you forced yourself to look around. Cyrus's arm rested against you. His gaze remained distant.

“… Cy-Cyrus...?” his name left you like a whimper. You felt tears staining your cheeks. He did not move, yet his hand remained firm. You stared longer. Nothing changed. Your body rested against his. A slow heartbeat came from him. You listened. It was calming. “… I missed you…” you mumbled, “I'm sorry I didn't come sooner… It was difficult figuring out how to enter this place.” You had truly struggled for months. A plea to his previous comrades had been the only thing that aided you in getting here. He seemed unmoved. You sighed.

“Saturn was offering to replace you,” you teased him, “… He was desperate to fix what you left him with. It had startled me. Maybe he just likes me in general – Cyrus?” His gaze finally shifted to you. The hand grasped your shirt tightly. “… I'm not going to leave you, though,” you said firmly, “…. If you are going to rot away here, then I'll join you.”

“You will not,” his voice was raspy from its disuse. You froze. A hard focus was in his gaze.

“… You think you can stop me?” you laid your head back on his chest, staring out in the infinitely confusing space. A strange pokemon swam around the air distantly.

“…” He was silent, “Please. Return.”

“I'm not leaving you again,” you shook your head, “… I made that mistake once. Never again.” Your arms shifted to embrace him. Would this place become both of your tombs? It was entirely possible. Cyrus could be harshly stubborn.

His other arm wrapped around your waist. “… There is more in that world than me,” he continued, “… Why even bother with me?” You met his eyes again. Those powerful blue irises. The spirit he rejected… It would burn within those eyes.

“I love you,” you simply said, “I want you. No one else.”

He blinked. His body went momentarily limp on the ground. No more words were said. Yet, he understood. It was plainly obvious that you would not leave without him.

Perhaps you would both rot into shells of your former selves within the Distortion World. Giratina watching as two lost souls forever wandered its barren realm side by side.

Or… maybe, he would relent. His love and concern would prove too much, and you would leave with him. Your return may be difficult, but Cyrus would face hardship to make you smile and return to a safer realm of existence. Those who waited on his and your return would likely gasp and cheer for you both.

Only time would tell.

[piromantic]

long gender rambling pt 2 (stuff that's been on my mind since watching i s4w the tv gl0w)

lowkey i do think knowing ahead of time what this film was about did dull the emotional impact for me but i did still get caught off guard by a random mundane line and cry for the rest of the film so, yeah

but it didn't really have the impact on me that everyone else seemed to get from it even though the ending scenes resonated with me so fucking hard. it just kind of got to me in a depressing way lmao but i do appreciate that wake-up call.

compound that with my experience at the conference back in may and ughhhhhh like i really am suffering and nobody even notices. i put aside so much discomfort to play the part of 'professional woman in STEM' for a few days and i get rewarded by being just straight up handed a she/her badge. like my lab mate was well meaning but damn ok life, that's a bit on the nose. and then i watched the movie and it's like ohhhh right i forgot that i'm the only person in the room who knows this is all a big elaborate performance for the sake of everyone else's comfort.

but what else can i even fucking do at this point?

honestly i feel like i have this deep-seated fear that i will never be taken seriously if i try to come out as any sort of trans and i don't know where it came from. it's probably a conglomeration of a ton of things. comments from my family. the portrayal of the transmasc experience always seeming to glorify the rejection of feminine traits and interests. the fact that i even have feminine traits and interests - and while i consider them gender neutral because fuck off nothing is inherently gendered, i can't argue my way out of ballet (for example) being a stereotypically girly thing. which is not to say that being a stereotypically girly thing is bad - it's not at all - but that it feels like evidence that can and will be used against me by other people.

(as an aside, i have mentioned really connecting to writings about the butch identity before, but it still feels like a label i can't claim. i'm not really doing masculinity in a queer way i'm just kind of... existing. also it feels like a label that only makes sense within the context of communities that i don't actually get to interact with that much. idk. 'you can just use the label if you connect with it' true, but if i used it people would be like 'ugh you can't call yourself that just because you have short hair and wear pants', and i can't disagree with that lmao)

i don't even know if hormones would help at all. i feel like any euphoria i feel would be more than cancelled out by the sheer amount of fear i'd feel being actually visibly trans. (especially because the non-permanent effects of hrt aren't even that interesting to me - i am already as hairy as i want to be, and my only issue with my face is the acne.) but then i meet someone in STEM who's transmasc and it's like godddd what would my life be like right now if i was just less scared. something about being in a room with people that i feel connected to but who don't recognize me as someone like them kills me inside.

and what is there besides hormones. i still haven't found a name that i actually resonate with, plus i've already published literature, and there's a practical reason why many women in STEM don't take their husband's last name. i already dress in ways i like, outside of formal clothes. changing pronouns goes right back to the 'i feel like no one will take me seriously' issue, and i just do not have the energy to continuously educate and correct people. i'd like top surgery for sure, but that requires three things i don't have: money, time off, and someone that can take care of me during recovery.

as a kid i preferred math to science because math is neater, more satisfying to look at, but at the same time math is frustrating because at the end of the day it's theoretical, not realistic. and that's how i feel about queer/gender theory. on the one hand, my views of gender are veeeery much 'none of this is innate, we need to deconstruct the very idea of gender'. on the other hand, the theories i find the most relatable and fulfilling do not at all help me understand how to deal with real life. like no amount of me not caring about gender will cancel out the fact that other people are always projecting gender onto me.

i think i keep digging into this stuff because i'm looking either for some way to continue being a woman more palatable to me, or for some satisfactory explanation for my mother's question of 'women can be anything, so why is that not enough for you?'. but no matter how much i dig into theory about 'woman' as a social construct, i can't find a way to be okay with the label, nor a way to explain why i need a different one. i can't just think my way into a social vacuum where wearing pink dresses doesn't carry meaning. but then it's like, okay well what do i do about this discomfort within my material reality? and the answer is i don't know. i don't know!

the one thing i really, really hate is having a feeling that i can't explain. i wince at explanations of being trans that go like 'i always preferred sports to dolls' because it works off of gender binary stereotypes, but i understand why people say that. at the same time, while i relate to theory that throws gender out the window, i can't deny that other people do have strong feelings about gender, both regarding identification and orientation. and i can't decide for them whether that is their innate truth or effects of social conditioning.

not really sure what the point of this was. umm 10/10 good movie

[seandwalsh]

I would like you to give me some clarifications(if you can, of course) - I follow you on Reddit(and also the Mario verse project)*recently*; I noticed a post that was making fun of this project and I went to the comments section, and in one of the first comments to appear, these are the replies to it(yeah, I don't agree with his mindset about the series). I took some screenshots before they were disabled, and if you *could* clarify them for me(who is still a beginner in Mario Lore), I would be grateful.

I would be happy to clarify! I’m not trying to cause drama with this, but given there is a minor history here I should explain a couple of things. Just for context on the sort of source Slade Lucas is; They’re someone I’ve interacted with quite a few times and they generally tend to deny basic facts based on what they personally like or dislike. For example, they refused to acknowledge that the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe - Booster Course Pass courses were ported from Mario Kart Tour. This also generally applies to their perspective on Mario lore. They write off any evidence they don’t like completely arbitrarily, constantly move the goalposts in any conversation and make up pseudo-arguments that don’t really mean anything when you try to inquire about them further (“Toad himself is a character that they try to use in so many ways that he alone breaks the idea of there being a consistent canon.”, anyone can see that this is ridiculous).

This is not an attack on their character, but similarly to when I used to respond to MatPat it’s important to understand why people make these types of flawed arguments. In any case, I’m going to debunk them piece by piece.

“But just because they bring something back and it is canon to one game, it doesn't mean it is canon to all games.”

Perhaps I’m missing some context but I’m not quite sure what they’re trying to say here. Obviously when a game references another game, those games are intended to share a canon - and every Mario game references other Mario games, prompting a web which connects essentially every Nintendo-published Mario game to each other. This is what Mario fans use as the basis for canon.

Not everyone is interested enough in or pays enough attention to the Mario games to see the patterns and lore they’re building, but to deny its existence outright entirely is incredibly silly.

Mario, of course, has been from the Mushroom Kingdom and grew up in what we now call New Donk City since at least the mid-90s with Donkey Kong (Game Boy) and Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island. He had no officially disclosed backstory within the canon before that point and was certainly never stated to be from any real world country in the games themselves.

Captain Toad is obviously not Toad and never has been. Captain Toad first appeared in Super Mario Galaxy, while the main Toad first appeared in Super Mario Bros. (and was first singled-out in Super Mario Bros. 2 (USA)). There are several developer statements that prove this, as well as several descriptions.

That's right. We've made use of the technology cultivated through Super Mario Galaxy, and characters like Rosalina and Captain Toad, who came about through those games play a new role.

[Source: Yoshiaki Koizumi, Director of Super Mario Galaxy and Producer of Super Mario 3D World, Iwata Asks, November 2013]

Taking a cue from Mario Galaxy, there are games called "Captain Toad's Adventure," in which Captain Toad appears with his memorable little tune that goes "ta-dada-da-, ta-dada-da-".

[Source: Koichi Hayashida, Director of Super Mario 3D World, Iwata Asks, November 2013]

What is he Captain of, exactly…? Have you played Super Mario Galaxy™ on the Wii™ console? Well, during the events of that game the Toad Brigade was founded, with Captain Toad as its leader. Rumours that Captain Toad is the least reliable of the bunch are completely unfounded!

[Source: What They Say about Captain Toad, Page 5, Digital Manual of Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, December 2014]

By the way, Captain Toad is actually not the same Toad as the Toad who's playable in games like Super Mario Bros. 2 and Wario's Woods.

[Source: Koichi Hayashida, Producer of Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, Miiverse, December 2014]

[Super Mario Galaxy is the] First appearance of Captain Toad!

[Source: Super Mario Galaxy Fabulous Firsts, Official American Super Mario 3D All-Stars website, September 2020]

iJustine

…I was wondering, is Captain Toad the same Toad from the original Super Mario Bros.? How many Toads are there?

Shigeru Miyamoto

[…] So Captain Toad, y’know, appeared in Super Mario Galaxy and there were other Toads in that game too, but I think maybe Captain Toad is just a normal Toad who just happens to be wearing those captain-type clothes. (laughs)

[Source: An exchange between Shigeru Miyamoto and iJustine, Director of Super Mario Bros. and YouTuber, respectively, YouTube, December 2014]

Illumination did whatever they wanted with the story of The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Characters were merged or otherwise completely altered left and right, such as Donkey Kong the First and the modern Donkey being treated as one and the same despite having always been different characters in the games.

The main Toad has appeared in Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Mario 64, Super Mario 3D World and Super Mario Run. He’s also mentioned in the manual of Super Mario Bros. 3, with several other potential appearances in main series games. That’s a better track record in the main series than a lot of characters, and with his appearances in spin-offs such as sports games, Mario Party games and RPGs Toad is a prolific and well-defined character. He’s a brave hero through and through, he’s selfless and he’s a long-time friend of Mario. While his spots are sometimes blue, they’re usually red and he consistently wears a blue vest.

Captain Toad is almost the complete opposite in terms of characterisation. He’s cowardly, he’s motivated primarily by his own greed and he barely knew Mario (if at all) before Super Mario Galaxy. He always wore red, separating his design from the main Toad’s.

Space Junk Galaxy does have an atmosphere, as does every Galaxy in the Super Mario Galaxy games as well as the moon in Super Mario Odyssey and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. As Slade Lucas point out, Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Odyssey, have breath meters, clearly demonstrating that Mario needs air and therefore has air in the areas he visits throughout those games. The atmosphere might be a little thinner in certain areas, but it’s definitely present. Mario cannot breathe in the void of space as shown in Super Paper Mario and even with things like the REXA Toads in Mario Kart 8. This is just wasn’t thought through on Lucas’ part.

Whether or not Mario has an air meter in any given game is simply a matter of gameplay and says nothing about whether Mario can or needs to breathe in-universe. We know Mario needs oxygen and holds his breath while underwater thanks to dialogue and animations. In older titles, it was not possible to implement an air meter for underwater levels. This has been carried over into many newer linear titles to allow for more simple level design. In-universe, however, Mario can never breathe underwater. In fact in Super Mario 3D World we can clearly see Mario and the others holding their breaths when underwater despite the lack of an air meter. A game deciding to not have an air meter for the sake of fun and accessible gameplay says nothing about in-universe lore or canon. Nobody in their right mind would consider that a lore inconsistency, especially not a game developer.

Koopa Troopas walk on all fours and can learn to walk on two legs, as is stated in Mario Superstar Baseball (translated from Japanese):

[Koopa Troopa is] A member of the Koopa clan, familiar to the Mario series. He can protect himself by putting his hands and feet inside his shell. Long ago, he couldn't even stand up wearing shoes, but after hard work, he's gone as far as being able to play baseball. He can do anything with skill, but since he's a turtle, he's slow on his feet.

We’ve seen Koopas who walk on all fours stand up in Mario Bros. and Game & Watch: Super Mario Bros. artwork. It appears shoes help Koopas stand upright, which explains why whenever we see them waking on all fours they aren’t wearing them. Clearly this isn't an inconsistency but rather a feature of the worldbuilding.

The Koopalings were retconned. Many people do not like this change, but that’s not an inconsistency. It’s not something they’ve gone back and forth on, it was a change they made a couple of decades ago to allow them to exist while considering newer lore. Explicit retcons like this are made for the sake of consistency and only prove that they’re considering an overarching narrative that needs consistent worldbuilding throughout these games.

In short, Slade Lucas bases their “inconsistencies” on personal bias, a lack of knowledge, gameplay mechanics and things literally done to make things consistent. Their arguments do not hold up whatsoever. Thank you for bringing your concerns to me, and I hope you found this response helpful!

[zwy01]

Original Noble Clans + Clan Leader OCs!!!

I’ve wanted to do these for a while now!! Specifically, new soul weapons with different powers, and character designs of their respective owner(s) in general. I had a lot of fun drawing them and I’ll be drawing them in the future too!

These characters aren’t necessarily exclusive to a specific/fixed setting. They can be interpreted as headcanons that exist/fit in the canon storyline, characters specific to my Millennium AU, characters that exist by themselves and don’t fit anywhere,…etc. Anything really, as I do want them to have some flexibility. So feel free to interpret them as whatever makes the most sense to you. Personally, I see them as existing in both the canon storyline as my headcanons, and in my Millennium AU. In this post I’ll be (mainly) approaching and discussing them in the context of my Millennium AU, though there will also be some references to canon/pre-canon events of my interpretation.

Onwards to the backstory and concepts… woohoo!!! I’m sooo excited to introduce them!!!

In this drawing, there are two clans total, with two characters in each clan. The blue-haired ones are the “Volo”, and the orange-haired ones are the “Pyradros”.

For context, age-wise these Clan Leaders belong to the previous generation so they’re around Previous Lord’s age. Maybe a little older, maybe a little younger, but basically that. In terms of title/position, they were appointed as Clan Leaders by the time PL became Lord. Currently, they are still active as Clan Leaders in Raskreia’s reign, so technically they can be grouped with the current generation of Clan Leaders (aka Raskreia’s peers). The heirs of these Clan Leaders are around Raskreia’s age, maybe a little older, maybe a little younger, same thing.

No one would have guessed that the Previous Lord had a different plan all along. As the years passed, witnessing the rapidly changing world had prompted PL to think of the possibility of entering voluntary eternal sleep with his Clan Leaders. Asking Gejutel to stay behind and guide the next generation weren’t the only things he did. Long before PL even mentioned anything to anyone, he came up with another idea, a different way to protect Lukedonia: sending two of his Clan Leaders to the outside world, as far as possible, to the corners of this planet. Zephyrus Volo and Leona Pyradros were his close friends and trusted allies, and PL entrusted them with the mission of completely separating themselves from influences within Lukedonia, including PL himself. They were to walk every corner of this planet and see the world for themselves, for what it truly is. Try leading others, try being led. Expand your perspective, because it is crucial. PL’s instruction regarding their eventual return to Lukedonia was that they were to return during Raskreia’s reign, and many, many years well into it. In a way, this was PL’s last resort. If Lukedonia is still holding up and doing well under Raskreia’s leadership, they can simply settle back and continue on with their lives. And if Lukedonia is suffering for whatever reasons such as unforeseen circumstances or bad leadership, they can help rebuild Lukedonia and guide them back to the right direction, since they had spent a vast amount of time outside and thus accumulated valuable experience. PL had hoped that this would be Lukedonia’s last choice. By not leaving all of his eggs in one basket, he was certainly preparing for something. Since Zephyrus and Leona were his close friends, he could fully trust them with this mission. For safety purposes, no one knew about this mission except for the three of them. There was a mutual agreement between them, and it was kept secret from everyone else, the entirety of Lukedonia. Not a single one of their fellow Clan Leaders, including the eventual traitor nobles, knew why they departed Lukedonia. They only had a vague idea that PL assigned them on some sort of mission, but none of them knew that they would never see the two again. Perhaps it was also a sacrifice on their part to leave behind their home and everything they were familiar with. They respected PL, so to them this mission was of great importance, even if it meant that this would be a permanent farewell to the rest of Lukedonia. Their fellow Clan Leaders. And most of all, their beloved friend and leader. After sharing one final moment and goodbye with PL in private, Zephyrus and Leona silently and quickly depart, never to be seen again. The drama regarding the traitors would occur much, much later. Their journey began there, and they lived many lives as different people, in different places. They had nothing else except for each other, but that was enough for them. Gradually, their mutual friendship blossomed into something more. They fell in love with each other. Sometime later, Azurine was born. Then Rufus was born. Together they would raise their children and continue on with their journey around the world, completely oblivious to everything around them, just as PL had intended them to. The plotting, the murdering, traitor nobles leaving Lukedonia, Raizel and Muzaka’s fight, the invasion of Lukedonia, even Crombel’s nukes… these events simply didn’t exist to them. The two stay loyal to their mission post-finale and continue to explore the world. They would change locations every few decades to avoid suspicions of their lack of aging. Their now young adult children, thanks to their lifestyle, are very well-informed.

(This is where context starts to become vague/flexible/divergent, for the purpose of my story I choose to have them exist in my Millennium AU.) The four of them return sometime during the events of my Millennium AU, where Lukedonia has already seen birth of a new generation. Prior to their return Azurine and Rufus had never met any of the current generation of Clan Leaders, as they were born and raised entirely outside of Lukedonia. Even Raskreia is surprised. Explanation done, questions cleared, carry on. They settle back in Lukedonia. From then on, the story continues. How will they view the current Lukedonia and what will they do? Is this what PL had foreseen? For the better or worse? Seemingly, another “journey” for them begins.

(will continue to expand on this stuff in future posts!)

Moving onto the clans and characters!

Volo:

The Volo Clan specializes in all-rounders. Their spell-based attacks are ultra wide-range. Clan members can cast buffs on themselves and their allies, and debuffs on their enemies. Usually, the most powerful spells are cast by the pureblooded Clan Leaders and their line of heirs. The fighting style varies depending on the enemy. Due to the nature of their clan, one typically performs the best in fights as support for allies. In circumstances where they’re alone and/or all allies have been defeated, a well-trained Volo can also fight solo. The symbol of this clan is the Healer. Healing is their specialty and almost all Volo CLs and their heirs go through an extensive and unforgiving training regimen specific to their clan. One would find this to be extremely hard to endure. To them this is viewed as a necessity.

Soul Weapon: Octavio. Appearance is a crystal ball set atop a golden base that has eight red gems embedded on its surface. User can choose to hold it or have it levitate on its own. The crystal ball itself for the most part is a dark shade of color such as black, purple, blue etc. and glows other brighter colors when its user chooses to activate its powers. Can summon a wide range of spells. Most spells are not meant to be offensive, as they are intended to be secondary support, though there are a few attack-based spells too. Minor to moderate wounds can be healed repeatedly, though not indefinitely. The number of times Octavio can cast a healing spell depends on the user’s remaining energy and/or occasionally, willpower. E.g. if the user is worn out and/or injured badly, other spells may still be summoned but a healing spell cannot be summoned. When a healing spell is active, the crystal ball glows a bright cyan hue. Octavio’s ultimate skill is not an attack but rather an ability. When activated, the user can transfer a serious and even fatal blow from an ally to them self. Or, they can transfer a serious or fatal blow that they received to an ally. Due to the nature of this ultimate skill, it is rarely ever activated but if the situation is dire, the user can summon the skill and, in the process, decide who to save. Both parties involved need to consent and agree to the injury transfer for it to carry out. Contrary to its appearance, Octavio cannot be used for fortune telling. You can stare at it all you want but all you’ll see is a boring, unflattering reflection of your distorted nostrils.

Zephyrus Volo: the current Clan Leader, and Leona’s husband. Tall and fairly slender, though the slender part isn’t always visible because his layers of clothes cover it up. Wears black eyeshadow. Doesn’t talk much even though he has a lot of thoughts in his head. Some of them might as well stay unspoken, since they’re quite funny but mostly annoying. A very kindhearted man in general but sometimes seen as aloof because he’s always tired due to the nature of his powers as a healer as every single spell, even the most minor ones, will drain his energy. Will extend his hand to help others around him with his powers even if it’s not an emergency, something very minor that people can probably heal by themselves with a bit of time. He takes his job very seriously and it could be a bad thing. His wife Leona keeps him in check and makes sure he isn’t going around fixing everything he can and as a result draining himself dry of his own energy and passing out somewhere with his face planted to the ground. Very affectionate but is shy to express it. Reaaaally likes holding hands. Loves it when Leona picks him up and carries him like a princess. Calls her Leonie.

Azurine Volo: the clan’s heir, Zephyrus and Leona’s first child, and Rufus’ elder sister.

Very beautiful and has a mysterious aura to her. To some she may appear to be cold, because she doesn’t smile much and prefers nodding and other subtle body language for communication rather than talking. However this completely reverses where she becomes super chatty if you get close to her and gain her trust. Just like her father she is passionate about helping others. Unfortunately, she is in the same situation as him where she needs to trade her own welfare for it. She does it a bit differently though. In contrast to the Tradio who specialize in poison, she specializes in antidotes. Specifically, she purposely inflicts herself with poison and/or other injuries, then tries to find a way to fix it. Literally putting herself through pain and enduring through all of it so she can find a solution for others, since she believes experimenting on others is inhumane. There has been several times where she had almost died from self experimentation, but it never stopped her. She does this for centuries after centuries, and there is virtually no one else with the willpower and mental capacity to do this. Her arms are always, always covered either in bandages, long sleeves or other accessories to hide her scars from self experimentation. Occasionally blood oozes out from fresh wounds that haven’t completely healed yet and it scares people. She insists it’s fine though. Karias’ on-and-off lover and in a sense Kaelestis’ not-stepmother.

Pyradros:

The Pyradros Clan specializes in both close-range and long-range combat. Attacks are mostly melee, and are super destructive and explosive in nature. The only purpose is to destroy. Not to weaken, not to contain, not to subdue. The only goal is to completely destroy the enemy with no concern about what state they’d be left in. This style of combat takes a lot of training to master. Insufficient training could lead to injuring oneself, so those who want to wield this type of fighting style must be very experienced. Even an experienced user needs to be careful, Clan Leaders and heirs included. Typically, combat training starts at a very young age and safety precautions are the priority and taught first. The symbol of this clan is the Sun. Beautiful, dazzling, and destructive. Too much or too little of it, you die. It’s all about control and balance.

Soul Weapon: Soleil. A flail. The handle is mainly black with golden tips on either end, with a massive spiked sphere attached to one end. Typically used for swinging attacks that use brute force to puncture and/or smash enemies to bits. Attacks are virtually impossible to defend against, and they are designed to inflict a great amount of pain. Even enemies with superior regeneration fear this weapon, as they will relive the trauma for every single blow they receive and recover from, where the process repeat over and over again. Sometimes even Soleil’s appearance alone is enough to instill fear into the enemy and make them lose their will to fight. In general, Soleil is unforgiving to both the enemy and the wielder, as the former will usually perish within receiving one or several blows, and the latter needs to be extremely cautious too or they may injure themselves in the process. User can also choose to fight long-range as Soleil can also release aura like a typical SW, though most users prefer melee to bring out the full extent of its raw swinging and smashing power. The spikes on the flail’s sphere can detach and reattach on command. User can command Soleil to detach its spikes and the spikes will hurl themselves at the enemy as powerful and fearsome darts. After the enemy is pierced, Soleil’s spikes can be recalled (vanishing from enemies’ body) and reappear on the flail’s sphere. And repeat process if you wish. Soleil’s flying spike darts are very hard to dodge, though it is still possible to dodge them. Soleil’s ultimate attack is summoning a self-destructive blinding light that could possibly temporarily blind everything in the area (user and allies included) and a massive field of sharp crystals in the same fashion as the spikes will emerge from the ground to pierce anything within its reach. Due to the nature of this soul weapon, fights are best done solo just because of how destructive it is. Teamwork is possible but needs to be coordinated very, very carefully.

Leona Pyradros: the current Clan Leader, and Zephyrus’ wife. Has a great smile and radiates energy that can be felt by anyone near her. A bright and bubbly person who is most often found chatting with just about anyone. The weather, new recipes, your kids doing stupid things, just mundane things. Though, as inviting as she seems, she is actually pretty selective and doesn’t let people into her inner circle easily. Or at all, really. They don’t even know that she has functionality blocked them off because she’s so good at handling it and making them feel like they’re important to her (even when they’re not). Probably knows all of the latest gossip. In a way, she’s very good at collecting intel. Enjoys fighting and will fight anyone who is willing to spare some time. Sometimes refers to her SW as “little sunny” and talks to it as if it is capable of conversation. Aww, little sunny is feeling a bit bloodthirsty, aren’t you? Me too me too. Stuff like that creeps people out sometimes. Very protective of her husband and hates it when people expect him to fix just about anything. Will chase them away so he doesn’t spend his energy on them. Will shoot spike darts juuuuust a little past your ear barely grazing it as a warning to back off. Hah. That’ll do. Though if someone really needs healing she’ll let him help. Calls her husband Zeph and sometimes Windy if she’s feeling playful. Loves a good ribcage-crushing hug (usually the one giving it)

Rufus Pyradros: the clan’s heir, Zephyrus and Leona’s second child, and Azurine’s younger brother. Quite muscular in general but that part is usually invisible because he wears so many layers of frills and furs. A bit shy and instinctively covers his eyes when he sees his mother and elder sister because he hates the sight of blood and is quite afraid of it actually, and more often than not they are bloody, with the former loving spars and the latter injuring herself for research. Will scream “eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!” if frightened. A big sweetheart in general and his love language is gift giving. If he likes you you’ll find that he’s always handmaking something for you. Loves makeup and often makes his own from scratch. He loves his momma and wants to make her proud but he is pretty much lacking in terms of fighting ability because he’s SO scared of blood to the point where she can’t even train him properly without him crying and begging for a break and/or quitting at the sight of any open wound really. They just keep trying and momma is very patient. He’s very sorry about it and thinks he won’t ever be able to wield Soleil, even when she tells him not to worry. Loves potato chips. The really salty kind that always leaves your fingers all greasy and sticky.

That’s it for now! Excuse me for any typos a bit sleep deprived lol see you later will draw them more in ghe future!

[monstersdownthepath]

Various dream beasties

So about 4 or so days ago, I found out by complete accident checking the notes for my main blog (which I try my best to keep separate from this one; do not ask for it. if you find it you find it) that looking at an old post of yours will show you similar posts you made from around the same time. Because of that, I re-discovered the old tag I used to chronicle the strange dreams I had, especially when I dreamed up particularly odd beasts. Some I’ve already turned into existing concepts, but some I had completely forgotten about!

Below the cut is a few I found that I still like, even after all these years and separated by whatever context I was thinking of at the time. Most of them I don’t really have plans or even a solid concept for, but if enough interest is shown in them, I may dust them off and turn them into something.

THE ORO

One of the strangest. According to the post, the dream was centered on an elaborate children’s school play in which the POV character was tasked with guarding some form of machine from various ‘attackers.’ Eventually, the task was failed as the ‘saboteurs’ broke the machine, causing an announcer to read off the names of everyone who was now ‘forfeit’ because the Oro would now come to ‘collect its due.’

An ominous rhyme was spoken that I wrote down: “The Oro is hunger, the Oro is hate, the Oro’s the end to the souls that it ate” as little fabric ‘souls’ were taken from various plants in the audience, causing them to dramatically fall over as the ‘souls’ were sucked into a gigantic, elaborate puppet of a grub-like creature with four tiny, tentacular arms and a sheet with alien runes draped over its ‘face.’

Eventually, though, the ‘camera’ zoomed out and revealed the entire school has been sealed from outside contact by heavy iron doors. The words “ORO DRILL IN PROGRESS! DO NOT ENTER!” are over every door and window. In the distance, the real Oro approaches at a glacial pace. Its body is slug-like, made up of sagging pallid flesh that’s draped with scraps of white or pale cloth. Despite its appearance, it’s bone dry. It has four rubbery limbs on its front that waver like insect antennae, and its body terminates in a ‘head’ that’s a round, white ovoid pushed into its front, like a chicken egg into clay. It has no face, but it has the impression of one on the paper and cloth scraps draped across its head, which are all scrawled with the same alien runes as its play version.

The dream ended before the Oro reached the building, but people began screaming from within as it drew closer, as though they could sense it nearby without being able to see it. Waking-me added on an extra bit of whimsy; the puppet version had a balloon that drifted over it that the play-souls ended up in, so the real Oro had a balloon of unnaturally dry, latex-like mucus that it blew from an orifice on its back, in which it would contain the souls it drained from its victims via doing... something. It’s never said how or why the Oro does what it does, or even if it really eats the souls or merely stores them for some dark purpose.

----

IT’S GOING TO HAPPEN

A shorter post, but no less strange. The stars of the dream were zombies choked with plantlife; vines and leaves sprouted from under their skin and pulled them along, colorful flowers growing without rhyme or reason across their body, which acted as their sensory organs. Nothing in the dream told of how the infection started, was spread, or how far into the infestation the world was. What was the focus was the sounds the plant-zombies were making: “It’s going to happen.”

No groaning, no moaning, no sentence fragments. A perfectly audible, understandable sentence repeated ad infinium by every undead within earshot of a living person: “It’s going to happen.”

The ‘heroes’ of the dream dismembered dozens of them before locking their remains in a warehouse before becoming distracted by a different plotline, but eventually the dream came back to that very same warehouse, now overgrown with unnaturally verdant plantlife. The foundation was creaking and groaning, and eventually human limbs poked through the tangles to force open windows and the doors of the warehouse. Just before the dream ended, though, the POV apparently zoomed in on one of the windows, where a pair of glowing green eyes could be seen in the darkness between the vines, and the line was repeated just before the dream switched entirely: “It’s going to happen.”

----

“THE MENTOR”

TW for self harm, drug overdoses, general themes of drug use, and eye horror.

This one was one of the longest posts in the tag, and followed the exploits of a grizzled noir detective--”the most stereotypical one you could envision,” apparently--investigating a bizarre series of murders in which the victims all appeared to be overdosed on a drug that defies being analyzed. They know it’s a string of murders and not just a rash of unfortunate circumstances, because each victim’s eyes are missing, removed with the precision of a surgeon.

Without going too much into needless detail (the post is extremely long; i’m surprised i never did anything with it), there are some breaks in the case: there’s a woman who claims to be on the mystery drug, and even managed to steal a sample of it from ‘the Mentor’ before she escaped it. She can’t elaborate on who or what the Mentor is, only that she refuses to be alone so it cannot find her. Thanks to her unfortunate help, it’s revealed that the drug supercharges the victim’s senses; she can see, hear, feel, taste, etc “everything” according to her, to the point it’s debilitating, painful, and completely overwhelming. Had she not gotten to the detective when she did, there was a chance her brain would have simply burned out from the overstimulation. Even though they have a sample of the substance, the detective’s assistants have a hard time analyzing it for reasons that aren’t explained.

The unfortunate victim is placed into sensory deprivation until the drug works its way out of her system, but not before she states where she got the supply. The entire time, by the way, the detective has apparently been seeing flashes of glowing red eyes on various rooftops, down alleys, and around corners, so he tells everyone in his lab to be on guard as he heads out to find the dealer. The dealer is a hulk of a man run through by countless sharp implements, eager to tell the detective how the drug lets him “really feel,” and how eager he is to “experience” the detective’s violence. A massive struggle ensues where the hulking man reveals he’s practically superhuman, shrugging off almost everything done to him even when the wound logically should have killed him (a knife in the heart, mainly). Soon, though, it’s shown that for all his toughness, he can’t resist the loss of blood and the damage from his own broken bones; he lasts far longer than he should, to a supernatural degree, but eventually he’s beaten.

Before he dies, he reveals he’s not the Mentor, but “you shouldn’t bother looking for the Mentor, it’s already looking for you.” God, two paragraphs ago I said ‘without going into needless detail’ didn’t I? I’m going to skip some more stuff now; if you want the full story, I’ll straight up copypaste it. The Mentor is eventually revealed to be a humanoid entity in a trenchcoat and wearing some sort of latex or rubber clothing over most of its body, with a gas-mask over its face that has glowing red eyes. It’s only when the detective stabs the Mentor that he finds out it’s not at all human; it’s latex, glass, plastic, and metal all the way down, its body surging with a purified and extremely potent version of the drug it’s been dealing. Inside glass canisters in its chest, dozens upon dozens of eyes, all taken from its victims.

The Mentor’s body stretches and deforms with the sounds of creaking metal and grinding glass as it fights the detective, its gas-mask-like face gradually deforming into the head of a plastic mosquito, mouth dripping with its drug. It scores a blow on the detective, and as his senses sharpen from the powerful dose, he looks at it and says “oh. is that what you really look like?” which, for some reason, causes the abomination to recoil. He continues, madness in his eyes: “You helped them see the real world but hated what they saw in you. You’re afraid they’ll know what you are.”

Whatever this means, the Mentor shrieks mechanically in some sort of rage, which awakens every OD victim as a zombified husk. This plotline is apparently abandoned by the dream, as nothing comes of it, but it’s important to note anyway. The Mentor and the detective have one final, climactic battle, but he’s no match for the inhuman creature and is eventually overcome; one of his eyes is stolen, the other destroyed by its proboscis. However, backup arrives and chases it off before it can kill them, and though it escapes, the dream ends on a somewhat positive note because the pure sample of the drug from the detective’s wounds lets the police lab synthesize an antidote for it, saving the detective’s life and potentially the lives of any of its future victims.

----

THE THREE DEVILS

Simpler, because this was a daydream that never ended up getting used. There were three entities, all with concealing robes over their bodies that shrouded everything about them. Even their hoods fell over their heads so their faces, if they had them, couldn’t be seen.

All three of them are powerful figures that grant people’s wishes. They each can grant just about any wish, but each of them has a different specialty, a type of wish they are drawn to more than any other. While at first they seem to act altruistically, anyone that calls on them more than once begins to see the mounting price of their work–the more wishes they grant, the more chaotic and unstable the world gets, and the one type of wish they cannot grant are wishes to travel through or alter time to rectify one’s mistakes. The other type of wish they will not grant is a wish that directly undoes a different wish, which would eventually cause a horrid breakdown of the very laws of physics, were it not for the repeated “weakness” they possessed in that they can be tricked into indirectly undoing wishes.

I called them “devils” but in Pathfinder terms, they work more like daemons. They want reality to collapse and are willing to unhinge it as much as they can by gifting mortals wishes and then twisting them into unraveling the world.

The Sodden Devil is dressed in moldering grey-green, it’s robes thoroughly soaked and so heavy that it is forced to hunch, and carries a thick driftwood cane to lean on. It specializes in granting wishes that would directly benefit others, especially ones that result in one or more lives being saved, either immediately or over the long-term. Of the three, the Sodden Devil possesses the most foresight, which borderlines flat-out omniscience. It can always tell when one of its wishes will have a “big payoff,” even thousands of years in the future.

The Ashen Devil is dressed in a blackened, ash-stained robe, smoke constantly wafting from its “feet” and trailing from its “hands” as it moves its arms, the hems of its robe burning almost constantly but never shrinking down. The Ashen Devil specializes in wishes that would quickly cause vast amounts of change on scales both great and small. It snorts at the ideas of balance and order, often dressing up its opinion as a dislike of “stagnation” and the decay that complacency and unchanging laws eventually cause. Of the three, the Ashen Devil is the least subtle but perhaps the most powerful, it’s wishes manifesting explosively (in one fashion or another), not only responsible for numerous natural disasters, but some say that it is also responsible for almost every social upheaval in history, either directly or indirectly. Of the three, the Ashen Devil could use the biggest rework, but I’m not sure what I could rework it to.

The Devil in Red is the tallest of the three, towering over its brethren and most mortals. It dresses in fine red robes and decorates itself with lavish jewelry, and it manipulates items and beings with rope-like mists of perfume that waft from it rather than any physical limb. It specializes in wishes that are entirely selfish and self-serving, benefiting the wisher and very few–if any–others. As such, the Devil in Red is the “most popular” of the three, seeing the most summons by the greedy and the desperate; the other two usually must seek out patrons to offer their power, but the Devil in Red is called directly more often than not. It revels in this attention and in the slow, mounting discord that it’s work causes as people wish for things that put greater and greater strain on reality.

I could potentially make a Daemon Harbinger out of these three; harbingers of wishes gone wrong and deals having unforeseen consequences. Sacred animal? Monkeys. ... actually, y’know, I could rework them a little further for more irony...

----

THE TALENT SCOUT

This is the one that inspired me to make this post, despite the difficulty one would experience trying to fit it into the Pathfinder setting. I find the creature’s design and modus operandi too fascinating not to share, and I’m surprised I never did anything with the concept! It fits well into a more modern setting; possibly Starfinder, a modern-day PF setting, or the setting of a different TTRPG such as Monster of the Week, or one of the many World of Darkness modules.

The Talent Scout is a hunched figure that dresses in a shabby tan trench coat (the second trenchcoat monster from my dreams, and certainly not the last) and a wide-brimmed hat (the Mentor also had one, natch) that cast a shadow over its face. Where that face should be was a giant camera lens, but in the dream the rest of its head was never seen, so I assume it’s only the camera lens. The rest of its body, however, was flesh and blood. In fact, it had a cluster of eyes of varying sizes embedded in each of its palms that it used to peer around corners or obstacles on the lookout for its next “star.” Anyone it snapshotted with its camera eye became cursed.

Each night, a cursed victim would dream they were on a movie set, being forced to act in a film. The conditions would steadily worsen over time, with the victim eventually gaining no rest as they slept due to the poor quality of care they got from the unseen director, awakening ragged, exhausted, and eventually even bearing injuries they sustained while ‘on set.’ Eventually, after about a year, the victim would vanish completely in their sleep. Across the world, new VHSs or DVDs would appear in stores, flea markets, yard sales, packed in Redboxes, and the like.

The movies on the VHS/DVD were generally low-quality, mediocre horror films starring the victim (or victims on some occasions), though the special effects detailing the victim’s injuries were frighteningly realistic– because they were real. The movies usually ended with the victim’s horrid demise at the hands of a monster, a criminal, or a natural disaster, but even in the cases where they didn’t die, they were left in a situation in which their survival was not likely. In any case, the victims are never seen again once they vanish, and there was seemingly no way to rescue them from their fate, as destroying the medium they were held on just caused a new one to appear elsewhere the next time the Talent Scout was in the area.

[tarisilmarwen]

Rebels Rewatch: “Call To Action”

The first entry in our finale arc and the moment the gloves came off and Rebels went, “Oh you thought I was a nice safe little kids cartoon huh?  Hold my beer.”

Yet another gorgeous establishing shot.

This sequence is staged/blocked as a parallel to the Emperor arriving on the Death Star in Return of the Jedi, the looming Star Destroyer, the Lambda shuttle, troops lined up in neat formation and the Imperial March at full ominous strength.  Fitting given that we’re bringing in the big guns.

ANDTHENTHERE’STHISASSHOLE.jpeg

Tarkin was offhand mentioned as being the governor of the Outer Rim early in the series, and “Tarkintown” was a direct result of laws and policy he put into place that allowed the Empire to simply seize people’s properties to strip mine them for resources, so he’s kind of been a very background looming shadow for our Rebels from the beginning and wastes no time dressing everyone present down for making him have to come out to this stupid insignificant backwater planet personally.

The roasting is epic.

“Look I know you’re an airheaded ditz who only got this job because Pryce is too busy faffing around the Core Worlds but you could at least not look so incompetent at it.”

“ancient history“ BITCH THAT WAS WITHIN YOUR LIFETIME.  YOU WORKED WITH ANAKIN AND OBI-WAN.  YOU WERE THERE.

Tarkin seems awfully certain there’s no possible way Kanan can be a Jedi.  I wonder if it’s a matter of he truly doesn’t believe that any survived or he’s not very impressed with Kanan as compared to the Jedi he knew.

Note again: No fanfare.

We lighten things up a bit with a brief little action setpiece, calling back to the speeder chase in the pilot.  It’s the kind of safe peril you’d expect from the early part of the show, no mess, no trouble, just fun adventure set to exciting music cues and watching our heroes be cool.

You know... lulling us into a false sense of security.

Sabine once again participating in the banter with Ezra and even throwing in a sweet little shoulder pat as well.

(Ezra looks disappointed that Kanan didn’t say anything to compliment him, maybe Sabine thought to cheer him up?)

Ugh, Trayvis’s slimy, “Well of course I never advocated for violence, those Rebels are twisting my message!”

The Holonet does not have Twitter Community Notes alas.

“Readers added context they thought people might want to know: You’re a lying traitorous dick and you suck.”

And the plan to take control of the Imperial communications tower is hatched.

Watching the microexpressions on Ezra’s face this whole scene is a trip, because you can tell he has misgivings but also agrees that the best way to reach the people is to break through the state-controlled media propaganda machine and offer up the truth.

OH BOY IT’S THE TRAUMATIZING SCENE!

Comedic staples Aresko and Grint, who have been with us on the show from the beginning, are brought in for their own dressing down before being summarily and literally beheaded in the office.

Yeah no, the first time I watched this I was like, “OKAY WELL THAT JUST HAPPENED HOLY SHIT.“

Ngl, Grand just casually walking around the desk to go stand behind them is even worse after you know what’s coming.

“Your Rebel cell is more principled than others.”  Lol is that a dig at Saw and the Partisans?

No but hold me back from getting into my messy Rebellion Era Jedi feelings and wordspewing about how even with all the Empire’s propaganda, even with all the effort and energy they expend smearing them and erasing their legacy, they still represent Hope to the ordinary people and inspire them to stand up and fight.  And how that’s so so dangerous to the careful order and control Palpatine set up and so he can’t allow any of them to survive because their mere existence makes people stare in awe and take up their arms.

*sobbing forever*

Kallus and Tua’s slow dawning horror as they realize what’s about to happen. D:

HELLO NAUGHTY CHILDREN, THIS IMAGE IS NOW BURNED INTO YOUR NIGHTMARES.

YOU’RE WELCOME.

See, even these two are unnerved.  It takes Kallus a full second to blink himself back into composure when Tarkin addresses him.

This cue here in the aggressive low brass is part of the Inquisitor’s theme and gets used later in the big Seventh Sister and Fifth Brother introduction I’m pretty sure.

I always love the way Rebels does background sky, it looks almost like watercolor paintings.

“I said be optimistic.”

“Five minutes is optimistic!”

<3

They bring a bit of the fyrnock cue back here, I think to put us just a little bit on edge.

(Also apropos given what Ezra does moments later.)

Sabine being pouty all, “I could have done that.“

Please appreciate how Ezra beams at Kanan’s praise and Sabine get embarrassed at how heartwarming they are.

Too bad the probe wasn’t 100% dead.

LOLOL Kallus seems a little on edge as he leaves Tarkin’s office here.

“Lure them into a trap?  But... but I literally just tried that last episode!”

The plan is further hatched but Ezra gets solemn when Sabine brings up that things never seem to follow the plan and Kanan, sensing something up, doesn’t take Ezra’s deflection for an answer.

 Oof and watch how Ezra’s arms come up in his self-protective pose right there.

At first, Kanan thinks it’s just insecurity about taking on the role and by implication the legacy of his parents, nervousness about speaking.  And yes, Ezra confesses that that’s part of it.  (Once again with the self-esteem issues, “I’m not brave, I’m not special, I can’t do this without the rest of you.”)

But it runs deeper.  Ezra’s afraid of loss, of having something bad happen to his new family like it happened to his parents.  But for a Jedi, fear of loss, fear of potential loss, can cripple you.  Paralyze you from being able to think and take proper action.

So Kanan reminds Ezra that loss is going to happen to matter what.  You can’t cling to the things you have, you have to let them pass away, if that’s what’s going to happen.  You can’t be attached.  You have to let go.

“We will take more losses before this is over.”  “When the times comes, we’re going to have to be ready to sacrifice for something bigger.”

Don’t think about Season Four don’t think about Season Four don’t think about Season Four--

The Force theme plays out sweetly in the background as Kanan talks about how they’re “learning these things together”, ending on a modified major chord to leave on a brighter note resolution.

And this is such a pretty shot.

And this one too.  And this might be the first time we see Lothal’s twin moons?

This is such a smooth action sequence, the way Sabine hops off her bike and lets it Tokyo drift into the cannon to blow it up before rolling into view and popping off shots, the conservation of camera movement as it cuts to Zeb, quick inserts and then Ezra and Kanan are on site.

Hate to keep repeating myself but seriously, look at that cloud painting work.

The Imperial March, naturally, as the Empire’s vehicles close in.

Subtle animation appreciation moment: The way Ezra’s eyes dart from target to aerial target.

The camerawork this episode is really excellent, love this dolly in shot of Grand.

Nnnfhkhg Ezra flinched a bit when Kanan got in his face and ordered him to get Zeb.

Cripes, I think Kanan is already thinking ahead to what he’s going to have to do.

“But I like this gun!”  “We’ll get you another gun!”  Children, both of you.  Lol.

AND THE FIRST OFFICIAL TIME THOSE ETERNALLY CURSED WORDS, “I’LL BE RIGHT BEHIND YOU.” ARE UTTERED.

Seriously, it became an awful kind of running joke.

Right, so in spite of Kanan’s reassurances, said to get Ezra to keep going and not stall, Ezra still lingers long enough to watch Kanan shut the door behind them.

NO THAT’S FINE.  A HEART IS OVERRATED ANYWAY.

Grand drops down accompanied by his bass chorals and Kanan turns his saber on the door controls and about right here is when I think we all knew he wasn’t going to be right behind Ezra at all.

Again with the camerawork, this tilting pan up towards the top of the tower and then tracking dolly zoom in as the others spill out onto the balcony.

Nooooooooo bbyyyyyyyyyy. :((((((((

Subtle animation appreciation moment: The way Zeb shields Sabine right here.

Kanan’s matching the Inquisitor strike for strike now, and even repays the kick in the chest from “Gathering Forces”.  He’s calm, almost zen, having accepted what he has to do, and his cavalier attitude throws Grand, stalling for enough time to let Hera get there.

The “Shenanigans“ theme rolls in on somber trombones, stalling out after only the opening notes.

:((((((((

Capping this scene is an exercise in, “Whose expression looks more devastated?”

Hera’s tight-lipped tremble as she makes the call is especially hard.

My gosh look at the smoke effects though.

This episode really has no business being this pretty.

I hate you Tarkin, I hate you I hate you I wanna punch you in your stupid sneering face.

Kanan looks astonished to hear the others are still proceeding with the plan and making the transmission.  I guess he thought they might write the mission off as a loss what with his capture.

Aaaaaah Ezra I’m so proud of him!

This really is an excellent speech.

The woodwinds plink away in the background of some muted brass here, even the Main Titles theme (Luke’s theme, used to denote heroism in the Star Wars score) is quiet, fading out before a slow dooming Imperial March takes over.

“Ho shit, they’re firing on their own tower?”

Well uh... we already knew that Tarkin doesn’t believe in overkill.

<3

The show makes use of some very effective silence, only the faint static of the transmitter playing over the closing stinger.  Just to drive that last devastating blow in.

And cue cliffhanger.

Ha ha, another one I don’t rewatch that often, at least not without completing it out with the next two because seriously, that is a cruel cliffhanger.

Rebels does not really believe in a static Status Quo, which I appreciate.  Even in Season One it throws wrenches, shakes things up, unmoors our characters.  And by extension us the audience. XD

Even for those of us who believed in the show from the beginning I don’t think anyone expected it to axe our two staple recurring side antagonists and end an episode with Kanan captured.

So kudos to Rebels for taking that risk.  It has more freedom to do so, granted, than a show like TCW or Kenobi, given that it’s mostly original characters not protected by Plot Armor, but still.

Next episode takes us two steps forward and one great big Mustafar step back, I can’t wait!

[bhaalbabebardlock]

19 Shadowheart x Ilara (or any OC) 👀👀👀

19. "Where do you want me to touch you?"

(H- okay. Doing this post Daisies)

(on that note, disclaimer: this was actually quite hard to do because Ilara is having ~intimacy issues~ post Astarion so it's more fluffy not as smutty as it might be otherwise/at some other point in the timeline. This exists within the daisies world but is standalone and won't be brought back up in this context unless I decide to continue it as a one shot later. ...Which I might)

"What do you mean you got food for me? I didn't ask you to do that." She didn't mean to be cross with her, not really. She just felt cross with everyone lately, and each time they tried to cheer her up only seemed to make it worse.

"You have got to put something in your stomach other than blood and wine Ilara, it's been weeks."

"Has it? Weeks since what? Who's counting?"

"Since he left. I'm counting." They stared at each other for a long moment before Ilara sighed, gritting her teeth.

"Fine. Okay. But I don't want to talk to anyone else right now. Just you. I'm not in the mood for anyone else. Is that acceptable?"

"That's perfect actually." Shadowheart reached out to grab her hand and Ilara stepped back, recoiling unintentionally as she cleared her throat. She gave her a weak smile, rubbing her hand against her thigh.

"Sorry. Later. I just. Well, you know." She almost felt a pang of guilt when Shadowheart dropped her hand, but felt a wave of grateful relief when she smiled anyways, pretending it didn't sting as much as it did. It had been so long since she could just say no that she was still shocked every time Shadowheart listened. Was patient. It was almost unfair how sweet it was, as if she deserved that kind of patience.

She almost begrudgingly followed her outside. Because of course it was the gardens. Of course it was outside. At least this time it was night, not the glaring heat of the sun making her skull pound. She froze as they came around the corner, her heart skipping a beat. She couldn't help the way her face softened. She'd laid out candles, bathing the inky orchids in a soft orange glow. She tentatively walked forwards, taking in the spread of food before her, trying to blink away her tears. There were so many of her favorite things.

She sank down onto the blanket, crossing her legs and patting the spot next to her, quiet for a moment while Shadowheart sat.

"You did all of this, for me?"

"Well of course I did, nobody else is going to eat all this sweet bread." She blinked again, tapping her fingers against her thigh.

"You don't have to keep being so nice."

"You deserve someone being nice to you."

"Do I?"

"I suppose that's subjective, but, yes." She turned her eyes back to Shadowheart, listening to her fluttering heartbeats and watching the way the moonlight hit her hair. She was breathtaking, really.

"Why haven't you tried to kiss me? Since you came back? Don't you want to?" The soft smile Shadowheart gave her made some of the tension uncoil in her stomach.

"Ilara, you don't even want to hold my hand. Why would I try to kiss you?"

"Well, I-" she stopped, frozen by the question, again caught off guard by it being her choice at all.

She scooted closer, reaching out her hand and setting it on Shadowheart's knee.

“Now I'm asking you to.” They stared at each other for another long moment before Shadowheart leaned forward, stopping just a few inches away.

“Ilara, are you sure this is okay?” Even being asked that made it so much better. She lifted her hand up, curling her fingers around Shadowheart's neck. She gently pulled her head forward, pressing their lips together in a kiss that felt much too sweet. Sweeter certainly than she deserved. She still tasted like fresh citrus, oranges melting on her tongue, the thumping of her heart in her chest rapidly picking up as Ilara sighed into her mouth. She was perfect.

She pulled back almost regretfully, trailing her fingers down Shadowheart's arm, listening to her soft breathing. She lifted her eyes slowly, taking in her expression.

“Where do you want to be touched? Did you just want the one kiss? That would be alright if you did, I just-”

“I don't. Want to be, really. But I want to touch you. Is that alright?”

“You don't have to do that Ilara-” She reached her hand up, shushing her and pulling Shadowheart into her lap, wrapping her arms around her waist and setting her head on her shoulder.

“Let me do this, please? I want to.” She ran her hand up Shadowheart's thigh, her fingers dancing up under the hem of her shirt. She smiled into her neck as Shadowheart gasped.

“I think the better question would be where do you want to be touched, Shadowheart?” She couldn't help but smile again, pressing her lips against Shadowheart's neck as she breathlessly answered.

“I- anywhere. Anywhere you want. I just-” Ilara pushed her hand up under her shirt, sliding her palm up her torso and cupping her breast, rolling her nipple between her fingers.

“Anywhere?” The sounds she made were so beautiful. The smallest whimpers, the little gasps. Ilara sighed, pressing her nose into Shadowheart's hair.

“Mm. I'm going to have fun with that.”