#misc observations and conclusions:

[whattraintracks]

My Time Has Come

In finishing TMNT 1987, I realised a few things, rewatched some episodes, realised a lot more things, and this is the product. As iztarshi mentioned, "Leonardo, the Renaissance Turtle" is another fabulous example of our Fearless Leader straight up scared, as is a personal favorite of mine, "Snakes Alive!" The moral seems to be do not leave your Leonardo alone. Until I remembered in both "Take Me to Your Leader" and "Leonardo Versus Tempestra," he's on his own for a large chunk of the action and seems fine. That's odd. Let's check the timeline.

S3 E15 - Take Me to Your Leader

S4 E35 - Leonardo Versus Tempestra

S4 E41 - Unidentified Flying Leonardo

S5 E17 - Leonardo, the Renaissance Turtle

S6 E13 - Snakes Alive!

Oh, snap. I know the numbers are different depending on where you look, but as far as I can tell, the order is always the same. That's unexpectedly consistent. Let's write that essay now, shall we?

In "Take Me to Your Leader," Leonardo leaves the team behind. He's having horrible nightmares about them all getting hurt because of his own failures. A combination of sleep deprivation, stress, and paranoia leaves him pretty out of sorts and clumsy, which only adds to his feelings of inadequacy, and he's caught in a feedback loop until he decides to leave the lair for good. Once he's out on his own, he's certainly dejected but truly seems to believe the team is better off without him. That is, he's not afraid for the guys or about being on his own. The reason he turns around is that the bridge he wants to take out of town collapses with the snow Shredder and Krang's latest scheme has generated, and some dude accidentally guilt trips into taking responsibility for stopping them. He returns to the team, they rally, make a plan, and save the day. Go Green Machine. When he saves Michelangelo and Raphael, he quips about knowing they'd get into trouble without him, which is not true but, okay, Leonardo, whatever you say. In the closing scene, he tells Master Splinter he learned that duty comes before his doubts. These are super important to remember as we move forward.

Again in "Leonardo Versus Tempestra," he leaves the team behind when he sneaks out to an arcade by himself. He's a little manic about beating Tempestra's Revenge, but he's not afraid. Yet. Even when Tempestra escapes the game, he's just confused. He doesn't get scared until he realises she's a threat. Cam Clarke uses this particular tone for Leonardo when he's scared, and it comes out pretty quickly in his fight with Tempestra once he realises, "Oh, I've screwed up. I'm about to die, the world is about to end, and I am alone." He frantically calls the others for help. Tempestra thwarts his efforts, and Leonardo watches as his teammates are trapped. At this point, you might expect to find him paralysed with fear, but he turns around to face her as cool as a cucumber. He calmly negotiates, taunts her, and makes jokes to the camera. You could argue that just talking to the other turtles was enough to settle him, but I'd think, given how poorly he perceives they handled themselves without him in TMtYL, he should be more freaked out now, not less. Now he's got to save them, himself, and the world! That's a lot for one turtle. But Leonardo holds Tempestra off single-handedly, makes a plan to save them all, and, with April's services as a taxi, jets off to take her down. Except for when April drives them off a cliff, his scared voice doesn't reappear. Pretty impressive for a turtle who, a handful of episodes later, will be shaking in his nonexistent boots in a cornfield.

So, clearly, something happens between LvT and UFL that exacerbates Leonardo's anxiety astronomically. What life-shattering, traumatising event occurs between these two episodes? "Splinter Vanishes." That's right, Leonardo and his team, his family, all still teenagers mind you, spend two weeks fending for themselves after their Sensei and guardian abandons them and tells them they must leave home and each other. It's significant that, once again, Leonardo leaves. He's the one who convinces everyone to listen to Splinter's last instructions. It's not the first time he's left knowing it might be permanent, but this situation is very different from TMtYL. After being separated from his support system and thrust into adult life with no warning or help, Leonardo gets attacked by Leatherhead and sent plummeting to his death. Given the events of this episode, I'm pretty sure his cool-as-a-cucumber Hero Leader attitude is a facade specifically crafted to fill the other turtles with confidence. He is so cocky when he unexpectedly shows up alive to save the other turtles. But just like in LvT, his teammates are in serious trouble and can't help him, so not only does he feel responsible for bringing the villain(s) of the week to justice, but he probably feels like he needs to be brave for them. It's those lessons he learned in TMtYL over and over again.

Splinter returns, and the mean, green team is back together. But Leonardo continues to break my heart when he asks, sounding oh so nervous and small and young, "Are we together? Master?" Because Leonardo still trusts him so much. Is still willing to obey even when it actively hurts him, actively hurts his brothers, because Splinter will always be their Sensei, right? Even if he doesn't want them, even if he leaves, Leonardo will remain loyal to his Master's instructions.

I get Splinter’s intentions, I do, and this was all pretty typical Splinter stuff. I'm definitely getting too emotionally invested in a children's cartoon, but gosh dang it, that episode has always made me so sad. Like, Splinter, they're kids. If you want to lure the Rat King and Leatherhead out into the open, let the boys in and tell them. It's not enough to say after that it was pretend and you were watching all along, they needed that reassurance and security two weeks ago. And Raphael voices this exact concern. But no, Splinter wanted to, what, let them experience what it was like to be apart? Appreciate how vital it is that they remain together? No. No! Do you know what you did, Master Splinter? You ruined a perfectly good ninja turtle, is what you did. Look at Leonardo, he's got separation anxiety! Splinter is not allowed to teach any more lessons in togetherness.

You guys, I went into this thinking there'd be some mildly interesting connections to make. I did not think I would be adding "Splinter Vanishes" to the list of reasons why Leonardo needs professional help, and all of these turtles are massively traumatised. Oh my gosh, you guys. I was over here thinking his fight with Tempestra must have been so traumatising it screwed him up for at least the next two seasons, which is still possible, but oh my gosh, immediately after that episode is "Splinter Vanishes"???? No wonder Leonardo freaks out on his own. TWO WEEKS. I'm going to sob.

Okay, alright, let's look at the next few episodes and see if this holds.

Given Leonardo's trust for Master Splinter remains intact, it makes sense that he accepts Splinter's directive to go after April on his own in "Unidentified Flying Leonardo," but it's also not surprising how quickly he breaks down. He's left the team behind plenty of times now, but this is the first time he's left them since SV. Some freaky stuff happens in the aforementioned cornfield, but unlike LvT, there aren’t any actual threats before he hits his breaking point. He generally seems okay until he gets lost, and this is where Clarke breaks out the scared voice. We can look back and see that a lot of Leonardo's confidence in LvT and SV does come from being on his home turf, but that still doesn’t seem like a serious enough threat to warrant how panicked he is. Unless we consider that in his mind, getting stranded and being unable to contact his family is most certainly a threat worthy of panic after the events of SV. So yeah, when he calls for help and discovers he’s out of range, everything goes downhill. He jumps to conclusions, his flight instincts overwhelm his discipline, he's off-balance, and he makes sloppy mistakes. As he's being chased by an entire town with vehicles, he doesn't think to take April's van and drive it away, instead he hoofs it across multiple fields. Like TMtYL, he's stuck in this loop of panic and paranoia and just wearing himself out. Thankfully, @snoftshell-snurtle is 100% correct. Billy Jim Bob McJames (the guy with a truck full of hay) saves Leonardo's life, feeds him some pizza, offers him information, and agrees to drive him wherever. With that, Leonardo is back to his Hero Leader cool-as-a-cucumber self. Once the other guys show up, he's even able to come up with a plan, and together they stop the bad guy.

Overall, the pattern I'm noticing is Leonardo is alone, he identifies a threat, he calls for help, and his call goes unanswered for some reason or another. Before SV, the unanswered call doesn't deter him, and he shoulders the burden himself. After SV, he falls apart until he gets the support he needs. That's not to say he does nothing. But unlike LvT, where his goal the whole time was to stop Tempestra and save the guys and all of his actions and planning were to support that goal, in UFL, he spent most of the episode just trying to survive until help arrived in the form of a compassionate stranger. Getting stuck in survival mode is very much a product of trauma he's experienced. Yes, the stuff with Tempestra but more significantly from being abandoned by Splinter and stranded from his team.

I really liked rewatching "Leonardo, the Renaissance Turtle" with all this in mind. With this new robocop LEX, the turtles are getting pushed out of the crime-fighting business. This freaks Leonardo out, who, since TMtYL, really relies on having this specific purpose in his life. The other turtles, however, are thrilled, and they leave him. Every time he's been alone before, it's been an active decision on his part, even in SV, he was reluctant, but it was his choice. Clarke doesn't quite break out the scared voice yet, but it's a close thing. Some time passes before we see Leonardo again. He's just barely avoided getting stuck in survival mode since he's stayed in familiar territory and thanks to April, as @iztarshi put it, playing turtle emotional support (feeding him, keeping him company). But he's clearly stressed, perhaps depressed, and certainly paranoid. He's reached the stage where he's accepted that his team is gone, and whatever happens, he'll have to handle it on his own. Leonardo's paranoia unfortunately pays off as LEX threatens him and April, and this is the point where he enters survival mode and, interestingly, restarts the pattern.

Unlike previous episodes, this particular pattern or sequence of behaviors from Leonardo is disrupted and repeated multiple times in this episode. In the first instance, Leonardo is metaphorically alone in his assessment of LEX as a threat to their work but really to his own perceived purpose and identity, and his call for help is him trying to get the others to agree, but they are dismissive and then leave. Compare this to LvT, where they initially dismiss his concerns but quickly come around, and Leonardo is reassured they're safe and would help him if they could. Compare also to UFL, where he thinks the others don't know where he is and that he's in danger. April provides as much support as she can, but the cycle is only ever complete once the team reunites and removes the threat together, and this doesn't happen. So, like the stages of grief, Leonardo bounces between them until he can reach a resolution. Now Leonardo is physically alone, LEX is a physical threat to his well-being, and when he calls for help, their comm system is down. He does get a hold of Raphael and Michelangelo, but again they're dismissive of his concerns, and he accidentally breaks the connection in his distress. Firmly in the survival stage, Leonardo is off-balance, clumsy, and unable to think straight. Now would be a really good time to get some support, but even that blows up in his face. So he calls for help again, but all he gets is Donatello's jarringly cheery voicemail greeting. Finally, Clarke breaks out the scared voice. Despite everything he's gone through, it took this long, which makes sense, given we’re in season 5 now. He's likely gained some coping mechanisms, but not enough to avoid the panic completely.

Leonardo's continued efforts to get help and protect himself are impeded, and his scared voice keeps getting worse as he descends further and further into panic, but he keeps going because he can't do anything else. At this point, the other turtles finally realise something is wrong and come back just in time to find . . . that Leonardo has actually resolved the threat on his own. This diverges entirely from previous episodes! It's so remarkable Donatello literally remarks on it. April has been his cheerleader all episode, but even she's surprised and impressed. We don't go completely off script, in the closing scene, Splinter and the guys reaffirm to Leonardo that he is skilled and capable beyond the niche he's created for himself in the team. His initial concerns and the perceived threat to his identity and usefulness and all that good stuff are resolved, as they always are, together. Still, this marks a turning point for Leonardo and segues nicely into the last episode I want to look at.

Unlike previous episodes, in "Snakes Alive!" the primary threat isn't the villain but Leonardo's snake phobia and his loneliness is a product of hiding his fear from the team. He's still hanging on to that lesson from TMtYL that the guys depend on him to lead, so he's not honest with them about his fear and instead tries to distract them and spends most of their time together dragging his feet. But it’s hard to hide that you're terrified when your scared voice creeps out every time someone mentions snakes, and you can't even say the word without a voice crack. The others aren't used to seeing Leonardo in survival mode like this and are understandably confused. He passes out, gets separated from the team, flings himself out a window, and rams into April's van in a panicked haze. When he comes across another threat with April and Vernon unrelated to snakes, we see the progress he made in LtRT, and he confidently handles it on his own. Checking back in with the guys, we find Michelangelo a little hopeful they'll be saved, but Donatello convinced Leonardo won't be able to. Interesting that here and in LtRT, Donatello seems to have the least faith in Leonardo's ability to resolve things on his own. But neither does Leonardo, who, even after speaking to Master Splinter, is despondent. The plot is thankfully saved by a bunch of kids who call him a chicken and later by the villain who claims snakes are superior to turtles in every way, which snaps him out of paralysis both times. Much like LtRT, he's too panicked to really come up with a plan, so he just brute forces his way to save the guys. Donatello is again quite shocked Leonardo did it by himself. The minute he's reunited with them, all is balanced and well with the universe, and he thinks up a plan to save the day. He doesn't seem to be afraid of the snakes anymore, but the closing scene makes it clear the fear is not totally gone, just assuaged when he's with his team. Leonardo is always going to do his best to be their Fearless Leader, even if he's not a fearless turtle.

tl;dr In the episodes examined above, Leonardo exhibits similar behavioral patterns whenever he is alone and threatened. This pattern is disrupted and reshaped by various traumatic experiences and thus makes an excellent marker for how he changes as a character throughout the series.

In the 1987 tv series Leonardo is a good leader and team player but "Unidentified Flying Leonardo" demonstrates that alone he is an on-fire trainwreck of a teenage mutant ninja turtle. In this essay I will

[threerattsinatrenchcoat]

Kressa Bonedaughter Dialogue Notes

Overall:

Necromancer with a streak of fanaticism. She's called "Krustine, Mistress of Souls" in the mined dialogue, which... Ebony Dark'ness, eat your heart out.

Lots of references to decay and death. Definitely has a theme. Some religious terms during the blessing.

Not even the worms will want your carcass once I'm done with you!

I stitched you up just enough to keep you alive, then placed you within your crib - note the use of "crib" for pod

"that interrupts this consecration of the undying"

You are on sanctified ground.

It is not my blessing - I am merely a vessel for our Lord Myrkul's will.

Combos statements and orders with em dashes

I have no need for a thrall - you would merely get in the way

Go find Balthazar - he always has use for another body

Return to Balthazar - he may be able to correct your defects

Come - I will make better use of your bones than you do

Answer me - who are you?

Phrases

Tsk

Halt

And yet-

-, though?

By the Bone Lord/Bone Lord

How precious

This [statement], though [opposing statement], anyway

Surely

Why bother

I don't suppose

Let's ferry them

Swanning about

Beaten black and blue

It pains me

His shadow falls across you. Go forth and reap." - this is specifically used for the blessing, but Go forth and reap is too good to leave unmentioned

I did miss it - instead of "I missed it"

Cannot - doesn't seem to use any contractions

Insults:

Defective/defects

Poor, stupid thing

Compliments:

Arresting

Special one

Dear one - also says "dear General" in regards to Ketheric

Sweet one - a lot of "[compliment] one" in regards to Durge

Sweeter than

Curses: None

Placeholders: None

Misc:

Refers to thralls/corpses as "it", except once, when she uses "them"

Speaks much warmer to Durge than anyone else (most of the compliments are in response to Durge)

Recognizes Astarion as undead and calls him "pretty dead thing"

"Trying to pull rank? And yet not a word of concern for our dear General."

Lists observations and then the conclusion: General Thorm was attacked, the order to evacuate given. You should not be here. I conclude you are one of the attackers.

Durge Interactions (spoilers for Durge playthrough)

Referred to as a "hack-doctor", a grunt. She is the one who watched over Durge after they were tadpoled and became obsessed with them. Speaks to Durge with a lot of affection. Could be written as a caretaker to an invalid or like a lover to a lover

It has never been the same with another... All the other victims who come here just meekly obey. You thrashed, you fought, you were indomitable.

Adorable... I did miss it. Its simplicity, its fear, it thrashing its own head against its pod, cracking its skull again and again in a futile attempt to escape.

Bone Lord... you're the perfect being... All that is unnecessary stripped away... Primal... innocent... pure...

We're going to kill you, sweet one. But I promise I will stay with you afterwards.

I stitched you up just enough to keep you alive, then placed you within your crib.

I kept you as mine until you were needed by our superiors.

[notmasonpines]

Building a Canon-Compliant, Consistent and Comprehensive Scheme for Constructing Glyph Combos

Tl;dr: Yes, I did cram as much alliteration into that title as possible. Anyway, I set out to create my own system for making glyphs from scratch, using the basic concepts we’re shown in the show, here is my thought process all laid down along with the results. Since this has expanded over time to become a monstrous dissertation, the layout for this will be Basic Concepts, where all the basic concepts from the show are listed as the foundation for this system, followed by Basic Vocabulary, where the words for the glyph ‘language’ are made up, proceeded by Grammar Rules, where I think up the rules of the system and use what I’ve got so far to analyse the simpler combo glyphs made by Luz and co. The penultimate section is Shortcuts and Misc. Stuff, where I take a look at Philip’s WIP glyphs (seen at the start of Them’s the Breaks, Kid), attempt to figure out what they could mean in this system to yield the canon effects, and work in the miscellaneous stuff that appears on them. And lastly Conclusion, where I use this system to build a glyph combo from scratch for a spell that appears in the show.

Also, here's an Imgur album for every illustration coming up in this post.

I’ve gone pretty deep into this, so if something that I think makes perfect sense makes absolutely no sense to you, please comment and ask for clarification or something. Also, if you know of another system someone made for this, I couldn't find it, so I'd love to see those as well.

Quick note before I begin: This literal essay is not me attempting to figure out how the actual system within the show works. To be honest, I don’t even think there is a fully worked-out system behind the scenes. Glyph combos were highly underutilised in the show, especially compared to single-glyph usage, so there wouldn’t be much point in building an entire system of rules for constructing them if you’d only need to use it in a few instances. Instead I think the crew simply put together some glyphs that intuitively felt like they’d work for the few glyph combos we do get, and then added some extra doodads for each to hint at the existence of a complex ruleset that would allow for four glyphs to reproduce every possible spell.

So yeah, I’m not setting out to make a system that perfectly explains every glyph combo we see, especially the advanced ones Philip uses (it feels weird to say Belos is using glyphs, dunno why). You certainly won’t see me crying in bed after this if what I come up with doesn’t fit perfectly with everything. Instead I’ll be taking the basic concepts the show has laid out for us, take some aspects/cues from the show’s glyph combos, and build a system with that for my own needs (I’m writing a crossover with Harry Potter and I want to have a consistent system for turning HP spells into glyph combos). Though I will at least attempt to budge things around to have the simpler glyph combos work out with whatever I come up with, and I’ll also see how closely I get the more complicated combos once that’s done. If things do happen to work out, then consider me a happy guy.

(Edit from me after having written everything out, about a day later: I did actually manage to read all the glyph combos from the show and get a meaning that corresponds to what happens in canon, so that was a very pleasant surprise. Except the teleportation glyph. I’m not even going to attempt reading it so I don’t actually know if that one would work with this system or not. But hey, here’s a nice prospect to look forward to if you attempt reading what has become a dissertation lol: some actual decent results).

Update: I removed the redundant secondary elements from the 2- and 3-mergers and added more useful ones.

Basic Concepts

Let’s list the basic concepts we can use from observing the show first.

a.1) There exist four basic glyphs, each with an elemental meaning: Light, Ice, Plant, and Fire. Though I’d like to say that Life is a more accurate descriptor for Plant, just that plants are the easiest living things to imagine and grow when using it (And growing sentient things might be a bit iffy).

a.2) There also is a fifth sorta glyph that I'll call a Null glyph, which has a glyph border but no symbol inside. Philip used it in his most complex glyphs and Luz used it in her mist generating glyph.

I think a glyph that has no meaning on its own can be quite useful as a building block, either when a glyph is needed somewhere but you don’t want to use any of the actual glyphs, as a way to indicate absence, or as a place to input external variables (Interesting fact, on the golden glyph bubble thing Luz conjured as a Titan-hybrid there are five connected glyphs evenly spread out over it. You can see Light, Plant, and Fire most of the time, with Ice visible below as one of the two obstructed glyphs later, leaving the final one as Null if the trend of no repeats continues).

b) Glyphs can have small variations to their symbols, changing their effects slightly. Glyphs can also have a single or double border.

c) While size determines the power behind a glyph’s effect, intent also plays a large role, primarily in how and when a glyph activates, where/on what it generates its effect, and what shape and direction its effect has.

d.1) Glyphs can also have secondary meanings, which are related to their element. The only examples we get are Power, Colour and Reflection for the Light glyph (from the notes near the start of Echoes of the Past), though judging by the question marks they weren’t sure if those were the right words either, and Reflection fits less with Light and more with Ice imo.

d.2) We also know which meaning a glyph has ‘diffs 4 placement’, whatever that means.

e.1) Glyphs can be chained together into closed circuits, which can technically be any shape (rectangular in Luz’s neon shop sign) but are preferably circular. This allows for glyphs to be activated simultaneously.

e.2) Chaining multiples of the same basic glyph together allows for multiple separate instances of the same element to be summoned simultaneously.

e.3) Putting two different glyphs in a circuit can yield a new, merged, secondary element (like Doodle God or Little Alchemy or whatever floated your boat back then), the only known example from the show being Mist from Fire and Ice.

e.4) The basic glyphs are always drawn in the same orientation within glyph combos, with one known exception that I’ll ignore because it occurs in the teleportation glyph.

f.1) Glyphs are like a language that describe what you want the ambient magic to do, with the basic glyphs being the words and circuits being the sentences, though this seems distinct from how circuits function from e.2. This also seems to be closer to a natural language than something like a coding language, as there’s an actual being that you talk to which casts the magic for you (I’m assuming that using glyphs communicates telepathically with a subconscious part of Papa Titan’s soul, since it stops working once his soul isn’t there anymore to respond and use his magic in the way the glyphs instruct him to. I’m also saying his subconscious because having him consciously hear and act on magic instructions would be hell).

f.2) Context clues, synonyms, metaphors and subtext thus play a role in reading glyphs, as they do with natural languages. Though with intent added to the mix to disambiguate, though you can't just press a single glyph and expect your intent to do everything (God, wouldn’t it be nice if sending intent along with what you say was a thing we could do. So many avoided miscommunications).

f.3) Glyphs overlapping will cause confusion and glitches in the language, like overlaying text or saying words at the same time.

g) With these 4(/5) basic glyphs, chaining glyphs in circuits, and whatever rules, secondary elements from merging, and secondary meanings of glyphs exist, you can reproduce any spell a Boiling Isles witch can cast.

And with that out of the way, let’s get started.

Basic Vocabulary

First things first, a vocabulary of only four words (a.1) is far too little to make a decent system out of, so it’s a good thing we have point d.1 to take from. Sadly we’re seriously lacking in any confirmed secondary meanings to have a decent vocabulary, so I’ll already have to resort to thinking up my own. See below what I've come up with.

For the four basic glyphs I added four sets of pairs of secondary meanings. To add my own twist and to make things feel more cohesive, each meaning is paired up with an opposite, colour-coded here with the glyph it’s paired up with. Three sets of pairs are paired up with meanings from one of the three other glyphs, and the fourth set is a pair of opposites from the same glyph.

And since this acts as a language (f.1) we should also add in the ability to use word types. In this case, nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. From the word types, pronouns aren’t needed, and prepositions and conjunctions can be figured out through context or some indicator. So, for each meaning we can add the noun, verb, adjective and adverb variations where it’s possible in the above. And let’s also add the ability to use close synonyms when needed (f.2). Like Evolve being interchangeable with Change or Transform as a verb. Or the noun version of Obscure, Obscurity, being interchangeable with Secret. The intent of the user and context can be what decides which synonym is used (c).

Speaking of, we also need a way to indicate which form of word is being used for each glyph, so let’s bring in point b for this.

Let’s have the standard design of the glyph symbols indicate a noun, and the variant design of the symbols can indicate a verb (changing direction of diagonal stripes for Light, the kite to triangle for Ice, and the dot to small circle for Plant and Fire), and I’ll also add a use for the double border, which I’ll call the ad-der, since I’ll have it change the noun design into its adjective meaning and the verb design into the adverb version (it would’ve fit better if nouns were called jectives, or adjectives were called adnouns, but we can’t have everything). This probably won't perfectly match up, especially since some glyphs have more alternate designs, but that's a concession I'll make.

Also, just ignore how the secondary meanings in the first table aren’t all in noun form, I just put in what type of word fit best, but assume that the noun version applies to the standard design.

Now we have a small vocabulary built up, but from first glance it’s still missing a bunch of useful words that we’ll want this language to have to describe every spell (g), and only using words related to one of the elements will always keep this limited, even if you add more.

So let’s pull in point e.3 and see what words we can come up with when merging the four elements. Once again this will require coming up with things from scratch, since the only confirmed case is Fire and Ice into Mist. See my confusing attempt at a table below.

Since using multiples of the same glyph just allows for getting multiples of the same effect (e.2) I kept those combinations out. And since I want as extensive a vocabulary as possible, let’s allow for the order of combining elements to be important as well.

With the only instance of merging elements being with two, I’ll take the opportunity and make three-mergings possible as well, see my further confusing attempt below.

I once again added a restriction of not allowing multiples of the same element in a merging, to at least somewhat restrict the extent of this (since I don’t like leaving blanks).

As you can see, there aren’t as many traditional elements in these combinations, and a lot of abstract stuff, which does make things feel quite similar to the secondary meanings I already defined. But as I said before, you couldn’t get these abstract concepts just from associated meanings of one basic element, and there are a few new elemental things here too.

I also attempted going up one more time by using all four basic glyphs in mergings, trying to figure out combos between the 3-mergers and the final unused element, as well as pairing up 2-mergers with the ones coming from the two other unused elements, but those combinations had no decent solutions that I could come up with, so I’m keeping it to this.

Side-note, playing Doodle God when your base set has only one of the traditional elements (Fire) is actually pretty annoying and restrictive. Like, what useful, distinctive natural element can you come up with by combining Ice with Plant or Light, or Fire with Plant? Coal isn’t exactly a useful element to have in this vocabulary.

Either way, with that all done, we have built up a decent vocabulary. Now we can start setting up some basic ‘grammar’ rules and see how to put these words together.

Grammar Rules

Let’s start with figuring out how we can indicate which secondary meaning a glyph has. All we know is that secondary meaning ‘diffs 4 placement’ (d.2). As I see it, there are only two possible interpretations. Either it means the placement of one glyph relative to the others decides meaning, which would get far too complex as a basis to build rules on (And just imagine, in the case of a small combo of five glyphs you’d already have twenty total relative positions to take into account, i.e. twenty possible different meanings).

So with that option discarded, the one remaining is that the specific position of a glyph on one of those circles/circuits is what determines meaning, like the circuit being divided into equal sectors (eight in this case, since I have eight secondary meanings per glyph). This can explain why all glyphs are typically drawn in the same direction, so the general orientation of an entire construction is set and the location of a glyph is easy to determine from a glance. It also explains why circuits are preferably drawn as circles rather than something like rectangles, since on a circle divided into equal sectors it’s much easier to spot which sector/angle a glyph is in, compared to using a rectangle or some other weird shape.

And since we have very little examples of glyph combos in the show, let alone explicit confirmation of which placement would be which meaning, let’s once again assign the placements ourselves, though with some reference towards the simple glyph combos we see in the show. See my attempt at making a usable diagram below.

As another twist to add something more interesting, I have the pairs of opposite meanings sitting on opposite ends of the circle.

In this way, a glyph without a circuit is simply its elemental meaning, but when you want a secondary meaning, you can indicate which one you want by putting the associated basic glyph on the specific sector of the circle (f.2), more specifically centred exactly on one of the cardinals or the diagonals, meaning top, right, bottom-left etc. (a neat consequence from using eight secondary meanings, and another reason for me to not expand that specific vocabulary). See an example below.

So now let’s get to the meat and potatoes, how a basic glyph combo is set up.

The first observation is that glyph combos almost always have some glyph at the centre. This central focus or anchor seems to determine what element is used in the spell, or how the spell is expressed, similar to being the core word of a sentence. For example, the Light glyph in both the invisibility spell and safety hover bends light in the first case, and emits a soft glow when active in the second.

For Fire, Philip’s teleportation glyph emits a pillar of flame when activated.

As a side-note, we also see from Philip’s later glyphs that, in my interpretation, a secondary meaning can also be used as a focus/anchor (Fire on bottom-left for water fountain (Motion) and Plant on bottom-left for monster arm (Evolve/Change)). I’ll get to them later, but merged elements can also be used as the central point. A Null glyph can also be a central glyph, and doesn’t have to be drawn since context excludes any other option of being the centre instead (f.2).

I also think that, in general, Ice and Plant glyphs will enact a spell more gradually, while Light and Fire glyphs will do so quickly/almost instantaneously. Also, Plant and Fire glyphs make a spell grow over time, while Ice and Light glyphs don’t. But that’s just an idle thought.

To make actual sentences with other words, however, we also need to add further descriptors on what this central/anchored word should do. This is where the glyph circuits come in, forming concentric circles centred on the central glyph. All glyphs and their corresponding meanings on this circle are direct descriptors for the central glyph that apply at the same time (e.1). Let’s call these descriptor circuits.

One quick note, with this setup we can run into the problem of needing two different glyphs to be at the same location, causing an overlap (f.3). To avoid this, let’s add the ability to draw a circle tangent to this point, keep one of the two glyphs on the tangent point as a ‘tangent glyph’, and move the other to somewhere else on the circle. See illustration below. Let’s call it a spacer circle/circuit. In the case of three or even all four glyphs overlapping, all can go somewhere on the circle. The position of the glyphs on this circuit doesn’t matter, but at least one should be off-grid, i.e. not centred on cardinals or diagonals (to clear up distinction issues later).

We also see from the teleport glyph that you can have multiple descriptor circuits all concentrically surrounding the central glyph. In the case of a second circuit, I’ll take it as meaning that the glyph combination it encircles can already count as its own nested spell, and this second circuit applies to the entirety of the enclosed spell. The reading order for this would thus be from centre to edge. I also think each added layer of circuit to the central focus produces a spell that can technically function on its own, even if it might be too unwieldy or useless or have dangerous side-effects without further description.

But what if there’s a nested spell that’s separate from the one already built up from the central glyph, an entire spell that needs to be applied to the main spell along with other descriptors in the same circuit? In that case we could attach a different glyph combo, like a nested sub descriptor circuit (subcircuit for short), onto one or more of the main descriptor circuits (if more exist). This subcircuit has the same rules as the main circuit, except it may not have a central glyph if it matches that of the main one, and might only work on other spells. In short, it's like a subroutine (if we’re pulling in coding language).

To also distinguish it from the previous spacer circle, let’s specify that a subcircuit has a glyph on an intersection point with other circuits, an ‘intersecting glyph’, rather than on a tangent point as a ‘tangent glyph’. We can also use this by saying that the glyphs on a subcircuit that occupy an intersection with another circle indicate that the subcircuit applies to those other circles. In order to line things up, you’d have to play with the size and location of the circle in relation to the main circle. Though you’d also have to keep in mind that glyphs on an intersection could have multiple meanings with their different placements for each of the different circles, which may be unwanted. To combat that, let’s add a rule that a glyph on an intersection always applies its meaning only to the more nested or otherwise smallest circle of the intersection, unless specified otherwise (we’ll get back to that later), and if there’s no other way you could use a Null glyph to add a connection (a.2).

With the main descriptor circuits, subcircuits, and spacer circuits, there’s only one more that is needed to make sure every bit of the vocabulary can be applied.

To add the merged/secondary elements from before, let’s add a merger circuit, which has the two or three elements you want to merge to form the secondary element, and let’s have them all equally spaced, reading the order of elements from left-most and moving clockwise.

To make sure this can be distinct from the sub- and spacer circuits, let’s say that, unlike the prior two, it has both a glyph only on an intersection point (or multiple) and at least one of the glyphs on a merger circuit is off-grid. In the case of 2-mergers that’d have to be both, and for 3-mergers you’re guaranteed to have at least one off-grid anyway (The joys of matching up a circle divided into equal threes with a circle divided into equal eighths). So now a subcircuit only has an intersecting glyph (or more) and all glyphs on the grid, spacer circuits only have a tangent glyph (or more) and at least one glyph off-grid, and merger circuits only have an intersecting glyph (or more) and at least one glyph off-grid.

This actually leaves open another useful combination, a circuit with only a tangent glyph (or more) and all glyphs on-grid. Let’s call this last combination a specification circuit, which adds extra descriptors onto only the glyph at the tangent point. It’s not a spell on its own, but adds adjectives and adverbs to the noun or verb it’s tangent to the other circuit with.

As a quick overview for some visualisation, here’s a glyph spell I put together, containing each of the circuits I’ve mentioned above, and with glyphs randomly thrown in. Though this was just set up for explanation purposes, let’s also try an attempt at reading said glyph with the rules I’ve set up and see if anything reasonable pops up (and keep your look-up diagrams with you. Can’t believe I made actual look-up diagrams).

Surprisingly, though maybe it’s just me spotting patterns in nothing, this isn’t complete gibberish, and I’d interpret this spell as being something that connects memories that are in danger of being absorbed by someone else to light balls, but also using it to order them and move them around, as long as the subject is aware of it happening. Sounds a bit like a mindscape defence against mind-reading. So yeah, that’s the basics out of the way.

Let’s see how this works out with the basic glyph combos in the show.

Invisibility glyph:

Lightened (centre, adjective) coloured (top-left, adjective) transparency (bottom-right, noun) order (bottom-left, noun) → Subject becomes lightened by coloured transparency through order → Invisibility through camouflage. Side-note, the bottom-left glyph can be absent and the glyph still works, as seen in its first instance. But I think the ‘order’ allows for multiple to be camouflaged by the one glyph.

Safety hover glyph:

Light (centre, noun) stillness (top-right, noun) movement (bottom-left, noun) → Use light on movement to make stillness → Stop subject’s movement instantly.

Snow/Command glyph (copyright, Lilith):

Null (centre, not drawn, surrounding circle isn’t a merger circuit (repeats of Ice) so isn’t acting as central glyph, meaning the empty space is an implied Null glyph) power (top, adjective) weakness (bottom, noun) preserved (left, adjective) removed (right, adjective) → The external object touching the centre is removed, this process is powered through weakness, yet the object is preserved → Break down this object through sheer power but keep the debris (In the case of the ice blob, break it down and powder it into snow)

So that turned out pretty well (Though I did already say I ordered the diagram with secondary glyph meanings to at least make sense of the basic glyphs).

Let’s go one final step further and see what we can use from what Philip eventually used in his glyphs.

Shortcuts and Miscellaneous Stuff

Let’s add one more concept to this entire system before that though.

h) Condense and simplify glyphs as much as possible.

Obviously, for usability it’s always best to find a way to get the same spell/effect with a glyph that’s easier to draw. And since this system is like a language, it’s like saying there are multiple ways of saying the same thing, with some faster to say than others.

But more than that, it’s also like shortening actual sentences with contractions, abbreviations, and finding that one specific obscure word in the Thesaurus that you previously had to use several words for to describe. For example, if you have multiple non-concentric circuits you could attempt orientating them to have multiple instances of the same glyphs overlap and work from there.

Another thing that was mentioned a while back was how glyphs on intersections only apply to the smaller circuit, unless specified. Well, let’s say this can be specified by drawing a straight line from the intersection glyph to the central glyph of the bigger circle, indicating it contributes simultaneously to both circles with two separate meanings.

This way of using straight lines to show a glyph is pulling double- or triple-duty can also be applied to drawing a line between two glyphs on the same circuit. This would make use of the previously discarded concept for how glyph meanings are ‘diff 4 placement’, indicating that the connected glyphs also have additional meanings based on their relative placement to one another.

For example, let’s take Philip’s petrification glyph.

Petrification glyph:

Iced (centre, adjective) removed (right, adjective) [Change (relative bottom-left, noun)] preserved (left, adjective) organism (bottom, noun) [Stilled (relative top-right, adjective) inorganic (relative top, adjective)] → Organism is removed but preserved, by having changed the stilled organism into something inorganic.

That already works amazingly on its own, though there’s also this funky plant glyph that’s unconnected to a circle but still connected to other glyphs by straight lines.

Something that hasn’t been tackled yet is how to actually use the primary meaning of the basic glyphs outside of being the central focus, because there’s no other place in the current rules for the basic glyphs to apply their elemental meaning on anything. So let’s make it so that a basic glyph that’s disconnected from a circle still has primary meaning, and is applied to other glyphs with straight lines. In this case that would add that iced life is preserved.

…This obviously doesn’t work too well since in canon the petrification is permanent and kills the petrified person, but I’ll gladly hop onto the convenient lifeboat that is the context of this glyph being incomplete. I’d say Philip was originally experimenting with a way of turning someone into stone as a defensive spell, but a) didn’t know how to express stone yet, and b) didn’t want it to be permanent, since that would be pretty iffy unless he already has all the power over the Boiling Isles and nobody attempting to question him for killing people. So this original glyph just turned the subject ‘inorganic’, which is apparently just some weak dust, so the preserving of life to make it reversible is pretty useless here anyway. Clearly not complete yet. In the completed, proper petrification glyph, the small Plant glyph with the two connections would be gone to make it irreversible, and a merger circle of Fire and Plant (Earth) with the two glyphs intersecting with another, appropriately sized merger circle with Ice as the third glyph (Hard), bringing a total circuit for (Hard Earth = Stone).

Either way, let’s add elemental modification to the toolkit.

Let’s go to the other three of Philip’s WIP glyphs and try to make sense of them, plus whatever extra features were added. First up, water fountain.

Water fountain glyph:

Sever (centre (top-left), verb (there’s no real noun for ‘sever’, and no double border so all that’s left is verb)) tangible (top-left, adjective) still (top-right, adjective) transparent (bottom-right, adjective). We also have some funky spiral lines connecting the three to the central point. My current translation would be ‘sever something here that’s tangible, still, and transparent’. My guess is that my boi Phil was trying to make a glyph that could isolate groundwater and get it out of the ground, probably for survival purposes since groundwater would be drinkable compared to the Boiling Sea and Rain (Luz assumes the glyph is meant to make a water fountain, but that’s just what she sees the glyph doing, not what its intended use is). Obviously he didn’t know how to properly express ‘groundwater’ at this point, or thought it was too bulky to write down that way, and went with a vague description of ‘tangible but transparent and still (not moving in the ground)’ instead. I think the spiralling lines here are supposed to provide a direction for the motion (there’s no motion glyph in here, i.e. Fire bottom-left, but severing water from the ground would probably push it up and give it some motion regardless, so the lines help direct it). It would make sense, since just bringing water straight up would make it fall back down on the ground, so you need a little trajectory to have it land in a gathering bowl next to the glyph. That said, let’s add motion lines.

Next up, monster arm:

The new feature here is a partial circle segment capped off by two fire glyphs. The first thing that comes to mind for me is that this is supposed to be an abbreviation for when you have to draw the same glyph on neighbouring locations of the circuit. So instead you only draw the correct glyph at the ends of the sequence and let the line imply the rest of the meanings involved. In this case: Evolution/Change (centre (bottom-left), noun) Protect Decay Weak Motion Hurt Sever Deception (right-to-top (clockwise), nouns), and on a second circuit ring, Evolution (bottom-left, noun). My current thoughts are that the ground or whatever sits at the central circle undergoes a change into something that can protect, move, hurt, sever, and deceive. And whatever that thing becomes is then told to continue evolving/changing/adapting.

What I think makes this glyph a failed WIP is that, though the segment already excludes Chaos (top-right), which would be pretty detrimental for a construct you want to order around, it does still include Weak and Decay (bottom and bottom-right), which makes the monster arm physically weak, prone to damage and slowly breaking down over time, as demonstrated in the episode. But Philip didn’t want to let go of using the segment to draw only two Fire glyphs instead of five either, as further breaking up the segment would isolate the Fire glyph on the right, which would separate the glyph from the system and turn it into a separate one that happens to occupy the same space, and a full circuit would require drawing five glyphs too). I think a good solution that Philip probably used in the completed version would be to use the Null glyph to further exclude the meanings that aren’t desired while keeping the full line segment intact.

Definitely useful to simplify the drawing process, so let’s add sequence segments as well.

Last of the WIP glyphs: the tornado glyph, which is the only one that actually works decently, on a small scale anyway, and saved for last for good reason.

We now have some sort of combination of circle segments positioned in layers, and direct line connections with both disconnected and connected element glyphs, as well as straight radial lines coming from the central glyph.

Since these Fire glyphs are on actual circular segments, let’s begin simply with the normal secondary meanings.

Tornado glyph: Icy (centre, adjective) Emitted (bottom-left, adjective) Sever (top-left, verb) Protection (right, noun) Weakness (bottom, noun).

Alright, so it took a while, but if I really want to make sense of this I’ll have to budge some parts of the word type indicators in the right direction. In this case, the bottom glyph will be changed to the adjective version, and the right glyph turned into its verb version.

To start with, as a circle segment, the line trajectory is only associated with Fire, and with the radial line segments in the bottom-left and bottom-right we’ll add those meanings as well. And the connection to the bottom-left Light glyph means something as well. So we now have Emitted (Light, bottom-left) Movement (Fire, bottom-left) Weak (Fire, bottom) Decays (Fire, bottom-right), so ‘an emitted movement that’s weak and decays’. It’s also connected to the circle segment one layer deeper, which has Protect (Fire, right) Decay (Fire, bottom-right). So we have ‘an emitted movement that’s weak and decays, but is protected from decay’. Since the line segment connects the outer circuit line (with the Light glyph) to the central glyph, and the outer glyphs apply to the inner ones, we also add some directionality. So now it becomes ‘an emitted, weak movement that decays as it moves inwards, but is protected from slowing down in total’. That’s probably just me budging everything, but that sounds like how the movement within a vortex of air behaves.

Lastly, the top circle segment has Sever (Fire, top-left) and Chaos (Fire, top-right), and has no connection between the outside circuit and the central glyph. So I’d say ‘sever chaos’ i.e. counteract the chaotic movement of the already existing air, and thus making it organised when it begins moving. Altogether, this glyph describes an ‘emitted, uniform motion that decays as it goes inwards but remains stable overall’. It might’ve been a bit wonky to get here, but none of the rules I’ve made have been contradicted yet and it actually got a decently accurate reading out of it.

Conclusion (plus an attempt to make a glyph from scratch for an existing spell)

So yeah, that’s literally all there is, and I think I got a cohesive system together that fits all the concepts I listed at the start, even if it’s certainly got a lot of cogs, but that’s to be expected when your system is described as a language.

Technically I could also cover Philip’s Teleportation glyph or the unlocking glyph Belos used to enter the Grimwalker area in the Skull, but that’s a) too much effort and probably doesn’t match up with my meanings for the former, but it can be left up as an exercise to the reader. And b) the additional rules the latter glyph could imply would probably be far too complex and unnecessary for this post, or for making glyphs altogether. We gotta keep in mind that that glyph is from someone who’s been experimenting and drawing for 400 years, so the previous simplifications/tricks I covered in the last section would be far more amplified and complex.

Either way, with that all finished up, let’s use it to build a glyph from scratch that mimics a complex spell we see used in canon but doesn’t have a glyph counterpart.

For this, I’ll use the ‘quick-step’ spell we see Eda and Lilith use, where they turn into flame and quickly move elsewhere, reappearing at the end. Hunter does something similar with Flapjack, but there it’s done with light.

So, the central component of this entire spell will be moving. And the descriptor circuit for that movement will be something like ‘[move] a person quickly along a path’. ‘Quickly’ here can be made with a merger circuit. Then, if I want to recreate the spell accurately, the path needs to be specified to be somewhat short, so you can’t just use it to teleport somewhere far away. This can easily be done by specifying that it has to be visible for the caster before they cast it, using a specification circuit.

The next component will be the turning the person into fire. This sounds like a spell on its own, even if it’s pretty deadly, so it’ll be a nested spell that links to the main circuit through a subcircuit. The subcircuit will then be something like ‘change person into fire’. Since this spell is still very much deadly on its own, it’ll also need its own specifier saying that the person should be preserved during the change, for protection.

Lastly, it still needs a way to reverse this change from fire back to person once the spell has reached the end of the connection. In this case, ‘Reverse’ and ‘Ending’ can both be made from merger circuits.

Now we just need to add all those circuits together, making sure each type of circle has the right border glyphs and glyph positioning (tangent or intersecting, on-grid or off-grid), and lastly the condition of ‘reverse transformation spell at end of trajectory’ needs to be properly linked up.

And with that we get the final Quick-Step glyph below.

Some additional notes. The top circuit didn’t technically have to go at the top-right, but it did need to intersect with the main circuit through one of its glyphs. The only other place where it wouldn’t have overlapped with the main circuit’s glyphs would’ve been in the top-left, with the merger circuit for ‘Fast/Quick’ needing to rotate down on the main circuit a bit to accommodate. But in that case the series of connected circuits for the ‘reverse at end of trajectory’ would’ve been impossible to draw compactly. Either they’d go straight over the main circuit, or going around the circuit would require giant circles.

And then there’s also the inside line segments of the subcircuit. I haven’t established the rules for how those would work, and I’m playing it a bit loose there, but basically the places where the circles jump down in layer (shorter radius) is where the glyphs on the outside ring slot in. If the segment had jumped down a layer where a glyph from the outside hadn’t been connected into it, then it would’ve been the corresponding definition for the Fire glyph at the start of the circuit. The reading order here is also from the Fire glyph towards the centre. And lastly, the outside circuit of the spell ‘organism change inorganic’ does need disambiguation, since it could also be read as ‘inorganic change organism’. The direction of how the inside circuit approaches the middle helps disambiguate that, giving it a defined reading order, which is then read in reverse once the ‘Reverse’ circuit comes into play.

And…wow, I think that’s all. I’ve spent an entire day typing this out (plus way too many days of experimenting with things and coming up with some rules), and few people will probably see this, but damn that was satisfying to write out.

For those of you who read all the way to the end, or God forbid actually took the time to take it all in, thank you very much!

…I’m going to bed.

[bigcatrescue]

CAT FACTS - Pampas Cat Species Info - Misc. The taxonomic evaluation of 96 museum specimens has led to the conclusion that given the geographic differences of this cat, the “Pampas Cat” may actually be 3 distinct species: Lynchailurus pajeros (high Andes from Equador to Patagonia and throughout Argentina), L. braccatus (Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay), and L. colocolo (Chile). Molecular analysis is planned for these specimens to prove this theory.

Size and Appearance: Its appearance is different from the other South American cats and resembles more the European Wild Cat with its broad face and pointed ears. It appearance also varies in different parts of its range. In the high Andes it's gray-colored with reddish stripes broken up into spots and resembles the Andes Mountain Cat.

In Argentina, the coat is longer, more of a yellow-brown color with a muted pattern. In Brazil, a young male was a rusty color with dark, irregular black stripes over its entire body when it was immature, but by the time it was older, the stripes were only visible on the limbs and underparts. It has longer hair on its back forming a “dorsal mane”. Their ears are grey, but in the northern animals, they also have a white central spot. They weigh from 6-15 lbs., stand 12-14 inches high, and are 32-42 inches long.

In captivity, Pampas Cats have lived 16 years, but the average is 9.

Habitat: Primarily open grasslands and humid forests.

Distribution: Patagonia, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, and Brazil.

Reproduction and Offspring: After a gestation of 80-85 days they produce a litter of 1-3 young. They reach maturity at around 21 months in captivity. They are also believed to have a set breeding period of April to July in captivity.

Social System and Communication: Unknown. No studies have ever been done on this cat in the wild.

Hunting and Diet: It has been observed preying mainly on small mammals such as guinea pigs, and on ground-dwelling birds such as penguins and chickens. They are also believed to be terrestrial and mostly nocturnal.

Principal Threats: Habitat destruction throughout their range remains to be their primary threat, as well as the reduction of their prey base. Trade of their pelts ceased in 1987

Status: IUCN: Indeterminate. CITES: Appendix I.

[likeadragonfruit]

After about a month, I’m coming to the conclusion that I’m probably not going to revisit the watching the rest of Avatar the Last Airbender’s Japanese dub. So I just want to share some of the other observations I made. (See previous notes here)

Disclaimer: I don’t claim to have every single nuance of the language down, this is just what I noticed and my best effort to communicate that. I do not claim to be an authority here.

Family address/honorific choices

Azula’s terms of referring to her family members are both more formal and archaic than modern Japanese. In a modern context, you’d see these associated with period pieces.

when Azula isn’t calling Zuko “Zuko” or “Zuzu,” she refers to him as aniue (兄上)

Azula always refers to Ursa as hahaue (母上). This is in contrast to the original English, where Azula (and Zuko) switch between saying “mom” and “mother” depending on the context.

Azula almost always refers to Ozai as chichiue (父上). The only time she refers to him as just chichi (父) is her line after the eclipse ends (“I’m sure Dad will be more than happy to face you”). But broadly speaking, once again, you don’t have that switching between “dad” and “father” like in English.

And Azula refers to Iroh as ojiue (伯父上)

In contrast, Katara uses more contemporary honorifics for Hakoda and Sokka, tōsan (父さん) and niisan (兄さん) respectively.

Toph refers to her parents formally; she refers to Lao and Poppy as Otōsama (お父様) and Okāsama (お母様), respectively. 

Misc

in book 2, when Ty Lee refers to the universe giving her a strong hint to join Azula, it’s translated as god - kami-sama (神様)

in the finale, when Ozai speaks of the universe delivering Aang to him, universe is directly translated into universe - uchū (宇宙)

Im not sure why the difference. (Differing localization teams strikes again?)

[ambarto]

Middle Earth geology: a masterpost

I did say I would do it once and I did it, a masterpost of all the works I found online pertaining to geology in Tolkien’s works. This isn’t to say that it’s a complete list of everything that has been written about the subjects - there’s multiple works that I’ve seen cited in some of these articles that I could not find anywhere, and likely other works I just didn’t dig deep enough to find. If anyone has links to additional works, feel free to share them, and I’ll add them to the post. Many of these works are somewhat old, but for the most part they’re still good in the points they make.

General Middle Earth works

A New Synthesis on the Geology of Middle-earth: Genesis, Orogeny and Tectonics by Chris Ingles and Lindy A. Orthia (2016) - an overview of all the mountain ranges in Middle Earth and how they might have come to be, as well as a discussion on what may have happened to Beleriand. Differs from many other articles in this list, as this one includes also the magical aspects of Arda’s formation rather than attempting to only use strictly realistic geological concepts. One of the longer articles here with 14 pages in total, but the language used makes it easy to read.

The Geology of Middle-earth by William A. S. Sarjeant (1995) - a general overview of tectonical processes involving Middle Earth, in particular relating to tectonic plates and faults. Literally the first results I got when I googled “geology tolkien”. Not too long and not too complicated a read, many of the technical terms used receive an in-text explanation. Includes various maps. The most difficult parts to understand are probably towards the end, with citations from “The Geomorphology of Middle-earth” by Robert Reynolds (the whole article wants to present a more recent take on the previous work by Reynolds, an article that gets cited a lot but I haven’t been able to find anywhere).

Glaciation in Middle-earth by Samuel Cook (2016) - part of a copy of the journal “Anor”. Article is four pages long and fairly easy to understand. The topic straddles the line between a geological and a more geographical/climatological narrative, but geologists love glaciers so we’re gonna put glaciers here too.

Middle Earth Geology, a thread (2019) - not an article, but a thread on TheOneRing.net forum were various users discuss possible explanations for various features of Middle Earth and Beleriand. Because it’s a forum thread it doesn’t have definite conclusions, simply puts forwards multiple theories. A few mentions of things that get overall overlooked in other works, like some of the mountain ranges present in Beleriand.

The Geologic History of Middle Earth by Benjamin D. Hilton (2009) - this is a rather technical paper in language, and extremely speculative. Essentially, this paper talks about an hypothetical history of Middle Earth on a real world geological timescale, starting 1.7 billion years ago. The way the article is written as if the author was able to gain actual field data, and while much of what is said makes sense as far as theories go a lot of it is based on fake evidence peppered in through the paper. Doubtful in conclusions, but a fun read for sure

The Elder Ages and the Later Glaciations of the Pleistocene Epoch by Margaret M. Howes (1967) - this work is often cited as the first article investigating Middle Earth’s geology so I couldn’t not add it here. I should however mention that the contents are, well, they’re kind of a wild ride. The article essentially strives to explain how Middle Earth could have hypothetically been turned into modern day Europe and tries to give an explanation to real glaciations through the eyes of Tolkien’s works. I wouldn’t really call this article scientifically or historically sound, it’s more definitely a curiosity if anyone is interested. A bit longer than some other articles. Scan of a typewriter document, which might make it a little harder to read.

The Shire

The Geology of the Shire by Mike Percival (1984) - second article in this PDF. The document is a scan of an old copy of “Anor”, which may make it harder to read than some other files. Short article and without a lot of technical terms. Very little tectonics, mostly makes guesses as to what kind of rocks you might find in various areas of the Shire. Also features a geologic profile and map.

Khazad-dum/Moria

The Draining of Moria by Mike Percival (1987) - part of a scanned copy of “Anor”. Explores theories on how the Dwarves of Moria would have gotten rid of the water that might have flooded the mines, and before that makes hypothesis on the kind of bedrock Moria might have been built into. It also answers a question as to why the Sirannon formed a lake outside of the Doors of Moria. Fairly easy when it comes to language.

The Mines of Moria - a comment by Ted Crawford (1988) - a comment on the previous article, again on an “Anor” journal. Focused more on the engineering side than the geological one, I’m mostly adding this one for completeness, but it doesn’t really contradict the purely geological conclusions. Lots of numbers going on there.

The Mines of Moria - Further Thoughts by Mike Percival (1988) - a comment on the previous comment. Same journal, same discussion. Once again, more engineering focused, but might be interesting.

Numenor

Geographical Observations on Numenor by Duncan McLaren (1985) - once again, scanned “Anor” copy, and not the best scan I’ve seen. Short article, not exclusive to geology. The part dealing with what kind of rocks you might find on Numenor, which is also probably what may interest a fic writer more, seems overall rather reasonable. Also gives a theory on plate tectonics and attempts a geological explanation of the Akallabeth.

On Numenor by Mike Percival (1985) - a comment and response to the previous article. Scanned “Anor” copy again. Focuses on the plate tectonics, and has a somewhat more technical language than the previous article, going more in depth. Alternate view for an Akallabeth event than the previous article. Also features maps.

Paleontology

Paleontology in the Silmarillion by Mike Sutton (1991) - very short and very easy in language. Doesn’t really go particularly in depth on any matter, essentially explores how there could be certain similarities between what is considered (or was considered, paleontological ideas change a lot in thirty years) the order in which various life forms appeared and certain language used in the Silmarillion. If you thought that this was an “Anor” copy, you guessed it right.

Misc

“Beneath the Earth’s dark keel” Tolkien and Geology by Gerard Hynes (2012) - this article doesn’t deal with the geology of Arda, but rather speculates the way Tolkien himself might have tried to work geology within the text by considering the state of geological knowledge and how it evolved during Tolkien’s life. Also covers a little the history of the theory of plate tectonics, if anyone is interested about learning about it.

Re-reading the Map of Middle-earth: Fan Cartography’s Engagement with Tolkien’s Legendarium by Stentor Danielson (2013) - this is not a geological article, but a cartography article. The reason I added it is because a lot of the geological studies on Middle Earth, especially of the tectonics kind, are based on how maps look like and what deductions can be made from the shapes you see on them. As this author points out, maps are not necessarily accurate with their information, especially older ones, and might do things like, for example, make mountain ranges be excessively straight in line. A bit long, but worth reading.

[robuttsinyourthighs]

If people want to accuse me of being racist or starting a witch hunt over an assumption of race... I'll leave you with this series of events.

1. User Potatoofplatinum harasses users over starop content. This person happens to be a person of color as shown in their photos and linked YouTube channel. This information will be relevant in a moment.

2. I said my piece about them and (as always) shared my opinions.

3. I made a post today regarding harassment between shippers and how I wished it would stop (specifically starop vs megastar) since I've recently joined a discord server that prohibits being judgemental ❤️✨

4. Someone started spamming copypasta of my post PRIMARILY TO STAROP POSTERS (they've made nearly ten accounts that I could count to do this)

5. As the callouts to block began THEN the anon remarks came in. In one of the many I was called a cracker (I don't hide who I am on here, I post my tiktoks often).

6. I noted that I thought, based on what I've personally observed, that this person may not be white.

7. I immediately after that post get a single anon with the n-word and like 5 Rs.

8. I immediately get anon accusations of me 'blaming negroes' (phrased the same way that this troll had been insulting me a moment ago) when I never said the person might be black, just possibly not white.

9. Everyone else is now getting the n-word in their inboxes and the troll is @ ing myself and other users in their spam.

10. I'm 95% sure that the spammer is Potatoofplatinum because it fits their MO of targeting starop before branching into other misc posts. The spammer only using the n-word after I pointed out the only possible identifying feature I had on this troll is really poorly made and OBVIOUS red herring.

So in conclusion, this is stupid. Bye.

[soulgathered-archived]

do not reblog.

name : romani archaman | king solomon age : physically in his early to mid thirties ( in actuality he is closer to around 3k years ). family : mashu kyrielight ( he views her as his daughter )

romani archaman is a strange enigma. chaldea’s doctor seems to have simply come into existence. claiming to be an old friend of marisbury. he started working in chaldea in his twenties, already having finished his doctor’s degree at a rather young age. he then became the head of the medical facility.

during the erasure of humanity, the death of olga-marie & the destruction of most of chaldea, romani became the leader of the organization. he is in charge of the missions, always sitting in the command room & going through the procedure of proving the master’s existence to sheba, so they won’t be erased during their time travels.

he seems a lighthearted & foolish man & something about him simply invites people, but especially servants, to bully him. an instinctual feeling of “all of this is your fault”. despite that, he seems eager to get along with most people. most, not all. there is a stark contrast in his behavior towards certain individuals, mainly king david, merlin and king gilgamesh, though with the later he simply seems intimidated.

during the story it is revealed that the one behind the disappearance of humanity is none other than the grandcaster, king solomon. from there on out there is a slight shift in the doctor who seems even more stressed than usually. 

it isn’t until the final confrontation that the truth is revealed : the one posing as king solomon is goetia, the personification of all the demons solomon had summoned and the king’s hope to guide and protect humanity. however, solomon, unable to properly convey those feelings, had left goetia to observe humanity by himself. after solomon’s death, goetia came to the conclusion that humanity was unworthy, setting the plans in motions to erase their entire history.

however, a few years before that, marisbury had participated in a holy grail war, summoning the true solomon to his side. the two of them won the war & marisbury offered the grail to solomon, giving him the option to fulfill one wish : a simple wish, really. to live as a human. having been given his clairvoyance as a child, solomon never had the luxury of living as a human, always being more of a tool for what an ideal king should be. emotions, wishes, all of that were things he denied himself.

that was the birth of romani archaman, a simple man who could now live his life as he wanted. however, in his last seconds as solomon, he glimpsed the erasure of humanity, setting him on the path of becoming chaldea’s doctor...

... & sacrificing himself for the greater good. to give chaldea’s last master a chance to defeat goetia, romani changes back to solomon, using his last grand spell to erase himself out of history, out of the very concept of humanity & therefor weakening goetia, whose very being is bound to the concept of solomon.

misc .

he has a terrible sweet tooth. 

if he isn’t eating something sweet, he is most likely drinking coffee as sugar & caffeine are what is keeping him going.

he gets joy out of the most mundane things since he never really got to enjoy them in both versions of his life.

he enjoys spending time with the jewish heroic spirits that roam chaldea. all except david, he seems to avoid his father & does not even reveal his identity to him, not until his death.

he speaks a bunch of languages, especially old ones.

I personally do not think that the person looking like romani is actually him, but rather goetia in his body, or a fusion of goetia & solomon. I also elect to ignore that. in any AU where romani appears again, goetia used his last powers to return him to chaldea. in those verses romani can freely change between the doctor and king solomon & he can summon goetia. however his magical powers are not as strong as they used to be, especially because he does not have all his ten rings. 

...he is still in denial that merlin & the idol magi*mari are the same person.

he’s a rather talented musician & poet

[ash-rabbit]

Abitc: Chapter 9 cuts

Before I go into why what's below was cut, I'm going to preface this by saying that due to how I write:

This is not beta read, I send the chapter their way when it's done. And I haven't given this my own layer of gratuitous edits. I edit as I write, usually tweaking lines and moments to better flow to where I want to go, sometimes this includes gouging out 2.5 pages of writing.

Anyway here's why I cut 2.5 pages.

It simply took too long, chapter 9 is already 15 pages (7650 words). This would come in around pg 9, and I don't think I could have concluded it in any satisfying or timely way. I'm not going to have a 10,000 word chapter unless it's the ending of an Arc, ala ch 6&7 which was split into something more easily digestible. And my intentions went off the rails by Elias electing to make an especially stupid decision. It halts the progression of events, and doesn't tell us anything that's pertinent. It feels like filler, especially if I followed this thread to it's end.

And most important of all I don't like it.

He skulks into his dark office, slips his throw over his head and tosses his blazer to his right. No use putting this off, but a harmless Leitner was a rarity in itself. Though, there was a copy of ‘Goodnight Moon’ that was liable to be harmless. So long as it didn’t blow up the moon it should be fine.

He walks back out and ignores their raised eyebrows as he tugs the blanket tighter. “A copy of ‘Goodnight Moon’ will be our choice of reading, I’d recommend that three of us should hold an artefact that can counter a theorised side effect of the book.” He pauses, waiting for any sort of reply.

“The children’s book?” Sarah exclaims, followed shortly by a yelp as someone, likely Rosie jabs her. Michael’s much too polite for assault.

“I don’t- I can handle a proper demonstration.” He can hear Michael’s frown, but Elias doesn’t care for any larger risks then necessary.

“It was at the top of my list for Rosie’s training.” Elias scans the shelf for the slim volume, it sits beside Jon’s ‘Mr. Spider’ which is as poor an omen as any. “Leitner’s are something of a different animal, and if any of you would like to guess what wild effects the book can have, please go ahead.”

“What is the Moon’s destruction?” Sarah’s amusement sits thick in her voice, coating her words in a playful lilt.

“We don’t have an artefact for that.” Elias laughs. Saying goodnight was a form of goodbye, that would be loneliness? Or maybe he was overthinking it and it would simply turn off all the lights. It’s been awhile, and he can’t just run off to a bookstore to check. “I’ll mark you down for the removal of light sources.” A ‘Hand of Glory’ or other objects that dealt with sight, Beholding as Mikaele and Jon preferred to call it, seemed an easy counter. Though would any fire starter suffice? Hm, best to pull one of those down as well in case they needed to dispose of the book. Reality warping was a possibility, the pseudo erasure of things could be untwisted? If anything it would act as an interesting third control, though perhaps, the reader would be a separate subject, and they’d need a pure control for the best observable results.

He grabs the book and doubles back to the table, scratching out his theories on a scrap of paper.

“Fine- um- it’s a children's book, and those are uh fantasies.” Michael starts, and while he’s on the right track, ‘Goodnight Moon’ is hardly a fantasy. “So I guess that if it does do something it would be drawing the fantasy out here?”

“Reality warping.” Elias nods, seems there’s a general consensus on this at least.

“There’s no guarantee that it’ll be anything like the original, we’ve had cases where whole sections were rewritten in a gruesome parody.” Rosie says, and that’s a fair point as well. “For all we know it could be a- I don’t know a way of disappearing someone.”

“I’ll mark that down as carnivorous literature.” Elias sighs, before holding the page out towards Rosie. “Do you think there are other types of artefacts that could counteract any of our theories?”

“What if the reader is stuck? Do we have a magical bucket of water, or do we just slap them in hopes of breaking the effect?” Rosie asks, though she knows the standard protocol, passing the paper to Sarah. Right of course, the Archives crew wouldn’t know.

“We remove the book while wearing gloves, or set it on fire.” Arson tended to solve most problems, not all of them unfortunately, but enough to be an easy fallback.

“And in the worst case scenario?” Rosie presses, slipping between the shelves, her movements are purposeful, her two weeks alone must have been productive.

“I suppose we can give Gertrude a warning, just a ‘If you don’t hear anything from us in, say twenty minutes, assume the worst.’” He shrugs, before frowning, right then. “Not it.” He’s had enough of management for one day, and if he’s lucky a large enough mess can be a tidy excuse to escape Wright later.

“Not it!” Michael and Sarah chime.

“I- how old are you people?” Rosie huffs, stepping back into the open research area, arms full of misc objects that Elias only vaguely remembers. Hng, he’ll probably just use the monocle in his office, it was dependable and the side effects weren’t any different then his normal brand of paranoia. Assumedly of course, it’s been a while since he was without a buffer, supernatural or otherwise.

Rosie grumbles as she kicks off her heels, pulling out another set of shoes, black and lowheeled with little bows on the toes. Another set of shoes? Where on Earth? Why?

“I’ll be back, don’t start without me.” And she flits off towards the Archives.

“Right then, we can parse out who does what.” He drags the blanket further over his head as they turn towards him. “I need to fetch something from the office but I’m sure you can decide between the two of you who’s better suited to reading or acting as an observer.”

He traces his eyes over the small office, now where did he put- Ah, there it is, wedged under his desk. He pulls out the damaged monocle and watches as it swings like a pendulum, the cracks catching the light with a peculiar shine.

He hasn’t tested the object since, hasn’t had the occasion or much cared to. Would the effects be amplified or would it be rendered completely null from damage and what he can only assume was something amounting to overuse? Only one way to find out. He wedges it into place, slipping his blazer back on so he can safely notch the chain through the lapel hole. Elias keeps the blanket on as he shuffles back out.

Michael and Sarah seem to have come to a conclusion and it would seem the power of the lens was only magnified by the incident. He sways under the sight of it all, there’s a sort of afterimage of thousands of eyes winking in and out of existence across the room. Bile rises in the acrid tangs of burnt coffee and curdled cream, this was unexpected.

He needs to sit down. Now.

So he does. Practically collapsing on the spot as he gathers himself beneath the throw, dragging it over his eyes. The world goes dark and he breathes, short and quick, a cold sharp breath that mingles with the burbling nausea.

He wraps his fingers around the chain, and tugs. Once, short and light, it doesn’t budge. Twice, more forcefully, a stern yank, nothing. His breath quickens. He grabs the frame of it and tries to pry it away with trembling hands.

It doesn’t budge.

Fuck.

Right then.

“Good news everyone,” he says, swallowing his tremors the best he can, hardly a waver apparent as he digs his nails into his thighs. “We don’t need to test the Leitner.”

“Are you, er alright?” Sarah asks.

“The bad news is, we have a different artefact issue.” he tugs the blanket down and regrets it immediately as a thousand eyes bore into him and find him wanting.

Don’t get sick, don’t get sick, don’t look them in the eye and- he fumbles for a cigarette.

The nicotine does nothing and he finds the sick rising faster.

[roseverdict]

crack underrune theory i just thought up in the past like 10 minutes (because i can't stop fixating on undertale and deltarune to SAVE MY LIFE):

gaster:

shattered across time and space

dark darker yet darker

connection to deltarune's "character creation SIKE"

we don't actually interact w/gaster except in one (1) room you need to either bribe lady luck or hack to get into (and we're not even entirely sure that's him!)

kris:

shares traits with frisk (stoic, playable, appearance, NAME) and chara (yeet the soul, knife, appearance, name the human SIKE you weren't naming what you thought you were!)

dark world hero

resembles one of the wizards in undertale's opening sequence

we don't actually get to interact with kris except at the end when they they "yeet-us" and "delete-us" and even then we're kinda stuck in a FRICKIN CAGE

conclusion:

KRISTER?????

misc other 1:30 AM observations:

*points at ralsei aka asriel doppelganger in a general sense of "HOME AND/OR NEW HOME"*

noelle (who i guess might eventually join the party?) is winter-themed. y'know what else is winter-themed? SNOWDIN.

susie reminds me of another fierce fighter lady with big teeth and…eclectic…tastes. that's right, undyne, who lives in WATERFALL.

afaict lancer is just vibin and im care he. maybe hotland??? im really kinda shaky on this one.

kris clearly has A Lot Of Stuff Going On but if we're going for the gaster correlations, perchance the playable human who Mystery Narrator pranks the players with would be the CORE of the operations? eh? eh?

unrelated to the rest of this but if deltarune papyrus is beta fedora papyrus i don't know what i'll do woshwkdbsodhskxjxo

[lunaemia]

About Thomas More’s “Utopia”

I finished my reread of Utopia by Thomas More. The reason I reread it was more or less to refresh my memory in anticipation of future FFXIV patches. I had originally not thought much about the Ancients’ city being called “Amaurot,” but ever since I read this post about Emet-Selch’s costume, I’ve wondered if there might be more influences from Utopia besides names.

This is honestly for my own benefit to go back to during future patches (where we’ll hopefully learn more about the Ancients’ society 🙏), but since I’m probably going to share it with other FFXIV friends regardless, I figured I’ll add some disclaimers:

FFXIV!Amaurot was called “Atlantis” in early development. So, some of the more... on-the-nose passages might just be a coincidence, albeit one the devs may happily use.

Related to the above point, it’s important to note that Thomas More himself coined the term “utopia” with this book. This is the granddaddy of fictional utopias. A lot of common tropes probably started here.

The headers (Book I, Book II - Of Their Magistrates, etc) come directly from the book, except for the Interludes. Interlude sections are of my own making, either linking related passages from different chapters or isolating certain sections of a chapter.

MISC.

Here’s a list of terms and names from Utopia.

Copying some of the most interesting ones:

Utopia – “noplace” in Greek (Eutopia would have been “happy place.”)

Mithra - name of Persian gnostic god and of Utopia's god (this one is discussed more later in this post)

Amaurot (name of a Utopian city) – “[made]* dark” (but I’ve read elsewhere that it means “foggy or phantom”)

Probably important to note that Utopia is satire.

Also, I find the visuals of FFXIV!Amaurot quite interesting when you compare it to Utopia. Art deco is not exactly the architectural style you might associate with proto-communism, heh.

BOOK I.

Raphael Hythloday is a philosopher and globe-trotter. He lived amongst the Utopians for five years.

Because of his worldly knowledge, More and Gillis (both of whom are real people, unlike Hythloday) suggest that he become a sort of counsellor to a king, an idea which he passionately refuses.

From Hades’ Tales from the Shadows story, we know that Hythlodaeus had initially been asked to become the new Emet-Selch. He refused, so the role went to Hades instead.

1. “I think my friends ought to rest contended with this, and not to expect that for their sakes I should enslave myself to any king whatsoever.”

2. “The change of the word,” said he, “does not alter the matter.”

3. “and if all other things failed, then they would fly to this, that such or such things pleased our ancestors, and it were well for us if we could but match them. They would set up their rest on such an answer, as a sufficient confutation of all that could be said; as if it were a great misfortune, that any should be found wiser than his ancestors; but though they willingly let go all the good things that were among those of former ages, yet if better things are proposed they cover themselves obstinately with this excuse of reverence to past times.”

4. “For you spoil and corrupt the play that is in hand when you mix with it things of an opposite nature, even though they are much better.”

5. “... for the same reasons you should not forsake the ship in a storm because you cannot command the winds.”

6. “in a complication of diseases, that by applying a remedy to one sore, you will provoke another; and that which removes the one ill symptom produces others, while the strengthening one part of the body weakens the rest”

BOOK II. OF THEIR TOWNS, PARTICULARLY OF AMAUROT

The island of Utopia is located somewhere in the New World, and because of its geography, it’s also fairly isolated.

Amaurot is its capital.

The island has 54 cities. They are all more or less the same. Hythloday makes a point in saying that when he describes Amaurot, he describes the other Utopian cities as well.

There is no private property in Amaurot. Also, apparently the most beautiful of gardens can be found there.

BOOK II. OF THEIR MAGISTRATES

1. “It is a fundamental rule of their government, that no conclusion can be made in anything that relates to the public, till it has been first debated three several days in their council”

2. “One rule observed in their council, is, never to debate a thing on the same day in which it is first proposed; for that is always referred to the next meeting, that so men may not rashly, and in the heat of discourse, engage themselves too soon, which might bias them so much, that instead of consulting the good of the public, they might rather study to support their first opinions, and by a perverse and preposterous sort of shame, hazard their country rather than endanger their own reputation, or venture the being suspected to have wanted foresight in the expedients that they at first proposed”

BOOK II. OF THEIR TRADES, AND MANNER OF LIFE

Every citizen has a particular trade that they focus on - such as the manufacture of wool, masonry, carpentry, etc. There is no particular trade that’s held in higher regard than the others.

Trade often passes from parent to child, but if anyone’s skills are better suited to a different trade, they are moved to a family that deals in that trade.

The people all wear the same types of basic clothes. The only distinction in dress is between the sexes, and the married and unmarried.

They appoint 6 hours to work each day (3 before dinner, 3 after).

Despite the lower number of working hours compared to other societies, they find themselves with a “great abundance of all things among them.” This is due to the fact that no citizen remains idle.

BOOK II. OF THEIR TRAFFIC

They think that the greatest happiness of life comes from improving their minds.

None of their cities may contain above 6000 families, besides those of the country around it. No family may have less than 10 and more than 16 people within them. This rule is observed by moving children around, should it be necessary.

They have large, functioning hospitals. It’s said that their hospitals are so large that they may pass for little towns. They take care of their sick much more than other societies.

INTERLUDE. ON BUTCHERS

“There are also, without their towns, places appointed near some running water, for killing their beasts, and for washing away their filth; which is done by their slaves: for they suffer none of their citizens to kill their cattle, because they think that pity and good-nature, which are among the best of those affections that are born with us, are much impaired by the butchering of animals”

“Therefore all this business of hunting is, among the Utopians, turned over to their butchers; and those, as has already been said, are all slaves; and they look on hunting as one of the basest parts of a butcher’s work: for they account it both more profitable and more decent to kill those beasts that are more necessary and useful to mankind; whereas the killing and tearing of so small and miserable an animal can only attract the huntsman with a false show of pleasure, from which he can reap but small advantage. They look on the desire of the bloodshed, even of beasts, as a mark of a mind that is already corrupted with cruelty, or that at least by the frequent returns of so brutal a pleasure must degenerate into it.”

BOOK II. OF THE TRAVELLING OF THE UTOPIANS

If they have an over-plus of resources, they export it. They often do send out great quantities to other nations. They order a seventh of these goods to be given out to the poor of foreign nations; the rest are sold at moderate rates.

1. “There are no taverns, no alehouses nor stews among them; nor any other occasions of corrupting each other, of getting into corners, or forming themselves into parties: all men live in full view, so that all are obliged, both to perform their ordinary task, and to employ themselves well in their spare hours”

2. “And on the contrary, they think it a sign of a gentle and good soul, for a man to dispense with his own advantage for the good of others;”

INTERLUDE. ON THE VALUE OF GOLD

Linking this post again due to its relevance.

1. “But one who can judge aright, will not wonder to find, that since their constitution differs so much from ours, their value of gold and silver should be measured by a very different standard; for since they have no use for money among themselves, but keep it as a provision against events which seldom happen, and between which there are generally long intervening intervals; they value it no farther than it deserves, that is, in proportion to its use. So that it is plain, they must prefer iron either to gold or silver: for men can no more live without iron, than without fire or water”

2. “The folly of men has enhanced the value of gold and silver, because of their scarcity. Whereas, on the contrary, it is their opinion that Nature, as an indulgent parent, has freely given us all the best things in great abundance, such as water and earth, but has laid up and hid from us the things that are vain and useless.”

3. “... while they make their chamber-pots and close-stools of gold and silver; and that not only in their public halls, but in their private houses: of the same metals they likewise make chains and fetters for their slaves; to some of which, as a badge of infamy, they hang an ear-ring of gold, and make others wear a chain or a coronet of the same metal; and thus they care care, by all possible means, to render gold and silver of no esteem.”

4. “They find pearls on their coast; and diamonds and carbuncles on their rocks; they do not look after them, but if they find them by chance, they polish them, and with them they adorn their children, who are delighted with them, and glory in them during their childhood; but when they grow to years, and see that none but children use such baubles, they of their own accord, without being bid by their parents, lay them aside; and would be as much ashamed to use them afterwards, as children among us, when they come to years, are of their puppets and other toys.”

5. “This three ambassadors made their entry with an hundred attendants, all clad in garments of different colours, and the greater part in silk; the ambassadors themselves, who were of the nobility of their country, were in cloth of gold, and adorned with massy chains, ear-rings and rings of gold: their caps were covered with bracelets set full of pearls and other gems: in a word, they were set out with all those things that, among the Utopians, were either the badges of slavery, the marks of infamy, or the playthings of children.”

6. “The Utopians wonder how any man should be so much taken with the glaring doubtful lustre of a jewel or a stone, that can look up to a star, or to the sun himself ...”

BOOK II. OF THEIR SLAVES, AND OF THEIR MARRIAGES

They have no lawyers. They think it’s best for everyone to plead their own case and understand their own laws. Fortunately, their laws are few in number and easy to understand.

1. “If any man aspires to any office, he is sure never to compass it”

This also reminded me of Hades’ Tales from the Shadows story. Granted, it’s a very short story, but I didn’t get the impression that Hades actively pursued his office (Hythlodaeus obviously didn’t). It’s possible that none of the Convocation did if this bit from Utopia was worked in.

2. “THEY do not make slaves of prisoners of war, except those that are taken in battle; nor of the sons of their slaves, nor of those of other nations: the slaves among them are only such as are condemned to that state of life for the commission of some crime, or, which is more common, such as their merchants find condemned to die in those parts to which they trade, whom they sometimes redeem at low rates; and in other places have them for nothing. They are kept at perpetual labour, and are always chained, but with this difference, that their own natives are treated much worse than others; they are considered as more profligate than the rest, and since they could not be restrained by the advantage of so excellent an education, are judged worthy of harder usage”

3. “Another sort of slaves are the poor of the neighbouring countries, who offer of their own accord to come and server them; they treat these better, and use them in all other respects as well as their own countrymen, except their imposing more labour upon them, which is no hard task to those that have been accustomed to it; and if any of these have a mind to go back to their own country, which indeed falls out but seldom, as they do not force them to stay, so they do not send them away empty-handed.”

4. “For the most part, slavery is the punishment even of the greatest crimes; for as that is no less terrible to the criminals themselves than death, so they think the preserving them in a state of servitude is more for the interest of the commonwealth than killing them; since as their labour is a greater benefit to the public than their death could be, so the sight of their misery is a more lasting terror to other men than that which would be given by their death”

5. “If their slaves rebel, and will not bear their yoke, and submit to the labour that is enjoined them, they are treated as wild beasts that cannot be kept in order, neither by a prison, nor by their chains; and are at last put to death”

6. “They think leagues are useless things, and believe that if the common ties of humanity do not knit men together, the faith of promises will have no great effect”

BOOK II. OF THEIR MILITARY DISCIPLINE

I suppose it’s worth pointing out that a true utopia likely wouldn’t be possible unless the whole world was one. The Utopians despise war, but they train their military all the same.

1. “for the certainty that their children will be well looked after when they are dead, frees them from all that anxiety concerning them which often masters men of great courage; and thus they are animated by a noble and invincible resolution” 

2. “... yet they do not rashly engage in war, unless it be either to defend themselves, or their friends, from any injust aggressors; or out of good-nature or in compassion assist an oppressed nation in shaking off the yoke of tyranny”

Emet, probably:

3. “THEY detest war as a very brutal thing; and which, to the reproach of human nature, is more practised by men than by any sort of beasts.”

4. “in opposition to the sentiments of almost all other nations, think that there is nothing more inglorious than that glory that is gained by war.”

5. “They would be both troubled and ashamed of a bloody victory over their enemies, and think it would be as foolish a purchase as to buy the most valuable goods at too high a rate. And in no victory do they glory so much as in that which is gained by dexterity and good conduct, without bloodshed”

6. “If this method does not succeed with them, then they sow seeds of contention among their enemies, and animate the prince’s brother, or some of the nobility, to aspire to the crown”

7. “for as they do not undervalue life so as prodigally to throw it away, they are not so indecently fond of it as to preserve it by base and unbecoming methods”

BOOK II. OF THE RELIGIONS OF THE UTOPIANS

There are 13 priests per town.

1. “And indeed, though they differ concerning other things, yet all agree in this, that they think there is one supreme Being that made and governs the world, whom they call in the language of their country Mithras.”

Mithras is an ancient Iranian god of light. Futhermore, according to Wikipedia: “Together with the Vedic common noun mitra, the Avestan common noun miθra derives from Proto-Indo-Iranian *mitrám, from the root *mi- "to bind", with the "tool suffix" -tra- "causing to". Thus, etymologically mitra/miθra means "that which causes binding", preserved in the Avestan word for "Covenant, Contract, Oath”.

It’ll be a missed opportunity if this name isn’t worked into the story, tbh.

2. “They have magnificent temples, that are not only nobly built, but extremely spacious; which is the more necessary, as they have so few of them; they are a little dark within, which proceeds not from any error in the architecture, but is done with design; for their priests think that too much light dissipates the thoughts, and that a more moderate degree of it both recollects the mind and raises devotion”

Lolz.

3. “They offer up no living creature in sacrifice, nor do they think it suitable to the divine Being, from whose bounty it is that these creatures have derived their lives, to take pleasure in their deaths, or the offering up their blood.”

Well, that’s certainly interesting within the context of FFXIV. A plainer way of saying this is, “we don’t sacrifice animals, because without them, we wouldn’t be able to live.” 

4. “THERE are several sort of religions, not only in different parts of the island, but even in every town; some worshipping the sun, others the moon, or one of the planets: some worship such men as have been eminent in former times for virtue, or glory, not only as ordinary deities, but as the supreme God: yet the greater and wiser sort of them worship none of these, but adore one eternal, invisible, infinite, and incomprehensible Deity; as a Being that is far above all our apprehensions, that is spread over the whole universe, not by His bulk, but by His power and virtue; Him they call the Father of All, and acknowledge that the beginnings, the increase, the progress, the vicissitudes, and the end of all things come only from Him; nor do they offer divine honours to any but to Him alone.”

5. “... for this is one of their most ancient laws, that no man ought to be punished for his religion.”

6. “He judged it not fit to determine anything rashly, and seemed to doubt whether those different forms of religion might not all come from God, who might inspire men in a different manner, and be pleased with this variety;”

[goldmended-blog]

    hey lads, i’m neal and this is ryan!! this intro went in like a hundred different directions when i was writing it so i apologize for that...

         [ lorenzo zurzolo, 20 ] did you see RYAN JACOBSON's snap story last night?  how do you think he plans to get through his JUNIOR year doing stuff like that?  i’m sure his parents don’t mind, though. especially since RYAN can be so OBSERVANT + RESOURCEFUL. then again, he can be WITHDRAWN + JUDGMENTAL, so maybe they will mind after all?  by the way, did you know his DAD is THE CEO OF BOEING? fuck it, at least their son is hot, his THIRD year is treating him well enough i suppose… [ neal, they/them, 21, est]

HISTORY (cw. injury, accidents, broken bones)

ryan grew up believing he was going to be a star, dreaming of the day when arenas would scream his name and fans would have his number plastered on their backs. but he did not grow up in lavish wealth, OBLIVIOUS his entire childhood of the millions attached to his name in a hefty trust fund. instead he was raised by his mother arianna in a modest enough home --or at least as modest as you can get-- in a california suburb just north of the bay area. a well-respected aerospace engineer, arianna never spoke much about his father, nor were there any signs of him in ryan’s life save for the checks that came every month. he learned early on to not ask questions and came to the conclusion around age ten that his birth had been less than ideal. that was that. if only...

they lived three doors down from a family from minnesota who moved there when he was SIX, the boys around his age were a god-send for his mother who was able to ryan let off energy and steam playing street hockey. street hockey turned into ice hockey soon enough, and against the odds of california hockey ryan absolutely fell in love. his talent for the sport become quite obvious as he grew older, playing his way onto various teams and at 16, being invited to the USNTDP ( us national team development program ) camp. he was accepted into the program and lived the best two years of his life in plymouth, living with a billet family and playing for the ntdp. he played his way through the ranks, signing a letter of intent for boston university and being drafted in the first round of the 2017 draft by the san jose sharks -- practically a dream come true. he played one season at bu before disaster struck...

the summer of 2017 wasn’t just the summer ryan was drafted, but the summer his father michael bolding suddenly decided to take avid interest in him. the exact circumstances, ryan still doesn’t know, but he still vividly remembers that dinner in early may. a lot of truths came out that night, some probably better kept hidden and the least of which being michael bolding was the ceo of boeing. it made a terrifyingly great deal of sense, but even more terrifying was the clear intent : michael bolding expected his son to follow in his footsteps, no matter the fact he’d barely had a fingerprint in his life since birth -- unless you count a check. ryan, of course, refused : he thought he could see his future ahead of him and it didn’t involved millions from a trust fund from a manipulative and absent father. and so, may turned to june and he was drafted; june to september and he played ncaa hockey.

the summer of 2018 was supposed to be about pushing himself, about having a good off-season to come into training camp in september and winning a job. instead, he spent three weeks in icu in a medically induced coma after a horrific accident nearly killed him. his right leg was completely shattered, resulting in metal supports and several grafts and permanent splints in his leg --- the result in the end was simple : it would be unlikely he would skate again and if he did, nearly impossible for him to reach anywhere near his past talent. oh, ryan tried : months and months of physical therapy that while did end with him on skates, certainly never would be good enough to get him to the show when it would’ve been hard enough completely healthy.

michael bolding paid ryan’s medical bills because arianna couldn’t and paved the way for his future at adams university with a clinical efficiency that has convinced ryan of some ulterior motive. call him paranoid, but the details surrounding his accident seem a bit too circumstantial to him, especially since he can’t remember anything from that night after leaving a party -- just waking up in the hospital. so yeah, he’s suspicious. while he has come mostly to terms with this new future, he’s definitely not ready to become michael’s little pawn either.

even in his pre-accident days, ryan had a knack for photography and telling stories and this is the route he’s chosen to take at adams --- and hey, if those investigative journalism classes can teach him anything useful... well...

MISC

ryan plays golf at adams, mostly because he has to. he’s okay at it, but definitely doesn’t love it. he’s still trying to skate and practice his skills when he can -- it hurts less now almost a year and a half after the accident. he also can surf.

photography was a big part of his mental recovery after the accident ; it helped to calm him and gave him a direction to look in life ( much more than his so-called father anyway ).

he’s withdrawn and very observant, prefers to watch things from the outside, even moreso after the accident, but do not mistake that for shyness.

only very close friends can call him ry

he mostly does photography for the school bulletin, but he does write occasionally.

this is his SECOND semester at adams. he started last spring semester and earned his current junior status by taking summer courses.

he’s bi. he’s vaguely aware of this fact.

oh yeah, he was an undersized defenseman when he played ( two-way game, absolute excellent skater )

5′11″

that’s it for now, i think --- so let’s get things going!!

[memoriashell]

where the shore reaches the sea

Characters / Pairing: Zemyx; cameos of misc. org xii members / their somebodies.

crossposted on ao3

Notes: Me, writing multi chap zemyx? Apparently so. This was not the thing I expected to be posting next, but inspiration struck. This fic includes some mer Demyx and marine biologist Ienzo. I’ve got no clue when the next part will be, since I’m just throwing this out to gauge interest while I work through some other wips I have around, so feedback is appreciated! I apologize that this is mostly just set-up for the rest of the fic though!

I’m going to warn people for two things: There’s some vague mentions of PTSD / Childhood Trauma for various characters over the course of this fic. I doubt it will be too detailed, but a warning regardless.  The other is that the character list will probably be more defined over on ao3 as the story progresses and I figure out the last details. This is still up in the air, but the fic probably won’t be too kind to ATW because.. reasons? Sorry if you like Ansem.

Summary: Ienzo searches for peace and finds it in the sea.

( that is the place we were destined to meet )

Ienzo has always chased the taste of the ocean on his lips.

For as long as he can remember, the tangy taste of the salty summer sea has lingered in his mouth, and days spent at the beach are welcomed with waves lapping at his ankles, feel alive to him.

Braig says it’s because he ‘came from the water’, which is supposed to be a joke about how his parents died ( drowned in a shipwreck that Ienzo managed to survive )— Even always glares at the man because it’s not very funny and informs his charge that he might simply have an overactive imagination without a second thought.

He may be a child, but he is not that dull, despite whatever conclusion the other adults may or may not have come to. He knows he’s not imagining things, the boy is almost certain of that much, when he watches the rippling water under his fingertips, when he watches—

He thinks he can see something underlying there ( but child is quiet and does not know the words to speak up yet, he has not learned rebellion and never speaks up against his elders.

Ignores that home feels like feet deep in the water with the waves on those warm summer days ).

He is not a fool, casts away as much doubt as a child can, and swears he’ll find a way to prove himself correct.

Ienzo doesn’t remember his parents. Trauma based amnesia is the explanation his caretaker has always suggested to him, and it makes enough sense that he accepts that answer for what it is. Even is the only parental figure Ienzo can remember having, and he doesn’t mind that, really— a little weird, perhaps, but he treats him as if he is of his own flesh and blood. A weird little family of the two of them and another much later, but to him who knows no better cannot find a thing disagreeable about it.

( No, strike that, he could find at least a few things questionable about Even, but he... appreciates his guardian well enough ).

Sometimes Even takes him in to the lab that he works at, despite being a young child ( he is barely five, or something close to that, the first time he is brought in ). Ienzo is a quiet child, obedient for the most part; he doesn’t need someone to keep a watchful eye on him while his warden is busy. No one needed to even entertain him, for despite being an obedient child, he is a curious one— one that thirsts for knowledge. He is curious child, a rare expression that flickers onto a blank slate of a face, and when he is left to his own devices, he takes in the lab. Observes and learns of his surroundings first, before ( with much boldness as a small child like him can muster ) making some inquires, and somewhere along the way he is given permission to ‘assist’ in the lab. Just with small things, like keeping an eye on the specimen in the tanks or keeping track of numbers— when he is older and a little more capable, he Is allowed to do more ( it helps that his diligence, when present, catches the eye of one of the lead researchers at the lab ).

There is something that speaks to him about sitting in the lab and watching the tanks— as a child, he remembers feeling discomforted by the tanks, the noises of the lab, remembers feeling trapped, and then somewhere along the way he became numb to asking such things— and perhaps it is because he spent so many childhood years there that it speaks home to him.

So really, perhaps it isn’t surprising that Ienzo follows in his warden’s footsteps to become a marine biologist.

Sometimes he feels like he’s choking on air. Even thinks it’s because he never got over the trauma of drowning, technically speaking. Ienzo disagrees— well, he agrees that he probably, as loathe as he might be to admit, never actually handled almost dying. His parents dying. All of that— he probably never handled well; but Ienzo doesn’t think that’s what causes the feeling ( and he’d like to think he understands himself best ).

What he does know is that sometimes he will just awaken out of breath and other times the sudden shortness of breath has no seeable explanation— it simply just comes, like a vice around his throat, and goes in the next. Sometimes he is lucky enough to have the comfort of not waking up alone, other days he has to try and find composure on his own ( these days, it is much more rare, though he does not know if it is because of the amount of time that has pressed, or because he has suppressed the memories so far away that it does not really bother him anymore ).

Ienzo has a working hypothesis of sorts— he hasn’t figured out what exactly is the connecting pattern to all this yet, but considering its for his own self reference anyways, he figures it’s probably okay if he’s a little more lenient than he would be with actual research. Although he can’t really say how comfortable he is with considering himself his own test subject.

If only there was a solid way to test his theory.

That’s probably not something he should wish for, though.

“Remember, this isn’t an area most people get to visit. We’re here for official business, on a research grant. Therefore, it’s extra important that we do not mess up things here. Do you understand, Ienzo?” Even hovers by his shoulder while he speaks. “Not that I don’t trust you to make the right choice, but we haven’t had you out for something big yet. Do you need me to remind you of the guidelines?”

“No. I understand clearly. I am to take responsibility for my actions if something happens.” He responds coolly, staring out at the ocean— the fresh sea breeze is very welcome to him, listening to the sound of waves against the boat.

“Do you have all your supplies prepared? Time is extremely important, I would hate for you to be unable to use it to your fullest just because you happened to be unprepared.” Ienzo rolls his eyes at Even— he can tell his father figure is worrying over him in his own way, even if it is not so explicitly stated— making a quick reassessment of the materials he’d been lent before giving a nod of his head.

“I believe I have prepared sufficiently enough to meet your standards.” He speaks, perhaps a little more curtly than he means to ( but he would appreciate that, as an adult, to not be treated like a child ); hiking his bag up onto his shoulder as he moves to step off the boat.

“Very well then. One hour, Ienzo. And don’t wander too far off!” Even calls after him. “I’ll send Aeleus to find you if I don’t hear from you around then.”

“What, am I five again?” He mutters to himself, raising his voice so his response could be heard. “Understood. I’ll make sure to keep an eye on the time.” With that, he hurries to put some distance between him and the rest of the crew. He doesn’t particularly dislike any of the other researchers, but he’d like to have an area to himself, if he was going to try to find something worth working on.

A noise is the first thing that catches his attention, something like... the cry of an animal, perhaps? He glances back at the group— he’s not too far out of range, it probably wouldn’t hurt if he got a bit of a closer look...

( His curiosity would be what got him in trouble, one of these days. Probably today, knowing his luck ).

He follows the direction of the sound, with some caution ( Ienzo does not desire to follow it into the water, after all, the rocks are slippery ) glancing around at his surroundings for anything that might indicate some kind of life form—

Something gleaming in the water gets his attention first.

The tide is low, so he can’t imagine much has swam inland, but he’ll investigate anyways. Might find the specimen he’s supposed to get samples of, if he’s fortunate. There’s the sound of splashing water, waves crashing against the rocky shoreline; a nice background noise as he puts his bag down and grabs a pen just in case he needs to take notes.

It’s not actually as shallow as he first concluded— just a section of the shore that was separated from the rest, to create the tide pools; the rest of the land juts out into much deeper water. He doesn’t dip his feet into the water, just crouches down and observes the best he can without disturbing the environment; doesn’t want something human to disturb the peace of the ocean, and if he focuses—

“What are you doing?” Ienzo jerks his head up as he is splashed by water. He blinks at the head barely breaching the surface, and, of course, states the obvious.

“You aren’t supposed to be out here.”

“I think that's my line, buddy. You people aren't supposed to be out here.” The blonde parrots back at him, a curious tilt of his head as sea green eyes... stare. That's discomforting, and Ienzo decides the best course of action is to ignore him and focus on his work. A ( rather cold, wet, and... slimy? ) hand pokes at him, and he lifts his head just enough to glare at him from behind his bangs. “Seriously, humans don't usually come out here. What's up?”

The odd wording the stranger speaks with is enough to get him to eye him suspiciously ( although he's technically right about that, he is a bit out of bounds ). “A research grant, that's what.”

“Re...Research grant...?” He echoes slowly, confusion etched into his expression— the deliberate way each syllable is spoken brings to attention the fact lilt the other speaks with seems foreign to him, but a periphery detail he opts to brush aside.

“You act like you act like you haven't been to school before.” He mutters under his breath, nearly inaudible ( granted, Ienzo had never been to school either, but been because the adults had figured he would benefit more from a private tutor and homeschooling ), attempting to ignore the blond with no success since he seems insistent on demanding his attention. How annoying— this is why Ienzo would much rather work in a lab than out in the field; very little reason for anyone to have to bother him while doing research ( but he likes working in the field more than being isolated in a room like a fish in a tank, so he grudgingly accepts sacrifices and moments like this ).

“I haven’t!” He chirps, flashing a toothy grin at him as he swims closer to him— the slate haired youth scowls at him in turn, not sure how he’d managed to hear something he’d said so quietly; he’s not particularly angry at the moment, just not very comfortable, he’s never exactly been sociable and does not know how to handle someone that friendly with a stranger. No, that’s a lie, he knows how to handle that ( like with most social situations, he handles it by just watching warily֫— though in this situation, it’s more of a suspicious squint ).

( Quiet child, freak child, he knows what other children had always thought of him, and that’s why he’d strayed so far away in the first place. Humans were so unpleasant, out at sea, like at this place, no one would judge him. Ideally ).

“That explains a lot then, doesn’t it?” He snarks instinctively; a bite harsh, but holds no weight to it. The other laughs as he throws his head back, spraying his notes with water drops from his hair in the process. Ienzo frowns ( is that usually the kind of thing someone would find funny? ) and quickly wipes it away before it messes up with his notes— wrong choice, the motion seems to get the other’s intrigue. The book is snatched from his grasp in a blink of an eye ( he hardly voices a noise of surprise before the other is swimming out of reach ).

Panic bubbles up quickly, something akin to distress flashes onto his face as he reaches out a moment too late to try and snatch it back. “Give that back!”

Eyes glance back at him, puzzled, but remains where he is. “Huh? Don’t worry, I won’t get it wet or anything!” He gives him another wide, beaming smile— Ienzo notices the fang-like canines and an almost predatory smile ( he doesn’t look that threatening, but he can’t help the shiver that goes down his spine, just slightly fearful ). “Relax, I’m just curious what this thing is about. It seems important to you.”

Despite the levels of ease he feels at having his notes not in his hands, he relaxes ( somewhat ); a huff as he keeps an eye on the other. “It’s important because those are my notes. I don’t have those copied yet, so it’s important that I don’t lose them. That’s why I’d really like it back.” Ienzo rubs at his eyes with sudden tiredness ( it feels like its been more than his allotted hour with the human embodiment of a headache he’s been saddled with ), whatever strictness in his voice somewhat melding into plea in hopes it might convince the other to return it to him. For his efforts, he gets a hum and shrug of his shoulders as his back turns away from him.

Alright. He’ll have to take this into his own hands, then. He stands up, despite the heaviness in his limbs, the way his body protests—

Bad idea.

The world goes silent as he plunges head first into the water.

Demyx starts at the feeling of water splashing up against his back with a yelp— he looks up in time to see the human fall into the water. It takes a moment for him to realize that had not been an intentional dive into the ocean, and tosses the booklet onto the shore before going after him.

( He might be a bit ( or more than a bit ) of an idiot, but he isn’t nearly as dumb as some people think, thank you very much! )

It is easy enough to catch up to him, with quick movements of his tail, and drag him back up to the surface— even as dead weight, the human doesn’t weigh very much, surprisingly. That does not make it any less tiring ( it’s more effort than he would like to commit to, but he’d feel a little bad knowing he kind of just let a human drown, so. Here he is ).

He is not the most gentle dumping the human back onto the rocks, rolling him onto his side as he noses at the man curiously; he’s surprisingly well knocked out... wait—

A quick check of the human confirms that he’s ( probably ) not dead, just asleep. He might have to take back that earlier comment about not being an idiot, seriously—?

You absolute idiot, Demyx. You cast a sleep spell on accident? He just wanted the guy to relax, not actually, force him asleep or anything. He can’t wait to hear the lecture he’s going to get for this one, if anyone hears about this. Nothing he can really do about it now, though; finger prodding at the other’s cheek. Is it okay to leave him alone like this? Humans don’t handle things like this very well, right? Did he maybe swallow up too much water?

He doesn’t know the answers to such questions, and he has to sulk about that. He’d like to help, but, well— clearly he’s already done more harm than intended by virtue of being here.

“I’m sorry.” He mutters, even though the slumbering human cannot hear him. “We’re not supposed to even talk to you, you know? I bet that’s not a surprise, though... I just got too excited to see an actual human here.” The merrow goes quiet, expression serious while he thinks to himself.

“...zo! Can y... ear... e? Ienzo, answer me!” He’s not sure how much time has passed when he hears the noise, lifts his head up with alarmed panic when Demyx realizes the noise was other humans—must be looking for this one. Ienzo; that had been the name they were yelling. He would be okay if he was back with the other humans, right?

Very quickly, he presses his fingers into his hand, exhaling softly. “I’ll come back and make it up to you, promise.” But for now, he’d make sure the humans were able to find him; he was getting cold by even the mer’s standards.

He inhales deeply, making a shrill chirrup that would surely attract the humans ( if he can put a human to sleep on accident, surely he can intentionally entrance them ) before diving out of sight. He watches from a safe distance, with a baited breath as two humans approach; once he is assured that all will be fine, dives back into the depths of the sea.

That was more than enough excitement for one day.

Ienzo comes to with the feeling of the boat moving beneath him. He lets out a barely audible groan— wrong choice, because Even overhears and is hovering over him in an instance. “One rule, Ienzo. Stay in bounds. You couldn’t even do that? I’m disappointed in you.” The man huffs at him, hand pressed against his forehead. “I hope you know you’re grounded for that stunt.”

He knows Even’s just worried, so he doesn’t try to protest— he can barely voice anything more than another groan anyhow, so it’s just as well that he doesn’t try and say anything else. He’s sure that the meaning behind half-groan that he had managed was probably well understood by him anyhow.

What had happened, anyways? His head feels foggy still, which is probably related to whatever happened. He’s still wet and tired, so he relents to his body’s need to go back to sleep. It’s not like he’s going to miss out on anything on the boat anyhow, so he lets himself be lulled to sleep by the sound of Even still distantly scolding him and the crashing waves against the boat.

( A feeling of something warm blossoms in his chest )

[taureau-soleil]

Card of the day 2/1/22: TEMPERANCE

*not my photo*

Creds. SnakesandAceys on Etsy Temperance Tarot Card Print

Temperance is all about balance! Seek balance in your life today. Take the middle road, avoid picking sides. Don’t jump to conclusions and don’t rush yourself into making a decision. Carefully weigh out the options you’re being given today. Put aside your ego-fueled thoughts and behaviors. Forgiveness. Healing. What can you do to heal your situation? Compromise in your relationships. Avoid emotional extremity and slapstick reactions.

Misc.: grounding techniques, balancing feminine and masculine energy, “balanced perception”, Sagittarius placements, Jupiter, Goddess Iris, Angel Gabriel, 14, 5, learning/higher education, travel, literal symbolic observations like 2 chalices could refer to drinking or mixing drinks, or visiting a body of water.

~ go with the flow ~ and have a good evening !

-based on Rider-Waite’s Temperance-

[amethysttribble]

This is a super interesting catch, and I think it says something about Tolkien and his writing biases, in regards to his... important characters? Or rather heroes and their relationships, and how that affects the legacies they leave.

Because I think the additional thing that Feanor, Isildur, Thingol, and Tar-Palantir all have in common is that they leave matters unfinished, and need someone to carry on their path, either to redemption or further ruin. So Tolkien needs to leave them children to continue those stories. In a lot of ways, those four are people who Set Up stories rather than live and eventually finish them.

In that regard, Tar-Palantir is the most interesting proponent of this, because technically he does everything right (rather than Feanor, Thingol, and Isildur’s blunders, as understandable as some of those are) it’s just that for him and Numenor it’s /too late/. Too late for him, and his fallen brother, and his doomed daughter. And that line needs to see their ruin to the watery conclusion.

In contrast to that, though, there’s the odd ones out on the ‘Unmarried’ list, and those are Thorin, Maedhros, and Boromir, who also do bad things and fall etc. but fraternal strife is not (much) on that list. Why? I think maybe because they’re at the center of their own stories, and they wrap up their own fates nicely, without needing children to fix it. Maedhros acknowledges and takes his sins to the grave with him, after all, while Boromir redeems himself, and Thorin... well, he lost his legacy (his nephews) at the Battle of Five Armies along with everything else. My kingdom, my kingdom for... my family. And that was his hard lesson, unfortunately, and that’s where the tale ends, emotionally, plot-ly, and thematically wrapped up, for them all.

And with Fingon, Finrod, and Gwindor, their brothers (with the exception of Turgon, whose story with Aredhel, Maeglin, and Idril might put him in the latter category) end up dead before them, a motivating factor more than anything.

With the ‘Unmarried’ list my first thought was, “Yeah, Tolkien didn’t want to deal with giving his important characters with their own stories miscellaneous wives and children” but there’s also a more interesting observation there about how unless Tolkien writing a Romance, he tended to treat children (and the wives they came from) of his main characters as thematic extensions first and foremost

Which is prob how we got Gil-Galad, Everyone’s Son! Tolkien knew he needed a Finwean high king to survive, but he couldn’t decide who that son (and whose legacy) that was thematically relevant to.

Fingon? No, that wraps up neatly and tragically at Unnumbered Tears, no loose threads really.

Orodreth? Kinda, he’s got the fatherhood thing going on with Finduilas already, but there’s no thread to kingship, at least I don’t think so, no sharp themes to pick up.

Finrod? See, this one I actually think tracks, which is why it’s the originally version. Gil as the High King who ruled the entire second age, uniting disparate elves and making peace with dwarves and men works as a legacy to Finrod, great diplomat king of Nargothrond who gave it up for good and tragic reasons, who left a whole life ahead of him behind for Beren’s sake.

But even that’s not as powerful as what was going on with Isildur, Feanor, Tar Palantir, and... Well. I think Thingol might also be lesser in power here, I think the thematic legacy is more so-so for him compared to the other three, on par with Gil-Finrod stuff. In that regard though Thingol and Melin was a romance Tolkien was interested in writing, and Finrod x Whoever (likely Amarië) was evidently not. And that happens when writing!

What I’m taking from this is that as many characters as Tolkien had, he didn’t particularly care for characters without /purpose/. No misc. wives and kids! Only that for great romances and people who need concrete legacy inheritors, and surprise, surprise, people who need thematic legacies are people who get themselves involved in familial strife

Ok i have no idea what this means but:

Older Brothers (who have younger brothers) who are canonically unmarried:

Maedhros

Boromir

Fingon

Finrod

Gwindor

Thorin

Fili

Older brothers (who have younger brothers) who are canonically married:

Fëanor 

Isildur

Thingol

Tar-Palantir

And I just kind of feel like there’s a weird theme that if you’re the older brother of a younger brother you ???????????????????????????? I don’t know, if you get married you’ll start fighting with your brothers, or you’ll get power-hungry????????

This theory is not thought-out i’m just INTRIGUED by the pattern.

[sapphireand-journal-blog]

evasion

Observation: i don't avoid things because the existence of certain hard feelings, but the possibility of hard feelings. (Not always true, but very much of the time, much of recent time.)

And this explains the sense of losing touch to reality.

i evade things because possible i with best hopes/tries will be disappointed. or, not able to finish? . and i get heartbroken though the other way, i get head-breaked every time thinking about it . this is what i mean, the question i questioned, if life is just agony: you force yourself from this uneasing and holding back from possible disappointment of outcome and various mess on the way, from sideway games that seems to...i don't know but happier out of this, albeit fear of lose, and try to get hope, and hope for the unknown result not disappointing. Or you don't, let things go, do intermittently when head is not blurred and heart get courage from somewhere, and head broken like me now. in the process towards ending and after the ending, and the ending is 99.9% doomed--don't hope for the 0.1%, i guess, i can't account what it is, i tried to find and theorize such thing once and at that situation maybe the percentage is higher; but not now.

And I evade because i thought it can be done easily mechanically. (but wrong, when i i'm in blurred-head debuff. which happened.) I avoid because i have ...? have not done preliminary works (not exactly so really the reason in terms of application/, but true on some cases, but this does not help me begin doing---and is problem..), not do because mind-blogged, or other debuff/non-debuff but just not optimal/promoting states ?????.

And sometime evade for feeling void, that i cannot continue doing anything but evade to games/other world. music sometimes helps. phone call helps--on trivial matters even and at best, lengthy lectures over phone calls, and at the same time doing misc things/organizes/.... need more evidence to be conclusive.

But more eminently, I avoid, because not sure if this is again a mirror-flower-water-moon. if even what i tried to achieve after blocks like above, i did not like the result. (it happened, several times, on nontrivial things, like every period life pointing at. ).

maybe i game because they are trivial decisions, no matter i fail or not, fail how many times, be slow doing nothing (i did not, though) every day-in-game-time.

and this is the question i have no answer of. i cannot even account.

and simply not think, is what i proposed---avoid the question altogether, let everything pass as they pass, as none is pushing me forward (i thought there is, and i would go somewhere different, but nah...---it seems like, at this point. at least under this set of variables, which i assume is not accidental//temporary). the alternative, is to accept the common procedure, work on common blocks on the streamline, get probably good outcome, else get a common consolation/explanation the thing as good. and my current state is not either. but there can be else..

not liking the outcome of not doing, cannot make me do it. This is out of my knowledge of scientific laws and rationality. I don't understand why.

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futility may be the word. (for mirrow-flower-water-moon) avoid for the afraid that it is a futility, even if achieved.

existential. maybe the word for feeling void.

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