#so to avoid redundancy i'll just use this one

[fiveht]

My birthday is tomorrow and new Adore would be a great present. :D

Happy birthday, anon! I don't know exactly what time you sent this, but it's probably your birthday now. 🥳

I can't give you your present yet, but you can maybe possibly be on the lookout near the end of the month, like say, in two weeks' time, maybe on a Monday or Tuesday. I'm just saying, that would be a good time to think about a certain boy and his daddy, and wonder what they might be up to.

[sun-citadel]

Headcanon time, hooray

Harpuia is a ✨️ narcissist ✨️

No, I don't mean the stereotypical portrayal of an individual with narcissism, but rather the concept of a person [ reploid ? ] with NPD [ pwNPD ] . I'm not saying this because he was a villain, but because it suits him.

Edit ;; this is a game based observation, I didn't account for the audio dramas as it's been a while

[ flag cred ]

Why specifically NPD ? It's typically viewed as the " evil abusive person disorder " , when in reality it's a maladaptive coping strategy to handle a sense of inferiority and an internal struggle with deep seated self - hatred from early on abuse, by portraying one's self as high and mighty — and in many instances, better than other people to cope. But that's barely scratching the surface.

Anyways. I did reference the DSM - V / an unofficial revised version by a pwNPD, as well as testimonies from others. But this is more an internal character breakdown, rather than how a person may view a pwNPD on an external level.

But to my points :

- 1. Grandiose sense of self :

That's very blatant with how Harpuia portrays himself, to where upon his first meetings with Zero, he states that he will repent for his sins, only to then be bested. While he'd admittedly impressed by it, he does tell Zero to stay healthy so that he may exact his revenge in the end — still believing himself to be superior, despite Zero's legendary status and capabilities. Upon years of going unopposed and retiring reploids to the point of almost boredom it feels like, I've always felt he'd garner a rather haughty attitude up until a challenge comes forth and bests him. Though, his disgust and anger is best apparent upon the repairs forced upon him. To be stripped of his position, to be torn apart, only to then be repaired by those he views as lesser is a clear strike to his ego. He's pushing himself to the point of fully avoiding repairs if it meant he could have a shred of pride left, which, self punishment and harm is common when a pwNPD struggles against a crash and feels at a low point. Harpuia has gone from mighty, basically second in command to X, to someone who was brutally beaten time and time again, to outright admitting to enjoy the pain / letting the pain distract him from his existence [ depending on translation ] to just cope with a fragile sense of self as someone split of X.

- 2. Preoccupied with feelings / fantasies of success, power, etc.

It does tie what I said previously, his countless attempts to try and surpass the legendary reploid, so I won't be redundant and repeat points. But he is in a place of power, of success, yet feels dissatisfied at times. His Japanese dialogue states that :

フフ‥あいかわらず‥やるな‥

それでいい‥それでいいんだ‥

オレは‥

オマエとたたかっているときだけ‥

なにもかもわすれることが‥できるんだ

しばらくは、これでいい

Only when fighting Zero can he forget everything for a little while, an act of self - harm that allows him to cope with the fact the world he knows is starting to crumble. He's forced to face his ego, when he never did prior to the awakening of Zero. It's a ruse. His feelings are complex, switching from the enjoyment of a challenge, only to go mask off during the repairs and admit to feeling highly inferior, especially after his banishment.

By this point, as to not repeat myself, I'll lump categories together.

- 3. Believe that they are “ special ” and can only be understood by other special or high-status people.

The Four Guardians position, being created of X's DNA — dare I elaborate ? He's essentially the top 1% of Neo Arcadia, just below Copy X essentially, with an entire battalion beneath him.

- 4. Require excessive admiration.

Harpuia recieves it, he receives admiration, respect, yet at the same time, fear. He is entitled, because he's so used to his role as someone so above everyone, yet below only Copy X — which he does seem mostly satisfied with, up until his questioning of things with Weil. Being betrayed by his Master like so, especially to someone like Weil, is bound to make anyone feel low : and with Harpuia, he results to harming himself by leaving early from the Resistance Base.

- 5. Sense of boredom, due to a lack of connection with others.

Points to the Japanese translation yet again. That, paired with the fact he seems relatively lonely. The other guardians don't even follow him in his banishment, and show up only after to aid in defeating Omega. They were a team, he worked closely with Leviathan — yet, ultimately he was left by himself.

- 6. Lack of empathy.

He's killed others for what he assumed the greater good, contemplated killing Zero while he was downed, attempted to kill Elpizo for knowing too much, there are various times where he takes a more selfish approach when he tries to play hero. Though, in his lack of compassion and empathy, he does choose to do good — especially when following the rules of robotics to help aid and protect Neo Arcadia. Though to other reploids, he comes across as callous, harsh, and even evil, yet, he is simply following orders that he learns to eventually question upon realizing he's doing more harm than good.

So he enters an arc of remission at the end, where he isn't cured [ NPD is incurable ] , but ultimately makes a selfless sacrifice to better humanity.

Does he like Zero after this ? Debatable. Does he respect him ? Absolutely, possibly to the point of being viewed as an equal in the NPD hierarchy in my eyes, despite initially starting out as a devalued person / bottom of the tier.

There are other points, but I really don't want to be repeating myself. He just comes across as an individual with NPD, judging from a fluctuating sense of self as his ego is repeatedly shot down by Zero. He's self loathing despite a mighty mask he wears, and ultimately, still attempts to do good despite the horrible actions commited from a lack of awareness that his goal caused harm.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

[oviraptoridae]

research & development is ongoing

since using jukebox for sampling material on albedo, i've been increasingly interested in ethically using ai as a tool to incorporate more into my own artwork. recently i've been experimenting with "commoncanvas", a stable diffusion model trained entirely on works in the creative commons. though i do not believe legality and ethics are equivalent, this provides me peace of mind that all of the training data was used consensually through the terms of the creative commons license. here's the paper on it for those who are curious! shoutout to @reachartwork for the inspiration & her informative posts about her process!

part 1: overview

i usually post finished works, so today i want to go more in depth & document the process of experimentation with a new medium. this is going to be a long and image-heavy post, most of it will be under the cut & i'll do my best to keep all the image descriptions concise.

for a point of reference, here is a digital collage i made a few weeks ago for the album i just released (shameless self promo), using photos from wikimedia commons and a render of a 3d model i made in blender:

and here are two images i made with the help of common canvas (though i did a lot of editing and post-processing, more on that process in a future post):

more about my process & findings under the cut, so this post doesn't get too long:

quick note for my setup: i am running this model locally on my own machine (rtx 3060, ubuntu 23.10), using the automatic1111 web ui. if you are on the same version of ubuntu as i am, note that you will probably have to build python 3.10.6 yourself (and be sure to use 'make altinstall' instead of 'make install' and change the line in the webui to use 'python3.10' instead of 'python3'. just mentioning this here because nobody else i could find had this exact problem and i had to figure it out myself)

part 2: initial exploration

all the images i'll be showing here are the raw outputs of the prompts given, with no retouching/regenerating/etc.

so: commoncanvas has 2 different types of models, the "C" and "NC" models, trained on their database of works under the CC Commercial and Non-Commercial licenses, respectively (i think the NC dataset also includes the commercial license works, but i may be wrong). the NC model is larger, but both have their unique strengths:

"a cat on the computer", "C" model

"a cat on the computer", "NC" model

they both take the same amount of time to generate (17 seconds for four 512x512 images on my 3060). if you're really looking for that early ai jank, go for the commercial model. one thing i really like about commoncanvas is that it's really good at reproducing the styles of photography i find most artistically compelling: photos taken by scientists and amateurs. (the following images will be described in the captions to avoid redundancy):

"grainy deep-sea rover photo of an octopus", "NC" model. note the motion blur on the marine snow, greenish lighting and harsh shadows here, like you see in photos taken by those rover submarines that scientists use to take photos of deep sea creatures (and less like ocean photography done for purely artistic reasons, which usually has better lighting and looks cleaner). the anatomy sucks, but the lighting and environment is perfect.

"beige computer on messy desk", "NC" model. the reflection of the flash on the screen, the reddish-brown wood, and the awkward angle and framing are all reminiscent of a photo taken by a forum user with a cheap digital camera in 2007.

so the noncommercial model is great for vernacular and scientific photography. what's the commercial model good for?

"blue dragon sitting on a stone by a river", "C" model. it's good for bad CGI dragons. whenever i request dragons of the commercial model, i either get things that look like photographs of toys/statues, or i get gamecube type CGI, and i love it.

here are two little green freaks i got while trying to refine a prompt to generate my fursona. (i never succeeded, and i forget the exact prompt i used). these look like spore creations and the background looks like a bryce render. i really don't know why there's so much bad cgi in the datasets and why the model loves going for cgi specifically for dragons, but it got me thinking...

"hollow tree in a magical forest, video game screenshot", "C" model

"knights in a dungeon, video game screenshot", "C" model

i love the dreamlike video game environments and strange CGI characters it produces-- it hits that specific era of video games that i grew up with super well.

part 3: use cases

if you've seen any of the visual art i've done to accompany my music projects, you know that i love making digital collages of surreal landscapes:

(this post is getting image heavy so i'll wrap up soon)

i'm interested in using this technology more, not as a replacement for my digital collage art, but along with it as just another tool in my toolbox. and of course...

... this isn't out of lack of skill to imagine or draw scifi/fantasy landscapes.

thank you for reading such a long post! i hope you got something out of this post; i think it's a good look into the "experimentation phase" of getting into a new medium. i'm not going into my post-processing / GIMP stuff in this post because it's already so long, but let me know if you want another post going into that!

good-faith discussion and questions are encouraged but i will disable comments if you don't behave yourselves. be kind to each other and keep it P.L.U.R.

[musicfeedsmysoul12]

So in your mind Bakugou, a child, should have died? Really?

Bakugou is a fictional character.

The parasocial relationship and puritan crap I keep seeing is just weird.

But if you actually want what I think should have happened with Bakugou? I said it before: his arc should have ended with him being mid-rank and completely content with being a secondary hero. No agency, no top twenty position.

Bakugou is set up as being what society thinks a hero should be. Strong, fit, Flashy Quirk.

Yet as we know he's not a good perso. He makes fun of the guy who doesn't have a Quirk which is treated as a disability. He uses rude nicknames which kinda are Quirkist to. Commenting on the physical appearance of mutant characters who are said to suffer from discrimination due to said appearance. The fact he not only purposely triggers a side effect of a Quirk but seems to mug Kaminari for money to give to Kirishima despite the fact he is a rich kid. (I can’t remember if its said the money is his or not but its one of those panels I never know about.) The aggressiveness, the rudeness- it adds up.

What should have happened if we want to make Bakugou go through character development to be a better person is that he 1) faces more consequences for his attitude then he does in canon (IE: he is called out for the insults and name calling. A few angry comments from Shouji, Tsu or any of the mutant characters should have occurred. He gets called out and when he doesn't change people avoid him. He is ignored by them unless they are working with him or he needs help. Its made clear they do not want to be around him.) 2) faces actual punishment for his actions towards Izuku or others (IE: Kaminari makes a complaint about being forced into whey mode, Bakugou gets a warning or something. He receives punishment for nearly killing Izuku during the battle trials and ignoring a teacher. He is disqualified for trying to attack Todoroki after his match at the sports festival, not that mess of a situation) 3) Is not in any way an ‘important’ character.

The third one is tricky so I'll explain. It goes beyond the ‘Izuku shouldn't be have to be friends with Bakugou like he kind of is’ issues I have.

By this I mean Bakugou should be redundant as a character and the narrative shows it. He should find himself sinking while everyone else climbs higher. His Quirk SHOULD have actually drawbacks we see. Not just the mention of wrist issues. We should see him hurt himself and need to take a second. He should have frankly lost the sports festival to Uraraka and not gone on. And part of that SHOULD have been his Quirk not working how he wanted it to. Because the world relies on Quirks and Bakugou is hyper reliant on his.

Make it clear that's why. Then I want Bakugou to not be at the top of the class. Why? Because he is the normal fish who moved from his tiny pond to a big old ocean. Yes, he’s smart but take it from someone whose brother was smart in a small town: that don’t mean shit when your teachers suck.

Bakugou can be top ten. I just want him to have to face the fact he isn't the top of the class. The big dog on campus because everyone else is just as driven as he is, and some of them are smarter or faster or more skilled then he is.

This should end with Bakugou making his realization after the final exams where he hits Izuku and is flunked for it. It should have been noted and due to the fact in a real situation like that you'd end up probably arrested or investigated, he fails.

This should have been the turning point. When we actually see Bakugou break down. When the class has stepped away from him. When the only one sticking around is Kirishima because the guy honestly thinks Bakugou can be a better person.

Key phrase: CAN BE. Not that he is. I want it to be clear Kirishima sees good in Bakugou and wants to bring it out. Not that Bakugou is secretly a tsundere.

This is the turning point became it leads to the LOV attacking the camp looking for Bakugou because they see him like them. I want them to have noticied his antics in the festival where he is aggressive and loud. I'd like for Aoyama to have been feeding info about recruits. I want Bakugou to hear they want HIM as he's villainous and this should shake him.

He isn't kidnapped. Someone else is. Tokoyami actually to bring focus to mutation and Quirk discrimination.

I want Bakugou to truly have to look at HIMSELF as a person. And realize he isn't what he wants to be. A hero.

This leads into him eventually becoming a much better person as he works through his shit. Its going to be messy. And I want him to struggle through it. While doing so he slowly fades into the background. We turn attention to Uraraka, Todoroki, Tsu, Aoyama and Iida as the secondary characters to our protagonist Izuku.

We get to know them, we get to know Aoyama as he integrates himself into their circle. We have way more of a punch for the traitor.

In the end I want an apology from Bakugou to Izuku that is meaningful and honest and then… he goes off, becomes a hero ranked like 150 and is happy. He's buddies with Kirishima and a few others, he goes to the reunion with a hi. Maybe the offer of a team up or not.

And I think that would have been the perfect ending to his arc. From the bully to the atoner.

[funnier-as-a-system]

just wanted to say thank you for making sure there are ids on posts most (if not all) the time!!! i personally dont use a screenreader, but i know its definitely a big help to people who do :]

You're welcome! I'm very glad that I can offer this service to people. That said... I hope you don't mind me using your ask as a jumping-off point, but I do have a small announcement to be made regarding image descriptions.

I still plan to add IDs to the majority of posts, and that is not going to change any time soon. However, I've decided that if a post has sufficiently descriptive alt text (what this means will be decided on a case-by-case basis, but I imagine you get the gist), I won't be adding an image description to the post. This is to avoid the redundancy of the same text being provided twice, and also to help me with my workload, as adding IDs – especially to posts with many images – takes up a significant amount of my time and energy running this blog, and unfortunately, has resulted in massive backlog. If the original poster has already done that work, I see little need to do it again myselves.

I am also welcoming any suggestions for groups or places (such as Discord servers) that could help with this workload of adding IDs to submissions. There are many, many submissions stuck in my draft box because they need IDs, and I simply don't have the time, energy, or expertise* for all of them. This is not a request for mod applications, but rather an inquiry into what communities are centered around providing image descriptions, as I know they exist, but have not kept track of their names or links to them. As such, although I am doing my own research, I am also taking word-of-mouth recommendations.

* I sometimes have to do research to give accurate IDs. Finding the right names for artworks, characters, celebrities, etc., as well as the right words to describe what's going on when I struggle with expressing and recognizing emotions, body language, tone, and so on... You can see how the work time adds up.

I'm not saying this to brag about my labor, to be clear. I just want to be transparent about why I'm making this change and seeking out other parties to help with this particular workload. Unless I become omniscient, being unable to recognize Blorbo Bleebus is one of the many small hurdles I will continue to face in providing IDs. If I can simply hand off a post to someone who recognizes Blorbo Bleebus and doesn't have to crawl through several Google searches and fandom wikis to be sure of their name and source, that alone would help.

That's all. Thank you again, anon. If any of you experience any major issues with this arrangement going forward, let me know, and I'll see what I can do.

[merwgue]

(This is neither a pro nor anti post, this is merely to criticise SJM's writing. However, it will be tagged as "anti" because if I tag it neutral, I'll get jumped❤️)

Ah yes, the infamous communication void in Sarah J. Maas's books—a void so deep it could probably swallow the entire Night Court and still be hungry. SJM doesn’t just dabble in miscommunication; she throws her characters into emotional landmines and says, "You figure it out... or don’t." And that’s where the fated mates trope comes in, right? It’s supposed to patch up that mess with some mystical connection, as if being mates magically grants couples ESP-level knowledge of each other’s deepest feelings. Spoiler alert: It doesn’t.

Let’s dive into why SJM’s version of communication—or lack thereof—just doesn’t hold water.

The Fated Mate Shortcut

In theory, fated mates should have some magical telepathic bond that transcends words. It's the ultimate get-out-of-jail-free card for character development: why build healthy communication skills when the mating bond can conveniently swoop in to fill the gaps? In Maas’s world, this idea is wielded like an all-powerful tool: mates just know what the other is feeling, and therefore don't need to use this wild, ancient concept called words. The idea that fated mates can "sense" each other's emotions essentially sidelines the necessity of open dialogue. But here’s the problem: emotional intuition ≠ effective communication.

Psychologically speaking, emotional intelligence involves recognizing and managing your own emotions and the emotions of others. That’s not mind-reading! You can be deeply connected to someone, even soul-tied, and still have no idea what’s going on in their head. People are complex, and relationships require actual verbal communication to navigate emotional landscapes.

Take Feyre and Tamlin. They clearly loved each other but weren’t mates, which might be why their lack of communication felt so tangible and raw. The failure to express needs, fears, and insecurities is what led to their downfall, and honestly? That’s valid. Miscommunication or inability to communicate is one of the most common—and understandable—reasons relationships end. But do we get that sense of growth and change when Feyre hooks up with Rhysand? Not really. It’s like the narrative shifts gears from "Tamlin doesn’t understand Feyre" to "Rhysand just knows because they’re mates," completely skipping the part where Feyre needs to actually talk about what she went through.

The "Communication-Free" Mating Bond

Now we get to the Rhysand-Feyre dynamic. Once they're revealed as mates, it’s as though any need for in-depth conversations about feelings becomes redundant. The bond is treated as an unbreakable connection that automatically compensates for any emotional roadblocks. Rhysand messes up? It's okay, they’re mates. Feyre’s spiraling emotionally? Don’t worry, the bond will smooth that over. In psychological terms, this reliance on a supernatural bond as a "fix" is classic avoidant behavior. Instead of confronting the discomfort of working through problems, the narrative leans into this magical quick-fix. They’re bonded for life—problem solved, right?

Except it’s not.

Relationships—good ones, healthy ones—are built on effective communication, trust, and vulnerability. The mere presence of a fated mate bond doesn’t remove the need for these things. Mates don’t automatically understand each other’s trauma just because of some mystical bond. Imagine being so emotionally stunted that instead of apologizing or owning up to your mistakes, you’re just like, "But we’re mates, so it’s fine." Spoiler alert: it’s not fine.

Nessian: Miscommunication Meets the Mating Bond

And then we have Nesta and Cassian, whose relationship could be the ultimate case study in how not to communicate. Nesta, dealing with PTSD and trauma, is paired with Cassian, who—for all his supposed swagger—cannot for the life of him communicate effectively. They constantly clash, avoid real conversations about their pain, and sweep everything under the rug with physical intimacy. They kiss and make up, but no one is really talking. And that’s not love; that’s avoidance. It's like putting a Band-Aid on a bullet wound.

The bond between them is used as a crutch. When they fight, we’re supposed to believe that their mate bond will fix things eventually, but that's simply not how relationships work. Kissing your partner instead of discussing real problems is fine for a silly argument, but when it comes to serious issues—trauma, boundaries, power imbalances—it’s irresponsible. And the fact that Maas frames this as healthy because they’re mates is the narrative equivalent of gaslighting the reader into accepting toxic dynamics.

In psychological terms, this is where we see the conflict-avoidant and emotionally avoidant behaviors on full display. Cassian and Nesta both lack the emotional tools to effectively navigate their struggles, yet instead of being called out, their dysfunction is wrapped up in a bow of "fated mates" as if that’s supposed to be a solution. It’s not. The reality is that their bond does nothing to facilitate real healing; it’s just there as a placeholder for emotional growth that never comes.

The Unhealthy Dynamic

In psychology, we talk about secure attachment as the cornerstone of healthy relationships. You can have a deep connection, but you also need to work on things like trust, openness, and communication. What happens in Maas’s world is the opposite: the characters are codependent on this fated bond, rather than working toward a healthy attachment style. And SJM lets them off the hook. This narrative implies that emotional labor and apologizing for mistakes don’t really matter because "the bond will fix it." Not only does this undermine real, meaningful growth, but it also glosses over the entire point of relationships: to grow and learn together through the hard stuff.

When it comes to Cassian and Nesta, they literally can’t communicate. Cassian has all his own insecurities (hello, always calling himself a brute, never feeling worthy of Rhysand’s inner circle), and Nesta is navigating serious mental health struggles. They’re both drowning, but instead of Maas writing about how they could heal together, she plasters it with the band-aid of "mating bond."

At the end of the day, the whole "fated mates" trope in ACOTAR is a narrative cop-out that excuses bad communication and toxic dynamics. It’s okay to have flawed characters, but the problem is Maas doesn't treat them as flawed. She treats their lack of communication as something normal or even romantic. When in reality, if you can’t talk through your issues with your partner, no magical bond is going to save you.

So yeah, SJM’s version of "fated mates" feels like a lazy way to dodge the hard work of showing real character growth. And if these characters weren’t mates, they’d probably have broken up long ago—because healthy relationships are built on communication, not just magical convenience.

[conditioned-to-obey]

Hii i just saw your answer to an ask where you said that patriarchy kinks dont sit well with you, i assume u mean the hypno/bimbo community?

That's at least where i see most of it-

Anyway, i just wanted to say that while i do understand your reasoning engaging in that kind of kink (with trusting and trusted people) has helped me heal so much, so for anyone thats wanting to indulge in it: please make sure you do it with people that you trust and know that they, even if they say they do, dont want to (actually) harm you.

(i dont mean any harm, you and your blog genuinely seem super nice :3)

No, I did not mean the hypno and bimbo community. That ask had nothing to do with either of those things?

To the contrary I've seen plenty of hypno and bimbo content without misogynistic patriarchy undertones.

There is a rather large difference between bimbofication as a means of embracing feminity – or not having to be intelligent as a feminine person to be valued, accepting and appreciating beauty and hyperfeminity, being allowed to be happy and bubbly, choosing kind simple happiness, not being pressured to not enjoy traditionally feminine things and concepts�� as opposed to content that bases bimbofication in white, blonde, skinny beauty standards or surgeries only the rich can afford and to the detriment of the bimbo for male gratification. That is where my discomfort lies. It's a personal gripe, I just don't participate in the latter.

To me, anyone can be a hot happy dumb bimbo. That's a real beauty of it. I can very much see how that is beneficial and healing.

I've seen hypno used to assist comfort, release, calm and subspace. Hypno for subs to feel more in tune and in control of their headspaces. One comes to mind is directed towards helping a sub feel more like a puppy. Hypno in the sense that all you must do is let go. Release control and relax back.

Hypnosis on its own itself has been used in plenty therapeutic settings. So, it would be very silly for me to discredit it.

When I say patriarchy and misogyny, I mean male centric regurgitated drivel that if not tagged or marked as kink, may very well just be straight from an incel reddit forum. Most of these blogs don't even have a disclosure or warning stating that they are participating in kink in the first place.

Women being left unsatisfied sexually repressed and boring p in v sex ending as soon as a man cums? Sounds like sad reality for a lot of people to me. One I have heard many times. It just doesn't sound appealing.

This ask is somewhat redundant to me, as that advice you purposed is exactly what advice I said in my original answer. The one you are referring to in the first place. Maybe you should return back and reread it to soak up any context and concepts you may have missed.

I'll reiterate that I stated that it is best to avoid those spaces. In relation to what the original anon was looking for. As most people who are actually misogynistic and truly believe in patriarchy flourish there. Without having to be under the radar the operate in plain sight usually. Hence why my advice was to avoid those spaces if you're starting out and trying to find people you can trust to open up to exploring more taboo and complex play. It is in no means directed as telling anyone what to do, or what is or isn't healing for them as an individual.

Hope this helps. Best of luck.

[kassandrasdisciple]

~~~spoilers for all of the magnus archives~~~

How popular is the take that Melanie and Georgie were actually in a Fearscape?

I feel like this must be a common take, but it's hard to find just meta-theories for TMA, but just incase, here's how I came to this conclusion.

Melanie's Blindness

The are alot of blind people in the world. I know Melanie blinded herself under spooky™ circumstances, but nothing actively spooky was occurring other than being inside the magnus institute. Also as seen with Gertrude/Agnes, the flesh book and The Dark ritual, when you want to avoid an Entity, or several, you usually have to do some explicity spooky things.

Because of this I think Melanie is just normally blind, she herself seems to think her immunity is just because of her blindness too. Now I know Jonny hasn't always been great on numbers and scales but there are ALOT of blind people, maybe the Eye only ignores people who are completely blind and not visually imperared but still, Jon should've been seeing dozens of blindspots just within the UK in the beginning of S5. So I think it's safe to say Melanie's blindness isn't why she's "immune".

Observation Isn't Overt

We know the Fearscapes aren't constant hell, the camera is the most explicit, giving prolonged relief, but it was still a Fearscape, waiting for all that paranoia to ripen until it breaks and the fears decend. We see it in other Fearscapes like the falling titan or the medical centre where there might be hours or days of relative peace, but the fear is still there and the victims still exist to suffer. I think the camera can also explain how Melanie and Georgie weren't visible to Jon even outside the tunnels, their fearscape relies on feeling "free" to some extent.

Furthermore, Jon still knew they where alive, so The Eye knew that aswell, it didn't hunt them down to put them in a fearscape however, and that was because they already were, they were just "freeranged" and The Eye just wanted to monitor their vitals.

Lastly, Helen knew where they where. I know she was better at navigating the tunnels than Jon in S4, but we know in S5, all power comes and goes through The Eye, it's how the smitings work, if she could find them so could The Eye.

Specificity

Basira inherited Daisy's Fearscape, allowing her to travel freely, but she was still in a Fearscape, having to endure all the horrors Daisy commited and then having to carry on, viewing the Fearscapes without Jons protection. Knowing this helps plug another hole in our original theory, which is that this is quite a specific Fearscape. We know some are small, Martin's only has a few dozen, but Basira's is just hers. This I think sets the president that although Melanie's and Georgie's Fearscape is highly unique it's still possible. (Maybe The Eye chooses unique ones for its Ex kids)

Georgie's Fear

I know people will bring up Georgie and I'll have to make a much longer post eventually but I think we've only ever been told how her power works from her POV, which I think is inaccurate. If we actually look at how she acts she does feel Fear, she just displays it as worry or anxietyusally for others. I think what Georgie actually is, is what everyone else is, an Avatar, specifically of the End. We only have one other End avatar, Oliver, but we see a numbing of emotions in him too. I think she's unable to feel fear like others because she's an End Avatar and that brings a dampening affect, for further proof see the book of the damned with Gerry and Eric, both who know it feels "bad" but still have their emotions dampened. Basically, Georgie is a misidentifyed Avatar and she can still feel Fear just not like she used to be able to.

What the Fear / FearScapeUK

Now what is their Fearscape? Firstly it doesn't fit nicely into the 14 but that's okay, we know in the apocalypse Smirks 14 is largely redundant. But their fear is simply their followers, both having this crushing fear of failing them, having to be the perfect leaders, and of losing them, which they always will. Just before S5 ends we see the Cycle about to restart.

Just Melanie and Georgie -> save a few -> save even more ("get greedy") -> lose a big chunk -> lose them all -> alone again, Repeat.

They'd go through this anguish over and over until the End consumes all, it allows them freedom like Basira and Daisy but they still only exist to suffer like those in every other Fearscape.

TL;DR Georgie and Melanie weren't lucky, they're Fearscape is them watching those they're supposed to protect being dragged of to torture whilst shouldering the guilt of being "spared".

[se7ens-oc-heaven]

Have you ever wanted to practice having multiple drafts for your writing, but didn't know how to go about it, like I did? Do you find your drafting process really daunting or tedious? Are you a "low spoons" writer who can only pick at their work in chunks at a time? If any of these resonate, then this little tip I've come up with just might work for you.

Mind you - I'm not some great celebrated author, fanfic or otherwise. I don't write very often, either. But one thing I've learned in life is to explore alternative ways and formats to do things to make it more intuitive for you, and this way works for me - and for all of the more prolific writers in my social circles that I've shared this idea with, it seems to make a lot of sense to them. So take it with a grain of salt, but hopefully if it doesn't exactly work for you, it'll at least inspire you to shake up your writing approach to streamline it for you!

There's a long walkthrough of how I do it under cut, but the summarized tip is:

Rather than editing the whole piece at once, I paste it into a fresh doc one paragraph or so at a time, only adding the next part once I'm satisfied with my rework.

This prevents the work from feeling overwhelming with a wall of text to have to edit, as well as makes it easier to tell where I have worked and where I left off.

This also prevents me from being too attached to the idea of forcing the paragraph to align with the upcoming ones - it's good to keep the gist, but if I see the future parts I get fixated on how to connect point A to point B. Removing "point B" means I can focus all my attention on rehauling Point A, and I can hook it up to Point B once I'm ready to edit or add to B.

A new document also gives me a "work table", where I can put the sentences and words and bits I like anywhere on the document I want until I'm ready to address them.

All in all, it reduces the amount of rigid structure without forcing me to freeform it - which, as someone with bad memory, is not optimal. I also can choose to Kill Some Of My Darlings, but keep others that just needed that little extra polish.

So.... How does this process for my "second drafts" look? :3

STEP ONE: pick your first/early draft of choice, of course!

This was my pick to make an example out of - very first draft of a piece for my pmd/pla oc Ritsu, I like the concept but even when writing it this opening just felt so. Blah. I've been a few months away from it so perfect opportunity to revisit and fix it up!

Also - I'm in google docs (/deragotory) but this will work literally in any writing program so don't worry too much about what you're using vs what I'm using.

STEP TWO: Make a new document!

Cool! .....But empty!

Personally, I put draft notes up top to help differentiate them. Also yep, separate docs is necessary for this process, at least temporarily. To avoid clutter I (re)move the earlier drafts once I'm done with them.

So all that said - let's fill this doc up!

STEP THREE: Slap that bad boy of an early draft into your new document using copypaste...

.....But only one paragraph at a time. Let's start with this one, and do the next steps before moving more in. I'll explain why later.

STEP 3.5 (optional): Put down brackets or some other visual cue to help tell your brain, "this is the old unedited stuff!!!"

You do not have to do this, but it helps a lot for what goes on next, and if you're like me and step away from your writing often, will give you an idea of where you left off in the drafting process.

I personally do Not recommend color-coding via highlighting or text color - you Could, but the next step typically involves shuffling things around, reordering things, adding new things, etc. So it'll become a visual mess pretty quickly and/or become redundant fast.

STEP FOUR: Let's dig in and start fixing up this paragraph into something worthy of being a part of our new draft! This is where the actual writing happens.

In this instance, I further isolated the first two sentences. I like the gist, but it really needs something More, and I can't worry about the following details until I get this down the way I like it. As you can see, I removed the sentence from bracket purgatory and closed the remainder-in-waiting back in. This visual helps me focus better on what I want to do.

Here's those two sentences after reworking them! In this case, I kept certain elements - nighttime, the "moon high in the sky", the fact that the pokemon in town are asleep - But have mix and matched them, padded out details, and entirely changed some phrasing. Phrases I didn't fully remove has just kind of gotten frankenstein'd around until I was much happier with their placement and added meat.

These are of course obvious changes when looking at before and after, but I figured outlining the changes won't hurt anything!

So now that I'm happy with the new opening sentences, I'm going to tackle the rest of the paragraph...

...Like so. As you can see, I've expanded one paragraph into about two, and restructured not just the information within, but also where paragraphs break. Now I'm much happier with the end result already! So onto the next step...

STEP SIX: rinse and repeat!

I keep doing this, paragraph by bracketed paragraph, until I run out of steam and need a break. When I do, I paste one last paragraph into the document, bracket it, and close the document out - that way it's there for me when I want to pick it up again later.

Also sometimes I pick a few paragraphs at a time, depending - mostly when it's all on the same concept.

That's the gist of it! Very simple despite me writing a novel with it. Like I said before, feel free to mix and match or experiment with it!

[taddymason]

Do you have any tips for those who want to write a fan season/Ninjago fanfic? I really like your story so far so I thought about asking for some tips on fanfiction since I never tried writing one and I really liked yours!

I don't consider myself very good at giving advice but I'll do my best, this may be taken more as a matter of "writing fanfiction in general" but I hope it helps with what I've learned from writing:

Use chapter outlines and learn to structure important events and scenes:

I can't stress how helpful this has been for me, but I always find it's best to have some sort of "plan" of what will happen in each chapter, what scenes need to happen, and be able to alter it if the story goes in another direction. It doesn't even have to be a very elaborate outline, but having a good summary of what you want to happen helps a lot to start drafting and plotting your story to get an idea of ​​where you want the characters to go. Once you have this mental map, you can allow yourself the freedom to make changes to the story if you feel it's necessary, it's the kind of thing you'll figure out as you write.

Also never get too attached to your ideas because you never know if the characters will develop differently or if the story works better another way. There will be times when you're writing, even if you had planned something to happen, it will feel like the characters have a life of their own and it just wouldn't make sense for them to do that. If something doesn't feel right to you, don't be afraid to change it. Your initial outline is never going to be the final result but it's always good to do it because I've found it helps to make writer's block easier and to avoid plot holes.

Choose wisely which scenes are necessary to show in the context of the story:

So this is more in context of whether you're following canon material, but you don't need to copy verbatim scene by scene, dialogue by dialogue, to get to the part you want to write. I personally feel that each scene should have a purpose, and readers have probably already seen the show, so you don't have to tell everything they've already seen as it happens in the show but rather adapt it to fit their story. Otherwise, it's usually tedious to write and boring to read. It may be a small thing, but it helped me a lot in writing LP and knowing when to ellipse, and knowing what dialogue was worth keeping for important scenes.

Especially in Ninjago because let's be honest, if you're writing a very serialized fic, there might be a scene in the episode that breaks that tension or maybe doesn't fit with the tone you had set. You don't have to keep it, you can make the story canon-consistent without needing to show everything. Sometimes, you can tell instead of show.

Don't be redundant:

There's no need to repeat the same thing over and over again in different words, especially in the same paragraph. There are exceptions of course, if it's something that depends on the character's perception, but in general it becomes annoying for the reader. It's better to be able to encapsulate an idea in one sentence than to have to tell it over and over again.

Don't be afraid to change your draft as many times as you want:

The draft will not be seen by anyone but yourself, and I say this because many times I have gotten stuck with a chapter because I am not enjoying what I am writing but I feel the need to write about such an event. My advice is: if you don't enjoy it, don't do it. Change the perspective, the way you would develop the scene, etc., whatever you think is necessary so that you feel that the story can flow better.

Hope this helps!

[gladstones-corner]

I usually avoid YouTube these days for a multitude of reasons, but recently I discovered a channel called ReligionForBreakfast. The host, Dr. Andrew Mark Henry, is a Ph.D. of Religious Studies from Boston University. He covers a wide range of topics on his channel, but I'm going to focus on just one today: "What is the Best Bible Translation?"

I won't give you a play by play; that would be redundant at best and insulting to his work at worst. Please just give the video a watch--it's about an hour but it's worth it.

Let's lay some groundwork: Dr. Henry focuses primarily on the Protestant Christian Bible, given that there are a proliferation of English translations. By contrast, the Roman Catholic Bible contains one official English translation. He also mentions the major English translation of the Hebrew Bible, the JPS Tanakh.

I was raised in a Protestant Christian family. Therefore, my comments here will mostly reflect my opinions on the Protestant Christian translations. I lack the proper context for the Roman Catholic and Hebrew Bibles, so I won't be commenting on them here.

Okay, with the preliminaries out of the way, let's get started.

It's extremely interesting that Dr. Henry doesn't discredit any of the major translations. Instead, he makes a distinction between translations designed for critical, scholarly Bible analysis and translations designed to impart doctrinal teachings. I'll call these translation camps "critical" and "denominational" here.

No, Dr. Henry remains mostly neutral on the subject of critical and denominational translations. He points out clearly that--except for the KJV--the big modern translations, regardless of camp, were written by biblical scholars using wide-ranging critical techniques.

While Dr. Henry's neutrality is admirable (and definitely from a more experienced place than my own), I elect to be a bit biased on this topic.

Let me be clear: I think that any translation whose authors willingly sacrifice critical, ecumenical interpretation in favor of one or a few denominations' doctrinal teachings is invalid. This includes, but is certainly not limited to, the ESV and NIV.

And now we reach the KJV. Dr. Henry points out in his video that this translation is based on a much older set of scriptures--primarily the Bishop's Bible--and was revised based on the commonly accepted scholarly standards of the day.

While Dr. Henry essentially defends the KJV's existence as "doing the best with what you have", he does point out that it is one of the weakest in terms of accuracy. Again, his choice to remain neutral is admirable--and likely more correct--but I will not do the same.

The KJV is my least favorite translation of the Christian Bible by--at the very least--a country mile. I could devote an entire post to how disastrous the KJV and its consequences have been to global society. However, I'll constrain myself to the following comments: not only was the translation itself politically motivated, but it was based on translations that were also politically motivated. Further, in the last 400 years, our understanding of--and access to--biblical texts has greatly increased, such that the KJV is now an outdated relic.

So, what does Dr. Henry recommend as far as scholarly analysis goes? The NRSV. This is the preferred translation among biblical scholars of the Christian Tradition, whether Protestant or Catholic (the NRSV has editions with the deuterocanon).

The NRSV was translated by a diverse committee of different faiths--even including Harry Orlinski, who was the editor-in-chief of the NJPS Torah. The committee strove for an academic translation that was faithful to the meaning of the text as it existed within historical context while retaining modern scholarly discussion and consensus.

This is my favorite translation of the Christian Bible as well. However, it's not without its own quirks. For example, the move to use gender inclusive language wherever inferred is admirable--for example, when using language for God, or when Paul writes to the members of various churches. But, in some cases the translators erred a bit, obscuring what would normally be a clearer turn of phrase in ancient Hebrew or Koine Greek. But in all honesty, I'd take a translation that erred on the side of inclusivity than exclusivity any day.

At the end of the day, translations of the Christian Bible necessarily must take into account a polyglot's view. Finding the most ancient sources of a biblical text is critical, but most of our contextualization and explanation of these texts happen after the fact, usually through the study of major thinkers.

In the Christian world, that would be people like Augustine, Aquinas, and others; though I would argue that Christians should also read Maimonides and Spinoza, among others, as the Jewish context cannot be lost when reading these texts or else the whole exercise becomes moot.

All of that is to say, I'm cranky over how the Hebrew Bible has been bastardized over the years. To a lesser extent I'm cranky over how the Christian Bible--namely the Christian New Testament--has also been shredded and bastardized to fit narrow, bigoted viewpoints.

But as an armchair scholar, I'm so glad there are people out there like Dr. Henry who make centuries of biblical analysis and teaching easier to digest. They help me overcome several hurdles that I would have absolutely tripped over in my research--even to the point of wanting to give up (trust me, I've been there once or twice with Augustine).

Thank you for reading. As always, stay safe and stay tuned. Blessings to you and yours~

[darkficsyouneveraskedfor]

Helping Hand 6

Warnings: non/dubcon, mentions of divorce, and other dark elements. My username actually says you never asked for any of this.

Characters: Jonathan Pine, 40s reader

My warnings are not exhaustive but be aware this is a dark fic and may include potentially triggering topics. Please use your common sense when consuming content. I am not responsible for your decisions.

As usual, I would appreciate any and all feedback. I’m happy to once more go on this adventure with all of you! Thank you in advance for your comments and for reblogging.

You're permitted to leave the dungeon of your policy review for your designated half-hour break. You go to the lunch room and sit down with your meagre tray of crackers and cheese. You pick away at it, your appetite spoiled by the rotten start to your day and the pain tearing at your muscles. You really just want to go home but you know you can't. You need the money.

Your phone shakes on the table, a loud rattle that makes you flinch. You sigh and grab it, standing up to take the call. The longer you avoid Andy, the worse it's going to get. You leave your food on the table and jar your shoulder as you pull open the door. You put the phone to your ear as you storm onto the sales floor.

"Andy, I'm at work."

"Tough shit. How hard is it for you to give me an answer? It's as simple as a text--"

"You ever think I don't want to see your mother or you? Andy," you huff and hold your breath, lowering your voice as you hurry past customers. You get outside just as you're about to burst, "you left me. You served me papers. Why are you still bugging me?"

"I asked you for a goddamn favour. And just like usual, you can't do a simple task--"

"Andy--"

"Listen to me," he hollers over you, "she's sick. Okay? She's sick and she wants to see you."

You stop on the curb, teetering on the edge. You push your neck back and groan. God, you're shoulder hurts.

"How sick?" You ask.

"Sick," he answers somberly, "please, it's one afternoon."

You exhale, "what about... her?"

Another silence as he sniffs, "that's over."

You want to scoff. You want to scream in his ear. All that for a fling that didn't even last a whole year. You hold back your venom, it doesn't change anything. You're still divorced and you still hate him.

"Too bad," you mutter, "fine, I'll come."

"Thanks," he says, "for what it's worth."

"For her, not you," you growl.

"I can drive you--"

"No, I'll figure that out myself," you turn back to the storefront, "the less time we need to be together, the better."

He clucks, "I wasn't that bad."

"Apparently I was," you shrug and let out a pathetic yipe, "god fuck!" You pull the phone away from your ear as you try to stifle your exclamation. You put it back to your cheek and cross the pavement to the door, "gotta go. Bye."

"Sunday--"

"Got it."

You hang up and shove your phone in your pocket. You whine and clutch your shoulder. Your eyes blur with tears. So much for a relaxing lunch.

You reenter the store, head down as you ignore the customers trying to get your attention. You punch the keycode into the lunchroom door and grab your uneaten snack, packing it away before returning to the backroom. As you enter, you find the office occupied.

"Ah, there you are," Jonathan greets as he turns to you, "how was your break?"

"Short," you answer and go around to sit in the chair, cradling your elbow to keep pressure off the joint of your shoulder, "thanks."

"I saw you rush out. Everything okay?"

"Yep," you roll forward and flip a page, "everything is roses."

"And how is your shoulder?" He asks.

"Good," you lie.

He stares at you. A deadlock between you. You bow your head and resume your mindless browsing of redundant rules. He comes close to the other side of the desk and rests his fingertips on the top.

"I am worried, I am not treating you maliciously," he says evenly.

"I know. I told you not to worry."

"Someone should be cautious if you won't," he insists, "I am not like that man I fended off last night–"

"He's not your problem to worry about."

"Yet, I do," he intones, "you shouldn’t let him shade your impression of the world. He is one person–"

"I don't want to talk about my ex-husband," your voice scrapes with frustration, "please," you lift your head, "I'm just trying to get through the day."

He considers you, dragging his hand away from the desk to cross his arms. His forehead ripples and his cheek twitches. He takes a breath and his chest rises and falls.

"Very well, let's keep this professional. Go home."

"What?" You sputter.

"Yes, you've had time to review the policy. Should an employee have issues performing their duties, and/or pose a risk to themselves or others, they may be dismissed," he declares, "I believe if you sit here any longer and stress your injury, you will cause irreparable damage."

"It's fine–"

"I am your boss and I am telling you to leave the premises."

You lean back, chewing on a yelp. You blink as you glare at him. You can't believe he is doing this.

"Now, since you are officially relieved of your duties, as your friend, I insist you see a doctor–"

"You can't do this–"

"I am," he shrugs nonchalantly. "Of course, you may choose to catch the bus and see how you fare with a night of discomfort and no relief or you will accept my offer and seek help. I had my physician pencil you in for an hour from now–"

"Why would you do that?" You sneer.

"Because, you are stubborn–"

"I am not your responsibility."

"Perhaps not in your mind," he smirks, "so, shall I retrieve your things from your locker or would you prefer me wait for you here?"

"I'm not going with you," you stand and close the binder, slamming your hand on the cover.

"Very well, until you seek proper care, you will not be permitted to return to work. I cannot risk the liability–"

"You are…" you begin, breathless with exasperation, "why are you doing this?"

"Doing what? Looking after you?"

"Yes," you murmur, "why would you bother?"

"Someone must," he drops his arms, "please, be mad at me all you like, it is better than hurting yourself."

You shake your head and huff, avoiding him as you round the desk, "I'll get my bag."

"I'll be here, darling," he hums smugly, "patiently."

[halfbakedspuds]

Thanks to @illarian-rambling for the tag!

OC assumption tag

Share one of your characters' name and a quote from them with zero context and let your followers (or other people who stumble upon your post) make assumptions about said character. You can post about more than one character but only one quote for each one for things to stay out of context.

I'll do this for the little unnamed WIP I've been writing scenes for that probably won't turn into anything.

Adam

"See this? This is a master directive disc. Simply put, I slot it into the master computer, flick the switch, et vóila: every Vellassian positronic matrix from here to Nordren gets updated instantly.

Now, you buggers have been a real big thorn in my side for longer than I realistically should've allowed, so I say we do something about that by pushing the following new directives: violence against thy neighbours; violence against thyself; violence against the very gods, art and nature!

Heark! The choir, and let. there. be. war!"

Wayn Vakasa

"Oh it's absolutely your fault, captain 'We cannot stop to hunt while on the run, Wayn'.

Oh look at me! I'm the big, scary man from Earth gods-know-what and I know better than the Kachatanu wild-woman who's survived off the land for seventeen years.

...Yeah, I've had my fun. You were saying?"

James Holden

"Hey. Hey! Look at me! This right here? This is full fucking tilt. If I push 'er any harder then our next stop will be five layers deep into hell, so why don't you take that little rifle of yours and make yourself useful while I focus on stopping the engine from turning into a pile of slag at whatever unholy speed we've achieved.

Come now, chop-chop,"

Mari Demouchet

"Right. Other worlds. Magic. I'm pretty goddamn sure I just saw a robot catcalling a toaster but I could be wrong.

Fuck man, I... I-I need to get some fresh air, 'cause this is either a drug induced psychosis and I'm actually lying in some dingey-ass storage container where some... thing is getting ready to root around in my noggin for whatever makes me different, or this is actually real and at this point I genuinely don't know which is scarier,"

Tagir Aslan

"Just breathe, moy drug, breathe. Crossing over is a massive system shock, I know, but you're not doing yourself or us any favours by working yourself up.

I am serious: adrenaline entering your bloodstream at this moment could actually make your heart explode.

Relax, it is a joke. No seriously, relax, I wasn't joking about stress still being incredibly dangerous to you at this moment."

Cerberus

"Get dressed. Do not step in front of me, and avoid mirrors so that you're not in my line of sight. Do not under any circumstances allow me to see you. You may speak, and ask questions. Do I make myself abundantly clear, child?"

Adair Holden

"Oh, and Eleven? If you see the boy, would you kindly kill him for me? Redundancy must serve a purpose, and he no longer does.

It's a shame though, his mind showed so much promise... but, Kazra deals all hands, and unfortunately he was dealt no spine for what is required of him,"

No pressure tag for @honeybewrites, @thatoneterrariaplayer, @oh-no-another-idea, @orion-lacroix and anyone else who wants in.

[finnlongman]

I am so curious about your drafting process, would you be wiling to share a little more about it? I've never come across the idea of completely rewriting from scratch every time, how did you arrive at this as a method that works for you?

I've been writing novels since I was thirteen, so the origin of a lot of my writing processes is somewhat lost to time/memory -- I don't know why I started doing them, only that they either worked or didn't work and the ones that worked stuck around and the ones that didn't... didn't.

I find it difficult to edit within an existing document because it feels like I don't have space to think when all the words are already there. If I open a new document next to the old one and type it out again, I'm more free to move things around, reword them slightly, layer in new details, shift the emphasis etc, without feeling like I have to fit that into the existing framework of sentences that are on the page. If the sentences that are on the page are still working, cool, I'll write them out again. Anything I can't be bothered to type out was probably boring, so that can go, making this a useful strategy for cutting extraneous words and redundant descriptions, too.

The old document is always present when I do this. I don't rewrite from memory or without reference to it. It's just an easier way of refining what I'd put on the page before. And the advantage of this is that the old version always still exists, too. I have never "deleted" a scene, I've simply written a new version of the book that no longer contains that scene. If I want to put it back, I can go and find it, and write it in again.

It's also a lot easier to make major plot changes this way. Sometimes I'll duplicate the old draft and then use tracked changes to move scenes into their new position to see how they'd look -- then I rewrite it and actually make them work in that position. It creates a consistency of voice and style, and makes it easier to avoid continuity issues created by moving things around. And I do tend to make big plot changes and shift things around a lot, partly because I don't tend to plan or outline much in advance and often haven't worked out what I'm trying to do, thematically, until I'm halfway through doing it. A scene that moves from two-thirds of the way through the book to one-third of the way through is going to need to express different characterisation and different aspects of the book's themes, or it'll seem out of place, so it'll need rewriting anyway to make it work, and so will the scenes around it. I can't really imagine a way to edit without large-scale rewrites unless I somehow avoided moving or adding any scenes, which I have never yet avoided!

Consistency of voice and style is especially important when some of my novels have been written over a very long period -- e.g. The Butterfly Assassin was first drafted in 2014 and was published in 2022, and I wrote at least one draft every year for seven years. Any sentence that survived from 2014 to 2022 had been retyped and rewritten half a dozen times to get there -- and there were not many such sentences -- with minor shifts in style and rhythm so that it matched everything around it. If I had edited that book in-document, it would have been much harder to avoid the sense that it was a patchwork of pieces written years apart from each other.

But this need for consistency, and the desire to avoid continuity errors, is also why I tend to write very fast when I do this: I am holding all of the pieces in my head, everything from plot to sentence structure, and it's hard to sustain that for long. For me, writing looks like long periods of thinking and making notes and puzzling over things, and then a frenzied burst of activity where I act on all of the conclusions I've come to, which is why I like to write very quickly and then take several months away to work on other things before I come back to a project.

Academically, I also find this rewriting helpful: I would always prefer to write a new paragraph that makes the point the old one was trying to make but better, than to try to "fix" the old paragraph. It's just a lot more tedious with academic work because of references and quotes and stuff, so I end up copy+pasting more over.

I will say that the first time an editor said, "Can you do this with tracked changes turned on?" and I said, "Ah. Small problem," and explained that I would in fact be writing the whole book again, they were ... somewhat horrified. But they've accepted that the thoroughness with which I rework everything on the page makes it necessary, and I've figured out how to use "compare documents" to create a version that looks like I used tracked changes while not being an absolute headache for me in the process. So then everyone's happy.

[yukirayu]

The Takasato-gumi's Tattoos, and Their (Possible) Symbolism

It had been some time since I last made a post for Slow Damage and I promised I'd make one a fortnight ago.

Though I'll be honest, this is more of a half-trivia/half-meta post than it is a full meta.

To start...

It's no secret that the Takasato-gumi is a yakuza organization. And it's common practice for certain members of the yakuza to get tattooed. And they don't just get any tattoo. The symbol they're branded with, as they say, is supposed to represent who they are as a person.

The funny thing is that of course, all yakuza run on crime. Organized crime, but still crime. And the players are shown first-hand how certain members of the Takasato-gumi are anything but pleasant, which makes it ironic that they're tattooed with symbols of Buddhism.

Just to clarify early on, Kotarou and Mayu's tattoos have nothing to do with their ties to the Takasato-gumi.

So we'll be talking about four other members of the group, and know that I did a *bit* of research about I'll discuss shortly below.

We'll start with Madarame, since it's his tattoos that we get to see in-game. 

Though the artbook never confirmed what exactly his tattoo is, it's highly likely that it's modeled after the Guanyin, a.k.a. the Avalokiteshvara Boddhisatva.

The reason this deity is called Guanyin is because its name means "perceiver of all sounds" in Chinese, which refers to how Guanyin - the goddess of mercy and the embodiment of kindness and compassion - hear all those who cry to it for help.

Guanyin is also known as the patroness of fishermen. This is why she's often associated with a dragon, as dragons are regarded as creaturers of the sea in Chinese mythology. Dragons are also seen as symbols of power and prosperity in both China and Japan.

Whatever your opinion of Madarame may be, no one can deny that he's NOT a personification of everything that Guanyin represents. He follows his own desires and instincts. Though some of the aspects associated with a dragon (mainly power/strength) do fit him to a tee.

That aside though, the artbook shows that there are other notable symbols drawn on the tattoos on Madarame's arms. It's not the black scale-like marks that serve as the background, the sakura petals, or the flame marks near his wrists. It's what's found between all that.

Among them are masks commonly used in Japanese theater, such as the Noh mask (on his right arm & on the upper row) and the Hannya mask (on his left arm & on the lower row). And with Slow Damage's attention for detail, they're likely not placed in the design just because.

The Noh mask is used to signify the age, gender and status of the character, human or supernatural. They're modeled in a way that they can show a completely different expression with only a tilt of the head and with the use of clever lighting.

On the other hand, the Hannya mask is more demonic-looking because it is used to represent a female onryo ("vengeful spirit"). Like the Noh mask, the mask can change depending on the level of the spirit's anger, envy and resentment.

The Noh mask can represent how Madarame is hard to read, so it takes having to read into the finer details of his words and body language to understand him.

On the other hand, the Hannya mask can represent his status as a "vengeful ghost" rumored to haunt Shinkoumi.

But the Hannya mask can also symbolize how Madarame's route is where Towa's more destructive aspects become dominant (anger) and where Madarame further worsens the strain in Towa's relationship with his friends out of the belief that they're trapping him (resentment).

Now the previous statement was something I explained (or at least attempted to) in further detail in a meta from a few months ago. I'll just link the meta here so as to avoid getting redundant.

Aside from the sakura petals, there are two other flowers that stand out in Madarame's tattoos. On his left arm, there's a chrysanthemum, and on his right arm is a flower that most closely resembles a peony.

Chrystanthemums are flowers that come in many colors. And in the flower language, the symbolism of a flower can differ based on the color of the petals. A common symbolism for chrysanthemums is love.

The red variant even represents love at first sight. And if the localization (of dubious quality) is to be believed, Madarame found himself enraptured with Towa (or at least his more violent and impulsive self) ever since he first saw him.

The white variant represents truth, honesty and loyalty. I've already said before that Madarame can be manipulative, he can omit truths, but he always speaks his mind and is always loyal to what he wants, whether it's to the benefit or detriment of everyone else.

Lastly, the yellow variant represents neglected or scorned love. Obviously, Madarame is an ex-lover (of sorts) for Towa.

And should Madarame decide to get involved in Towa's life, he makes his entrance like a scorned lover would, with desimposing and destructive force.

As for peonies, their beauty has them considered the "king of flowers". And in Japan, they symbolize bravery and honor. Madarame doesn't have much scruples, if at all. But he's someone with his own way of life, and he's someone who's feared rather than someone who fears.

With that, I'm done discussing Madarame's tattoos. But there's still three other people to cover. While we never see their tattoos in game, the artbook *does* confirm what Buddhist symbol, or more specifically, deity, they're tattooed with (on their backs, specifically).

Kaga is tattooed with the image of Kannon. But the interesting fact is that Kannon is only but the Japanese spelling of the name "Guanyin", which means that both Madarame and Kaga got branded with the same Buddhist deity.

To recap, Guanyin is the goddess of mercy and a figure of compassion and kindness. Certainly not befitting of someone like Madarame... though it is fitting to a degree with Kaga. He may be of the yakuza, but he's said to be fair and far from the greedy type.

He believed that organized crime should be used to help the oppressed, not to tyrannize them further. But this didn't align with how Sakaki and Toono wanted to run things. Since many respected Kaga and wanted *him* to become the next leader... you know what came next.

And so, there's Sakaki and Toono. I'll start with Sakaki.

Like Madarame and Kaga, the tattoo on his back has the image of a Bodhisattva, albeit this time, it's a different one. More specifically, it's the Akasagarbha Bodhisattva, which looks like this.

Akasagarbha is one of the Eight Great Bodhisattvas, and symbolizes infinite wisdom. In Buddhist temples, people would pray to him for wisdom and improvement of memory and of self in the hopes that they would reach enlightenment.

This applies to Sakaki... albeit in a very demented sense.  Improving someone's memory, guiding them closer to reaching their true self and achieving enlightment? That is what Sakaki believes he is doing to Towa, a.k.a. Maya's vessel and successor.

To sum up, in the final route, Sakaki decides to jog Towa's memory by giving him relics of his past, making him more curious and curious about his mother, until the decisive moment comes where Towa becomes "enlightened". Or in other words, "transform" into Maya.

But in the conventional sense, it's a very ironic symbol for Sakaki. Because, without softening any words, the man is batshit insane. I've spoken in length before how Maya's business is like a cult, and Sakaki acts like its most devoted acolyte.

And for reasons we can only guess, Maya managed to completely charm him into supporting her as her right-hand man. He very clearly supports her delusions of villainous grandeur, he sees things her way, and thinks that anything that defies her way is vile and wrong.

It'd be one thing if he knew he had to groom Towa into taking after his mother. But the final Interrogation shows that he genuinely believes that Maya's soul had literally possessed Towa, with Towa now having her memories. If that's not deranged, I don't know what is.

With that, that leaves Toono. Unlike the other three, the Buddhist figure tattooed onto his back is not a Bodhisattva, but another deity known as Kongōyasha Myōō. And as it appearance indicates, it is definitely fierce in nature.

In Japanese Buddhism, this is one of the Five Great Guardian Kings - wrathful deities that protect and uphold the Buddhist laws. It's also known as the "Devourer of Demons," its moniker earned for its task of destroying evil spirits.

So in a way, the Kongōyasha Myōō could be seen as an enforcer of justice. Though this would highly contradict with Toono, who openly admits to his corruption.

Though as said earlier, he's the only one among the four whose tattoo is not a Boddhisatva.

The fact that the deity on his back is a wrathful spirit, even if it's different from a demon, can represent how Toono is always a threat. If not to the main cast, then to Shinkoumi itself.

Even in the routes where he's barely the focus, it's still confirmed that his goals never take a pause. It's always in motion, just dealt with differently depending on which love interest is pursued.

That aside, I also have to point out what the figure on his back is.

As shown in the above images, it has three heads and six arms; hence the Chinese phrase "sān tóu liù bì" (三头六臂) come to mind. It refers to someone with remarkable ability, so in a way, this can describe Toono's ambition.

After all, what is his end goal? To achieve more influence, enough for him to run his own business and undermine Sakaki and the Takasato-gumi by extension, thus granting him control over Shinkoumi. So in that sense, the artist's choice of tattoos for Toono makes sense.

And that's end of it. I'm glad that the artist left these tidbits in the artbook for me to dissect, thus giving me the chance to talk about characters I otherwise rarely discuss.

[dadvans]

I really hope they don´t get into the whole Tommy´s past thing to create drama with him and Buck. Buck making an issue out of it while Hen and Chim have been cool with Tommy for years now would just look redundant like white guilt/saviour stuff that production thinks must be adressed again because people either don´t remember season 2 correctly or worse, just prefer being obtuse because they want to continue to scream "ToMmY rAcist" along to their "bUddIe cAnnoN" chants

In the post you're most likely referencing, I was really hesitant on Hen or Chim being a part of the bulletpoint conversation for a lot of reasons. I totally agree with you on wanting to avoid the white guilt/savior tropes, and would like it established that we like Now Tommy As Is! That being said, I'm likely to continue spitballing fanon on main, I'm likely to be one of the many people who enjoy coming up with Tommy backstory. I know I have a very specific idea of his backstory that I might explore in fic that I haven't seen elsewhere, and it's unlikely I'll post about that until I put it down in the fic, because I want to keep it for me. But you'll probably see more annoying spec posts from me.

To a certain point I'm okay with them showing and not telling about the person Tommy is today. That being said, I do want to know more about him, and I hope they show us more! I don't want him as a Gay Yoda figure. I think there are just so many fun storylines that could play out with him and Buck dating while they're also first responders.