#this ties in to what i said about concepts before to a degree

[harfblarf]

Happy to help. Like I said, it's an interesting idea, and it definitely has merits. I'd be willing to continue offering feedback in the future, and I'm glad what I've offered so far has been helpful.

That said... To be entirely honest, I think you're going about this in the wrong order. I still think a pitch needs something concrete beneath it, but I'm not sure you're AT the pitch stage yet.

From what I can tell, from both how you designed the original OAG concept and how you phrased that bit about "cover all the bases you can think of, then consult with the community", you're an outsider to artistic and creative spaces, an observer. You consume the output and you observe the systems and you care, that much is obvious, but you're not directly involved or impacted, and you don't have the experience of being an artist, or even the secondhand experience of witnessing an artist's struggles directly in your life. What you have is public-facing knowledge. Whether that presumption is precisely true matters somewhat less than the way it comes across.

If you want to inspire collective movement, you can't be outside of the collective. You have to be part of it; the people you work with need to be your peers, in one form or another. I'm not necessarily saying you need to, personally, become an artist and experience the life firsthand-- but your approach is currently that of a Systems Guy, who sees patterns and thinks they can fix them because they had a really shining, inspiring idea about a way to reorganize what they've seen. It's the call of the muse, a little to the left. It's an understandable impulse. However, as it is you will come across as a salesman to the community you are trying to reach, and we have all learned to be suspicious of salesmen advertising panacea. Your goals are exciting-- upheaval of an unjust system, collective power for artists, support for the struggling! Your proposed method even seems like it could work.

But you're approaching from the top-down. You have all these shining goals and proposed underlying values, and you don't have the nitty-gritty details, the immediate concerns that have to be addressed before noble, lofty goals can be. Your shining system won't work if you don't get the gears aligned properly, and you won't be able to bring a community together while standing on a soapbox outside its borders.

I think this project would be better served with its details set on a backburner while you do research and become more involved. You clearly care, and that care will be better directed if you take the time to listen to the community, become involved, and learn more about the current issues and systems affecting artists on the ground level. Conversation, curiosity, and care will teach you more than a thousand rejected pitches and considerate critiques-- learn first, act second. If you invest in this research phase, you will come out of it with the connections and information you need to actually begin bringing a collective together in a way that will provide actual, concrete help, and gather true influence to back the guild. (And for the record, I don't count as a proper connection-- I've been involved in artistic spaces in the past, but I'm a lurker right now, and I've never been influential or high-investment. I'm a hobbyist; I'm not one of the people you're trying to help, at least not right now.)

I ask you to consider this carefully. It's hard to step back from bringing an idea to life right away, I know. It's hard, because you have hundreds of ideas and enough enthusiasm to confuse for certainty. (Some of those ideas will even be good-- I encourage you to keep writing them all down, even if you pause developing the pitch.) I know it's hard because it happens to me all the fucking time-- I am a chronic Systems Guy. It's much harder to sustain that enthusiasm and confidence through the slow slog of research, the disappointment and shame of realizing you were wrong about some things, the frustration of people who won't listen, won't engage, seem to focus on all the "wrong things". But if it's worth doing, it's worth doing right, and that means laying a solid foundation first.

I think that's food for thought, at least.

Anyway, apologies for assigning you a new essay to read, I can't be concise to save my fucking life. Going forward, my DMs are open to you to discuss this subject further; just be aware my replies will be sporadic.

What's funny to me is that nobody cares about copyright outside the US and maybe, I dunno, Canada and Europe? For the entire third world, it's something we politely pretend is real so we don't hurt their feelings, but it's probably the fakest and less upheld concept here, absolutely nobody cares.

Some yanqui says something deranged like "um, uh, yeah, you should pay for every time you play a song otherwise you're stealing" and we just pat their head and say "claro que sí tesoro" while we download 15 GBs of movies and the local pizzeria has a mural of like Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny to promote it.

[aphroditeslover11]

Hi! I hope that you're having a great day/night! Could I request Lenny Miller with a younger reader?

Love Of His Life

This came so naturally, I’m not sure if it’s what you were hoping for but it just flowed out of my hands!

Warnings: a little smut, age gap, not proofread

Lenny had met you when you were spending a year in Paris, having taken a French degree that required you to spend a year abroad as a part of your study. It took some convincing for you to go out on a date with the older man, but he was persistent and eventually won you over. After he had taken you to dinner at Le Meurice, picking up the tab himself, he had walked you home and sent flowers to your tiny chamber de bonne the next day along with a note thanking you for your company. The fact that he was old didn’t mean he was dull or sleazy as you had feared, it meant that he was a hopeless romantic who knew how to treat a woman properly. The next time you met he had taken you for a picnic in the Jardin Du Luxembourg, complete with amazing French cheeses and a bottle of expensive champagne. It was fair to say that pretty soon you were hooked. Everyone always said that you were mature for your age anyway, so the concept of the age gap quickly became irrelevant to you.

A year later and you had finished your degree. When it got towards the end of your time studying in France Lenny had taken the risk of proposing you after taking you back to Le Meurice like he had on your first date. You hadn’t thought before saying yes, he put in for a transfer to be near you whilst you finished your degree and life continued in your strange state bliss.

You tied the knot quite quickly after that, getting married in a small service. His parents had both passed and he was an only child. Neither had much in the way of family, but you had agreed to a wedding in the church where he had grown up in Hawaï, though he wouldn’t admit it you knew that it made him feel close to his parents. You had the perfect white dress and he was in uniform, a hang over from the days when he had been climbing the ranks of Navy SEALs before he had been recruited into the CIA. As there were so few people you didn’t bother having a proper reception, he opted to take you to the beach where he had spent his time as a child, eating cheap burgers as your wedding breakfast and replacing the lights of a dance floor with the soft glow of the stars above you.

After this you moved to New York, he was promoted and took over a senior intelligence post, stationed in the city. He was in and out of the UN meeting with his counterparts, meeting all kinds of people. You knew he worked so hard because he wanted to prove he was worthy of you, his young and beautiful wife. You were remarkably proud of him, even if he found it hard to believe it. He was smart and had invested some of what his parents had left him into the stock market back when he was in the navy and used it to buy a beautiful apartment on the Upper East Side. It had a beautiful kitchen diner where you would attempt to cook together, often ending up in resorting to ordering takeout after Lenny decided that it would be a good idea to modify your recipes. There was something beautifully domestic about this life, it was still unpredictable but safe. Lenny refused to tell you much about his past because he didn’t want you to view him differently, but he gave up the guns and the action so he could live a safe life with you, finally letting himself rest.

After having seen so many horrible things he would want to protect you from the harshest realities of the world. You were young and innocent and so perfect for him, he didn’t want to taint that. He would never let an argument go unresolved before you went to bed. On the rare occasion that you had a proper row he would usually cave first and give you your way. He would usually be so in control of himself, but when he did shout it was harsh and loud, it always terrified you and as soon as he saw the look on your face he would cave. He could never stand the thought of you being afraid of him.

Arguments would often end in the bedroom, he would be the gentlest lover after a fight, peppering kisses along your collarbones before slowly moving down your body. He would be attentive, bringing you over the edge as many times as he could with his hands and his tongue until he had finally made it up to you. Only then would he seek any pleasure for himself, sheathing himself within you and moving so gently it would be as if you were made of porcelain. He’d be terrified of hurting you after seeing you so vulnerable earlier.

There could be another side of him in bed though. A raw and passionate one that came out after a difficult day at work. You learnt how to bring it out yourself over time, how to tease him with subtle touches at the work galas that he took you to and how he could never control himself when he saw you in just your lingerie and a pair of Louboutins. On those nights he would go for rounds at a time. Voracious, like a starving man at a banquet. He delighted in having you spread out below him, completely vulnerable to him and at his mercy. You always looked so small from that angle, he could do anything he wanted to you, and moreover he knew that you would let him and enjoy it. No matter how hard he took you though, he always ended with his head buried in the crook of your neck, whispering passionate prose into your ear and telling you how precious you were to him, how he would never let any harm come to you.

He managed to temper his protective tendencies well. Although both of you knew that it wasn’t a necessity, you found a job working in a little bookshop a few days a week, something to occupy your time. He was always anxious that something from his past would come back to haunt him, to haunt you, but he did his best to keep his worries separate from your life together. On account of your age difference, he was forced to confront the fact that there were things that you would want to do that he had left in the past, many years ago. You had a tight circle of friends that you would go with for nights out - clubbing, dancing and drinking in dives that he would never go into. He would never do anything to stop you, he would want you to live a life as full as you would have without him. Still, he couldn’t help it if he had to stay up until 3:00 am to make sure that you got home safe.

You had a beautiful life together in New York, it was something that you had built together, brick by brick. Every day he found himself falling deeper in love with you. He often said that he would probably have ended up dead in an abandoned corner of some far off land if he hadn’t had you to force him out of his ways. He pushed so hard for so long yet in you, your fragility and youth, he had finally made something to make him slow down. He finally understood the meaning of the phrase - you were the love of his life

[goblins-riddles-or-frocks]

You said you prefer Nikolai and Alina more as a ship but wouldn't that still end up with Alina being in a place or position she never wanted? Alina doesn't like the responsibility of being a ruler and being involved in politics but she'll have to do all of that if she married Nikolai so wouldn't that end up in her being bitter and unhappy too? She already found his manipulative skills disturbing in s&s and they'd only known each other for a few weeks I think? Of all the men in her life, Nikolai is the one whom she's affected by the least. Idk but I like the idea of them together but I just don't see how they could be endgame.

Well, to some degree, it’s a matter of how you interpret the text. Nikolina works best for me as a narrative culmination of Alina’s arc, as a middle ground between what Mal represents for her (safety in the familiar; regression) vs what the Darkling represents (the corruption inherent to power; terrifying unknowns). I’ve said before, but I like the sort of uncertain idealism Nikolina signals, trying your best and hoping it works out, etc

Then it becomes a question of how you read Alina’s feelings about any of these things

Alina’s narration states that she basically can’t be happy in any situation except one where she’s left alone with Mal, but then textually she’s practically always upset when interacting with him, and in his behavior, meanwhile, it feels like his love and respect for her is pretty conditional and that he cannot be happy in a situation where she has more power and importance than he does. Personally, I would say that relationship reads more like something she clings to because she’s afraid of change, and because, for most of the trilogy, it represents an idyllic, simple vision of her life that is framed as entirely out of reach to her. Her being unable to accept anything else feels like a rejection of both like painful realities for her, but also growth

That isn’t to say that the counterpoint is that embracing growth would look like loving court politics and a royal life for her, but there is a degree to which her discomfort with it feels more like being unable to move on from that particular, unattainable vision

It, incidentally, goes hand in hand with the Darkling’s only acceptable vision of happiness for himself being complete control over an unattainable ideal of a Sun Summoner. One who will affirm all of his choices, and somehow emotionally fulfill him in every way. Alina, in being a person, has already guaranteed his dissatisfaction

These both read like standards that will simply never be met! And so the natural conclusion to a positive arc, in my opinion, would look like coming back to earth and discovering what kind of happiness actually exists and is sustainable for her. Where, the Darkling, as her dark (lol) mirror self, essentially, and the realization of the worst case scenario for her, is simply doomed to self destruct— which he does! Spectacularly!

Alina, frankly, reads clinically depressed to me. I’m not convinced there are many circumstances where she could be unambiguously happy all the time. But I do think that ties into the theme I am thinking of, about like building obtainable and realistic happiness for oneself

Meanwhile, beyond Alina’s stated single scenario for happiness, in the first book’s initial, chosen one, wish fulfillment fantasy, that’s later turned on its head, I think there’s a sneakier, and even more impossible standard of happiness for her where the Darkling is simply… not who he is as a person. One where he does not betray her and does not require her complete subjugation in order to coexist with her. In the core structure and concept of the book, in the Darkling functioning as a character, her ultimate wish fulfillment must be one where he isn’t so cruel

And I think Nikolai does actually represent a more realistic version of that

Nikolai is basically introduced in the trilogy as like “what if the Darkling was a thousand years younger, born to privilege, and had a sense of humor.” He functions as a direct foil and a more accessible version of the Darkling’s values that Alina can engage with in order to understand and relate to him more

With that in mind, in a lot of ways, Nikolina is actually a vector with which to engage with Darklina imo?

Anyway, I don’t actually read her as like uniquely perturbed by or unaffected by Nikolai, tbh. The books make a point of how well they get along, and it’s not nothing to me that of her three canonical love interests, he’s the only one she interacts with regularly that doesn’t make her personally miserable

I actually enjoy that their romantic scenes are bolstered by them otherwise liking each other (very low bar 😭) and that the main source of conflict for them is external and circumstantial rather than interpersonal. And the implication of them having achieved a new level of understanding through shared/adjacent trauma after Nikolai is transformed back into himself at the end of the third book, and has escaped the Darkling’s grasp, but with scars— like Alina herself— is a very romantic and poignant concept to me!

Anyway, while I don’t think she’d ever joyfully embrace court life, I also don’t view finding a version of ruling that she can live with as a bad resolution for her

[jadeshifting]

Hi!!! Its the anon who said they were nicknamed Bear in their dr‼️

I was working on my spn dr and i have no real ideas for like what to be there.. I was thinking about being a witch who doesn’t need to do spells but at the same time thats a little lame imo so I’m not sure. I’ve been RACKING my brain for ideas and the only other one is like being a type of shapeshifter like a selkie?? but instead of turning into a seal when i put whatever item on I turn into a bear. Idk 😞😞

Do you have any other ideas or suggestions for me? Its okay if not I just wanted to ask someone and idk any other spn shifters💔💔

-🐻 anon

hi !! i’m really in love with the concept of a bear shapeshifter-esque creature, that’s exactly the type of niche creative stuff that’s rightttt up my alley. i explored that idea under the cut, if you still want more ideas for different kinds of creatures, you can totally let me know, but i just really like the bear-selkie ( belkie? ) idea :^)

this type of creature really reminds me of a berserkr from Norse mythology—warriors who were said to take on the strength and fury of bears in battle. however, in the Supernatural canon, i expanded the concept

— BEAR SHAPESHIFTER ( úlfbjörn / beorn / skin-changer )

˚　　　　✦　　　.　　. 　 ˚　.　　　　　 . ✦　　　 　˚　　　　 . ★ ⋆. ࿐࿔

these creatures are ancient, nearly forgotten beings with deep ties to nature, the old gods, and primal magic. they may require skin to shift (like selkies and their sealskins), but their transformation could also be instinctual and deeply tied to their emotional state

TRAITS IN HUMAN FORM

STRENGTH & DURABILITY. even in human form, you retain a fraction of a bear’s physical power. this makes you stronger than most humans, capable of enduring significant damage before succumbing

HEIGHTENED SENSES. you have an acute sense of smell, which allows you to track people and detect supernatural entities, similar to a werewolf but without the bloodthirst

SLOW TO ANGER, BUT BAD WHEN PROVOKED. like real bears, you prefer to avoid conflict, but when cornered or forced into a fight, the fury is nearly uncontrollable

HIBERNATION EFFECTS. if deprived of sleep for too long, you may enter a deep, involuntary slumber that can last days or weeks, leaving you vulnerable ( but well-rested when it’s over )

DIETARY PREFERENCES. craves high-calorie foods ( berries, honey, raw meat, fish ), though you are perfectly capable of enjoying human food normally

LONGEVITY. you age slower than humans and can live for centuries if not killed

WEAKNESSES

SILVER. while not instantly fatal, silver could burn you or slow your healing

HUNTER SUPERSTITIONS. older hunters may mistake you for a Wendigo or a werewolf, leading to hostility

EMOTIONAL CONTROL. extreme emotions (rage, grief, fear) could trigger an involuntary shift

DRUIDIC MAGIC. spells designed for nature spirits or creatures of the Old Ways could potentially be used to bind, weaken, or repel you much more effectively than any modern spell work

TERRITORIAL NATURE. you can become blindly and fiercely protective of people and places you consider yours, sometimes to an irrational degree

PLOT / THE WINCHESTERS

TRACKING & HUNTING. your heightened senses make you an invaluable asset to Sam and Dean, allowing you to locate supernatural threats a lot faster than most hunters could

HUNTER DISTRUST. other hunters could be suspicious of you, leading to conflicts where the Winchesters have to defend you

ANCIENT KNOWLEDGE. because of your origin, you may possess knowledge of forgotten lore, aiding the Winchesters in dealing with old gods, curses, or creatures that may be beyond their usual scope

VULNERABILITY TO THE SUPERNATURAL. unlike demons and angels, who exist on a metaphysical plane, bear shapeshifters are deeply connected to the physical world, meaning you’re more susceptible to nature-based magic and ancient rituals

MISC. DETAILS

SCARS IN HUMAN FORM. any wounds you obtain in bear form leave faint, silvery scars when you return to human form

BEAR-LIKE BEHAVIORS. you may growl softly when annoyed, huff when amused, and sleep heavily, sometimes waking up disoriented

AFFINITY FOR WINTER. you are at your strongest in colder climates, while excessive heat may cause discomfort or even weaken you

additionally, if the nature of being a shapeshifter or someone connected to old magic is a heavy weight or something you feel you’d need time to adjust to, you could always script that you’re a cub still. since these creatures live for centuries, the cub stage of their life could be much longer than humans or other creatures. ( ex : if these creatures live to be 300 years old, they could still be considered cubs until the age of 75, and that would still be within the kid-to-adult age ratio of humans, which is a life expectancy of 72 and being a child til age 18. ) that may mean that you don’t fully have all of your powers just yet, which would give you time to ease into it when you shift there

hope some of this was helpful or gave a doorway to explore the idea more !! love u xoxo :^)

[tama-journey-to-inspiration]

lmaooooooooo CM is really boarding the struggle bus! I could practically hear his heart attack at the word /love/. Your TB has a crush on SWK au is captivating. Maybe that drunken argument could lead to CM becoming TB's beta reader? *why not both gif*

Hear me out: a crossover between this au and Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint. CM reads Journey To The West to prove TB wrong and becomes TB's beta reader anyway. He wants to hang out with TB, but he's still a SWK hater, tangcheong write themselves into being small time demons gunning for SWK, etc.

tangcheong write that fanfic for so long that they get really good at it (maybe TB decides to rewrite the beginning parts that he's unhappy with the quality of at some point or readers get to see the style shift). The fanfic is so good and so long that it gets a huge fanbase and enters the cultural consciousness of the gangho* and gets tied to their mythos just like their accomplishments as the Dark Saint, Plum Blossom Sword Saint, and Divine Dragon.

tangcheong have enough stories that they come back and ascend as constellations when the scenarios start. But the thing is, all versions of stories and characters become true if someone or something gets popular to become a constellation. So now TB and CM actually are a part of Sun Wukong 's stories, and actually have to fight him in some scenarios.

So CM isn't jealous because of TB's character crush anymore. He's jealous because TB's got a celebrity crush on what is basically their coworker, who he can't even beat in a 1v1 fight. At least CM can marry TB if he didn't before and CM's loved ones from both of his lives can hang out together...in a torment nexus gauntlet. Yay? Well, I believe in their chances of survival.

*I think that gangho is the murim equivalent of the jianghu but my bad if I got it wrong 😔

Well I have to say is a pretty nice concept you have there. I'm so glad to see people taking a silly concept and develop something from it! 🥰

However, I'm not familiar with ORV, and it's lore to provide and insight, and sadly my interest died when I realized how profound is that rabbit hole when it's story wasn't my cup of tea to begin with. However! I am interested in whatever you have to say about it! (specially when it comes to Bo simping over Wukong!!!)

That being said @chuliann (who happens to know about orv better than I do) is the person I've been talking with about the silly Sun/Tang/Chung drama. And they think you're a genius! And they wanted me to tell you that!

We would love to hear more about it, if you come up with new ideas♥️

All I can provide is a bit more info about Sun wukong, since I'm currently reading journey to the west, and being watching some adaptations recently:

Sun Wukong is, to some degree, like a child despite his high intelligence, he gets excited and jump out of joy, he's very impulsive and confrontative. He's like a more friendly version of Chung Myung (with a friendly approach). He likes being recognized. He gets excited when being assigned task like taking care of the stables or watch over the peaches, but takes great offense when he's diminished. As well, he was very enthusiastic about serving Tang Sanzang in his journey until he reprimanded wukong for attacking some bandids.

Wukong can be genuinely adorable, but also frightening. Of course. Hes not naturally mean spirited with people. So, belive me, if Tang Bo approach Wukong and tries to befriend him being honest, he'll be just like Tang Bō.

A passage I really like is wukong asking for a needle after his first bath to properly sew a piece of leather he previously got. Stealing a piece of cloth from Tang sanzang that he forgot to put back on, and then going back to him and walked all around asking if he looks good now.

Adorable!

[utilitycaster]

🔥 each member of vox machina

Vax: really the sadboy narrative for Liam has always been stupid but it's egregiously bad that it started with Vax, who is like, sad for maybe a fifth of the episodes and largely because Liam O'Brien's actual mother was dying, like, with all due respect what the actual fuck, fandom.

Vex: I am the founding and probably only member of the "Vex is my favorite character and also I am 100% cool with Colville's depiction of her." The generosity she shows even very early on in C1 is still a generosity borne of some degree of security - they have a keep by then - and I also just don't think you have to like a character to write them fairly. Granted it's been a minute since I read early VMO but nothing stood out to me as out of line with my understanding of Vex.

Pike: repeating myself once again but I like Pike a lot and wish we could have seen more, but because we didn't, people who say she's their favorite in C1 do tend to turn me off in that I feel they're looking for a relatively flat and widely praised character to project onto rather than a character who goes through more messy development.

Grog: I think he's often underestimated and I was guilty of doing so myself, to be honest, until I saw Travis play more and until I personally got better at D&D. Also I still maintain that playing INT 6 sensitively and well is infinitely harder than playing INT 16, all things considered, and this is yet another reason why people should play high INT more often.

Scanlan: Also underestimated; I do understand being turned off by the whole extremely horny playboy thing but as I've said before Bard's Lament is a major litmus test for me: if you think Scanlan is completely at fault here, you are wrong, and if you think he's not partially at fault, you are also wrong.

Tary: I genuinely love him and think he's a great character and one of Sam's best, but while his character arc is strong the Taryon Darrington Arc of the VM Campaign, through no fault of his own (and partly bc I personally think D&D Hell, especially pre-Descent Into Avernus publication, is kind of boring), is one of the weakest parts of the campaign because it's kind of a grab bag of loose ends. With that said I would happily watch more Darrington Brigade-one shots.

Percy: Percy is also generally a litmus test in that it's like. Is he a good person? Eventually I believe he becomes one, and even before that I think he's very sympathetic and deeply traumatized and like, 24, so I get it, but also, who the fuck cares. This ties into the Essek and the Ashton opinions and all kinds of other stuff but why are people so invested in fucking absolving their blorbo of all sins? I want someone who's lived enough of a life to have done some heinous shit because that's fun and interesting and it's pretend and also because then they can have a rewarding character arc by either working towards redemption or coming to terms with who they are or spiraling into tragedy.

Keyleth: I like Keyleth a lot but I am, as this post indicates, far more sympathetic to Vex, and so while I do think Keyleth is a fairly good person she is also extremely sheltered and naive and terrified of doing the wrong thing and I would have, like Vex, wanted to scream at her half the time were I just a random NPC wandering about the campaign. On the other hand C3-era Keyleth? fantastic no notes she has grown up in such an interesting way.

Tiberius: I think we, and by we I mean people capable of separating the art from the artist, can recognize that his concept actually fucking slapped and unfortunately he was played by someone who absolutely sucked in a myriad of ways. I would love to see the alternate universe in which the same general concept (prodigy sorcerer from Draconia who is full of themself) had to face not just the destruction of their civilization but the realization that they were taking advantage of the Ravenites and while they did not deserve to be killed by Vorugal, had done nothing to justify aid from those they had subjugated either. Like, the alternate world in which one of the current cast members or like, a close friend of the main cast (Ashly, Erika, Mary Elizabeth) played this is one I'd love to see.

[cyclical-polyp]

This is a post about Sylvester Lambsbridge from Web Serial Twig by Wildbow. He's Plural Btw.

(Warning: Major Spoilers for LITERALLY ALL of Twig. I can't talk about this without covering the entire story and talking very explicitly about the ending.) This is really a take I haven't seen anyone make about him ever before I don't think (not that many people are out here making takes about Sy, but) so here I am to loudly shout to twigblr that Sylvester Lambsbridge is plural and he makes factives of all the people important to him and he's a fucked up little freak about it. Now obviously Wildbow didn't write him to be plural. I think if he'd *tried* to write Sy that way he would've done a dogshit bad awful job, because he's Wildbow. That said, Sy's hallucinations of the Lambs (and later a number of other notable figures) that he conjures, who act with varying degrees of independence (especially later on in the story as he gets more unstable), match pretty closely with a lot of my experiences with being plural. The ways that each of his alters are interconnected and how they're tied into deep-rooted concepts (Duncan is Politics and Social Engineering, the Infante representing Power, etc) matches a lot with how things are structured with us. Also a lot of him is tied up in his fucked up relationships! Sylvester cultivates the people around him into the shapes that best please him. He does this because he is a very very traumatized, scared individual who was sold to or seized by the government and made into a child assassin when he was a toddler. They inject his brain full of neuroplasticity drugs which cause excruciating agony on the regular. This has, naturally, leads to him having an somewhat skewed worldview from someone from a more reasonable world. He views people as either Threats or Allies, and neither can be trusted fully, ever. Both can be manipulated, though for different purposes. For the Lambs of course he'd say that he was trying to help them thrive, help them get everything they want (and genuinely he does). But he still manipulates them actively, willingly, consciously, and deliberately. This means that fundamentally, no one can ever trust him (except Jessie but this post is long enough without getting into their relationship) and so he can't get the kind of human connection that he craves. This is where his alters supplement that human need for connection. All of Sy's alters are factives of real people (and monsters), both allies and enemies. The most powerful and concrete of them are the Lambs of course, as they're the closest thing he has to people he can trust and be vulnerable with. His alters serve to help him understand and predict them, since they will never trust him and open up to him in the way he craves (because A) he's Sy and B) they're all also sooooooooooooooo fucked up in their own ways :3). Sy's deteriorating memory also fits really really well through this lens because, well, dissociative amnesia! During the time that he was on his own and his mental state got worse and worse, more and more alters started forming. He starts losing more and more memories. This is just kinda stuff that can happen when you go through a big period of trauma and you're plural. It really just Fits. And the ending of Twig, well. The alter that was Sylvester is gone. Now the host is Lord Simon. Lord Simon is a somewhat more integrated person; a lot of the crowds and voices that built up alongside Sylvester got woven in. Fusion of alters is also a thing that happens, especially during big crises. A major headspace restructuring is also not particularly weird! This man is literally just part of a system. I think I've kind of finished what I was trying to say. No clue if this is coherent or if the people will care to read it, but here it is! Maybe I'll post more Twig thoughts in the future, who knows :3

[definitelynotshouting]

(Hunger au) I'm going into ecology and it's fascinating looking at your au's ecosystem, especially since this doesn't necessarily seem driven by natural selection and instead by just. The universe creating what it needs, with a purpose in mind. That's so different from our world that it's fascinating to think about the implications. Rather than existing to take advantage of and respond to resources and selective pressures, theyre basically creating said resources/pressures. The watchers are having to manually adapt to survive after a bottleneck effect, which to be fair even if there was natural selection they'd probably have to cuz adaptation takes a looong time in species with long reproductive cycles. Do they have a genome? Or are they just being arbiters of mutation themselves (by that i mean theres no genome so theyre changing their species themselves since theres nothing to mutate)? Do offspring inherit traits? What does this mean for natural selection (cuz like. If they survive differently depending on how their traits match up to the environment and selective pressures there is)? With the seekers gone are expected to have a population rebound barring any other selective pressures/fitness independent factors on their population? Their reproductive strategy seemingly aligns with the low pressure they're facing... I read a paper to understand this and it's really cool:

(From https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-42562-7)

They seem to be an r-selected species and invest a lot in their offspring, but they just naturally have low infant survival rates. This is the sort of species that does not do well in the long run so that adds urgency to their efforts to edit themselves.

All this to say that I'm rotating the concept of an ecological system that has one of ecology's core tenants (evolution) heavily altered/removed. Tis fascinating.

between you and chem anon im going to have a heart attack over sciency people looking at my silly au /lh

I really did want to go like vastly different from how our world works since this is such a video game setting-- it was really fun to noodle about what a universe made out of code instead of DNA would look like!!! and having the universe be quasi-sentient, affected by a form of evolution itself as well (thank you julien gough for the universe evolution theory that i have wholeheartedly adopted into my worldview).... idk its led to some very interesting worldbuilding for sure 😂😂😂

Watchers-- or any entity in this universe, actually-- dont really have a genome like we'd understand it. Instead, theyre made up of code and code blocks, which i guess would sorta mimic that to a certain degree, but its more tipped in favour of computer programming than biology. The whole au sorta just wholesale marries the two together, along with physics and chemistry (i am currently percolating on how crafting works in this au rn and my current idea involves the concept of the crafting table acting somewhat like a catalyst, which. okay dont take that as gospel yet i havent fully cooked on that one) etc etc etc.

But the Watchers did intentionally change their coding to help defend against the Seekers when they were being hunted into extinction!!! Watchers already had a natural affinity for deep coding, so while it took a lot of effort and caused a lot of damage to themselves, they managed to rapidly change their code structure (aka this universe's version of genetic makeup) to get better at, well. Watching. Seeing the Seekers coming far enough in advance to run before they got there became their primary defense against getting voraciously hunted, and by the end of it the Seekers starved out and went extinct bc they'd gotten so adept at avoiding them.

Offspring is interesting because in my mind at their base level (so genetically/code structurally speaking), Watchers are identical clones of each other. They reproduce asexually-- think uhhh mourning geckos and some species of aphids, which reproduce via parthenogenesis. So yes, in a sense they do inherit traits, but its in a direct line from the parent as a genetic copy. Their memory codes and surface code layers are what differentiate themselves from each other

Reading this chart is so interesting.... i'd say you're right in that Watchers would be considered an r-selected species!! I think if they werent like. Essentially made out of tissue paper thats constantly getting damaged and having to be repaired, they would be able to bounce back to the point of population rebound for sure. The problem with that though is there are only about 40 Watchers left-- thats how bad and out of control the situation got. And since they have such a long reproductive cycle, and such a high infant mortality rate, and their experiment with Grian went so wrong, AND the universe formed Listeners to replace them via direct competition (Watchers cant feed from Listener-infected Players!!), they are unfortunately headed right for extinction too.

Hopefully this makes a modicum of sense and isnt just me totally talking out of my ass wkdnjedjkejdke but i hope this answered most of your questions!!! Im really glad you like the direction ive taken this, its a lot of fun to conceptualize a world that works on different rules than our own :]

[th3houseofleaves]

> kit warren hcs <

- the lockscreen on his phone is a picture of him, roy, lian, and grant together; grant's in the middle looking kinda sheepish and unsure but so so happy and kit's got him in side hug and he's just smiling down at him and roy's on the other side of grant and he's holding lian, both of them have got these matching grins nd it's so obvious who's daughter she is. it's a candid shot of the four of them at some gathering that a lot of titans and former titans showed up for. lots of pictures were taken that day but this one is kit's favorite, he's pretty sure donna took it as well but honestly he's got no idea. - speaking of donna, back in the day he had the fattest crush on her and every one knew it because he'd turn into such a mess around her. it was actually really cute how he'd trip over himself trying to impress her. - the wallpaper on his phone is a picture of dick absolutely eating shit that someone sent him. it's the least flattering picture ever and kit LOVES it, it's the funniest thing he's ever seen. he loves that man, he really does, but on god if he's not still gonna be a menace. (on the otherside of things, i feel like dick has a similar picture on his phone to make things even because they can't grow out of the childish antics /aff)

- the primary color of his hero costume is orange. partially because he likes it, partially because it ties back into the portal theme (he's such a nerd actually) - his hero costume is very much inspired by stuff he'd wear while training/fighting or in his daily life, it's all pretty well thought out in terms of catering to his needs and not impeding his ability to move as he needs to. all of it is fairly loose fitting for functional reasons and for his comfort because he does struggle with dysphoria some days. one of the most important parts of it (in his opinion) is the hood/hoodie aspect of it because he is NOT about to get wet out there while trying to kick ass. that is not gonna happen; he's learned his lesson after he first started going out in what basically amounted to regular clothes with no jacket because he was a preteen with superpowers who didn't care about getting wet or cold because he was TOTALLY unstoppable. he was in fact not. he caught so many colds that way. so now he's got a hood and a jacket. it's functional and it looks nice so he's really winning there. he wraps his hands as part of his costume (technically) because he's so used to doing it when he's fighting as a civilian, in the rare times he takes on a fight or competes in whatever event cole's gym has set up or is taking part in + he's not about to let his hands get fucked up while he's fighting! in or out of costume! he needs those :/ finally, the mask he wears covers a good portion of his face but leaves the bottom half exposed. he works hard to conceal his identity, unlike some people; he doesn't trust that just a domino mask is going to keep people from figuring out who he really is.

(more info on his hero costume will probably come later as i piece it together) - even though cole was the one to get him into mma and encourages it to some degree (he's supportive of most things kit does) he gets so stressed out when kit has a fight. that being said, he panics less seeing kit fight in a controlled setting than he does seeing videos of kit fighting as a hero.

the first time he sees footage of a bad fight that kit was in was really, really awful. he couldn't calm down until he had his kid in front of him, alive and in one piece. after that he tried harder to discourage the heroics but kit never actually quit.

- kit sleepwalks sometimes. he's scared so many people doing this because it's not a fact he shares, he doesn't believe he actually does it.

- he prefers traditional art over digital so a lot of the concepts for his games start out in sketchbooks before he starts putting them together. he's got loads of sketchbooks full of ideas that never made it into finished products and ideas that never went anywhere. he has one sketchbook he uses entirely for practicing portraits which is not something he's a huge fan of doing but it's fun sometimes and he likes showing them off to people.

[z-ppy]

i have a lot of thoughts about hetalia that i need to put somewhere. maybe a few years ago i would have been more self-conscious, but i'm a 27-year old with an expensive car payment due and my blog is currently mostly a show about the 2003 invasion of iraq. if anyone had anything to say they would have said something by now

SO. the premise of the first couple of seasons of hetalia is objectively in poor taste-- silly ww2 with the axis as the main characters, chibi-fied with distasteful jokes

i think a lot of middle schoolers in the 2010s (myself obv included) latched onto it before developing critical thinking skills or had proper history classes

it was pretty common to the use the history as "angst." the horror of reality was more interesting and palatable when filtered through the love story of two nations. i personally used it to process my own teenage mental health crisis (thank god no one uses ff.net anymore lol)

gotta be honest, there was a certain thrill watching amvs set to breaking benjamin with fanart of germany in uniform tied up and gagged. that. did something to my 13-year old brain.

i know usuk and spamano, maybe the two most popular ships after gerita, have been increasingly criticized as predatory. not to get into any pro/anti discourse, but it's off-putting to me to ship spain with his former colony that he "took to his place" as a child. as a teenager in the mid 2010s i did not understand the concept of grooming. now at 27, way older than the "human ages," of these characters, that reads very differently.

i don't like that hetalia has become a source of shame for me. i really enjoyed it. i still enjoy it from time to time. it was a huge part of my life for several years. i learned so much about writing and characterization and worked through my own stuff through it. it got me interested in history in a big way that kind of defined the rest of my life, at least in terms of my degree and what i chose to study. i'm pleased with the way the fandom has pivoted to keep the show relevant and less of an embarrassing memory. i keep seeing posts about people falling back into hetalia for a few days/hours and the well of feeling that brings up.

maybe i'll talk more about this but these are my scrambled thoughts for now. i have many thoughts about the veraverse.

also here's the video i was thinking about while i wrote this. general cw.

[gretchensinister]

20 questions for fic writers

Thank you @marypsue for tagging me!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

732 oh gosh it needs to have text next to it to not show up giant

2. What’s your total word count?

1,316,095 aha you can tell most of my fics are short

3. What fandoms do you write for?

What I am currently preoccupied with is The Dark Crystal/The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance. The vast majority of my fics are for Rise of the Guardians, and I have one fairly substantial fic each for Thor and Venom.

4. Top 5 fics by kudos

Give You Everything, not surprised about this one, it's Eddie/Venom and I published it a little less than four months after Venom came out in theaters. 2. Single Snowflakes, this one is a surprise? It's barely over 1K, T for subject matter, Bunny/Jack where Jack talks about past trauma with Bunny. I wouldn't have written it except that this was part of my project to fill every prompt on Round 1 of the Rise of the Guardians Dreamwidth kinkmeme. I guess it resonated with people??? 3. How Old? Another Bunny/Jack fic, G-rated and very short. 4. What it Means to Ask, yet ANOTHER Bunny/Jack fic, G-rated, but about how serious the concept of being a "mate" is in Pooka culture. How Old? was also related to that. 5. Down and Dirty-a wrestling-type fight between Jack and Bunny turns into sex.

What have we learned? The Jackrabbit fans, they are legion.

5. Do you respond to comments?

For the past several years, yes, pretty much always. Back in 2012 when I was just starting to post on Ao3, I was like unto a nervous deer and sometimes didn't respond. But I did print out all the comments on Without Contraries There Is No Progression (Pitch/Sandy that got me writing big complete things) and put them on my fridge at the time. It helped me get my master's degree.

6. What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

The one that comes to the top of my head is Warmer Than I Thought. Jack's dying because he just didn't have enough believers when he became a Guardian. He's not going to come back with continuity of self. Pitch is there to offer him some scant comfort as he goes.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I mostly write happy endings, honestly, but the honor of the most happy and resolved ending goes to His Time, which is chronologically the last fic in my Rise of the Guardians Apotheosis AU. It's a far-distant future, OT8, everyone is together and essentially the pantheon of a new planet they made after Earth is gone due to the expansion of the sun. They are trying to make it go well this time, and so far succeeding.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

The closest thing to hate I ever got was on my explicit Thorki fic...from a person complaining about how much I had Thor and Loki talk to each other.

9. Do you write smut?

I write a lot of explicit sex, yes.

10. Do you write crossovers?

I've written a fair number in my prompt-fill project, but it's not something I'm drawn to write.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I've never known about any of my fics being stolen.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Someone talked to me about translating one of my fics and I was very excited and I said yes. However I don't know what came of that because things happened and I fell out of communication with the potential translator. Maybe they finished it and I don't know about it!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No, and I don't think I would, unless it was part of a strictly structured event/project.

14. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

Well, it's Pitch Black/Sandman. Conceptually, the ships I'm drawn to have ties to dichotomies of dark/light, good/evil, cosmic opposites kind of thing. Pitch and Sandy, as personifications of nightmares and dreams, were a perfect vessel for that obsession.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you will?

I told my friends, "I'm not going to rewrite The Phantom of the Opera." And I'm not. But there's a version of PotO that I wanted that uh, isn't what any of the big official versions gave me. So I started writing and I have 49,615 words so far. If I don't find a way to finish it I think I will end up posting it as something permanently unfinished, because there's a lot that I like in it now.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I have been told in a real graduate writing workshop that I have good dialogue. I also like to think I'm pretty good at sensory descriptions.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

The things I find extremely difficult are endings and like, plots where things happen--I want so badly to write a big complicated Space Empire story but like. How is does political intrigue? (This house is FEELINGS ONLY.)

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language?

I don't think I'd ever do it.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Almost certainly Dragonball Z. If all goes well, my friend and I may have the chance to excavate some of my old notebooks during the holidays and then--it's archive time and that is a threat.

20. Favorite fic you’ve ever written?

It's A Draught of Light, which I love as it is, and for proving that I could write an alternate-world epic fantasy novel as long as I didn't like, admit that's what I was doing. I do admit though that I have an edited version that takes it farther away from being fanfic that I like even better. Maybe I should, hmm, start taking steps to making that version available, if you understand what I mean.

Who do I know writing out there that hasn't been tagged yet? @queerpyracy, @purplebloodedmajesty, @incurablenecromantic

[ludinusdaleth]

I think I'll go for 4, 5 and 24—dealer's choice as to which of Artagan, Ludinus or Ira (or any npc, really. They don't get enough love.)

oh you have no idea the can of warms you've opened, lol.... i will happily do all 3!

this got so long i actually had to put a read more:

4. If you could put this character in any other media, be it a book, a movie, anything, what would you put them in?

artagan - it isnt media per say but i really want to set him loose in our own reality and see what he'd do (there have been some hints i think, if half-jokingly said, that hes been here - boy do i think about that often.)

ira - we really should just let him star in his own horror movie. you could put him in a guillermo del toro film, and no one would bat an eye.

ludinus - i want to see how lud would react to faerun. a world so close to his own, but where the weave of magic is directly controlled by a god. there is an odd dichotomy in that faerun is more controlled than exandria and yet breaking that universe's laws are infinitely easier, and i think he would fall into obsession with that.

5. What's the first song that comes to mind when you think about them?

so.... im gonna (un)ashamedly plug my playlists for them here.... please ignore that they can go as long as twelve fucking hours.... ill try to narrow down specific songs that REALLY hit about them, though.

artagan - "within you" by david bowie, from labyrinth, is a perfect fit. not only is arti based on jareth but the song's meaning directly ties into him & jester. jareth is terrified of being nothing more than a lost concept, a lost celebrity crush made fae king, as sarah is metaphorically maturing. "how you turn my world, you precious thing/You starve and near exhaust me/Everything I've done, I've done for you/I move the stars for no one..." i mean, c'mon. "family of me" by ben folds, "celebrity status" by mariana's trench, "lapis lazuli" by the oh hellos, and "due west" by kelsey lu also really hit as arti songs for me.

ira - "mad iqs" by i dont know how but they found me is a really good song for ira's hatred of ludinus. "a mask of my own face" by lemon demon is self explanatory and far too specific, due to his fascination with ashton's mask of him, with the song mentioning "dancing with all the bells". he would go wild for and try to emulate "thriller" by michael jackson or "i cant decide" by the scissor sisters.

ludinus - if i did a speedpaint of lud, id set it to "science fiction" by church of the cosmic skull. "and all the people, they stood on their chairs, and they stared, at the man with the silver hair/taken the findings of the science man/raising his hands to the air!/so he's making the minds up of the millions, and they'd never deny that he's right/cause he's taken a prize of many a size/if ever he dies he'll have a tombstone of a very high height". "brutus" by the buttress is ABSOLUTELY a ruby vanguard trio song and i even used it in my art of them before. "all history is vengeance" by brad derrick from the eso soundtrack is what goes through my head at the malleus key. "blood upon the snow" by hozier & "never look away" by vienna teng also really work for him. i think "survivors guilt" by emily axford (yeah, prism) also has lyrics FAR too tailored to him - "i see you in my dreams/young, and brave, and pre-calamity/i will tell you a story/i will be the voice you lost too soon/because even in your absence, even in your death/im still your moon".

24. What other character from another fandom of yours that reminds you of them?

(i wouldnt say im in the fandoms for all of these, but)

artagan - i think it somewhat obvious he's based off of jareth in labyrinth - his voice is basically david bowie's singing voice. to a lesser but still strong degree he's very much marvel's loki, down to the voice - if, honestly, an infinitely better take on the trickster god. as a past extreme loki fan the pipeline is there for sure.

ira - ashley said she & matt based fearne's story off a guillermo del toro film and i can see that in many fae this go-round, especially ira. he is basically a doug jones character. it's very easy to compare him to creepypastas like the russian sleep experiment or slenderman, too.

ludinus - he has some heavy similarities to emperor belos of owl house, vyrthur of tes, prince nuada from hellboy, and other characters who fit the archetype of a white-haired, ancient, pale elven (or elven passing) man, from a different time, who murders & (in some cases) colonizes to exact vengeance on gods, humans, or similar entities he feels have destroyed those around him. characters clearly in the wrong but who do bring up important topics of the endless cycle of brutality they were caught in, mixed with their privelege in every other circumstance. he also reminds me of mannimarco of tes. they look exactly alike and both shadow run an empire, somewhat in cahoots and yet at odds with a balding white haired pale human man within that same empire. oh! and fëanor from the silmarillion.

thanks for asking! sorry this is so long, floodgates are opened when i discuss men i wish were my fictional partners, lol.

[ghostwitchboy]

My ex would constantly downplay the things I was most excited for when starting hrt. She explained it away as a trauma response to bad experiences in the past. That was fair to a certain degree, they were genuinely traumatic events, and no one can control what becomes a trigger.

But did she need to remind me that she might start associating me with monsters once hrt starts working and changing my voice (because all transmen sound the same to her) EVERY TIME I said I was looking forward to my main source of dysphoria potentially being lessened? Did she need to tack on "Hopefully you'll still be attractive/xyz" whenever I talked about things I was looking forward to in my transition? Did she need to remind me that I might just be stuck being a very pretty, feminine afab person for a very long time and I might just have to be okay with that?

No. Obviously not.

I had thought that, because we were both transitioning, we'd both support each other's transition like we said we did. That she'd hear the awful things she'd say about herself, see all the ways I tried to encourage her and remind her that I loved her for her, not for the man her family wanted her to be, and that we wouldn't be alone in our transitions. But she ended up being the only one who wasn't alone.

I got used to the concept of actual change in my transition being a bad thing, and I got used to it being a sword of damocles very quickly. Something that's really easy with near-constant reminders from literally everyone you talk to daily that you'll never be what they actually want. People who only respect your identity as long as it doesn't make them uncomfortable, as long as they can put caveats and emergency vetos and stops on it.

And then I broke up with her. There were other problems and theose problems had been present for years, and they weren't even tied to gender.

But I suddenly no longer had that very loud, very important voice drowning out mine. I could think. There weren't consequences to me expressing how I felt. I could be myself without caveats.

And then I met my current partner. And they celebrate my transition with me. I remember the first time I apologized for liking the more masculine form my body was starting to take and them reacting with confusion. Because they loved it too. They've been my biggest support and they've not only accepted my transition as a part of me, but help me be actively exited for it. They love parts of me I didn't know were possible to love and all done so immediately and without me begging them to see the virtue in it.

Parts of myself that I have always been self conscious of, they adore, and they do so loudly and with their full chest. I have never been allowed this amount of autonomy before, to the point I don't know what to do when I don't have to triple check before making a decision, which sometimes causes anxiety.

But I'm the happiest I've ever been in my life. I'm the most loved I've ever been in my life.

If you're with a partner and they say they'll leave you if you transition, if you start hrt, if you present your gender a specific way, or if your body changes a certain way, leave.

You deserve to be yourself. You deserve to be happy as yourself. You deserve to be loved as yourself. You deserve nothing less, no caveats, no vetos.

“but my girlfriend said she’d break up with me if I started hrt…” FUCKING LEAVE HER THEN!!

[casspurrjoybell-29]

Forging Ties - Chapter 28 - Part 1

*Warning Adult Content*

Hamish had a restless night, constantly waking to check on Aris and then carrying her up on deck to check the situation with the creature they were following.

Finally, Duran made them up a bed on deck, placed Aris in her bassinet and pulled Hamish down to sleep.

It didn't stop him from waking up every half hour but at least now he could check in on things quickly and then go straight back to sleep.

Hamish was awoken one final time at dawn to a deep, mournful sound that seemed to resonate through the ship.

He made it to the railing in time to watch the creature submerge itself.

It didn't come back up.

The ocean around them was calm.

Duran yawned and then rested his chin on Hamish's shoulder.

"What now?" Hamish asked Everett as the small man hurried by on his way to adjust the sails. "Where are we headed?"

"Go take a look from the front of the ship," Everett said without pausing in what he was doing.

Hamish made his way to the front of the ship and looked out into the endless ocean beyond.

Or... no, not quite endless.

Just barely visible in the distance was a tall, light blue structure.

The Spire.

This trip had been the journey of a lifetime but Hamish was glad to be home.

Not that he really had a home at the moment but anywhere the people he cared about were was home enough to him.

Duran wrapped his arms around Hamish from behind and leant his forehead against his back.

Hamish reached around and gave Duran a pat on the back.

"How are you feeling about being back?"

Duran let go of Hamish and tucked in against his side instead.

"Ready to tackle it."

"Yeah."

"Before we left, the whole thing just felt too big to me. Overwhelming. Now I see that it doesn't have to be that way. You don't have to do everything all at once. You can start by getting to know just one or two people and that makes everything else a lot easier."

"You already knew Danya and Fanner, though. Didn't that help?"

"I got to know Fanner while we were travelling together but he's a busy boy these days. I don't really know Danya at all. I knew him as a slave, to a degree but that's not what he is anymore. Sure, there are some things about the three of us that we'll always understand about one another better than anyone else can but that's not friendship. Friendship is something we'll have to work on building now that we're allowed to be people."

"Makes sense. And that's strength, you know? Building relationships. Anything that makes you stronger is strength. I was in the military and they teach you a very macho perspective on things but honestly, a lot of those ideas only make you weaker. Simon can be an ornery little bitch but there was never any shame between us when it came to being open and sharing what we were going through. And sure, now I know a lot of people who are like that but Simon is the one person that I know has that in him so deep in his core that it survived an environment that tried to strangle it out of him. That matters."

"It was never about being macho for me, of course but being too open with your feelings was generally a bad idea. Even with other slaves. I have a lot of things I need to unlearn."

"Just let me know what you need. We'll figure it out."

Duran shook his head, a smile making its way onto his face.

"A novel concept in itself. It's going to take me a while to get used to the idea that I can ask people for help."

Hamish grinned.

"Well, at least you're not the only man who's bad at that. It won't take much to be better than average."

"I do strive for excellence."

Hamish heard Aris fussing and gave Duran a friendly pat on the ass before going to check on her.

He lifted her out of her bassinet and she immediately settled down.

Sometimes she just wanted to be held.

Hamish bundled her up in her blanket and carried her back to the front of the ship.

The Spire was clearly within view now.

Slone strolled over to join them.

He looked down at Aris and gave her a smile.

"She's prob'ly only half the size of a human baby by weight but compared to a Werewolf baby, she's tiny. Cutest little thing I've ever seen."

"I'll have to ask Skye if she's going to grow into a normal sized person or if she'll just always be small," Hamish said. "He doesn't seem like he's in the mood for talking, though and he was never that keen on it to begin with."

Slone looked up towards the crowsnest where Skye was still hiding.

"Ah, yeah. Seems like he's having a rough time of it. I want to help him if I can but we'll see."

"Well, hopefully you can because I don't know what to do for him," Hamish said. "He's not much of a words guy and it doesn't seem like he wants physical contact right now."

"Grief's a tricky thing," Slone said. "Must be even harder when nobody else around you knew the person. When you're just alone in it."

"I guess that's why you'd be the one to help with that. His friend was a wolf, right?"

"Yeah, he was. Like I said, we'll see. I'll do what I can."

As they sailed towards the small dock near The Spire, Hamish carried Aris around the ship and talked to her quietly as he pointed things out even though he was pretty sure babies couldn't see for shit and he was certain she didn't understand a word he was saying.

She seemed happy enough, though.

She was still in that potato baby stage where they mostly just sat there and blinked around at the world uncomprehendingly whenever they weren't asleep.

Watching Sera, Everett and the robot work together to bring the ship into the dock was interesting.

Everett was small but he dashed about and climbed with ease when he needed to.

Sera was just as fast, though her methods were different.

She used her wings to get between places as quickly as possible.

The robot was slow and clomping when it moved but it could perform any task with perfect precision.

As they finished docking, Slone stood under the crowsnest and called up to Skye.

"You comin' with us?"

Skye looked down and shook his head.

"I'll stay with him," Perry said. "I would like to talk to someone about long term positions here, if possible but I'm happy to hang back until something can be arranged."

"You don't gotta hide yourself away, you know," Slone said. "But all right. I got a few things I need to take care of but I'll sort that out for you. I know people who know people."

"Thank you," Perry said. "I appreciate it."

"We're going to go into town and explore trade opportunities," Sera said as she kicked the boarding ramp to make sure it was secure before allowing Mirriam to wheel across it.

"We'd also like to talk to some people in charge at some point but that can wait."

"Right," Slone said. "I can help you with that, too but you might have to remind me later. Got a lot of things up in my head right now and not a lot of room to spare."

"I will do that," Sera said.

[pikahlua]

Hello! What are your predictions for leaks this week? I love hearing your thoughts about the final arc of the manga and where you think we will be going. Do you think Edgeshot patching bakugo's heart is going to work? Do you think we are getting a POV switch? Edgeshot's backstory?

I don't have anything like predictions for any particular incoming chapter because at any moment Horikoshi could decide to switch to another perspective, right? But as for thoughts on the current goings-on, I think there's quite a bit about Katsuki's predicament that's (purposefully) unanswered. Regardless of what Edgeshot does, Katsuki's got a gaping chest wound and a lot of blood loss--not that that's ever stopped an anime character before, but it's not likely he'll just immediately hop to his feet unless a random quirk bizarrely revitalizes him. I imagine he's down for a bit until some other story beat where he recovers enough energy to act again. You know...kinda how it went down in the previous war arc lol. Gotta give some other characters their time to shine for a bit.

That said, if the story is properly foreshadowing anything, it's not unreasonable to suspect we could get something relevant to any recently highlighted characters: Edgeshot, Best Jeanist, any of the Big Three, All Might, S&S, and the Second User are all contenders. We're also probably looking at a potential entrance sometime soon for Gentle Criminal and La Brava (god I hope we get that, I'd fucking kill for some AFO vs Gentle banter). And let us not forget that Iida is conspicuously due for a spotlight moment sometime soon, or that we haven't cut to the Octo Island battlefield in a while.

And I guess Izuku's hanging out over the ocean somewhere. Actually, given the implied timeline of what's going on, it's likely Yoichi's weird premonition syncs up with both AFO's self-destructive rewind AND Katsuki's near-death. Chronologically, it could make sense to switch over to him for at least a few frames sometime soon.

Regardless of the POV logistics, I think the most important thing we are meant to pay attention to this time are two heavily-displayed themes from recent chapters.

1. The torch

That’s what I’m calling All Might’s vestige in my head at this point. I think there’s something conspicuously different about his design that we as a fandom have generally neglected to key into. He’s a bit of a mystery and has the potential to be something more than just a wordless vestige. I think he’s likely tied into the concepts we’ve seen before with Stain in Kamino (the torch passed from All Might to those he inspired) and most recently with the generational torch-passing from All Might to Star(s) & Stripe(s) to [insert the next generation here]. Heck, even AFO’s “baton of dreams” passed to Tomura invokes this concept to some degree. This all looks eerily similar to the chain of One For All this last year’s worth of chapters have constantly referenced. I’m curious if the All Might vestige Katsuki saw in “death” may actually have very little to do with One For All in the end.

2. Invaders and defenders

AFO’s little speech about how villains = invaders/attackers and heroes = protectors/defenders is enormously suspicious in its placement--in that it comes just after Katsuki’s supposed death. His philosophical speech is conveniently contradicted by Katsuki’s existence, so for him to ramble about this essentially over Katsuki’s dead body is kind of heavy-handed. If AFO’s determinations about villains and heroes are correct, where does that place Katsuki, the heroic attacker? Or Twice, the villainous protector? How does AFO get away with ignoring the behavior of Star(s) & Stripe(s), Hawks, and the HPSC? Edgeshot literally invading Katsuki’s body to keep him alive feels like a direct answer to AFO’s demonstrably wrong oversimplifications. Are the lines between villains and heroes that AFO has arbitrarily drawn being blurred? Are their respective roles changing? Is AFO’s philosophy just that wrong from the outset? Wouldn’t saving Tenko entail some similar sort of attack/invasion that AFO’s possession represents?

I don’t know where Horikoshi is going to take this point, but I think Katsuki has so obviously represented the exact opposite of what AFO is talking about here that he has to come into play regarding this somehow before this is all over. And maybe All Might will too. And Izuku.

[espanolbot2]

Witches of World War Two Mini-Review

To my surprise, this book was actually release a short while back, despite it previously being solicited for July to my knowledge. Written by Paul Cornell with art by Valeria Burzo and colors by Jordie Bellaire, the Witches of World War Two is a fictionalised look at the various figures in the British magic scene during the mid-1940s, and how they were used in a scheme of psychological warfare against the Nazis’ own occult interests (the interests of Rudolf Hess and his eventual, baffling flight to Scotland being a large part of the plot).

Focusing on the ever-present Aleister Crowley, the co-founder of Wicca Gerald Gardner, future Wiccan and writer Doreen Valiente, con man and exorcist Rollo Ahmed, and occultist and magician Dion Fortune, Cornell blends fiction and historical details in an interesting manner to have an intriguing adventure of a bunch of eccentric characters coming together to defeat the forces of fascism.

Should be pointed out though, that this isn’t magic in the same way as, say, the Ian Tregillis Bitter Seeds novel (which is about Nazi psychics vs. British black magicians, it’s good, recommended). But rather magic in the real world context of making the other person think that you’re magic in the superstitious or fantasy sense to get them to do what you want, sometimes using stage illusionism, sometimes relatively simple psychology. It’s interesting. Certainly ideas more applicable to everyday life than two people yell at each other in bad Latin while point sticks at each other.

That said, there are some elements with the historical characters are fudged for the purposes of telling a good story. Crowley, in reality, for example, was definitely read as having fascist leanings (even if the antics at the Abbey of Thelema in Sicily would eventually lead to Mussolini kicking him and his group out of the country), though considering he also claimed to have ties to British intelligence (which was apparently true to some degree, intelligence officer Ian Fleming supposedly based the first Bond villain le Chiffre, later played by both Orson Welles and Mads Mikkelsen, on the man) was given an odd amount of freedom when other people with such politics were being put in prison, causes Cornell to presume he was allowed to roam because he exposed fascists who were actually dangerous.

There is a great scene later in the book where Crowley goes on a rant about how the very concept of Do What Thou Wilt in contradictory when you try to work it into a framework of fascism (by definition the state and those higher than you in the system of power have control over you), which was pretty fun.

Plus, y’know, Crowley was openly bi, so he wouldn’t exactly be spared by the Nazis either if they took a dislike to him. Also the book makes clear that the occult beliefs of the Nazis weren’t as pervasive as some other stories would let you believe (Hitler himself wasn’t a fan), and how the ideas that the genuine believers did had were new ideas they were pretending were old... Which admittedly was the same kind of scam as some of the British occultists, but their stuff wasn’t being used to justify genocide.

In all, I really liked this book. Admittedly I’ve already an interest in occultism and WWII history, but this is a niche this book happily fills. Amusingly I had actually seen the Operation Mincemeat musical (yes, it’s a thing) a short while before reading this book, and it’s kind of funny how several of the plot points kind of match up, this essentially being about trying to scam the Nazis too and all.

Tangent - Crowley’s alleged connections with British intelligence also feature into the backstory of the excellent dark fantasy/conspiracy theory book Department of Truth, where Aleister’s ideas about magic, psychology and the power of belief are a whole lot more literal.