#thread: important talk

[fxirytxlcfxtc]

For @descended-from-fairytales - Important Talk Starring Fabian & Irene Madrigal

Fabian sighs. It hadn't been easy telling Irene where they were going or why. He'd ended up just settling on, "There's someone I need to introduce you to. And I know you're going to have a lot of questions, and it's just best if we all get to talk together."

Which. Is hard for a five year old, but it was the best he could do. Walking into the small coffee shop, he looks around for Calypso, holding Irene's hand. She looks up at him, confused, clinging to his arm a little bit more.

[troythecatfish]

[fleshadept]

part of the reason the locked tomb characters are so memorable and complex is because they are very, very weird in the way only writers who understand that every human being is a little freak in their own way. harrow is the standout example of this—she is unnerringly pious to the rites of her religion in a way that to others comes across as zealotry but once we get into her point of view is revealed to be both, yes, because she is a zealot and also because the rituals and safety of painting her face, praying, etc calm her down. she eats penitently because she actually hates strong tastes. she is both schizophrenic and quite literally haunted, facts that recontextualize her behavior in gtn in an important way.

gideon is a butch and this universe’s version of a jock, and the first thing we see her do is try to escape harrow and the ninth and join the army (something that’s forgotten a little too often when people talk about her being “out of character” in ntn) because she wants to have a purpose, but we also come to learn that despite being raised in the literal dreariest place in the solar system she’s funny, sometimes even on purpose. she doesn’t know what a salad is. she reads sleazy porn magazines. she’s a talented swordswoman but is head over heels for every pretty woman she meets, to her own detriment at times.

every character is like this! they feel so real and complex because they have contradictions and weaknesses and opinions and incorrect beliefs and correct ones that are hard to tell the difference between.

[enneamage]

Do you think it’s good and possible for teenagers and adults to have a genuine and healthy friendships?

I was reminiscing those type of friendships between ccs. Some of them turned out fine (from outside perspective) and some aged horribly.

Idk it’s seems like a complicated thing, can’t quite decide what side am I on

This one is a hard one because the internet can be such a corrupting force on even the most benign interactions. Monetised internet / showbusiness internet even more so, when we’re talking CCs. I touched a bit on the conditions where adults can wander/slide/drop straight down on purpose into damaging places with younger people before, but this topic kind of expands out endlessly as you said. 

I think that having role models and older people in one’s life as a young person feels so good that it becomes something you’ve gotta be careful about, but those feelings don’t come from an inherently bad place. You want to know what being a person can be and now you’ve got someone to tell you, fuckin’ sweet. People are probably hard-wired to relate in this way. I also think that friend-mentoring also feels really good if you’re the right person for the job, but you’ve got to bring a functional sense of ethics to the table, in the way that you would ideally do anyway as a half-rolemodel. 

The dark secret is that young people who are full of energy/kindness/eagerness/vulnerability can be very gratifying to be around, and one needs to be disciplined enough to pass up on ‘an opportunity’ to engage with those traits in a way that only benefits the adult. The issue is partly that the people who want to be friends with minors the most are the ones that should be least trusted with that guideline, because it’s easy to make someone like that a dumping ground for psychic baggage and god knows what else. Emotionally isolated adults, which can easily be internet as well as IRL adults, may see minors as a very rare chance to experience things that they think they can’t with people their age. This goes downhill fast. 

‘Real’ friendships are broadly characterised by being mutual, but what people give and take from them are rarely perfect 50-50 mirrors, so you’ve just got to be aware of the connection being more 70-30 with guardrails in place. Trying to go 50-50 when the playing field and the players aren’t 50-50 doesn’t work– it especially doesn’t work when it’s 30-70 tipped in the adults ‘favor’ in terms of benefit, as the younger person becomes the vent sponge and the place that the adult leaches their emotional gratification from. 

I’m not a huge face person, I don’t think of myself as someone who 100% needs to know how someone sounds and acts to make ongoing judgement calls about what they’ve got going on, but this trait is not universal. Some people really need to look into someone’s face and get that hard, material bio-feedback about the person in front of them to remember the situation that they’re in, otherwise they’ll under-attend to cognitive empathy and fill in the blanks badly. I think online text friendships can move sideways when the adult isn’t constantly being given visual cues as to how not-adult their adult-typing friend is (in some cases.) 

Voice and video calls are in a grey area for different reasons, because of the isolation of the situation warping the context. If you’re at work with adults and minors, which is the classic mixed age environment, I think you can get something very friendly going, but the context civilises that a lot. I also think third-person accountability can be part of what keeps these friendships decent, keeping people from doing things that third parties wouldn’t find weird through the power of shame. Ideally people have functional senses of ethics that don’t need all that, as you would want from and for any human you can be friends with, but in breaking things down into their moving parts this makes a difference.

[nox-in-a-box]

Cedric claims to be very busy, yet whenever you see him, half the time he's doing the most random shit ever. Of course he is, he has loads of free time, it seems, with the king rarely ever utilising him for something useful.

All that time in the workshop, he must have loads of hobbies. He can play at least one instrument (harmonica), he plays chess (or was it checkers?) with Wormwood (well, used to), he likes stacking cards (how bored do you have to be for that?) he grows flowers (evilly of course), he has the time to build a whole flying machine, and he even paints? I think? He has time for ALL that, not to mention going on random trips and adventures with Sofia.

Point is, I want his job.

[yuanwang]

save me asian ocs.. save me...

[torgawl]

instead of just cross eyes and star eyes distinguishing dynasties in khaenri'ah, why do some khaenri'ahns cover one eye specifically? there’s many things that seem interconnected regarding the lore:

crimson moon turning around to look like an eye; irmin the one-eyed king; the unknown god’s cubes containing eyes in their design (same ones present in the cataclysm as well as the crimson moon), her glitching looking like arlecchino’s, and the four pointed star pattern that appeared when she showed up to the twins; forbidden knowledge and nibelung’s influence; fischl's auge der verurteilung aka eye of condemnation (crimson eye) and her skin's description "o holiest of sovereigns, high princess of immernachtreich (kingdom of evernight)!".

kaeya's note about the alberich saying "i saved this one memento from the fire 'father' made while he wasn’t paying attention. this was in violation of our principles. our clan's affairs should never be recorded" and "though we could not restore khaenri'ah to life, we of the alberich clan should lead lives as those who blaze like fire, rather than those who wallow in the embers [small piece of burning or glowing coal or wood in a dying fire]", father being in quotation marks and references to fire and ashes; the orphanage in khaenri'ah that wanted to house children from destroyed worlds and non-threats that leaked into the kingdom, in hopes of finding beings from beyond the sky who could transcend the gods; perinheri's first memory being transversing something like a chimney, filled with ash and being asked if he wasn't dead just for him to see the eye (crimson moon) and being told he was reborn; dust and the blood of of dragons (or dragon-like beings like durin and elynas) being connected to rhinedottir and the art of khemia; fire as rebirth and life but also, the balemoon blood specifically being connected to loss of memories and loss of memory being equivalent to death (not physical);  despite the orphanage never being able to find that transcendal person, it had many unusual individuals who became knights of the kingdom.

irmin as the first divine halberd (that once pierced the axis mundi [cosmic/world axis, world pillar, center of the world, world tree, etc.] and connected the nine worlds), the prinzessin der verurteilungas (fischl) as the last one; fischl and kaeya comparing themselves to one another and their parallels to irmin and odin; der ring des nibelungen, in which the dwarf (or nibelung) alberich creates a ring capable of controlling the world, using gold he stole from the rhinemaidens (or rheintöchter "rhine-daughters"). the conflict that arises over the ownership of this ring eventually leads to the destruction of the gods and their home, valhalla.

irminsul (irmin + sul) meaning great pillar and being a reference to the yggdrasil, the tree that supports the universe; the description of the item silver twig – collected in the center of the world - talking about a sage that hanged himself upside down in the irminsul tree to gain knowledge of the runes and the cosmos, then going into a secret kingdom down its roots [also a reference to hanged man in tarot that symbolizes wisdom, divination, sacrifice, prophecy, etc.]; odin who hung himself upside down from the sacred world tree, yggdrasil, for nine days and nights sacrificing his eye and throwing himself on his spear (gungir) as a ritual sacrifice in order to obtain secret wisdom; memories, fire and crimson moon hand in hand with the irminsul, king irmin and the concept of fate; the fake sky, the stars and being able to see fate but also fate being a means of the heavenly principles to control the world (neuvillette calling it puppet strings); khaenri'ah, a supposed godless nation but the crimson moon dynasty revering the moon (and hilichurls worshiping istaroth); the crimson moon having an eye on humanity and always being present associated with punishment and destruction (fall of gurabad, remuria and the catclysm).

crimson moon's semblance (arlecchino’s weapon) implying the crimson moon sought vengeance (“few survived the utter destruction of their kind, hiding in the shadows where the sun did not shine, longing for the crimson moon to decree their desire for vengeance be repaid”); the design of the weapon and arlecchino’s boss attacks resembling the double helix present in deathly statuette material dropped by abyss heralds, abyss lectors and shadowy husks, which has a single red eye. it apparently whispers "see, my child. all that lies under the throne of heaven shall be destroyed by upheaval. the eternal peace of the pitch-dark void shall embrace us all.” as you gaze at it.

the abyss order being founded by chlothar alberich and pierro being the first harbinger; the "sinner" – the crystal in chains from the chasm, protected by an abyss herald - not being a god but still worshipped by the abyss order. the voice stating to chlothar and the traveler’s twin that he "[knows their] fate well" and urged them to become a "transcendent one" saying he would "shed a tear at the end of time... as i gaze back upon your life". he also imbued chlothar with the power of the abyss, which alleviated his worsening conditions. the “sinner” refered to chlothar as “dear creature”; dainsleif, pierro and kaeya being examples of khaenriahns who hide their right eye; dainsleif being called “bough keeper”, bough is a branch of a tree, but also his constellation being a snake ring like ouroboros – representing the eternal renewal cycle of life, death and rebirth; the loom of fate being an operation of the abyss order first encountered during "a herald without adherents" quest.

“the threads of your fate lie in my hands” a quote by fischl connecting to the weaves of fate; fischl stating that if she does not obtain the divine halberd “...this world and everything in it is going to burn in hellfire” (legend of the shattered halberd vol. ii). some other excerpts of the book also include: “but unbeknownst to him, this was the greatest cursed sword of all, that had once burned the entire world to cinders: laevatain [in norse mythology, a weapon crafted by loki and the only capable of defeating the cockerel viðofnir, inhabiting the top of yggdrasil], the sword had extinguished after the world was burned, but... it burned bright once more. ‘the whole world... destroyed again...’ weiyang [fischl] fell unconscious as she spoke” (vol. iv), and, "the world is beyond repair. it shall be born anew from the ashes of the last” (vol. vi); dainsleif saying “none will escape the flames. see for yourself” but also neuvillette’s character story including “the puppet strings glossed as "divine rules" would one day be burned away by the fires of judgment” when talking about constellations; burning away the old world, project stuzha by the fatui and the image of dottore burning the irminsul; nahida saying fontaine's prophecy was engraved in the irminsul, implying the tree also contains the history of the future; sibylla, a prophetess who guarded the irminsul in an ancient city located in what later became the high seas (referred to as abyssal depths). she sacrificed her life for the sake of creating phobos, remus' grand symphony, but her lack of a will ultimately caused the project to fail, as her vague desire to "grant happiness to all in the world who are called humans" caused phobos to attempt to satisfy everyone's desires — including destructive and selfish ones — and set remuria towards the course of its self-destruction (possibly tying concepts of will and fate together); thinking of dottore's plan, it would make sense to burn the tree that holds memories with a fire able to erase them (arlecchino's balemoon powers) so that the world can be born anew breaking away from the shackles of fate.

there’s also the improvisation kaeya does during the play in his hangouts. "do you believe in fate? if fate decreed your life was to end in tragedy, what would you do?". he then throws a prop and we interact, choosing if we would face our fate bravely or challenge it and rise above it. kaeya then goes on saying "then so must it be! yes, so must it be! i shall discard this intaglio and rid myself of the shackles of fate", "fate means to send the machinations of war to every corner of the land to fan the flames of conflict till they ungulf the entire world… fate would see my sword tainted with the blood of innocents, that the bright banner of my homeland might fly in every nation known to mankind. but i shall not bow to the will of fate i am no pawn in heaven’s plan. i, qubad, will spend the rest of my days in a foreign land, 'till i breathe my last in a place far from home" and finishes the play with "but i must walk this path, or freedom dies by my hand. goodbye, my tribe and kin. farewell, sweet land of my birth". the prop we get from kaeya, the intaglio, symbolizes the noble origins of prince qubad in the play and the blood-red jewel (blood, red... funny, uh?) is said to be a crystallization of the question kaeya asked us about destiny. furthermore, an intaglio can be a type of engraved gem or metal signet ring.

[pop-punklouis]

-

[troythecatfish]

[pocketramblr]

I always found it slightly awkward how media makes siblings or people who see each other as siblings call each other brother/sister all the time as in real life you almost never see people do that with their own siblings (maybe someone out there like that)

In the case of Arkham Shadows I see why they did though because Bruce quite literally tells Harvey he loves him and Harvey says it back. Can't have the audience think Batman is in love with the DA.

They had Bruce pay for his college, pay for his campaign, pay for his surgery, pay for his therapy and had Harvey have him as his best man at his wedding. Wow..... Sugar baby Harvey is real.....

The calling sibling title thing is less common in English than in some other languages for sure- me and a couple of my siblings do it on occasion, but it's for a bit then. More common is when I call one of my close family friends "my sister" or "my nephew" when talking about them to someone else because it's faster and easier to say that than to say "my friend who I've known since she was born and lived with for a few years and consider a little sister" or "child of a close family friend who considers me an aunt" to someone who doesn't know them. Which is a lot of words to say that if they wanted to fully sell me on the brothers thing they should have either had a different bit or should have referred to the other as "my brother" when talking to an unrelated character instead.

But "oh no we have to make Bruce not look gay" has been a problem DC has struggled with more than once for many decades and it basically never works so I guess at least they didn't try to solve it this time by having Bruce pick a lady love over Harvey or cutting the holding hands thing

Because I saw that scrapbook! I know Harvey has been Bruce's sugar baby since he was ten years old! But we can't have Bruce take Harvey's hand and call him the love of his life because ok technically that's Gotham but also because gay. And we can't have Bruce take Harvey's hand and call him his best friend because they're not ten anymore and somehow that seems gay also. So brothers it is, I guess. Even if I think my brothers would bite my finger if I ever tried to pay for everything for them on that scale, guess it's different at billionaire levels

[heartsbreaking]

this is me to a t. i do not consider it ghosting if we just don't talk for a while even if it's weeks or months as mutuals. i'm perfectly happy interacting ic and only talking ooc when we have something to say. my love language is sending people reels because it reminded me of you and whatever plot/character ideas pop into my head randomly. if we're friends and you have me on disco that is what you can generally expect from me. the literal ONLY thing i ask is that if you lose interest in plotting while we are actively conversing about it, please tell me instead of just disappearing. even just a little "i'm burnt out right now, i'd love to come back to this later" would do wonders. cause i'm not sending multiple messages anymore. i'm not gonna poke you for replies. when you stop replying for months on end i consider it over. i'm done being the only one trying to maintain stuff.

it really hurts my feelings when i get excited about something and share that with someone and don't have that energy matched. please don't ghost me mid plotting. i'm so lenient you can take a week, you can genuinely forget and come back in a month with full vigor and i won't mind. it just hurts my feelings when it takes two months or three and if i do get a reply the energy isn't matched, or all my attempts to interact ic go unanswered and plotting goes unanswered too. please don't treat me like i'm disposable or don't have feelings.

if you lose interest just communicate that. if you don't have the brain power to plot but want to continue sometime but don't mind me sending ideas when they pop up please communicate that. i used to be down with sending multiple messages whenever the thoughts popped up but then people consistently started not responding and i started feeling annoying. if you do lose interest and tell me i'm not gonna softblock or anything, but if there's just no communication ooc or ic about anything i will probably have to softblock cause it does hurt my feelings seeing people on my dash who i have repeatedly tried to initiate things with or tried to be the driving force behind plotting and the energy has not been reciprocated.

[jewishbarbies]

it’s really fucking annoying when goyim come in halfway to a conversation between jews and start bitching about what we should be talking about instead. like, you’re seriously going to come on to a thread of jews talking about the antisemitism in the way people use Israel’s right of return policy to delegitimize Israelis’ indigeneity and all the other countries that do it but don’t get criticized despite their own histories of colonization, just to go “ummm acktually you should be talking about how the right of return is used to colonize palestine”. get out. get the fuck out. this is why jews don’t feel comfortable having conversations about these kinds of gray topics with goyim, because all you’ll do is intentionally misread the room and shout your moot point from the rooftops like you’re a hero and then whine and cry when it’s not taken well, not to mention you won’t even look into the people already participating and find out what they think BEFORE you assume everyone talking is just an evil zionist colonizer nazi. stay the fuck out of jewish conversations and unpack your fucking antisemitism.

[goldbiz]

their soulmates. nobody can tell me otherwise.

[jewishcissiekj]

i love blaming everything on my social anxiety. only 90% of my accusations are true

[nymeianthreads]

@idealhost liked for a starter from arabuccha.

naturally, arabuccha knew who kheda was. she's quite storied, and arabuccha likes to listen. he can't be certain, but he thinks she's heard of him too. even if they didn't frequent the same sharlayan halls often, word travels fast in hidden places if you look for it. he knows they both tread the same crossroads of that liminality, even if they don't walk the same roads — the dying and the living, he means. the taking versus the being took. it's not a difficult road to see across, and...well, arabuccha's quite hard to miss, besides, swallowed in chimera.

still, he wasn't expecting to run into her face to face anytime soon. truthfully, he was only in and out of sharlayan. he's not sure if she often spends her time here, either. he always likes to pick peoples' brains, see what he can uncover. you can learn a lot from others. truthfully, he loathes the food at the last stand, but today was worth it at least. they cock a grin, tail eagerly swinging across the floor.

"why, i don't believe my eyes." he says, lucky enough to be at a seat near enough to where she seems to be waiting to order. he briefly taps his claws on his table, self-satisfied. "just when i thought my study trip might end a bit empty-handed i run into kheda amariyo, savior of the realm...newfound leader in studies of the void, if i'm correct?" of course he is. "arabuccha mol, pleased to make your acquaintance in proper fashion." his tone is even, but not unkind — eyes narrowed in curiosity for once, rather than anything else.

[vv-ispy]

When all else fails, Consider Sayaka