#/i generally feel apathetic towards things but i know that i care very deeply for this thing i can do hvfbh

[keeps-ache]

WAIT. my art so cool actually

[germaniumring]

sooo my very first,,. processing post? i think this will be a general ramble for me to establish how im going to go about things with this blog. maybe i’ll start with why im doing this.

ive spent most of my life bottling things up. i dont think its been particularly fantastic for me and the way i deal with emotions and stressful situations. i think this behaviour of mine stems from my growing up years. as a child, when i showed any negative emotion it was punished which led to me now, trying to hide my feelings and keep it in if i was upset or angry. and when i did show my feelings, it was often an outburst that was ? dramatic? im not sure how to describe it but it definitely was too much for the situation i was in.

ive definitely thought for a long time that i shouldnt bottle up my feelings, especially since when my friends were upset id tell them not to either and that its best to let it out. but i didnt know how to go about it. ive considered talking to my friends about it, but i find that too embarrassing to be honest. its quite difficult for me to show emotional vulnerability in front of people i know, hence why im here! Using an internet persona. Talking to the air. sending brainwaves through the tags looking for people who could maybe? give me advice? im not sure

another reason why i made this blog was to talk about situations i went through and really process what happened and think about how i feel about it. ive developed a very indifferent and maybe even apathetic attitude towards things that happen to me. which means that when something bad happens to me i usually am not affected by it, and dont think about it too deeply. while i find this helps me brush off negative emotions easily, a lot of the times i do this i might also disregard the feelings of others involved that are affected by it , and i dont think this is good for me to do. it makes them feel like theyre maybe too sensitive because if i dont care, maybe they shouldnt care as much. im trying to fix this problem by thinking more deeply about. life??? in general? im not sure how to word it.

this post is getting a little long, so i’ll end it soon. if youre reading this, thank you so so much for being here. it feels really weird to say all of my thoughts out loud. i really hope this can help me become a better person and im sorry if my posts arent coherent because i might have lost my original train of thought halfway through and started rambling 😵‍💫😵‍💫

[furbtasticworksofart]

Incoherent Blorbo Rant Incoming

Okay okay so any human whose interacted with me for a second already knows who my favorite human FNaF character is, but I want to elaborate on why even though no one asked.

The reason I find Henry to be such a compelling character is that he is deeply flawed, and remains deeply flawed.

Most interpretations of Michael, have him as the Foxy Bro, and thus, tormented by the knowledge he inadvertently killed his brother. Because of this he tends to be written with a lot of melancholy and self-loathing for what he considers his worst act. But after that, he spends the rest of his life proving he can be a better person, and he wants to do things right. A simple, but effective character arc. Tragic hero making amends for past sins, very classic and easy to follow.

Henry’s character arc is basically about a man falling down a flight of stairs for fourty-odd years.

It has been widely commented on and discussed that Henry, in all canons, is far from the best father. The book trilogy illustrates the best picture of him, but this is also present in the games. LEFT-E, while sometimes interpreted in a more wholesomeway, is canonically a trap implemented with controlled shocks and an inescapable prison to be burned alive in. Book Charlie is abandoned despite being at the exact same emotional intelligence and general being as an actual human child, and also bears witness to his worst apathetic and self-serving tendencies. Oh, and he realllly doesn't care sbout Sammy, at least, not in the same way. His grief has manifested entirely around Charlie, losing her is what led to him becoming more unstable.

And that's the key thing here. Henry, fundamentally, is not a healthy person. He never was. Every read of him and William's relationship just screams toxic codependency, and mental health issues as serious as delusions, seething self-hatred, and apathy towards others, do not exist in a vacuum. We can headcanon a lot about where these traits came from, but overall it paints the picture of a person with underlying mental issues managing to reach a sort of "normalcy" and happiness, only for it to be shattered in heartbreaking detail. And he doesn't know how to deal with that. Though to be fair, I don't know how anyone would.

Now, mental illness does not make you a worse person. Struggling with these issues isn't what makes him so flawed, it's the fact he will callously disregard others, only to feel immense regret upon seeing the consequences of his actions. Then he does it again.

Freddy's has been closed at least four times. You would think, that after Fredbears, he would take a step back, and maybe consider moving on. Letting things go. But he doesn't. He makes more. Then, a tragedy of even greater magnitude, and still, he doesn't stop. The way he talks about the Funtimes, he refers to them as though he played a part in it. Even though, by then, anyone as close to William as him should have seen the glaring red flags. But he can't stop. He cannot stop creating. He has too.

And when things finally fully collapse, he takes a step back, and feels nothing but shame and resentment. Mostly towards himself. And lets that broil over, completely unmoving.

Intense self-hatred is still a form of narcissism. This relapsing into unhealthy patterns, clinging to toxic relationships like a lifeline, gets across one main idea: Henry wants to be a good person. He wants to have a happy family, to enjoy creative freedom and to cherish the few, but strong, relationships he has. But his inability to let go, to focus on the present and how people are doing now, is what fractures those relationships.

When he does try to fix things, he succeeds, in a way. But it took him years. Years of waiting. Of doing nothing. And can letting himself burn with them, truly be considered self-sacrifice? Fazbear Entertainment didn't die with him. And being so intrnt on bringing everyone down with him, left a massive vulnerability for others to exploit.

He's not the villian of this story. But he's certainly, not the hero anyone was hoping for.

[honey-milk-depresso]

If requests are open, may I request Idia, Leona, and Azul with a s/o who seems very aloof and apathetic towards things until they're including? Like they won't put effort or time into it, but the second the dorm leaders are involved, they go all out. Or they just only really care about the dorm leaders! I apologize for my word vomit ahhh and if requests are closed, I apologize for not reading things properly..!!!

Oh, that's an interesting request! (Also requests ARE open!! ^^) Hope you enjoy!!

Aloof s/o that goes all out for someone

Idia Shroud

Man-

Not gonna lie-

he's pretty intimidated by your aloof personality-

he doesn't really know how to even talk to you.

Well, I mean, he doesn't know proper social interaction in general,

But you were on a whole new level to him.

Like, at least he can talk to Azul without feeling weird,

and Azul's pretty intimidating with his "business persona".

And every time someone talks to you,

you're just so

emotionless.

Like, you just seemed uninterested.

So it made him think how you're ever going to be interested in him.

He knows he's nerdy,

and he thinks you're the type who doesn't bother about talking about interests,

or you hate small talk,

or just find it annoying that people talk to you.

But boy that was wrong.

When he was captured by that ghost princess and was forced to marry her,

you crashed that wedding.

Big time.

And you took his hand.

"We're leaving here. I'm going to make sure you're safe."

You-

He-

W H A T-

He was so flustered.

You were like, a hero in an anime he watched, and he's just so-

in awe????

You bothered to save him?? And come to his rescue?? And risk your life??

He honestly felt like he's in some sort of romance manga, just that somehow he's the princess that was saved by you, the prince.

He feels special knowing that you care deeply for him, although you don't look like it.

You really are his knight in shining armor..... in a way-

Leona Kingscholar

I mean-

He doesn't really care at first-

Chances are, he probably think you're like him too.

He doesn't care about talking to others,

nor does he care if they are in peril.

It doesn't affect him, so he doesn't do anything, or at the very least, much.

He's just quite pissed with that emotionless expression your face.

Kinda ticks him off.

But he didn't really care for you, much like you didn't care for him.

Well,

seemingly, at first.

The first thing he saw when he woke up after his overblot was you

standing there crouching beside him while lightly holding his cheek.

"What the hell.."

"Are you okay?"

He stared at you.

Your face didn't looked worried, still emotionless looking as can be,

but your eyes tell a different story otherwise.

You actually cared for him?

And did everything you could to turn him back and keep him alive?

Well,

he wasn't expecting that.

Well, now I guess you can say,

after the overblot events,

he also showed his care and concern very subtly.

Like grumbling, asking you to go to sleep because it’s late at night,

or he just throw some hands for you because someone’s bullying you for being emotionless.

He insists that they’re annoying him, too,

but let’s be real-

he care bout u fam-

Azul Ashengrotto

He just sucked it up as you being formal.

He didn’t really think much of it.

He just treated you like he always did,

and I guess he thought you were just being weary of his sketchy deals that come at you.

Not gonna lie,

if he were you,

he’d be keeping his distance, too.

But,

like-

do you have to be cold about it???

At least like-

ya know-

fake smile, or some shit???

Well, okay,

it doesn’t matter right?

He’s not going to lie,

he was a felt quite the amount of tension from you.

Just the look of your emotionless face sends him signals of

“Avoid, avoid, avoid-”

Because he does not now how to deal with you.

But after his overblot,

he realized you always come into his office,

giving him a warm cup of tea, asking how was his day and if he was doing alright.

He was quite confused.

He heard from Jade that you immediately went over to treat his wounds

okay this is a headcanon anything can happen-

so u brought a first aid kit a’ight?-

He felt

warm.

He thanked you for your subtle efforts of caring an showing concern for him, and you bowed your head politely, eyes sparkling a twinkle before going back to what you were doing murdering-

he’s never had a person besides his family and maybe Jade and Floyd care for him. This is the first time he has ever received genuine concern from someone else, and it turned out to be you.

If you’d go all out of your way for him, than he shall do the same in return.

A deal must be fulfilled by both parties, right? <3

[mbti-notes]

Anon wrote: Hey. I'm INFJ. I want to ask about relationship problems. The relationship in question is between my ESTJ mother and I. Generally, I would describe our relationship as close and loving, but there is a conflict, and that came from our opposite ideology and political beliefs.

I want to say before continuing that we are neither American or European, so our ideology and politics shouldn't be understood from the "western" side of things, though to simplify by comparison, my views could be described as leftist and my mother's as conservative. I should also add that I used to hold her worldview when I was younger, but changed once I was old enough to form an opinion of my own. This caused my mother to imply many times in our discussions that I am "brainwashed" and dismiss me as "too young" and "too ideological". I should add that the latter (ideological) is a valid criticism. Still working on that.

Otherwise, I often tried to persuade, then later find middle ground with her, to no avail. We ended up arguing many times, until we decided to not talk politics with each other anymore. So, what's the problem, you might ask.

Recently, the political climate in my country got intense. Heated, even. I won't go into details, but there are protests again the government by young liberals/leftists-equivalent of my country. Many of my good acquaintances joined the protest. The government used police force against them, and it got violent. There are young unarmed protestors who were teargassed, beaten, and shot with rubber bullets and high velocity water jets. Some protestors were heavily injured. Some protestors were arrested and incarcerated in horrible conditions. My mother and I agreed to not speak about politics, so I said nothing.

Until my mother, right infront of me, with another family member, openly mocked the protestors, made judgments about them based on the goverment's propaganda, called them a nuisance, and implied that they "deserved it". It's not about her discussing it, but it's about how unempathetic she was when she said those things, towards those young people my age, with similar ideology to me, and how apathetic she was when she said that "nothing's going to change anyway". It was the first time that I saw my mother in that angle, the complete lack of humanity in her words. It still haunts me until now.

So my question to you is, how does one deal with that? I love my mother, I think I always will. I also know that she loves me, or at least the part of me that's still her child. But for a moment, I loved her less, and that frightened me. I began to wonder, what would happen one day if we have to actually take sides, because things are getting worse in my country, not better. This adds to other issues I have in my life and made me more depressed. A part of me tells me that I should tell her about how I feel, but how do you tell someone you love that they're one of the reasons for your sadness?

I'm sorry if this is stupid. I'm sure that this feeling I have is one-sided, and I wonder if I'm being selfish or ungrateful. Maybe it's because I'm too sensitive these days, so I thought if I have an outside neutral opinion, it will help illuminate my clouded mind. Thank you. I hope you had a good summer break!

------------------------

The sentence that sticks out at me the most is: "It was the first time that I saw my mother in that angle, the complete lack of humanity in her words." I would argue that the problem doesn't lie with her. In fact, nothing about your mother had changed. She was still the same woman as before she uttered those words. The issue arises from your perception of her and the standards by which you evaluate her.

I follow world affairs very closely, so I think I know which region you are speaking of. One of the biggest problems in the manner that people think and talk about politics is the tendency to stereotype. Stereotyping is basically a form of cognitive oversimplification. It makes your thinking ability fast but also very dull and blunt, unable to understand situations with the nuance and sophistication that is required for good judgment and decision making.

It doesn't matter which country/culture you are from, there is always some variation of "right versus left". Why? Because in every society, there will always exist an underlying tension between those who don't want change and those who do. You may label these two opposing forces as right vs left, conservative vs liberal, regressive vs progressive, etc, but the fact of the matter is that these labels are gross oversimplifications of people's political belief systems.

When you divide people along an oversimplified dichotomy, it's too easy to stereotype them, in terms of believing that all people on each "side" hold all the same beliefs and values. Stereotyping goes along with the natural tendency of humans to be tribal. You start to view those on your side as being intellectually and morally superior to those on the other side. This leads to dehumanization and even demonization of the other side. In essence, you lose the ability to empathize with people, as long as you believe that they aren't on your side or the "right" side.

It seems that your political thinking has become too stark due to how extreme the situation has become. You have the feeling of fighting for your life because of the way that the situation has been handled by authorities, as they are indeed putting people's lives in danger. Your feelings about the situation are completely valid. But you fail to recognize that your mom's feelings about the situation are also valid. Certainly, there are hard-core fundamentalists and extremists out there that you can never reach because their beliefs and values are not based in any form of reason. However, I don't think your mom fits into that category, does she?

Do you know what it means to have no humanity? You are accusing her of something like psychopathy. Is that really true of her? I don't think so. She said: "nothing's going to change anyway". I don't consider this an expression of "apathy", as you assume. This is an expression of hopelessness. In that sentence, there is a real possibility that your mom is sympathetic at heart, but she disagrees that the chaotic actions of the protestors (i.e. the method) will lead to any meaningful change... and she may be absolutely right about that.

You haven't grasped the nuances of your mom's beliefs and values because your mindset has been so hardened by the extreme nature of the political conflict. This means that, when you engage in political discussion with her, you are unable to: 1) acknowledge how she feels, 2) acknowledge that there is some reason/merit/validity behind her beliefs, and 3) be open-minded enough to meet her halfway.

Put another way: If you met someone who wouldn't acknowledge your feelings as valid, dismissed all of your beliefs and values as completely wrong without proper investigation, and only sought to "convert" you, would you want to communicate with them? Probably not. This is the unproductive attitude that you now both bring to the table. This is the divisive attitude that arises when a conflict becomes too polarized and everyone is forced to "choose a side".

Unless one of you learns to listen and communicate more effectively, what will change? You say that you have tried to find middle ground with her but always end up arguing. Not finding middle ground is one thing, but getting caught up in interpersonal drama is a whole other thing. The option to amicably agree to disagree is always available. If you genuinely respect someone and respect their freedom to form their own beliefs, it shouldn't be hard to agree to disagree. Why do you find it so difficult to let her be her? Ultimately, you're not really interested in "middle ground"? You just want her agreement? Getting caught up in arguments all the time, especially on a recurring basis, indicates poor communication skills that stem from a troubling lack of objectivity. The more you argue with the intent to shame/change the other person, the more you push them away from your side, and the more myopic you get in your own beliefs.

You seem to have fallen into the trap of categorizing her into the tribe that you view as the enemy of your tribe, namely, the authorities that are cracking down on you young protestors. You've started to view her as the enemy, now you can't empathize with her, and even accuse her of having no humanity. You now consider yourself morally superior to her. If there is any possibility that she could be your ally, you've slammed the door on it.

You describe a very dire and desperate political situation that affects everyone, BUT, it doesn't affect everyone the same way. Different people have very different ways of dealing with intense emotions like fear, insecurity, grief, despair, helplessness, etc. Due to inferior Fi, ESTJs have extremely low tolerance for intense and uncontrollable emotions. Remember that one's ability to utilize the inferior function is not much better than a young child. If ESTJs can't neutralize or deflect their sense of powerlessness quickly, the burden of the emotions will quickly destroy them. I don't think you've really understood the thought process behind your mom's words and what is really motivating her "apathy".

Just because someone doesn't agree with your methods, doesn't mean that they don't have anything in common with you. Politics isn't just about good vs evil, as in, if you don't stand up for good, then you are evil. Everyone has their own way of looking at the situation because everyone has their own interests to take care of first and foremost, and everyone has their own ideas about the best methods to pursue. This is true for both you and your mom. It is possible to agree on beliefs but disagree on methods. For example, I'm assuming that you care about this cause so deeply because you care about your future. Sure, your ideas about the future differ from hers. But, certainly, you are both interested in securing your future, aren't you?

History has shown us that young people are always more willing to fight for causes because: 1) they would suffer less immediate material loss than the elder generation, 2) they have fewer life responsibilities, obligations, and commitments to take into consideration, and 3) their lack of life experience sometimes makes their thinking too simplistic when visualizing future implications.

Your interests aren't fully aligned with your mom's in this situation, perhaps because you are from different generations. However, this doesn't mean that your interests don't align in other important ways. At the end of the day, your mom is probably deathly afraid of seeing YOU on the news being beaten to a pulp and disappeared by the police, right? And it may be the case that she's passing harsh judgment on the protestors because she's trying to discourage you from meeting their horrible fate? That's hardly lack of humanity.

To be a good critical thinker, you need to learn to be more objective. Objectivity means understanding all aspects of the situation, or as many as you can manage. Objectivity and empathy often go hand-in-hand. You won't be able to empathize well unless you acknowledge that there might be some aspects of the situation that you're not seeing or understanding. When you take more time to get to the bottom of someone's thought process and why they really feel the way they do, you will discover all sorts of openings to influence their political beliefs in a friendly way. But when you can't even acknowledge that the other side might have an important point to be made, because you are so hardened in your stance, you've created a dead end for yourself.

[elia-de-silentio]

OF COURSE THEY WERE IN MEURSAULT

As soon as I saw the above panel, the name of 'Meursault' rang a bell. I'm pretty new to this fandom, but I caught up on the fact that rarely Asagiri leaves even small detail to chance or personal taste, let alone the name of the place Dazai and Fyodor have been locked in for the last few chapters, doing mind games and helping the guards realize that they're not paid enough. Meursault had to mean something, and it sounded familiar, but I couldn't quite remember where I heard it. So, I looked that up.

Uh, not exactly what I expected, through it makes sense that just like Yokohama it's a real place ...

Huh, really not what I expected ...

Now this is it!

Now, to my shame, I've never read 'The Stranger'. There will be a day when I will have read all of existentialist literature; just like there will be a day when I'll speak every language in the world and will be a famous writer. Today, it's not that day.

Still, I did a bit of research on online essays, after finding out about this.

The story is about a French man in France-occupied Algeria. The most notable thing is his lack of reaction to most that happens around him.

His mom dies? He doesn't even remember the exact day, smokes in front of the coffin, and does not shed a tear. He mets a woman who becomes his lover? Meh, he doesn't actually love her, but he likes the sex. A friend of him wants his complicity in abusing emotionally and later physically his own (Arab, so seen as an inferior) girlfriend? He doesn't see why not. The brother of the victim reacts to this by requiring a polite confrontation with a knife? He shoots him. Even when he's already dead. He complains about the heat that day. Not even ending up in prison manages to shake him. In the end, his lack of shown love for his mother is what gets him sentenced to death, rather than the actual murder or complicity with his friend, by a jury convinced that he is a monster devoid of feelings. Only at the very end, confronted by a priest, he explodes in a rant about the human condition. The novel ends with him imagining his execution in front of an hateful crowd, that will ease his loneliness.

The point to Meursault's character is his lack of reaction to the external world. He doesn't care about emotional bonds and morality, but he doesn't even bother pretending otherwise, being amoral but utterly honest and non-judgmental of others. Camus explained that he was actually writing him as someone with a strong passion for 'the truth', that is, he world as he sees is, devoid of any system of belief but also any hypocrisy. In his final days, he finds relief in the notion that the world is just as indifferent as he is.

Now, what does this remind us of?

This little speech Dazai gives Fyodor becomes very, very significant.

As they both recognize, they are so good at understanding each other because they feel 'estranged' from others in a similar way; they understand the thoughts of other people, their 'truth', and so there is no room for actual discussion. They can predict everything that happens and will happen around them, but because of that, they can't really connect to it. They're extraordinary planners, and yet, both have been 'put away' for the whole arc, separated by the people who are actually fighting and 'making the world turn'.

The prison is reflective of their state of mind: of course they are in Meursault, they are the 'Strangers'.

From here, I think I'll try a couple predictions.

First, their getting out of prison will be something very interesting.

Dazai will get out of there; likely when the Agency's name will be restored and Mushitarou will do him a little favor again, but maybe even earlier someone will need him to help fix all the mess. When he will do so, he will be confronted with vampire Akutagawa, and the discovery that he sacrificed himself for Atsushi to end up in this state; or, if the incident is resolved before the release, with the knowledge that this happened. And it was his treatment of Akutagawa, his getting him to think that his life had no value back when they were in the mafia, his making him desperate for approval, his making him think that he valued Atsushi more than him, that led to this ordeal.

As he actually cares for Akutagawa - he just sucks at demonstrating it and facing the fact that he mistreated him in the past in general - it's likely the thing will leave him shaken and, hopefully, force him to take steps towards actually helping Akutagawa, and in the process facing his past self. In other words, his leaving Meursault will be tied with reconnecting with someone, in a genuine way, instead of just using them as a 'weapon against the demons'.

As for Fyodor ... I'm a little less sure that he will leave Meursault, because unlike Dazai, he actually devalues most people, seeing them as stupid but also something in need of salvation; in any case, as inferiors (unlike Osamu 'what's so wrong with being sinfully stupid' Dazai). So, he doesn't have all this investment in no longer being a 'stranger'.

But still, I think he has high chances to get out. For one, he hasn't had a confrontation with Shin Soukoku (or any other member of the Agency besides Dazai) yet, despite causing them grief to no end. And, his goal to find the Book has found no resolution. It wouldn't be narratively satisfying.

Moreover, Gogol is currently gunning for him, with a less enthusiastic Sigma in tow. And the reason is that Fyodor showed him empathy, the most understanding he ever received, and that moved him so much that ... he decided to kill him, because Gogol is a yandere saw this connection as so deeply important, he had to drastically severe it to obtain the freedom he craves.

So, Fyodor is not so much of a 'Stranger' as he likes to think he is; he can empathize with people, not just understanding them like they're a computer algorythm, and this has consequences. I think Gogol - and maybe Sigma too - will be able of getting him out of this way of thinking, and so, out of Meursault.

(Or maybe the guards will just realize that they really aren't paid enough to deal with their stronzate and just shove everyone back into society as a form of rebellion against it.)

At the end of 'The Stranger', Meursault the character has quite the development in his way of thinking: while at the start of the novel he was apathetic, didn't know himself, and didn't care about a set of beliefs, when confronted with his imminent execution he has emotional outbursts, shows self awareness, and a personal way to see the world that, even if it's rather nihilistic, will defend even to the point of turning down his chance to escape death. He comments that he will no longer be alone, finding a sort of communion to other human beings in the indifference the world has for them.

Dazai and Fyodor, likewise, will get out of that mental space, and stop, in their own ways, being 'strangers'

The second thing I can say, is that the very instant Dazai will be out of jail, he'll buy Chuuya some of that fancy Meursault wine, and put cyanide in it; cyanide, that is, if Chuuya is lucky.

Thanks to everyone who bothered to listen to my ramblings!

[antialiasis]

Morphic: the Musical

The Thousand Roads forums have a fanfic music thread. While I don't really do those kinds of threads usually because I don't really listen to a very wide variety of music and generally have a hard time associating music that already exists with unrelated fiction, one of the questions in it is this:

Talk about what would happen if some Broadway hit-maker scooped up your fic and turned it into a script. What songs would be in it? Describe a dance number/dance battle?

And immediately, the musical analysis glint lit up in my eyes. This question was presumably intended in a lighthearted jokey sort of way - imagining some fight staged as a dance battle, a hypothetical Broadway hit-maker doing the adaptation. But that's not enough for me, say I! Musicals are a good and interesting medium for serious fiction that I care about and I am going to serious this up.

See, to me, the musical format has two major strengths as a narrative medium. The first is that it can explore the inner worlds of characters in a pretty unique way. Characters get to monologue in a sort of heightened, non-literal manner, intensified by music: we can learn what they're about, what makes them tick, what's going on in their heads in a particular moment, in a way that wouldn't really make sense presented as actual inner monologue in another medium. The music aspect itself then adds a layer to it that's impossible to replicate in any other.

The second strength of the musical format is that it's really good at highlighting recurring themes, parallels and contrasts. Reprise the same melody, the same lyric, a parallel but opposite lyric, and you've instantly connected two things together. Is there a character arc? You can highlight what has changed. Are there two characters going through something similar? You can draw that out. Is there a recurring theme throughout? Use a recurring lyric, a recurring melodic phrase! Nudge the viewer into forming connections! Delicious! And you can do subtler things on the music level itself - particular instruments with particular connotations, recurring motifs...

So naturally I decided I should think up what a musical adaptation of Morphic would be like. It'd be a fun exercise in putting all my thoughts on musical adaptations into practice, but also an interesting way to help sort out some of my thoughts about characters arcs, etc. for the actual Morphic rewrite. And in the process, I may have gone slightly overboard. I regret nothing.

(I'm about to spoil most of the fic here, if this wasn't obvious)

Morphic: the Musical - tracklist

(Note: this musical is not sung-through; there are regular non-musical sections with regular dialogue in between. Morphic would almost definitely not make for a good sung-through musical.)

Act I

[Intro song] (Brian)

A monologue by Brian at the TV studio as he tries to work through what to say, how to explain or justify any of this (which conveniently serves to exposit to the audience as well as introduce his character). He makes nervous false starts and cuts himself off, starting the verse over each time, and through these false starts we learn what's going on, that the press has been calling them Pokémorphs, that this was all Dave's idea, that alcohol was involved, that it was meant as a basis for further research, that there were never supposed to be *children*, that he doesn't know what he'd even do with a kid, that Dave roped him into going on this show because he couldn't.

[Dave song] (Dave)

This musical properly introduces us to Dave via Jane walking out on him followed by this song, wherein he contemplates chucking baby Jean out the window. It's a dark rock song with big emotional contrasts and raw lyrics that is almost definitely my favorite song in this musical in the hypothetical reality where it is an actual musical and I didn't write it, because I am me. Probably starts with a couple slower lines of desperate disbelief before launching into wild anger about fuck that fucking whore, followed by what I will be referring to as the everything-is-shit verse (please bear with me), just a general cynicism rant about why the world is a shitty place not worth living in, followed by him wildly fantasizing about killing his infant child. What a delightful human being that I adore. The song ends abruptly, he's standing there staring at her in his arms for a moment, then he silently goes to feed her. On the soundtrack you probably might think he just did it.

Fatherhood (Brian)

A montage song covering the timeskip, which probably reprises [Intro song]. Brian initially has no idea what to do with his new squirming horrorblob child and is convinced he will screw it up the way he tends to screw up everything. Makes a couple of false starts again, but then gains confidence as time passes as he genuinely bonds with Gabriel and legitimately thinks he's a pretty amazing kid. There's a repeated line along the lines of that Gabriel's a weird, weird kid, but he's his, initially in a tone of "oh god I'm responsible for him what do" but towards the end is said with pride and fondness.

[Villain song] (Isaac and Jacob)

A duet between the two brothers, exploring what makes them tick. Isaac is all about this heavy pressure and sense of responsibility, originally imposed by his father, that he continues to impose on himself. He's been appointed to take over leading the family/cult and was raised with that constantly in the back of his mind as his future, and he believes that they're God's true righteous people and he cannot go wrong. He has dreams with some regularity that he interprets as visions from God, as he has been encouraged to since childhood by his father. When he has one about murder, it frightens him but he sees it as basically a divinely-appointed mission.

Jacob privately doesn't really believe any of that. He is trapped in this cult and goes through the motions but is not actually driven by any of the things that are driving Isaac. He's fairly quiet for most of the song - as Isaac is going on about his vision, Jacob has a line here and there obliquely challenging it, but Isaac has an answer for everything, and he doesn't press it, instead moving seamlessly on to suggestions for how he should do it. Jacob gets a quiet variant of part of the everything-is-shit verse from [Dave song], expressing the same kind of cynicism in a more reproachful, apathetic way - all in his own head, of course.

Just Like My Hero (Jean and Will)

Jean sings about how she is just like her hero, Sarah Hooter! Starts off describing how they look the same, moves on from there to how she will torch anyone who's mean, etc., just like her hero. Halfway through, Will joins in, and it becomes a counterpoint duet: Jean may be immature and ridiculous, but he deeply wishes he was confident and adored and nothing would get to him, and he admires and envies that about her. His just like my hero has a bit more of an ironic vibe, he'd hardly properly call her his hero, but he looks up to her more than he'd normally admit nonetheless.

Storming the Castle (Jack and Gabriel)

Jack and Gabriel are playing a D&D game with their friends, arguing about the best course of action. Jack is eager to waltz into the bad guys' fortress, storm the castle, while Gabriel urges lying low, says they're too weak. Jack wants to take the leap and try it; Gabriel insists no, we're not taking the leap, it's stupid. "It's brave!" Jack counters. (In the end, Gabriel gives in and they go ahead with it, and it goes fine.)

Unique (Mia and Lucy)

Mia and Lucy play one of their games. The song is about how Lucy needs someone like Mia to challenge her and let her actually indulge her powers, which are otherwise unsettling to people and she's ashamed and self-conscious about them, while Mia needs someone like Lucy to get a real outlet for her hunter's instinct. The word the lyrics are built around is unique; by being the precise way they are, they are each the only person who can provide this for the other.

Mia doesn't sing. She speaks her lyrics in her usual monotone, not even rhythmically. They also don't rhyme. It's technically a duet but really it's just Lucy singing and Mia talking.

[Peter/Katherine song] (Peter and Katherine)

A counterpoint duet between the siblings, contrasting their experience as Pokémorphs. Peter can pretty easily hide that he's different and be treated mostly as a normal kid, and feels free in his privilege, not confined quite the way the others are, able to be a bit reckless and incautious. Katherine, meanwhile, has a very different experience, being extremely noticeably different, getting stared at, and struggling with basic activities, and feels a huge sense of responsibility weighing her down, worrying about Peter and grounding him and reining him in. There's a lyrical contrast involving something something bird freedom plant rooted down something.

Brian's Death (Isaac and Dave)

This is one of those mostly-instrumental pieces that they include on the soundtrack anyway, but Isaac gets a couple of sung nondiegetic lines in here, a sort of frantic excitement, realizing in a brief panic that he shot the wrong guy before rationalizing that God must have planned it this way.

Dave is probably also in there screaming and attempting to call the police, because I am always in favor of screaming and panicking on musical soundtracks.

The Funeral (Gabriel and Jack)

Begins with Gabriel at the church during the funeral, singing about his vague discomfort being there, but slowly becomes increasingly frantic and anxious, working up to a breakdown where he exits and finally manages to cry for his dad. There's a verse about little things, how they ordered pizza the night before he died, etc., culminating in the bit about him having been in the middle of this mystery novel and never getting to learn who did it; the verse trails off quietly there, backing instruments gone, as Gabriel breaks down. Jack follows to comfort him.

Act II

[Montage song] (everyone)

A montage of the days after the attack, where everyone gets a couple lines about how they're coping, scared and grieving.

Dave's lines are like, spoken slightly too desperate annoyance at having to do some work that Brian didn't get to finish, or rebuking somebody who asks how he's doing by saying he barely even knew Brian. He is not singing along with this kind of grief-porn bullshit, fuck you.

[Villain song II] (Isaac and Jacob)

The brothers come up with a new plan. Isaac is agitated, reprising some of his bits from the original villain song in a quicker, more frantic tempo, while Jacob picks up the slack, walking him through a new idea. Isaac takes to it with conviction and goes back to the original melody/tempo, talking again about his God-given purpose. Jacob does not join in with any of that, only with the bits about the actual plan.

The Kidnapping (instrumental)

I'm just going to say this is on the soundtrack too and contains panicked Gabriel noises because I want it to be.

Storming the Castle Reprise (Jack)

Jack tries to rally the others for a rescue mission, echoing the D&D game from Act I. The lines about storming the castle and taking the leap make a reappearance.

Just Like My Hero Reprise (Jean)

Jean, on the bus, miserably contemplates how she is unlike her hero. Again, it begins with a verse talking about how she looks - not a thing like Sarah Hooter anymore - but then moves on to how she's scared and pathetic and running away, unlike anything a hero would do.

Church Sequence (Will, Jack, Mia)

A single track, largely instrumental/dialogue/sound effects, with a couple of brief song snippets:

- Will reprises "Just Like My Hero" as he wills himself to go on. He is cut off mid-line as he is shot.

- Mia slits that guy's throat and she actually sings a few words, for the first and only time, before she is also cut off mid-line by a gunshot. The line is something about, like, warm blood in her face or the guy's satisfying death throes, reprising part of the melody of "Unique".

Strong (Gabriel)

Gabriel discovers his powers. Starts slowly, calling back to the bits from "Storming the Castle" about lying low, being weak. But as the song continues and he makes his discovery, the tempo builds, and he starts reprising Jack's bits instead: he is strong, taking the leap, storming the castle.

Perish Song (Lucy)

Another brief reprise of "Unique", distorted and deafening and terrifying, mourning her sister.

[In the Hospital] (Jack and Gabriel)

The two of them work out their feelings about what happened. Includes Jack going "It was stupid" (i.e. the rescue mission) and Gabriel responding "It was brave", echoing the bit where they said the opposite in "Storming the Castle". Jack blames himself for how it all turned out, feels stupid and weak, while Gabriel actually felt kind of awesome. (This is also calling back to their opposite bits of "Storming the Castle".) They end with a shared duet verse as they realize they've both got that same innate desire to fight and win. Possibly calls back to the weird, weird kid line from "Fatherhood".

Eulogy (Dave)

Dave's eulogy for Mia (which also touches on Will, but this is Mia's funeral). It reprises "Unique". There will never again be anyone like the two of them, two of the only truly unique people on this Earth. (And, while he doesn't say it straight out because hahahaha, he needed Mia, too).

Taking the Leap (Jack and Gabriel)

Jack's suicide attempt and his swirling inner turmoil as he tries to talk himself into taking the leap once again. Gabriel, of course, comes in with don't take that leap. Am I overusing this one line by putting it in like half the songs in this thing? Well, who's going to stop me.

[Peter/Katherine song reprise] (Peter and Katherine)

The two of them contemplate indefinite house arrest (in contrast to the freedom Peter's enjoyed most of his life) and Katherine's failure to stop all this (despite her sense of responsibility). In the end, they both find their own ways to accept the new state of things and support each other through this.

Finale (Dave and Jean)

After Dave breaks down on his couch and Jean comes in to ask what's wrong, Dave sings a reprise of the everything-is-shit verse, going over the many things he's angry about, because that is the only emotion involved here clearly. At the exact point where Dave's song originally went from there to fantasizing about throwing her off the balcony, Jean throws her arms around him and sniffles "It'll be okay, Dad," and after a stunned "What? Jean, I'm--", he continues with a slow, hesitant *inverted* reprise of the everything-is-shit verse, "Everything'll be fine", constructing a little fantasy reality for her (and himself) where everything turns out all right in the end. It's backed by, like, a simple, quiet, slower piano rendition of the original melody, and trails off at the end, never quite coming to a satisfying conclusion before he tells Jean she should go back to bed.

[yandere-wishes]

Innocence //Yandere Leona x reader x Chaka

Thank you so much to @yandere-romanticaa​ for the prompt. I tried to make this perfect... and I failed 😭😭 Remember that all interactions between Chaka and reader are platonic!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Visits from the young prince always filled you with a melancholic sentiment. The child, Chaka, was practically the embodiment of innocence. He was sweet, lively, bold and above all caring. Noting at all like his apathetic, sadistic uncle. The two may have shared a lineage but they were as opposed as could be. For the most part, this was a good thing, the purity Chaka radiated was what kept you sain. It was what prevented you from sneaking off into the Savanclaw kitchen, grabbing the sharpest knife you could find and sliting your throat with the utensil. Bathing yourself in your own blood, then throwing yourself in front of a starved Ruggie, to be devoured. He was just so oblivious to the pain and suffering that circled you, oblivious to the morbid thoughts that danced in your head every waking second. 

Chaka had always loved his uncle. His uncle Leona was strong, handsome and would always listen to his tales of adventure. He never thought he'd ever love anyone as much as he did Leona. Of course, that was all until he met you. The young Prince isn't really sure what you are to his uncle, he's old enough to comprehend the concept of marriage and courting....yet that's not what seems to be the cause with the two of you. For lack of a better word he calls you auntie but the title doesn't stick well, it melts every time he throws it around, sinking and morphing into a metamorphic puddle with toxic properties. You're kind and loving practically motherly towards him but never as strict and dotting as his own mother is. You permit him freedom, the liberty to be whoever he dreams, the only other person who's ever given him that notion of independence has been his uncle Leona. 

Ever since meeting you, Chaka has been more frequent in his visits, constantly begging uncle Leona to let him come over. Leona isn't too keen out of sharing, he loathes his family including his young naive nephew. But he leaps at the opportunity to force you into a corner. To watch as your determination crumble, your resistance shatter for the sake of his "naive" little nephew. You play along hanging off of Leona's arm the way you think a caring loving girlfriend would. You crunch down and hug Chaka tightly as he practically leaps out of the carriage/ limousine (I-I don't know) racing into your embrace relishing the feeling of your soft touch. You take his tiny hand in yours leading him to the Savanclaw dorms. Leona's arm wrapped around your wais tugging you aggressively to his side, claw-like nails digging into your tender flesh leaving tiny angry red dots that would surely sprout out blood once he removed his nails. Chaka just continues to smile and cheerful chirp about the "new land" his friends and him had discovered the other day. 

"Auntie (Y/N)! Uncle Leona! Ranla, Timothy, Payton and I found this giant lake in the forest behind our house! There were soooo many colorful bugs there! You should have seen them! Timothy dared me to eat one of the fat blue ones!--"

You only partly listened, too focused on the prideful smirk that kept growing on Leona's face. He's enjoying the power he has over you, the power you practically handed over to him. 

As Chaka's stay extends, reality begins to settle in, shattering your already broken heart. Chaka and Leona aren't that different. Oh sure, Chaka still isn't fully aware of what his uncle has done to you, can't fully understand why to flinch so violently when Leona touches you. And sadly there is no way to get him to understand. You can't explain that Leona has broken both your legs before so you'd stay in bed with him longer. how he's sunk his "teeth" so far into your tongue when you tried to tell director Crowly that Leona has been stalking you. And lord forbid the young prince ever hear about the time his "dear old uncle" cut you so deeply that the blood wouldn't stop, how he'd let both Ruggie and Jack have they're fun with you as you bleed out. But even without the knowledge of those horrors or any "malicious" intent of his own. Chaka still harbored the same sick and twisted obsession as Leona did. Maybe the young child didn't want to hurt you but he was almost as ruthless as his uncle, all anger and mania. 

If you let the image of the warm caring aunt slip for even a fraction of a second. He'd yell, scream, cry demanding that you tell him why you didn't love him anymore, you wanted to abandon him! What had he done wrong? He thought you loved him unconditionally! WHY WOULD YOU STOP LOVING HIM! He throws tantrums, pushes you away but never hurts you. No, the only person with the privilege of watching you scream your lungs raw is Leona. The second he hears Chaka's voice waver ever so slightly, see the tiniest tear leak form his big amber eyes, Leona is dragging you by the hair to his room locking the door and ordering Ruggie to entertain Chaka while he "re-teaches (y/n) her manners".

But if you play your part right, keep up the image of a perfect dollhouse, then the two Kingscholars are so loving towards you. Joking around, hugging you. Leona's kisses get sweeter bordering on nearly caring. And Chaka's hugs aren't as tight and possessive as they are when he's screaming and crying. You let them pick your outfits, let them play with your hair, let them do whatever will keep them both pleased and quite. As long as you smile and hug them and give them your most generous kisses then they are happy. But don't start giving one more attention than the other, expecting a fraction of mercy. Oh, no darling it doesn't work like that. Leona will enjoy the favoritism, cause that just means you've finally realized how much you love him! But the victory is short-lived when Chaka runs up to him, hugging his midsection and bellowing about how "auntie (Y/N) hates me! She won't pay any attention to me!" Leona will make you kneel in front of both of them apologizing profoundly for neglecting the future king, begging Chaka to forgive you, that you'll never dismiss him again!

If it's Leona you start to ignore that a different more vicious story. The second prince is driven into a jealous rage very easily, Chaka already has the love of everyone back home how dare he steal the love and attention of his darling as well! Leona will threaten you with Chaka's safety promising to hurt the young prince if you don't continue to ignore him. He'll punish you leave so so many bruises, bitemarks, hickeys and any other mark that shows the world who you truly belong to! He doesn't want to make his nephew upset but he simultaneously doesn't want to lose another thing he holds dear to the little hairball. He'll let Chaka play with you, drag you out on adventures but he also has to be there, you need to stay closer to him!

In the end, it's a grim fate that awaits you. The sadistic second prince will use his young "innocent" nephew to further control his darling. Not that the future prince notices as long as he can stay close to his favorite "auntie" and "uncle" then he's content!

You where wrong a harmless innocent Kingscholar does not exist in this twisted world. 

[my-darling-boy]

im wondering if you think that edward brittain and geoffrey thurlow were lovers. because i know the movie implied that perhaps there was something more there, bu from reading the book as well as 'letters from a lost generation' i didnt get that impression. just wondering your thoughts!

Right okay I’m about to InfoDumpᵀᴹ because the love Geoffrey and Edward had is one of the main things that got me into learning about WWI years ago!!! So allow me to shed some light on these boys specifically!

So firstly, Geoffrey Thurlow was inserted swiftly into Edward Brittain’s life and the two got on INSTANTLY in early 1915 after Edward was commissioned to the Sherwood Foresters. For a long time, Victor Richardson had been Edward’s trusted friend, as of course they knew each other from their Uppingham days, but it’s apparent in Testament of Youth, Letters From a Lost Generation, and the other works by the family’s historian Mark Bostridge, that Geoffrey and Edward became VERY close VERY fast. And while it could be written off as a friendship..... there is a lot of evidence that, even ignoring my own conjectures, is hard to dispute the fact that their relationship was more than friendship, even if it never became sexual or explicitly physical.

On top of the two becoming quickly inseparable, they also frequented expression of their desire to be with one another while the other was away, Thurlow often sending Edward very affectionate and borderline romantic letters and postcards on a whim, even sending him one rather Cryptic postcard on Valentine’s Day one year. The two insisted on doing many activities together, and many found them a perfect fit, Geoffrey a rather dreamy, expressive, and emotional young man, while Edward was practically the opposite; it’s suggested that they adored each other so much due to their personalities complimenting the other’s quite well: Edward was able to provide Geoffrey with reassurance and That Officerly Gay Protectiveness, while Geoffrey’s understanding and soft demeanor provided an open window for Edward to share his insecurities when he couldn’t show them to the other men. And while it could be said that Edward was more hesitant to be with Geoffrey in such a manner, even if Geoffrey felt no personal conflict, the two wanted to be very, very personal.

Both boys stayed connected regularly, no matter where they were, through intimate correspondence. As I mentioned, a good majority of their letters involve either one of them, but specially Geoffrey, longing poetically to be out in nature with the other or wishing they were together, but not at present, not wanting the other to be in harm’s way. A lot of Geoffrey’s letters to Edward, as I’m sure you’ve noticed, are signed “Him that thou knowest thine” or just “thine”. Of course this means “yours” or “you who know that I am yours”. And while this sort of thing, at least in my latter wording, was not an uncommon expression between men at this time, it’s..... the first way it’s worded that surprises me. For lack of a more eloquent explanation, it’s Gay as Hell to be THAT poetic to your new soldier friend, even for 1910s standards. One might ask why he simply wouldn’t just write “yours” instead of adding the special style, and making the extra effort to imply “not only am I yours, but you know as well as I do that I’m yours”. One might even ask if it was to refer to a special meeting, or inside romantic reference, such as the way in which Roland and Vera signed their own letters to each other, “au revoir”. Literally one letter from Thurlow to Edward simply ends with “In Life, in Death, Yours”.

There were also several letters marked “private” sent to the Brittain residence from Geoffrey in the span between 1915 to 1916 when Geoffrey would have occasionally been on leave, and could write whatever he damned well pleased to Edward without fear of the military censors poking around. What makes this crucial evidence to support they were having homosexual correspondence is the fact that Vera burnt the private letters before she died to protect the boys’ wishes to keep them private, if not by Edward’s direct request for her to do so, something which by itself doesn’t seem so odd given the fact letters were burnt all the time for a number of reasons, but is especially compelling given the fact other evidence makes a strong case that they were together. What was contained in those letters is lost to history, but they shouldn’t be confused with the letters taken off the censors which later may have began the domino effect to Edward’s untimely death, as that was in 1918, over a year after the death of Geoffrey, and were about different homosexual matters with other ranks at the time.

Additionally: while Edward’s reaction to Geoffrey’s death is argued not to have been as strong as his response was to, say, Victor’s death, as support for the fact he didn’t actually care much for Thurlow, he wrote to Vera “I have been afraid for him for so long and yet now that he is gone it is so very hard—that prince among men with so fine an appreciation of all that was worth appreciating and so ideal a method of expression . . . Always a splendid friend with a splendid heart and a man who won’t be forgotten by you or me however long or short a time we may live. Dear child, there is no more to say; we have lost almost all there was to lose . . .” In my own mind, this letter is just the tip of the iceberg to how he felt. It’s clear that Geoffrey’s death had a greater toll on him in the long run, while Victor’s death seemed to affect him immediately. I can only assume this is due in part to Edward being so emotionally invested in Geoffrey versus Victor, and that Victor’s death evoked an immediate and present sadness, while Geoffrey’s was so difficult to handle, he couldn’t think but to react in a collected but sorrowful manner, one I feel was meant to conceal just how heartbroken he was, as though he was worried if he showed as much outward devastation as he showed for Victor, he feared one may speculate why he held so much sadness for Geoffrey...as though he was afraid people knew what was between them.

Geoffrey’s death seemed to CRUSH Edward, leading him down this path of dark despair and depression following his passing, and it lead to a lot of misdirected tension between he and his sister at times, and he subsequently turned far more reserved, uncommunicative, and apathetic than ever before. I’d even go so far as to say that Edward might have felt guilty about his own relations with Geoffrey after he died, possibly believing he could have done more to be closer with him, or felt guilt in having distanced himself from him in some way later in 1917. And after such events, he showed more distaste for the war, more lack of emotion towards his own life and its worth, and his letters often took a downhearted turn towards the end.

When he died, Geoffrey’s letter, the last one he sent to Edward in 1917, was found in his breast pocket, and I would assume this to be over his heart. It ends by saying “Till we meet again, Here or in the Hereafter,” and it’s speculated he carried this ever since the day Geoffrey died, and, most defintely, died with it close to his heart.

By my own conjecture, I say that Edward felt that he was both conscious of and without objection to his homosexuality, most likely because it was suggested in private schools at the time (take Evelyn Waugh’s comments on being interested in boys at boarding school as a phase that one grows out of) that it was a passing curiosity, and that such interests would diminish when one reached adulthood. I felt that he did romantically love Geoffrey, even if it never had the opportunity to become sexual or physically intimate. And because our own understanding of homosexuality did not exist at the time for him to have any model from which to reference comprehension of his own sexuality, I believe, that like most of his queer contemporaries, he had a rather ambiguous—near procrastinating—outlook on his own sexual orientation and relationship status, along with his view concerning his future life and possible wife.

The war created a near diversion from having to consider the possibility of being with a woman, and he could instead allow to let his homosexuality subconsciously flourish while being in the presence of so many men, and allow his romantic love for Geoffrey to remain raw and intimate without having to confront the implications such a future would hold for him socially, all due to the war being the only thing on his present mind. And furthermore, I firmly believe that Geoffrey held a deep admiration for him: he looked up to him as well as loved him. Though he was training to be a priest, he seems to express no distaste—rather the opposite, based on his letters to Edward—for flirtatious relations between men, and remains such a gentle and deeply poetic figure to Edward I have only seen reflected in that of homosexual bonds. In my opinion, being gay myself, and with having delved into scattered studies of male affection in earlier centuries, they were in love. It’s a story I so often encounter between men of their class in this era, specifically during the war.

I will also admit that, for some reason, from standing afar, the recollection by itself of what information is told to us about Edward and Geoffrey is rather.... timid...in some instances amid the background of Vera and Roland, of Malta and France. And the ones provided alone from most books are merely the “friendly” letters. The ones I’m sure we would really like to see were lost on Geoffrey’s side and burned on Edward’s side, and what others remain are held in private facilities and university archives, and only available in brief mentions online. However, looking closely, reading sections purely between the two boys, isolating only their letters, their language, and even digging further into works written from Mark Bostridge and other minor historians piecing together dots not having previously been connected, what love they shared feels warm and strong, if not simultaneously distant and foggy at times: such is the way the world remembers homosexuals unfortunately.

These boys never got the oppertunity to be with each other in the way we would like to see historic gay people, the way we swoon over the way Maurice and Clive or Alec were together in Maurice for instance. Geoffrey and Edward were in the middle of war, and there’s both so much poor documentation on homosexuals and so little chance in the chaos to a have a ditch-lectures-to-go-on-a-motorbike-ride-into-a-meadow relationship we expect to see, compared to other circumstances where it would obviate the way they felt about each other. But because of the war, it made it even harder to progress gay relationships due to combat, death, anxiety, and just a general lack of space and oppertunity to be with a man all the time without someone seeing.

I later discovered a while back this historian’s articles about the lives and intertwining of Edward and Geoffrey and they are packed with a brilliant compilation of sources and their own take on the relationship, which I was quite excited to have the pleasure of reading, for we share very similar viewpoints on the matter and even caught onto hints and details during our own reading of the sources no other readers seemed to talk about!

Edward’s || Geoffrey’s

What fragments which are left to us, if we understand just how forcibly hidden life had to be for these men, letters marked “private” and passing remarks of desiring to walk among trees with someone special speak of a louder and more profound story buried deep beneath them. It’s important to take into account that many of the known gay relationships we have record of today are not as well documented as Oscar Wilde. Sometimes, the only record we have of their love lost to time is held in the way it’s held here, in the signing of “Thine”.

I can only hope now that since they could not hold each other in life, that in death, they could finally be together.

Anyway, there’s my Novel, thanks for the ask!

[littlemisssquiggles]

Greetings, squigglemeister! Hope your day is going well!

I have a question regarding the blush in the premier. It was noticeable, but subtle enough to seem like it was foreshadowing or setting something up. I doubt RT will outright confirm rosegarden, but what event do you think will happen later in the volume that foreshadows this?

Pleasant greetings to you too Ace o/ My day’s going alright, thank you mighty kindly. Hope yours is the same, fam. In response to your question, while I’m not expecting RT or the CRWBY to confirm Rosegarden either, what I’m at least hoping they would do is confirm Oscar’s true feelings about Ruby which I believe his little blush from the first episode may be trying to convey.

Up until this moment, I feel the showrunners have merely teased Oscar potentially developing a crush or love for Ruby as a potential romantic interest as evidenced by his interactions with her from previous seasons and how he treats her as opposed to the other members of the hero team. Based on this, it’s very clear that Ruby is someone who Oscar both admires and deeply cares about despite only knowing her for a short space of time.

However, as I’ve noticed from the first episode, I feel like V8 may spark Oscar---our titular little prince---going through what his fairy-tale counterpart went through at some point in his own story. During the prince’s travels, he encountered a Geographer who challenged the prince’s views on his rose as well as his dedication to her by bringing her vulnerability into question. Not to mention that the prince also suffered a moment where he completely lost his feelings for his rose when he discovered the Rose Garden and realized that his own rose wasn’t as special or unique as he originally thought she was.

From the first episode, I noticed that Oscar was acting rather odd with Ruby. When she came to find him with Maria and Weiss, I noted that even when Ruby smiled at him---Oscar didn’t reciprocate this. He didn’t appear relieved or even happy to see Ruby. He just looks…apathetic towards her? It’s odd to describe but it’s wasn’t a happy reaction---is what I mainly trying to say, and it certain was NOT the reaction this squiggly Rosegardening Pinehead envisioned our little prince to have when reuniting with his rose.  

“...Oscar, m’boy, what is that face? You’re hurting my shipping heart here. I mean they tried to hide it by quickly transitioning to the next shot but bitch I saw it! Seriously, what is that reaction? That is NOT a happy face!”

The same thing was done even when Ruby tried to reassure Oscar by placing her hand supportively on his shoulder---the same small yet gentle gesture she’s always given him as her way of communicating support to Oscar given his nature. I know I originally expressed disappointment with Ruby not giving Oscar a hug after their reunion however the more I pondered on this moment, the more I realized that it was actually more fitting and meaningful that Ruby didn’t hug Oscar and instead went for the operative shoulder touch. I definitely wish to muse over this but I’ll save it for its own separate post.

But yeah, even when Ruby tried to reassure Oscar, like I said, he STILL didn’t smile at her then either. Sure we got him blushing but…this temporary blush betrays the fact that even then, Oscar still didn’t return Ruby’s smile. And to me, it’s odd not seeing Oscar return any of Ruby’s gentle looks and acts of comfort or friendliness since…this is something that’s been prevalent to their growing friendship since they met.

And what’s also noteworthy is that in previous times, whenever someone spoke ill of Ruby or placed her in a negative light or put pressure on her, Oscar would always look to Ruby and do what he could to help her out in that particular scenario as we saw him do back in Argus.

When the truth came out about Salem to JNR and they all reacted negatively (as one might expect), after Ren brought up the obvious Heffalump in the room, questioning how the heroes intended to stop Salem given her immortality, we see Oscar looking to Ruby to see how she would respond. And after noticing how troubled she appeared after failing to provide Ren with an answer to his inquiry, it was from here where we next see Oscar attempting to speak up---possibly making his effort to mimic Ruby in this scene and trying to be a voice of encouragement while simultaneously training all negative eyes away from Ruby and onto him. At least that’s how I interpreted that scene. 

This was Oscar back in V6.

However, for V8, when Yang spoke up against Ruby and challenged her leadership from the past season, I noticed that Oscar neither looked to Ruby nor did he attempt to stand up for her or deflect negativity away from her in any shape or form. Instead we’re met with silence from everyone; including Oscar and we even see him looking away with this unsure expression on his face that gave me the impression that even he agreed with Yang to some degree.

Oscar expressed doubt in Ruby and…sadly to say, it’s the first time I’ve actually seen him do that since last season. While V7 did have Oscar confronting Ruby on her decision for the group to deceive the General, in the end, for the most part he still chose to follow her despite his own doubts.

 But right now, Oscar doesn’t side with Ruby at all. Instead of the little prince standing by his rose as he always had, Oscar sides with Yang and even joins her in helping out Mantle along with Jaune and Ren. Not to mention that Oscar also disagreed with Ruby’s stance on the group remaining together, instead agreeing with Jaune’s approach to split the group up so that they could fulfil both plans of action and basically kill two birds with one stone.

So this is TWICE in the same scene where Oscar WASN’T on the same page with Ruby which…is interesting given where they were at before they parted ways back in Atlas. Remember?

They went from “riding that mutual high” to…what would you even call this? Slugging at different odds? Bottom line is, I’d like to think that what the first episode may be hinting at is Oscar starting the Geographer portion of his little prince journey.

And in this instance, Yang  Xiao Long is surprisingly kind of playing the role of the Geographer in Oscar’s little prince story. It’s through her questioning Ruby’s leadership that’s in turn causing Oscar to have reservations in Ruby as well. So if siding with Yang and joining her and the boys down in Mantle will lead to Oscar’s lesson in Geography then I’m curious to know when will be the point where Oscar loses full faith in his feelings for Ruby period.

When and what will be Oscar’s Rose garden moment which will ultimately lead to him learning the Fox’s lesson about love and responsibility?

In a nutshell, what I’m saying here is that I think the blushing scene may be foreshadowing Oscar finally coming to terms with how he truly feels about Ruby. I’d like to think that V8 will culminate in Oscar finally realizing his love for his true rose and how that will go hand in hand with his choice to continue to stand by her side and keep fighting alongside her for their shared cause of saving humanity till the end. Just like the prince did in his story (more or less).

That’s how I think things will go. Then again, this is just my speculation based on my own interpretation.

What could actually help cement this theory of mine for sure is if we got MORE instances of Oscar discussing Ruby and questioning his opinions (and feelings) of her over the course of his time together with Yang, Jaune and Ren. Even better if those conversations concerning Ruby led to assumptions being made regarding Oscar’s feelings toward the little red rose, especially if his reactions led to more subtle blushing like in the first episode.

Will that happen? Not sure. We’ll only know moving forward for later episodes. But for now, that’s how I’m looking at it, fam. I hope this answers your question. Let me know if it does.

~LittleMissSquiggles (2020)

[innovativestruggles]

TsukiYachi speculations, thoughts and theories based on canonical evidence

WARNING: THIS IS A LONG LONG POST!

So I wanna share my thoughts with everyone - especially ya’ll TsukiYachi lovers (notably @mimi-cee-hq​) whoever that’s left (and clearly I should be working but doing this cause I apparently like to procrastinate)

Canonical Evidence

I want to reinforce the point here. When I write about character analysis and speculations, I base things on canonical evidence - that is - based on what I see and interpret from the manga and anime. I usually prefer to use manga as that is the ultimate canon but seeing as the anime is quite loyal to the manga, I’ll be using it too. Of course, this is all interpretation base (and maybe biased) which is why I will put forward evidence that I see so it helps people see where and how I got to my conclusion (instead of looking like I just made something up). Teehee.

So....HAPPY READING!

Manga Vs. Anime

I only recently started the anime and reading the manga (yes yes I am aware I am late to the party but I’m FASHIONABLY LATE) and it is amazing how loyal the anime is to the manga (so far) but I have noticed a few discrepancies. And because this is a TsukiYachi post I am going to focus on this. 

The anime unfortunately toned down some of the interactions between Tsukki and Yachi, which is a huge shame - BUT it does make up for some parts by extrapolating and adding more cute details that was not seen in the manga. So I suppose there are elements of balance, although the details the anime omitted was important as it gave off more interesting vibes. 

For example; this interaction below was downplayed in the anime. Yachi only talked of Tsukki’s liveliness and the flustered “he usually acts so cool” was left out. So sad, I would have totally liked to see a flustered Yachi talking about Tsukki <33

AND THIS ONE BELOW! THE MOST DISAPPOINTING OF THEM ALL! I was sooooooooo sad when the anime left this specific part out where Tsukki and Yachi were sitting next to each other. In the anime, Yachi was somewhere on the other side holding plates or something. LIKE SERIOUSLY? When manga panels are drawn, they usually draw who they would like to emphasise in the centre or draw them bigger. LOOK AT TSUKKI AND YACHI BEING THE CETNRE OF ATTENTION! LOOK AT HOW BIG THEY’VE BEEN DRAWN!! LOOK AT THEM SITTING NEXT TO EACH OTHER. 

STUPID EFFING ANIME HOW DARE YOU DENY US TSUKIYACHI FANS OF THIS!!! *rant rant rant*

Anyways, one thing I did like about the anime was them extrapolating this scene. Teehee. Look at Tsukki just staring at Yachi even whilst Yamaguchi was talking. And then Tsukki continues to talk to Yachi as if Yama didn’t say anything at all. This scene was so adorable <33

So moving on

Interactions

I gotta agree with everyone here and the obvious is that the interactions between Tsukki and Yachi are minimal. It is so sad but you know, Tsukki is a side character and Yachi is like a side side character so I do understand why their interactions would have very little screen/page time. In saying that, whenever they do have their interaction, or when one talks of the other, it was rather significant. This was most notable in the Shiratorizawa arc. Let me explain;

Yachi is extremely caring of all her teammates and her interactions lie predominantly with Kiyoko and the four first year boys. Of the four, Hinata would be the one she interacts with most. I suppose this is because Hinata is the main protagonist so he gets thorough interaction moments with all characters. It is a given. 

Kageyama’s interaction with Yachi was second in terms of screen/page time but I believe the vast majority of the time, it was together with Hinata (ones that are significant anyways). 

Then there is Yamaguchi, who so adorably thinks she is cute. I am still unsure whether he actually likes her (maybe a little crush?). But I reckon Nishinoya likes Kiyoko more than Yamaguchi likes Yachi LOL. So it might just be a tiny crush, I don’t know. Anyways, YamaYachi have very little screen time as well and their direct and indirect interactions don’t particularly stand out to me. I mean, they do have their little fluff moments but nothing significant in terms of development.

Now we have Tsukki. In terms of screen/page time, Yachi and Tsukki, like I said earlier, have minimal interactions - but I mean this in a direct interaction kind of way. What I noticed were their indirect interactions! I’ll explain more later.

I went into watching Haikyuu with a very neutral standpoint and my TsukiYachi shipping did not start until quite some time later (most notable during the Shiratorizawa arc).

Shiratorizawa Arc

Tsukki underwent a major character development during the Shiratorizawa arc so this was a time where he shone the brightest. During this arc, Yachi had some of the biggest screen/page time - it was so awesome! 

Aside from when Yachi was first introduced, we never really got to see much of her, but her screen/page time appeared a lot more during this arc. It so happens that this very arc was the most important for Tsukki. Three major things I noted from this arc,

1. Akiteru’s presence

2. Akiteru and Yachi’s interactions (direct and indirect)

3. Yachi’s commentary of Tsukki

Akiteru’s Presence

Akiteru, we all know, was Tsukki’s biggest influence when it comes to his ideas around volleyball, so naturally his presence there during Tsukki’s major development would be significant.

Akiteru and Yachi’s Interactions

These two have an absurd amount of interactions during this arc. Have a look below!

This was only a handful of times! There were so many more I couldn’t possibly add them all to this post! They only just met that day yet they talked so much to each other! And it wasn’t just all about Tsukki, it was about the game in general and I just love the friendly interactions between them. Like the most important person to Tsukki was interacting so much with Yachi <33 My heart...

Furudate could have made Akiteru interact the same way with any of the other three on the stand i.e. Saeko, Takinoue or Shimada but he made the focus on him and Yachi. And to have Yachi closely interact so much (and on a deep level regarding Tsukki) with someone so close to Tsukki, I thought this was so adorable!

Yachi’s commentary of Tsukki

Then we see Yachi’s commentary. FML don’t get me started on this. I don’t tend to be too observant with these kinds of things but I remember when I was watching this arc for the first time, the amount of times Yachi made some sort of comment about Tsukki was pretty much the only time she had screen time (aside from when Akiteru was talking to her). 

I don’t know whether Furudate was being deliberate with this (he probably was), but anyone on the team could give the same comments as Yachi regarding Tsukki! They probably know his play a lot better as well, but then the audience were given scenes of Yachi commenting on Tsukki instead. ALSO, NOT JUST ANY COMMENTS, they were quite deep-seated ones too. Yachi was just so observant of him and she watches him so closely it was so sweet. She seems to know his state of mind really well <333333

So have a look at some of her comments

Of course there was the one panel earlier when she was talking about how lively Tsukki appeared. I won’t duplicate it. I really can’t help but notice how much she talked about Tsukki during this arc, and they were all mostly directed towards Akiteru as well! HOW IMPORTANT IS THAT? I gotta reinforce this but talking so deeply about someone to the most important family member of that person is so.....HNNNGGGG!! It was no wonder Akiteru was so surprised that Tsukki may have other friends other than Yamaguchi. Teehee. 

Also note that Yachi has not spoken about Kageyama or Yamaguchi (or even Kiyoko) in such a deep manner. She has done so bits and pieces toward Hinata, but tbh not as much as this arc here re; Tsukki.

Below are some Yachi reactions specifically towards Tsukki spiking (first two images) and blocking (last two images) - I had to put these in cause it’s soooo cute!

Something extra for thoughts. I really love the below panel. Something about Yachi speaking of this was so sweet and tender. As if she truly knew exactly how much pain he was in. AAAAAHHHHHHH T____T My gorgeous babies.

Also this one below as well, which occurred earlier in the manga. I just love how Yachi looks out for everyone but she finds Tsukki just that much more challenging to decipher. It just makes it so great when she was able to tell the differing emotions from Tsukki later on in the series... even though he was so apathetic most of the time...

Finally this image below which I already posted above but would like to say a bit more about. So this scene occurred right after Karasuno beat Shiratorizawa. I just love it how with all the emphasis between Yachi and Tsukki during the entire arc, it was so beautifully wrapped up with them sitting next to each other <333

Extra Side Story

Right I ain’t gonna leave this one out. This panel below just goes to show that there was something going on here. Whether I have overanalysed it or not, on face value, it just seems a bit too different for me. What I mean is that Tsukki is a very apathetic, standoff-ish kinda person. If he is not being aloof, he is making some sort of snide and snarky remarks about someone. So Tsukki literally going out of his way to try and say something nice, to make Yachi feel better about her body and then getting a bit miffed because it didn’t get through the way he wanted, was very, very out of character for him. Which is why I just feel like he may have a soft spot for Yachi. Or maybe he is nicer to girls? Though I haven’t seen him saying anything remotely encouraging to Kiyoko.

Then I thought of what he said. As I mentioned in some other post (I posted heaps I don’t even remember where now lmao). “There are definitely people who like smaller girls...” If the translation was done correctly from Japanese to English (I can vouch for this as I can read a bit of Japanese), then the word ‘definitely’ he used was rather brazen. It just means he knows with 100% accuracy that there are people out there who likes smaller girls... And it’s normally a reference to the person speaking because they obviously know that they like the person hehehe.

Okay almost done with my thesis.

Star References

Yo this one is so fluff I fucking love it. I already made brief comments about this in some of my other posts and replies and Mimi (@mimi-cee-hq​) has done an amazing job writing two mini fics on this for me (ILY MY TSUKIYACHI SOUL HAS BEEN FED). See Matching Stars and the sequel A Blue Star! Thank you Mimi you’re a legend <33

So I started watching it a little closer in the anime (and manga), and Tsukki really favours his star shirts a whole damn lot (like the whole moon and star reference probably re; play on his name). Yachi on the other hand favours her star hair ties, blue ones she wears as manager and black ones during school times. I mean come on! Subtle references much? Either I am overanalysing this way too much and Furudate was half asleep when he designed these accessories or he truly be putting in some sneaky TsukiYachi references <333

P. S. Couple accessories that reference each other in subtle ways are common in Japan.

Concluding Thoughts (this honestly feels like an essay fml)

So these are my evidence for this pairing so far. I may have overanalysed this and Furudate could be like “wtf this person be taking this whole thing out of context that was not what I intended” OR “yeah man she totally nailed it right on the spot. I’m surprised she could pick this up so well” HAHAHA. 

Either way, this was my interpretation based on what I saw/read. As a long time manga reader, I know that manga artists portray characters and place emphasis on certain things in differing ways because the audience reading and seeing a drawing is different to them watching something. It’s a lot more difficult to portray your point across to readers than watchers. So that’s why when I read manga, parts such as drawing things bigger, more detailed and at the centre signifies more emphasis, as well as having certain characters together in panels.

At first glance, I actually thought this pairing would be like a crack pairing because there was no absolute way there could be anything remotely romantic about this ship. But the more I watched and read, the more I realised that this pairing does have some sort of potential. I mean, just because of all the direct and indirect interactions I wrote about them here, it does not automatically mean that there would be a romantic development. What I’m trying to show is that there is a lot more to this pairing than just thinking of them as a crack ship, b/c there are developments for these two. Furudate seems to make it so that these two know each other a lot more than what the audience is being given. Do I even make any sense? LOL

Feel free to refute every single thing I wrote here. I love a good debate. As long as you can back it up with evidence and keep things civil that is. It would be so nice if Yachi ends up with Tsukki but yeah who knows. I’d rather her end up with no one if she doesn’t get together with Tuskki (but that’s my personal opinion). Leaving things to interpretation can be a good thing.

BONUS

LMAO YACHI! HAHAHA! But I just love it how Furudate drew her close to Tsukki again <33 T___T so beautiful. And Tsukki in his giant star shirt...what’s new? lololol

BONUS BONUS

Nervous Yachi awaiting results of Tsukki’s injury. AHHHHHHHH LOOK HOW ADORABLE SHE IS! LOOK AT HER! I can’t make GIF but if you go and watch this scene she is literally shifting nervously on the spot. My precious gorgeous girl waiting for her man. I can’t, I just can’t ....

That’s all folks!

EDIT: I made a Part 2! Read it here

[12housescorpio]

The signs stereotype vs how they actually are

Aries stereotype: violent, angry, loud, harsh, brass, immature

How Aries really are: to a point, their stereotype isn’t completely wrong. They come off as violent because they aren’t afraid to express their brutality as loudly and passionately as they see fit. But Aries also have a very noble, surprisingly wise and patient side to them. They don’t recognize when they’re being “too-much” or if other people are uncomfortable in anyway so they may seem rude but really they’re just in their own Aries bubble.

Taurus stereotype: obsessed with food, cozy, home bodies, aesthetic lovers, warm, soft patient, stubborn.

How Taurus really are: Taurus love money. Power. They are practical for sure and extremely good with money and adult related things, but they are extremely impatient when other people are not. Taurus are venusians so they love aesthetics the same way that libras do but the difference is that they want people to be the aesthetic, which can make them extremely superficial. They want themselves and the people around them to be beautiful and are often not comfortable unless those around them are attractive or at least dress nicely. They are very stubborn, but at the same time they are extremely open philosophically, they love hearing other people’s opinions and learning new things. They can be homebodies but mostly they just don’t wanna go anywhere out of their comfort zone. If they try something new it’s only after doing research that it will be fun for sure, due to their practicality.

Gemini stereotype: evil, two faced. (I haven’t really seen any other Gemini stereotypes aha)

How Gemini really are: Gemini’s are jumbled messes, they are notorious for being anxious, hyper, jittery, all over the place especially mentally, they have a high standard for the people they hang out with, they really want to surround themselves with interesting, funny and entertaining people. I by no means think that Gemini’s are evil anymore than I think any other sign are evil. I honestly don’t even know where that came from. As for two faced I don’t really see that either, they definitely won’t tell you what they’re thinking but that’s mostly because they don’t see a point in doing that, they’d rather just move on and hang out with other people if you upset them, but they’ll still be nice to you. They always have a lot of friend—they like to collect people.

Cancer stereotype: cuddly, emotional, motherly, kind.

How Cancer really are: very true they are easily the most emotional signs and they can definitely be cuddly and motherly, they can also have issues with being pathological liars, and having a victim mentality. While they have the potential to be the kindest, most thoughtful and understanding people you’ve ever met, they can also be vindictive, vengeful, secretive and manipulative. They can have issues with dependency on other’s for validation or just being near other people. Sometimes they can be guilt trippers, especially when it comes to being taken care of. They want to take care of other people, but if they don’t deal with their issues with needing other people, they can take care of other people with the intention of being taken care of in other ways or will kill themselves to take care of someone who doesn’t do anything for them or willingly stays in toxic situations because they don’t want to be alone. Can be suspicious, jealous and clingy.

Leo stereotype: courageous, brave, attention seekers, loud, all-about-me, spot light stealers.

How Leo really are: Leo’s are just less flashy, people pleasing Aries lmao. Leo’s are doers, they live for moments, and happiness. They love to make people laugh, they want everything to be perfect and because of this can be perfectionists. Extremely people pleasing, hates negativity and will actively ignore it which can lead to not dealing with problems that need to be dealt with. Can for sure be spot light stealers, but usually they don’t notice this and also love to make sure other people have the spotlight as well. They love moments, and are very sentimental at times. Can be selfish and self absorbed but can also be extremely kind and healing towards others. They inspire, uplift, support and direct others who need it.

Virgo stereotype: workaholics, snobby, loves homework and chores

How Virgo really are: the truth about Virgos is that they are fixers. They are constantly trying to improve things, fix things and do things in general. Depending on what placement the Virgo sign is in, the Virgo will be critical, and perfectionistic of that thing. So for example, Virgo risings will be critical and perfectionistic of how they are viewed and may be critical of how others appear as well. This deeply affects the Virgo if there are things they cannot make perfect within themselves or within their lives, they are constantly troubled by not being able to control the things around them which could be why they are stressed or nitpicky a lot. But this is not all they are. They also want to help, support and fix their friends problems, which is why they offer so much love and assistance. Sometimes this is unwanted, but it is truly how the Virgo expresses love.

Libra stereotype: airhead, indecisive, superficial, shopaholics

How Libra really are: I’ve spoken on why I think libras being airheads is just plain stupid, because they are literally the sign of law, government, analysis of decisions and all things equality. They are balance scales because they weigh the options. They want things to be fair, so they often play devils advocate. They see both sides. They are people pleasers, they want to do what’s best for everyone. They are excellent communicators and debators. They often have level headed opinions that are unique and unlike any other. Not to mention, there’s a reason that libras are part of the Air - triad. The air element represents analytic ability, communication and going with the flow. It’s true that libras love to surround themselves with aesthetics but in no way shape or form does that have anything to do with superficiality, they love all walks of life. It’s true they can absolutely be indesisive, but would you rather them rush into a decision that they end up not wanting to make? Exactly. Let them take their time.

Scorpio stereotype: evil, manipulative, vengeful, dark, brooding

How Scorpio really are: I could really go on and on with this subject. I’ve said a million times how much I hate the Scorpio stereotype, luckily it’s died down the past few years since I first started tumblr. Scorpios are by no means evil. Scorpios are understanding, loving, empathetic and misunderstood creatures. Just like EVERY water sign, Scorpios can get in their head and lash out. So can every other person on the planet. Scorpios are the rulers of over thinking, self reflecting, looking back on the past, putting patterns together and all that tends to apply to relationships especially since Scorpios tend to have rough childhoods and difficult past relationship—they develop trust issues. Either a Scorpio will enter a relationship with you and constantly pay too close attention to your body language (seeing if you’re going to pull some fuck shit) and they also tend to be destructive because Scorpios again, are the rulers of death and transformation (Pluto)

Sagittarius stereotype: adventurous, philosophical, bubbly, travelers, honest, cheaters, commitment phobs

How Sagittarius really are: honestly those stereotypes are pretty true lol the only thing I want to mention is that the honesty Sagittarius have isn’t necessarily your typical honesty. They choose what information to hide and which to choose. If you ask them out right they won’t lie to you, they might sugar coat it but usually they’ll tell you the blunt truth with a smile on their face. But they aren’t idiots, they know what’s going to upset people and what isnt, and they also know what information to get out of you and how to do it. All innocently, usually. Usually Sagittarius just wanna know the gossip. Although there are always bad eggs. Also, they aren’t commitment phobes, they just love to experience and have fun and go out and not be tied down, usually people don’t understand that so they choose not to date until they find someone who gets it.

Capricorn stereotype: workaholics, the sad version of the Virgo stereotype, sex obsessed, evil

How Capricorn really are: yeah I mean Capricorn’s are definitely ambitious and career focused, they don’t fuck w the bullshit of romance and tend to have an apathetic outlook. But no one ever talks about how moral and sarcastic Capricorn’s are. They’re so much more than just work-work-work I mean come on guys Capricorn is such a complex sign. Capricorn’s are sarcastic, extremely critical of others and themselves, they have high standards and feel that everyone should meet those standards especially themselves. They’re also SO fucking funny. They’re moral, always say exactly what’s on their mind (lowkey more honest than Sagittarius but you didn’t hear it from me) but tend to be pessimistic and sometimes down right cruel. They’re calculated, and logical.

Aquarius stereotype: cold, detached, obsessed with the occult. aLiEnS

How Aquarius really are: I really don’t think y’all have ever met an Aquarius. Aquarius are fun, full of life, and yes they adore the unknown and tend to be the most intuitive sign (next to Pisces) and they don’t fuck with close minded people. They love all things weird, eccentric, unique. They LOVE people. They are just intuitive enough to know who not to fuck with, even if they don’t know it’s their intuition. They can be detached only when they know they can’t trust someone, when they feel as though they can trust them, they let down all their walls are are the kindest, best friends you could possibly have. Aquarius are smart, funny and just plain the best. Enough said. Like there’s no other way to explain Aquarius other than better than you lmao

Pisces stereotype: innocent, weak, soft, emotional, pReCiOuS lItTlE bEaNs, psychic

How Pisces really are: completely capable of handling anything that comes their way, beautifully creative, intuitive, truly intuitive but it’s only because they’re stuck in the 5D and unable to see the 3D so they’re looking at people thru a distorted fishbowl, unable to see things how they really are. May see people as x when they’re really y. This is why they tend to see good people as bad or bad people as good. Or more commonly, innocent actions as malicious.

[sepublic]

The First Day!

           …Honestly, where do I even BEGIN? This episode had SO much in it, I really feel like the writers were trying to fit a lot into this episode and I appreciate that!

           I suppose I’ll go from the start; I’m a little confused by the beginning, and how we see Luz with her multi-track uniform, even though she gets it at the end of the episode? And when she DOES appear seconds later for her entrance exam, she’s wearing regular clothes? I’m just going to assume it’s an animation mistake for now, but that probably won’t stop me from coming up with the most convoluted explanation for it! Maybe Luz had an ideal uniform prepared beforehand as part of her presentation, but then decided to just do it in her regular outfit, I dunno…

           I love Eda! She’s amazing and great, and what little we got in this episode was very sweet to me! I really appreciate how she legit threw her hand at Luz, just because she wanted to rub her head and say goodbye! Eda’s being such a mom and it’s amazing…

           Amity! Amity is happy to see Luz and now open about it; I really feel like the actions of her Abomination in regards to others tends to display how she REALLY feels about someone… It’s sweet seeing her basically make an inside joke with Luz, and so confidently as well, without fear of Luz getting upset or judging her…!

           On another note, it’s pretty obvious that when we see Amity talking to herself, it’s about her confusion about being in the same class as Luz, and what that means! Not gonna lie, I remember wondering if Amity would have more of a reaction to Luz being in Hexside with her, and I was right! It seems that Amity hid her initial reaction during Adventures in the Elements (she’s reserved a bunch like that), but it’s clear that in reality she had a lot of thoughts on it… I love this show’s writing and how a viewer can deduce this sort of thing, and then have it confirmed afterwards!

           It was pretty neat to see what looks like our Potions and Oracle teachers respectively, and I’m grateful for the look at Oracle magic we got! I love the cut of Luz walking away, only to practically teleport- That’s comedic timing and I loved it again when used with Gus! Speaking of Gus, is it me or did his voice sound different? I don’t know how old his voice actor is, is he going through puberty? If so I’ll miss his old voice, it was honestly sounded youthful and endearing!

           We learn that the nine (technically ten, we see two for Illusions but that could ALSO be an Illusion) witches depicted on the banners are the main ‘heads’ of the major covens; Given the way Willow phrases it, I’d assume that this means they’re currently active! Given Bump’s line about three-hundred more years until retirement, I have to wonder how old these heads actually are… Were they around since the beginning of the Coven System? Or are they the latest leaders? It definitely makes one wonder how old Belos is…

           (On another note, it makes me wonder if the Abomination Witch really IS a Blight… Because if so, how must that be for Amity? Could that actually be her father- His hair is in a bun but in the trailer, Amity’s dad has his hair like Edric’s.)

           I do have to say though… That was unreasonably harsh on Bump’s part, immediately putting Luz into the Detention Track just for looking at the crystal ball once. I guess I can sort of see why- He really wants the funding for the school, and he’s already breaking some huge rules by having the associate of a wanted criminal here. I can see why he’s really nervous about keeping Luz’s involvement in Hexside as minimal as possible, but come on man- Give her another chance! Or at least let her back AFTER the Inspector has left!

           That’s the interesting thing about Bump, it’s that I think he DOES know about the validity of his rebellious students’ concerns and is considering them… But a part of him is in a role deeply-entrenched with maintaining the Coven System. I imagine that he really does want to do what Eda and others suggest, but he fears the Emperor’s Coven… But it seems like he’s beginning to just say ‘Screw it’ and do what he wants! He’s clearly a principal balancing his students’ interests with the obligations of his role. On an unrelated note, I noticed that the Trouble Detectors are gone- Given the aforementioned budget issues, it seems Bump could no longer afford them!

           Viney, Jerbo, and Barkus! We needed more of them, I loved them from our small clip and I’m sad we didn’t get more! Hopefully they’ll return… I like their schtick of being outcasts like Luz, and I love how self-conscious Luz is about the effects she has on others! Like how she checks up on Amity after the Covention duel, she really does have a tendency to reach her hand out- Again, I’ve said it before but Luz is KIND. She’s such a lovable dork!

           In general, I really appreciate how outspoken Luz is getting about her own views towards the Coven System! She obviously wants to give Hexside a chance and all, but it’s clear that Eda’s own teachings –and Luz’s OWN personal ideas- are really coming into play here. I respect Luz a lot for refusing to take advantage of a circumstance if it means that others don’t get to reap the benefits alongside her- She’s incredibly fair-minded, and I can only imagine Eda being SO proud once she hears what happens! In conjunction with Luz talking back to that one apathetic teacher, I have to wonder- Was she always like this back at home? Or has her recent adventures taught her to be more outspoken towards standing up for others- Especially after the Conformatorium breakout?

           Either way, I gotta love Luz for sticking her neck out for others. She really could just quietly let it go, just turn a blind eye like most… But like Eda, such apathy doesn’t resolve with her conscience well.

           Speaking of Eda, let’s be real- We all knew it was her the moment that painting showed yellow sleeves and pale skin! Her portrait is adorable and I have to wonder who made it… Also, did Eda make the series of shortcuts throughout the school? Or did she just find them… If so, who made those shortcuts? We know Bump was a young student when Hexside was built on the bones of a rival school… He doesn’t know about it until later, but again- Students don’t tend to supervise the construction of schools anyway, even if they attend them.

           And amidst the signatures of Viney, Jerbo, and Barkus, we also see names such as Sabrina, Rad Maddie, Chris, and Emmy! I wonder if we’ll ever get to see these people again, and if one of these names belongs to the lunch-money thief that Lilith and Eda teamed up with during childhood? Regardless, I hope that after this episode, Luz got the chance to write her name on the wall; Although given that Bump now knows about the shortcuts, they’re PROBABLY off-limits now, or being converted into official hallways. Combined with Eda’s cleaned painting, and that wall of troublemakers is probably going to be wiped- Alas!

           I have to feel for the Detention kids as well… I can understand not being sure what to choose, although in their case, and I low-key resonated with Luz’s fear of being locked into something she ultimately wouldn’t have the passion for. I feel like it kind of describes a lot of kids’ anxieties in high school and college, and it really shows how messed up the Coven System is in desiring total order. Amidst the rule of no track-mixing, and it’s clear that Belos wants to separate Witch society into highly-specialized groups, with the Emperor’s Coven at a natural advantage…

           I can only imagine Eda watching the lessons from other classes from afar, too- I wonder if that’s contributed to her skill as the Boiling Isles’ most powerful witch? Bump mentions that Eda never got to be offered the chance to do multiple tracks (given it just became available that day), so I really have to wonder what were the exact circumstances behind her dropping out… In general, I like the point this episode makes about how students like Eda, Jerbo, Barkus, and Viney aren’t bad at school and don’t dislike it; They actually LOVE to learn and are very innovative! But the specific system of school and the way it’s structured is just not conducive as a learning environment. It’s definitely a nuanced take on the subject, I like it!

           Also- With how boldly Luz is standing up for others, it’s only a matter of time before she personally challenges Belos! I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, she literally challenged Amity once for King’s honor… She cares about others, and FIERCELY, too! It was adorable seeing how delighted she was to have her name on the troublemaker wall- She really does want to be included and while there is the benefit of learning all magic (technically against the rules), I appreciate how Luz embraces the comradery of being misfits!

           Onto the Greater Basilisk! I saw that ‘inspector’, and let’s be real we ALL recognized her- Oddly enough, she seems to have teleported in. Having absorbed Magic, can the Greater Basilisk utilize it? Or is it a non-magic illusion, similar to the ones that Adegast has? Either way, I’m REALLY fascinated by the implication of a demon(?) that can absorb magic and feed on it; I’d wondered about this and once again, the show delivers!

           What’s interesting to note is that the Greater Basilisk can’t seem to digest Luz’s spells; Maybe Light just so happens to be potent, but the implication seems to be that glyph-magic is immune to her absorption! Which in turn, would imply that the Greater Basilisk specifically feeds on bile… That’s VERY interesting and really piques my interest on the stuff. The whole concept of someone absorbing witch bile, only to be foiled by Luz’s glyph magic, reminds me of this idea I had a while back… Once again, this show offers, and then delivers on implications and possibilities!

           Another thing to note is that Greater Basilisks were thought to be extinct- Obviously I can see Witch society having worked together to eradicate them. I have to wonder if the show will later touch up on this anomaly, or if it’ll be a one-time thing. What’s weird is that the Greater Basilisk was able to forge a letter from the Emperor’s Coven, to pose as an inspector… That, or she took the place of the REAL one. Bump mentions the EC not knowing about the Basilisk, does that mean she had infiltrated the group as an inspector from the get-go? It’s a lot of questions, but either way that lady was FREAKY, we saw Puddles bleed because of her! I wonder what happened to her afterwards- Was she imprisoned in the Conformatorium, or did the Emperor’s Coven make sure to, y’know…confirmthe species’ extinction?

           (Also, I guess Glandus will still have that Grudgby match, huh? I was wondering if the forfeit would lead into Wing it like Witches, but apparently not.)

           I really loved that Magical Girl transformation sequence for Luz- She deserves it! I can imagine Bump planning to include nine colors for all nine tracks, but then he realized that Luz only had four sleeves and was like, Shoot, which ones should I choose for her? Either way Luz is a fashion disaster, but she OWNS it- She’s so weirdly proud of her bizarreness, it’s incredibly endearing.

           Finally, we have King doing his own thing as a substitute teacher! Not much else to say here, but I do love the gags they had with him, they were great! Overall this was another fine episode, and I can’t imagine how overloaded my mind will be when we get TWO new episodes at once, next week!

           (One more note, I like the clever background-reference to Mattholomule being in charge of the HAS now, that’s a pretty neat call to continuity! And look- Glandus outfits!)

[bluephoenixdruidicprincess]

Destiel: A Failed Love Story – A Story of How Love Ricochets

As a warning to any of my pro-Destiel shippers out there who follow me, in your eyes, this may come off as a little anti, I’m not really meaning for it to be a true “anti” type post but I won’t be looking at the Destiel relationship here in a very positive light. So you might want to skip this one. If you’re interested in reading it, then by all means, click on the cut but please do so at your own caution.

Now, I’m generally pretty apathetic when it comes to Dean Winchester and Destiel. There was once a time when I did actively ship Destiel but I since have found myself moving on from them. I enjoy them far more in fanon than I do in canon but we’re primarily going to talk about canon here for right now.

Let’s look at Destiel as a type of love story for right now. If you’re an “anti-Destiel” let’s ignore any and all problematic issues you might have with it for the time-being and focus on what’s attempting to be conveyed with their love story. For the time-being, let’s view these two individuals walking the same road who have this deep understanding of each other, they see themselves when they look at each, they’re like mirrors, when they look at each other, they’re viewing the best and the worst sides they see in themselves and it intrigues them and fulfills this desire of “belonging” that both have a compulsion to find. They don’t feel as alone when they’re with each other. And they gravitate towards each other because of that. And throughout the next decade, they continue to find their destinies and journeys overlapping and they continue to want to spend their lives with each other. But life has different plans for them. They keep on trying to make this connection they have work, but life and personal problems continue to get in the way. They want to love each other but in their attempt to shoot their love to the other person, they continue to keep ricocheting off of each other in their attempts. And as they ricochet, it sends their journeys in separate directions, but because their love is still ricocheting, their love continues to attempt to collide with each other  as it ricochets back to each other but it still can’t break through the walls and continues to ricochet and veer off into different directions until it ricochets back to each other and the process continues over and over and over again. Until finally, at least in my eyes, we’ve reached the point in canon where the walls between each other have just become so insurmountable. So solid that instead of ricocheting, that when they collide again with each other their love just falls to the ground, having eventually run out of steam and unable to keep trying. The love is still lying there on the ground but its unable to go anywhere. And that’s how I’m kind of viewing Destiel in season 14 and 15. Their love has stopped ricocheting and just stopped and fallen into the ground. And this isn’t a bad thing. Sometimes it happens. Sometimes individuals who have this chemistry together, who truly understand and want to be with each other, it just doesn’t work because of circumstances in life, it’s a part of growing up. So much has happened to both Dean and Cas that honestly, it makes sense that maybe neither of them are who the other once saw.

And of course, since both of these individuals have gone through immense trauma since knowing each other, trauma can build insurmountable walls on an individual that sometimes love just can’t fix and it’s unhealthy for an individual to think that if they just stick with this person that their love will be enough to push past that trauma. Sometimes it just doesn’t work. You see it all of the time in parents who lose a child. Parents who have been married and happy for years who lose a young child, often times, their marriage cannot survive that loss. There is  so much trauma deeply embroiled in that loss and sometimes their love isn’t enough to work through it.  It doesn’t mean they stopped loving each other. It just means that sometimes love isn’t enough. And this is the lesson and take-away I’m getting from Destiel. I do believe that despite all the problematic aspects of their relationship, that they do deeply care for each other and deeply want what they have to work out, they just can’t seem to get it right. They keep ricocheting off of each other’s walls and that love just isn’t enough to break through the walls. And you know what, that’s fine. Sometimes love just doesn’t work.

Anyways, I’d been having this little thought in my head for a few weeks now, but while I was on my run yesterday, the song Ricochet by Starset came on and it just fueled a lot of inspiration for me on how I’m looking at canon Destiel right now and I wanted to share it.

[tearinspacee]

AntiBug and Chat Blanc

So I saw a post and thought: wow that’d be a great villain au...so here we are. P sure this has already been done? This is my rendition of it then! I’ll probably change a lot of it, but eh, it’s a first shot at it. I’ll probably design my own costumes but those pictures r there for now.

Note: Their identities are completely unknown to the public and each other. Master Fu is also evil just so you know and he has his own reasons for that if I ever write them up. Hawkmoth is a goodie, and I’ll delve into that definitely in a separate post if i get around to it. 

Marinette Dupain-Cheng - AntiBug / Negabug / Lady Negative

Villain motive/origin: After being constantly mistreated and bullied she believes there is no hope for humanity as a whole and just wants to have fun. No more teasing and tantalizing snotty girls berating her every day (aka Chloe & Lila). She will definitely get them back, and it feels even more amazing since she has the powers and they don’t. Seeing them helpless is a gratifying pleasure. When she got the miraculous from Master Fu she knew exactly what she was going to do with it.

Personality:

Takes a lot of aspects from Chat Noir’s personality and is a big flirt as Antibug with Chat Blanc.

She doesn’t really pay Adrien much attention but she adores how cold he is to people and doesn’t seem to take anyone’s shit just like she does.

Even though she is a villain she is still kind to her friends. However, she doesn’t go out of her way for people. 

Doesn’t care for school rules. She will always go to school when she wants, no alarm and no bell ringing in her ears to wake up n get going. 

Marinette always bites back @ others if they even say one little thing out of line. She will pay you no mind if you don’t bother her, that’s her deal.

Don’t make fun of her, she prob won’t hesitate to transform right there and humiliate you in front of the entire school, or worse, beat you up lol

Marinette has a phat ego alert!! Not that it is excessively bloated or smthin, but she definitely thinks she is great one way or another.

She is still smart and makes up convoluted plans, but it’s only when she has a drive, otherwise she doesn’t really try too hard. Mari has complete faith nobody can take her and Blanc down.

Doesn’t exactly like confronting civilians to their faces as Antibug; she only wants to hurt those who wish to do her or Blanc harm, or even her friends. She is comfortable as a civilian b/c they are on a equal playing field.

Still annoyed when people pun/flirt @ her, that is never gonna change.

Marinette only radiates that delinquent energy, she is a good student (even if she is constantly late).

Idolizes Adrien and the fact everyone leaves him alone. She wishes she was that invisible! Ppl wouldn’t be annoying her all the gosh dang time. Also she won’t deny he is handsome n his father is a fashion designer which is cool.

Marinette still indulges in fashion n baking, she loves her parents despite how they always get mad at her for being late.

She is pretty self conscious on how people she cares for/likes view her. It hurts to know someone you really wanna get to know doesn’t want to know you.

Even if she is moody n broody, she still enjoys light colors and cute things, just prefers darker tones.

Marinette wouldn’t mind exposing their identities to one another and there isn’t much rules against it. She just wonders if Chat maybe imagines her nicer or prettier.

She often wonders what it would be like to not be the bad guy, but she doesn’t think either of them can be any more than that, especially since that is what they were asked to be too.

Relations: Best friends with Alya; Hates Chloe and Lila; Loves Chat Blanc though he doesn’t show much interest; and totally wouldn’t mind dating Adrien if she had a chance.

Tikki

 Tikki’s colors are inverted to resemble Antibug’s outfit obv.

Tikki is easily frustrated like Marinette but is still a voice of reason. She is there to guide Marinette on how to take down Hawkmoth and get his miraculous back. Tikki still loves cookies but b/c like the evil person she is, she eats raisin cookies (even though Marinette hates them. very random, ik, but it fits). [I’ll prob expand more on her later, but there isn’t much different about her aside from her giving more glares than usual]

Adrien Agreste - Chat Blanc

Villain motive/origin: He doesn’t exactly have much motive for being “evil”, he doesn’t seem to care that he is even labeled that as Chat Blanc. After being constantly told what to do all the time by his father he is void of it all. He does it all mindlessly, not trying too hard in any of his “hobbies” his father prescribes him. His father, of course, thinks he is doing his son a service, even letting him adjust and flex his schedule to what fits him. Adrien, however, still only sees an overbearing amount of work and doesn’t think he is particularly free b/c his father is always busy. When approached with the miraculous he was at first confused, but he doesn’t mind hanging out with Antibug.

Personality:

Apathetic to mostly all situations & does not care too much for social interaction. (He is actually rlly awkward so he doesn’t say anything)

Generally left alone in school b/c of his overbearing presence or smthin. His father is rich & prestigious, can u blame any of them?

Not completely emotionless, he likes to smile but not a lot of things make him do that.

Most happy with Antibug or Nino. Spending time with them is nice

No hard feelings towards his father for not being there, it’s the absence of his mother that made him kind of lose touch with reality/his emotions.

He doesn’t know his father is “Hawkmoth” and fighting against him ofc.

Adrien doesn’t exactly understand romantic love but he wouldn’t mind learning it with Antibug since she is so forward about it. He isn’t bothered by her touching him n flirting.

He doesn’t hate anyone either, he is just a villain because he was asked to.

As Chat Blanc, the miraculous seems to repress his emotions even more so he barely shows emotions. As a civilian, he is much more vulnerable and hates upfront confrontation from anyone.

Despite his “lack of emotion” he is shy (and as aforementioned, awkward). He finds others rather interesting but he doesn’t see much point to relationships in general cause they’re often disappointing for him.

He will NEVER tolerate you harming the people he loves even if they are scarce and few in number.

Adrien is still a childhood friend of Chloe but since he got so distant she hasn’t bothered to annoy him by being all over him n obsessive in respect.

Relations: Neutral towards his father; was rlly close to his mother and deeply loved her before she was gone; best friends with Nino; not much interest in romance but he doesn’t deny Antibug’s feelings; no opinion of Marinette but he catches her staring at him sometimes n doesn’t know why.

Plagg

What is there to change here? He is still uncaring but even more so this time around. He still eats cheese and is cranky too. However, Plagg is white with a black fade towards his tail. His eyes are blue. He tends to not hear Adrien when he calls for him until a few times later.

[ardenttheories]

Sorry if youve already done this hut how about comparing/contrasting light and mind? They definitely seem like similar concepts, albeit, different perspectives, but I’m not very well versed in them and I’d like to hear it from you!

As a general rule of thumb, these are the key words for each Aspect:

Light: Luck, Chance, Probability, Knowledge, Importance, Understanding, Information, The Future, The Plot and Narratives, Truth, Relevancy

Mind: Rationality, Reason, Logic, Justice, Thoughts, Unbiased, Impersonal, Disconnected, Apathetic, Outer Being, Closed Off, Choices, Decisions, All Potentials/Possibilities, Deduction

In essence, Light is about Learning. It’s figuring things out piece by piece, uncovering as much information as you can possibly get, building up a picture from everything you Know. It’s the creation of a Story, the recognition of Plot Points, of Importance - it’s seeing or doing only what is Relevant and True. 

Mind, on the other hand, is about Logic. It’s puzzling things out point by point, standing back to look at things even if you don’t entirely have the full picture. It’s Nonbias towards any Choice or Decision that could be made, and recognition of every Potential that exists. It’s the understanding that Choices must be made, branch out into other Choices, lead to other courses of action, and that you have to plan twenty steps ahead to keep on top of it all. 

So, ironically, Mind’s much more people-based than Light, despite being the Aspect of Apathy. It can’t Understand the way Light does, and Light will always be heavily tinged with the Bias of the person viewing it. Though the Truth is there, that Truth may only be True to the Light Player, who will then make it total Truth. On the other hand, Mind doesn’t presume to know what Truth is, or even care exactly that something is True; it focuses instead on what a person Thinks, what their Reasoning or Logic is, what they, personally, see. 

A Mind Player can’t know what isn’t easily found. They don’t know what’s Important in a session, can’t find endless sources of Information, have no interest in understanding the Truth or what is Relevant. If any of these things get in the way of a Decision being made, a Mind player will Lie. 

They would tell a Player that someone is alive if that is what it took to ensure that the someone’s lover won’t fold in on themselves. They would understand that in any given situation, there are at least a thousand routes that could be taken, a thousand things that could be said - and that every Option has an Outcome, and that every Outcome has its benefits. 

They know that they have to say this specific thing to this specific person because doing so will ensure that a necessary outcome unfolds, even if that outcome isn’t strictly good. 

A Light Player doesn’t have this nuance. They don’t have the same understanding of all the Options and all the Outcomes. They are only aware of the ones that are Important to the Plot, the ones that will cause the most progression, the ones that have to happen. If something isn’t Important, they’re completely blind to it, and this can cause a lot of contention since Importance is a very fickle thing.

A good way of explaining it would be this:

Someone has to die in order for the session to progress. Their death causes a series of events that are ultimately integral for the session’s success, and the survival of that Player is not an Option.

The Light Player is aware of this because the death is Important. It holds use to the bigger picture and it is therefore Relevant for them to know. However, what might not be Relevant is that the dead Player’s brother will be deeply affected if the death happens in a certain way. So long as the death occurs, the session is saved; what happens to the brother is Irrelevant. 

Therefore, the Light Player may be shocked to find, afterwards, that the brother begins to pull away and the friendship between them is broken, no matter how much they try to explain that it was Important. 

The Mind Player would be aware of this. They would be able to see that the brother is inconsolable due to his own person brand of Logic and Reasoning. They would recognise that other Options are available, and that even if the death has to occur, it can be done in a way that doesn’t leave the brother broken as a response.

They might not recognise this as an Important event with a captial i, but they would know that it has to be done because the death allows for the Player to be active in the Dreambubbles - where their powers are better put to use. They’ve seen or know what sort of Choices the Player will make. 

So, in other words, a Light Player can tell you what has to happen, and a Mind Player can ensure that it happens in the Best Possible Way.

There’s also just the general idea that Mind protects and serves the individual integrity of a person’s literal mind, whereas Light protects and serves the concept of Knowledge and Information as a whole. 

A Light Player would never be able to justify hiding Knowledge unless it is 100% Important for that Knowledge to be hidden until a later date; a Mind Player would completely squirrel that Knowledge away if they knew that someone would make a Decision following it that provides a negative Outcome. 

So, definitely in line with the idea that they’re two sides of the same perspective, but it’s pretty important to note the key differences. Like the fact that Light needs Knowledge because if it doesn’t have that, it can’t see the bigger picture, can’t figure out what has to happen and what’s Important in a session full of things - but Mind can see the bigger picture from the start based on the Outcomes of various Choices, and what, Logically, seems like the best Option to go with. 

Another example:

A Mind and Light Player have the same map. It has a key with no text, scribbles written all over it, no landscape drawn on it, and is almost completely illegible and looks more like someone scratched a pen on some paper and passed it off for a map. They’re been reassured that it is a map, though, and that it DOES lead the way out to the exit of the cave they’re about to enter. 

The Mind Player knows enough about the person who made the map to know exactly which path is going to lead to the exit based on how they Think. They know the person is highly Paranoid, and likes to hide codes in amongst everything using Alchemic symbols and sigils that merge letters together. 

They’re also aware of this person’s brand of logic; up means down, left means right, and safe means dangerous. Chances are the map has been mirrored, too. 

It’s understanding the person that allows them to read the map and make it safely out the other side of the cave, with the additional bonus of being able to tell, innately, which Options are safe and which are deadly whenever they come to brances in the path. 

The Light Player knows nothing about the person in question, but can recognise some of the Alchemic symbols because they’ve recently read up on them. As a result, they quickly get to work researching what they could mean, then start trying to figure out what the code could be in the sigils based on traditional ciphers. 

That would lead to more research about possible codes and the different things you can hide in maps, which would reveal the Truth behind its scribbled nature; that each line represents something, and that there’s a series of inversions that make the map harder to read. 

It might take longer, but eventually the Light Player will understand the map completely, and will more easily recognise such ciphers or techniques in the future. They will also be hlped along by the innate feeling of Importance that guides them down each branching path; they might not know what’s down there, the way a Mind Player might be able to deduce, but they’ll at least Know that it isn’t Relevant. 

So, in other words, Light not Knowing what a person is Thinking or being able to influence a person’s own Rationality or Reasoning, and having to rely on their own Reasoning to get their points across; and Mind not Understanding everything that’s Important in the session but figuring out all the Options until they can, without any Bias, Choose the Outcome that has the most benefits for everyone. It’s that odd internal VS external thing that seems to crop up a lot with Aspects, and that’s one of their biggest divisions, I think.

Think how Terezi keeps the group together by ensuring they pick specific Options VS Rose keeping the session in tact by leading them towards Important events. 

Terezi can See that Vriska going off to kill Bec Noir isn’t a good idea because she can see the Outcome of the Option; Vriska gets them all killed because Bec Noir follows her pixie dust trail. She can also see that the Option wherein she kills Vriska outright ensures that Outcome doesn’t happen - and later down the line, when John as his Retcon abilities, she sees a third Option where Vriska is knocked out instead. 

Were Rose in the same situation, she’d probably only be able to See the Important parts; Terezi killing Vriska, or John using his Retcon powers to knock her out. She’d know that this event is Important for the timeline to progress, but might not know the specifics of why - because it’s just not Relevant Information. 

In the same vein, Terezi wouldn’t be able to See anything about the Green Sun. It’s Important to the session, sure, but it’s not something to do with Mind until it gets to the point that Rose starts making Choices that leads up to its creation. Terezi can’t See the Sun itself, can’t just focus in on it at will, but she can See it by proxy of looking down Rose’s Potentials and Outcomes. She can see how Rose’s Options lead up to the Tumor being taken out in the Void and causes the whole thing to appear. Does she have any idea what it is? Probably not. It’s not in her abilities to Know something like that. 

So Mind is centred around the Internal nature of People and their Thoughts, Options, Choices, and the Unbiased attempts to navigate each branching path. Light, on the other hand, is centred around the External nature of Importance, what is Relevant and True and must be known, focusing only on what is Necessary and following that singular path to the end.