#And Lenore’s determination

[coconut530]

WE BACK BABY!!!

[bookwyrminspiration]

The pronoun checking myself sounds like it would help but I don’t know whether to use my online name or my irl name

Because on one hand, I’ll only get to express my genderqueerness online

And also if someone were to find it, I’d have the plausible deniability of talking about a fictional character

But also that doesn’t make me any less genderqueer in real life

-Lenore

Hello, Lenore! You could, if you wanted, trying doing pronoun checks with both. It's not like there's a right option, it's just what you want to do. I can't decide for you; it ultimately comes down to you listening to yourself and making the call.

If you're worried about someone finding something you've written that has your real name on it, there's always the option of deleting/destroying whatever you've written. If you type it up, when you're done you can review it to see how it makes you feel and then delete everything in the document/the document itself. If you physically write it out, you can throw away the paper or destroy it in some other way (e.g., water) so that no one can find it and you can still experiment with your expression.

And yeah, regardless of what people know, that doesn't change who you are. Only we get to decide that part. I'm not any less queer when the repair tech in the house calls me ma'am; I'm only less queer if I want to be less queer. So even if you can't or don't want to express yourself irl, you and your experience and still completely valid.

Whatever you decide to do or not do, I hope you're happy with your experimenting and find the satisfaction/understanding you're looking for! Whether it's a quick thing or the start of a longer process, it can be very rewarding and I wish the best for you :)

[doyouwanttoseeabug]

oh OOOOOOH their deaths mirror each other. Tamerlane and Leo are both driven to what looks like suicide chasing hallucinations around an apartment that architecturally represents their psyche (as they destroy it), shortly after leaving/planning to leave their loving partner. (Both of them invite her in, at first. Both of them want her there. But now she's in the mirrors. She's in the walls.)

Vic and Camille are both killed/driven to death by Vic's experiments, their rivalry leading to both their deaths (Camille to prove it doesn't work, Vic to prove it does), immediately after they get left by people they are using in professional/personal ways - Camille hires Toby and Tina to sleep with them, Vic dates Ali to get her to work with her on the heart mesh.

Perry and Frederick both die in the same warehouse, looking at the ceiling, waiting for death to come to them - Perry with a look of ecstasy, Frederick in terror. Both of them are in that warehouse because they've been humiliated by Roderick and are now determined to prove themselves. Both get led here by drugs. Both involve the mutilation of an innocent, Morrie. Both of them see Verna not as another character, but something like her true self. And there's the parallel between all the mercy that Verna offers Perry - the most she offers any of them, other than Lenore - and her glee in explaining to Roderick exactly why he deserves to die like this.

And then you get the final pairing/quartet of deaths - Eliza Usher + William Longfellow vs Madeline and Roderick which is obvious but oh my god. oh my god you guys. Eliza's wall of crucifixes and clinging to Christian faith and the sanctity of pain as a way of hoping for reward after death vs Roderick putting Madeline through the agony of vivisection to 'honour' her + grant her Egyptian immortality. Both William and Roderick eat their young. Fuck.

[baldurs-gape]

Gap in the Resume

In a way, Gale should have been grateful to Elminster, the man had pulled strings to get him the interview. Life was all well and good but he did feel a little guilty for relying so heavily on Astarion, not to mention it was setting a bad example that they made ends meet through skills of theft and contract killings. Determined to make an honest life, Gale had started job hunting once life had started to settle a bit and his hands weren't quite so full. Brushing out an invisible wrinkle from his tunic, he waited on the creaky leather sofa. Finally, the door opened.

"Mr. Dekarios?"

Standing so quickly his vision speckled, Gale tried to look confident as he approached the Dean of the school. It wasn't Blackstaff, he couldn't go back there, not after everything but a less prestigious school might just be what he needed.

"Good to meet you, and please, call me Gale." He shook hands with her eagerly and settled on the even less comfortable chair by the impressive desk.

"Elminster has talked highly about you and your skills. It made me think that perhaps you were a little too modest on your CV."

"Yes, well, some things are easier to explain in words than with in on paper."

The Dean looked at him over her glasses with a smile. "Well, here's your chance, Gale. Why would an ex-Chosen of Mystra herself want to teach at our school of all places?"

Rather than say that he was scraping the barrell and needed his old mentor's help in getting honest work, Gale tried to smile, cleared his throat and straightened his back. He'd rehearsed this, it was going to be fine, smooth even."

"Teaching has been somewhat thrust upon me in the last eight years or so. It's a little difficult to always keep track of time in the Underdark. It wasn't a career I had ever really entertained until I got firsthand experience of how rewarding it could be."

So far so good, the Dean nodded along and settled back with a more relaxed posture. Emboldened, Gale decided it was better to throw in some examples to back his words up.

"Perhaps my proudest moment as a teacher was when I took a small group on an expedition towards Lenore's tower and we encountered yet another minotaur - I swear they are the cockroaches of the Underdark - and the six with me made a meal of it." The somewhat puzzled look he received had him rushing to explain. "Before it would have been a lot of snapping and snarling at each other, more blood wasted than drank. Sebastian had a nasty habit of trying to claw the eyes out of anyone who so much as was near him when drinking. Yet there he was, happily sharing the bounty with five others!"

"Mr. Dekarios, Gale-" the Dean held up a finger, "-just what exactly do you teach? I was under the impression you were a wizard."

"I am!" Indignant, Gale huffed. "But you try teaching magic to 7000 feral vampire spawn. Manners had to come first."

"Seven. Thousand. Vampire. Spawn."

Nodding with vigour, Gale's arms came into play as he began to explain.

"We were responsible for them after freeing them. Well, first we had to sort out the Netherbrain while the Gur rounded them up and kept them safe from everyone including themselves. It wasn't like we could abandon them. I happen to take responsibility very seriously. It began with a book club for the more recently turned and those interested and just grew from there." Barely stopping to take a breath, he continued, "Trust me, I wanted to show them the wonders of magic but some of them couldn't even read, a tracesty if you ask me."

A strained smile appeared on the Dean's face. She sat primly, hands clasped on the table between them.

"Did this happen after your status as Chosen was revoke?"

"Yes. Well, not immediately. I spent a year trying to tame the Netherese orb in my chest." At that, the Dean looked alarmed. "Don't worry, it's all taken care of now, it's old news. But for a year I worked heavily on the research of the elimination of Netherese fragments bonded to a human entity. Alas before I could refine my findings and publish, a Nautiloid snatched me up as I was hanging my washing. Now, I know mindflayers don't have emotions in the same capacity but it was downright rude. Then they put the tadpole in my brain."

By that point the strained smile had fallen away and the Dean was outright alarmed, edging away from the table and away from Gale. Off script and caught up in the story, he wasn't slowing down.

"Anyway, you've probably heard of the Baldur's Gate Netherbrain incident. That was me and a couple of others who are now good friends of mine. But try putting that on a resume. It wasn't relevant to teaching magic really. I don't want to walk into the classroom as some mighty hero, I just want to be normal and treated as such. And now the spawn as all mostly settled, I feel I can leave them without fear of any incidents. I did so enjoy teaching them that I thought; why not? I could do this with young people. They'll probably be more likely to singe off your eyebrows by mistake than try to drain you of blood. Much cheaper if you ask me, scrolls of revivify used to make up a good 70% of our weekly expenses."

Tirade over, Gale leaned back in his chair and sighed, glad to have got that all out. A little sheepish at having gone so far off script, he offered a tiny smile. "Do you have any other questions about the gap in my resume? Because I don't think I touched on the mental health of students. Mystra demanded repeatedly that I kill myself. It is safe to say I wouldn't ever be anything but accepting and nurturing of even the most frustrating minds in the classroom. They're safe with me."

"Actually," the Dean's voice was a little breathy, "I think you've been very informative, thank you. I can let you know the outcome of the interview in the next tenday once all interviews for the position have concluded. Thank you so much for coming in today."

She stood and Gale copied. This time she didn't stand close to usher him out the room, a rather large amount of space was left between them. Gale's heart sank. It wasn't the first time an interview ended so abruptly and with such false smiles. Nodding, he turned to the door and left.

Outside, Astarion was leaning against the wall, covered from head to toe for safety.

"How did it go?" he asked.

Sadly, Gale shook his head and deflated. "I went off script. At least she didn't call security I guess?"

"Not to worry. We'll find a place. Hells, we could probably even found it, the Underdark Academy, a place for the unruly to come and be transformed into etiquette experts. What do you think?"

Laughing, Gale bumped their shoulders and sighed, trying to let go of the disappointment that had settled in his gut.

"You say the sweetest things to me, don't you?"

Their hands tangled until fingers interlaced and Astarion pulled it up to press a kiss to the back of Gale's. This job wasn't to be but that was alright. They had all the time in the world to figure it all out. And for Gale to discover that while he was in the interview, Astarion had stolen anything that moved from the school.

[readingcomics-sometimeshiatus]

Sapphic Webtoon Masterlist

One day I thought that maybe it should exist a list with all the sapphic stories of webtoon since is so hard to find.

today I decided to make this list

you can also comment stories that are not listed here!

Sapphic = woman loving woman. although this name means any queer woman (e.g. lesbians, pansexuals, etc.), in this list will only have the ones where the main couple are two woman (or one is not a man).

Last updated: January 23th, 2024

please check up the reblogs to see when the last time was updated if you see this on a reblog!

Originals

Not So Shoujo Love Story (comedy, in progress)

Romance-super-fan Rei Chan is ready for her first boyfriend and she knows just who it'll be: the most handsome boy in school, Hansum Ochinchin. But her plans for the perfect love story are derailed when the most popular girl in class declares herself a rival….for Rei's heart?! This is the year her not so shoujo love story begins!

Nevermore (supernatural, in progress);

There is nothing definitive about life after death, except the involuntary enrollment at the mysterious Nevermore Academy. Now Lenore and Annabel Lee must begin their curriculum to recover the memories of their tragic demise. Between the Dean's macabre demeanor and the tell-tale dangers of Final Exams, both girls must learn to rely on one another and their newly acquired ghost forms, or Spectres, to not only graduate from the academy… but to earn a second chance at life.

Night Owls & Summer Skies (romance, completed);

Despite her tough exterior, seventeen year-old Emma Lane has never been the outdoorsy type. So when her mother unceremoniously dumps her at Camp Mapplewood for the summer, she’s determined to get kicked out fast. However, when she draws the attention of Vivian Black, a mysterious and gorgeous assistant counselor, she discovers that there may be more to this camp than mean girls and mosquitos. There might even be love.

Realta (fantasy, in progress);

When the world was new, the twelve star signs descended to bless humanity with magic according to their date of birth. Fourteen worthy people, called the “Realta,” were given a star from each Sign that allowed them to receive prophecies of the future called “horoscopes” and summon great power to defeat the Fae: beings that tormented humanity. However, much has changed since Elowen was a child. Magic is illegal, the Fae are getting stronger, and the Realta have been forgotten…until our Virgo meets a certain Capricorn.

Muted (supernatural, completed);

On the full moon of her 21st year, the young witch, Camille Severin, is expected to perform the traditional ritual to summon forth a winged demon for her families success and prosperity. But when the ritual goes wrong, it reveals the terrifying truths about herself and the secrets that threaten to tear her family apart.

Mage & Demon Queen (comedy, completed;

Adventurers seek to take the demon queen’s head, but a love-struck young female mage wishes to take her hand. Join us won’t you, for this bawdy tale of love and persistence set inside a real-life RPG.

REVEAL OUT! (romance, will return);

Eeden thought she'd missed out on life: her art career is a disaster, her landlord kicked her out, and worst of all, she's never even had a girlfriend! But life takes a turn when a chance encounter with an old crush sends her back in time. Now she's 18 again and starting college, with a chance to get everything right. Armed with a plan and a crush, Eeden knows exactly how to create the life full of joy she deserves: make it bold, make it beautiful, and most of all, make it gay!!

High Class Homos (comedy, in progress);

Princess Sapphia of Mytilene is not into princes. So, when her parents start putting the heat on her to get hitched, she enlists the help of her equally gay best friend, Prince August of Phthia. But will these two royals be able to pull off a convincing sham marriage? More importantly, will Sapphia ever land a date with the castle maids? Follow these high class homos as they navigate life, love, and (occasionally) their actual jobs.

Finding Wonderland (fantasy, completed);

In Wonderland, Alex is the Ace. When tasked with hunting down the nefarious Black Knave and his scourge of Nightmares, Alex begins to have visions of another world beyond: our world. In reality, Alex is a normal teen who has been placed in a dangerous simulation to draw out a scientist’s lost son. And time is quickly running out.

Aerial Magic (fantasy, completed);

The daily life of an apprentice witch.

Always Human (romance, completed);

This is a story about nanobots, genetic engineering, and two girls falling in love. No matter how technology changes us, we'll always be human.

Savior (fantasy, completed);

Wohn Ku is a vampire that needs human blood to survive. As a tenderhearted child, she led a tortured existence until a girl named Seyeon willingly became her steady blood source. Seyeon stood by Wohn throughout their school years, defending her from bullies. Fast forward to the present where they move in together ahead of their freshman year of college. Seyeon remains fiercely protective of her friend, but Wohn is ready for a fresh start. When a devoutly religious sophomore girl named Juyi showers her with kindness, Wohn emerges from her shell only to realize that Juyi had once been her father’s kidnapping victim, a potential blood source she had refused to bite. Juyi grows closer to Wohn without remembering the incident, fueling jealousy in Seyeon. Will Juyi prove to be a savior washing away Wohn’s guilt, or will she ruin a vampire’s dream of redemption?

CANVAS

My Dragon Girlfriend (romance/slice of life, in progress);

Christy is saved from a bad date by a dragon girl and introduced to world of magical creatures while falling in love with her savior.

Susuhara Is A Demon (slice of life/romance, in progress);

After a perfect girl encounters an infamous delinquent, her life is thrusted into a whirlwind of chaos! Strap in for a ride jam-packed with terribly embarrassing flirting techniques, kick-ass delinquents and existential dread by the buttload! Nothing could possibly go wrong in this perfectly imperfect love story.

Fatal Kiss (romance/supernatural, in progress);

What would you do if your crush was a monster?

The Pirate and The Princess (romance/historic, in progress);

Princess Kirianna has been raised for two purposes; marriage and succession. As a dutiful, intelligent, and optimistic girl, she came to terms with her fate long ago, and simply longs to be content. The last thing she expected was to be pulled into a life of piracy, by a woman in disguise who has a strange grudge against Kirianna's father, and a secret of her own to hide…. Captain is given male pronouns by me until her name drop in Chapter 10!

Eldritch Darling (supernatural/comedy, in progress);

What if we kissed and we were both girls? And one of us was an oblivious human and the other was a dark eldritch abomination creature from beyond the stars??

Deep Sea (romance/fantasy, in progress);

Atarah is convinced : she is not cut out to be a princess. And when her father tells her that the time has come for her to get married, the world of the young princess crumbles: her heart dreams of adventure, and not of an arranged marriage! It is therefore at the worst of times that Atarah meets Robin, a pirate with questionable morals and a tumultuous past. But where will this crazy encounter lead her heart?

The Siren's Light (romance/fantasy, in progress);

I was sinking, the darkness was slowly surrounding me. The depth of the sea was pulling me lower and lower, I could no longer see the moonlight that glowed from above. But, Who was this silver-haired beautiful creature with an alluring voice swimming towards me? "You are a beautiful one." Her voice was so clear and soothing. And before I knew it, She kissed me. Who was this creature you asked? A siren. A flirtatious, annoying siren that changed my life forever. Author: @roseyluv143 (wattpad)

In My Heart (romance/drama, in progress);

Sasaki Mari is a typical delinquent troublemaker whose only goal is to get a boyfriend, but due to her reputation as bully and low grades, all the boys reject her. Then she decides to change her style, and asks for help from the student with the best grades in the class.

My Devotion to You (romance/drama, in progress);

For the past five years, Catalina has spent all-nighters studying and acing exams to become number the one student and prove her place in the academy. Unfortunately, no matter how much she tried…she has been stuck as number two…all because of Valeria Graham. Valerie is tired and does not expect this year to be much different. She will maintain her Top Student title just like her family expects her to. It would be like any other year…right? And so, their final year begins.

My Cat is a Wizard (fantasy/romance, in progress);

Caitlyn is a just an ordinary, struggling student in her final year of university… Or so she thinks. After having her heart broken yet again, her cat suddenly becomes human. She must now juggle the difficulties of school, work, and all the twists and turns life keeps throwing at her: like her cat/roommate being a wizard. Can Cait still fall in love while magic slowly takes over her world?

Honey and Venom (romance/heartwarming; in progress);

An ancient Roman goddess is reunited with her priestess 2000 in the future, but she doesn't remember her! The closer they grow, the more secrets their shared past reveals, all while an ancient adversary lurks in the shadows.

Greta the Red Wolf (supernatural/action, in progress);

An injured wolf pup and an abandoned baby appear at the doorstep of a couple’s home near the woods. The couple decides to take them in, but little did they know that the wolf was actually a werewolf, and the baby a vampire! Despite their shocked human parents, Greta the werewolf and Vincent the vampire had a blissful upbringing. However, as Greta and Vincent grow older, their quiet, peaceful lives are threatened as they discover the secret world of witches, vampires, and werewolves.

RAINBOW! (slice of life/romance, in progress);

Overly imaginative teenager Boo Meadows has always escaped her daily grind by living with her head in the clouds-- for better or worse. But when she meets the girl of her daydreams, it may finally be time to face reality.

Winter Before Spring (drama/romance, in progress);

Hana has recently just fallen in love with her best friend, who just happens to be a girl. After a confrontation with her best friend, Hana accidentally blurts out and confesses her true feelings. Fearing that she would be rejected, her friend accepts her feelings graciously and they start dating. Is this a dream? Hana, overwhelmed with happiness as her wish came true- is suddenly struck down, her world crashing down as she finds out the nasty truth about her best friend.

The Hideout (romance/drama, hiatus);

Nadia is a 18 year old teenage girl that’s finishing high school and working part-time on her aunts coffee shop named “The Hideout” Nadia also happens to not be very lucky when it comes to the love department and that, mixed with overworking herself, has taken a toll on her quite heavily recently. Reading direction is left to right

The Grand Priestess (fantasy/action, hiatus);

Verashana, a powerful sorceress, delves into the past after an incident separates her from her lover, hoping to learn more about the tragedy that occurred. Her hidden memories resurface, and she unlocks a world that she didn't know she was a part of. Now, she must find out where it all started, and where it all went wrong.

Love, Lila (romance/drama, hiatus);

A one-sided love & rivalry between an aspiring ballerina and an artist. Irene comes from a strict and close-minded household which is against her pursuing a career in arts, as a result of her upbringing she became cold, insecure, and distrustful. Then she met Lila, a perfect girl who has everything and is everything Irene wishes to become. But as she gets to know Lila better, she discovers that her privileged upbringing actually hides a traumatic family secret.

Facing the Sun (sci-fi/drama, in progress);

Fear. Grief. Trauma. Guilt. Love, all seen through the eyes of a dysfunctional android prototype well past her estimated lifespan.

I LIKE MY BEST-FRIEND (drama, ongoing);

(since I'm on phone, I'm gonna put this one later)

Unleashed (romance, ongoing);

(since I'm on phone, I'm gonna put this one later)

Pick Me!! (romance, ongoing);

wip

Lotus and the Dandelion (fantasy, ongoing);

wip

The Greenhouse (drama, ongoing);

wip

I want to be your wife! (drama, completed);

wip

Warm Spring Rain (romance; ongoing);

wip

What's A Soulmate (heart-warming; ongoing);

wip

5 More Minutes (romance, ongoing);

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Slice of Life (heart-warming, ongoing);

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Our Secret (drama, ongoing);

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Don't Look at the Sky (fantasy, ongoing);

wip

Somebody to you (romance, ongoing);

wip

[moonstreak]

GODS ALIVE, THIS FUCKING SCENE

We're finally seeing it. We're seeing Lenore snap. We're seeing Lenore off any kind of leash. This is Lenore beholden to nobody and nothing. No more agonizing, no more overthinking, she's acting. Her charisma and force of will are fully in play for the first time since she got to the academy. The instinct to be careful and consideration for Annabel are gone. This is the Lenore that burnt down her house to impersonate a young bachelor,except this time Annabel's on the other side of this terrifying determination. This is Lenore ready to do literally anything as long as it helps her people or spites her enemies. Congrats, Annabel Lee, you have fucked up beyond any and all chances to recover this situation.

[blacknedsoul-blog]

My bets on Nevermore's development

In the middle of the arc and with the White Raven divorce beginning, I think I feel comfortable betting on how all the story lines the comic has laid out so far will play out. A mixture of analysis and theories.

Duke and Montressor

I don't think Duke will die. For several reasons (one of which I'll explain below), but the main one is that Duke is a character who still has a lot to give: they've gone to the trouble of giving him a name, a past, a personality, and yet none of these things have been properly explored. The comic wouldn't really benefit from Duke dying because he still has a lot of interesting things to bring to the story.

Coupled with the fact that we're still learning how Spectres work, and with Duke unable to manifest, it's the perfect time to flesh out that part of the lore and give us a cool moment to show us his Spectre.

That said, I have a hard time seeing a way for Montressor to stay in the game once this issue is over: he's proven himself to be a menace that won't stop and an unmitigated sadist. The guy is just evil, and frankly, he didn't seem to have much more backstory or anything new to bring to the table.

My bet on him is that he'll die, maybe Lenore will go with the group in psycho-killer mode, Duke will confront him with his spectre, Morella will go against him to save Ada, Annabel will try to make merit so Lenore won't be asked for a divorce, or the Deans themselves will see him as a problem they need to take care of. If the comic thinks murder is irredeemable for its characters, maybe he'll have a Frollo-style death where it's his own ego that kills him (what if he becomes one of the creatures roaming the school?).

I think this because, besides how satisfying it would be to see him die, I think it would be a good time for the comic to show you the consequences of death within Nevermore. We know that going to the Land of the Dead is a terrible thing, but we don't know exactly what it entails. And seeing it would make any future threat seem more terrifying.

Post-Divorce

The White Raven will reconcile. This is obvious: the comic is about their relationship, the publicity for the comic has them together, and much of the appeal of the work comes from their romance. It's not a question of whether it will happen or not, but how it will happen and what the consequences will be.

Maybe some extraordinary event will happen to bring them back together, or we will have the equivalent of the Greenhouse 2.0 scene where they have a whole conversation about why, even if Lenore understands Annabel reasons, this is a situation that can never happen again.

One thing I want to point out here: I don't think Annabel did this out of jealousy. Maybe she feels it, but this story has made a consistent effort to show you that while Annabel is hypocritical, manipulative, and Machiavellian, she still has a moral compass: her reaction after when Montressor makes Ada bark and when Prospero is about to have a breakdown indicate that her limit is to hurt others gratuitously. She won't defend them if it puts her in a problematic situation, but this clearly pisses her; by that logic, it would even be out of character for her to try to hurt Duke because she's jealous, and more importantly, it would do irreparable damage to her relationship with Lenore (which is why I don't think our favorite Frenchman dies).

Understanding that, there's one thing these two haven't really talked about: for Lenore, getting her friends out of here is not something optional, she's completely determined to do it, and given this moment, it's very likely that the next step will be for Annabel to join the "save everyone" team: she thinks Lenore is capable of anything, and so she's going to put all her faith in her being able to pull this off.

Coupled with the fact that the plan to keep Lenore as a harmless figure went to hell after the incident in the tower, she's going to have to adjust things. And my theory on this is that Annabel is going to expand her rivalry plan to the group level.

I believe this because the logical conclusion after the banquet is that the Deans, for some reason, want the students to fight, to foster an atmosphere of competition among them. So far, giving them what they want has worked perfectly for them, so they would suggest that it would be helpful to pretend that things are going exactly as they think they are while they try to figure out how to get out of this place, at least until they can think of something better.

Yes, I assume Annabel will join the Misfits. She'll probably be like Zuko from Avatar, begging for forgiveness and winning them over one by one in individual arcs.

Another important development that will come out of this is that when Lenore is fed up enough with her bullshit, she will remind Annabel of her promise about how they both get their memories back: they are already right in the middle and it will be time to start putting the puzzle together.

However, I have reason to believe that Annabel will manage not to talk about the exact way they both died for a very simple reason: whether Lenore was Annabel's executioner or not, they died together. Lenore was there, and she will most likely blame herself because "if I hadn't gone looking for her, Annabel would still be alive" and for "not protecting her".

But by the time they have this conversation (or she finds out otherwise), the comic may be starting to address one of Lenore's major conflicts as a character: because of her fear of abandonment and her feeling that she is undeserving of love, she has no qualms about putting herself in danger to protect others. This is a terribly damaging perspective in the context that the Deans have created: not only is it naive to think that she can always protect her friends or Annabel from getting hurt, but Lenore unwittingly carries the feelings of the people who love her by endangering herself.

My head canon

Everything I've said so far is based on things the comic has shown and storylines that may not be explored in this specific way, but are more or less on the comic. But there's a lot of nonsense out there that I'd really like to see, even if there's little or nothing in the artwork to indicate to me that any of those things will come to fruition.

Annabel vs. Montressor

I would love to see Annabel vs. Montressor precisely because Annabel has no chance against Montressor: she has no experience in a fight, even if her spectre is a powerful one, Montressor would wipe the floor with her. But I think it would be a nice way to put a point: Annabel and Montressor are not the same.

He enjoys torturing others, she will be a villain to protect what she loves.

I can also think of two interesting things that could come out of this encounter: Lenore having her moment where she thinks Annabel is dead, parallel to the maze scene (for Lenore, Annabel is an unbeatable queen, so she could use a little reality check), and a conversation along those lines:

-L: Did you think that by putting yourself in danger like this I was going to forgive what you did?!

A: I didn't do this because I thought you would forgive me. Deep down, I know you already did, even though that doesn't mean I shouldn't face consequences for my actions.

-L: ...Then why?

-A: Because I promised you I would. I said I would distract our enemies, that I would protect you from my allies, and that's exactly what I did. I knew I couldn't handle him, but I was distracted and wounded enough to get the job done.

This would finally establish one thing that has been up in the air about Annabel: yes, she really behaves and acts like a villain. But after something like this, there would never be any doubt (for the readers or for Lenore) that she always keeps her promises.

Imagine the delicious drama that could come from establishing that so forcefully.

Eulalie is a Lennabel shipper

Come to think of it, the two of them haven't done a very good job of hiding it: we go from Lenore running all over school to take care of Annabel to watching them fight for no apparent reason.

I like to think that Eulalie seriously suspects something is going on between them, and when the Misfits inevitably find out about Annabel and Lenore's relationship, she'll be like, "Oh, you guys hadn't noticed?" while saying things like, "Oh, so you're the one who took us to the haunted mansion!"

Annabel and Berenice as unlikely friends

I love the image of Berenice physically threatening Annabel with the knife and saying something like "You're a posh bitch, but you've got style" after she doesn't react in fear. I also think Bernice would be the first to admit that while she won't easily forgive Annabel for putting Duke in danger, she wouldn't have hesitated to throw Annabel, Prospero, Ada, or Will under the bus to protect any of her group of friends if necessary.

Also, the idea of Annabel saying, "She's a violent slur. I want her around" is oddly hilarious to me.

Prospero as the ultimate "tired friend"

If Annabel takes Prospero with her, I can imagine the guy banging his head against the wall all the time because he sees all these idiots who are strangely competent when you get right down to it, but choose to spend their energy doing stupid things when no one is dying.

A terrible deal between Duke and Annabel

Remember that wonderful scene in Avatar where Katara threatens to kill Zuko if she thinks he's going to hurt Aang? I like to think that Duke and Annabel will have a scene like that:

-D: They didn't see the look on your face when they put up the wall, but I did. And I can assure you that I won't hesitate to act if I think you're going to hurt my friend or any of them, cherie.

-A: Promise?

-D: ...

-A: That you will be there to protect her no matter what, even from me. I wouldn't mind you holding the sword of Damocles over my head if it proves to me that you can protect her from any threat.

-D: You have my word.

In conclusion

So that's my bingo on how things will go in the comic from here on out. There are some things (like Morella's development, what's going to happen with Ada, or when the hell we're going to get some backstory on Will) that I don't think I have enough information on to theorize. But here it is.

[snivel1]

I need to get these out of my system, so‼️‼️

Meet my ultra original Homestuck fankid!!

Dead-Eyed Cindy!

a.k.a. Cynthia Lenore!🗝️

A completely normal teenager, just like every other teen in Homestuck, trust!!🤚

More about her under the cut!!

(Note that this drawing was made when I just returned to HS and haven't yet seen some of the amazing variations of their designs here on Tumblr, so my design for Dave will probably be changed, idk)

She lived with her Big Sister, they were Strider's neighbors from a floor down

They lived in hard financial conditions, her Sister overworked herself to provide for them both and was almost never home to look after Cindy, which forced Cindy to fend for herself most of the time when she was little

She met Dave on the roof once, the meeting involved spying on his Bro and her Sister talking about some secret Older Sibling Stuff or something. It looked like her Sister was crying? Overall a pretty awkward first meeting

Cindy felt guilty often about their situation for some reason, so she helped with whatever she could in the house

But her relationship with her Sister was.. not ideal, it was very strained and painful for both of them, Cindy felt hurt from her Sister not being around much, even if she understood why that was

Even so, she still felt cared for and appreciated her Sister and her sacrifices

Cindy was bullied in school, I know, shocker, she was considered weird, dirty, ugly, scary, and was avoided most of the time. Some kids called her "Dead-Eyed Cindy", because of how her eyes resemble the ones of a dead fish, but she reclaimed that nickname for herself, because she thinks it makes her sound badass. She didn't know what friendship was supposed to be like, and convinced herself she was better off without anyone, but she desperately wanted to have real friends she could trust one day

She was very stiff emotionally when she first started chatting with Dave, but with time became more sincere and open thanks to also getting to know Rose, Jade, and John

She and Dave are both weird dead thing collectors, but Cindy prefers to collect animal bones and skulls. Their music preferences don't match like. In any form, but Cynthia greatly enjoys Dave's mixes and tunes, and always encouraged him to do more

She adores gothic rock, punk rock, heavy metal, screamo and any other "edgy" music genre you can think of

Of course she didn't have money to go to concerts and buy merch of her favorite bands, so all the posters in her room were home printed

She's all about that messy grungy look. Her hair? Intentually cut like that by herself. Smeared makeup? Her favorite style. Her clothes? Ripped and modified by herself. She wanted to ward off normies away from her this way, not caring about what other people think of her, and also just because she likes the style

She didn't like Rose's overly posh way of wording things at first(so pretentious), but they quickly clicked over shared interests in goth culture and the paranormal unknown, Cindy cares about her greatly and comforted her through the hardships Rose had to endure

Cindy didn't know what to think of Jade's strangeness and, quite frankly, didn't like her vibes at first, but warmed up to her greatly with time and really sympathized with her, Cindy really believes Jade deserves so much better, and is determined to let her know they care

John was very intimidated by Cindy at first, and Cindy assumed he just didn't like her, so she acted more coldly towards him, and it continued to be like that for a pretty awkwardly long time, but of course his dorkiness hooked her up quick, as it did his other friends, and they slowly but surely became very close; Cynthia became very protective of Egbert fast

Cindy always tries to put in work into her friendships, as she naturally doesn't want to be alone again, but also because she doesn't want her friends to feel left out or ignored, cause she knows what it's like

Which also seems like overcompensation, as she feels like she's not the best person to be around, so she tries to be helpful, even when she no longer has any mental resources for that

She had no clue about what kind of game Sburb even was, and she definitely didn't have time to ask when meteors suddenly started raining from the sky

No fucking way was she going to die if she could help it, so she fought for her and her friends' lives with all she had

How was she able to godtier and whatnot without entering the game? Beats me, you're asking as if I should know and write some good explanation for it and make it make sense🙄🙄💅 I just wanna play touoys, hope you understand💓

Cindy started questioning her identity along the way of their adventures on the meteor, and started using she/they/him pronouns

If I had to write about her relationships with all of the trolls we'd be here all day, so let me just point out the most relevant things here <3

Gamzee had a pitch crush on her, and they entertained the idea for a while, but she quickly recoiled from that when Gamzee, uh, started doing Stuff. She actively maintains friendships with Aradia, Kanaya, and Tavros, and is on good terms with Terezi, Sollux, and Nepeta. It's a bit more complicated with the others, though.. Their relationship with Karkat was very murky and tense at first, she wasn't having his bullshit, but he grew on them with time, when Cindy realized they both have similar goals and wants. She can't tolerate Eridan's bullshit and mostly avoids him, doesn't like Equius for his attitude and hates him for what he did to Aradia, Feferi.. well, they just can't find a common ground, especially because Feferi's royalty, and Cindy holds no respect for them. And Vriska.. he justifiably doesn't like her, at all, but is somewhat sympathetic of her issues.

She is a Page of Blood, and their journey of self-realization had to teach him that she can't win and please them all, that they can be their true self around her friends, and that he can also depend on others for help when she needs it

She learned to make chains from blood, his or otherwise, and use them in battle, and at their highest potential she can bind someone's body to another's and adjust what it means according to situation.

You're badly injured and there's no one else to help in sight? She can bind your body to hers and share their life essence with you, practically making it so you both share an internal system, and if she's healthy enough, then you'll be too in a second

He can drain someone's blood and give it to another if they need it, she can solidify blood inside someone's veins to make it hard to move

She can make a dying person's heart beat via a blood bind, but it's very draining for her and can be quite deadly if done hastily and improperly, and he can't do it when a body already went cold, at least they didn't learn how to, maybe with enough conviction and training she could one day🤔

Maybe with time she found even more uses and possibilities for her chains

She's a great motivator, especially if it's his friends that need morale, they always have their friends' backs

She's not a fan of being a leader, but can be if the situation calls for it

Overall, Cynthia is a person with an intimidating exterior, and warm and genuine interior!🥹

Here's the ref with both the casual fit and the godtier pajamas in full color👇

[spoonful-of-citrus-flowers]

Crossroads of the Usher Children: Pt. 1

To preface this: I think whatever Verna is, it's clear that, first and foremost, she’s a creature of choices and consequences. I kind of disagree with the view that it’s off-putting that Verna would be both compassionate and cruel to the Usher children. It does make sense that Verna would be sympathetic because although most of the Usher family (save for Lenore) are not good people, none of that is why they have to die. None of the kids were able to have any say in that decision (most of them weren’t even alive!).

But although Verna can’t prevent their deaths, she can make it a peaceful one – but that all relies on the choices the kids make. Since most of the Usher family doubles down on their worst impulses, she, in turn, is cruel. A creature of symmetry, as she puts it - choosing to act as a sort of crossroads, so to speak, where the manner of their inevitable death is determined by which path they take.

Prospero/Perry Usher: She appears as a mystery guest, prompting Perry to follow her into the bedroom, and tells him directly that there’s still time to stop it, to be satisfied with what the party has been so far (implying he should stay with Verna). But Perry makes his choice to not do so, and ends up dying from the acid in the tanks.

(Personally, I think the last kiss Verna gives him as he’s dying is what she would’ve done to kill him if he’d decided it was enough – just have him die of more or less natural causes during the party, at the high point of being so close to achieving something). Instead, his last moments are full of horror and pain.

Camille L'Espanaye: Verna’s the security guard, telling Camille she doesn’t have to go back there to see what Victorine is doing with the chimps. But Camille does so anyways, because she hates Victorine and wants to find evidence of her doing something wrong – so focused on doing that she doesn’t even realize one of the chimps is out of the cage. Then, as we know, she gets mauled to death by that same chimp.

Napoleon/Leo Usher: Verna is obviously the cat shelter worker/owner, but I’d argue her first interference was with the cat illusion, where Leo thinks he’s killed Pluto while on drugs. This one is interesting to me, because it shows that Verna is deeply knowledgeable about what people will typically do.

Most people will hesitate to say “Hey, honey, I think I might have killed the cat in a rage while I was on drugs last night” and might actually say what Leo initially did – that maybe they accidentally let the cat out. So, his “crossroads”, observed by Verna, was to either save another (or all, even!) of the cats in the kill shelter, but he chose to only get the one that looked just like Pluto in order to pretend that nothing happened to the cat and erase any of his responsibility for doing something bad.

Of course, we know by the very end of the episode, that Pluto was indeed accidentally let out, and appears by Leo’s body. Similar to Perry, if Leo had decided to stop and not try to get a Pluto doppelganger, he wouldn’t have died that way.

Part Two here!

[pluttskutt]

Plu's 2024 Writeblr Intro

Hi!

I'm Aurora but I go by many nicknames. Plu is a popular one. I'm a writer in my 30s who's been writing since I could put pen to paper. I've been on writeblr for a long time so I make new intros now and then.

What do I write? Fantasy! My goal isn't to be published but simply to write because it brings me joy. I've been working on my series since I was ~12, but I've also got stand-alones in the making.

My cast is primarily ace and aro, so if you want romance I am not your gal. Unless you want (gay) soulmates doomed to tragedy because I do got that wip.

Besides tragic soulmates I've got mermaid pirates searching for a sanctuary away from humans that have been hunting them for ages, a futuristic wip where the humans are gone so the dragons are returning or supposed to but only one does, and a dad who gets kidnapped by aliens.

My series is about alternate worlds/earths and the barriers between these worlds cracking, with monsters slipping through the cracks. Infected worlds are eaten by a colossal fog named Nothing. Three factions have risen to fight this.

We have Siruna, the mighty army faction. U.N.I.T are agents hiding in the shadows. The Rebels rose to protect the innocent with no one to protect them in this war.

And, now, we have space elves. They are not from any alternate worlds or on the side of any human.

დ WIP Intros დ

Fantasy Series:

Toy Soldier

»[...] First novel in my fantasy series centred around the consequences of the veils between worlds breaking. Not only are monsters seeping through the cracks but a massive fog rolls in on worlds overtaken by monsters and devours them.«

Förtrollade Omständigheter/Witches be Witchin’

»[...] Second novel in my series. In this adventure, inspired by the joy of playing D&D for the first time, we meet new characters and follow their journey.«

What Binds Us

»[...] Third instalment of my fantasy series. In this one, we follow an agent from what has been assumed as the “good guys”, and find out that maybe they’re not so good after all.«

Stand Alones:

Mermaid Pirates

»[...]The Lost Lenore is another character’s deceased love interest. This kind of tragedy is one of The Oldest Ones in the Book and named for the famous deceased in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven”«

Dragons Are Back

»[...] Determined to find out why they are the only to return, they set out to wander this earth for answer. A bird named Pip joins them on this adventure across the globe.«

(Gay) Tragic Soulmates

»[...] A story where soulmates are born again and again, searching for each other, only to be pulled apart by greater forces pulling the strings.«

You can find my fanfic on Ao3. My current obsession is Steddie. Other than that I'm also on Bluesky, myWriteClub, Instagram, and Wordpress where you can read snippets and lore from my fantasy series.

I created the writeblr trick-or-treat event that runs in October. The post for 2024 is up so check it out if you wanna join in on the fun!

Thanks for reading!

[favvn]

Admittedly, I wish I had taken better note of any time Kirk spoke of the Enterprise thus far in the series, but it has still stood out to me how Lenore Karidian speaks about the Enterprise and links Kirk's humanity to it. At the surface, she is echoing her father's words about tools doing away with a person's humanity and insulting Kirk as she does it. (You know how calling someone "a tool" is an insult? Like that, but with the added layer that her father categorically rejects tools.) But there's more to this exchange for Kirk than mere insults and ideology.

Earlier, under the effects of the virus in The Naked Time, Kirk speaks of his relationship to the ship not just in terms of a captain's duty to the ship but in terms of living out the Enterprise's life. Remember, the virus lowers a person's inhibitions and any pretense used to hide what they truly desire or fear. Kirk's sense of duty is such that he is giving his life for his ship every day he sits in the captain's chair, regardless of if it is truly in mortal danger. In other words, the Starship Enterprise really is his life. (I have yet to watch the movies, but I am aware that Kirk destroys the Enterprise to save Spock, saying, "If I hadn't tried, the cost would have been my soul." If that doesn't support my argument, I don't know what would.)

Now, of course, this is where I must go into speculation given how Tarsus IV is all we know of Kirk's past before joining Starfleet in TOS. One can assume Kirk threw himself into his studies, that school was not just a matter of passing or failing ("A stack of books with legs. The first thing I ever heard from an upperclassman was, 'Watch out for Lieutenant Kirk. In his class, you either think or sink.'" So says Gary Mitchell in Where No Man Has Gone Before), but a proving grounds for his life. Jim Kirk has to prove to himself that he lives for a reason after being one of nine survivors from Tarsus IV. The Enterprise is the culmination of that determination and the closest thing he has to a home after Tarsus IV. So, for Lenore to use the ship to insult Kirk's humanity as she knows he's one of the survivors of her father's eugenics.... This is what strikes me the most out of this exchange, that she takes the symbol of Kirk's progress, his status as a captain, his reason for living, his home, and throws it back in his face, arguing that Kirk is as human as a machine.

[woodchipp]

Netflixvania's Lenore and OMORI's Sunny: Why Are They So Similar When They Shouldn't Be?

Sunny is the protagonist of the 2020 game OMORI, a hikikomori who shut himself away from the world after accidentally killing his sister.

Lenore is one of the arc villains of Netflix' Castlevania (2017), a vampire diplomat who at first is sent to manipulate Hector into complacency, but then forms a more equal bond with her slave.

On the surface, Sunny and Lenore should have nothing in common. And yet, somehow, they do.

NOTE: I'm aware those two characters' big crimes (manslaughter and rape by deception, respectively) are not comparable. The point of this post is to document the numerous similarities in their actions and the ways their respective stories frame them - nothing else.

This post mentions such topics as sexual abuse and suicide. Reader discretion is advised.

Lenore deceives Hector into having sex with her by pretending to support his desire to escape the situation he's trapped in, making him trust her on false pretenses; the support Sunny's friends give him is based on a lie he subconcsiously knows about, but doesn't divulge for the sake of covering his ass.

Hector reminds Lenore of the slave ring (a magical binding ring she used as a way to prevent him from fleeing the castle and/or rebelling against his captors), to which she only brushes him off by insinuating he was “having fun" when they had sex and Hector never brings up the subject again; Omori points out that the support Sunny uses to get through the final boss fight is based on the lie that Mari killed herself when Sunny was the one to accidentally kill her, and the game frames his point as unworthy of consideration solely because he’s Sunny’s evil mental illness.

Hector (presumably) makes peace with Lenore's abuse and then allows her to kill herself when she decides she doesn’t want to live anymore; Basil (presumably) makes peace with Sunny before the latter moves away despite Sunny’s abandonment of Basil prior to the game’s events. Both Lenore and Sunny abandon the person they're supposed to care about to the consequences of their own actions - twice, in Sunny's case.

Both Lenore and Sunny's suicides make the act look easy. The former kills herself on a whim and it's framed as romantic (with the show's director, Samuel Deats, outright confirming her death was presented as beautiful "for effect"); the latter’s fate is determined by a single "Yes/No" choice prompt after the final boss fight and the game frames him throwing himself off a roof if you select "No" as a joke by setting the cutscene to a cheery pop song.

Lenore barely shows any care about Hector's mental well-being since she's only concerned about his physical comfort; Sunny only imagines doing something nice for Basil by watering his flowers in Headspace without ever doing anything for him when he has the chance to.

Lenore seeks Hector's company only to complain about her woes; Sunny joins his friends again only because he's about to leave in 3 days.

NFCV's story wants the audience to forgive Lenore since she's sad about feeling useless even though she never does anything substantial to indicate she's changing into a better person; OMORI's story wants the audience to forgive Sunny since he's sad about killing Mari and abandoning his friends even though he never does anything substantial to indicate he's changing into a better person.

Hector's trauma is framed as irrelevant compared to Lenore's whining about how she feels useless; the grief Sunny's friends experienced in the four years before the game's events and are experiencing during said events is practically glossed over in favor of emphasizing how sad Sunny feels.

Lenore's rape by deception is trivialized into her making dick jokes with her victim, the very first scene of them together after her betrayal in the previous season, that is framed as a cute bonding moment; Sunny's manslaughter of Mari is trivialized into him having a nice picnic with his friends in front of her grave, a wholesome scene that ignores how he is sitting near the grave of the loved one he killed with his own hands, surrounded with his unaware friends, without as much as a hint of guilt (which could've been easily represented by Something)

As noted by the post's title and its introduction, the fact those two characters have this much in common is baffling and honestly disturbing. I shouldn't be able to compare a 16-year-old teenager to a 200-year-old rapist vampire that easily. That brings me back to the question posed by the title - why are they so similar when they shouldn't be?

The answer's plain and simple - shitty writing. In Lenore's case, the six-week time skip that gets the audience to the point where she and Hector are already besties may have come from NFCV's lead writer, Warren Ellis, being fired from the show following allegations that he molested women, which might've led to its last season being rushed. In Sunny's case, the reason for his failure as a character is thankfully far less horrific - Omocat has made it clear OMORI's emotional impact was their only priority, so it all boils down to them wanting to create the most tragic blorbo to have ever tragically blorbed at the expense of everything else, including the story's other characters and basic common sense.

[carnelianwings]

Since I'm not sure if I'll ever get the chance to properly touch on this in a fic because it's more character analysis than something I can properly include in dialogue/exposition without it being very awkwardly out of place and telling not showing, I figured I'd just dump it here. It's something I think about a lot whenever I write for post-Seed Destiny Athrun in a fic, because in so many ways, this is actually something of a non-magical "Ideal (Fake) Reality" situation that Durandal very nearly succeeded in pulling off, but ultimately failed at because Durandal overplayed his hand and underestimated Athrun's loyalty to his friends Kira, who was pulling triple duty opposing Athrun because Kira himself didn't agree with what Athrun was doing, protecting Cagalli, and supporting Cagalli at a time when she was powerless.

It's a trope I very much love in magical/sci-fi settings because it says a lot about the character and the lengths they'll go to get what they want (the willingness and determination to take the longer, harder path to make the dream reality vs the instant gratification option even if it's fake), and also just gives me so much to work with when I write when it comes to character motivation/dialogue/actions.

I feel like a lot of this gets missed in all the memes that he's (somewhat deservedly) suddenly a part of after Seed Freedom, because while Seed Freedom Athrun is very self-assured and confident in his course of action, he definitely took a long hard road (with more downs than ups, in my opinion) between Seed and Seed Destiny to get there.

(Rest behind the cut because there's a reason Athrun Zala is my favorite Seed character, and not just because he's got a lovely voice - thank you Ishida-san for that - and is easy on the eyes.)

When Athrun re-enlists in ZAFT and "continues" his life again as himself, he's given a choice thanks to Durandal's string-pulling: Resume the life that was planned for him by his parents and PLANT (his "destined" life, if you will), or find his way back to the life that he's chosen for himself (with Cagalli and Orb).

If he chose his "old" life, he would've had it all - the glory of being a decorated war veteran, a post as a FAITH member (resuming the role he'd previously gotten thanks to his father), a "Lacus Clyne" for his fiance, and the honor of being the pilot of the Legend (while being something of a "legend" himself). Durandal saw to it Athrun would've seamlessly resumed that life to all external appearances, even if it would've been an absolute sham behind closed doors. Athrun might be a decorated war veteran, but that came with a lot of trauma and grief - trauma from having to fight and kill at such a young age, grief at being the one to survive when those he'd called friends die around him, plus all the unresolved emotional turmoil and grief of having never been able to properly resolve things with his father and his genocidal ideals (because Patrick Zala, too, was a man who never got over his grief at losing Lenore during the Bloody Valentine Incident, and only became the way he did because of that). He might've had a highly coveted position within FAITH, but that power would ultimately be in service to Durandal (a head of state Athrun alternates between wanting to agree with and being directly at odds against). Durandal needed more capable "Yes men" ace pilots like Shinn Asuka to spread and enforce his plans, not people capable of thinking for themselves like Athrun (at least, Athrun got there after Operation Angel Down). The "Lacus Clyne", is, of course, Meer under the best cosmetic surgery money could buy, but she is nothing like Lacus Athrun knows and cares for as a friend and whose cause he had once lent his power to (and would again at the end of the Second War).

And the Legend? It might fit Athrun in name only (in the sense that he's the "legendary pilot who helped end the first Earth-PLANT War) but the entire suit (even if it had an updated OS for the DRAGOON system) doesn't even play to Athrun's core strengths as a pilot. It's almost comedic how Durandal didn't even bother tailoring the Legend to Athrun - the Saviour is more Athrun's style both as a spiritual successor to the Aegis and weapons load out, yet it's coincidental that it would end up in Athrun's hands. There's no way Durandal could've known and planned for the Saviour to go to Athrun, but Durandal arguably had that time with the Legend. In the episode where both the Destiny and Legend are revealed, Durandal made a point of telling Shinn the Destiny was fine tuned to him, but neglects to tell Athrun much about the Legend beyond the DRAGOON system and the updated OS for it (the closest Athrun arguably ever came to a DRAGOON system was flying right past Kira and Rau's duel in front of Genesis at the end of Seed).

On the flip side of that, there's the life Athrun had chosen for himself after the first Earth-PLANT War. It's not an ideal life, not by any means - the fact he's essentially a powerless civilian with no means to reach for his ultimate goal chafes him to no end, especially when there's the ever-looming threat of Cagalli getting taken away from him due to circumstances neither of them want nor are able to deal with. Cagalli can't get out of the arranged marriage, Athrun as "Alex Dino" has no claim to power and as "Athrun Zala" would only invite larger scale international problems - even if Athrun himself has no political ties to PLANT, his family name says plenty. Athrun is patient, yes, but even his patience has a limit, and seemingly losing Cagalli to someone he doesn't respect and she doesn't love (in a reversal of Athrun's situation with Lacus and Kira) pushes him to action out of desperation. And while it puts him at odds with Kira and Cagalli (including lashing out at both of them when Cagalli finally breaks down and gives in and gets coerced into going through with the arranged marriage), it does also get him to realize that he's not the same person he was before the war - he's no longer capable of living that same life he had before, where he would fight where his country tells him because that's the fastest way to end the war. The easy (destined, if you will) option is no longer an acceptable choice for him, because it's not the one that ultimately leaves him fulfilled and truly happy with the one he loves in the end.

And it's this that ultimately brings him back to Cagalli and the (Infinite) Justice, metaphorically reclaiming his sense of justice (ha ha). He's always going to be looking for a cause to serve, and a just cause by his own terms, because he's dedicated far too much of his life serving in the military to just stop doing that and he's spent too much time around Lacus to just mindlessly follow whatever the higher ups say, anymore. So this leaves the only way forward: serve under a head of state whose ideals he can agree with, with the freedom of choice to act according to his own sense of justice, and to that end, there's only one choice for him - return to Orb and Cagalli.

[historicity-was-already-taken]

Hello!! I've come here with a humble request. I'm currently writing a thesis on how the situation of Jewish women and men differed during Holocaust and I've found your speech: 'Girls with Guns, Woman Commanders, and Unheeded Warnings: Women and the Holocaust' to be an amazing starting point. Could you direct me to the sources you used when preparing it? (sincere apologies if this has been answered before, and thank you!!) Have a great day ✿✿✿

First of all, thank you SO MUCH for your kind words about that piece. For anyone who doesn't know which piece we're referring to, it's this one.

So just so we're all on the same page, I'm going to approach this question like you're an upper level undergrad History major and I'm the graduate teaching assistant in charge of guiding you through this research planning process. So, before I start to give you names and titles, I'm going to pose some questions for you to consider: which European Jews are you writing about? Eastern European? Western European? Southern European? Ashkenazic? Sephardic? Polish? Greek? Dutch? Religious? Hasidic? Secular? Factory-owning class? Working class? Because gendered experiences of and responses to the Holocaust will also be shaped by nationality, religiosity, class, and region.

When you've chosen your region/niche/group, I'd recommend starting at least 100 years before the Holocaust. Like, when I was writing about German Jewish female refugees in Shanghai for my MA thesis, to understand their behavior and responses, I had to start in the 1800s to get a better idea of the historical experience, trajectory, and socialization of German Jewish women.

The post you're referring to was more about memory and its silences than it was about a specific group, so the sources for that are extremely general. Since you're still determining your scope, I'm going to give you some names of historians whose bibliographies you should explore yesterday:

-Marion Kaplan -Paula Hyman -Dalia Ofer -Zoe Waxman -Joan Ringelheim -Carol Rittner -Lenore Weitzman

And some titles to help you grasp the basics, presented in no particular order:

Between Dignity and Despair: Jewish Life in Nazi Germany by Marion Kaplan

Writing the Holocaust: Identity, Testimony, Representation by Zoe Waxman

Different Voices: Women and the Holocaust edited by Carol Rittner

Women in the Holocaust edited by Dalia Ofer and Lenore J. Weitzman

Gender and Jewish History edited by Marion Kaplan and Deborah Dash Moore

Sexual Violence Against Jewish Women During the Holocaust edited by Sonja M. Hedgepeth and Rochelle G. Saidel [this one is rough; only use it if you are 800% sure this is the lens you want to use]

Gender and Assimilation in Modern Jewish History: The Roles and Representation of Women by Paula E. Hyman [no relation, though she is my grand-adviser]

Women in the Holocaust: A Feminist History by Zoe Waxman

I have a pretty good working knowledge of Modern Jewish European historiography, with a focus on gender, ~1700-Holocaust, so once you've narrowed your scope, let me know if I can provide additional titles/help/whatever.

[ratchet-decades-challenge]

Burdick Legacy 1903 | PART 1

When Frederick and Elsie turned 13 they went along with Arabella and Henrietta to go visit the Dowell estate.

Elsie went out of her way to get to know all of her father’s side of the family and they all thought she seemed like she was shaping out to be a proper lady” despite her “homely background”.

Henrietta spent most of her time chatting with Lenore who was thrilled to have someone to play with.

The Darby family, who were friends of the Dowells, were visiting at around the same time. They had a son, Charles, who was Arabella’s age. They spent their time playing together and Charles made her promise to visit again.

Frederick was enamored with the estate and spent his time pretending he lived there, trying to determine how he could have a home like this one day.

1903 | [BACK TO 1902 | PART 2]

[madamemoonscosplay]

Oops I made another OC.

This time though, it's my first ever fully fledged vampire. Her name (for now) is Lenore Clemens.

She was embraced in the 1830's and is a lover of Edgar Allen Poe literature. She's a solitary vampire that either knows of the Gangrel coven or is a part of it. Lenore can turn into a snowy owl and often chooses to incorporate parts of its features into her appearance along with the reflexes of one.

She used to be a concert pianist before her embrace, but after it/due to the way she was embraced, she lost her forearm and could no longer reach acclaim in her career. (She's a tiny bit salty about it, trust me). It took her a while to come to terms with it, but being determined, she managed to find a highly skilled artificer/craftman and gained a functional and somewhat gothic inspired prosthetic forearm with working fingers.

Now, she spends most of her time shunning socialite society and performing concertos in haunted churches/chapels and ruins.

(Woodland portrait by me.)