#Name Origin Meta

[mjulmjul]

Katya / Goncharov

[sheepydraws]

I know no one cares about Naberius Tern but that is exactly the problem.

Every single lyctor we have seen so far is undone by killing their caviller. Mercymorn makes it very, very clear that she has been carrying the grief of killing Cristabel for ten thousand years. Palamedes doesn't say he would rather die than kill Cam to become a lyctor because he is busy dying rather than killing Cam to become a lyctor. The unspoken rule is that lyctorhood can only be obtained by killing the person most important to you.

Unless you are Ianthe.

Ianthe is the only lyctor who isn't in a constant state of mourning. She has achieved immortality and cosmic power without losing the person closest to her.

Incidentally the person Ianthe loves the most is Corona, who also doesn't care what happened to Babs. Ianthe chats with Corona while wearing Babs discarded corpse and they banter about it.

Ianthe essentially made her Faustian bargain with counterfeit money and I think eventually she is going to have to pay up

[raynewolfegirl]

Meta Jazz, the Arkham Intern Therapist Pt 2.2

Note: Part 2.2! The Bane Incident from Kon's POV! 😁

~*~*~

Two days later, Kon was back at Arkham undercover again. The Bats had caught Bane nearly 12 hours earlier after Red Hood showed up midway through the fight, lept off the overpass, and landed a blow directly to the top of Bane's head with a metal pipe on the way down. The behemoth of a man had crashed hard into the cement, immediately unconscious, and been taken directly to Arkham's medical facilities as soon as he arrived. He'd been checked over and cleared to head to his usual room in less than 15 minutes once he woke up the following afternoon.

Kon found out all of this afterwards. 

He was headed back to the briefing room for his nect assignment after lunch when he spotted four senior guards, Collins, Ryans, Dorr, and Miles, escorting Bane from medical to his usual cell. He stepped into a doorway to let them pass by before continuing on his way. Kon had spent a productive lunch break chatting with Jasmine "please don't call me Fenton" while she waited for Dr. Rylie before he had to head back to the guards room so he wouldn't be late. He'd have to make sure to catch up with Dr. Rylie on the way out at the end of the day instead, Kon mused.

There was a shout behind him. Two bodies slamming hard into the walls on either side of the hall. A rush of fabric sliding across fabric. Rapid pounding footsteps.

Kon spun letting out a gasp as he saw Bane grab Jasmine's upper arm and yank her hard enough to make her stumble. The large man turned to face the guards behind him as he pulled her firmly back against his chest. Kon had the dart gun in his hands and leveled at Bane before he even realized he was moving. Dorr and Ryans had also already done the same. Miles was scrambling to his feet, drawing both his dart gun and baton. Collins slid to the ground, right shoulder visibly dislocated from hitting the wall at the wrong angle but he drew his tranquilizer dart gun as well.

"Weapons down or I'll snap her skinny little neck." Bane growled out, shaking Jasmine as emphasis. Her braid swung from the force of it. 

Kon expected her to panic. He was panicking; a full grown, fully recognized superhero. Of course, he expected her to panic.

But Jasmine didn't. 

Her expression smoothed out turning from barely-there surprise to blank calm in the span of a few seconds. Her breathing stayed deep and even. Her heart beat steady was steady. Was she in some kind of shock? But he had never heard of someone reacting like that to shock before.

"Back up! Let him through!" Dr. Rylie shouted to Kon and the other guards from where he had pressed himself against the wall on the opposite side from Bane. He must have been just a few steps ahead of Jasmine.

"She's my student! Let him through!" Dr. Rylie screamed again. His voice high pitched with fear for his intern. 

Kon didn't know what to do. From the way Ryans and Dorr were exchanging looks, he wasn't sure they knew what the best approach was in this situation either. Of the five of them, Ryans was the most senior guard but he wasn't one of the six guards trained for hostage negotiations either. None of the scenarios they had trained for would work here. Jasmine was too similar in height to Bane for a good shot and a single tranquilizer wouldn't knock him out anyway. They couldn't possibly circle around behind him in this narrow hallway either.

Kon could practically taste the panic building in the air. The tension was rising. If he didn't think fast someone else was going to make the first move and Jasmine would get hurt and -

She sighed.

Long, heavy, and disappointed. It felt like every muscle in Kon's body locked up suddenly.

"Mr. Bane, remove your hands from my person, please. I will give you to one to comply." She said voice calm and heavy like - like she was disappointed in him?

Kon's stared at her bland expression in shock for a moment before his eyes darted back to Bane. The rogue looked momentarily stunned then started laughing.

"Five." Jasmine said, ignoring his laughter. Kon felt himself paling. His colleagues were shifting, white faced with fear as they traded glances again.

"Four." She continued. Bane snorted derisively at her.

"Did you really think that would work?" He asked. His arms tightened around her. There was no way Jasmine was getting out of this without bruises.

"Three." She said ignoring Bane's question. Holy shit. Had she lost her mind?

"What can you even do if I don't?" Bane mocked with a rabid gleam in his eye. He's going to kill her, Kon realized faintly, even if we let him go now he's going to snap her neck for this.

"Two." 

"Jasmine..." Kon whispered pained and horrified by his realization. Loosening his grip on the dart gun without meaning too. She met his gaze across the hall, eyes resolved. 

"One." She finished, brows furrowing slightly in concentration as her lips thinned, pressed together. Bane gave a derisive snort. 

And then the massive man was airborne. 

"Holy shit." Miles breathed out.

Kon stared at the crater in the floor. Collins and Dorr were absolutely silent, hearts racing in their chests. Ryans took a half step forward, heart stuttering - Kon really hoped the man wasn't about to have a heart attack because he could rush him to medical right now. Dr. Rylie was half collapsed against the wall he'd been pressing himself against a strangled sound of shock coming from his throat. Bane was embedded in the floor breath wheezing as Jasmine half knelt on top of his neck. Oh wow, Kon registered, Bane's arm is fucked.

"Now, do you know what you've done wrong?" Jasmine asked looking down at the giant.

"Yes, Ma'am." Bane choked out.

"Fucked with the wrong HBIC." Collins muttered under his breath faintly still stunned.

"Jasmine for president." Miles whispered back automatically.

"Boys," Dorr scolded as he half lowered his dart gun, shifting his weight at the same time.

"Won't be making her angry around that time of month." Ryans mumbled to himself softly enough that Kon was the only person who could have possibly heard him. 

"What did you do wrong?" Jasmine pressed. Collins choked back an inappropriate hysterical giggle at the question. Bane appeared to panic when he realized he'd have to respond. 

No wonder, Kon thought, the man literally grew up in Santa Prisca's prisons. Did he even know how to respond to -Kon choked on air - a maternal scolding?! What the ever loving fuck? He bluescreened. Stood there in the hallway, absolutely stunned, completely unaware of his surroundings as he struggled to process the fact that Jasmine was giving Bane a maternal scolding in the middle of an Arkham hallway right in front of him. Maybe I've finally gone nuts? Kon wondered. 

Jasmine gestured vaguely towards the group of them without turning to look and Kon snapped back to the present. 

"Kyle here is going to take you to see the nurse and then back to your room then. I'm sure you'll behave for him?" Oh shit, that's me she's talking about. Kon walked towards her still a bit numb.

"Yes, Ma'am. I'll behave." Bane answered her. Kon watched as Jasmine stood up carefully and backed away from Bane far enough for him to pull himself out of the crater in the floor. Once he was on his feet, Kon led Bane back towards medical realizing as he did that there had been four other guards behind him this whole time.

Two of them darted forward and scooped up Collins, probably to take him to the guards medical ward along the outer wall patrol route. The other two fell in with Kon, Dorr, Miles, and Ryans. As they walked away Kon could hear Jasmine talking to Dr. Rylie.

"I'm fine, really. My mother was an extremely skilled martial artist. I've been learning from her since I started to walk." She explained honestly, trying to sooth the frazzled doctor's nerves. "I didn't know he was heavy enough to break the floor though!" Jasmine laughed. 

That - heart beat uneven, vocal cords tense - that second part was a lie.

[mxtxfanatic]

Ever think about how the author of PIDW transmigrated into his most nothing character who only existed to push the protagonist on the “right” path to popularity before dying? Ever think about how he transmigrated into that character from their birth, completely deleting that person from existence, while his own existence as the creator of the world he now inhabits is so thoroughly erased that we readers only know his “real name” as the character’s name? How the only name he carries over from his first life is a shortened version of his innuendo pen name? As if his existence as a person is nothing next to being the author, which is only marginally less nothing by virtue of the job’s one purpose: to make sure a story is following the “right” path to popularity before dying to enshrine that fame/infamy amongst readers?

No? Just me? Ok…

[david-talks-sw]

What's 'Star Wars' about?

A while ago I got an 'Ask' that concluded with "what is Star Wars about, if not the Jedi, right?" And weirdly enough... I have to disagree.

I mean... to me? Yes. Star Wars is about the Jedi. A Jedi-less, Sith-less, lightsaber-less Star Wars movie or series will struggle to get me on board (which is why I was surprised that I loved Andor so much).

But if you read everything George Lucas said, if you think about the Jedi's place in his two trilogies... they're not front and center, right?

Sure, there's Luke Skywalker... but he's a learner, in the Original Trilogy. Same goes for Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi, in the Prequels. They're going through character arcs.

Otherwise, the Jedi are either used as mentors to the protagonist...

... or to deliver exposition...

... but they're mostly vectors Lucas uses to present his thesis.

Functionally-speaking, the Jedi are important in that they embody the Buddhist philosophies the movie's themes are based on.

But when it comes to the plot, they're secondary. That's because the the themes of these films are bigger than the Jedi themselves.

So the question becomes... what's are the themes?

The primary goal of the Star Wars films is to inspire kids to start thinking outside the box and teach them a set of values and psychological motifs that have been passed down through mythology and fairy tales.

These values can be summed up in the dichotomy between greed and compassion / selfishness and selflessness / pleasure and joy.

We all have both aspects and need to strike a balance between the two. After all, being greedy ultimately comes from fear and being afraid can happen to all of us. Problem is, unchecked fear can lead to anger, hate and a whole lot of suffering.

The more selfish you are, the more you want things and the more you're afraid that you'll lose everything you have, you'll get angry when someone tries to take it and that will hurt everyone around you.

In other words, fear is the path to the tempting/addictive Dark Side.

Thus, seeing as we'll be inevitably tempted by the Dark Side and give in at some point (because nobody's perfect), we should aim to be as selfless and compassionate as possible for our own good... but also for the greater good, because we're all connected to a life energy. You can call it Qi or God; in Star Wars it's known as the Force.

As such, we all form a symbiotic circle and working with that in mind is better than putting ourselves first and draining from everything and everyone around us.

But we also need to be careful because there will be people who give in to that selfish side and will try to control everything. When the time comes, we must stand up for what's right.

So that's Lucas' thesis.

If I had to sum them up, the six movies illustrate it as follows:

The Prequel Trilogy is about the consequences of greed, explored through Anakin on a smaller scale and the Senate on a larger one.

The Original Trilogy shows the triumph of compassion, through Luke, Leia & Han and the Rebellion's fight against the Empire.

Lucas talked about it multiple times, the Prequels are about how Anakin becomes Darth Vader and how the Republic becomes the Empire, and in both those cases, it happens because they're greedy.

The Senate is greedy in the more classical sense. They could give a shit about "symbiosis", no they're taking bribes, letting corporations dictate policy, using loopholes to keep themselves in power and halting any meaningful progress out of fear that the new status quo will conflict with their own self-serving goals.

Anakin's greed manifests in a different way. He turns to the Dark Side because of his attachment. He wants to stop Padmé from dying... but not because he wants to save her, rather he wants to save himself from feeling the pain of loss again and will do anything to not have to live without her, her own wishes and the natural cycle of life and death be damned.

In both cases, they cave under pressure orchestrated by Palpatine, but nobody puts a gun to their head. They make a deliberate choice that comes from a selfish place, and neither one takes personal responsibility for it, they blame others, the Separatists in the case of the Senate and the Jedi in Anakin's case.

The Republic becomes an Empire with thunderous applause, betraying the people it was meant to protect.

And when faced between doing something he knows is right and giving in to his selfish desires...

... Anakin elects to do the latter, thus betraying his family and leaving the Force in darkness.

These selfish choices impact the galaxy as a whole, including the only characters in the trilogy who were doing their best to be compassionate and live in symbiosis: the Jedi, Padmé and Bail.

These champions of the Light Side are stuck playing catch-up or helplessly witnessing the events unfold, throughout the trilogy. They're playing by the rules and Palpatine uses this to his advantage.

Thus, as the galaxy tears itself apart because of Palpatine's manipulations, the Jedi and Bail are ignored and gradually weakened until they're either rendered irrelevant or killed.

A new order is born, one built on blood, lies and greed: the Empire.

But a new hope remains.

While before, the Jedi and people like Bail stood alone as everything around them became willfully corrupt... now, a Rebellion inspired by their legacy has banded together to overthrow the current order. But they don't fight for power or personal glory, they fight for altruistic, compassionate reasons. There's a sense of general responsibility that moves them, they're all doing their part.

On a larger scale, we focus on the Rebels, who are tired of seeing people suffer and decided this needs to stop. They have gone from being passive, to proactive.

On a more personal scale, we see the evolution of Luke, from naive farmer to a hero, and guess what? More and more selfish people - like Han or Lando - are inspired to join the Rebellion, after seeing the exploits of Luke, Leia, or even Ben.

It all culminates in the final film, wherein:

The Rebels band together with the Ewoks - literal teddy bears whom the Empire, in their arrogance, never even considered to be a threat - to destroy the Second Death Star and free the galaxy from imperial tyranny.

At the same time, Emperor Palpatine pressures Luke, who is tempted by the Dark Side like his father was.

But instead of giving in to his selfish desire to kill Darth Vader for all the horrors he's done...

... he finds the strength to rise above it, instead showing compassion for his father, which, in turn, inspires Anakin to do the same.

He faces a choice, like he did in Palpatine's office, two decades prior...

... and this time he chooses right.

Children teach you compassion. Anakin lets go of his fear and anger, and saves his son at the cost of his own life, finally bringing balance back to the Force.

Good triumphed over evil. Its champions achieved victory by being selfless, hopeful and fighting together / helping each other.

And that's it, that's how the movies thematically tie together.

As you can see, the Jedi aren't that directly impactful on the overall plot, because it revolves around Anakin, Luke and the respective factions/institutions around them.

But what the Jedi do bring to the table is their ability to teach and inspire others, both in-universe and out. They're spiritually impactful.

The Jedi are the epitome of compassion, and it's partially through them that George Lucas teaches his values to the audience.

[anghraine]

Okay, breaking my principles hiatus again for another fanfic rant despite my profound frustration w/ Tumblr currently:

I have another post and conversation on DW about this, but while pretty much my entire dash has zero patience with the overtly contemptuous Hot Fanfic Takes, I do pretty often see takes on Fanfiction's Limitations As A Form that are phrased more gently and/or academically but which rely on the same assumptions and make the same mistakes.

IMO even the gentlest, and/or most earnest, and/or most eruditely theorized takes on fanfiction as a form still suffer from one basic problem: the formal argument does not work.

I have never once seen a take on fanfiction as a form that could provide a coherent formal definition of what fanfiction is and what it is not (formal as in "related to its form" not as in "proper" or "stuffy"). Every argument I have ever seen on the strengths/weaknesses of fanfiction as a form vs original fiction relies to some extent on this lack of clarity.

Hence the inevitable "what about Shakespeare/Ovid/Wide Sargasso Sea/modern takes on ancient religious narratives/retold fairy tales/adaptation/expanded universes/etc" responses. The assumptions and assertions about fanfiction as a form in these arguments pretty much always should apply to other things based on the defining formal qualities of fanfic in these arguments ("fanfiction is fundamentally X because it re-purposes pre-existing characters and stories rather than inventing new ones" "fanfiction is fundamentally Y because it's often serialized" etc).

Yet the framing of the argument virtually always makes it clear that the generalizations about fanfic are not being applied to Real Literature. Nor can this argument account for original fics produced within a fandom context such as AO3 that are basically indistinguishable from fanfic in every way apart from lacking a canon source.

At the end of the day, I do not think fanfic is "the way it is" because of any fundamental formal qualities—after all, it shares these qualities with vast swaths of other human literature and art over thousands of years that most people would never consider fanfic. My view is that an argument about fanfic based purely on form must also apply to "non-fanfic" works that share the formal qualities brought up in the argument (these arguments never actually apply their theories to anything other than fanfic, though).

Alternately, the formal argument could provide a definition of fanfic (a formal one, not one based on judgment of merit or morality) that excludes these other kinds of works and genres. In that case, the argument would actually apply only to fanfic (as defined). But I have never seen this happen, either.

So ultimately, I think the whole formal argument about fanfic is unsalvageably flawed in practice.

Realistically, fanfiction is not the way it is because of something fundamentally derived from writing characters/settings etc you didn't originate (or serialization as some new-fangled form, lmao). Fanfiction as a category is an intrinsically modern concept resulting largely from similarly modern concepts of intellectual property and auteurship (legally and culturally) that have been so extremely normalized in many English-language media spaces (at the least) that many people do not realize these concepts are context-dependent and not universal truths.

Fanfic does not look like it does (or exist as a discrete category at all) without specifically modern legal practices (and assumptions about law that may or may not be true, like with many authorial & corporate attempts to use the possibility of legal threats to dictate terms of engagement w/ media to fandom, the Marion Zimmer Bradley myth, etc).

Fanfic does not look like it does without the broader fandom cultures and trends around it. It does not look like it does without the massive popularity of various romance genres and some very popular SF/F. It does not look like it does without any number of other social and cultural forces that are also extremely modern in the grand scheme of things.

The formal argument is just so completely ahistorical and obliviously presentist in its assumptions about art and generally incoherent that, sure, it's nicer when people present it politely, but it's still wrong.

[fierrochase-falafel]

"All the names are changed to protect the innocent"- an analysis of Marvin's use of names

So y'know how in In Trousers, Marvin is the only named character who actually has screentime and all the women in his life are nameless (ignoring his teacher, Miss Goldberg). It's pretty clear this is, to an extent, a sign of Marvin not seeing the women in his life as people in their own right as he appreciates the affection of no woman actively giving him any, and that he only focuses his attention on unattainable women (such as Miss Goldberg) as a form of compulsory heterosexuality and men (Whizzer).

I do, though, think it's interesting to note that in Love is Blind (in March of the Falsettos), Marvin says "Love reads like a bad biography, all the names are changed to protect the innocent". Marvin's experience of love so far has been women whose names he has left unsaid. Given Whizzer refuses to acknowledge he loves Marvin, and Marvin says he loves Whizzer "sorta, kinda", their relationship isn't taken fully into account as love Marvin has experienced. Marvin does admit he loves Whizzer to Mendel later in the "sorta kinda" conversation, but says he would only concede it if Whizzer loved him back, meaning that he refuses to fully accept that love unless Whizzer said he loved him first: Marvin's inner dialogue does not really see Whizzer as part of his vision of 'love' (albeit ironically the only true romantic love he has experienced). Hence, Marvin's experience of love, at this point, really has had his previous lovers' names changed, perhaps to protect them from people recognising them as having engaged with him at all.

Who this decision is protecting, though, depends on who is innocent. Maybe Marvin had some amount of sympathy for both his high school sweetheart and his wife as being innocent victims of loving him when he didn't love them in return. However, in March of the Falsettos, Marvin does say his wife's name for the first time (I think!) in 'Marvin hits Trina', and he says it not 1, not 2 but 8 TIMES. In quick succession. This song takes place immediately after he gets an invitation to Trina and Mendel's wedding. Trina having her own life makes her no longer 'innocent' as he sees her as having betrayed him, so he addresses her by name repeatedly in anger at this.

I think it's also worth noting that from a point of view of innocence, the first whole name revealed in the musical is that of Whizzer Brown. Whizzer is someone Marvin is very well aware of being sexually experienced, which contradicts the idea of innocence as someone naive to concepts such as sex. He sees Whizzer as someone who is not innocent, and so his name is left in fully throughout. The multiple meanings of 'innocent' to both imply sexual inexperience and having done nothing wrong, can also group together having a lot of sexual experience with being guilty of it. The negative connotations of these together subtly shows Marvin's internalised homophobia and conflicted views on Whizzer and his unapologetic flamboyance. One could also say Whizzer is basically a walking pride flag in how he seems unashamed of his personality and life, and his name is also very obviously on display as such as he has nothing to hide or stash away. Arguably that is innocence, but I don't think Marvin sees it that way. Anyways, this is getting a bit convoluted.

Through this one line, even though it seems strange-sounding and just a pretty odd throwaway at first (atleast it did to me on the first few listens), you get a distinct idea of Marvin's view of what is innocent and what is guilty, and who he deems to be innocent in a world where he sees himself as the highest power. Trina and Whizzer, as individuals who disagree with Marvin's views of what is right on a particular front, are guilty. While trying to hide their names initially when mentioning "his wife", "his child" and "his friend" in Tight Knit Family, his opinion of their lives comes out on top in this love-biography he has in his head. He writes the bad biography (even he admits it's bad, funnily enough), and to him they aren't innocent. Obviously he goes through major character development at the end of March of the Falsettos, and this seems to make his use of names less distinct. He says Whizzer's name more softly, with emphasis on love, and I don't think he says Trina's very much at all, maybe letting go with his anger and view of her as 'guilty'. This is last part is largely conjecture though! I'd love to hear more people's takes on this.

Edit: I just realised! In terms of innocence, Miss Goldberg's name being revealed is probably also representative of her adulthood when Marvin's in school, making her seem more 'mature' to him and thus not innocent (given how childhood often connotes innocence.

[legendoftherisingtide]

im sure someone’s said it but i love when crowley and aziraphale blend and mix and become those shades of grey.

like obviously the famous switch in s1 gave aziraphale the freedom to go feral and he was fully gonna kill a kid that one time (and also prepared to let kids die in s2 but i will just believe that was just his faith in crowley).

but i love the subtler times. when they were raising adam, they switched roles in a way. you would expect aziraphale to take the nurturing nanny role and we see that crowley loves plants and is the only thing he has with him wherever he lives. but they chose to be the other.

i just love the influence they have on each other. crowley is so blatant with his influence across their history: pushing aziraphale to think critically and challenge his views. but aziraphale’s kindness and understanding allows crowley to be more open and vulnerable.

they have spent their whole existences pretending like they aren’t all the other has. but in reality, it is hard to see where one ends and the other begins.

[gamebunny-advance]

Something I Don't Consider Enough

This thing lays eggs.

And not only does it lay eggs, it lays eggs that are twice the size of itself.

[thebluespacecow]

Got bored in class yesterday

Have a dc oc

[sunnykeysmash]

Mac and the beliefs that influence his actions

[pharawee]

The thing that gets me most about I Will Knock You (apart from Thi being so embarrassingly relatable) is the way Noey sees Thi.

To us, Thi's this introverted pushover who's endlessly scared and/or frustrated by Noey (even as he's slowly falling in love).

But to Noey, everything Thi does is tinted by his obsession with old movies. Thi really is the one he's been waiting for: his perfect "heroine". We've seen him court other girls before and every single one of them has rejected him (they seem to like him from afar for his dangerous vibe but once they get to know him they're put off).

But everything Thi has been doing since they first met is seemingly perfect if you don't see Thi the pushover (the audience's POV) but Thi the classical romantic heroine (Noey's POV):

He steps on Noey's "heart" and then steals it/won't give it back: it's destiny! He gives him a little trinket to distract him: it's a token of love! He almost drowns (lmao) in shallow water: it's a ploy to get closer! He faints in his arms and gets scared in the temple: isn't it so romantic! He almost always avoids his gaze and tries to appease him: he's bashful and flirty! He's clumsy and helpless: he must be protected! They keep running into each other: obviously Thi seeks Noey out on purpose! He's the only one who likes his food! He's the only one who likes his style (apart from the rest of the gang)! Thi won't back down when it counts: he must want to impress Noey! He must want to be close to him - that's the only reason he'd ever want to tutor him, right? And when he disapproves of him going after Pam, it's really because he's jealous (ok so he's actually not wrong this time)!

Of course Noey is smitten! How could he not be? Thi really is the perfect Wanlapa, the perfect Jomnien, Jarunee and Taeng-Aon* (all famous female idols - either fictional or real, but all from the era Noey is obsessed with). When Noey uses these names with Thi, I don't think it's because he wants to belittle him. They're cute pet names. Something he would use with girls like Pam if they showed any interest. He also uses "ter" with Thi (a polite and intimate and often romantic form of address/pronoun usually not used between random people) - because if Thi is the heroine then he has to be the perfect (rugged) hero.

(*Taeng-Aon is the most recent addition but I assume it fits right in with the other names.)

Does this mean Noey is in love with Thi? At this point, I think it's exactly as he says: he (thinks he) knows that Thi is trying to catch his eye. He's flattered and he's interested but he's not in love (yet).

But he's also not just indulging Thi. Most Some of what he's doing (the whole ice cream thing, finding him a helmet to keep, hugging him at night in the temple, the many, many times he's touching Thi's face/hair) actively counts as courting - and it's kind of funny how that's exactly why Thi is falling in love with him.

All of the girls are attracted to Noey from afar but are scared off once he shows interest. With Thi it's the other way around.

[kinaesthetiqueer]

nora muse: sooooo when's my next chapter

me: *avoiding eye contact*

[eoinmcgonigal]

I'm so sorry I can't take the Dudley-breaks-the-news-of-Eve's-supposed-death scene seriously AT ALL. It's hilarious! It's the reason why I'm a Dudley/Eve conspiracy nut, for fun, but let me explain the reasons this scene leaves me with no sanity.

First, it's important to know that the Qattara Depression, where Dudley says Eve's plane went down, is WEST of Alexandria (off to the left, on a map). Cairo is to the east/right of Alexandria. There is no way a plane headed from Alexandria to Cairo would go west.

So, from west (left) to east (right) we have: the Qattara Depression - Alexandria - the sandstorm Dudley says happened - Cairo.

Now, this is in a show that's playing fancy-dress-up-costume with history, and moved Kabrit from where it actually is (east of the Nile, by the Suez Canal) to a few hundred miles into the desert west of the Nile. Option one in the Eve plane story mystery is that the showrunners just didn't give a shit about where a place was, they simply slapped a name in there because they'd read/heard about it, and figured no one would know or bother to check. That would be on par for the show. (And the racist assumption that no one's going to know/care/bother to check where these places are - I very much doubt we're going to find them playing fast and loose with the location of European places.)

Anyway, leaving aside the option that makes me spit incredulous venom, I have a far more amusing second option to put forward:

Dudley was making shit up.

Which is extra fucking funny because Stirling, having been out in the desert, should very much know where the Qattara Depresison is. Dudley would know that Stirling should know. He'd be cackling internally at Stirling falling for it.

I don't know if I believe a word of what Dudley said, it makes no sense, but David not noticing the inconsistency means either anyone watching the show who knows vaugely where places in Egypt are just have to shriek in intense discomfort, or David is a complete and utter dumbass when it comes to remembering where places are.

[katwritesthings]

Why is it always the "Real World" or the "Human World" to differentiate between Earth and whatever your alternate reality is? Why does not-Earth get a cool name that makes sense?

Fuck that.

It's now the Physical World.

[deathbydarkelves]

I may have mentioned kaldorei berserking in my AU in passing before, but here's a more in-depth post about it.

Very few kaldorei (like <5% of the population), depending on genetic chance and circumstance, can enter a berserking state like their troll cousins. It manifests differently in everyone. Some are lucid in this state, some aren't; some can enter it by choice, some can't. For some it lasts only minutes or until the perceived threat has disappeared. And an unlucky few will enter it only once in their lives, leaving it when the overwhelming stress on their body takes them to the grave.

In 'proper' kaldorei society, it's taboo in all its forms. Without a troll's regeneration, it's only a liability. You are to keep your head in combat, or you will get yourself or your allies killed.

Due to its similarity to the madness experienced by the first worgen, many believe it to be a sign of Goldrinn's displeasure. Him cursing the children of those who have offended him. Expecting parents may shower his shrines with gifts as a preventative measure, especially if one of their relatives has showed signs in the past. This belief is the origin of the condition's Darnassian name: Thor'drinn, or "wolf's fury." Those with thor'drinn are called "wolf-touched", though that's also used as a derogatory by more unpleasant types for anyone prone to violent outbursts, impulsivity, or just anyone they want to insult. "Are you wolf-touched, boy?", that sort of thing.

Usually this condition is noticed in childhood -- though plenty go years without knowing, only learning this about themselves the first time their lives are truly at risk -- and every self-respecting parent is expected to take extensive measures to keep their child from ever entering that state again. This, of course, means no one with thor'drinn who was raised this way knows how to manage it when it does happen again.

Tarinne is one of those people. She's only done it a few times in her life, and never intentionally. The most recent time was when she escaped the Alliance encampment in which she'd been imprisoned for ~2 weeks during the Third War.