#TRAVERSING THE DOMAIN ... [POSTS]

[existence-incarnate]

[ A blip in the cosmos of the Genesis's Domain dives downwards into the stars, zooming around at light speed in search of something. ]

[ Looks like someone's home now. ]

[obsessivevoidkitten]

Slippery As An Eel

Yandere Eel Merman x Gender Neutral Reader (CW: Non-con, violent sex, bloody sex, biting, inhuman genitalia, huge dick, stalking, kidnapping, sadistic yandere, merman, eel man, merpeople, magic, general yandere behavior, reader gets broken ankle, dacryphylia, long tongue down reader’s throat) Word Count: 5.6k (Where I live there is still over an hour of May left, and I posted something for Mermay already, but it did not have smut, so I hope this feeds you all well for Mermay!)

Veeris was a merman, part man and part eel. Though most merfolk stayed well away from humankind, Veeris never managed to shake his fascination with them. They were so limited in their biped forms and yet they managed to traverse the skies and the seas. Maybe not so gracefully as a harpy or a merperson, but they traversed these domains nonetheless. And they did such a wide array of behaviors, from what he observed by watching the beach. They were just so fun to watch, going about their days. So small and fragile, but with little to no fear of predators. Veeris supposed that his own kind did a variety of crafts and hobbies too, but the eelfolk were a bit more homogenous than humans, who seemed far less predictable. Maybe it was just that he had lived among his own species so they just seemed more boring, but whatever the reason humans held some kind of spell over him. But there was one human that held his attention in a way that none others did, in a way that made his heart flutter and his thoughts race. And that human was you. It was a slow development, but after a while he became totally enthralled by you. Not knowing your name he dubbed you his "little siren" for getting him so attracted to you. He first saw you when you were picking up garbage from the beach, an activity that wasn't too uncommon as far as humans are concerned, but not totally normal either, it was always a welcome sight to see a human caring about the ocean rather than just polluting it though.   But another quality you possessed that made it so easy for the eel to fixate on you was that unlike the tourists who came and went you were a constant figure at the beach, you were practically a feature of it. And you weren't just a frequent beach goer, you were also consistent in the times that you went. Veeris could almost always predict just exactly when you were going to be there. At that point Veeris was extremely interested and curious about you, but not yet obsessed. What really made him yearn for you was when there was an oil spill. Of course you were a volunteer on the coast, helping to clean up birds that had gotten oil on them. And when he saw that he realized he longed for your delicate hands attending to him, traipsing over and exploring every inch of his body, in the same way that they were diligently cleaning every inch of the wildlife. Veeris tried to temper his passions, he really did. After all, you were a human and on the land and there was no way for him to even get to you, no matter how much he wanted to. Unless... he took advantage of your natural care for sea life. He was sea life was he not? The eel man knew every single inch of every path you took around the beach when you did one of your trash clean-ups. You always started at the south end and ended at the much more secluded north end. He staked the beach out for days waiting for a moment where there were no other humans nearby when you approached the end of your route. As you were going about using your grabber tool to pick up today's wave of never ending pollution you suddenly saw something large wash up with the gentle waves lapping at the shore. Just about 15ft. in front of you now lay a mind bogglingly long merman. Each of his features were striking in their own right. His rippling muscles, the long dark purple hair, almost black, splayed about messily over his face. The blue freckles covering his face, and parts of his arms, and chest. The dark purple scales covering his webbed hands and going up to his arms. But by far his most striking feature was the over 10ft. long tail. It was large, purple, had fins running all the way down its length, and looked oily, it was currently under a net. You saw his sharp teeth as he looked up pleadingly with his dark blue eyes and spoke in a pained voice, "Please help me, I’m Veeris. I was just swimming along when my arm and tail got caught up in this drifting net and I got washed ashore!" You told him your name and said that of course you would assist him! You ran over to him without hesitation, some humans may be scared of the seafolk, but you weren't a bigot! And clearly he needed your help. As you finished removing the net he struck without warning, wrapping you in his long slimy tail before slithering into the water and quickly making his way to his cave. You were stunned for a moment before you started to struggle, but the tail was heavy and muscular, almost like having the largest snake wrapped around you. There was also the little issue of having to contend with not being able to breathe. Just when your head was pounding and it felt like your lungs were on fire you felt the rush of air on your face as he crawled onto the floor of the seafloor, dragging you behind him. You gagged and spit up some water you had accidentally inhaled. "Wh-why did you bring me here?" You managed to croak out. It was practically unheard of for a merman of any type to eat a human but... with human meddling in the ocean fish may be scarce and anyone could be driven to extremes if starving. And those sharp teeth were definitely made for meat. "To be my mate, little siren!" He coiled around you and looked down at you intensely, this was the first time he had ever gotten to see you close up and he wanted to savor each and every little detail of his precious human mate. You flinched as his webbed fingers gently caressed your face. Welp, better than him intending you to be dinner. But uh... not ideal. You feared that trying to reason with him might make him angry and possibly violent, he clearly was not too rational, but maybe some quick thinking could weasel you out of this situation. “Well, um, I have a lot of responsibilities and a job that I have to do. Bills to pay. I can’t just be stuck here!” Maybe a bit flimsy, but maybe he’d buy it? “Ah, but don’t worry my sweet siren, with you being here you won’t have any of those types of worries in the first place! You can just relax and let me take care of you~” Damn, it didn't work. “But this cave is so damp and cool, surely my health will suffer if I stay for too long! And how am I to eat fresh vegetables or cook?” “Don’t worry, my love, I am good friends with the sea witch, Emrul. She has spent time amongst the humans in their form and has used powerful magic to make the next chamber in the cave habitable for your kind!” For the first time you took notice of your surroundings. You were in a huge room, a large portion of which was submerged in water where the cave led out to the sea, but the other portion was smooth rocky terrain. The walls had faintly glowing shells embedded into them with stalactites and stalagmites running together to form large pillars along the farther edges of the room. A soft moss like substance covered the rocky floor in large patches, it was probably of magical origin given that you could see no other way for it to survive here. Glancing behind you you saw a wide corridor leading deeper into Veeris’ den. Veeris slithered closer and grabbed your hand, leading you into the next room. Despite your reluctance to be there even you had to gasp at the sight before you. The room was enormous. The ceiling was a false but convincing image of the sky, clear blue with moving clouds. It was so real there was even a breeze, if it were not for the cave walls remaining the same as the previous chamber you would have been convinced you were really in a scenic location above water. The room was filled with grass and soil and even trees, there was a freshwater pond to give you a water source and in the distance there was a huge cabin, that even Veeris could easily fit into, in the corner with a sprawling garden free of any pests or disease, it was truly amazing. There was even a miniature river for Veeris to cool off in when he needed moisture and when he needed to get from one side of the room to the other quickly, it had arching bridges over it in several places so you could cross and remain dry. “See? Everything a human needs is here! Fresh air, food, trees, plants, food, freshwater, shelter!” Fuck! No dice. There was one last thing you could try. “Well, humans don’t fall in love or move in so fast… not usually… most of us prefer to date for a bit first.” “Date?” “Yeah, where you get to know someone gradually through planned meet-ups! And if you like them then you agree to be mates!” “Oh, so an extended courtship ritual that you need? Okay, little siren, how do we do a human date? I have already watched you for so long every time you are on the beach so I know I love you, but I don’t mind waiting a bit and doing this for you if it makes you more comfortable~” He looked at you and gave a toothy grin that you supposed was meant to be sweet but his sharp teeth gave you chills. But it wasn’t just that grin that made you exceedingly uncomfortable, apparently this eel man had been stalking you for quite some time. Oh god, it was working! “Well, uh, you can take me back up and we can meet and hang out on the beach sometime. I don’t know how your calendar works… maybe during the full moon, two nights from now?” “Okay!” Veeris took you gently and brought you back to the surface, it wasn’t that long, you could have made it yourself in one breath if you had to… assuming you were wearing flippers. Veeris gave you a hug and you said your goodbyes, once he re-submerged into the blue depths you ran home. You hadn’t brought your car since you lived just up the road. You had all of zero intention of going on your date, instead you started looking into new places to live. The nature of your work meant you absolutely had to be near an ocean, it would take some time to pull off but you sure as shit would not remain anywhere near this beach! Veeris, on the other hand, could not wait for his date. In only two days he would court and win the heart of his beloved, he just knew it! He could hardly focus on hunting, eating, or sleeping. He was just so excited, even a bit nervous despite his confidence that he would win you over. When the full moon started to rise Veeris was already at the spot where he first met you. You weren’t there, but that was okay, he had gotten there pretty early in the night in his excitement to see you again. But as the hours passed and the moon reached its zenith, with moonlight dancing on the water you never showed up. Veeris was heartbroken. At first he was depressed, then he was enraged. How could his little siren do something like this to him? He began to go back to his lair when a thought occurred to him. What if something had happened to you? What if you had been injured or hurt? It was the middle of the night, but Emrul was always up performing rituals and spells during the night of a full moon. Veeris knew he would need her help and did not delay in changing course and swimming directly to her dwelling. Emrul lived nearby, in a small stone building carved into the rocky side of a trench, secluded enough to perform her magical research and incantations in relative peace, but also close enough to the people that sought after her unique services. Her perimeter spell had already alerted her to Veeris’ arrival and she was outside to greet him. She looked very similar to him, with the obvious difference that she was a woman. Her scales were also a very dark, almost black, shade of blue rather than purple. She warmly greeted her fellow eel as they both went into her abode. Vials of brightly colored fluids lined her shelves, a cauldron bubbled with a mystic fluid that was thicker than water, and the smell of pungent ingredients permeated the water. “So, what brings you to me at such an hour? It must be important…” “it is… I really need your help...” And, after explaining his situation to her, he got it. A few days later you were in your house getting ready for bed. You had already arranged everything for your move, it wasn’t too terribly far, just 35 miles up the coast. All your things were already packed. You would miss the area, but you had no familial ties and no friends that lived near so that made things easier. You couldn’t stay knowing what was waiting to drag you into the depths. As you turned off the light and got into bed you slept soundly for the first time in days. But you didn’t stay asleep, you heard something outside. You ignored it at first, thinking it was just some raccoon or other such animal roaming about in the dark. But then you heard pounding at your door. You looked through the peephole to see who could possibly be disturbing you at this hour. What you saw made your blood run cold. Veeris, somehow, this far inland. Except there were now two very human legs where his tail should have been, he had no scales, and he was also dressed in very old style clothing. Like an alien who had seen fashion from the Victorian era and wore it thinking it would blend them in with modern day humans. How was he on land? How had he found you!? You ran back upstairs and hid under your bed, hoping that he would think you weren’t home and simply leave. And if he did come in maybe he wouldn’t find you under there. The pounding at the door only grew more fervent, you prayed he would just take a hint and leave but it didn’t seem like a lack of response was going to be enough of a deterrent for the former eel man. Veeris was worried for your safety, worried something terrible may have happened to you, so there was no force on earth that was going to prevent him from seeing you. And he knew you were inside. Emrul didn’t just enchant him with a temporary human form but also let him have a homing crystal that was tuned to the object of his desire. He knew you were inside this human building. Knocking wasn’t working, what if someone had you bound or you were injured and unable to come to the door? With a mighty heave he snapped the door and entered your home, calling out your name as he searched every room. When he reached your bedroom the crystal grew warm and glowed more strongly. You were close. His heavy steps boomed and thudded around you as he checked under your covers and opened your closet. There was now only one place left to check. Veeris easily pushed aside your bed, revealing you huddled up in a fetal position below where the bed previously stood. He picked you up easily and pulled you into a painfully tight embrace. “My siren! What happened to you!? Are you okay? Why did you miss our date?” Veeris was sure there had to be a proper explanation, like maybe you had been ill or someone had hurt you. You only had to get him to leave you alone for another night and then you could find a human mage, warlock, witch, or sorcerer of some type to block out magical tracking. You decided to go with old reliable. In a sickly voice you answered him after a few convincing coughs, “I-i wanted to come, of course I did but… I was so s-sick. I still am. That’s why I was under the bed, I had fallen and couldn’t even get up!” You finished your lie with a few more fake coughs and a slight whimper of pain. Veeris was totally convinced of your deception. Perhaps, as you would soon realize, just a bit too convinced. “Oh, my poor sweet angel fish, I am so sorry that you have been suffering. Forget the date.” Haha, Success! “You clearly cannot be left alone in this condition, don’t worry I will take good care of you, I will make sure you get plenty of rest and all your needs are taken care of!” FUCK! “No, no! You don’t need to go through all of that trouble! I was already starting to feel a little bit better!” You did not like where this was going. “Nonsense, what kind of potential mate would I be if I just left you to suffer! You don’t need to be so strong, you can rely on me.” “B-but the cold water could make me worse!” “Don’t worry, the swim to my cave is so brief that you won’t be exposed long and we can warm up and dry you off in that human dwelling Emrul put in the cave for us! And here, this will let you breathe underwater! It is an enchanted necklace Emrul made for me.” Veeris pulled a sapphire pendant from his pocket and put it gently around your neck before easily scooping you up into his mighty arms. Then he started walking with you right past the broken door and out of the house. You briefly considered screaming for help but there was no one out and about at this hour and even on the off chance someone heard your pleas for help and called the authorities they would never get here in time, and even if that did somehow happen how would Veeris react to your screaming? He could snap your bones without any effort. It was only a quick jog to the sea and when he reached the water’s edge he shed his antique style human clothing before starting the transformation back into an eel man, scales erupting on his arms and legs before his legs joined together and once more became his tail. He held you tight as he slithered into the water and swam as quickly as he could back to his lair. You instinctively held your breath but remembered the charm around your neck that would supposedly allow you to breathe water. It took a lot of will power to force your body to take a breath underwater, but you finally managed to do it and it worked exactly as it was supposed to. You could certainly use this to escape later. Veeris continued carrying you as he slithered into the large enchanted part of the cave. He took you into the cabin and, much to your dismay, stripped you of all your clothing. You tried to talk him out of it but he wasn’t having it, he insisted on getting you out of the wet clothing and bundled up in bed, you were sick after all and apparently humans were supposed to stay dry when sick as per your earlier worry about being exposed to the water while ill. He also insisted on cleaning you up and drying you off. The eel man took a soft rag and gently washed your body of all the water before bundling you up in the softest blankets you had ever felt and having you lay in the humongous bed. Veeris had never slept in a human style bed before, but this one was enchanted to support his full weight and made to dimensions to fit his full size. He found it very comfortable as he slithered into it, fitting you perfectly into his oddly warm coils. You had thought yourself free of this whole mess but now here you were, naked except for some blankets, snuggled up in the tail of a merman who was determined to prove himself to be a perfect mate for you. One day. Just one day and you would have been significantly farther. Not that that necessarily would have stopped him, but it might have. At the very least it would have given you more time. It was hard to go asleep with the massive man surrounding you, but eventually you did manage to get a few shaky hours of rest before waking up to something poking you in your thigh. You opened your eyes to find he was no longer coiled around you and instead spooning you, and his cock had gone erect in his sleep and slid out of his genital slit and was now leaking pre all over you. You feared the size of it, at least he currently thought you ill and hopefully wouldn’t try to mate with you. There was no way that thing was going in without at least some pain. You managed to suppress the urge to push him away from you, but you didn’t want to wake him up and have to deal with him. That task became impossible though when he began slowly fucking your thighs from behind in his sleep. You began shouting and struggling, but it did nothing to wake him. Thankfully whatever erotic dreams were leading to him to such behavior dissipated before he splooged all over you. He finally woke up, with his cock still between your thighs. He blushed and looked away shyly. “O-oh, I am so sorry my little angelfish, I… didn’t mean to uh…, well anyway your clothes are dry now.” But of course, he still had to dress you. You were there for several days, with each day seemingly getting just a slight bit better. You couldn’t stay sick indefinitely, what if he got his magic friend to diagnose you and tell you he was faking? He said her medical magic and remedies were species specific and she didn’t know how to heal humans, but what if he chanced it if you stayed ill? You couldn’t take the risk so instead you gradually acted like you were healing. The entire time he waited on you hand and foot, it was suffocating, he did not even take time to go hunt for himself. Instead he relied on the human food that grew there, even though it wasn’t what he was adapted to. He was overjoyed when you finally “got better.” And you were happy he did not have to be so smothering. No more being fed or bathed or watched over as if you were the most fragile thing to ever exist. When he finally left to go and hunt for the first time since you had been there you had to fight the urge to immediately make a run for it. You had no idea how long he was typically gone, you needed to wait a few days so that you could memorize his outside activities. Veeris, meanwhile, was so happy that his perfect siren had gotten well and was now staying with him. He considered all the time he spent caring for you to be a good substitute for your traditional courtship and dating. Plus every time he returned from any hunting or other necessary outings he always brought you back some gifts, a shiny stone or shell that caught his eye or other such treasures of the sea, and you always accepted and thanked him for these things. If that wasn't successful courtship he didn't know what was. It had now been days since your recovery from your "illness" and you felt that you finally had the ability to accurately predict approximately how long his outings would take. After he left, and when you had figured that he was far enough away as to be out of sight, you grabbed the pendant that allowed you to breathe underwater and started to make your way to the pool that led out of the cave. But in a tragic stroke of bad luck Veeris had found prey almost immediately right outside his den and was already on his way back as you left. Veeris was stunned when he smacked right into you as he was entering the tunnel back to the lair. After a moment of shocked silence he growled furiously and wrapped his tail around you tightly and hauled you right back into the tunnel you had just come out of. Fuck. Everything clicked for Veeris. This whole time you had faked illness to get out of your date with him. But that’s okay, he wasn’t above keeping you against your will. That was, after all, what he had attempted to do originally. You just had to be shown your place while he proved he was the only mate for you. Your fear in that moment was beyond anything that you had ever felt before, you had no idea what he would do or whether or not he would hurt you. Kicking and punching him did nothing to remove you from his thick coils, when he hauled himself out of the water he carried you aloft with the end of his tail and took you back to the cabin. Once there he slammed you hard into the bed, knocking the air out of you. “You were really going to leave me my wonderful angelfish?” He sounded as though he was on the verge of tears. “After all the gifts and how well I have treated you??” “Please just… let me go…” “NO! You’ll be happy here! I’m the only mate for you and we spent so much time together! I just have to show you, just give it more time and I will get you to love me back eventually, okay my siren?” Veeris was unstable, equal parts heartbreak, despair, denial, anger, and love. “I-I hate you, you fucking freak!” For a moment your anger at being kidnapped by this insane merman overcame your fear of him. You regretted it almost instantly. Such blunt words cut Veeris’ heart, causing him great cognitive dissonance. And he was also angered at you being so ungrateful, he had this whole little world in this cave tailor made just for you, when he thought you were sick he took care of you, and he always gave you tokens of love. Seeing the fury in your eyes you backed up until you were against the headboard. “S-sorry. I didn’t mean i-” He pulled you by the legs back towards him as you tried to get away from him. In Veeris’ mind you had to love him, at least on some level, it didn’t make sense that you didn’t. His brain couldn’t entertain the notion. You saying you hated him clashed with his belief and caused him discomfort and pain until he could resolve it in a logical manner. But now with a frightening smirk on his face everything fell into place. He had to utterly dominate you. You didn’t want an overly gentle mate at all times. You clearly wanted him to prove he was strong and worthy. And you were probably in denial about it too. It all made sense. He needed to overpower and ravage you until you accepted it. You flailed as you remained on your back, still being yanked towards him, all the while he stared at you with a very uncharacteristic grin. “V-Veeris?” Suddenly your pants and underwear were torn off followed shortly by your shirt, leaving you exposed under his unhinged gaze. Veeris bent down and used his insanely long tongue to lick all over you, from your neck down to between your legs. His large slimy cock and balls were now out of his genital slit and he was fully erect. The size of it truly scared you. “No! Please! Don-” You were cut off by that long tong plunging into your mouth and probing every inch, gagging you as it explored a bit down your throat. As he did this he coiled his tail around you almost unbearably tight. He broke the kiss and then positioned you to be turning away from him. You could feel his hot cock from behind begin to grind against your very much unlubed entrance. You instinctively flinched in anticipation for the pain, but it only made it much worse for you than if you had tried to relax. Veeris finally finished with the grinding and jammed his fat cock into you unceremoniously. It felt like you had been impaled by a molten spear and you screamed as loud as you could from the pain. It felt as if your hole was being ripped open with how much your body had to stretch to accommodate his dick. With each thrust into you it drove the pain deeper and deeper. Your body would have been shaking with the force of your sobs had you not been so tightly bound by his strong serpentine tail. But his sensitive body was made to detect any and all disturbances in water, so he could feel every sob and gasp and shake, he reveled in it, it was your body submitting to him. As he continued slowly fucking you he licked up all your tasty tears with his long tongue. You were such a beautiful sight, somehow made only more beautiful by your crying and pain. The hurt and trauma of the rape never turned to pleasure, he was not gentle, he was not doing this just for sex. He was doing it to completely dominate you so that you would understand that you were his mate and that he made the rules. He thought it was what you, deep down, needed and even wanted. Veeris refused to go fast, he wanted to savor every delicious stroke of his cock into your blood-lubed hole. You could feel the blood leaking down your thighs, mixed with his precum. You wanted to punch out, or kick, or at the very least hide your head in shame in your pillow to shield your tears from the world and block out the violation that was happening to you. But his body was tight around you, if he was railing you so violently you probably would have noticed the pain the bondage was causing. Veeris kissed your cheek with mock tenderness before whispering into your ear, “You cry so prettily for me my little siren~” Sharp teeth pierced your skin as he bit into your shoulder and then your neck. You blacked out from the pain right as Veeris pumped load after load of hot burning cum deep into your raw abused depths. You woke up over a day later all bandaged up and with a salve that had been inserted inside you to help you heal. Veeris was nowhere to be found. You even called out to him as loudly as you could, though your throat was sore from all the screaming from the day before. No response. You made sure your breathing pendant was still on you, which he foolishly didn’t remove, before hobbling to your feet. You almost collapsed due to the pain, but you pushed past it. Only one short, albeit painful, swim separated you from freedom. You weren’t broken yet. You were crying, your heart was beating erratically in your chest with anxiety, but you still had hope. You could make it. You got to the submerged part of the first room of the cave, your feet at the edge of the water about to step in. Veeris popped up with a splash before you even put a toe in the water. It had all been a test, a trap, he was going to train you to never dare leave one way or another. “Sorry to have set you up like that, but it is the only way you are going to learn your place.” As he slammed you back on to the bed you were kicking, screaming, and blubbering far too incoherently to make out any words. You were sure he was going to rape you again, his cock impaling you and filling you with the worst kind of pain. But he had something a bit more brutal in mind. Your terrified mind couldn’t even comprehend what he was doing as he held your leg with one hand and your leg with the other. Veeris sneered down at you as he twisted your leg in one direction and your foot in the other. There was a sickening snap as he broke your ankle. You screamed louder than you did even when he was fucking you. Mercifully you passed out from the pain and Veeris saw to your injury. He may have taken some pleasure in dominating and hurting you, but he didn’t actually want to cause you harm, didn’t you understand you were making him do these things? No matter, One way or another you would learn you would learn to never try and leave him.

[cuttledreams-bugs]

Invertebrate Tarot Illustrations

Card 5: The Emperor

Armed with an iron grip and a quick sting, the emperor scorpion is confident and comfortable traversing his domain.

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[seaofwine]

What do you like about the Odyssey? Besides some entertaining episodes (e.g. Circe or Calypso), I've never really been able to get into the Odyssey as a whole (I find the first 5 books especially dull). The Iliad really speaks to me more.

It's hard to really pinpoint what I like most about it but I love to talk about the Odyssey so I hope you like long posts hahaha

The first five books act as the exposition. When the Iliad ends, there's a general understanding that most of the surviving characters made it home. Menelaus and Helen have reunited, the catalyst for the Trojan War has been resolved. Agamemnon traversed the sea and made it back, and although he was killed by his wife Clytemnestra, there is no question about where he is; unlike Odysseus.

Telemachus has spent his entire youth without a father. When he finally decides to set out from Ithaca to find any leads on where Odysseus is, he is confronted with the fact that most everyone else has been accounted for. He sees Menelaus and Helen, the order of their kingdom, the comfort they have in each other and the bonds they have restored. Telemachus has known nothing but uncertainty, while his mother is forced to weave lies and deceptions to keep the suitors that plague their home at bay. The first five books really show how important one man can be when he is utterly lost, and what it would mean for everyone who loves him should he be found. These books also show the close interest that Athena, as patron of Odysseus, takes in his family. She steps into the chaos of Ithaca and gives Telemachus the inspiration to embark on his own journey, chasing the ghost of his still-living father.

When we finally reach Odysseus, he is not the same man that those who knew him in Troy described. They are the closest Telemachus can come to knowing what came of his father, but even they are separated by nearly a decade and the breadth of the sea. Penelope hasn't laid eyes on her husband in twenty years, there is no overestimating what that can do to a person's memory. Odysseus's first action is to cry. When finally Calypso is forced to allow Odysseus to leave, by order of Hermes, he makes his own raft and leaves at the first possible moment. He is fighting against the will of Poseidon, against the wrath he incurred, all alone. He has lost every single one of his men, every single person who could ever vouch for his identity, in a world where no one could recognize him, is gone. Despite this, he is still fighting to get back to Ithaca.

Odysseus is so utterly human in the text. When he is hosted by Alcinous, Odysseus asks the singer there to recount the story of the Trojan Horse. It's like landing at the doorstep of a stranger who graciously allows you to stay and immediately asking his DJ to play *your own* greatest hits - which in turn only upsets him. This also sets up the dramatic reveal of his identity (I like to imagine him looking around like, you guys remember this one? Yeah that's Me, I pinkie promise. Please give me 4000 drachmae and your best oarsmen (: ).

He recounts the story of how he got so utterly lost on the way back and one thing the Odyssey will tell you, to your face over and over again, is that Odysseus is a big time liar. But for some reason, his tale is so compelling it's hard to remind yourself of that when hearing it for the first time. Some points are so beyond baffling (like striking Polyphemus in the singular eye the poor sod has, and then once to the safety of his boat (which is on open water, the domain of said cyclops's father) loudly announcing his full gods-given name and mailing address, just in case anyone missed who it was) that it's like, yeah that was probably exactly what he did. This is the section of the story where we see Odysseus as he sees himself. This is his own reflection of the actions he made and the troubles that befell him because of it.

Odysseus is such a complex character that one of the epithets he is given is "polytropos", the many-faced or many-sided. Odysseus and his relationship to his own identity, which he can shed and don at any point that's convenient for him, is one of the main reasons I am obsessed with his story. This, and the exploration in an ancient text about what a close relationship with a deity, is something I am constantly thinking about.

[huevobuevo]

I CANT FUCKING SLEEP SO IMMA JUST POST THE SCU COUNCIL DRAWINGS AND HOPE TO THE GODS IT LETS ME REST.

Erm I really like pantheons and shit so uh. I made lore

Essentially each council member are gods similar to the Aspects from APOTHEOSIS, except instead of aspects of humanity they’re aspects of the universe. They each are gods of their respective campaign-worlds, the other council members can only interact with them through the creation of their player characters. I made three designs for these fuckers- their initial godhood form during the Hardest Difficulty Video, their present forms after their respective churches & worlds have been established, & their Higher Divine Form that’s basically just their fursonas (except Slimecicle since he’s just like. A Slime Hybrid already so now he’s just Cooler Magical Slime Guy yipey!)

Much like the aspects, the Council Members are referred to by their domains instead of their original names. In the case of Condi he has a secondary name, Yonder; in the case of Charlie, he can be referred to by either Fortune or Misery- more on that in a bit

the gribble -> Bloom

🍃bro is in charge of the biomes of the Overworld, including the tools and weapons that are crafted using its resources

🍃Bloom is ONLY in charge of the Flora, NOT the Fauna. The creatures of the Overworld are owned by Evolution

🍃weather phenomenon and natural disasters are also his strong suit

🍃MYTH TIME!!! Bloom hasn’t learned to change into his Higher Divine form until after his first Fall, thus his bright red and black wings were never appreciated. After he arose again, the ash of the Nether stained his wings and hair, turning them a deep grey. Many birds of the Overworld had grieved his loss, so after his return most of them had rolled in the ashes that fell from his skin in tribute- thus the Grey Parrot was born.

🍃he grew an affinity for the sea after the creation of his first universe (Mana; Riptide), thus a majority of his time is spent in the Overworlds ocean, where his presence is spotted through the whirling winds of a hurricane.

Condifiction. -> Yonder

🔥god of the Beyond- any of the upper and lower realms in any universe belongs to him, including;

🔥The Nether

🔥The End

🔥The Spirit World (prime defenders)

🔥The Chaos Zone (prime defenders)

🔥The Faewilds (riptide)

🔥The Celestial Plane (apotheosis)

🔥The Land Between Time (prime defenders)

🔥Yonder is also in charge of all the interdimensional creatures and entities that live in these domains. Potions are.. also technically his deal since to make them one must acquire interdimensional items such as blaze powder

🔥the boundaries between worlds and the magic to traverse them also fall under his rule

🔥Yonder has a spear called the Aether Piercer, a blade strong enough to even cut through the fabric of reality. It is the strongest weapon in the entire multiverse, and the boys use it for their “dnd campaigns”

🔥he is also called the Quartz Dragon

🔥 FUN FACT! He actually has TWO outfits- the Nether Regalia & The End Regalia. However my stupid ass drew the End one first despite the fact that the Nether outfit is his main one (molten lava dress and cape with deep reds and brilliant whites & gold). That’s why the end suit doesn’t really match his dragon form, but I ran out of time so I couldn’t draw it out. Also im never gonna use these designs most likely so honestly it doesn’t matter but STILL FUCJ IM SORRY :[

the bibbl -> Evolution

📡ok this one was hard to figure out but bear with me

📡Evolution is the protector of all living creatures and time- he can see the past, present, & future, and is in charge of the development of every single organism that can breathe. Humans, especially fall under his command.

📡Evolution is also the patron of technology, society, and history

📡he can personally control how mobs & humans evolve and adapt

📡his higher divine form is usually a strange gryphon like creature, but he can just about change into whatever form he desires. He is the only God who can truly shapeshift with no limitations- Yonder & Bloom only have their Higher Divine Form, while F&M is still pretty visibly Slime no matter what form he takes. Speaking of

the slible-> Fortune/Misery

🎰the god of many things, but can all be simplified into one word- Luck. Everything has a risk, and F&M can make it happen

🎰gambling, yes, is a part of his domain, as it involves a risk of either a win or a loss

🎰destiny & fate are intertwined with his powers, due to how extremely fluid they may be

🎰harvest & agriculture TECHNICALLY are his thang as well, since he’s not really in charge of the PLANTS per say but rather the possibility of either a plentiful harvest OR a miserable famine

🎰F&M have two different names for two different occasions- Fortune, for instances of prosperity, & Misery, for instances of disparity.

🎰he is also called The Great Gambler, Magician Of Chance, He Who Reaps, The Debt Collector, The Slime Lich, and The Nightmare King

🎰he’s like a Lich but not dead lol. More on that later

[ FORTUNE ]

🎰wealth

🎰dreams

🎰arcane wisdom and enchantments

🎰skills in crafting and smelting

[ MISERY ]

🎰nightmares

🎰plague

🎰curses

🎰loss of control

🎰debt

🎰punishment and penance

🎰yeah so haha if someone has cheated and exploited their way to fortune then Misery with a capital M comes down and basically sucks their life force out and turns them into goo, which is what he uses to sustain himself like a Lich. Luckily for him, greedy men spawn like rabbits

Some extra notes for the council in general plus some insight in how their religions work

☀️Yonder and Bloom are both patrons of Travelleds, Adventurers, and All Who Voyage On. However, Bloom offers protection from the world itself such as wild animals and weather phenomenon , while Yonder helps ease the passage itself. Basically Bloom helps people not die in a storm while Yonder focuses on getting to the destination in the first place I.e. not getting lost in the fucking woods

☀️Evolution y F&M are conceptual gods while Bloom y Yonder are more physical. Bloom y Yonder are everywhere, omniscient and omnipresent, encapsulating the world around us- meanwhile Evolution and D&M control the hidden sacred systems of the world such as time and luck/magic

☀️Evolution and F&M have highly selective religious followings, only specific followers are trained and perfected to wield the power of their gods domains. In the same vein, Evilution and F&M have two symbols- one for prayer and one for summoning. Unlike the other two gods who just have one for both of these purposes, the powers of time and chance are far too chaotic in nature to be possessed by many. Instead of being able to talk to plants and go to a funny new world, the highest followers of the Conceptual Gods can literally harness time itself and perform the Ultimate Spells that could level cities- thus not only are these followers specially picked and trained, but in Eder to actually USE them they must first reviver a blessing by their respective gods which requires a summoning. This requires their summoning sigil which not only requires EXTREMELY rare items BUT are also forbidden without express permission from elders. The summoning sigils are kept secret, sharing the sigil to others is punishable by death. The symbol for prayer is used to just represent the Concptual Gods following, much like the symbols for the other gods are used to represent them as well. the Pjysicak Gods need no summoning since they’re technically all around us soooo-

☀️slimecicle, bizly, and grizzly haveANOTHER outfit for their other campaigns (blood in the bayou, wonderlust, and total monster kill) BUT once again I had No More time Left so I sorta just Didn’t draw them my bad homeboy

This took an hour to type out dear god im exhausted

[elminx]

Energy Update: Mercury Rx March-April 2025

Starting on March 15, Mercury enters its first retrograde of 2025. The retrograde runs from 09° Aries to 26° Pisces and makes thrice-repeating conjunctions to Neptune and the North Node and sextiles with Pluto in Aquarius. This is a unique retrograde as it will happen entirely within the retrograde cycle of Venus, both in time and by degree. This retrograde also coincides closely with our eclipse season, which runs from 3/14 to 3/29.

The Basics

Mercury, the planet of communication, technology, and travel, is the fastest-moving planet in our solar system and retrogrades three to four times every year. This means that Mercury’s retrograde cycle is “business as usual” and isn’t something that should be feared. However, it is a change in the energy signature of one of our personal planets, so it’s worth paying attention and making adjustments where necessary.

Retrogrades don’t mean that the planet ACTUALLY is moving backward, of course. It is a shift in our perception of the planetary movement through our skies. In this way, our perspectives and perceptions can get slightly twisted during these times, and it is easy to miss key details or communicate ineffectively.

During Mercury’s retrograde, Mercury traces its path backward in our skies, and it is considered better to go over your work rather than start something new. Mercury passes over these degrees in the sky thrice: the first time during its pre-retrograde shadow, the second time while it moves backward during its retrograde, and again a third time while it moves forward in its post-retrograde shadow. Because of this, we all get the cosmic opportunity to relearn and refocus on certain things that are going awry in our lives.

By comparing the degrees of Mercury’s retrograde to your birth chart, you can understand how Mercury’s retrograde cycle might affect you.

Mercury retrogrades affect some people more than others. By order of significance, these people are most likely to be affected by a Mercury retrograde:

If you have Sun, Moon, or Ascendant in Gemini and Virgo, or Mercury closely conjunct (within 2°) to your Sun, Moon, or Ascendant

If your natal Mercury was in retrograde or out of bounds

If the current retrograde crosses over your Sun, Moon, or Ascendant (in conjunction) or makes a square or opposition

If the current retrograde crosses over your Mercury, Venus, or Mars or makes a square or opposition with them

If the current retrograde makes a trine with one of your personal planets or a sextile to your Sun, Moon, or Ascendant

If you work in a job that involves technology, communication, or travel or are currently undergoing a task that involves one of these domains during this retrograde cycle

If you live with, are in a relationship with, or closely work with a person who meets the above criteria

One can assume that the more of these factors in play, the stronger you may experience the effects of a Mercury retrograde cycle. This isn’t to say that what you experience will be bad or wrong – some people experience a lot of freedom from Mercury’s journey. The more open you are to giving up control and staying open to the ever-changing landscape of a Mercury cycle, the easier it will be.

The Nitty Gritty

Mercury will retrograde from 09° Aries on 3/15 to 26° Pisces on 4/7, a reflection of Venus's ongoing retrograde from 10° Aries on 3/1 to 24° Pisces on 4/12. Notably, Aries is sign #1 in the horoscope wheel and is concerned, to some degree, with new beginnings and pressing onward into the future. At the same time, Pisces is sign #12 and concerned with processing all of the input that came before it to reach completion. Typically, in prograde (forward) motion, the planets all move from Pisces into Aries; this is the demarcation of the start of the astrological year and the point of our Spring Equinox. Instead, Mercury (and Venus) will traverse from Aries back into Pisces in the opposite direction.

I have written about how this point - between 29° Pisces and 00° Aries - is THE pressure point of the year. Not only will Mercury and Venus cross over it three times each during their retrograde cycles, but the Sun passes over it this month, and both Saturn and Neptune will also cross over it this spring before retrograding later in the year and passing over it again in backward motion. Combined with the constant movement of the Moon, this point is traversed 25 times this year. This is a big deal and a significant magical opportunity, which I have discussed in more detail here.

That said, this double personal planet retrograde is the meat of this long-term transit, and we should all be paying close attention to what is coming up during this time. With two personal planets involved in this double transit, this is, by definition, personal. It will show up in many people's lives - if not through Mercury, then through Venus. In a world that has been rapidly changing, each of us likely has something that we need to go back and redo.

This doesn't have to be a bad thing, though it may be triggering to perfectionists and others who are unable to take criticism or admit to their own shortcomings. The big flex right now is to admit mistakes early and often and actively work to fix them.

That's it.

I mean, it sounds so simple. But it becomes much more difficult if you are the only one willing to admit mistakes or attempt to make amends. The pitfall of this double personal planet retrograde is that people will most definitely not be at their best (Venus retrograde) and also be unwilling to talk about it (Mercury retrograde).

I wish I had a brilliant solution or an easy out for those who can see this coming, but there just isn't one. Personal planet retrogrades tend to be hard, and two at once will be exponentially more difficult for many people. Even if that's not you, you will likely have to deal with the aftermath of other people's frustrations over these planetary conditions.

Both Mercury and Venus will pass over Aries and Pisces. Venus is exalted in Pisces and exiled in Aries. Mercury is both in its fall and exiled in Pisces and neutral in Aries. Here, we can see that Venus will have an easier time in Pisces and Mercury while they are in Aries. Said a different way, the Venus retrograde will start more challenging and likely ease with time, whereas the Mercury retrograde will become more complex as it evolves.

Standard Mercury retrograde advice applies: Mercury's main domains are Communication, Technology, and Travel, so if you need to do anything in those three realms, you should expect some delays. Apply that literally and metaphorically as needed in your own life. This can be somewhat remediated by working directly with Mercury, but only to a certain point. Social media tends to go down during Mercury's retrograde cycle - often more than once. Save often and proofread thrice before you hit "Send" on any important communications during this time.

There are a lot of people who advise against travel during Mercury's retrograde periods, but I prefer it. Things often take longer, but the long way around seems to bring me to precisely where I need to be.

I don't want to demonize Mercury retrogrades here. I love Mercury's retrograde cycles and look forward to them every year. You tend to recognize the pitfalls and setbacks if you enter them with a negative expectation. Still, if you enter them with a more open mindset, you are more likely to identify the opportunities that arise.

This is the cosmic right time to work with any of the many res: rewrite, rework, reinvent, renegotiate, redo, retry, renovate, reconsider...

The list goes on.

Mercury's retrograde is undoubtedly not the time to start something new. It is the time to review what has gone before and make the necessary adjustments so that it works better.

We all need that, whether we are willing to admit it or not.

The Details

3/1 - Mercury stations retrograde 26° Pisces, Venus retrogrades 10° Aries 3/2 - Mercury conjunct Neptune 28° Pisces, Mercury conjunct North Node 28° Pisces 3/3 - Mercury enters Aries 3/5 - Mercury in Aries sextile Pluto in Aquarius 3/11 - Mercury conjunct retrograde Venus 08° Aries 3/14 - Total lunar eclipse 23° Virgo 3/15 - Mercury retrogrades 09° Aries 3/20 - Sun enters Aries, Spring Solstice 3/23 - Sun conjunct retrograde Venus 02° Aries 3/24 - Sun conjunct retrograde Mercury 04° Aries 3/25 - retrograde Mercury sextile Pluto in Aquarius 3/27 - Retrograde Venus enters Aries 3/29 - Solar eclipse 09° Aries, retrograde Mercury enters Pisces 3/30 - Neptune enters Aries 4/7 - Mercury stations direct 26° Pisces 4/16 - Mercury enters Aries 4/17 - Mercury conjunct Neptune 00° Aries 4/20 - Mercury in Aries sextile Pluto in Aquarius 4/26 - Mercury exits its post-retrograde shadow

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[astrojulia]

Psychic Abilities through Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto

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If you read this post you must have seen the blatant presence of the outer planets (Uranus, Neptune and Pluto) and this is why they are mainly responsible for the blessings of psychic powers. The celestial bodies Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto hold mysterious and profound influences on human consciousness, often granting individuals psychic abilities beyond the realm of the material world. To comprehend this phenomenon better, let's delve deeper into the unique qualities and gifts each planet bestows upon those connected to them.

Uranus - The Visionary Wanderer:

Uranus challenges conventional realities, transcending the limitations of the physical body. For those closely attuned to Uranus, the material world becomes a mere vessel for the soul's journey. They possess the remarkable ability of astral travel, where their spirits roam unrestricted by earthly constraints. In their daily lives, they might experience shifts of reality, glimpsing alternate dimensions and parallel universes. Their open minds embrace multiple possibilities, for they understand that existence encompasses a vast tapestry of realities.

Neptune - The Oceanic Empath:

Neptune's essence lies in the depths of the vast oceans, disconnected from the earthly domain. Those deeply connected to Neptune find solace and belonging in the realm of emotions and intuition. Just as life under the sea follows different rules, these individuals perceive the world through heightened senses, akin to breathing water rather than air. Their empathic abilities allow them to perceive the emotions and energies of others, transcending language and logic to tune into the universal language of the heart.

Pluto - The Keeper of Souls:

Pluto's realm is that of death and transformation, bridging the gap between the living and the deceased. Those with a strong affinity for Pluto possess the unique gift of connecting with the spirit world. They can see beyond the veil of mortality, perceiving the memories of their own soul and the collective history of the world. In their presence, the boundaries of time and space blur, and they walk hand-in-hand with the past, present, and future.

The Zodiac Trio: Aquarius, Pisces, and Scorpio:

Among the zodiac signs, Aquarius, Pisces, and Scorpio are intrinsically bound to Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, respectively. These individuals are the cosmic children of the outer planets, and their connection to them is profound. Some of these individuals are fortunate to receive direct psychic gifts from their celestial patrons, while others may struggle to harness the full extent of their powers. The level of connection to the outer worlds varies among individuals. Some might effortlessly embrace the psychic realms, while others may find it challenging to detach from the influences of the old planetary rulers like Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars.

So, the psychic abilities granted by Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto are a reflection of their celestial essence. Those who resonate with these planets ,which are usually those who have these planets as dominant, traverse the boundaries of human perception, delving into the mysteries of the universe. It is a delicate dance between the material and ethereal, where the fortunate ones find themselves equipped with profound psychic gifts.

(CC) AstroJulia Some Rights Reserved

[honestlyboringperson]

“Statement Begins”

A Madoka Magica X Magnus Archives AU anyone? It takes place around the early 2000s because why not. This AU is very self indulgent.

Information Below.

HOMURA AKEMI

Avatar of the Eye and Head Archivist

Appointed Head Archivist after previous head Archivist Mami Tomoe was injured by an anomaly and wasn’t able to give statements while she recovered in the hospital.

Despite only just becoming an archivist only one year ago, she has proven her abilities due to already beginning to give statements and perform interviews with both avatars and those who encountered anomalies, almost like she already knows their answer and what to say next to get the answers she wants.

Diet is predominantly instant food, black coffee, and headache medicine.

Not as sickly as she was in the show, but still pretty frail.

She’s going prematurely gray.

As you probably guessed, she’s in a timeloop. In her original timeline, she acted way more shy and polite, and wasn’t even head archivist.

The head archivist in her original timeline was Madoka, who ended up getting marked by all entities and accidentally caused The Change.

Same things happened as in the podcast, Madoka and Homura traverse the Post Change world, Homura is gay for Madoka, Madoka stews in her self hatred, blah blah blah.

Homura also makes Madoka turn her into a fully fledged avatar, specifically of the Eye, because she needs the extra surveillance to help both of them to traverse the world to the Panopticon.

Madoka becomes the Pupil and has Homura kill her. But like many fix-it fics, Homura is sent back in time by Madoka.

Homura has been sent back in time 3 times already, making it 6 years she spent looping.

She’s in a unique situation, where the Eye doesn’t know too much about her or why she’s the way she is. The Head of the Magnus Institute, Kyubey wants to know more about her.

She can’t use her abilities as an avatar because every time she does, more information about her is leaked to the eye, and by extension, “Kyubey”.

She wears a discoloured and dirty ribbon on her neck. It’s the onky thing she managed to grab onto when Madoka became the pupil and threw her out.

She actively resists the Eye’s instinctual need to know more.

She has eye tattoos that function similar to Gerard’s that provide some protection from other powers. She covers them with her sleeves or bandages to avoid drawing the eyes of Kyubey.

Thanks to some manipulation by Kyubey, she’s the one to start the Change.

Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlfailure.

MADOKA KANAME

Assistant Archivist and Rookie to the team

Madoka acts as an assistant to any of the others on the team

Homura doesn’t allow her to make any statements.

She still makes them anyways

She, Sayaka, and Mami (when she heals up) actively go out and investigate the anomalies and avatars.

No sense of self preservation, most likely born of her feelings of uselessness when it comes to her team.

Wants to learn all about the avatars and anomalies to help people, perhaps even sever the connection some avatars have with their respective entities.

Doesn’t like Homura coddling her, but likes her all the same.

She’s very concerned with Homura’s diet. She’s reached peak unhealthy.

She has a history with the entities, and has been marked by nearly all of the entities in the end. Homura makes sure she can’t do the ritual by making sure she wasn’t the head archivist, but didn’t realize she was also marked by them in the end.

She’s followed around by a mysterious white cat with eyes that bore into her. She finds it cute. Little does she know, that cat is an extension of Kyubey, who knows about her being marked.

She becomes an Avatar of the End and she has prophetic dreams about the future.

While in the Post-Change world, she can sever the connection between the avatars and the entities, causing the domains to fall apart. This gives the people within the chance to reach a safe space.

Also within this Post-Change World, Homura finally explains herself and the two enter a relationship, like Martin and Jon.

Like Martin and Jon, the two choose to go out together, with Homura becoming the Pupil and pouring some of that power into Madoka, who severed the Entities from our world, empowered by Homura’s new abilities as the Pupil.

Mami, Nagisa, and Kyoko don’t find their bodies, but they do find their ribbons.

SAYAKA MIKI

Avatar of the Slaughter and Assistant Archivist

Hopeless romantic and avid music fan, Sayaka brings some much needed joy to the glum archives.

She began learning guitar to impress her crush Kyosuke, but is too embarrassed to show him her skills.

She and Madoka met Mami when they ran into an aggressive avatar. Mami shot the avatar clean through the head and it still survived.

Sayaka had to beat it down with a baseball bat to get it to stand down.

Anyways, Sayaka later becomes an Avatar of the Slaughter, like Melanie via bullet to the thigh. Unlike Melanie though, she doesn’t get it removed and it fully fuses with her.

Sayaka, after becoming an Avatar of the Slaughter, becomes more emotional and volatile, straining her relationship with both Hitomi and Kyousuke.

She begins to feel inhuman due to now having to deal with intense intrusive thoughts, all of which are about violence and murder. She never leaves home without her baseball bat, now driven filled with nails.

She finally reaches a breaking point after Hitomi confesses to Kyosuke.

Sayaka tries to use her new abilities (namely the ability to either lull people to sleep or make them increasingly murderous via singing) for the greater good, she eventually submits to the will of the Entity due to too much stress and reaching her breaking point.

She attempted to commit suicide by throwing herself into the port’s sea, but it was too late and she became a violent monster.

Like Daisy, Sayaka loses herself in her slaughter, now killing anyone she finds. Kyoko takes it upon herself to hunt her down, to make sure she can’t hurt anyone else.

She becomes very fish-like, using her abilities to lure people closer, only to eat her victims alive.

Sayaka is put to rest in her domain, an endless swamp marsh by Kyoko. Kyoko has to harpoon Sayaka in the chest, straight through the heart.

KYOKO SAKURA

Avatar of the Hunt and Archivist.

Brash, selfish, and hotheaded, Kyoko is one of the most lazy archivists in the team, much to Sayaka’s chagrin.

Her diet is mainly anything she finds in the fridge, including other people’s lunches.

Sayaka attempted to spike her food with hot sauce, but forgot that she spiked it and ate it herself. At the very least, Kyoko bought her some pepto Bismol.

Her father came into possession of a Desolation aligned artefact, (a bible that causes extreme destructive tendencies when read) and created a Desolation Cult, as well as becoming an avatar.

He attempted to perform the Lightless Flame and created Momo, but Mami caught on and stopped the ritual before anything else happened.

He retaliated by attempting to trap everyone inside and burn the church to the ground.

She was the second person to join the Mitakihara Archives, after Mami.

She was already friends with her after a run in with an avatar, but since she didn’t have anywhere else to go after her father burned down their church with his followers and himself still inside, she became an archivist for the free place to crash.

She has burn wounds on her hands and back, and her eye was gouged out by her father after she tried to stop him.

Due to missing an eye, her connection to the Eye is shaky and she can go on longer stretches without giving statements or being near the archives safely.

She considers Momo to be her little sister, but keeps her away from anything associated with the Desolation, such as wax, candles, or fire.

Kyoko and Sayaka do eventually manage to befriend each other, but after she got shot with the Slaughter bullet, all her relationships became strained.

Kyoko and the others try to get Sayaka to remove the bullet, but she refuses, spiralling further into her violence.

When Sayaka becomes “The Siren of Mitakihara Port”, Kyoko takes it upon herself to find and kill Sayaka before she can kill other people.

She uses a fishing harpoon, hoping to find her sooner rather than later. This endless hunt ends up nearly killing her after a run in with a Hunt Avatar, who ends up shooting her.

For narrative purposes, let’s say she got hit on the thigh opposite to Sayaka’s.

She becomes an avatar herself, but she’s a lot more mentally strong than Sayaka, so she manages to stave off its effects. She relaxes by spear fishing.

After the Change, Kyoko shares Sayaka’s domain, endlessly trying to hunt a murderous fish in a dark and murky swamp.

She manages to kill Sayaka and Madoka severs her connection with her avatar. She reunites with Mami and the others under the Mitakihara Branch of The Magnus Institute and has been surviving with everyone else since.

MAMI TOMOE

The former Head Archivist and Avatar of the Lonely.

The first archivist of the Mitakihara Branch of the Magnus Archives, and the de facto leader, despite Homura technically being her boss.

She’s kind, gentle, and she enjoys hosting tea parties with homemade goodies (Now that I think about it, Martin would love her)

Anyways, despite her warm and inviting nature, she always has this pang of loneliness at the back of her head.

No matter how many tea parties she hosts, new archivists that enter the institute, or reassurance from her friends, she always feels alone.

This is partly due to her being an Avatar of the Lonely. She became an avatar around 2 years ago.

Mami and her parents were driving when they accidentally drove onto a closed highway. That road was one giant artefact, as it stretches nigh infinitely if you stay on the highway itself, and is cloaked in fog.

Your car never runs out of gas and it never stops, essentially stranding you until you collide with something, usually the remains of the other cars that drove on the road.

This happened to Mami, who had to crawl out of the crash, with both her parents dead in the car. She unknowingly became an avatar herself.

She stayed there for a week before she was rescued by a Kyubey, who led her out of the road.

She became an archivist afterwards, as she didn’t have any family members who’d take her in.

To thank Kyubey for giving her a new home, she takes her duties as an archivist very seriously, actively investigating and examining any artefact and avatar she discovers.

She wields a an artefact, more specifically pistol aligned with the Web.

Anything shot by the pistol will become unable to move and if it’s a living being, be dragged away by a giant spider that mysteriously disappears.

She’s roommates with Kyoko and Nagisa, as they also don’t have anywhere else to go.

She’s very close with Nagisa specifically. She takes on a bit of an older sister role to her.

After the change, Mami, Homura, Madoka, and Nagisa turned the tunnels underneath the Archives into a makeshift shelter, with Mami being in charge of up keeping it.

After Madoka and Homura sacrifice themselves and the entities being cut off from our world entirely, Mami uses what’s left of the funds for the archives to hold a funeral for them.

Kyoko, Mami, and Nagisa lose their statuses as avatars and move into an apartment together.

NAGISA MOMOE

Avatar of the Flesh

An odd case of an Avatar with no interest on feeding her avatar any human flesh.

She makes up for this by eating artefacts. Mami is concerned about her diet as all she eats is copious amounts of cheese, candy, and artefacts.

In fact, all she every seems to talk about is cheese.

Nagisa was found by Mami as she was full eating a human corpse in the morgue of a hospital.

Upon seeing Nagisa, Mami couldn’t bring herself to kill her, despite Nagisa trying to bite her.

They found out they could feed the Avatar by having Nagisa “dispose” of artefacts by eating them.

Ever since then, Nagisa has been living alongside The Archivists. She fancies herself part of the team despite never signing a contract to officially become one.

She gets off vibes from the white cats that surround the Archives.

She can manifest flesh worms out of her body, with teeth able to bite through steel. She can also create bubbles by mixing her saliva with stomach acid. Gross.

She believes she hasn’t eaten anyone alive. If she did, she can’t remember.

When Homura pursued the leader of the Cult of the Stranger, it’s ringmaster (Yuu) actually recognizes Nagisa.

Apparently, she skinned a lot of people in the hospital, where she found Nagisa, still feral and devouring the remains of the dead.

Nagisa doesn’t remember her.

Apparently, Nagisa’s mother was admitted to the hospital after developing a sickness after Nagisa was born.

Unfortunately that hospital was one of the biggest hospitals in the city, and also the base of the Cult of The Flesh.

Yuu doesn’t particularly care for the Flesh, so what transpired to make Nagisa into an avatar remains a mystery.

When the Change happened, Nagisa was with Mami in the archives. She is allowed to help with supply runs and due to her abilities as an avatar, is effective at getting rid of roadblocks.

After Homura and Madoka’s sacrifice, all the avatars lost their abilities and connections with their avatars. This has some long standing effects though. Nagisa has digestive problems, Kyoko has retained some intrusive thoughts and poor impulse control, and Mami’s vision becomes cloudy and blurred.

They used what funds were left by the Magnus Archive to hold a funeral for Homura and Madoka. Although their bodies weren’t found, they hope they’re in a kinder world.

[theomorphic]

Uranus is preparing for a significant transition as it shifts into the sidereal sign of Taurus on March 18, 2025. This planet, known for its transformative influence, typically remains in a sign for approximately seven years, taking about 80 years to complete its journey through the entire zodiac. At the onset of this new transit, Uranus will reside in the Nakshatra (Birth Star) of Krittika, which is governed by the dazzling Pleiades star cluster, with Alcyone, the brightest star in the cluster, standing out as its focal point.

Uranus is the harbinger of change; it embraces sudden, unexpected events and embodies a sense of unpredictability. Its energy encompasses innovation, the future, awakenings, and a connection to electricity and lightning, making it a potent force of vibration and transformation. Often referred to as the “great awakener,” Uranus can create unsettling energy when interacting with other celestial bodies.

Though Uranus will officially change signs on March 18, 2025, it has already made a brief foray into Taurus during the summer before retrograding back into sidereal Aries. This prior ingress coincided with significant political turmoil, notably the near-assassination of former US President Donald Trump. The Birth Star Krittika, symbolized by a knife, is ruled by the Hindu deity Agni, representing the element of fire. It embodies the essence of cutting through impurities, making way for renewal. This dynamic process can be likened to a wildfire that, although destructive, ultimately paves the way for fresh plant growth and revitalization.

The term "Krittika" translates to "critical" in English, highlighting its propensity to identify and rectify mistakes or flaws. Its energy prunes away unnecessary growth or outdated elements, facilitating personal and collective evolution. - Eventually, Uranus will transit other Nakshatras in this sign and they will have their own unique effects on the world. When the time comes, I will make posts about those individual transits before they happen - Uranus will inhabit sidereal Taurus until July 7, 2031.

The star that governs Krittika, Alcyone, located in the shoulder of the bull, is believed to enhance our perception, helping us notice what has previously eluded our attention. It is said to stir winds of change, revealing secrets and unearthing hidden truths. However, tradition warns that when Uranus transits over the Pleiades, it can lead to a period fraught with accidents, unforeseen troubles, and, at times, significant loss—often through fire or confrontations with adversaries.

In her insightful book, "World Predictions 2024 To 2042," Joni Patry draws parallels between past events and Uranus's previous stays in Taurus. She notes that its last transit through this sign, particularly at the same degree it is approaching now, was marked by the bombing of Pearl Harbor. This tumultuous period unfolded further with the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and, under Saturn’s influence at a similar degree, the devastating terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The cyclical energies of Uranus in Taurus remind us of the powerful and sometimes unsettling waves of change that can reshape our world.

Anyone who has the Krittika in their birth charts can be effected by this transit more then others, especially if their natal moon or ascendant is here. Each year, from May 11 to May 24, the Sun traverses the domain of Krittika. Individuals born with their natal sun here are encouraged to exercise heightened awareness and caution, as they may encounter unexpected transformative shifts in their personal lives. These days may herald moments of change that challenge the status quo, urging those born under Krittika's influence to navigate life’s complexities with resilience and insight.

MY INSTAGRAM

An official website is coming soon

[grandpasessions]

Following Jacques-Alain Miller, a distinction has to be introduced here between two types of lack, the lack proper and the hole: lack is spatial, designating a void within a space, while the hole is more radical, it designates the point at which this spatial order itself breaks down (as in the "black hole" in physics).

Therein resides the difference between desire and drive: desire is grounded in its constitutive lack, while drive circulates around a hole, a gap in the order of being. In other words, the circular movement of the drive obeys the weird logic of the curved space in which the shortest distance between the two points is not a straight line, but a curve: the drive "knows" that the shortest way to attain its aim is to circulate around its goal-object. (One should bear in mind here Lacan's well-known distinction between the aim and the goal of the drive: while the goal is the object around which the drive circulates, its (true) aim is the endless continuation of this circulation as such.)

Miller also proposed a Benjaminian distinction between "constituted anxiety " and "constituent anxiety," which is crucial with regard to the shift from desire to drive: while the first designates the standard notion of the terrifying and fascinating abyss of anxiety which haunts us, its infernal circle which threatens to draw us in, the second stands for the "pure "confrontation with the objet petit a as constituted in its very loss.'''' Miller is right to emphasize here two features: the difference which separates constituted from constituent anxiety concerns the status of the object with regard to fantasy.

In a case of constituted anxiety, the object dwells within the confines of a fantasy, whereas we get the constituent anxiety only when the subject "traverses the fantasy" and confronts the void, the gap, filled up by the fantasmatic object.

However, clear and convincing as it is, this formula of Miller's misses the true paradox or, rather, the ambiguity of the objet a. When he defines the objet a as the object which overlaps with its loss, which emerges at the very moment of its loss (so that all its fantasmatic incarnations, from breasts to voice and gaze, are metonymic figurations of the void, of nothing), he remains within the horizon of desire—the true object-cause of desire is the void filled in by its fantasmatic incarnations.

While, as Lacan emphasizes, the objet a is also the object of the drive, the relationship is here thoroughly different: although, in both cases, the link between object and loss is crucial, in the case of the objet a as the object-cause of desire, we have an object which is originally lost, which coincides with its own loss, which emerges as lost, while, in the case of the objet a as the object of the drive, the "object" is is directly the loss itself—in the shift from desire to drive, we pass from the lost object to lost object to loss itself as an object.

That is to say, the weird movement called "drive " is not driven by the "impossible" quest for the lost object; it is a push to directly enact the "loss"—the gap, cut, distance—itself. There is thus a double distinction to be drawn here: not only between the objet a in its fantasmatic and post-fantasmatic status, but also, within this post-fantasmatic domain itself, between the lost object-cause of desire and the object-loss of drive.

In Defense of Lost Causes S. Zizek

[snowbellewells]

HAPPY (One Day Late) BIRTHDAY KRYSTAL!!!

(I really wanted to get this posted on @kmomof4's actual birthday - I've only been trying to get this going since I promised it LAST YEAR! But you have been very patient, Krystal, and here at last is the story I'm working on for your birthday gift. Seeing as you wrote a beautiful CS AU of the Bridgerton book which is a bit of a Cinderella story, and since I've been mulling a bit of a Killian-as-the-Cinderella-character fic for some time, I've mashed that idea together with several of your mentioned fave tropes and characters/relationships from OuaT. I'm not going to list it all here. Hopefully, it will lead to more pleasantly melty surprises as we go. ;p I'll try not to keep you waiting too long between updates - and I have no idea how many chapters there will end up being. I first thought a really long one shot, then a two shot, but Killian and his fairy godmother (and Liam!) were excessively chatty, and it just kept getting longer and longer! I realize Emma isn't in it much yet, but we'll start with her next time.)

I hope you enjoy, Krystal!! I'm so glad we are friends!!!

Also available on AO3 if that is your preference...

"Dreams That You Wish Will Come True"

by: @snowbellewells

Chapter One

“But Liam,” a breathless young Killian Jones argued stubbornly, “why are you dragging me to the galley? You know all I have to get done before the Captain returns…” Swiping the shaggy dark hair back from where it hung in his eyes, long past needing a trim, the young man cringed at the sound of his own wheedling tone. Gritting his teeth and flexing his hands in frustration, Killian chided himself for questioning his elder brother’s direction and sounding like the bloody nuisance he knew he must be to Liam - strong and wise and nearly grown now. At barely seventeen, and with little experience beyond that of an indentured deckhand on a ramshackle pirate ship, what right or knowledge did he have to be so stubborn, especially not with Liam, who had only ever looked out for his best interests?

Sure enough, exasperated, Liam shook his head before responding with a huff, “Can you not just do what I say, Little Brother? For once? You’ll see in a moment.”

By this time, they had traversed the length of the ship below deck, and they stood outside the galley. They paused briefly, with Killian biting down on his tongue to prevent asking again if Liam was sure about what they were doing. To his wide-eyed astonishment, Liam raised a hand to rap his knuckles in a specific rhythm on the door that separated Cook’s domain from the dimly-lit hall. His brother gave him a bit of a wink, more mischief in it than his serious elder sibling, burdened with far too much responsibility for his years, usually showed. Curious now, Killian waited wordlessly with him until footsteps could be heard drawing nearer on the other side.

When the door was opened to them, Killian was perplexed over again as he and Liam were beckoned inward and the door closed behind them once more. Within the room, illuminated softly by a hanging lantern and a few candles scattered throughout, he saw that, not only Cook, but several of the crewmen of the Merry Rogue, had gathered in the small, already overwarm, and easily crowded room in which they took their meals. Killian was usually on his feet serving. Silver would allow nothing less from his “kitchen maid” as he often tauntingly dubbed Killian, hoping to stoke the fiery temper the young lad tried to check so he could then see him lashed for insubordination. It was only well after the others had cleared off that he and Cook could sit and take their own repast. However, those gathered now had secretive smiles and anxiously pleased looks on their faces. Killian noted easily that none of the more hateful crew members were present; neither those who ordered him about loftily, mocking him and sending him scurrying back and forth for items they didn’t really need throughout the meal, nor the cruel bosun who would stick a foot out to trip him, then cuff him for spilling and wasting food. Instead, gathered before him were the softer hearted men - perhaps misfits on the ship themselves at some earlier time before he and Liam were indentured to the vessel - who had often shown him bits of kindness and understanding when they could manage.

In spite of his earlier misgivings, he was intrigued and couldn’t help asking Cook this time, though Liam was still nearby. “What is going on here?”

The older man merely smiled kindly, motioning Killian further into the room, until he stood near its center. “You’ll soon see, lad,” Cook coaxed gently, turning to riffle through a burlap sack laid out on the galley table before offering his prize to Killian. “We’ve something to give you for the evening’s festivities.”

“Wh- what are you on about?” Killian’s brow puckered in confusion as he looked at what appeared to be a pile of folded cloth in his older friend’s hands, and at the eagerly expectant faces gathered around to watch. “Festivities? Me? I haven’t a clue what you’re talking about…”

He was shaking his head as words failed him, not sure how to deal with the puzzle before him, when he sensed Liam at his back, solid and strong. His elder brother placed a comforting hand on Killian’s shoulder and leaned in to murmur quietly in his ear. “Come now, Killy, you have to have seen the banners posted all over port for the gala at the castle, in honor of the Princess Emma’s birthday. It’s tonight.”

Killian sputtered indignantly as Liam nudged him in the side and nodded toward the stack of fine material Cook was still holding out to him. “Aye, of course I have, but - but what does that have to do with me?”

Liam responded with an even more brilliant smile, bowling Killian over with his quip, “Simple, Little Brother! If you would get a move on, we mean for you to attend that ball!”

Those words did not truly make the situation much clearer to Killian’s mind, but at Liam’s urging - knowing his sibling would never encourage something that would do him harm - he took the bundle from Cook and moved forward to lay the offering on the long, wooden table for a better view. He could see now that it was a fine coat, made of soft, midnight blue, expertly tailored and brand new, certainly the finest piece of clothing he’d ever held in his own two hands. There was also a dress shirt, a mere shade lighter, clearly meant to be worn beneath the jacket, and breeches of a soft, dove gray - all quite the ensemble and much finer than any mere deckhand or cabin boy would ever have use for. Despite that, all three items seemed to be in his particular size, and the pleased smiles on the small circle of weathered faces around him clearly meant for him to have the articles.

“This is very kind,” Killian began, trying a different tack since protesting that they must be mistaken had done no good. “These clothes are the most handsome I’ve seen, but surely no sailor, and one barely part of the crew at that, would be invited to such an event. Mayhap someone else could…”

“Perhaps I can explain,” an airy, musical voice spoke up, floating on the air like a tinkling of chimes as sparkles of light and swirls of colorful breeze seemed to catch the eyes of all those gathered in the small ship’s kitchen. Gliding gently toward him from above, a small creature - a miniature woman, a fairy!, he realized -  came to to hover before him, a sweetly bemused smile on her delicate face.

More questions flooded Killian’s brain than had already lingered; however, he was now too overwhelmed and in awe to speak any of them aloud. A fairy? Here? Where pirates cooked and swabbed the deck and ate their grub? That he would ever see such a mystical being had never entered his mind, much less the idea that he would encounter one aboard a ship which had seen much more glorious days many years ago. He was sailor enough - a superstitious lot, one and all - to believe that magic existed, fairies among the more familiar imagery of sirens and selkies, but a vague belief in theory was much different from seeing one shimmering before his own eyes, gazing on him with a benevolent smile upon her face.

Seeing that the beguiling young man before her was currently incapable of answering, the silvery-winged fairy’s laughter tinkled on the air like the pleasant ringing of tiny bells, the riotous pile of ringleted brown curls interespersed with morning glory blossoms shook with her gentle mirth before she spoke again, hastening to explain and hopefully to dispel the poor youth’s doubt and confusion. “You are Killian Jones, yes?” she queried, already certain, but awaiting his confirmation nonetheless.

Killian did manage an affirmative nod, and his lips formed a soft “aye”, though it sounded as barely more than a whisper.

“Well then, Killian Jones, it is a pleasure to meet you at long last. I have watched you from afar all your life, after all. I am Nova, your fairy godmother.”

The handsome young man’s bright blue eyes popped wide open at her pronouncement, stunning in their crystal clarity and nearly making Nova’s sweet soul cry at the hope laid bare in his expression, hope which he tried equally to rein in, clearly having already learned such lovely things were not meant for him and waiting to hear the catch. She was the most tender-hearted of all her sisters, and it had been painful for her to look on and do nothing as this mischievous, brilliant little boy had been forced into manhood far too soon. His mother’s death, his father’s abandonment, the privation and shame of unwilling servitude, the cruelty of mistreatment, and the harsh life at sea had all changed the bonny child who had boarded this ship with his father and brother years ago into the solemn young man before her, who had never truly been allowed to leave. She had chafed over and over again at being held back and kept from doing something to help her appointed charge - anything to better his lot, even slightly. Their fairy laws were fickle, and yet exacting; even as Nova honored and revered their ways and her elders, she could not claim to understand why it had taken so long to finally be deemed “the right time”.

She could tell by the furrow of his dark brow that young Killian Jones must be pondering at least some of those same questions. Where had she been these last years of backbreaking toil, pilfered rations, and vicious taunts about a father so desperate to be rid of him he had sold him away? Where had she been the first time the lash had scored his back and left bloodied stripes in its wake? She had been right there beside him, unseen, constrained from taking any action, but he had no way of knowing that.

“I - I have a fairy godmother?” he finally sputtered in stark disbelief.

Nova nodded kindly, having the good grace to look more than a little abashed. “Of course you do! Everyone does. It breaks my heart to think you’ve felt so forgotten.” She squared her shoulders and blinked rapidly, trying not to become emotional as she attempted to explain. “Unfortunately, we fairies follow a very strict code. We are forbidden to make ourselves known before the appointed time. And I kept being told it was not yet that moment…”

Killian’s mind whirled with all the new information - and with a bit of indignance at the idea that all he and Liam had been through since being abandoned and left in Silver’s dubious oversight had not been considered serious enough to merit aid. His mouth opened, and even he himself was not sure if it was a question or a retort on the tip of his tongue - but his immediate awe was finally overcome - when his diminutive magical guest clearly sensed she needed to finish her explanation, and fast. 

“My superior, the Blue Fairy, or Blue as she’s often called, is stricter about maintaining our distance and secrecy than most.” Nova shrugged her shoulders in obvious contrition as she waved her hands and a wand appeared within her grasp. “I’ve never really understood why, but that’s neither here nor there. It is finally time to grant your heart’s wish… to do something to make you life better, just as I’ve been waiting to do!”

Killian’s mouth snapped shut again at that, puzzled by her words and disarmed at the excitement bursting from her tiny frame. He had never met this Nova before, but he could hardly doubt her eager sincerity. “My wish?” he repeated uncertainly, feeling that he was trailing considerably further behind in the conversation that he ought to be. “I can’t honestly remember even making one.”

Even as he spoke those words, however, Killian knew in his heart they were not entirely true. It might not have been the focused drive of a wish upon a star, or anything that direct, but he had often thought on where he would go if he were free, what he and Liam could do if they were their own men, left to their own devices, able to seek an adventure of their choosing, honor and glory for the name of Jones which their father had sullied. Had those hopes and dreams been heard all this time, when he had felt so forgotten and ignored? It must be true, though it was hard to reconcile with his previous experiences.

Almost as if she could read his thoughts broadcast across his face, Nova nodded enthusiastically, affirming his realization. “That’s right,” she pronounced clearly, gesturing to the clothing his brother and shipmates had procured for him. The fairy -his fairy godmother! - then effortlessly waved her wand once more, causing one of the flyers ever-present about this kingdom to appear before him from out of thin air. “This ball is only the beginning for you. You have big dreams, Killian Jones, and a calling to fulfill, but you are also the only one who can see them come true. I may be giving you a bit of a boost, but you are more than enough for the task. Your heart is strong, and I have no doubt it will see you through. You only need a little belief.”

“And what exactly does a fancy royal ball have to do with anything?” he questioned. His shock was wearing off as he grew more comfortable speaking to Nova, but he wasn’t seeing why he would be needed at a princess’ birthday celebration. All the same, he scooped all the formal wear up in his arms to go and change - whether it made sense to him or not.

Nova’s entire small fae being practically twinkled at him with the playful wink she gave before answering, “Not all things are as simple as they might first appear, young sir.” With that, she lightly tapped the end of her wand on the top of his head, causing a pleasantly warm tingling to spread through Killian’s body, all the way out to his fingers and toes.

A mere moment later, amid astonished exclamations from Liam, Cook, and the others, he realized that his arms were empty; the new clothes he had been holding already magicked onto his lanky frame, along with shining new shoes upon his feet and a smart queue tied off with ribbon matching his fine shirt and a fresh, neat trim to his dark hair too. It was indeed enough to make him feel a whole new person - one who might not stand out horribly, even at the palace of Misthaven.

“There now,” Nova approved with gentle tone, a fond smile gracing her lips as she took in the full effect upon her charge. “You look quite the young gentleman.”

“Aye, you do at that!” Cook echoed with his rough but friendly voice as he clapped Killian on the shoulder heartily. “Even in our heyday, Cap’n Silver himself rarely looked so sharp!”

“I’d not let him hear you say so,” the old shipwright Ned called over jovially.

“Too right!” Cook chuckled.

The other crew members present laughed as well and began to talk amongst themselves, drifting away now that the excitement was past. Soon, only Liam stood beside him, the two brothers both looking to their benefactress where she hovered before them. Even Cook headed off for his cabin, saying his old bones were ready for his bunk, even if the night was still young.

“You look just like a fine young lieutenant,” Liam affirmed, eyes wide as he took in his younger sibling and needlessly brushed some nonexistent speck from the shoulder of Killian’s jacket. Then, bracing both of his larger hands on Killian’s upper arms, he held him out to gaze into his face seriously before offering in a choked voice, “This sort of adventure should have always been your lot.” Liam pulled Killian in abruptly and hugged him tight for several seconds, startling Killian before he held onto his brother with equal fervency.

“Thank you,” Killian finally managed when Liam released him. “I don’t know how you managed all this,” he gestured around the room, “but I am sure it began with you.”

Liam flushed slightly, looking down with a sheepish smile. “My idea, aye, but I had lots of help. And it wouldn’t have turned out nearly so well if your honest-to-goodness fairy godmother hadn’t turned up!”

Nova’s ringing laughter once again tickled their ears, her eyes crinkling up prettily as well with her good humor. “It really was my pleasure,” she rejoined. But then she added more seriously, “This is your night, Killian. There is much for you to see and to do, and I bid you enjoy every moment to its fullest. I’ve readied a carriage which will take you to the palace, and Liam can ride along with you as far as the gates. Just remember - the ride and the clothes, the gifts you’ve been granted, will vanish at midnight. It’s simply how the magic works. Make sure you are headed back by then.”

Killian nodded, promising he would do as she said; it was far longer than he could imagine needing, if the truth were told. He wasn’t at all sure what he would do there in any case. And though he wished Liam could venture inside with him, he would gladly take the ride to gather more advice and draw strength from his sibling’s company.

After that, it seemed very little time passed before - head still spinning at the sheer impossibility of it all - Killian was disembarking from a fine horsedrawn carriage at the palace gates. Looking back to grin crookedly at Liam, his brother urged once more “Have fun!” and reassured him that all would be well. Turning, Killian bravely put first one foot, and then the other, forward, until he stepped into the castle of Misthaven, a guest at a royal ball. 

He slipped his hand into his pocket to run his fingers over the ring on an old chain which had once belonged to their mother (Liam had bid him carry it this once for luck) and pulled in a deep, steadying breath as he gained his bearings. He was already dazzled beyond belief, but determined to make a good showing and bring “honor to the Jones brothers” as he murmured under his breath. Whatever he was meant to find, he would do his best.

At that, he raised his eyes, catching sight of the magnificent winding staircase trailing down from the upper floors into the main hall. Halfway down the steps, paused with one foot poised in descent, was a stunningly beautiful, golden-haired vision in sky blue and silver. Killian could scarcely take in the tiara resting upon her head or the clear resemblance she bore to her likeness on all the recent announcements for her birthday. Laying eyes on her in life had struck him motionless, frozen in place. ‘Bloody hell,’  his mind fumbled inelegantly, ‘It’s Princess Emma herself.’

So completely entranced was he, in fact, that Killian failed to realize the princess was just as stunned - equally taken in and unable to move. Their eyes met and held across the distance between them, and one more shining burst of magic was ignited then and there.

Tagging a few others who might enjoy: @searchingwardrobes @jrob64 @apiratewhopines @whimsicallyenchantedrose @laschatzi

@anmylica @booksteaandtoomuchtv @xarandomdreamx @spartanguard @therooksshiningknight

@stahlop @motherkatereloyshipper @eastwesthomeisbest @bluewildcatfanatic @jonesfandomfanatic

@belovedcreation @goforlaunchcee @laianely @tiganasummertree @optomisticgirl

@myfearless-love @undercaffinatednightmare @caught-in-the-filter @winterbaby89 @darkcolinodonorgasm

@gingerchangeling @gingerpolyglot @linda8084 @lfh1226-linda @resident-of-storybrooke

@teamhook @revanmeetra87 @jennjenn615 @grimmswan @ultraluckycatnd

[existence-incarnate]

well this place is sure is a place what if I use a airhorn here

(air horn noises)

[ The sound of the airhorn echoes through the cosmos....... ]

[ ... Amidst the ambience, you can faintly feel a wave of exasperation washing over the stardust. As if a thousand poor souls were interrupted from important work once again. ]

[transgamerthoughts]

Abandon All Delusions Of Control

this is another cross-post. which is funny because I've paid for a domain name redirect to my tumblr since like 2016.. i never know what site is gonna explode these days. less people follow me here than anywhere but this write ups been passed around so...

I've been playing Dragon's Dogma 2 and while I'd love to talk about gameplay or interesting moments, the game's found itself something of a cultural lightning rod. It is a game with many friction points arising in a cultural moment where gamers are, perhaps more than ever, convinced that "consumers" are kings.

Dragon's Dogma 2 is not readily "solvable" and you can't min-max it. You will make mistakes. You will be scraped and bruised and scarred. Pain is sometimes the only bridge that can take us wher ewe need to go. And gaming culture, fed the lie of mastery and player importance, does not understand that scars can be beautiful. I love this game. I think it's a miracle it came out at all.

I also think in spite of the success it's found… that 2024 might be the worst possible year for it to have released.

Let's ramble about it..

It's easy to feel like Hideaki Itsuno and his team miscalculated the amount of friction that players are willing to endure and while I don't think that's true (he didn't miscalculate moreso stick to his particular vision) it certainly appears that we've reached a point in gaming where players, glutted on convenience, don't really know what to do when robbed of it. I've heard folks complain that they can't sprint everywhere or else balk learning that ferrystones required for fast travel cost 10,000 gold as if these shatter DD2 into pieces. I'm vaguely sympathetic to these concerns but at the same time they seem to spring entirely from a lack of understanding of the game's design goals. Much like how folks demanding a traditionally structured RPG narrative from an Octopath game misunderstand what that team is trying to do, players asking to sprint through the world or teleport with ease fundamentally misunderstand what Dragon's Dogma wants. The world is not a wrapper for a story. It is the story. Dragon's Dogma is a story factory whose various textures create unprecedented triumphs and memorable failure.

It is crucial to the experience to allow both of those to occur and live with whatever follows.

I'm always cautious of talking like this because it can come off as smug or superior but I think ultimately that's the truth of the matter here. This was not a well-played franchise before now and even if it's a AAA title, there's a way in which this game is meant to elide most AAA open world trends. You are expected to traverse. If you want relatively cheap and faster travel, you're meant to find an oxcart and pay the (quite modest) fee to move between trade hubs much like you would pay for a silt strider in Morrowind. Even if you do this, you could be ambushed on the road and in the worst case the ox pulling the cart can be killed. Something being "possible" in a game doesn't always mean it is intentional but Dragon's Dogma continually undercuts the player's ability to avoid long treks. Portcrystals, which act as fast travel destinations, are limited and ferry stones (while not prohibitively expensive compared to weapons and armor) are juuust expensive enough that you need to consider if the expense is worthwhile. Once is happenstance. Multiple times is a pattern. And the pattern in Dragon's Dogma is to disincentivize easy travel. It screams of intent.

Something I could not have imagined playing games growing up is the ways in which even a decade (or two) could lead to radically different attitudes on what games should provide. That's an audience issue to an extent but it's also something games have brought upon themselves. The "language" of an open world game has been solidified through years climbable towers, mini-map marked caves, and options to zip around worlds. When a game deviates from that language, the change is more noticeable than ever.

Hell, even Elden Ring (perhaps the closest modern relative to Dragon's Dogma) allows you to warp between bonfires and gives you a steed to ride. But that's also a much larger game! DD2 is not a large game and the story is not long. Yes, you can spend untold hours wandering about into nooks and crannies but a trek from one end of the world to another is still significantly shorter than bounding through most open worlds and a run through the critical path reveals a speedy game. Not as speedy as the first but brisk by genre standards.

exploration is the glue that binds the combat and progression system in place. Upgrading armor and weapons requires seeking out specific materials and fighting certain monsters. Gathering the funds for big purchases in shops mostly comes from selling your excess monster parts. The entire game hinges on the idea of long expeditions where you accrue materials and supplies on the road and then invest that horde one way or another once you return to town. It's not simply a matter of mood and tone for you to trek throughout the world without ease. The gameplay loop is built around it.

There's another complicating factor that I'm less interested in diving into and it's the presence of certain microtransactions at launch. Principally I'm against MTX in single players games, particularly conveniences of which most of DD2's microtransactions are. But I also think there's been a fundamental misunderstanding of what many of these are. Among the biggest things I've heard (repeatedly!) is that you can pay real life money for fast travel but that's not true. You can buy a single portcrystal offering you one more potential location to warp to. It's a one-time purchase and the only travel convenience offered. This has transformed, partly because of people's lack of familiarity with Dragon's Dogma's mechanics, into a claim that you can pay over and over to teleport around. I think that assumption reveals more about the general audience than anything else.

I think it is worth entertaining a question: does the existence of this extra port crystal signify a compromising of the game's goals regarding travel? That's not a discussion that folks seem to be interested in having—instead opting for more emotional and reactionary panicking—but it is the most interesting question. On face the answer is yes and that raises the follow up question of whether or not the developers had knowledge this convenience (though one-off) would be offered to players. If so, did that knowledge affect how they designed the game? Even slightly? It seems rather clear to me that these purchases are a publisher decision; there's nothing in the game's design that suggest the dev team wants players to have access to an extra portcrystal. As we've established it's quite the opposite!

They want you to haul your fucking ass around and get jumped by goblins, buddy.

Which is many words to say that as much as I care about microtransactions from a consumer standpoint, the way in which they undermine Dragon's Dogma 2's goals is a fair reminder of the ways in which they hurt developers. Ultimately, I do think that these purchases are ignorable and in that sense (combined with the misinformation surrounding them) I'm a little burned by the consumer-minded discussion. Doubly so because of the way it feels, at least in part, tied into a certain kind of rhetoric that's been on the rise lately. Instead, I find myself drawn to the question of the damage they do the devs and if more onerous plans actually would force their hands into undercutting portions of their own designs. The shift of many series into live-service chasing suggest so but even as I entertain these thoughts I don't get the sense that Itsuno and his team were forced to reshape their game world to encourage these microtransactions. The world is as they want.

If it wasn't, they wouldn't make it so failing to act quickly in a quest to find a missing kid stolen by wolves could end with you being too late. They wouldn't make it so buying goods from an Elven shop without an interpreter was a hassle. It's present in Every Damn Thing!

More interesting to consider is why this particular game became such a lightning rod of passion when I'm going to assume that most people caught up in the discussion have no particular fealty to the series. The answer is a combination of factors but there's something about the genre that ignites the panic we're seeing as much as the culture moment we're in. When people try to explain that these MTX purchases are not needed, it's confused for approval of their inclusion but that's not something we need to grant. I don't think anyone wants these things here and when they say "you don't need them" they are referring to the more complex thought that the game is better played without them. But this is not heard because the idea that you'd want to opt into friction and discomfort is not something that the general audience is likely to understand. They're wired against it. They crave ease.

not everyone, mind you. DD2's enjoyed a lot of excited reactions (there's tons of folks who like this game as it is and are happily playing it) but it has faced plenty of folks railing against "bad" design choices but the fact remains that those "bad" choices were intentional.

I'm writing about this stuff instead of, say, the wild journey I took solving one of the Sphinx's riddles because the immediately interesting thing about Dragon's Dogma 2 has been what it's become as a cultural object. It is a game suffering from success. Never designed for a general audience or modern standards but thrust into their hands due to Capcom's ongoing renaissance. Dragon's Dogma is a fine game whose cult status is well earned but the reason DD2 garnered this attention (and therefore becomes a hot-topic game) has as much to do with Capcom's ongoing success rate as anything else. In some ways, it actually IS a good time to release a game like Dragon's Dogma 2. There's certainly a curiousity in place. Partly borne of goodwill and also from folks' genuine desire to try something new.

and yet, we're in a odd moment in games. consumer rights lanaguge, having been fundamentally misunderstood and reconfigured by gamers as a rhetoric for justifying their purchase habits (I'm paying the money! why can't the game do exactly as I demand!?) has stifled many people's ability to have imaginative interpretations of gameplay mechanics. they don't ask "what is this thing doing as a storytelling device" (which mechanics are!) and rather default to "what is this thing doing to me and my FUN and my TIME". which are not bad questions but they also misunderstand the possibility space games have to offer. While we can attribute some of the objections that has arisen to players' thoughts about genre itself and the way in which Dragon's Dogma positions friction as a key gameplay pillar, the fact of the matter is that we would not be having such spirited discussion about these things in, say, 2017. not that things were great back then, but I think the audience is worse now in many, many ways. sarcastically? I blame Game Design YouTube.

Even if there were no microtransactions, we'd still be having a degree of Discourse thanks to a key game mechanic: Dragonplague. It is a disease that can afflict your Pawn companions which initially causes them to get mouthy and start to disobey orders. If you notice these signs (alongside ominous glowing eyes) then your Pawn has been infected and you're expected to dismiss them back to the Rift where that infection can spread to another player. The game gives a pop up to the player explaining this the first time they encounter the disease. However, some players have ignored that warning and found a dire consequence: an untreated Pawn can, when the player rests at an inn, go on an overnight rampage that kills the majority of NPCs in whatever settlement they are in. This includes plot-important characters. The reaction's been intense. Reddit always sucks but man… just look…

I understand some of the ire. It's a drastic shift from your pawn being a bit ornery to instantly killing an entire city. On the other hand, the game does warn of potentially dire consequences if a Pawn's sickness is ignored. Players have simply underestimated the scale of that consequence. Surely no major RPG would mass murder important characters and break questlines! We're in post Oblivion/Skyrim world. Important NPCs are essential and cannot be killed, right? Well, wrong and this is another way in which Dragon's Dogma chases after the legacy of a game like Morrowind more than than it adapts current open world trends. This is a world where things can break and the developers have decided that they are okay with it breaking in a very drastic way. It's hard to think of anything comparable in a contemporary game. We don't really do this kind of thing anymore.

The result has been panic and a spread of information both helpful and hopelessly speculative. Is your game ruined? Well, maybe. There is an item you can find which allows for mass resurrection but that's gonna require some questing. But some players also say that you can wait a while and the game will eventually reset back to the pre-murder status quo. What's true? Hard to know. Dragon's Dogma doesn't show all of its cards and won't always explain itself. We know entire cities can be killed. We know that individual characters can be revived in the city morgue or else the settlement restored (mostly) with a special item. Dragonplague is detectable and the worst case scenario is, to some extent or another, something that the player can ameliorate. Those are facts but they don't really matter.

That's because players issue (panick? hysteria?) with dragonplague is as much to do with what it represents as what it does. Players are used to the notion of game worlds being spaces where they get to determine every state of affair. They are, as I've suggested before, eager to play the tyrant. Eager to enact whatever violences or charities that might strike their fancy. They do this with the expectation that they will be rewarded for the latter but face no consequences for the former. Dragonplague argues otherwise. No, it says, this world is also one that belongs to the developers and they are more than fine with heaping dire consequences on players. Before the dragonplague's consequences were known, players were running around the world killing NPCs in cities because it would stabilize the framerate. They're fine with mass murder on their own terms. they love it!

This is made more clear when we look at how Dragon's Dogma handles saving the game. While there are autosaves between battles, players are expected to rest at inns to save their game. This costs some gold, which is a hassle, but the bigger "issue" is that they only have one save slot. Which means that save scumming is not entirely feasible though not impossible with a bit of planning. What it does mean, however, is that the game is saved when a dragonplague attack happens. you have to rest at an inn for this to trigger. which saves the game. They cannot roll back the clock. The tragedy becomes a fact. It's not the only time Dragon's Dogma does this. For instance, players can come into possession of a special arrow that can slay anything. When used, the game saves. Much like how players are given a warning about dragonplague, they're warned before using this arrow: don't miss.

If you do? that's a real shame. The depth of this consequence is uncommon in today's gaming landscape. Games are mostly frivolous and save data is the amber from which players suck crystallized potentialities. Don't like what happened? No worries. Slide into your files and find the frozen world which suits your proclivities. You are God. In Dragon's Dogma, you are not god. The threads of prophecy can be severed and you must persist in the doomed world that's been created. The mere suggestion is an affront. The fact that Dragon's Dogma has the stones to commit to the bit in 2024 is essentially a miracle.

It's easy to boil everything I'm saying down to "Dragon's Dogma is not afraid to be rude to the player" but that doesn't capture the spirit of the design. It invites players to go on a hike. It makes no attempt to hide that the hike is difficult. But that's the extent of it. It offers little guidance on the path, doesn't check if you're a skilled enough hiker. Your decision to go on the hike is taken as proof of your acceptance of the fact that you might fall down.

This is not unique to Dragon's Dogma. In fact, this is part of the appeal (philosophically) of a game like Elden Ring. The difference being that even FromSofts much-lauded gamer gauntlets (excepting perhaps Sekiro, conincidentally their best work) offer more ways to adjust and fix the world state to the player's liking. Even the darling of difficulty will offering you a hand when you fall. Dragon's Dogma is not so eager to do so. In a decade where convenience is king for video games, that represents both a keen understanding of its lineages and a shocking affront to accepted norms and expectations.

The core of Dragon's Dogma, the very defining characteristics that earned it cult status, are the same things that have caused these modern tensions. It is both a franchise utterly consistent in its design priorities and entirely out of touch with the modern audience. Dragon's Dogma 2 has come into prominence during a time where imaginative interpretation of mechanics is at an all time low and calls for "consumer" gratification are taken as truisms. It is a game entirely at odds with the YouTube ecosystem and the very things that give it allure are the tools that have turned it into a debated object.

This flashpoint of discussion is proof of Dragon Dogma 2's design potency. It's also a sign of the damage that modern design trends have done to games as whole and the ongoing fallout that's come from gamers learning design concepts without really understanding what designing a game entails. And, uh… I dunno respond to that or how to end this. That's both very cool but it also bums me out. Dragon's Dogma 2 is a remarkably confident game but games are long beyond the point of admiring a thing for being honest.

[mellyssageverse]

Noble Hearts - Chapter 1

Prologue can be found HERE

ZoSan Royal AU

I’m still working on the title, but I wanted to start sharing some of what I have written before I post anything on AO3.

Summary: The threat of famine looms over the Kuraigana Kingdom as resources dwindle. Suspicion grips the royal Mihawk family when the prosperous Germa Kingdom offers aid by means of a transactional alliance. As tensions rise, the unforeseen connection between two princes may decide the fate of their kingdoms.

Sanji strode with purpose through the cold stone halls of the castle, the familiar weight of his crimson cloak trailing behind him. Though he had traversed these corridors countless times, each journey to the throne room felt like a daunting pilgrimage through the echoes of his past. The portraits of his father that adorned the walls seemed to loom over him with silent judgment, their painted eyes a constant reminder of the expectations he could never quite meet.

Thirteen years had passed since the tragic loss of his mother, yet the ache of her absence lingered within him like an open wound that refused to heal.

The memory of that fateful day, when the guards returned with Queen Sora's bloodied cloak, still haunted him. King Judge Vinsmoke angrily directed the blame on Sanji for the tragedy that had befallen their kingdom. In his father's eyes, Sanji was the cause of their loss, and by running for help Sanji was the embodiment of failure and disappointment. Judge’s punishment had been swift and merciless. For leaving his mother behind, Sanji was locked away in the dungeons for a full week; an iron mask clamped around his head to prevent him from eating.

In those lonely moments, with only his hunger pangs as company for his grief, Sanji made a vow to never be helpless in protecting his loved ones ever again.

Once he was released from the dungeons, Sanji began to make good on his promise. Day after day, he immersed himself in rigorous training, his commitment unyielding. Alone on the training grounds, he honed his skills with a relentless fervor, pushing himself until his feet blistered and bled.

Then came Zeff, the seasoned veteran of the castle kitchens. Concerned by Sanji's absence from his culinary domain, Zeff sought him out. The old man found Sanji alone and exhausted on the training grounds. Zeff had not only offered Sanji the comfort of his company but also the invaluable wisdom of his experience. Under Zeff's guidance, Sanji's prowess as a fighter flourished, his dedication under Zeff's teachings molded him into a formidable adversary, surpassing even his own siblings in combat.

Despite his newfound strength, Judge remained unmoved, his disdain for Sanji was as strong as ever. Sanji remained a weak link, a fragile shadow threatening to undermine the foundations of the Germa Kingdom. No amount of training, no display of skill or strength could erase the empathy that his mother had instilled within him, a trait that his father viewed as a fatal flaw.

Sanji approached the imposing doors of the throne room, where he was met with the familiar sight of his siblings awaiting entry. Reiju's small smile offered a fleeting moment of warmth amidst the cold indifference of his brothers.

The doors to the throne room swung open and Sanji offered a nod of gratitude to the servants who ushered them inside, a gesture of acknowledgment for their service.

“You don't bow to the help, idiot. They're meant to bow to us.” Yonji jeered, elbowing past Sanji with an air of superiority.

"It wasn't a bow." Sanji retorted through gritted teeth, shooting an irritated glare at his brother's retreating form.

"Pft, any form of acknowledgment to the lower class is beneath us." Niji chimed in, trailing behind Yonji with a disdainful sneer.

Meanwhile, Ichiji, the eldest of the Vinsmoke brothers, frowned disapprovingly at Sanji's modest gesture.

"Your brothers are right. It's disgraceful to stoop to such levels." Ichiji admonished sternly. "Remember your place."

Sanji's hands clenched into tight fists, the pressure of his nails digging into his palms as he fought to contain his rising frustration. In an attempt to distract himself, Sanji let his gaze sweep across the throne room, taking in its familiar imposing grandeur with a sense of disdain. The stone walls loomed above him, adorned with Judge’s gruesome trophies of conquest: the twisted horns of the Dracon.

The Dracons, with their humanoid yet dragon-like forms, were unsettling beasts. They possessed the ability to summon wings and talons at will, had a resilience against fire, and sought to destroy any living thing that crossed their path. These were the monsters Germa was at war with, like many other neighboring kingdoms. They were also the same creatures responsible for Queen Sora’s tragic death.

Despite his hatred for these beasts, Sanji couldn't shake the feeling that it was morally wrong to have their scalped horns displayed as trophies.

Judge stood before his throne, his stern expression radiated an aura of authority that commanded attention. His gaze bore into his children with unwavering intensity as they each took their seats at a polished table located at the foot of the stairs below him.

"I have gathered you all here to discuss our next plan of action in the war against the Dracons." Judge began, his voice cutting through the silence like a blade. "As you know, Kuraigana is a well-established kingdom. The might of their army has shielded them from the Dracon threat, allowing them to remain isolated from neighboring kingdoms... until now."

Sanji observed his father closely, noting the darkening of his expression and the fervent gleam in his eyes. It was a look he had seen many times before… the telltale sign of Judge's unyielding determination to achieve his objectives at any cost.

"Despite their success in repelling Dracon attacks, the Kuraigana Kingdom faces a new challenge. They struggle to feed their citizens, and their King sees it fit to accept aid from other realms. I will admit that I care little for the plight of their people, but if we can secure an alliance with Kuraigana and absorb their formidable army into our own, we will become an unstoppable force."

Sanji clenched his jaw upon hearing Judge's callous disregard for the suffering of others.

"So we are to be in talks of an alliance with their King.” Reiju spoke up next to Sanji. “What role do you require of us in all of this?”

Judge’s smile twisted into a sneer.

“King Mihawk is an unusual ruler. He never found himself a Queen to rule beside him, yet he has adopted two children of lower status to be his heirs to the throne.” There was a bitter edge to Judge’s words as he spoke.

“Are you sure we want to align ourselves with commoners like them?” Niji smirked, his brow raised in disbelief.

“King Mihawk is of royal blood. That is who I am conducting business with. His brats are of no importance to us.” Judge retorted, his stern gaze settling on Niji, silently chastising him for his impertinence. Niji’s smirk faltered, replaced by a more serious demeanor in the face of their father’s disapproval. With a begrudging sigh, Judge continued, “However, King Mihawk seems to hold his ‘children’ in high regards. He thinks they play vital roles when meeting with real royals. It is for this reason that he intends to bring them to Germa. I may not approve of this, but we can’t do anything that would jeopardize us getting control of their military.”

Sanji blinked in surprise at the sudden turn of events, his thoughts racing as he processed his father’s words. He exchanged a glance with Reiju to find that her eyes mirrored his own disbelief. Judge must really want control of the Kuraigana army if he is inviting those of non-royal lineage to be their guests.

“I expect Reiju and Sanji to be the ones to keep Mihawk’s mutts occupied during their stay.” Judge directed his attention to the two. Sanji’s surprise deepened at the unexpected responsibility thrust upon him. His eyes rose to meet Judge’s piercing gaze. His father’s cold eyes seemed to be gauging his reaction before pressing on. “You both are the most likely to be civil to the low-status royals. We do not want to cause any offense before the alliance is made.”

“Seems a bit pathetic to cater to low-class scum.” Ichiji scoffed at his sibling’s assigned task.

Judge’s eyes narrowed in anger. Sanji tensed, bracing for his father’s reprimand.

“Mind your tongue! We aren’t here to cater to anyone!” Judge’s wild eyes snapped to Ichiji. He descended from his throne, advancing towards the table with a darkening air of authority. “Every move we make serves to strengthen Germa’s standing. With the Kuraigana army at our disposal, we’ll be unstoppable. Mingling with Mihawk’s brood is a minor inconvenience, but I won’t tolerate any missteps. You don’t have to be friendly, but I expect you, Niji, and Yonji to keep your distance. One wrong word could ruin the entire alliance!”

Judge’s fist crashed down onto the table with a resounding thud, leaving a small crater of cracked stone in its wake. His long disheveled hair shrouded over his face, creating a dark shadow from which his eyes blazed with fury.

The tense atmosphere forced a chill silence to fall over the table. It was an oppressive choking feeling that they all knew well. It had only taken them one mistake in the past for them to all learn what would happen if any of them spoke against Judge. It was not one that would be repeated again, even to this day. None of the siblings dared to even draw breath when Judge’s anger turned violent.

After a few moments of tense silence, Reiju, with her characteristic grace and bravery, spoke up again. "How do you expect Sanji and me to handle King Mihawk's heirs?"

With a grunt, Judge removed his fist from the table, opting to run his hand through his hair to straighten the flyaways.

"He has a daughter known for her sorcery skills and a son who leads a pitifully small fraction of knights," Judge began, his pacing around the table emphasizing his words, positioning himself between Sanji and Reiju. “Reiju, you’ll oversee the sorceress’s accommodations, while Sanji will attend to the other. Keep them away from my negotiations with Mihawk. It’s a task so simple and straightforward that not even someone as useless as Sanji could mess it up.”

Sanji angrily curled his tongue behind his teeth, a surge of indignation rising within him, yet he held his composure.

“The Mihawks will be our guests for a week, expected to arrive in two days. Prepare accordingly for their reception. You are all dismissed.” Casting one last sharp look over his children, Judge turned sharply to leave the throne room. His cloak billowed behind him as he exited through the grand entrance.

“Well, that seemed like a waste of time.” Niji remarked as soon as Judge was out of earshot, pushing back his chair and rising to his feet. “I don’t get why I had to be here if Reiju and Sanji were the only ones given tasks.”

“On the contrary; we were given our own task,” Ichiji pointed out, eyeing the crater left in the table by their father's furious strike. “We're supposed to keep out of Reiju and Sanji's way while they entertain those lowlifes.”

“How dull.” Yonji chimed in, propping his chin on his hand. Then, his expression turned mischievous. Looking towards Sanji, the youngest of the Vinsmokes tauntingly spoke out, “Hey, Sanji, why not suggest a trip to the beach for your visitor? Worked wonders for you last time, didn't it?”

Heat instantly surged through Sanji’s skin, causing him to stand so abruptly that his chair toppled over behind him.

Reiju was quick to reach Sanji’s side, her hand gripping his shoulder firmly in an attempt to stop him.

"Just ignore him," Reiju urged quietly. "He's just trying to pick a fight. Don't let him provoke you."

Sanji met his sister's gaze, seeing the concern reflected in her eyes.

With effort, Sanji swallowed back the torrent of curses that threatened to spill from his lips in response to his brother's callous words. Taking a deep breath, Sanji turned to leave.

“What a profound love you had for our mother,” Yonji’s mocking voice echoed after Sanji as he rushed out of the room. “To leave her behind while you saved only yourself.”

Yonji’s words landed through Sanji like an arrow to his heart, his steps faltered for a moment before he quickened his pace, determined to put as much distance between himself and his siblings as possible.

Finally alone, Sanji leaned against the cold wall of the corridor, his body shaking. Tears welled in his eyes, hot and stinging, as he struggled to contain the flood of feelings that threatened to consume him. With a deep, shuddering breath, he let himself surrender to the release of tears, allowing them to fall freely.

————————————-

“Other way, dumbass!”

Zoro felt a surge of frustration as Perona grabbed his shoulders, forcibly turning him in the opposite direction. He shook off her grip, irritated by her overbearing attitude.

"I know where the throne room is! You don’t have to lead me around!" Zoro snapped.

Perona, unfazed by his irritation, flipped her long, curly pink hair over her shoulder with a smirk.

"Of course I do! I swear, even though we’ve lived here most of our lives, you still get lost in your own home," Perona's playful jab hit its mark.

Zoro angrily swatted at his sister, only to miss as she effortlessly glided out of his reach. Her powers allowing her to float gracefully in the air, her long black dress trailing behind her like a dark cloud.

“Last week for dinner, Luffy had to lead you to the dining hall.”

“Luffy didn’t lead me. He was following me so Mihawk would invite him to join us.” Zoro retorted, his glare as sharp as his three swords that always hung at his hip.

Perona chuckled, thoroughly enjoying her brother's growing annoyance.

“Oh? What about yesterday when Nami and Vivi had to lead you? Were they fishing for a dinner invite too?” Her teasing tone danced through the air like a mocking melody. “Because they were on their way toward town when they caught you wandering around lost on the castle grounds. I’m pretty sure you messed up their date night.”

Zoro’s jaw clenched tighter, his stubborn scowl deepening at Perona’s continued teasing. Despite being familiar with the castle's layout, Zoro's tendency to get lost was a well-known fact among its inhabitants, and Perona took every opportunity to playfully rib him about it.

“I wasn’t lost. I was… exploring.” Zoro insisted gruffly. “Now stop your yapping and keep moving! Mihawk wanted to talk to us about something important.”

Perona’s laughter continued to echo through the corridor like the tinkling of wind chimes, her amusement evident in the playful glint of her eyes as she continued to glide ahead. The warm glow of the sun shone brightly through the windows, illuminating the rich gothic tapestries and plush furnishings that adorned the halls.

Though he's lived here for as long as he can remember, Zoro still finds himself marveling at the castle's grandeur with each passing day. It's a testament to the power and prestige of the man who rules over it, and Zoro can't help but feel a swell of pride at being a part of Mihawk's household.

Finally, they reach the throne room, and Zoro's heart swells with a sense of homecoming when he beholds the familiar sight before him: Mihawk's figure sitting upon his throne with a wine glass in hand. As Zoro enters, he knows that, despite his penchant for getting lost, he's found his place within the castle's hallowed halls.

“You both made it on time.” King Mihawk set his glass down and rose from his seat to greet his children. “How have your trainings gone today?”

“I’m getting a lot better at crushing souls,” Perona boasted, proudly puffing up her chest, “At this rate, I’ll be able to bring whole armies to their knees.”

King Mihawk chuckled softly at his daughter’s eagerness.

“That’s excellent to hear,” Mihawk replied warmly. “Our people are sure to benefit from your hard work and protection. Speaking of protection…” Mihawk's gaze shifted to Zoro, his eyes alight with pride and approval. "I heard how you led your band of knights to the southern border of Kuraigana. You stopped a herd of Dracon from attacking our citizens."

Zoro's expression turned serious.

"I cannot take credit for that," Zoro admitted. "Luffy was the one who took charge. Under his direction, we were able to stop the Dracon attacks."

King Mihawk regarded his son with a hint of amusement.

“Modesty suits you,” Mihawk remarked, his tone carrying a note of approval. “But remember, accepting praise when deserved is just as important. You and Luffy make a formidable team, but your bravery and dedication to our people haven’t gone unnoticed.”

Although Zoro tried his best to remain stoic, he could still feel the faint smile tugging at the corners of his lips.

"I'm sure you didn't ask us to come here just so you could butter us up with compliments." Perona remarked, her arms crossed expectantly. "So what's so important that it couldn't wait to be discussed over dinner?”

Mihawk's expression grew solemn.

"As you both know, the constant attacks from the Dracons have interfered with the lives of our people for the last decade," Mihawk began, his tone grave. "Their numbers continue to grow, and despite our efforts to fend them off, our crops have suffered. I fear it won't be long before food becomes scarce."

Zoro and Perona exchanged a concerned glance, their worries mirrored in each other's eyes.

"The King of Germa has offered us aid through the formation of an alliance. They are known for their powerful armies and abundance of wealth, and they have reached out to extend their assistance to us in this time of need."

Zoro's brow furrowed in confusion as he processed his father's words.

"The Dracon attacks have been occurring for well over a decade, so why do they feel the need to form an alliance with us now?" Perona's skepticism mirrored Zoro's own thoughts.

"The King has expressed interest in our military might," Mihawk explained, his voice tinged with a hint of suspicion. "I have no doubt that he sees the alliance as a way to enhance his own military strength."

Zoro's frown deepened at his father's reply, his mind racing with questions and doubts about this alliance with the Germa Kingdom. But Mihawk pressed on, undeterred.

"Whatever their motives may be, I think we owe it to our people to see what comes from these negotiations," Mihawk continued firmly. "This war against the Dracons has not affected them as it has other neighboring kingdoms. They have the means to ensure our people do not go hungry."

“When are these negotiations meant to take place?” Zoro inquired.

“King Vinsmoke has invited our family to stay in his castle while we negotiate the terms of our alliance. We will leave tomorrow,” Mihawk’s calm reply was met with an exaggerated gasp from Perona.

“Tomorrow?! That’s such short notice! We barely have enough time to pack for the trip!” Perona exclaimed, her voice rising in frustration. “I’m not sure I have enough time to coordinate outfits. How long will we be staying there for?”

“All your dresses look the same. It shouldn’t take you long to throw a few in a trunk.” Zoro rolled his eyes.

Perona shot him a wide eyed glare. Lips pursed in anger.

“We are going to be around other royals. They give us enough grief for not being of royal descent. You want them to make fun of us for being poorly dressed too?!” Perona punctuated her point by elbowing Zoro in the ribs. In return, Zoro elbowed her back, casting a glare of his own.

“If they are just like all the other snobbish royals out there, then why should we care what they think of us?!” Zoro argued.

“Will you both please stop your bickering?” Their father's voice cut through their argument, and Zoro and Perona turned to see him pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration.

“This is precisely why I wanted to meet with the two of you. We will be staying with the Vinsmoke family for a week, perhaps longer if negotiations drag on, and I expect you both to be on your best behavior.”

Zoro guiltily bit his tongue to stop himself from arguing further with Perona. He eyed his sister carefully and noticed that she, too, was attempting to stay civil.

“Now, go make any arrangements you need to before our departure.” Mihawk ushered the two out of the throne room. He gave them one last warning look, sternly expressing his desire for them to get along, then shut the doors behind them.

“You were the one who started that argument,” Perona hissed quietly to avoid being heard by Mihawk. She turned her nose in the air and set off down the hall, Zoro following closely behind.

“You should be more concerned about our people going hungry rather than how you look to other royals.” Zoro scolded.

Perona abruptly turned to face Zoro, her floating form bringing her angry face inches from his own.

“I care because we are representing our Kingdom, and I want to be taken seriously!” Perona snapped. “You should be a bit more concerned about your appearance. If we look slovenly and uncaring, then they will see that as a reflection of our leadership skills. Doesn’t that worry you at all?”

Zoro's brows furrowed as he contemplated Perona's words. He knew she had a point, but his concerns ran deeper than mere appearances.

“Appearance is the least of my worries. Most royals don’t see me as being a worthy heir to Mihawk’s throne and never will.” Zoro averted his gaze from Perona. In his mind he sometimes wondered if other royals were right… he still had a long way to go before he could call himself Mihawk’s equal.

Perona's expression softened as she regarded her brother. Despite their frequent disagreements, she understood the weight of the expectations Zoro placed on himself. She reached out and gently placed a hand on his arm.

“Zoro, you may not see it, but Father believes in you. He sees your potential, even if you don't,” Perona reassured him, her voice softening. “You're stronger than you realize, and one day, you'll prove all those doubters wrong.”

Zoro couldn’t bring himself to meet Perona’s gaze. Despite her reassurances, he still felt weighed down by his own insecurities. He knew that earning the respect of his people was just the beginning; he needed to prove himself worthy of his father's faith and the responsibility that came with it.

Perona sensed her brother's sadness and decided to lighten the mood. With a small smile, she changed the subject, diverting Zoro's attention away from his doubts.

“You know that jacket I made for you on your last birthday? The deep midnight blue one with the gold trimmings? You should wear that when we meet the Vinsmokes. It makes you look exceptionally regal.” Perona suggested, hoping to boost Zoro's confidence.

Zoro tried to suppress his amusement but failed miserably.

“Thanks.” he muttered gratefully. Despite their differences, he couldn't help but appreciate having Perona as his sister.

(Next chapter is on my new blog here)

[isitfurbait]

So, I made a character; he’s a 9 tailed fox. He normally when traversing in his territory wears the skull of a fox, and his fingers are long and bony, no tails showing. His hands will shift to a more humanoid form if the scenario calls for it. When not wearing the skull (true form) he looks humanoid with a human nose with a marking that denotes that he is ‘other’ that looks like what a snout would probably look like, but his nose is human shaped. His 9 tails only show when he is about to feed on a humans life force, or when he is sure he is alone. He does not have fox ears, just his tails. He can shift to look like a normal human when he needs to blend in with humans. Someone had called him a furry and since then I’ve been racking my brain over it, cause I wasn’t intending for my character to be one. Children see his true form, while other humans cannot unless he reveals it to them (they see the skull form, no tails). Pictured is his human form, his true form, and the skull form when he traversing in his domain.

Hi! So, sorry for the delay in posts in general, and I hope this finds you well! I may see where they get the idea that this is a furrybait design in its existence, however, I think the biggest rule of furry is intent. While there is a vague line between generally designing an anthropomorphic creature and designing a furry design, I like to offer the creators of these designs the benefit of the doubt when it becomes necessary. As a tangent, this is also why I don't inherently say fans of Sonic the Hedgehog or Warriors are furries, but rather that their design can spark creation in furry culture in general.

When it comes to your design, I can see there's little intention for there to be a furry. I've actually thought it through from the last kitsune character I reviewed, just two posts ago, but Kitsune in their own mythology are sentient animals first, and humans second, in order to fit the mold that humans imprint onto them. I'm of the mind of furry culture that I am human-first, who seeks to explore anthropomorphic animals second. In the shoes of a kitsune, furries are attempting to live like them, but are still humans.

In your case, of course, you don't have any obligation to become a furry because of your character. You never intended for it to be perceived as such, so it wouldn't be fair to suggest you have to be what others say of you. I may spout that anthropomorphic characters are furrybait, but I'm going under a lot of review over how the characters are perceived by a wider audience and how they manage to engage an audience. I wish I could be as creative as you to create a mix of human and animal in an anthropomorphic light without it being influenced by broader furry culture. I urge you to keep living your life as you want with your character, as nobody but you can change it.

[inspofromancientworld]

Roads and Traveling

By JimChampion - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=135565344

Roads and pathways go back very far in human history, to about 10,000 BCE. Some of these might have started out as animal trails that were then used over and over, widening until they left their marks on the landscape, some were engineered and covered over by paving or logs. Some are blended with rivers to make travel faster and able to carry more and some were dictated by rulers of empires. Some are nothing more than sunken paths now, some are still in use.

By Adam37 - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19961082

The oldest extant roads are sunken paths, many of which can be found in England as there is a tradition of maintaining public rights of way. Many of these paths connect farms to each other and also cross the country to reach important locations, such as temples and cities. One of the oldest of these is Harrow Way, or the Old Way, which connected what is now Seaton in Devon to Dover in Kent. The Old Way can be dated to somewhere between 600-450 BCE, but is believed to much older, going back into the Stone Age.

By John M, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15868070

Roads that are paved with with wood can come in two types, corduroy roads that are made of logs laid across the roadway, especially across areas that tend to get extremely wet, like low lying areas and swamps. Plank roads are a newer take on that concept made with planks instead of whole logs. One of the oldest wood roads that still exists is the Corlea Trackway in Ireland, which dates to about 148 BCE and is the largest one found in Europe.

By Original creator: MossmapsCorrections according to Oxford Atlas of World History 2002, The Times Atlas of World History (1989), Philip's Atlas of World History (1999) by पाटलिपुत्र (talk) - This file was derived from: The Achaemenid Empire at its Greatest Extent.jpg, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=73745174

Darius I (Darius the Great) of the Achaemenid empire, who reigned from 522-486 BCE had the Royal Road build during his reign. Some parts of it appear to follow that of the Assyrian kings, who reigned from the 21st-7th century BCE, beginning with a city-state and gradually expanding into an empire, based on the eastern parts of the roadway seeming to connect points that were important to them rather than taking the most direct or easiest path. Darius did improve the roads, though, which were later improved by the Romans. It was expected that mounted couriers were expected to traverse the 2,699 km (1,677 miles) journey from Susa to Sardis in 9 days, a trip that took 90 days by foot, or approximately 30 hours by vehicle today. It was primarily a 'post road', or one that was used to transport mail rather than the mass transportation of people and goods.

By No machine-readable author provided. Jan Kronsell assumed (based on copyright claims). - No machine-readable source provided. Own work assumed (based on copyright claims)., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=781888

In the Americas, many trails were blazed, or marked so that others could follow, quite early in history, possibly beginning by following ridge lines or large game animal paths, which followed dry ground through the forests between grazing lands and salt licks. One of the largest still extant of these trails is the Natchez Trace, or the Old Natchez Trace between Nashville, Tennessee and Natchez Mississippi and linking the Cumberland, Tennessee, and Mississippi Rivers, spanning 710 km (440 miles). Many of the trails were co-opted by European colonizers to explore and expand through the continent.

By Manco Capac - self-made from the images on this and this and this pages and mainly from the image in the book Inca Road System by John Hyslop., CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3878163

The Inca road system was the most vast and advanced transportation system in the Americas. It consisted of many paved roads, two major north-south routes with many branches cut into mountainous territory the Inca ruled over in the Andes, and around 39,900 km (24,800 miles) of roads. The best known part of this road system is the Trail to Machu Picchu. Parts of the road systems were built by cultures that lived in the areas before the Inca ruled over the area, especially the Wari culture, who lived there from about 500-1000 CE.

By DS28 - File:Roman Empire 125 general map.SVG, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=68002775

The Roman roads, perhaps the best known early roads, were built from about 300 BCE through the fall of the Western Roman Empire, about 400 CE. They were standardized, those standards laid down in the Law of the Twelve Tables from about 450 BCE, to 8 Roman feet (~2.37m) wide, double that around curves. In rural areas, the width was 12 Roman feet, allowing two standard width carts to pass by and allow for pedestrian traffic to continue on without interference. These tables also required private landowners to allow travelers to use their land if the roads were in disrepair, so durable roads became a very important consideration, as well as making them straight to use the least amount of materials. At its peak, the Roman roads consisted of at least 29 great military highways radiating from Rome, 327 great roads that connected provinces, and many smaller roads that comprised more than 400,000 km (260.000 miles), with over 80,500 km (50,000 miles) stone paved. Many of these are still used, being paved over with modern roads.

By Whole_world_-land_and_oceans_12000.jpg: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Centerderivative work: Splette (talk) - Whole_world-_land_and_oceans_12000.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10449197 and By Nekitarc - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=43114716

In China, many roads were dedicated to trade routes like the Silk Road, which began in the Han Dynasty (207 BCE-220 CE). They focused primarily on the safety of the route to make it as lucrative as it could be, so major projects like extending the Great Wall of China, which was started during the 7th century BCE, were undertaken. The Silk Road shortened the Eurasian Steppe trail, which had been used for about 2000 years, from 10,000 km (6,200 miles) to 6,400 km (4,000 miles). Other roads in China that are worth noting are the Gallery Roads through remote mountains that are made of wooden planks secured to holes drilled into cliff sides in the Qin Mountains, which were built starting around the 4th century BCE and are still in use.