#age defense foundation

[howtofightwrite]

So second question. Quarterstaffs are a lot more dangerous than people realize right? Like…big long sticks with a bit more weight on one end are remarkably effective weapons. But my question is this…how risky is it to actually fight an armed opponent with one?

Because I’d imagine if you’re fighting someone say armed with a sword that the blade could slide down the staff and cut into your fingers or someone with a spear (which is essentially just a quarterstaff with a sharp pointy bit on the end) could potentially just whack yours out the way and stab you with it. That’s saying nothing about an armored opponent.

Would a metal quarterstaff be an effective weapon against armor? I seriously doubt a wooden one would be…then again if you had metal coating on one end or a little ball that probably ruin someone’s day should you whack them with it now wouldn’t it…hm.

Anyway, quarterstaffs. Good weapon or no? Also potential upsides to wood Vs metal staffs? Or potentially mixed staffs with mostly wood and metal bits…I’m rambling anyway bye

The staff is the parent of all polearms. The OG. The GOAT. Spawner of a billion martial styles in cultures and countries all over the world and remains a foundational part of many of them. It is also the parent of the sword. Many versions of the sword, especially early versions and two handed versions, share the same strike patterns and work off the same principles. If your character knows how to use a sword, they were more than likely trained to use a staff first.

For martial traditions, the staff is Baby’s first weapon. Is it a good weapon?

Oh, yes.

Is it risky to fight one?

Yes, it is risky to fight someone wielding a staff. While staves are most often overlooked by the general (mostly American) public due to their simplicity, they can be a very dangerous weapon. They can break bones, smash heads, knock loose teeth, bust internal organs, and they leave pretty deep bruises even with light or accidental training injuries. The most common staff training injury involves smashed fingers. Lots, and lots, and lots of smashed fingers. The strike pattern is also simple, easy to learn, and perfectly viable for self-defense without knowing more advanced techniques or having the luxury of devoting a lot of time to practice.

Staves (like the bow and the spear) are paleolithic weapons. Every culture on earth has their own version. The staff has combat applications that survive to this day due to their versatility and ease of use. They’re cheap(ish) to make compared to alternatives, easy to learn, ridiculously effective, and capable of holding off multiple opponents at once. (This includes people wielding swords.) Due to the lengthy period of time where they remained peak, it’s not a stretch to say staves are the most commonly used if not the most popular self-defense weapon in human history.

If you get outside American media, you’ll see staff weapons get a lot more prominent as a weapon of use because of the strong martial traditions associated with them. They’re also extremely prominent in myth. The staff really is the commoner’s weapon, which is probably the reason American fantasy tradition ignores it.

I’m not sure if you came into this question thinking quarterstaff meant all staves, or if your question specifically relates to quarterstaves. However, since you specified the quarterstaff, we’ll stick with that one. (There are other variants. They are legion.)

The quarterstaff is the English version from the Middle Ages. The name denotes a specific type of staff, usually about an inch in diameter and between six to nine feet in length. The quarter refers to “hand position” which would be about quarter up the length, and where the staff was held in this particular martial style. The quarterstaff is a short staff in medieval tradition, long staves were between eleven to twelve feet in length.

These were solid wood, usually cut from oak or yew. They’re not brittle. If that wasn’t enough, the ends were often also shod with iron. So, yeah… Yay, blunt force trauma. You could use quarterstaves against armored opponents, but there are better tools.

Staff Combat

You don’t normally swing a staff outside having a specific reason to hold it with one hand at the end to fully maximize its reach in a wide arc. You give up a ton of control to do this, and that makes it a risky move.

The staff is a weapon of leverage. You rotate it into forward strikes with your back hand, while using the front hand midway up the weapon as the guide. This allows the wielder to strike with both ends by using the back hand as a fulcrum. The basic strike pattern is an X, also across the body on either side, down on the head, up through the groin, you can thrust forward, and you can shoot the staff forward too. Shooting is basically throwing it with your back hand through your loosened grip to gain greater momentum and force when the front end strikes the opponent. It’s a controlled, short-range throw where the weapon never truly leaves your hands.

Hand position changes and adjusts on the shaft depending on how you’re using it. If you’re predominantly utilizing the front end for quicker, smaller movements and more precise strikes, the hands will be set wider apart with one in the middle and one closer to the end. If you’re planning to transition with strikes between the front and back ends, your hands will be closer together and utilize the shaft’s central balance point. This isn’t an either or, you can shift between positions and strike patterns in combat, which is part of the staff’s versatility as a weapon.

Due to the staff’s reach, the whole of your opponent’s body from their feet to their head is available as a target. Don’t discount the power of exterior strikes to the limbs, especially the joints. Most combat strategies start outward and work inward as the opponent’s defense begins to break.

The strike pattern occurs in simple strikes (tip forward or diagonal or side and back to hit again) or in a figure eight as you transition the weapon into various defensive blocks and strikes while moving it across in front of (or, more rarely, behind) your body.

Due to being able to use both ends, you can gain 360 degrees of protection without having to adjust your stance, your grip, or where you’re pointing the bladed end. This, in addition to its range, is why the staff is a better weapon than the sword for defending against multiple opponents.

Don’t swing. Rotate. Sweep. Strike. The staff doesn’t need big moves to generate force because the force of the strike is focused into the tip. Traditional staff combat maintains the same narrow focus around the body’s center that sword combat does. You can, for example, fight with a staff in a narrow corridor. It’s not ideal, but it’s doable and the staff is perfectly capable of maintaining your advantage over an opponent with a shorter weapon or no weapon at all. If you’re imagining the large, controlled spins of some Chinese martial arts, it’s important to remember that those staves are largely made from bamboo and different materials create different combat styles. Oak is, pardon the euphemism, stiff wood. It’s heavier.

The staff is also very fast because of the rotation of the back hand, deals a lot of force, and one never has to worry about maintaining an edge.

In simple terms when thinking about using a staff: block with the front end, then rotate the staff over across your body and clock your opponent across the face with the back end. Then rotate it over again and hit your opponent on the head or, don’t bother and thrust it into their face.

The Quarterstaff versus the Sword

With weapons, it’s important to remember that the concept isn’t about which does the most damage but which tool is the right or most effective tool for the job. Every weapon has situations where they shine and situations where they don’t. It’s contextual.

The staff has an advantage over the sword in one-on-one combat. Sometimes, if historical records are to be believed, in three on one combat. However, every weapon is dangerous in combat. This isn’t rock beats scissors. Disadvantages can be overcome.

For swords cutting through staves, think about it like trying to cut down a tree with a pocket knife. It’s not going to happen. Sword’s edge will nick or get stuck in the wood, so it’s not going to easily slide down to cut fingers. That’s if the sword edge can get into range to reach the fingers. Like all staves, the quarterstaff is a weapon where grip adjustment easily changes both reach and fighting style.

The medieval longsword runs between three to four feet. The quarterstaff is six to nine, and probably, most commonly, between seven to eight. If you transition to hold it at the end like one would a spear and primarily thrust, the reach advantage is maximized.

It isn’t necessary to do that, though. It’s combat where only one side has to worry about maintaining their edge, but that edge is still dangerous if they get close enough. Both are still going to be striking on the same angles and using the same circles.

Take the weapon out of the way and come back across into the strike.

The Spear vs The Quarterstaff

This is just staff combat where one has a pointy, bladed bit on the end and the other doesn’t. There’s actually not an extreme advantage here, though the wielder with the spear is probably going to prioritize their point for striking.

These two really aren’t different weapons. More likely to see smashed hands here.

Metal Staves

They exist. I don’t know if they existed in England though. They never gained popularity over the wooden ones because they’re more resource intensive and wood works better than fine anyway. Solid steel or hollow steel vibrate more than wood. One of the major considerations of staff combat is vibration. The weapon vibrates on contact which wears out your muscles and is hard on your grip. (You know, in case you thought constant movement was the only part that’d wear you out.) This is one of the side effects about not worrying over maintaining the sword edge. You can clang staves together the way you can’t with edged weapons, and that leads to a lot more vibration over a shorter period of time.

Staves with Metal Balls on the End

These also exist. They’re found on other polearm variants specifically designed to go after opponents in armor.

Every weapon has a place where it shines, and a place where it doesn’t.

So, where are staves outshone by swords and spears?

Warfare. Specifically, in military combat. They’re better at one-on-one combat and self-defense. There are just better, more specialized tools for military combat.

There is no best weapon. There’s just the right tool for the situation or circumstance. You can certainly take a staff into combat with an armored opponent (people did) and be successful, but there are better tools for the job. Spears are a better ground weapon in terms of attacking in formation, they work well when combined with a shield, and are a better defense against cavalry.

The irony about the sword is that it’s the original sidearm, it isn’t meant to be the primary weapon, and it is for close range fighting. So, it’s a great weapon when you’re packed into a tight melee, don’t have a lot of room, and need a weapon that works well without requiring a lot of space to build momentum. It’s also easy to carry around if you’re planning to sit down to dinner. It doesn’t take up a lot of space.

By reframing how you think about weapons from “does X amount of damage” like video games have trained us to do and think about them as contextually relevant, you’ll have a better understanding of how and why certain weapons were relevant and how they gained prominence throughout history.

-Michi

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[plutosfallenangel]

Random Moon Sign Observations | pt.II

(*based on personal experiences and opinions. look at the whole natal chart to gain complete insight, some aspects/house placements can make contradictions to the below information*)

• Scorpio Moon •

-always watching, taking it all in..

-knows most of the answers to questions before they ask

-dry humor (which I personally love)

-passionate about whatever they put their mind to, no half or 50% effort (they do have to be emotionally bonded to the person or hobbie/task, if not, they're redirecting their energy elsewhere)

-prone to becoming hyperfocused on one specific thing (most times to their detriment)

-mommy issues (but they don't talk about them, and hate when you assume you know the relationship dynamic, it's a very unique relationship dynamic and overtime it can grow to be stronger or more distant)

-deep conversations if they trust you, which is hard to gain. Trust is earned through sacrifice most times.. even if something small, they need to see you prove your loyalty and trust)

-the one I would call to bury a body (jokes pls)

-doesn't like to make assumptions, uses their earned knowledge on human behavior, they will study those around them like a case study, only to come to their own conclusions after seeing all the "facts". They can be extremely patient in this act too... they want to know you from the inside out

-sensitive to shifts in the mood, but again.. most times they will keep this information inside and watch, study you to see why it shifted

• Sagittarius moon •

-life of the party (unless heavy earth placements, bedtime comes sooner than later especially with age)

-will be the one you can call to come help you get your car stuck out of the mud, or go biking in the backwoods.. just down for anything and personally I love that about them

-can be too concerned about keeping the good times rolling, doesn't always directly express emotions.. but it's more like a dark joke, everything is turned into a joke, you just need to decipher it most times. And if it's not turned into a joke, they will laugh after they tell you horrible news. Imo a defense mechanism

-may lack boundaries when it comes to those they connect with emotionally, this isn't always a bad thing, they're coming from a place of exploration... like "how far can you and I go?" However sometimes I find they are the most capable of staying in bad situations, always trying to see the good in everyone

-can start a campfire with their bare hands, or atleast minimal tools, very attracted to fire.. find them near a fire all year round if its possible for them to do so

-can sometimes be sneakier than Scorpio moons.. when they set their eye on something in the distance that they want, they go about it most times in silence (this does depend on which house the moon is in)

-big lovers, big emotions, and larger than life dreams

-facial expressions for DAYS! I love how expressive they are.. warm smiles

-definitely rebellious in their younger years

-doesn't like to be tied down by family, but can adapt (most often moves away from mother)

• Capricorn moon •

- lives by the work hard, play harder motto

-always learns the hard way, doesn't like to take advice, rather learn through experience

-tells you like it is when you ask for relationship advice

-too many responsibilities when they were young, even if they had a good solid foundation growing up and were provided for, the expectations put on them were very heavy

-its never "how are you feeling", more "do you need anything?" and I love them for it

-happiest when they're putting themselves into something they can build on long-term, when they don't have that they can spiral FAST

-these people can drink.. and when I say drink, they're the ones to clear a 12-pack and act like they're still sober (from my experience lol)

-in my experience is much of a mommy's girl/boy as cancer moons are (esp when they're young.. they always want to take care of their mom)

-very in tune with the weather, I notice they most times have allergies or can feel a storm coming from how their body reacts

-big provider energy, but they can feel like they can't accept help from others, and end up toughing out the storm by themselves.. this is often from early childhood experiences that breed the need for extreme independence in some form

• Aquarius moon •

-they are on their own energetic wavelengths together, all aqua moons come here for a very specific reason that aligns with what society needs to be shifted/changed.. no matter how big or small the reputation they have they make an impact on those around them. Most are well-known in their local community

-big futures/big dreamers.. these people can see themselves 10 years down the road when you ask them where they'll be, they might not have a CLUE how to get there (depending on the rest of the chart) but they'll always have a sense of direction intuitively on how to get there

-can become way too overanalyzing of their own feelings and that of others.. over thinkers. They can have a hard time reading emotional encounters in the moment.. they need some time to brew with it, read into it, and for them it's easy to sit with these memories of emotion because aqua is a fixed sign

-there is an inner hermit that exists within all of them, do NOT disturb them during their hermit hours

-doesn't give much energy out to people who do them wrong, or atleast out loud to others. They love to share stories about other people, but aren't the first ones to bring up drama when it happens

-their mom is supportive of their endeavors and always wishes the best for them.. I've never met an aqua moon that didn't have a supportive mom (again this does depend on the whole chart, esp 12H moons)

-naturally creative, most I know are very passionate about creative projects and can easily bury themselves in one for long periods of time

-most times they hate having to cancel plans, not because they dont want to go, it's because they hate feeling like they let someone down

-if they invite you to their house, they will make sure you feel at home

-big social circles, few close friends that understand them

-loves to share their viewpoints, but can have bad memories lol they tend to "misplace" memories, you never know what will trigger an old forgotten memory to come up only to dissappear again

-very smart, loves YouTube videos, emotional comfort documentaries

• Pisces Moon •

-can become their mothers "mother" in a sense, their mom might rely on them a lot

-doesnt mind crying infront of others, and for me I admire this... let it out!! There's NO shame in it! (Just don't do it to manipulate others obv)

-vivid imagination, lucid dreamers, I have a 12H moon and often find myself bonding over dream stories with them

-doesn't mind disappearing until they feel up to being social, just don't forget to check in on them, they love compassion

-i often see when they share their emotions and unfortunate stories with others that it causes them to open up too, they love to hold emotional space for people especially those closest

-can often feel the "blame" from others even if it's not theirs, they can feel like they're always doing something wrong or someone is upset and it is because of them, which is most often not the case

-will decorate with a lot of pastels or a wide variety of colors in their home

-the best mentors in their life are women

-journals, journals, journals... let me into your mind palace

-soft poets, or amateur artists, this moon sign expresses a lot of emotion through art. Art helps them put a finger on how they're feeling. They channel divine messages and emotions through a craft, and even if it's not their own art they are connecting with, they will resonate with it and pass a message along to others that helps them understand something they need to at the time

-either early bedtime or no bedtime at all, creature of the night or morning star.. there's no in between with them

-being alone helps them process the most. Especially the shower lol they can process days worth of emotions in the shower I'm convinced

[acesw]

The School System of SPDM

The School Primary Defense of Mankind is a private institution where every few years, they take in orphaned arcanists around the world to train them for the purpose of becoming members of the Foundation. Many of the graduates go into the military/investigative sector of the Foundation and a handful are assigned to offices, given positions in headquarters and in rare cases accepted by the political councils. There is also a chance to work at Laplace, but thus far, Mesmer Jr. is the only one who had been placed there because of her lineage.

Not much is known about how the school works, but I will be mapping out as much information as I can find about the school, and make sure its organized as possible.

Disclaimer: This is solely based on Chapter 3, Green Lake, and the characters we have thus far who were students at SPDM. The only graduates we have are Horropedia (oldest graduate), Sonetto, Mesmer Jr., Vertin, and Matilda (youngest graduate of the group). I'll be referring to them as the "Foundation Kids", since the name sounds fitting enough. There are going to be spoilers for Chapter 3 and the characters' stories, so tread carefully.

Additionally, I'm going to be rarely using images because I really do not want to go into the effort of making screenshots after screenshots right now.

So buckle up and get ready for a big wall of paragraphs and sentences.

Known Staff Roles of the School

Principal - The head that manages the affairs of the school and responsible for all the matters that happen within. The current principal as of chapter 3 is Richard. Instructors - Their main purpose is to teach students varying subjects, a few that can be named are biology, music, potions, and arcane history School Physician - The person that takes care of the overall health of the students. It can be assumed that there are two per semester, since Tooth Fairy in particular would only stay in the school as its physician for half a year. Janitors - Of course, people that clean up areas in the school, and they have the freedom to interact with the children. Some are referred to as uncles and aunts I'd assume. Monitor Assistants - Students or Student Graduates that choose to help monitor the students of the school as a means to train them for instructor roles. Matilda is the only known monitor assistant so far. Monitor Students - Students that are given the role to monitor their peers. There seems to be a head role given to the school's high-achieving students like Sonetto. They are changed routinely every day and can increase/decrease depending on the necessity.

Level System and Enrollment

Of course, a school would not exist without its level system. The SPDM has a curriculum in place that sections off the varying different age groups of the orphaned arcanists after taking them in. The average range of the arcanists they take in are between a few months to 4 years old at its possible max.

The youngest student that had arrived in the school is Vertin at 1 month old, while Matilda is the oldest known student that had willingly enrolled at around 6 to 7 years old. This means that enrolling at the school is possible if the arcanist family is known to the Foundation. (For our Foundation kids, Sonetto and Vertin are the only ones to have been adopted into the school, whereas the other three have family or at least a guardian prior to enrollment)

The age of which arcanists graduate from the school seem to vary, in which Vertin, Sonetto, Matilda, and Mesmer Jr. had graduated at 13-15 years old. Whereas Horropedia, claimed to have been "several grades above" the group when the breakaway incident had happened. He's estimated to have been 17 at the time of the incident, while the rest of the group were around 10-12. This makes the information conflicting at first glance.

But of course, figuring out this level system would be rather helpful. This would be considered as a K-10 or K-13 curriculum, and it seems that the students can be categorized by as "Academic Year # Semester #".

Nursery & Kindergarten (1-5 years) - Where new baby and orphaned arcanists who were taken in by the school are raised in the first few years at the school.

Early Stage (5-10 years) - Young arcanists start their academic journey in the school, where they learn about the world around them while being isolated from the outside. They also begin their physical/arcanum training as a means to strengthen them whilst their afflatus and arcane skills slowly develop and awaken over time.

Late Stage (10-12 years) - The age of which arcanists begin to awaken their arcane skill. They are given the materials and training to develop their arcane skills and are slowly introduced to the world around them, being shown the opportunities they could take based on their skillset and possibly being invited to explore the work environment. (Its also in this stage that the students have a change in uniform.)

Work Immersion & Graduation (12-15 years) - The arcanists will begin to do work immersion in the fields they choose to specialize in, to familiarize themselves in the environment and even make their placements in these fields early on. Eventually, they graduate and go into official work for their sectors within the Foundation.

Higher Education (15-18 years) - Student graduates who might choose to seek higher education as a means to train for more skilled positions in their line of work. This can give them more opportunities and guidance on their first few years of work.

Rules and Education

"May the peace be with us. May the peace be with mankind." The school's main pursuit for its students are some philosophers' exhortation: "Heritage, Honor, Rationality, Responsibility"

The education in SPDM is rigorous, and goes in depth about many of the topics at hand and also putting their students through difficult trainings to ensure that they are at their best physique and readied skills. They tend to be strict, and would have a consistent flow of tests to ensure every student studies well.

Their rules are also just as meticulous, wanting to make sure that their students' conscience and goals stay close to the ideologies of the school and the Foundation. Going from disallowing them from artistic/literary media that is "not advocated or approved by" the Foundation, treating outside attachments as "meaningless", and teaching students that they are meant to sacrifice themselves for the safety of mankind.

The school has a Student Handbook that goes through these rules and guidelines. The main idea and rule that the school imposes is to pay no heed to the world outside, as creating an attachment would only bring harm and regret. They are to focus on training themselves to serve their mission towards pursuing peace and order in the guidance of the Foundation until death, since all of the students are taught that they would die martyrs for the cause.

"To live is to lose things around us until the day we lose life itself to death. That's why we should only focus on the supreme missions." - Sonetto, Frogs and Toffee (3-2)

Some of these rules include the standard things (no skipping classes, no in-fighting) while also having rules such as no mass gatherings, conspiration against the school, acquiring and keeping contraband, leaving school grounds, etc. However, there are some liberties that are taken, such as having freedom with hairstyles, free use of arcane skills, etc.

Interestingly, one of the rules is that discussion about the "Storm" is forbidden. Its also forbidden to go out when its raining, and discouraged to discuss any incident that had occurred within the school.

There are routinely inspections that are carried out to make sure no rules are being broken, such as dorm checks and head counting. Monitor staff are also in place to ensure there is order among the students, and as mentioned previously, the school would have a head student monitor that would cooperate with the respective school monitor and monitor assistant. If strict supervision is required for any reason, the Foundation will step in and arrange to deploy their own units or Zeno recruits from the academy. (Like in the case of the Manus Vindictae's olitiaus having to be scouted out by Zeno recruits like Lilya)

Punishments

Punishments are of course, carried out based on the rule that is broken. Normally, these punishments wouldn't be so harsh (it just so happened our little troublemaker just actively likes to break major rules). The most normal of the punishments that have been given out so far is a timeout and confiscation of contraband. Of course, there is the more…extreme side.

With the little shit I mean Vertin having this tendency to break rules, one of the punishments we see her go through is isolation. There is a guardhouse in the school's campus where students who break major rules stay in it for a specific amount of time based on what rule is broken. The most merciful would be only a mention of the "Storm" (1 day with no food/water), the worst of it is mass gathering and what can be classified as rebellion (2 weeks with no food/water).

Campus

We currently have a complete map of the school thanks to chapter 3 and the manus. The school is walled off and has watchtowers to ensure that there are no outsiders (and of course, escapees). There seems to be air raid tunnels beneath the schools as well, why they were built in besides its main purpose is not known, but as we know it has been rarely used. In these air raid tunnels we find that there are also blast doors that border between the tunnels and the watchtowers.

There are no labels on where the guardhouses are, but they are of course meant to discipline the students. There are critters and tools at the kids' disposal, to mostly alleviate immediate problems. The guardhouse is checked regularly, and is cleaned up weekly. Though, some messages left behind by previous dwellers are left as is for the next to help guide them through.

George the Oak is a tree possibly situatied near the lake on the map, and is known to be a famous tree for the kids because of its age and its size. There, they can go in the tree hollow or even just sit under the giant leaves. Either way, it looks to be like a nice spot to go to for the students when they have free time. Sad it got cautioned off after the parade incident.

Employees from the Foundation headquarters have the freedom to enter the school campus and visit the facilities as they'd like, as we see with Constantine and Druvis meeting in the library, and Madam Z and Katz meeting in the sports field in chapter 4.

Lastly, the school is most likely situated next to the official headquarters building, and there is a town that is near the school since there was a time where Vertin and Sonetto went to watch an outsider parade from a distance.

Events

There are 3 important events for SPDM: The Annual Evaluation, Parade Ceremony, and the Graduation of Year 10 & Higher Education students.

The Annual Evaluation is where they evaluate the overall performance of their students, and rank them based on the evaluation. -Sonetto and Matilda had made it to the rankings prior to or during the 4th Year of the Storm. Sonetto made her way to rank 1, while Matilda had achieved rank 3.

The Annual Parade is to showcase the school's best image and boost morale, and with it, the school selects their best students to participate in a three-month intense training. Through this they would become the school's honor guard and represent the students in the best way possible. Before this, a pre-parade ceremony is held out to help practice and for the principal to send his regards/support to the students. -As again, one of the most outstanding students, Sonetto's "Parade Anthem" garment seems to be the honor guard uniform that she had been given, signaling that she was one of the chosen students for the training course.

And lastly, Graduation. Of course, the main focus here would be the year 10 students of SPDM; who officially become workers for the Foundation. We're not really sure how this ceremony happens, but it can be thought that the students will be given the choice to choose their paths immediately after the ceremony, or, it would be assigned to them.

Vertin and Mesmer Jr. are excluded from the choice/allocation, as they were both put into roles early on for special circumstances. For Vertin it was because she became the Timekeeper after the breakaway incident, and for Mesmer she had been put into the role of working in Laplace because of her lineage and heritage.

While Sonetto seemed to have chosen to be a field investigator, Matilda was assigned to her role as a Monitor Assistant.

Horropedia on the other hand seems to have sought out higher education since he stayed in the Foundation a bit longer than others, and thus graduated with such an honor. This made him able to start working in the external inspection unit as it seems.

Other notes on the Foundation kids before ending this megapost:

Sonetto has proven to be the most outstanding graduate of SPDM, and has been rewarded medals (i.e. Merit Medal of Session Eight) and even a ceremony stick because of her role as an honor guard.

Its very likely that Vertin was isolated from the rest of the students to train her for her role as the Timekeeper. Besides that, she is one of the most unique students of the school.

Mesmer Jr. had been assigned to work in Laplace's Rehabilitation Center at 12 years old, making her the youngest person to have started work among the five.

Besides Sonetto, Matilda has technically not seen her former classmates since graduation, and possibly has not seen Vertin for an even longer time.

Horropedia is the only person who had stayed in SPDM past the assumed graduating age, which makes me believe that he had received higher education or was held back by troublemaking…I can see both possibilities.

Overall, these are the observations that I was able to rule out. There are still some things that I might not have considered or taken to account yet, but that's just because I can't really tell if it can be added here + I wrote this at 5 am. SPDM's school system is a bit screwed because of the punishments and everything, but this entire guide feels like it can be comprehended better.

Thanks for reading to the bottom of this post. I'm open to answer questions as well as add into/fix the information here!

[jubileemon]

Loona started off as a fan favorite, but as the series progressed, some hate her for being your typical "misunderstood teenage goth girl" who is bratty, temperamental and mistreats others around her as little more than nuisances, even her adoptive father, Blitzo.

Background and Trauma

Loona exhibits a complex personality shaped by a traumatic upbringing. Her behavior is rooted in her experiences at the Hellhound Adoption Foundation, where she was raised by uncaring caretakers. Devoid of affection and subjected to violence for disobedience, Loona's formative years were marred by isolation and mistreatment. This harsh reality of her childhood in the orphanage left her with deep-seated trust issues and an inability to properly give or receive love, influencing her interactions with others, including her adoptive father Blitz.

The so-called "adoption center" looks like a cross between a run-down dog pound and a juvenile detention center, with most of the hellhounds Blitzo sees looking malnourished or deformed. When he sees Loona, her cellmate is threatening her with a bloody nail bat before she flings him at the bars, growling and then she starts crying, looking more like a frightened, feral dog than anything. The social worker's indifferent description of her in her emotionally dead tone doesn't help, saying all this directly in front of Loona's cell, and only highlights how lonely Loona's life had been for almost eighteen years.

Loona's living space gets more tragic the longer you look at it. The back and side walls are covered in tally marks scratched into the tile. And there's a typical "Hang in there!" poster ripped with obvious claw marks, making it clear Loona had long given up hope of being adopted into a family. There are some drawings on the walls of Loona with storm clouds above her head and a giant version of her stomping on a city. Either they were drawn by Loona in which case they show just how frustrated and fed up with the world she has become over the years, or they were drawn by the other hellhound kids who only see her as a vicious monster.

The fact that this place is essentially a pound and not an adoption place paints Loona's situation as much grimmer. They're not treated as individuals but as animals and would normally just leave as rescued dogs. When the social worker mentions that Loona will age out it's implied that it doesn't mean that she's exactly leaving safe & sound.

You can also see that Loona takes a look at her tally marks, and as it lines up with the social worker's statement on her aging out, it wordlessly states Loona knows about this. Whether she's put to sleep or kicked out ownerless, it's a cloud of pitch-black dread she can do nothing about except countdown to.

The social worker's dialogue makes it clear how hellhounds are treated in this world. They're not treated as sentient individuals; instead, they're valued for either being strong laborers or cute family pets. Loona is both strong and beautiful, but being a self-actualized person with internal struggles and self-preservation instincts makes her undesirable. For an imp, one of the lowest creatures in Hell's hierarchy, to be able to adopt a hellhound as a pet or servant shows that despite their strength, they're seen and treated as even lower than imps.

If Blitzo hadn't adopted her, Loona would apparently have "aged out of the system" and been "out of the kennel's hair". This could simply mean that Loona would be kicked out, but given a mix of how scared she looked, the way hellhounds are treated in this setting and what sometimes happens to real dogs when they're deemed too old for adoption…

Personality

Loona's past manifested in various aspects of her demeanor. Her reluctance to perform her job may stem from a newfound appreciation for freedom, contrasting with her previously constrained life. Her agreessive nature, particularly towards characters like Moxxie, can be seen as a defensive mechanism, a way to assert control in situations where she might feel vulnerable.

Blitzo's adoption of her before she aged out ensured her gratitude and was why she didn't leave him. But years of hardship have made it hard for her to open up to him properly. Despite her tough exterior, moments of genuine vulnerability reveal her social awkwardness and desire for connection, which she struggles to navigate due to her lack of social experience.

Loona is shown throughout the series to have a strong aversion to being touched, reacting either with threatening growls or violence. However, her aversion to being touched might've stem from her past in the adoption center, yet she can handle being touched when she's the one initiating the contact, as seen when she allows Octavia to hug her and then holds her hand through the portal. That being said, she never reacted aggressively to Blitzo's affections beforehand, so this felt out of place, even for her.

Social Skills

Loona seems to be hiding some deep insecurities and feelings of loneliness, having never had any friends before meeting Vortex and briefly glancing with visible sadness at a picture of an happy family in "Murder Family", which implies Loona does wish to have good relationships in her life, but is unable to due to her tendency to see the bad in people and vent out her frustrations on others, including (and, arguably, especially) those who try to be nice or fatherly to her, like her adoptive father Blitzo.

However, after having been friend-zoned by Vortex, Loona didn't resent him and kept in touch with him, becoming great friends with him and going to parties with him, which might be making her more open to people and less hostile, as she's gradually becoming less rude and apathetic towards her co-workers.

Father-Daughter Relationship

Blitzo is her adoptive father, but she almost always refers to him by his name since she doesn't like showing the fact that she cares about him. That said, there are times where she slips up: on Instagram, she was so worried about him being kidnapped that she straight out called him "dad", though she immediately tried to walk it back out of embarrassment by claiming she was just upset that food was running low in their home. In "Spring Broken", she was so flustered with seeing Vortex that she almost slipped and called Blitzo "dad" before catching herself.

Once, she showed to be more than capable of both showing affection to and taking care of Blitzo: when he became severely intoxicated at Vortex and Queen Bee-lzebub's party to numb his pain after having rejected Stolas, she drove and carried him back to I.M.P. headquarters, set him on the couch and covered him with a blanket. When Blitzo shared his insecurities regarding loneliness and asked her if she'd be by him once he met his end, Loona promised him she would, showing her seriousness and true care by willingly calling him "dad".

Sisterly Bond

For the longest time, Loona and Octavia never met each other, only being connected to each other through their dads being in a rather complicated relationship with each other. This changed one day when Octavia snuck into I.M.P.'s office to obtain her father's grimoire so she can watch a meteor shower on Earth on her own. Loona actually spots Octavia trying to sneak in, but deliberately chooses not to say anything (partly because of lingering anger from a discussion she had with her father earlier).

As Loona approaches Octavia when she finally finds her, she's incredibly gentle with the girl and even compliments her on her photos. Loona rags on Blitzo at the beginning of "Seeing Stars", even physically assaulting him. But on Earth, she ultimately does do what he wants in finding Octavia, confiding in her that she recognizes that Blitzo is trying to be a good dad to her. It's as close as Loona gets to admitting that maybe things with Blitzo aren't as bad as she's ever gotten.

When Loona asks Octavia if she's ready to go while extending her hand out to her, Octavia gives the grimoire over to Loona and hugs her, glad to have someone who listened to her and can relate to. Previous episodes have shown that Loona does NOT like physical affection, shown most often with Blitzo. Yet here, Loona accepts and even returns Octavia's hug with no resistance whatsoever. It's even better since Loona was the one who initiated the contact. She holds her hand out to Octavia twice as though to help her stand up and looks a little confused when Octavia instead hands her the book the first time.

Conclusion

So far, I can see that Loona's character among fans is kinda mixed. While some viewers are sympathetic with her traumatic past and understand her defensive behavior, others find her attitude off-putting, which is understandable. It's also understandable that due to her recent absence and lack of dialogues during the second season, Loona's VA was probably given time to grieve due to the losing her partner and probably a busy schedule with other projects.

[bitter-bats-cult-of-the-moon]

Energy Shields - Basic and Advanced Techniques

Psychic Defense Technique One – White Light

This technique is widely accepted and utilized within the new age and mainstream avenues involving metaphysics. The initial concept is about surrounding ourselves with white light encompassing positive energies relating to protection and love.

White light often is associated with illumination, purity, harmony, and wholeness. It raises our awareness and energy vibrations as a whole while neutralizing negativity away from us.

Visualization Remedies

Imagine yourself in the center of the room illuminated by light bulbs providing warmth and security to you and your home.

Find yourself standing under the shower waters or next to a waterfall. Seeing and feeling the waters turn into light illuminating over you and around you are becoming a protection barrier.

Visualize angels watching over you and the light is radiating and forming just the right kind of shields.

Psychic Defense Technique Two – Bubble Shields and Layers

Bubble Shields

The Bubble Technique uses the idea that we can mentally surround ourselves with either a bubble or shield itself that will reflect and absorb negativity, so we do not feel the full effects. It is useful when having to learn shielding techniques because the bubble or shields themselves can feed on the negative energies directed at us, but only if there is a filter being used.

Filters

When it comes to energy filters try to think of it like this. We use coffee filters to take in all the good stuff leaving behind the coffee grounds or else it slows down our intake and is more like sludge that we are drinking. Some of us are left feeling nauseas and will end up sick if this keeps happening.

Throat Chakra

The color blue is associated with the throat chakra and this energy point represents will power. Whenever an individual visualizes their personal shield try combining the associated color and chakra point energies because directing willpower and your voice to the shield strengthens it.

Layers

When it comes to the bubble shielding technique it is a good starting point for beginner energy workers, but there are advanced methods one should learn to further reinforce themselves.

The easiest way for me to explain this is an individual should start out by visualizing the sphere around them and from there adding more layers. You can be creative with this, and the bubble method doesn't always have to be utilized in this way. Some practitioners visualize a suit of armour or an actual shield that will aid in their personal protection. So, my question is what do you think would work best for you? Is the armor or bubble surrounded by elemental energies that correspond with you as an individual? What about colors and their metaphysical meanings? Are there any plants or animals that work with you in order to properly create these shields?

It doesn't always have to be the bubble method or suit of armour either. The shield can be a triangle like a pyramid or walls built around you. The creativity is left up to you as the author.

My best advice for trying out advanced shields and adding in layers is to write and / or draw it out physically for yourself. Do not show anyone else because this is for your eyes only. Having an actual physical visual for yourself helps because you can look at this and change things around at any given time.

Psychic Defense Technique Three – Shadow Shields

Like the bubble and light variations of shields the shadow shield can be formed as either a barrier, fog, mist, or utilized as a combination. For focus and laying out the basic foundations visualize yourself in a dark room so that there is a perpetual shadow. This will familiarize you with how you may look in the darkness of a room or another way to achieve this is by going outside and peering down into your own shadow visualizing it as a suit of armor or your shield.

The shadow shield can be turned into an offensive weapon as well if the magician visualizes additional parts to their own shadow such as spikes, barbs, or tendrils. It's also an effective cloaking method if one wishes to remain unnoticed by people around them. The shadow when visualized properly can create a camouflaged space around you, but this method requires more energy and focus to maintain. Remember and think of things like this as well. It's easier to hide behind shadows than in a clear or colored shield.

Psychic Defense Technique Four – Physical Body Positions

Certain body positions can act to close off the energy circuits and protect chakra points depending on where the arms and legs are crossed. Next time you are around someone that seems to be draining and pulling at your energy or spewing a bunch of negativities try sitting down and crossing your arms and legs. Simply listen, but do not give into their issues.

Another way to try this is to think about your chakra points along the human body. If you are unable to sit down, think about the throat and heart chakras. Visualize slowly closing the chakras off temporarily while around these types of people.

Psychic Defense Technique Five – Reflections

Mirrors

The visualization technique here is to imagine mirrors facing outwards so that energy is reflected away from you. This is a good method to try whenever keeping unwanted energy out. Everything will be reflected return to sender.

Another way to utilize this is by visualizing mirrors around someone else facing inward. Whatever they try to send at you will return to them. The cause and effect will be that they themselves get to deal with their own energies instead of causing harm to your own.

Negative Bubbles

Visualize a bubble around the person that is being negative. Similar to the mirror method, whenever the individual in question tries to throw negative energy or use negative emotions to their advantage, the energy won't be able to escape the bubble. The person will feel everything for themselves versus harming you. They will learn to be nice or be zapped by their own negative energies.

Hallways And Doors

Remember that person throwing negative energies at you? Instead of visualizing mirrors or bubbles to return to sender you can also try this. For any psychic attack being thrown in your direction visualize and redirect those energies by looping hallways with doors or imagine whatever it is attacking you on fire before giving the outside energies a kick to the curb.

Psychic Defense Technique Six – Salt

Kosher Salt or Sea Salt works the best for protection because these types of salt absorb negative energies and will ground them or take it away from you. There are many different ways to use salt. How does this help in shielding yourself one might ask? Simple. Sea Salt can be used as a physical or energetic barrier. It is also good for grounding your own energies because it is an element from the earth.

Salt Remedies

Salt in a small cup around a busy room and where you work the most will help by absorbing the negative energies. Make sure to flush and change the salt out every month.

Sprinkle salt into bath water and soak. The salt will absorb and take negative energy from you while also grounding your energies. Add a touch of baking soda if you need to kickstart your own energies and revive what has been lost.

Dilute salt and mineral water into a spray bottle. In each room that has been overloaded with negativity I want you to spray mist into the air. This will cleanse and clear your home. Alot of people tend to try this if they cannot or will not use smoke cleansing methods.

Psychic Defense Technique Seven – Protection Symbols

Protection symbols come in many different forms but will only work if you believe in them. Your belief in the symbol actually working will give the best results. Confidence is always the key whenever one is working in metaphysics, period. Belief is the most important, and when it comes to protection symbols, they can be utilized as an additional method to your energy shields. The symbol can act to strengthen the subconscious mind which adds to your defenses.

What works best for you? Many people believe in different things and any symbol can be used for protection as long as the symbol means something to you. What may work for you might not work for the next person due to having different beliefs.

Psychic Defense Technique Eight – Prayer and Affirmations

Prayers are good for building positive energy, amplifying protections, and adding layers of defense to your energy system. It's a good way to get to know your deities and spirits as well. While this may be a good tool for building a relationship with your spirits, please remember to not fall into the habit of doing this and becoming too dependent. Deities and Spirits are there to help guide you. They are teachers and sometimes will become your friend -but like all other mentors they want what is best for you so that you will grow. This includes being able to protect yourself without aid at some point as you progress in your metaphysical workings.

Affirmations are about bringing positivity to yourself as a person.

Simple affirmations include:

"I allow only positivity around me."

"My vibrations grow stronger every day."

When writing out an affirmation try to keep it in the first-person perspective and stay in the present. Do not sink into the past and think about all the negatives. Affirmations are about all the positives one possesses. Adding this right after a prayer is a good way to boost relationships with your spirits.

Psychic Defense Technique Nine – Crystals

Crystals can be used for various workings and amplify your protections or work to protect you on their own accord. Many crystals are already attuned to certain metaphysical properties and each stone holds its own meaning. There is even a way to use crystals and lay out a grid for bigger spell workings or intentions. To provide some great examples; black tourmaline and most obsidian stones are great for protection aid and are good choices for crystal grids when seeking out protection and absorbing negative energies away from you. Most crystal grids rely on a bigger crystal that is central to the rest being used because they act as a generator giving power to the grid itself and amplifying the other crystals within the line up. A lot of people use clear quartz for generator crystals, however if this type of crystal is under too much strain or absorbs too much negative energies they are known to chip and crack. Darker stones are your friend.

Psychic Defense Technique Ten – Sounds

Using sound as a means of defense can be effective and primarily it is used more so as a warning or deterrent within an outer to middle layer of your shields. Sound distracts and thus scatters a target's focus on the original intent. With this obviously there is a source of irritation present rather than direct counter attacks.

Various sounds that can be used are high pitched ringing, alarming bells, constant chatter of people as background noise, nails on a chalk board, etcetera.

Which sound you choose for yourself is entirely up to your imagination and as always one method may not work for all attackers.

At times, this is a temporary idea for whenever you need to craft your shield and get other layers up.

[unhelpfulfemme]

Damen's also a victim of gaslighting if you think about it, and it explains so many things about him.

Kastor seems to have taken care of him a lot while he was growing up (based on the amount of childhood memories that Damen has with him) and Kastor also fucking hated him. A child in that situation will sort of self-gaslight, they'll convince themselves that they don't see what they do so they can maintain a fundamental sense of safety despite their objectively unsafe environment. The end result is exactly what Damen is - someone who's pretty bad at telling apart those who love him from those who mean him harm.

If Kastor treats him like shit - Kastor fucking stabbed the barely teen-aged heir to the throne in the guts, mind - that's because Kastor is treating him like a man, he's giving him tough love and not coddling him because a prince doesn't need coddling, he needs tempering and seasoning instead. Damen is lucky to have a brother who'll stab him in the guts so he can become a better man and ruler, unlike those arrogant, spoiled other princes who get *checks notes* affectionate relatives.

And if Kastor is treating him like a man that's because Damen's earned it - Damen has a particular fixation about "earning it", whatever "it" is in a particular situation, because the main issue of contention between him and Kastor is that Damen gets the throne by default, regardless of who deserves it more, and therefore (in Kastor's view) Damen is a Bad Person who's screwing him over by his very existence. Damen's answer to this is to make sure that he works hard and is the best at everything (and working hard for things is actually a genuinely good value to have, mind), because this way he DID earn it, he DOES deserve it more, the better man has the throne, so peace on planet Earth, right? But he doesn't understand how this just further humiliates and angers Kastor, who then vengefully retaliates, the truth of which Damen, who loves Kastor and seeks his approval, can't handle emotionally, necessitating the "this is tough love, because I'm a strong man" mental defense.

I think this is interesting because it really spills over into Damen's incorrect conclusions about Laurent, sometimes in kinda embarrassingly stupid ways - because Veretians are Bad and being a spoiled cunt who's never had to work hard for anything is also Bad (in a very visceral way, because it's what Damen is desperately trying to avoid being), the Veretian prince must be both, concludes Damen after a 0.5 second glance at Laurent's resting bitch face. "A prince doesn't need to be coddled, he needs to be seasoned," says Damen to Paschal about Laurent, even though he's only in the position to have this conversation in the first place because Laurent's entire family died by the time he was 13 and he is currently being hunted down like a dog by his only remaining relative.

I also think that this is the foundation on which Damen's attitudes about slavery are able to change and develop - if his idea of someone deserving something is based in whether he's earned it (as opposed to birthright), becoming a slave is an easy way to disprove his current worldview about how much "earning it" matters in a fundamentally unjust society: first of all, Damen can't earn anything if Laurent doesn't allow him the opportunity to. Once Laurent does allow it, no matter how competent Damen shows himself to be, no matter how much Laurent treats him as an equal, no matter how much Damen earns Laurent's respect, this is all still happening at Laurent's whim and Laurent can turn around and treat Damen like a servant again, praise his military prowess with one breath and threaten him with a whipping with the next, and there's very little Damen can do about it. Damen goes from a privileged man's idea of meritocracy (I worked hard for it so I deserve it) to a more 360 degree one (some people can never have what I have no matter how hard they work, because I am fundamentally privileged).

Finally, it's really obvious that Damen also loves working for it in his romantic relationships, which probably stems from the same roots as all of the above, but it's a particularly interesting framework for drawing parallels between Laurent and the rest of Damen's life. Not only is Laurent the undisputed champion of Being Hard to Get, Laurent also hates Damen because Damen unthinkingly took something precious away from him (just like someone else!), and Laurent is also very punishing towards Damen over it (just like someone else!). But this time, Damen is actually capable of earning Laurent's respect (because facts will always take precedence over pettiness for hyperrational Laurent), and then his love, because Laurent is willing to see Damen as a person with feelings- as a man who loves him and cares about pleasing him - and not just as his role in the tragedy of Laurent's life.

I just think it's interesting to think about, is all, because I feel like the knee-jerk instinct is to analyze Laurent's more overt fuckedupness while not thinking about how Damen needs to also be kinda fucked up to find the thornbush pleasing to the extent that he does.

[theterribletenno]

Aight I'm about to do something.

I'm going to define the generations of Warframe based on broad design principles and trends and I bet a bunch of people are gonna get their panties in a bunch over minutiae. I guess to prevent unnecessary "um actually"-ism in the notes I'll preface with

A. This is based on personal opinion and is not meant to be interpreted as provable or disprovable fact. B. There will be outliers in every generation that buck trends and you don't need to point them all out.

G1 the Classic warframes. Being functionally prototypes of an un-finished and un-proven game the first generation of warframes had a lot to prove and not a lot to lean on. Generation one has rather limited mechanics and setups (some of which have been remedied post-release with reworks). Most generation one frames were very formulaic and laid the foundation for future warframe design;

First ability: Basic damage "bolt" attack. Second ability: An escalation of the basic bolt, usually with higher damage and wider range. (May be replaced by a second special tactics ability) Third ability: Special tactics ability, often for defense or support, has the most variety of functions. Fourth ability: Global nuke (or exalted weapon if you're fancy).

G1.5 the Iteration warframes. Generation 1.5 was more varied than the originals, with some frames being continuations of the original formula but almost all of them adding novel mechanics to the game.

G2 the Exploration warframes. More consistent and bolder exploration of new mechanics and playstyles than the previous frames, going beyond iterating on formula and incorporating novel elements to more than just one or two abilities, the first generation of true experimentation.

G3 the Complete warframes. What sets this era of warframe design apart form others is the "completeness" of their kits, by which I mean no skill is divisible from the whole, they all work in conjunction to create a wholly unique playstyle. These interconnected and self-contained ability sets make these warframes exceptional in both the short and long term. Excalibur Umbra is something of an outlier in this generation and sort of belongs in his own category separate from both original and prime frames.

G4 the Style warframes. These warframes were mechanically a step backwards from the third generation, due to having overall shallower and less interconnected abilities. This is not to say that these warframes are bad or insufficient. While some of these frames prioritized aesthetic over performance they are overall successful and some manage to incorporate new novel mechanics and tools which were either not previously conceived or otherwise possible with old architecture.

G5 the Saturation warframes. This most recent generation is rather perplexing, seeming to run hot and cold. Lessons from all previous generations seem to be present, although not all are equally successful. With members that imitate the classics, dabble in iteration and experimentation, and attempt to capture both completeness and style in their visual and mechanical design. What can be said about this generation, unfortunately, is that while it attempts to tread new ground most of its members cannot avoid being compared to older warframes occupying the same niche and may be ultimately redundant. This may be in part due to the game's age and not necessarily a condemnation of the new frames' design.

[viridianevergarden]

My thoughts regarding Azriel’s shadows and their behaviors:

This is a very long deep dive into Az’s shadows and covers every aspect that I have been able to identify about them. Read at your own peril.

Let’s start with what we’ve been given in terms of his lore…

We know that in his childhood, Az was locked into a dungeon until he was eleven years old. He was denied light and social interaction.

He would only ever be allowed to see his own mother for an hour per week. And he would only ever be let out for one hour everyday for whatever else.

Then he was abused by his brothers at age eight, his hands being endlessly burned and half healed as to torture him for fun.

He was never allowed to learn how to fly nor fight because of his fucked up family.

Rhys guessed that the shadowsinger gift came to him in his cell at some point but nothing more has been said since. Not even Rhys or anyone else knows. Azriel hasn’t spoken about it.

If I’m to glean anything from what we’ve seen, Azriel’s shadows:

Are a tool that he utilizes

Act as a defense mechanism

Have minds of their own

Can showcase his feelings externally

So let’s run through these one by one, shall we?

1. A Tool

Through the books, time and again, Azriel has shown that his shadows provide information and feedback to him as a Shadowsinger. They are responsible for his expert ability to be a Spymaster and he is able to clearly communicate with them. He understands them.

This is no secret and by far the easiest observation to be made, especially since this is what characters talk about most regarding Az’s spymaster abilities in the books themselves.

Examples of Az utilizing his shadows:

Azriel stepped out of a shadow. “What is that,” he hissed.

A shake of the head. “No—but the shadows, the wind … They recoil.”

I assumed Azriel was nearby, seeking sanctuary in the shadows.

Within a heartbeat, Azriel had vanished into shadows and was gone.

Az snickered to himself, to the listening shadows around him. Sleep, they seemed to whisper in his ear. Sleep.

I wish I could, he answered silently. But sleep so rarely found him these days.

He pulled the small velvet box from the shadows around him. Opened it for her.

Again, none of this is any secret at all but this is pretty much the foundation of Az’s abilities.

2. A Defense Mechanism

This might be more of a controversial take but I do think that his shadows are most definitely a defense mechanism in their own way.

Think about it:

He was a boy who underwent massive torture day in and day out, who was left in a cell for years on end. He was alone. Imagine how his mental state spiraled.

Perhaps the shadows came to him then because he was alone. They became some sort of company for him even if they weren’t there to provide comfort. And when they did attach themselves to him, his powers festered into existence. Only then was he dumped into a war camp.

So not only are they a part of him because they have attached themselves to him, but they protect him by making up for his insecurities or vulnerabilities.

To be aware of all of his surroundings at once, to have another voice in his ear to say “hey, this person has just left.” I can imagine that the shadows keep him feeling secure. They keep him safe by notifying him of his surroundings and the presences that encompass them. As a Spymaster and Shadowsinger, I’m sure that security is huge, especially for himself.

To add on to this, consider how Azriel is as a person. He prefers to keep attention away from himself. He doesn’t talk much and he hides his hands from everyone when he can. He dislikes being the center of attention. He avoids the topic of his past actively and limits how much others speak of it. He uses his shadows to hide during certain conversations and to hide his emotions.

This excerpt from Feyre’s POV:

Nothing. Absolutely nothing on that face, on his scent. The shadows, whatever the hell they were, hid too well. Too much.

I think he very well does use them as a method of defense even from those he trusts and loves, be it consciously or subconsciously.

3. They Have a Mind of Their Own

Now we do know that the shadows have a manner of conscious and intelligence.

They have:

Told Azriel to sleep (Do they care for his wellbeing?)

Actively relayed him information

Occasionally failed to notify him of things or they simply choose not to when they want (proof in BC)

‘Danced’

Occasionally skittered back in response to certain stimuli

Fully disappeared in the presence of few

Been reactive to their environment

They have persistently shown that they are quite like another being or mind that is attached to Az. They have a voice, they respond to stimuli, etc. It just makes me think that they are somehow, some way, a type of separate entity that latched onto him or perhaps they are a mirror of himself, kind of like an altar ego.

4. They Externalize His Feelings

This is the biggest gripe and most controversial of it all. This is the part that people usually argue over because it deals heavily with Az’s feelings. Of course this section is always up for debate —on how you interpret Azriel’s shadows and their behaviors— but this is my opinion.

His shadows have been repeatedly shown to shy away, skitter back, or completely disappear in the presence of two people and specifically react to one thing.

Now with this being said, let’s look into the two people that they react around.

Mor:

It was almost enough to distract me from noticing Azriel as those shadows lightened, and his gaze slid over [at Mor].

Mor patted Azriel on the shoulder… The lurking shadows vanished entirely as Azriel’s head dipped a bit—his night-dark hair sliding over his handsome face as if to shield him from that mercilessly beautiful grin.

“He did not,” Mor said, and the shadows that Azriel had indeed been subtly weaving around himself vanished. “Azriel has never once said anything that awful. Only you, Cassian. Only you.”

Most instances are where Azriel is near Mor, when he is looking at her, when she touches him, when she is defending him or talking about him while he is around. They vanish or dissipate in her presence. These were all during the times that Azriel was obviously in love and pining for Mor.

Elain:

Azriel arrived first, no shadows to be seen, my sister a pale, golden mass in his arms. He, too, wore his Illyrian armor, Elain’s golden- brown hair snagging in some of the black scales across his chest and shoulders.

“I can help her,” said Azriel, stepping to the table as Elain silently rose. No shadows at his ear, no darkness ringing his fingers as he extended a hand.

[Elain’s] smile grew, bright enough that it lit up even Azriel’s shadows across the room. “I would like to build a garden,” she declared. “After all of this … I think the world needs more gardens.”

He still wore his Siphons atop either hand, and shadows trailed his footsteps, curling like swirled embers, but there was little sign of the warrior otherwise.

Elain sucked in a soft breath that whispered over his skin. His shadows skittered back at the sound. They'd always been prone to vanish when she was around.

It has been made extremely clear that Azriel’s shadows also disappear or partially dissipate when he is in Elain’s presence. They react to her actions accordingly.

They acted the same way around Mor until the detail of his shadows disappearing around Mor slowly became noted less by Feyre. On the same timeline, Az’s behavior toward Mor slowly changed. He became indifferent and his longing looks toward her became few and far between as noted by Cassian and Feyre. He had evidently given up hope on Mor.

At the same time, Feyre began making note of Az’s shadows and their behaviors around Elain as well as his behavior toward her.

From here on out, I’m going to assume that we all know how Azriel feels about Elain. Regardless of your opinions on their relationship dynamic, I hope we all can agree that at the very least, Azriel has a growing positive attraction to Elain across 4 books, which has then been blatantly shown to be mutual between the two in the Bonus.

With all of this being said, his shadows’ behaviors between these two women parallel one another with the obvious answer being Love.

Aside from the two girls, there is one last thing that Azriel’s shadows have reacted to.

Music:

Azriel entered the warmth of the stairwell, and as he descended, he could have sworn a faint, beautiful singing followed him. Could have sworn his shadows sang in answer.

(HOFAS) And with each mile onward, she could hear Azriel humming softly to himself. The rolling, wild melody of “Stone Mother” flowed off his lips, and she could have sworn even the shadows danced at the sound.

I think that with the addition of HOFAS’ bonus chapter (with Bryce, Nesta, and Azriel), the claim that the shadows’ reactions to Gwyn’s singing being something special can be softly debunked. (There are still possibilities, I know, hence ‘softly’.)

Azriel is a musically oriented person from what we’ve seen. He claims that he does in fact sing and it’s obvious that he does in fact like music. This in turn may explain why his shadows react the way they do. Again, if Azriel’s shadows are a mirroring of his inner self, if they are indeed an outward expression of himself, it would be natural for them to react to music since he enjoys it.

Final Thoughts:

Azriel’s shadows have only disappeared around the people that he has longed for.

If the shadows do in fact have a mind of their own, if they do cover him as a means to protect him and are defensive toward any other being or force, if they only falter for one person, then it must be because those shadows know that Azriel is safe with that person. Or at the very least, they dissipate and disappear around that person because they are the one who he wants to be most vulnerable toward.

If the shadows are indeed a mirror to Az’s inner self, then of course they would ‘dance’ to music. Because that is something that Azriel loves and is passionate about. Of course his shadows would reflect that, especially if his passion is strong enough.

Azriel’s shadows, all and all, are an entity that has a conscious. It has intelligence. It communicates with him. It protects him. But it also has the ability to expose his deepest feelings.

They are motivated by love, passion, and act even against Az’s will.

Maybe he’s not as unreadable as some think. I don’t think most of the IC have really thought about the shadows much. After all, he’s just a Spymaster and Shadowsinger.

Good gods this was very long but if you made it this far, I hope you enjoyed lol. I hope all of this made sense.

[vendetta-if]

Compared to other powered people, how does the MC compare? Like at full power? Could they take down more 2 or 3 other powered people in a fight? Oh and can we expand the criminal empire? Like make it the most powerful it ever has been?

Most powered people can't really use their powers to their fullest capabilities--either because of genetics or just not bothering to specifically train on using it. I suppose it's similar to athletes in a way, a lot of them have the right combination of genetics and training, some probably born a natural/talented at the specific sport they're good in.

For MC, I'd say it's closer to the latter part in addition to some combat training from Luka over the years--although not as intensive as the ones that Luka and Viktor had when they were MC's age. Plus, umbrakinesis and gravikinesis themselves are pretty strong and flexible abilities, can be used either offensively or defensively.

As for whether they could take down 2 or 3 powered people in a fight, the answer is it all depends on some factors, such as those people's capabilities in using their own abilities, whether their abilities can counteract some of MC's own, and even to the environment of the fight itself.

For example, people like Jackal who has a really strong haemokinesis plus has a lot of experience using it to kill people in various ways and in combat itself, it'll be really hard for MC to take him down before he did MC, especially if it's current young MC.

If it's like the level of the goons they've been fighting so far, then yes, they most likely can defeat them in a fight (this is assuming your MC is good in Combat).

Environment is kinda important for MC's umbrakinesis. Fighting someone in a really bright condition, say like on the outside during the middle of a clear day where there are not much shadow around will greatly diminish umbrakinesis' full potential. Although, lucky for MC, they also have gravikinesis to fall back to as well.

As for your last question, sure, Heir MC can still further strengthen and diversify the Morozov's holdings. Luka has managed to laid down a strong foundation for the family's base in Elysium City, but MC can definitely bring to an even higher height than it already is.

Not to mention, there will always be gangs or other criminal families who will try to weaken the Morozovs and the Aikawas--or wait to exploit a mistake or a weakness for their own gains.

Most likely we won't see this in Vendetta because that's beyond the scope of this story of revenge. But we'll be able to see some of this in the sequel spin-off from different MC's POV 😉

[goodbyeapathy8]

Leaving Kindergarten Mafia

There have already been a few posts floating around about the Discord server implosion of Kindergarten Mafia. They do a great job of outlining the events that happened, with documentation, directly from the folks who were harmed by the server owner (Hann) and mods that helped enable their racism. (Snake and Mouse, Jinx1, Jinx2, mousydentist, Faye, among others.) So I'm not going to do that.

These are my own thoughts on the specific racism and tenets of white supremacy that I observed in the server as well as a general commentary on joining fandom spaces.

Rarely do I emphasize my age but it's relevant so here we are : I am 35 years old this year and Kindergarten Mafia was part of my first baby steps into any fandom. Ironically, my hesitation to join fandom ended up being proven because I had heard, for a very long time, that fandom spaces were dominated by racism and a failure to acknowledge POC fans. For a long time, I was complacent and felt "safe" in that server of 300+ folks.

Until one Native member spoke up about the usage of "spirit animal" as appropriative and the cracks in the foundations began to show themselves to everyone and not just the people with marginalized identities.

I had already started to feel uncomfortable in how the server dealt with ableism. There was also a member who I've previously called out on Tumblr, for usage of the m*dget slur in their story, and who became extremely vocal recently. (Spoiler alert - they wrote an entire essay excusing their usage of it, multiple times in the fic, because they couldn't be creative or bothered enough to come up with an alternative for a "short person".)

Without further ado, let's get into it. These are all from the link above, "tenets of white supremacy in organizations" (and yes, a Discord server of 300+ people absolutely DOES count as an organization).

1. Sense of Urgency, such as prioritizing quick or highly visible results that can exclude potential allies. -> In the server, both server owner and problematic mods continued to emphasize that their "missteps" (i.e. racism) was due to needing to seek a solution ASAP for the good of the server.

2. Worshipping the Written Word, such as valuing strong documentation and writing skills. -> Rebuttals to POC/marginalized folks were constantly full of dictionary definitions, copied over.

3. Believing in Only One Right Way, such as concluding something is wrong with people who refuse to adapt or change. -> POC members and allies were banned when anger was expressed because OUR anger suddenly made it an "unsafe" space for the server owner and problematic mods.

4. Paternalism, such as decision-making processes that are only understood by those with power and unclear to those without it.  -> Despite multiple server users disagreeing with the server owner's tactics (including the co-owner, who stepped down), Hann continued to defend + make decisions.

5. Defensiveness, such as spending energy trying to protect power or defend against charges of racism. -> There's too many examples to cite here. But in the end, it was claimed that the initial problem was solved. And then the problem mod was invited back. With additional defense of why.

6. Power Hoarding, such as feeling threatened when anyone suggests organizational changes. -> Instead of wanting to listen to marginalized identities, the server was threatened with a shut-down. Multiple people stepped up to take over as server owner. But power hoarding was more important so not only was the server shut down... it was resurrected from the dead to include their favorite (white) people. This leads us to...

7. Believing I’m the Only One, such as thinking that if something is going to get done right, then ‘I’ have to do it.

8. Fear of Open Conflict, such as equating the raising of difficult issues with being rude or impolite. -> The initial issue around the problematic phrase was ridiculously hush hush. POC members were banned for their (rightfully so) angry remarks.

9. Believing in Objectivity, such as considering emotions to be irrational and destructive to decision-making.  -> Not just the server owner but the people who rushed to defend them and the problematic mods, claimed to be impartial and objective, based on their queer identities or other things. As humans, none of us can actually be objective and all of us are a little racist because racism is a systemic problem that we were raised under.

10. Claiming a Right to Comfort, such as scapegoating those who cause emotional or psychological discomfort. -> In the end, it was clear that only whiteness was valued when POC folks + allies were banned or made to feel uncomfortable enough to leave (such as myself).

I know I've only posted my thoughts/feelings vs documentation (which, you shouldn't always demand because see above for "worshipping the written word") but if this screenshot of the new rules for the new server doesn't convince you that something (racism/cult-ism) is wrong with these folks... I don't know what will.

TL;DR - Ownership and modding of a large Discord server doesn't make you a god. You are, unfortunately, still a puny mortal with the biases that come along with being as such. I'm sure it was a fun power trip for those involved but I am happy to expose the rotting underbelly in a way that I see fit.

In conclusion, I leave you with further reading that will help decolonize your mindset and has done a much better job at showing that the problems with the Kindergarten Mafia are not unique (as they claimed). It is one that those of us with marginalized identities face constantly and we are fucking tired of running into this and being treated in a way that emphasizes the problem with our existence in real life. Intersectionality and decolonization is what will actually liberate us, and without both, online spaces are simply the same reflections of real life.

At the very least, I hope it gives some of you food for thought.

(I will also post my Scathing Letter™ that was my last message in the server as a separate post because I am wordy AF and this is already too long.) [1/26/2024 update] Now with part 2 because apparently I had more things to say.

[workersolidarity]

[ 📹 Palestinian civilians panic and flee with children as Israeli occupation bombs and missiles rain down around them in the Jabalia Refugee Camp, in the North Gaza Governate, on Sunday. With nowhere left to turn to, the Israeli occupation forces target civilians wherever they hide. We had trouble even picking a video for this piece, as no short clip could ever properly display the horrors being inflicted on the local population of the Gaza Strip. ]

🇮🇱⚔️🇵🇸 🚀🏘️💥🚑 🚨

CARPET BOMBING TARGETS NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN GAZA AS "ISRAEL'S" GENOCIDE CONTINUES ON DAY 219

On the 219th day of "Israel's" ongoing special genocide operation in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) committed 8 new massacres of Palestinian families, resulting in the deaths of 63 Palestinian civilians, mostly women and children, and wounding at least 114 others.

It should be noted that as a result of the constant Israeli bombardment of Gaza's healthcare system, infrastructure, residential and commercial buildings, local paramedic and civil defense crews are unable to recover countless hundreds, even thousands of victims who remain trapped under the rubble, or who's bodies remain strewn across the streets of Gaza.

This leaves the official death toll vastly undercounted, as Gaza's healthcare officials are unable to accurately tally those killed and maimed in this genocide, which must be kept in mind when considering the scale of the mass murder.

"The claim of 'safe zones' [in Gaza] is false and misleading. No place is safe in Gaza. Period."

This is the statement of Phillippe Lazzarini, the Secretary-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine (UNRWA), who describes Palestinian families with children, who seek shelter in blown out UNRWA schools and shelters with scorched walls, shattered windows and collapsed foundations following 7 months of bombardment by the Israeli occupation army.

Palestinians of all ages and groups grabbed what few belongings that remained with them through this genocide and began the trek to the next claimed "safe place" as ordered by the Israeli occupation forces (IOF), who demand their evacuation from Rafah to the already demolished town of Al-Mawasi, west of Rafah, and to the rubble piles that used to be Khan Yunis, where citizens took shelter in the blown out schools and partially demolished buildings of the UNRWA.

According to the United Nations agency for children, UNICEF, more than 100'000 Palestinians have evacuated Rafah over the last 5 days, as the IOF vastly intensified its air, missile, artillery and drone strikes on the eastern neighborhoods of Gaza's southernmost city, originally depicted as one of the "safe places" designated by the Israeli authorities, and the last city standing in the Palestinian enclave.

"For those of us who are working here, doing everything we can to keep the humanitarian response alive, we remain hopeful our calls for a ceasefire will be heard and acted on," said Hermish Young, a Senior Emergency Coordinator for UNICEF in the Gaza Strip, "but we're also braced for this senseless conflict to continue to shock even the most seasoned of us."

"More than 100'000 people have fled Rafah in the last five days and the stream of displacement continues," Young explained in an interview posted to the social media platform X.

"It's just a tragic situation and there's nowhere safe in Gaza for children," UNICEF's Gaza Coordinator said.

"For five days, no fuel and virtually no humanitarian aid has entered the Gaza Strip. Without fuel, the maternity wards, for example, in the Emirate Hospital, cannot function. And this is while approximately 80 babies are born there everyday," he added.

Meanwhile, the Israeli occupation's bombardment vastly intensified over the last several days, while the occupation army began a new incursion into the Jabalia Refugee Camp, in the northern Gaza Strip, where Palestinian Resistance forces regrouped and reestablished their control, according to the claim of the Zionist authorities who ordered the operation.

According to the occupation media, the 98th Division of the Israeli occupation army entered Jabalia overnight, with Israeli fighter jets and other military aircraft bombing some 30 sites, killing what they claim to be "several [Hamas] operatives."

The IOF claimed it had “intelligence information about the presence of terrorists and the restoration of terror infrastructure of the Hamas terror group in the area.”

At the same time, the occupation army's 162nd Division went on the attack in Rafah, in Gaza's south, still holding the Palestinian side the Rafah border crossing, as well as the Kerem Shalom crossing, preventing any and all aid from entering the enclave, where Palestinian families continue to suffer from extreme food insecurity.

Simultaneously, the Israeli occupation's 99th Division continues operations in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, southeast of Gaza City, where the occupation authorities also claim the Hamas Islamic Resistance group has reestablished control.

Across the entirety of the Gaza Strip, the Israeli occupation forces conducted a total of 150 airstrikes, slaughtering men, women and children alike.

On Saturday evening, occupation warplanes bombed a tent housing a displaced Palestinian family in the Al-Zawaida area, in the central Gaza Strip, resulting in the deaths of three civilians, and also wounding several others.

In a similar criminal atrocity, Zionist fighter jets bombarded a residential home belonging to the Al-Lawh family in the city of Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, murdering 9 civilians and wounding a number of others, including a young girl, and also demolishing their house and damaging nearby properties.

At the same time, another occupation airstrike targeted a civilian home belonging to the Al-Ashram family in the Al-Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City, mass slaughtering more than 10 civilians.

The Israeli occupation's murder campaign further intensified as the Zionist army launched violent barrages of bombs, missiles, drones and artillery fire on neighborhoods east of the Jabalia Camp, in the north of Gaza, killing and wounding large numbers of civilians.

The exact number of civilians killed remains unknown at the time of publishing, due to the continued bombardment of the neighborhood, preventing local paramedic and civil defense crews from reaching the sites of Israeli bombings.

Zionist forces also struck in the vicinity of local shelters in the central areas of the Jabalia Camp, while violent raids targeted the Ahmed bin Hanbal Mosque on Al-Sikka Street, east of Jabalia.

IOF fighter jets were also witnessed bombing the home of journalist Anas al-Sharif, a correstpondant with Al-Jazeera, also in the Jabalia Refugee Camp, marking the 143rd journalist murdered by the Israeli occupation army.

Warplanes belonging to the Israeli occupation forces also targeted several residential homes with massive firebelts, destroying dozens of houses in the northern Gaza Strip.

"Israel's" open genocide of Palestinians continued when Zionist warplanes bombed a residential building belonging to the Al-Hashash family in the Arraiba neighborhood northwest of Rafah City, slaughtering 9 civilians, with most of the victims being children, while several others sustained serious injuries and were taken to the Kuwait Specialized Hospital.

Additionally, occupation aircraft launched violent raids on the Nuseirat Refugee Camp, in the central Gaza Strip, while Israeli drones took pot shots at ambulances working for a UNRWA medical clinic in the Jabalia Camp.

The mass murder continued when Zionist Apache helicopters fired machine guns towards the outskirts of the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood of Gaza City, assasinating two Palestinians and wounding five others who were taken to Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City.

Later, several more violent airstrikes targeted civilian residences in the vicinity of the Hassan Al-Banna Mosque, in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, martyring one Palestinian and wounding at least six others, who were also taken to the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City.

In yet another tragedy, local civil defense crews recovered the bodies of Dr. Mohammed Nemer Qazaat, a local physician, and his son, Dr. Yousef, also a medical doctor, after Israeli fighter jets bombed their home in Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza.

The father and son doctor pair, originally from the Tal al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City, were displaced and seeking shelter in Deir al-Balah at the time of their murder.

The Israeli occupation's genocide didn't stop there, the mass murder continued on Sunday morning when Israeli warplanes inflicted endless barrages of air and missile strikes on other various areas of Gaza.

As a result of the occupation's intense airstrikes on the town of Beit Lahiya, in the northern Gaza Strip, the bodies of no less than 12 Palestinian civilians were brought to Kamal Adwan Hospital in the same town, while dozens of others are feared to be trapped under the rubble of their homes and shelters.

At the same time, the Israeli occupation army expanded its ground operations in the Northern Gaza Governate, with incursions threatening Beit Hanoun and Jabalia, while occupation air forces bombarded schools sheltering displaced Palestinian families.

Additionally, in Gaza's south, medical sources with the Kuwait Specialized Hospital reported receiving 18 martyrs and 6 wounded civilians over the previous 24-hours, while the occupation's bombardment still continues in the area at the time of publishing.

Simultaneously, Zionist artillery detatchments shelled the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood once again, where at least 16 civilians are estimated to still be trapped under the rubble of their flattened neighborhood, southeast of Gaza City.

In the Central Gaza Governate, Israeli occupation Merkava tanks fired tank shells into Palestinian homes and buildings in neighborhoods east of Deir al-Balah and Al-Maghazi, though luckily, no casualties were reported in the shelling as of yet.

In further Zionist assaults on Gaza City, IOF fighter jets bombed multiple citizens' homes in violent firebelts on the Al-Sabra neighborhood, resulting in the deaths of three Palestinians, including at least one woman, while occupation artillery and helicopters continue firing on buildings in the Jabalia Camp, targeting anything that moves in the area.

Further attacks targeted the Al-Bureij Refugee Camp, in the central Gaza Strip, targeting residential homes in intense waves of bombings.

In response to the war crimes of the Israeli occupation, the Palestinian Resistance fired two missiles from the Gaza Strip into the city of Ashkelon, north of Gaza, in the occupied Palestinian territories, causing air raid alert to sound.

As a result of the attack, the occupation's Iron Dome air defense system shot down one of the missiles, while the other missile demolished an Israeli house and wounded at least three Israeli colonists.

As a result of the Israeli occupation's ongoing special genocide operation in the Gaza Strip, the death toll among the local Palestinian population has risen to exceed 35'034 civilians killed, including upwards of 14'690 children and over 10'000 women, while another 78'755 others have been wounded since the start of the current round of Zionist aggression, beginning with the events of October 7th, 2023.

May 12th, 2024.

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@WorkerSolidarityNews

[sideprince]

What are your thoughts on Snape's parents/childhood/upbringing ?

Sorry it's taken me ages to get to this ask! I wrote a meta post about Eileen Prince recently ("recently." It sat in my drafts for about a month as I whittled away at it) but I can go off a bit on Tobias and the kind of home a young Severus might have lived in, though it'll be a bit of a messier convergence of meta and headcannon, probably.

The tl;dr of the Eileen meta post is that I think she may have come from a family with reasonable wealth and reputation, and ended up stuck with Tobias as the result of an accidental out of wedlock pregnancy that led her family to disown her. @vulnus-sanare left one of my favorite comments on that post, which I'm just going to quote in full:

"It is hard to not think that Severus may have been the outcome of an unwanted pregnancy. It is harder to believe that "love" was ever in the foundation of the Snape family. My theory is that Eileen and Tobias had a fling, it had consequences, the Princes disowned Eileen for getting impregnated by a Muggle, and Tobias was forced to marry her out ... Patriarchal honor. However, the first time Eileen and Tobias had a violent argument, Eileen threatened him with her wand for defense. He didn't sleep at home that night. The next morning, Eileen found her wand split into two unsalvageable pieces on her bedside table. Tobias was home. And there would be no more magic."

My personal take is that we see clear statements in the books that depression can sap a witch/wizard of their powers (Merope Gaunt), and also that existing powers can't be suppressed, they'll find a way to come out and with terrible consequences if bottled up for too long (Ariana Dumbledore, and basically every underage wizard). Because of this, my own interpretation is that Eileen probably lost much of her powers due to despair. We see Severus in a memory shooting down flies with his wand alone in his room as a teen, and that casual use of magic makes me think that the Ministry still had magical activity registered at that residence on Eileen's account, otherwise Severus would have had to deal with the repercussions of violating the Statute of Secrecy and, if that was the case, he certainly wouldn't have used his wand and done magic so nonchalantly. Eileen's magic would have been too weak to stand up to Tobias, but still enough to warrant the Ministry thinking there was an active witch at their house.

Nevertheless, I love the idea that Tobias split her wand! It's a striking and complex statement on what that relationship might have looked like. Tobias must have been insecure (secure people don't tend to abuse their loved ones). Eileen had power over him that he would never be able to match. Even so, every person with power has a vulnerability - for any wizard it would be that their power must be channeled through a wand to be effective. A wand which, despite the power of the witch or wizards who wields it, can easily be snapped in two. What might its core have been? Would Tobias have been surprised to find it wasn't merely a stick carved on a lathe, that there was something running through its center that he couldn't identify? I love the irony of such a mundane, muggle act stopping the power of magic in its tracks. And, after all, if Eileen had no money of her own and she and Tobias had little to live on, she wouldn't have been able to buy a new wand. Or perhaps she eventually did, but her powers remained weak (or perhaps she bought a cheaper wand she could afford, maybe even secondhand, and it never worked as well as her own had). As for her magic struggling to get out without a proper way to channel it, perhaps her wand's destruction may have been the final straw for her spirit, which broke as a result of her isolation from her family and her world, and her being tethered to such a man.

As for Tobias, I think that while he may have had a proclivity towards abuse, it didn't truly come out until sometime after Severus' birth. I think he was always working class, and possibly fought in WWII like every man of his generation, but that the crippling poverty of the family was brought on by some kind of workplace accident that left him unable to work and dependent on welfare. Eileen wouldn't have worked, having few skills and weak magic, but back in the 60s many working class families only had one breadwinner. There are signs that Severus was both poor and also neglected, particularly his ill fitting, mismatched, hand-me-down clothes that no one even attempted to sew to size for him (let alone use magic to do so). Eileen would have made sure Severus was out of the house as much as possible, if Tobias was home most of of the time, and tried to take the brunt of Tobias' anger when possible. Severus wouldn't have understood this for a long time, and would have felt rejected and isolated as a result.

As Severus grew older, got a wand, and expanded his knowledge of magic, he would have stood up to Tobias more in the weeks he was home from school. He wouldn't have trusted his father, and would have eventually realized that their power balance had shifted. I think there may be a parallel with Voldemort there, too: as Dumbledore says, all tyrants fear that one day someone will rise up against them. I think perhaps Severus felt more able to be that person and undermine Voldemort, because he had already done so with his own father. He had learnt, firsthand, that terrifying people, people who intimidate with violence and brutality, are not infallible. It makes sense for his character: throughout his school years we see Severus reject his bullies and fight back against them, even though they attack him four against one.

As for his own experience of growing up in that small house on Spinner's End, I think Severus must have been a lonely child. We see the way he feels the need to pick his moment when first meeting Lily; he doesn't have the confidence of a child who's been able to spend much time playing with others. His parents fought a lot, and if his mother tried to protect him, he would have spent a lot of time alone in his room listening to them do so. We see him as a teen shooting down flies with his wand, in a dark room, alone. I think his world at home was small and often painful. Like many children of abuse, he wouldn't even have been aware how much pain he was in, or how constant it was, it was just a part of his internal wallpaper. I don't imagine he had much of a relationship with his dad, though the need for approval from him would have been buried in him somewhere. Perhaps, as he grew older, his relationship with his mother grew more complex and there was a bond.

My own headcanon is that Tobias, a middle aged, disabled, working class man on the dole, wouldn't have survived austerity under Thatcher. I like to think that Severus, living on a teacher's salary in a prestigious school and not needing much beyond the room and board that his job provides, would have used his savings to take care of a widowed Eileen. Perhaps he visited her once or twice a year. They were never sentimental, and talked very little. They would have a cup of tea and a game of chess, or maybe even Gobstones. When Voldemort returned, Severus would have made sure that, if he should die, Eileen would be taken care of. He would not have been able to leave her a letter or any kind of explanation, for fear of it being found. She would have been proud to learn he had been appointed Headmaster of Hogwarts, though he would not have taken pride in it, knowing it was a tactical appointment, and not an earned one. She would have been prouder still, maybe, to learn of his heroism after his death.

[thryth-gaming]

Daggerheart - What I've Seen So Far

Template-Based Character Builds

This will be familiar to players of D&D, Pathfinder 2e, Monster of the Week and similar systems where you choose from one of several existing classes, playbooks, ancestries, backgrounds, and the like.

The selection of templates here come in three categories:

Classes

Ancestries

Communities

Classes

Classes are built along lines familiar to D&D players with the following options.

Bard

Druid

Guardian

Ranger

Rogue

Seraph

Sorcerer

Warrior

Wizard

Most of these are what they appear to be, with Fighter and Barbarian bundled together across Guardian and Warrior, with one being more tanky and the other being more damage oriented. Cleric and Paladin are represented together by Seraph.

Each of these classes has subclasses similar to D&D with each currently having two options. These subclasses start with a "Foundation" ability, moving to "Specialization" and then "Mastery". I'm curious at this moment whether in the future each subclass will have multiple Specialization and Mastery options but currently there's only one to each subclass.

Each class also has two "Domains" which determine the selection of other skills they can draw from. This has similarities to both City of Mist's themebooks, with the exception that the Domains are hardlocked to each class, and Pathfinder's Class feats, with the exception that each class is going to overlap their abilities with other classes.

For example, Warrior and Ranger each have access to the "Bone" Domain abilities while Druid and Sorcerer all have the "Arcana" Domain.

Initially, a character will have two of these abilities but they will get more as they level up, with the ability to have at most five active at any given time, with a cost to switch abilities out if you suddenly decide you need X instead of Y.

This smacks a bit of Vancian casting, spell-slots and the like, however there are two closer mechanics, one of these also from Darrington Press. In Candela Obscura you have a list of items which you can declare you have at any point, but only up to three-items. Then there's Scion 2e, where you can buy as many Knacks as you want, but you can only have a number active equal to your ranks in associated Callings.

Ancestries and Communities

These represent the character's genetic heritage, what D&D currently refers to as Races. These have a basic ability like a Daemon's "Dread Visage" helping them to intimidate others. At current moment, there doesn't appear to be a list of future abilities connected to Ancestry similar to Pathfinder's Ancestry Feats.

Similarly, Communities are similar to Backgrounds in both D&D and Pathfinder and come with a similar power to those found in Ancestries. Again, there doesn't seem to be a sign of other powers based on Community as you level up. But this is no different from Pathfinder or D&D.

Analysis

It's familiar enough to D&D and Pathfinder that a lot of people are going to be comfortable with it. The use of cards feels a bit like a gimmick, but I imagine it will make parsing through abilities a bit easier for a lot of people since you can cut down to just your abilities rather than look through the entire book. Assuming more abilities get put out as the game moves on, this is essentially not too different from D&D/Pathfinder Feats or Scion Knacks.

From a design perspective it's also a good move since new classes will only require building the basic class features and subclass features and the majority of the abilities will come from the same pool.

All in all, it's easy for D&D players to pick up and appealing enough to those of us whose home games are more of the narrative variety.

Health and Defense System

The Health System is probably the most innovative part of this game.

First, the parts of the system that are elements I've seen before:

Separate Evasion and Resilience is a thing that has been around for ages. Champions/Hero System has done it since the early 80s and it also shows up in Storyteller, Storypath, Cypher system, Mutants and Masterminds, and so on.

The combination of Stress and Wounds is also something I've seen before. Notably in City of Mist and Fate.

Armor as a resource that gets expended also is something I've seen in The Fellowship, Scion 2e, and several other such things.

Capped damage... and this is initially the one that stood out to me as the that's cool... appears in Scion 2e where the most you can deal with any attack is 2 Wounds... in a game where one Wound is enough to take out most enemies.

Low Health totals are a common build design for PbtA games, Fate, Scion 2e, World of Darkness, City of Mist, and several other games.

It's the Damage Thresholds added in here that makes this most interesting thing and where it avoids the pitfalls that affect some of these other systems (note that Fate, MotW, Scion 2e, and City of Mist are the systems I consider my "home games" so yes, I'm pointing out their pitfalls.

The Damage Thresholds allow for the fun of rolling huge numbers and building significant differences between squishies and crunchies without making balance too difficult.

Capping the damage at 3 where all players have 6 HP at base means that you're never going to have a player be one-shot. It shares this feature with Scion 2e. Though Scion 2e has the options to spend extra success on other things beside damage, so allowing for a more scenery chewing, cinematic, superheroic style of fight (the developers of the game point to the fight between Kratos and The Stranger/Baldur at the start of God of War as what they wanted for Demigod tier combat).

However, the Damage Thresholds and rolling damage are likely to be more intuitive to players only familiar with D&D.

PbtA matches low Harm/HP counts with static damage: a knife will always deal 1 Harm, for example. Similar to Scion 2e, this prevents characters from being taken out in one blow ... you know, unless the static damage is something like 6 or 8... which feels like a bad choice on behalf of the GM. But not rolling damage can be a little jarring the first couple of times you encounter it.

Those are minor issues. Scion 2e, City of Mist, Monster of the Week, and Fate were all built in a world where the big risks were already apparent and demonstrated. The differences between them and Daggerheart is significant, but which you prefer is largely going to be a matter of preference.

Hero System and old Storyteller system is where the danger of separating evasion and resilience. Hero System tanks become incredibly difficult to damage even when you do hit them because their resistances cancel out all the damage. Building attacks to get around that tends to be expensive. Likewise, high Speed or Defense characters can be just impossible to even touch... though you can counter that with area effect attacks.

In a lot of Storyteller (World of Darkness, Scion 1e, etc) systems Dexterity got marked as a "God Stat" usable for both attack and defense and where their armor mechanics were far less reliable.

Daggerheart gets around both those major balance issues. It does have the potential for some psychological downside in that rolling especially high damage rolls may feel like you're wasting effect. However, it looks like part of how they do multiple attacks or area of effect is let you roll damage and split it up between multiple attacks as you desire. So if you did a massive amount of damage, you can apply the bulk of the effect on a main enemy and scatter the remaining damage to several of the minions around them.

As far as resisting goes... a Warrior is going to be a lot harder to damage once you hit them than a Rogue, but they will still have to deal with being slowly nickel and dimed down. High Evasion characters will avoid most attacks, without the risk being pasted by a single strike.

This reduces the scenario design burden on the GM since they don't have to worry as much about overwhelming the tanks or flattening the dodgers (or casters) in a single roll.

Death Move, not Taken Out

One side note is that Daggerheart does not use a Taken Out mechanic. When your HP go to 0 you have three options:

Go out in a blaze of glory.

Risk a scar and resist death, scars are more likely the higher level you get.

Risk it all and roll hoping your Hope die is higher than your Fear die at the risk of dying flat out.

This is in comparison to Scion 2e and Fate where getting Taken Out mostly just means that you are out of the scene and death is a matter of choice and negotiation between player and GM. This presents the players from being blindsided by death and getting drama out of defeat such as being captured or separated from the group. Or... they can let their character die if they feel it is narrative enough.

Daggerheart similarly has ways to avoid death blindsiding the group and derailing campaign progress with the need to introduce a new character and the loss of story arcs that had been built up. But death still remains a risk, similar to City of Mist or Monster of the Week. (Though Monster of the Week has a significantly dramatic resurrection mechanic.)

Action Resolution System

The d12+d12 system is a bit interesting. You roll 2d12, each a different color called "duality dice". One of the dice is Hope and one is Fear. If your Hope die is higher than the Fear die, then you gain a Hope (the meta-currency of the game), but if the Fear die is higher, the GM gains a Fear (the GM's version of Hope). If the two dice are equal, that's a critical success.

They list Genesys as a Touchstone, and I can see its DNA here. Genesys uses a number of signature dice and you roll large dice pools of positive dice versus large dice pools of negative dice generating and cancelling out resources. It was not nearly as bad as I expected it to be and, in fact, I found it quite a fun system to play, but it is intimidating to a newcomer. Heck, as implied, I was doubtful of it before I played it.

This is more similar to rolling Fate dice where you roll 4d6 where the sixes are each marked with 2 blank, 2 minus, and 2 plus sides. Add those together and you get a range of effect from -4 to +4. But again, they haven't listed Fate as a direct Touchstone, so I don't think this is deliberate. If it was Hope minus Fear the comparison would be almost exact.

As a note, this d12+d12 method creates a slightly higher chance of getting a critical hit. As seen here in an Anydice comparison, the chance for a critical hit on this method, where the dice roll the same number, has an 8.33% chance of success compared to a 5% chance with rolling a natural 20... and no chance for a critical failure.

The "with Hope" and "with Fear" also allows the GM to describe a success that yet promises coming danger (succeeding with fear) or a failure that yet gives a sign that all is not lost (failing with hope).

As a note, it appears that the GM rolls a d20 instead of d12 + d12. This means that they have a narrower and more swingy success rate compared to the far more consistent and reliable PCs. PCs are going to find their results cluster around a die roll of 13, making bonuses more impactful. This is a benefit of game systems that don't use a flat curve (single die).

The choice to make rolling pairs the critical hit result neatly avoids the downside of crisis resolution methods that avoid flat curves where critical hits are either very rare or else come about as a result of a player just spending tons of resources at once to turn a good roll into an amazing on as happens in Fate (granted, I love that a lot of the success and failure of Fate is hinged more on the player choice to spend resources than on random chance, but there is something to be said for the natural 20 moment).

Speaking of Fate and spending resources, this is the point where I point out that Daggerheart is a Fortune-at-the-End system. To explain this:

Fortune-at-the-End: Barring a few special abilities, the die roll is the last step of an action resolution. Spending resources comes before you roll. D&D is Fortune-at-the-End

Fortune-in-the-Middle: Rolling the die is a middle step and the player can choose to spend resources after the die is rolled. Fate is Fortune-in-the-Middle.

Fortune-at-the-Beginning: Rolling a die would come at the start of the action, generating resources which the player then spends to accomplish things. 7th Sea is Fortune-at-the-Beginning as in it you roll dice at the start of a scene to generate "Raises" which are then spent as the scene moves forward.

A good way to describe it is as follows:

In Fortune-at-the-End when you are jumping a chasm, you gather yourself up and rush forward and then leap. The die roll happens once you are in the middle of the air and unable to do anything to alter the results.

In Fortune-in-the-Middle, you move forward taking some preparations, but die roll happens at the last possible moment you have to abort the choice. The die roll then basically determines just how much success is going to cost you. Do you abort and stay on this side? Or do you risk a minor injury to hit the other side? Will you need those resources later?

In Fortune-at-the-Beginning, the die roll happens before you decide to jump and you check to see if your roll gave you enough resources to make the jump... and then judge whether making the jump would leave you vulnerable to consequences.

I tend to favor Fortune-in-the-Middle game play and have even tended to treat D&D 5e with Inspiration (when I remember it) as a Fortune-in-the-Middle situation. I also allow players to take the Help Out move in Monster of the Week in response to other players rolling poorly.

There's a psychological element to knowing that your failure comes because you chose not to use the resources to succeed and there's a question as to whether or not you made the right decision. Especially if you choose to spend and later find you lack the resources you need to follow through to completing the overall objective. To me, random chance deciding failure can feel just frustrating... but with this, it's my choice that caused the fail.

However, I'm not inherently opposed to Fortune-at-the-End.

Narrative Initiative

Daggerheart uses a Narrative Initiative style, this means that there is not a set turn order as you would see in D&D. Rather, the characters take actions as the players at the table, including the GM, feel that it makes sense for actions to occur.

Some versions of Fate use this method, but by and large the most common style of gaming that does this are Powered by the Apocalypse games and their descendants: Forged in the Dark or... it doesn't really have a generalization since only Son of Oak is designing with City of Mist's system... but lets call it "Made in the Mist".

Scion 2e uses initiative where there are Hero turns and Enemy turns, but the Heroes all choose who goes in which turn, so in one round, the players can decide the child of Kali takes the lead while the child of Loki sets up and then reverse that order next time where the child of Loki takes advantage of the set up to give the child of Kali an opening for a big hit.

This is probably where most players are going to have the most confusion about "whose turn it is". I've already seen second hand people responding to statements of "if there's no turns then it's not a game." But again, I point at the fact that there are numerous games that now play exactly this way.

Meta-Currency

There are several Metacurrencies in gaming. In fact, when you come down to it, most RPGs run on meta-currencies including D&D with it's spell-slots, hit points, and action economy, but mostly when a gamer refers to "meta-currency" they are going to be talking about points which are used to modify rolls or trigger effects.

Fate Points might be the ur-example of this type of meta-currency, but there might be something older. Fate points are used to activate Aspects either to make a task easier or harder. Both players and GM get Fate points to do this, and they can also use Fate points to add narrative elements.

Scion 2e basically does this but names the player meta-currency "Momentum" and the GM currency "Tension". 7th Sea has "Hero Points" and "Danger Points". Fabula Ultima has "Fabula Points" and "Ultima Points". But where they name Genesys, I'm suspecting they are coming at this from there and the original version of Genesys: Star Wars FFG with it's "Light Side" and "Dark Side" points.

One of the key things that make Meta-Currency work well or poorly is in managing the economy of the points.

Fate Point economy is largely controlled by the GM and players and it can be difficult to manage. Fate Points refresh at the start of each session but are also gained by suffering inconveniences based on your Aspects. However, Fate Points are so central to the game and most Fate advice points out that the game's success hinges on making sure to keep Fate points flowing into the characters as well as making it clear to the players that when they play up the downsides then they generate resources.

In Scion 2e, Momentum is gained when the PCs roll poorly or suffer consequences from their injuries or other conditions and Tension is generated when the PCs accomplish some success, keeping a good ebb and flow between the heroes and the villains.

7th Sea, Fabula Ultima, and Genesys also all have very clearly defined ways that the meta-currency is generated.

The only meta-currency strict D&D 5e only players probably have encountered is Inspiration which is basically a Fate Points poor cousin. It feels largely tacked on and the method of gaining is so poorly sign-posted that it was almost a decade of playing the game before I learned that you're supposed to get Inspiration when you play up the personality traits from your character's Background.

So, D&D players have experience with a poorly implemented, largely unnecessary to its system, and forgettable metacurrency. This has caused the idea of metacurrency to have a bad reputation with some gamers. So Hope and Fear may be a point that generates doubt and concern from some potential players.

That said, Hope and Fear are generated in very clearly outlined methods and they are both very central to the game so that they are not easily forgotten the way Inspiration is.

Overall

Daggerheart draws from a lot of sources in terms of mechanics, but it so far blends things together quite well and most of the mechanics are fairly well-trodden ground, often with at least a decade of prior history.

I've seen games that cobble together mechanics from multiple sources rather shoddily... the 1st edition of Numenera comes to mind. This beta is much better condition that that game was finished.

It looks like a good half-step between games like D&D and narrative games. Probably hitting in the same general region as three of my home games (Scion 2e, MotW, and City of Mist) but just closer to D&D than Fate (my fourth home game).

[dirtnapdreamfactory]

The Nature of Daylight - [Chapter One]

Content Warnings: Adult Language, Light Threats of Violence, Implied Near Death Experience. [Please let me know if I missed anything.]

Rated: Explicit for Future Violence, Gore, Mature Themes, Adult Language, and Smut. 18+ MDNI

Word Count: 1.5K

[Next Chapter]

The sky wept with a fury that seemed to shake the very foundations of the city, plunging it into a dissonant symphony of howling winds and relentless rain. In the depths of this tempest, a small, trembling figure huddled in the meager protection of a damp alleyway. A mess of coppery hair clung to her pale skin, glistening with each flash of lightning that momentarily split the inky sky. Tattered and soaked, her simple clothes were but a poor defense against the icy claws of the storm. The woman pulled a threadbare blanket tightly around her shoulders, her shaky movements seeming to mirror the erratic dance of the windswept flames of a nearby streetlamp.

Her eyes, wide with a mixture of exhaustion and terror, darted from shadow to shadow, her paranoia heightened by the cacophony of the elements and an all too recent brush with death. She knew that there was not a single place in this realm or the next that he couldn’t find her, where he couldn’t send another horde of faceless pursuers to capture her. His motive was a mystery, but his intentions were clear – she was to be taken to Castle Ravenloft…by any means necessary.

Empty pockets were a constant reminder of her desperation, as her search for a haven or a potential savior proved fruitless. The unrelenting downpour hammered on, creating an impenetrable curtain that obscured her view of any possible salvation. Alone, scared, and penniless, she resigned herself to the harsh reality that she was not long for the world.

As if on cue, a particularly vicious gust of wind ripped a shred of the tattered awning away from the building above, further exposing her to the elements. With a hopeless groan, she forced herself to her trembling legs and pressed on into the tempest. She knew that she had to find some semblance of shelter or perish in the attempt.

The city was a maze of slick cobblestone and forgotten alleys, each turn a potential dead end or a new assailant's lair. But she trudged on, grim determination etched on her delicate features. The sound of her footsteps, all but lost in the tumult, echoed in her head: splash, splash, splash. One foot in front of the other; her mantra in the never-ending nightmare of her life.

In the distance, a flickering light danced erratically through the downpour. Hope surged within her but for a moment, only to be quickly extinguished by her own pessimism. Still, it was her only lead, a single point of light in an ocean of darkness. With renewed vigor, she stumbled towards it, each step taking her closer to her salvation or her doom. Truthfully, at this point, she would gladly accept either. 

The light, it turned out, was coming from a small tavern. A haven for the desperate and the damned, but to her, it might as well have been the warm embrace of the gods themselves. Pushing through the creaking door, she nearly collapsed onto the floor, her sodden clothes hanging heavily from her thin frame.

The patrons inside, hardened by their own trials, spared her but a glance before returning to their drinks and conversations. After a moment, the gruff barkeep hobbled over and pushed a small towel and a steaming mug of something hot and fiery into her hands without a word. She didn't care; it could've been dragon's piss and she still would have drank it - this was the first bit of kindness and generosity she had been shown in ages.

As she sipped the brew, the fire in her belly warring with the one in her bones, she approached the roaring hearth tucked away into a small, seemingly forgotten corner of the Tavern, and stared into the flames as she became lost in thought.

After a while, the door of the tavern creaked open once more - the woman’s eyes immediately glancing over towards the new arrival. A tall elven man entered the dimly lit space, his senses immediately attuned to the scents and sounds of the establishment. The lingering scent of sweat and cheap ale mingled with the crackling fireplace, creating a pungent cocktail that did nothing to mask the undercurrent of desperation and deceit that permeated the air. His predatory gaze scanned the room, seeking out a target for the evening. A rogue's gallery of patrons lined the bar, each harboring their own secrets and desires, but only one held the allure that he sought. His eyes settled on a plump merchant, adorned in finery ill-suited to the seedy establishment, trinkets that practically screamed "rob me."

With a practiced glide, he sauntered over to the bar, his movements languid and effortless. Slipping onto the barstool next to his mark, he ordered a glass of the house red, his voice dripping with honeyed seduction. "Well, well - you appear to be a man of fine taste and discerning palate," He flashed a disarming grin at the man, revealing just a glimpse of his fangs. The merchant, a portly man with a bushy brown mustache, turned to look at Astarion, his small, beady eyes widening in interest. "Allow me to introduce myself," The elf purred, extending a slender, white hand. "My name is Astarion. Now, do tell - what is a fine man like you doing in a place like this?"

The two exchanged stories and flirtations for a while before the merchant's eyes darted towards the hearth for a moment, where a bedraggled figure huddled in the corner. The elf’s preternatural hearing caught the barest whisper of the man’s thoughts: "What a pathetic sight. Someone ought to throw the little bitch back into the gutter she crawled out of." Astarion mentally sighed and prepared to steer the conversation back to more fruitful pursuits.

"Tell me," he purred, feigning interest in the man with practiced ease, "have you ever visited the Szarr Mausoleum?" The man's eyes shone with macabre curiosity, and the elf knew he had him. "There are all manner of... magnificent treasures there, if you know where to look." He winked, letting the man's greed do the rest.

As the unfortunate soul eagerly took the bait, Astarion's attention was drawn back to the drenched, shivering woman in the corner. There was something about her... something that sang to his sense in the strangest of ways. But before he could delve further, the moment passed. "Come now, darling. Time and tide wait for no man, as they say." He flashed a charming grin, leading the unsuspecting man out into the rain-soaked darkness.

The lively chatter of the evening eventually faded into the cool night air as the exhausted girl, the last remaining patron, still sat hunched over in front of the hearth. She had been nursing the drink the barkeep had given her for hours, the amber liquid swirled idly in her cup as she stared into its depths, lost in thought. The scent of stale ale and smoke hung heavy in the air, an oppressive reminder of the revelry that had once filled the room.

The barkeep's gruff voice jolted her out of her thoughts, and she lifted her gaze to meet his stern expression. He pointed towards the exit, and she felt a wave of embarrassment wash over her. "Oh, sorry - I didn't realize it was so late," she apologized, her gentle tone betraying a hint of shame.

The man studied her with a critical gaze, his features showing the signs of a tough and rugged life. In a rare display of compassion, he grumbled, "Tell ya what, girl - if you're up for cleaning up this mess, you can have the cot in the back. But don't get any ideas; I find anythin’ missin’ in the mornin’ and, well…let’s just say I’ve got friends that run in some pretty unsavory circles, understood?”

The woman smiled, amused by the thinly-veiled threat. "Thank you, sir. I really appreciate it," she said, letting his pointed words roll off her shoulders.

“Right. What’s your name, then?” He grunted.

“Alida,” She answered softly.

The man made a small sound of acknowledgment as he trudged off to lock up, his steps heavy and slow as the weight of a long day bared down on him. Alida watched him carefully as he eventually departed, before turning her attention to the task at hand. She worked quickly and efficiently, clearing tables and wiping down sticky countertops until they gleamed under the dim lighting. Her mind was miles away, however, lost among the whirling thoughts and worries that seemed to follow her like a shadow.

As soon as the last table was cleaned, she retreated to the small backroom, her body tired and aching. The cot was waiting for her, a thin blanket thrown over it to provide some semblance of comfort. She sank onto it gratefully, feeling every bone in her body sigh in relief. Staring up at the ceiling, her amber eyes caught the moonlight filtering through a cracked window pane, casting a soft glow across the room. Despite her exhaustion, sleep evaded her for a while longer before finally claiming her in its peaceful embrace.

[lilnasxvevo]

Where’s the modern teen fem wangxian AU where Lan Zhan has a bad case of Not Like Other Girls as a defense mechanism to being bullied and excluded by Other Girls and never meaningfully interacting with a girl her age, but Wei Ying who dresses and talks like the Other Girls that Lan Zhan is Not Like comes crashing on to the scene and 1) is friendly and nice to her, relentlessly, which already shakes the foundations of Lan Zhan’s worldview, and 2) is smart and fast and strong and unique and fascinating, which, because Lan Zhan is a thoughtful and analytical young person, causes her to completely trash her worldview that you can tell What Kind Of Girl a girl is by how she looks and start over.

Also, Wei Ying has started holding her hand a lot??? Not having had a female friend or really any friend before, Lan Zhan isn’t actually sure if that’s a normal Girls Who Are Friends thing or if it’s something else. But it feels really, really nice so. She’ll allow it.