#also the earliest in terms of timeline

[ariestarfairy]

Did Mystra Groom Gale?

My answer to that is, it's complicated, or perhaps not in the conventional way that people tend to think grooming happens. When I see posts about Gale being groomed it's accompanied by the assertion that Mystra found Gale when he was a child and was his mentor first. From a timeline perspective this doesn't make sense, we would have to throw out so much lore. Mystra was murdered by Cyric in 1385 initiating the Spellplague, she didn't come back until the events of the Sundering, so around 1479. Baldur's Gate 3 takes place in 1492. The earliest she could have met Gale would have been 1479/1480 which gives us a time frame of their relationship possibly being around 11-12 years. If we conclude that Gale is ~30 years old then the youngest Gale could have been is 17. If we conclude that Gale is ~35 years old then the youngest Gale could have been is 22. This lines up with Gale referring to himself as a very young man, not a child, when the events of their relationship took place. Also Gale makes another comment that suggests that he likely wasn't a child during his relationship with Mystra. If you romance Gale, he remarks that he had lovers before Mystra, but not after. If we assume that Gale met Mystra as a child then Gale would have to be much younger than we think he is. Now onto the subject of Mystra and Gale's relationship, adult grooming is a thing and the power imbalance is very real. A teacher getting into a relationship with a student is also problematic in any relationship where there is a teacher and student dynamic. Mystra has a history of changing and removing abilities from her servants and chosen, often times without their consent. This clearly illustrates an exploitative relationship. Also Gale, in all of his naivety of youth, perceived his relationship with Mystra way differently than Mystra did. Mystra has many chosen and most of them do not know one another. He thought she loved him, but he was amusement for her for a time until he messed up and she denounced him. Not only that but in order to maybe, possibly, earn her "forgiveness" Gale has to kill himself and even then forgiveness isn't assured. That's a steep price to pay. If you think Mystra is a good soul and Gale is a horrible person who stomped all over her boundaries, then you you need to learn more about Mystra's gross meddling with mortals. She is by no means innocent and has not only stomped on boundaries, she has done things that cross way over into non-consensual. The Gods are gross, Mystra is not an exception because she's a Goddess and presents as a woman, she's not vulnerable nor is she helpless. She is in the position to exploit and demand and she does it frequently. What also really gets me is how Gale gets labeled as being manipulative and abusive and Astarion is a beacon of perfection. He's not, he targets your character just to manipulate them, and that is his MO for a huge chunk of the game. His tragedy and changing over the course of the game doesn't reverse that, but it's somehow overlooked? Of course you have to view a person in terms of a snapshot. Looking at Gale based on a snapshot within his relationship with Mystra does not make him toxic and it does not mean that he was the abuser. Of course because Astarion was abused by a man, it's a different story, but Gale is a male character stepping on a woman's (Goddess) boundary, so he's necessarily toxic. It doesn't occur to people who play BG3, who have very little knowledge when it comes to the Gods in Faerun that Mystra is truly toxic and that a man can be abused and manipulated by a woman (Goddess) . Don't misunderstand, I love Astarion just as much as I love Gale, but I think it's a double standard to vilify Gale (who WAS mistreated by Mystra) and lionize Astarion while ignoring his machinations towards you in the beginning. Astarion is a classic case of hurt people hurt people, it explains his behavior but it shouldn't be ignored in criticisms of other characters. He's not perfect, if he were he would be boring and not nearly as interesting.

[camilleonne]

Trying to work out Gale age+ timeline, plus analysis

BG3 is my first introduction to the DnD lore, so this is really just me trying to work out where the BG3 story fits into the broader timeline of DnD. All of this information I got from the Forgotten Realms wiki, so if I'm misunderstanding anything I'd love input!

My goal with this is to guess how Gale's personal story fits into the timeline of the Forgotten Realms, mainly to estimate how old he might be and how long his relationship with Mystra was. According to the Wiki, Mystra was only recently resurrected, which means her relationship with Gale is very restricted in how long it could have been.

Here's Mystra's timeline:

1385 - Mystra dies, the Weave becomes unstable, magic changes, and the Spellplague begins

1395 - the Spellplague mostly ends, but the Weave is still unstable and Mystra is still dead

1479/1480 - Mystra returns with help from Elminster, magic starts to go back to normal

1482 - the Second Sundering begins, which aims to reorder the hierarchy of gods

1484 - gods begin acquiring Chosen mortals in order to cement their power

1487 - Mystra returns to her full power, the Weave is finally restored, and the Second Sundering ends

1488 - prayers to deities are ignored, and instead divine missives are directed through deities' Chosen

1489 - prayers begin to be answered again, while Chosen's powers and gifts are revoked by their patron gods, since they no longer serve a use to their gods. Only a few Chosen retain their powers.

1490 - nothing of note happens, according to the Wiki

1491 - Mystra restricts mind-reading magic. Otherwise, nothing of note happens pertaining to Mystra

1492 - the plot of Baldur's Gate 3 happens

If I understand this timeline correctly, the earliest Mystra could have begun interacting with Gale is the year 1480. But because this is when she had only just been resurrected, this is likely when she began to "mentor" him, and not when their romantic relationship began.

It was probably sometime between 1482-84 that Gale became Chosen and his romance with Mystra began. And if Gale was also one of the many Chosen who were cast aside by their gods in 1489, simply because he was no longer useful, then their romantic relationship would have lasted 9-10 years at most, but more likely was 7-8 years. But still! Nearly a decade of having a close relationship with your patron deity is hugely influential on someone's personality and outlook on life, and definitely explains where a lot of Gale's arrogance and hubris come from.

1480-82 - earliest possible time frame Mystra could have begun interacting with Gale

1482-84 - likely when Gale is Chosen, and the earliest their romance could have started

1489 - Gale likely loses his status as Chosen, and with it his extra powers gifted to him by Mystra. He would have been cast aside for no reason other than he was no longer useful to Mystra. This likely happened with little to no explanation from Mystra, forcing Gale to guess as to why he had been cast aside by his god and lover

1490 - this is likely the year that Gale searches for the "missing Weave" and takes the orb into himself, destroying his innate magical gifts and leaving him weakened and dying

1491 - Gale isolates himself in his tower for a year, depressed and heartbroken

1492 - BG3 plot occurs. One way or another, Gale comes to terms with his relationship with Mystra and manages to remove the Karsite Weave from himself

Gale mentions something about being called "delusional" by his professors when he graduated from wizard college (or whatever it's called). My guess/headcanon is that Gale would have graduated wizard school before Mystra began to mentor him. So he'd be, at the youngest, 21 when she initiates contact with Gale. Gale mentions that he'd been in relationships before Mystra, but that she was his longest partner, and 21 fits that backstory pretty well. This means that Gale is either 30 or 31, at the youngest, when Mystra casts him aside. This puts Gale at approximately 33-35 years old when BG3 occurs.

Another important thing is that, at least from Gale's perspective, he was cast aside by Mystra suddenly and without explanation. This left him having to guess why he was no longer one of her Chosen, which is what motivated him to win back her favor. Unfortunately, by trying to win her back, Gale took in the Karsite Weave, which ate away at his innate magical abilities and left him even weaker than he had ever been before.

Something that sticks out to me about this timeline is what Mystra says to Gale when he's finally able to confront her. She says to him something to the effect of "I would have made you my Chosen again, you just needed to be patient. But because you were impatient, you will never be my Chosen again". Likely the key difference between Elminster and Gale as both being powerful wizards devoted to Mystra is that Elminster understands that Mystra is a goddess, and should be treated with a sort of awe. If she does something that he doesn't understand, he just defers to her judgement as a goddess. But since Gale was in love with her, he treated their relationship like one between mortals, not that between a deity and their faithful. Gale's main folly is that he was in love with Mystra, while she was just using him as a pawn to consolidate her power. She probably wasn't lying to him about him being gifted, and probably would have made him Chosen again when it suited her, but Gale wanted more and couldn't stand the lack of communication, and so those powers were revoked from him.

It's really sad because Gale wanted real love, and wanted to be treated as an equal to Mystra. In a normal, human relationship, begin treated equally by your partner is a normal expectation. But because Mystra is a god and would never acquiesce her power, especially after only very recently regaining full control of it, Gale was doomed to be heartbroken. Also, the fact that Mystra cast Gale aside without telling him why, then didn't warn him that the Weave he found was deadly and would kill him, and then didn't tell him how to fix it, and then told him to kill himself to apologize, then ONLY tells him the truth of the situation after he starts to threaten her power, is super shitty. Can you blame him for any of it when he was literally ghosted by his goddess/girlfriend of 10 years?

The fact that Mystra is one of the "good" gods and can't even be bothered to treat one of her Chosen with decent respect, after manipulating him for his entire adult life, is super messed up. It really ties into the subthemes of BG3 about gods and how they just... really don't give a shit about their followers. Even the "good" ones still only really care about their power and protecting their interests. Like obviously Shar and Vlaakith are evil and treat their followers like shit, but the fact that Mystra does essentially the same thing with zero remorse, and then also blames Gale for all of it and forces him to beg her for forgiveness, is... sad.

And that's why Gale is a sweetheart and deserves all the love. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

[fordtato]

The Gravity Falls Timeline

All of this is based on my video, but I assume not many people will want to sit through 2.5 hours of me working this out, so here's a condensed written version.

Some rules I set for myself: If the actual name of an IP, a person or an event is referenced in J3/the Show, I included it into my math for my timeline (ex: references to Ronald Reagan or The Eurythmics, or other REAL WORLD figures). If a REFERENCE is made without the actual name being referenced (ex: in the Journal, Ford mentions Phantom Bustifiers, a reference to Ghostbusters, a movie that didn’t come out in our world until 1984), I did not put that into this timeline (I know what year Ghostbusters came out, but not which year Phantom Bustifiers came out).

With that in mind, let’s begin:

The Stans are born June 15 1951.

Evidence: 

Their Bar Mitzvah happened when they were 12 (not 13, as is typical) and their birthday is on June 15th. Because a Bar Mitzvah is dependent on one’s birthday on the Hebrew calendar and not the Gregorian calendar, this means that their 13th Hebrew birthday must land on a date that is BEFORE their 13th Gregorian birthday, something that is typically more rare (the Hebrew birthday is usually AFTER one’s typically celebrated birthday).

The only viable year where this applies is 1951, when their birthday lands on Sivan 11, resulting in a 13th Hebrew birthday in May of 1964, BEFORE their 13th birthday on June 15th

The Stans find the Stan O War in spring of 1964 at age 12 (or 1961, if you think they were 10)

Evidence:

There are two viable dates for when they find the Stan o War, depending on if they’re 10 (the same age Stan was when he started writing Lil Stanley in the Lost Legends comics) or 12 (the same age as Dipper and Mabel). I think that the way the artist drew the young Stan twins in the Lil Stanley comic looks (age 10) looks slightly younger than how they look in the series (and they are designed a little differently than they look in the Jersey Devil comic, when we KNOW they have the Stan O War already), but there is evidence for both sides.

I lean toward them being 12 because they pull out a sharpie, which wasn’t invented until 64, but there is a reference to a Bruce Springsteen song in a magazine in Lost Legends, quoted by someone named “Brucey S, age 11” and Bruce Springsteen would have been 11 in 1961, so this might be 1961 (or the magazine Ford is reading from might be an old magazine.) I went with 1964, because I think 12 parallelled the ages of Dipper and Mabel better. 

Stan gets kicked out in spring of 1969 right before they turned 18. Ford starts at Backupsmore in the fall semester.

Evidence: 

Stan makes a reference to Jackie O, which means Jackie Kennedy already remarried to be Jackie Onnassis, and is also still in the public eye, something that would be progressively less common after 1969 (she also happened to visit New Jersey in spring of 1969 and that would have made state headlines, something which is probably a coincidence, but nonetheless very interesting).

Furthermore, there is a portrait of Nixon in the principal’s office, and he would have been sworn in in early 1969. 

I think 1969 is more likely than 1970 because ‘69 gives more wiggle room for Shermie to be the baby (more on that later) and for Ford to get at least one PhD.

-Stan dates Carla “Hotpants” McCorkle,(reconnecting for another date after the one at the theater in their teenage years), probably in 1971 (if this “hallucinatey” date even happened at all; if you dont think it happened at all, disregard). 

Evidence:

We know this is a later date, when stan is an adult, because his design matches the designs on one of his fake IDs from his years on the run. It was likely 1971 because that is when the term “hotpants” was used to describe those short shorts.

The hippie aesthetic also started dying down after 1972 after the Manson attacks, so I picked 71 for the Juke Joint date.

Ford graduated from Backupsmore at the very earliest 1974, MAYBE early 1975.

Evidence:

In the journal it says he went to Gravity Falls in 1975, but we know he couldn’t have graduated earlier than 74, because we know that he played DDnMoreD in college, and he says in the journal that it was copyrighted in 1974. He also says Stanley always mocked him for playing it, which literally isn’t possible, so he’s either misremembering Stanley mocking him for an EARLIER TTRPG, or this copyright is for a later edition (though I think it must be the former, since DDnMD is a clear reference to DnD which WAS copyrighted in 1974. Still. Up to you.)

This means he completed his PhD in 6 years (or, three years ahead of schedule as described in the series). I believe many of his other PhDs were honorary degrees, and didn't bother working them into this timeline. He got them later.

Stan joins Rico’s gang in the late 70s

Evidence: 

Sometime in the late 70s, Stan gets tangled up in what is implied to be the Colombian cartel, which would have been most active in the late 70s, between 75 and 79. Following his trajectory on the map in ATOTS showing his path across the country, he headed below the border toward the end of that trackline, so it was probably later on.

Ford started Journal 3 in 1981, shortly after meeting Bill in 1981. 

Evidence: 

He says he discovered his muse in 1981 in J3. He also says he is starting J3 six years after he started investigating Gravity Falls (which he did in 75). He also says early on in J3 that he is in his 30s, and he would have turned 30 in June of 1981, three days before he started J3.

There is some fuckery here on how he’s known his muse for “two years” midway J3, and the way I explain that in the video is that the first part of J3 spans nearly 2 years, and there is ample evidence that he wrote many pages out of order. This might be a page from later on in 1982, early 83, instead of mid-81. 

We know that Reagan was already in office at this point.

 Fiddleford shows up in July of 1982. Fiddleford begins making the memory gun after the Gremloblin incident later that year. 

Evidence:

We know at least a year has passed because if you track the months, they go from June, to August, and then later on down to July again when Fiddleford is called. As for the Gremloblin incident, it happened relatively close to the bunker incident (which would have been closer to summer, since it was still hot outside) but it was followed closely by the carnival, where they had squash for sale, and squash are in season after September, typically. 

First Portal Test is on January 18, 1983

Fiddleford falls through the portal, his head poking through, on January 18 1983, the day after the confrontation he had with Ford in the diner. 

Late February, 1983 - The Portal Incident

Evidence:

There are three many reasons I chose this date. Firstly, we know it is 1983 not just because it follows the trajectory of earlier dates, but because we know that Ford has heard The Eurythmics’ chart topper “Sweet Dreams Are Made of This” because when he returns he says he is looking forward to their next one, and that came out in January of 83’, before he would have been sucked through.

Secondly, five weeks after January 18th, it would still be snowy in up-mountain Oregon where Ford is, but not that snowy in New Mexico where Stan is when he gets the post card.

Thirdly, we know at least 5-6 weeks have passed because Ford describes about this many weeks during his “paranoid era” in the journal (more than one instance of “a couple weeks, several weeks, a few weeks”, etc.). 

In the year 2000, Dipper and Mabel are born. 

Evidence:

I know most people think it’s 1999. And that is fine, but I have ample evidence that the show takes place in 2013, not 2012 (see below), so 2000 would have to work for their birthday.

But 2000 also gives a little bit of wiggle room to Shermie being the baby. (If you don’t think Shermie is the baby, disregard this section). If Shermie IS the baby, then if he was born in spring of 1969 (late 68 at the earliest), then you can barely fit two generations of Pines in the space between 1969 and 2000. It would mean that both Shermie and his kid would need to be 15 when they had a kid, which is … not great, but not impossible? I dunno man, take it up with Hirsch. (Or just assume the baby is Shermie’s kid. Follow your dreams).

In 2013, Dipper and Mabel visit their Grunkle Stan in Gravity Falls. 

Evidence: 

The Northwest ghost died in what is described in the journal as “The Great Flood of 1863”. The Northwests are trying to keep this flood under wraps in J3, because they don’t want people finding out about the lumberjacks killed in the flood. The Northwest Ghost swore with his dying breath to come back 150 yrs after his death. 150 years later from 1863, is 2013.

The 1040 form that Stan is filling out his Tax Fraud note on in the truth-telling ep is a 2012 form. To file tax returns, you use w2s 1040s labeled under the PREVIOUS year

Sevral Timez shouts "2013"

1983 is 30 years before 2013. 

Note: This would mean that the Stans are 62 at the end of the summer, which might mean that they are "pushing 70" as Stan describes himself.

Anyways, here's the full video if you have 2.5 hours. Otherwise, enjoy this resource!

[nuri148]

My Take on Levi's Age

I originally wrote this as a rb addition to another post. I've been meaning to make it a stand alone post since then, and with all the talk about Levi's age since the publication of bad boy, here it is, finally.

If you ask me, Levi could not have been more that 4-5 years old at the time Kenny found him around 829.

Why?

He's severely malnourished, probably spent several days cloistered in the room with Kuchel with nothing to eat. So my guess is that, though he was old enough to speak and understand Kuchel was dead (even if he could not quite grasp the bigger concept of Death), he was too young to go out and procure himself and his mum some food, be it by stealing or begging. And for that, he's need to be very young.

I lived in Greater Buenos Aires more than half of my life (the infamous "conurbano"), and I've seen lots of very small kids, 4-5 years old, begging like pros for either change or food. It's unfortunately very common in impoverished areas. And I wasn't even in the bad ones. So, in that aspect, the Underground wouldn't be different from our villas or Brazil's favelas.

Kuchel was a prostitute. She wouldn't want Levi to witness her at work. It is fair to think that as soon as he was old enough to cross the street she'd let him roam and go play with other kids while mummy's busy. There, he'd quickly learn how to come by a piece of moldy bread to stave hunger.

So in order to just sit starving by his mother instead of going out looking for help, Levi must have been young enough that his mum could still keep him under wraps; too young to know his way about the Underground's streets, too much of a rookie in terms of using his charm or his cunning to get a bit of food.

Uri Reiss inherited the Founding Titan in 829. BUT, nowhere does it say that Kenny's encounter with Uri happens right after the latter became a titan. So Kenny might have joined Uri up to a couple of years after 829 (not many, as Rod Reiss still looks young in that flashback).

So Kenny finds Levi between 829 and 831; And Levi is 4-5 then, meaning he was born, at earliest, in 823 (considering his b-day is only one week before the year's end, that'd make him 5 in for most of 829) and latest in 825 (same if Kenny found him in 831). That makes him 10-12 years older than Eren and company. , ~20 when he joins the SC, ~26 during seasons 1-3, ~30 after the time skip, and ~33 in the epilogue.

"But Yams said he was thirty-somethiiiing!"

TLDR: I wouldn't consider canon some spur-of-the-moment answer given by Yams in a panel where he's probably tired, nervous, and doesn't have his timeline handy.

Allow me to speak here as a writer: the whims of your imagination often don't align with the logic of what needs to go on the page. So it is perfectly possible to imagine your character in a way that is inconsistent with your timeline. You see them with short hair and summer clothes fixing lunch in their sunny kitchen in a scene and, when they move to the dining room you see them with hair 4 inches longer and serving supper as a snowstorm rages outside. When you write it, you're going to have to pick up one, and go back to your notes often for continuity after, bc your brain keeps forever placing the kitchen in sunny summer and the living room in a winter night. Oh, and they're both simultaneously on the ground and the second floor. Escher pictures make more sense.

The story of AoT spans many years, so we don't know which year Levi is the default Levi in Yams' brain. It could even be the Levi from the time skip, or from a future after the last chapter that only exists in his imagination. Also, Yams has bungled up numbers before so, personally, I don't trust him much in that department.

In any case, Math is a hard science, so if Kenny found Levi with 4-5 years in 829, he can't be 30+ in 850. 5+21=26. No matter what Yams says.

Additional notes:

The original post. With additions. I recommend reading the quoted twitter thread.

Another, recent twitter thread on Levi's age

A lengthy post by an actual psychologist providing scientific foundation for Levi's age when Kenny finds him.

I saw yet another post on Levi's age recently, but I can't find the link rn and I have to make lunch. if/when I find it, I'll add it (and others I may come across)

[felassan]

Article: 'The next Mass Effect isn’t expected until 2029 or later, report claims'

Excerpts:

"During Giant Bomb’s Game Mess Morning show on Wednesday, the site’s Jeff Grubb and Tamoor Hussain both shared that, according to their sources, the game is still a long way off. “You want some original reporting?” Grubb said. “This game is just nowhere near coming out. “I was told that when they revealed Dragon Age: Dreadwolf in 2018, this is similar in terms of timeline. That was announced in 2018 and we’re not getting that game until maybe next year. “So now do the math for that, and we’re talking 2029 for Mass Effect 5.” Hussain replied: “I’ve heard some things as well, and this game is so far away. It is so far in another galaxy right now.” Grubb went on to claim that his sources told him the N7 Day teaser was created mainly to reassure fans that a game was in the works, rather than any sort of indication that it was coming any time soon. “When I asked, it was just like, ‘hey, is this just because they have to do something for N7 Day?’ Yes. For this thing, that’s all this is.”"

-

"Grubb’s sources claimed Dragon Age: Dreadwolf was once being considered for release in September 2023, but that the game keeps getting delayed. The game’s target release window was then moved to March 2024 a while ago, but it’s currently planned to come out next summer “at the earliest”, it’s claimed. However, Grubb also said he thinks it’s “very likely” that the game’s release will get pushed back even further, “probably” to late next year but possibly to early 2025."

[source, context]

[inkangeliguess]

The worst part of trying to make a story/AU for despicable me is just how damn inconsistent the timeline is.

Like- ok, we clearly start with the Minions Movie taking place in 1968. I don’t think Scarlet and Herb’s ages are ever specified, but that’s not particularly important. What we do know is that Gru is 8 when he first steals the crown.

Here’s where things get confusing, Minions: Rise of Gru. We can assume based off Gru that it doesn’t take place that long after the first Minions movie. It’s also clearly some time during the 70s, based off Belle Bottom’s overall design and gadgets (like her disco ball mace).

Here’s where things go off the rails in terms of piecing together a coherent timeline;

Balthazar Bratt.

Based off of the wiki for him (I know it’s not the most reliable source, but people on fandom know what they’re doing for the most part), Bratt was born 1973, making him younger than Gru. Now, that’s not necessarily the problem, until we get to the fact that his show aired from 1985 to 1987. Gru would be in his late teens at the youngest. Again, this doesn’t seem like a problem, until we bring in Dru. In Despicable Me 3, when they are infiltrating Bratt’s lair, Dru pulls one of the dolls out of a box and says “Oh, I had one of these when I was a kid.” Which seems.. odd, considering he’s Gru’s twin and would be the same age as him.

There are some other characters who were never given the explicit ages of (that I can remember), like Silas and Vector’s dad. Both make appearances in Minions: Rise of Gru, so you’d assume that they’d be much older by the trilogy, but they aren’t.

Also, does it ever say what year the trilogy movies take place in? Like- since Bratt is in his 40s, the year is at earliest 2013 and at latest 2022, which is confusing considering the technology in some scenes.

Sorry for the rant, I just haven’t seen anyone bring this up except for CinemaSins (kinda)

[unrivalling]

"Just When Was Grell Sutcliff Alive?" Part 1: Establishing a Timeline

So as many of you know, I recently got into Black Butler (I know, about 17 years too late), and I'm almost caught up. However, I want to talk about how I'm still thinking about Vol 29 and some of the lore dropping Othello does at the beginning there.

Namely I'm fixated on possibly having a timeline for Grell's human life and death.

This wasn't intended to be a proper meta. It's been too long since I've written one, and there's probably important stuff I'm forgetting or don't know. But I wanted to write all of this down to get it out on the page, for posterity. Then it accidentally became a meta. Oops. Mild BB spoilers up to Vol 29, and heads up for some discussion of historical homophobia, transphobia, and state violence at the end. As well as a canon-typical suicide mention. I use she/her pronouns for Grell, but broadly interpret her as queer and transfeminine given the complexity of talking about identity in the time periods I'll be referencing (I use "queer" as a reclaimed, academic, blanket term). I'm also largely taking a Watsonian approach (Grell's experiences from her perspective), although a Doylist approach to Grell (as in relating to the author's intent and cultural context rather than the character's) is also really interesting one, but feels like more well trodden territory. With that out of the way, let's begin.

The info we have So. Something really interesting happened in Vol 29. We got a lot of great Undertaker backstory, but Othello said something relating to Grell that made me eyes emoji.

"Weren't you around 70 years ago?"

So, she never replies to this. But it seems highly plausible this means Grell was not a reaper 70 years before the current date in the manga. We don't quite know what the lag time is between someone dying and becoming a reaper, but I'm taking this to mean she had not died yet, as I assume she would have remembered an event like the one Othello describes. I believe this is the implication. Now, I am making some assumptions:

- To clarify, I know this is all guesswork. I'm just having fun with different possibilities. - Like I said, we don't know what the lag time is between someone dying and becoming a reaper (as in, the new state of being, not the job), and we don't know how long it takes to go from trainee to collections to senior. - That Grell was around 25 when she died. It's hard to tell anime character ages from 20-40 at a glance, but her design seems similar to me to characters that are in their 20s in other series. She could be older or younger, but I'm using that in lieu of a better option. It's not precise, but it'll get us in the ballpark anyway - Black Butler has a lot of anachronisms. However, Toboso is known to research things heavily and her changes are typically very purposeful (the purpose is usually "Rule of cool" and that's why we stan). I'm assuming historical events happening in BB to mirror the real world except where indicated otherwise. - I'm also assuming she's English. The names Grell and Grelle are both German in origin, but there are a lot of Germanic names in English and Sutcliff as a surname originated in Yorkshire. This is only based on a quick Google search--I could do more later, but this seems in line with Grell not being presented as "foreign" to England in any way in the series making her stand out in the same way her flamboyance or flirtation with men does. Establishing a range

The series takes place in 1888 and 1889. 70 years ago would put Undertaker's defection at 1818. If what Othello says is true, this means Grell became a reaper sometime after that date.

Let's establish the outlier possibilities first (again, assuming a pretty rapid transition from human death to becoming a reaper).

The earliest possible date Grell could have become a reaper: sometime in the following year, around 1819. This would put her birth at around 1794, and her death that year in 1819. This feels unlikely because it seems like she would have been exposed to people talking about Undertaker defecting since it was such a catastrophe, but who knows.

The latest possible date Grell could have become a reaper is 1887, which would place her birth at around 1862. This is massively improbable to the point of being impossible since she's a senior in collections and I assume that didn't happen in a year, but again, it's important for establishing a range. Basically, tldr, according to this framework, Grell became a reaper sometime between 1819 and 1887, which puts her human life (and death) in that timeframe as well. This would place her in the Georgian-Victorian eras, or possibly even the 8 year Regency period.

Will the Reaper OVA I've only talked about the manga so far since the 1st anime canon is wildly divergent in a number of ways, but if we include the Will the Reaper OVA, this would push things towards the earlier end of that timeline. I don't know much about the history of fashion (especially not middle and lower class dress), but it seems distinctly late 1700s/maybe early 1800s to me. Which if I'm reading right, would actually push Grell becoming a reaper back as far as the 1790s or 1810s, and would dispute the 1819 date implied by Vol 29. IF ANYONE KNOWS MORE ABOUT THE FASHION REFERENCES HERE, PLEASE FEEL FREE TO TELL ME. I WANT TO KNOW.

(Baby....Grell...furious and stark raving mad recently dead stray cat making it everyone's problem. I'm fine) This is subverted a little bit by the reaper outfits appearing more like Victorian businesswear, but Reapers always seem to be a few decades ahead of the world in terms of fashion and technology. My personal assessment is that the fashion in this is to make it immediately, visually clear that the OVA takes place in the Georgian rather than Victorian period, however that forces me to break my largely Watsonian approach for a Doylist one ("the animators perhaps decided it was necessary to show that time had passed since the events of the OVA"), but considering it came out so long before the lore drop in Vol 29, who knows.

I'm not inclined to take it as gospel truth for the manga canon, but considering Toboso did collaborate on that one, I think it at least worth talking about and considering as supplemental information.

I personally take this to support (but not solely uphold) the idea that "Grell became a reaper sometime during the Georgian period (1713-1837)", but again, grain of salt.

What would it mean for Grell to be a queer person in England in the 1700s and 1800s?

As far as I'm aware, we don't know anything about what Grell's life might have been like before becoming a reaper. Unless I'm missing something, that's a black box until Toboso reveals more.

But establishing this timeline gives us a great opportunity to consider the circumstances she would have lived under.

Understand that I'm not speaking in absolutes here, more "here are some interesting things I like to think about when considering why this character might be the way she is". I'm also not saying Toboso intended any of this to be read into Grell, but as readers I believe it's reasonable to assume Grell may have encountered these events or they might have impacted her unless stated otherwise. A brief list of things Grell would have been living under or around or could have been aware of. I want to do a part 2 talking about how these things might relate to someone like Grell, as well as talking about other major historical events not directly related to queer people (like, you know, the Napoleonic Wars), but this post is already feeling long enough: - The Buggery Act and the Offenses Against the Person Act, which made a variety of sexual acts punishable by death, including acts like anal sex. These laws were used to persecute people, usually queer men (although people who would today be called trans women and nonbinary people were also certainly prosecuted as well*), particularly in the 1700s and 1800s. I believe as of 1862 it was no longer punishable by death, but people still lived in fear of prison and hard labor (Oscar Wilde going to prison in 1895 being a famous later example). Here's an article about the men killed under the Buggery Act. *Trans men were not exempt from this, even if the specific legal and social threat was likely different. If memory serves, Dr. James Barry was jeopardized by rumors that he may have been Too Close to one of his cis male friends. - Molly houses. Generally considered places in the 1700s and 1800s where queer men gathered to socialize and find sexual partners. There was a lot of gender divergence in these spaces, and it's widely believed they were frequented by people who, again, today, could have a variety of gender identities. This article about molly houses and gender is really interesting. This article specifically talks about one in Whitechapel. - The Chevalier d'Eon. This one is just really interesting. While the Chevalier d'Eon was likely one of the first examples of legally recognized gender transition, this person was very famous and wealthy and the circumstances are buckwild. This video is highly watchable and informative. Grell

As a queer person and someone who likes history (I don't have any specific training, I just like learning about it), I already think a lot about what it must have been like to live during this specific time period, and Grell slots into that pretty well as a character to fixate on, since she dovetails with the other existing hyperfixation. By extension, I like using this information to think about what Grell's human life might have been like, and how those experiences could be aligned to explain a lot of her behavior, and seems especially poignant to me in light of all reapers having been people who committed suicide, another recent lore reveal in the manga. Maybe she lived closeted and lived in fear of discovery. Maybe she wasn't afraid! Maybe she was impulsive and endangered herself and others! Maybe she got blackmailed. What if she experienced her first taste of femininity at a molly house? Does she only go after men who reject her because she lived during a time where her affections being returned was intensely dangerous? Did she care about anyone? Is anyone she knew still alive? Thank you so much to everyone who read to the end! If I'm able to rally, I do want there to be a part 2 to this going more into detail about how it makes sense to me that these homophobic and transphobic societal pressures could have created a character like Grell.

[segatoys]

i wanted to share something really cool i found yesterday... robot doggy research as per usual. because of the nature of another project im working on ive been thinking sabout collecting some "side data" and trying to create a kind of timeline or archive of "secondary interpretations" of robot dogs: not a timeline of their creations, but a timeline of works representing/interpreting them (songs, literature, visual arts). and i think i found my earliest one , so far!!!

this is from a collage found in a sketchbook released by the breton estate in 2003. this book featured 33 collages done in collaboration between surrealist artists andré breton, paul éluard and suzanne muzard. the notebooks were bought by the ubu gallery and displayed in 2012. (check out the collection here!!!)

notice that figure on the left.... that's the philidog, (potentially) the earliest iteration of the robotic dog*!! the philidog was designed and created and had multiple iterations that spanned from 1928-29 iirc. this collage is dated roughly to 1931!!!!!

some more gushing and personal research thoughts down below but besides the actual designing and making of the philidog, methinks this could be one of the first examples of the "second round of interpretation" when it comes to the robot dog. ...in simpler terms, the first art made of robot dog. How exciting!!!!!!!!!

in terms of main research im doing rn wrt emotive qualities of objects and the understandings/interpretations of this post-industrial revolution/mass productions... in seeing the documentation of peoples platonic/romantic/sexual fondness of these objects, this piece really sticks out to me. i'd like to look at it a bit closer before "finalizing" any thoughts on it but this is really so striking to me. in this research my earliest source-anchors are from 1909, but then the next one brings us to the 70's...

*a lot of my research is also about defining the robot dog on a level beyond the intention of dog-like form, so this is in the air. however, it seems like the philidog is the first *intentional* mechanized dog-thing

[usagiverse]

Am I? Wow thanks for the welcome, and for that I noticed my username, was little weird read the name lol, but is fine call me Nerish.

I think you have a very adorable and cool drawing style, I really like how they all look so fluffy, and I think the expressions are really good. I want a Yuichi axolotl plush.

About the timeline, the antagonist make me feel curious if it's focused on the turtles enemies in which case it might refer more to Big Mama or Draxum, if it's Usagi Yojimbo I just think of Jei, if it's Space Usagi I think of Akira, losing that hand must have been a more satisfying scene than it actually was.

But, yes I meant more like Princess Miya (lovely name), the magical girls gave me Madoka Magica vibes, just me? I just can't with the designs are so pretty.

For the Usagis I hope they can fix their things, I understand the Miyamoto's POV, but how feels Yuichi? i'm just curious, for now I stop here, also goodluck with your anon doesn't eat the other user, your last update of princess Miya was most adorable, I think like Raph I want to put myself on the waitlist.

Nerish.. of course you're one of my earliest followers... (everyone is!)

Oh yes, an Axolotl Yuichi plush would be so good! And very sensory appealing, with his fin-like ears and cheeks. Yes. I want one too... For the timeline, I did just answer an ask about potential characters which do include potential villains! I have not yet read Space Usagi, but that might be an interesting one.. yes.. -takes notes- We'll see Neko Ninjas, Big Mama, (I don't think Draxum would fit well into the story, since he's a Yokai extremist-- he would have no reason to attack or prey on the people he swears to protect), the Krang will make an appearance in terms of the bad future from the movie (What are the Usagis up to in that time? How did they handle the Krang?) and yeah, you know, some of the feudal lords like Hebi and Hikiji, Jei, and some other stuff. It might be cool. Final Question : How Does Yuichi Feel? Well, at first, it seemed fine. Miyamoto (8) asks Yuichi (30) if he will be his sensei. Mizuki and Shuji are supportive, after all it's the Usagi way, so they tell their kid to ask Yuichi. Shuji thinks his brother is a much better samurai anyway. Miyamoto looks up to his uncle because of this fact (he adores his father as well) and this is when the two of them are the closest.

-- Miyamoto (9) watches Yuichi and Shuji (31) leave one day before scheduled training. Miyamoto is a little less than a year into his training, but he still isn't allowed to go on these particular errand runs with the twins. They are usually quick about it, but also extremely careful. Maybe when Miyamoto has more training, he can join them.

-- Some time has passed, and Yuichi (33) seems.. different. Maybe it's the bandage over his eye. The now open wound. The warm blood dripping down his face. Maybe it's the faces that Miyamoto (11) makes. Maybe it's the fabric on his skin, making him feel clammy. Claustrophobic. Annoyed. Panicked. Something is wrong. A voice in his head echoes the thoughts he relayed to his nephew. Miyamoto is doing his best, working as hard as he can, trying to get better, trying to please his Uncle. Why is he so different now? Miyamoto doesn't understand. He's in disbelief, he's angry and frustrated.

Being the oldest is hard. The weight of the world sits on your shoulders, and it's a task that even the strongest Samurai can't handle. But he has to. He has to protect his family, but he needs to teach Miyamoto. If he fails as a Sensei, then he's failed as an Uncle. A Brother. A Son. A Samurai. With Miyamoto's sudden disappearing habits, Yuichi is scared of what will happen if Miyamoto doesn't come back. Would he be the reason his brother no longer has a son? He would fail his family. He would have no honor. It's a crushing thought.

[stoopid-turtle]

I've seen people theorize as part of the devil's timeline (which I don't really subscribe to, but am curious about) that ggdd were pretending not to know each other beforehand when they started filming CQL and that that would explain why they got more familiar over time but also so quickly in the BTS. To me this would explain a couple things (like sharing phones so soon) but creates so many more questions that I have a hard time buying it. Mainly: I 100% understand why they wouldn't want to tell fans/the world at large any more details about their personal lives/relationship, since it's not our business, but I can't figure out why they'd like... act in front of the whole rest of the cast as strangers. I don't *think* it would make it seem like one gave the other any advantage in the casting process, but what do I know? And I can't think of a lot of other reasons for acting that elaborate/long-term. I was wondering if you had any takes on this?

Also! I wanted to say thanks again for your posts so far and I respect that it's not something you plan to keep doing, but I was (hoping) wondering if you were thinking about sticking around in the fandom as more of a spectator? I'm also a new turtle as of like 5 months ago so it's nice not to be the only one still going 🤯 over some of the BTS in 2023 when it's ancient news to everyone else. Thanks again for your hard work on your posts and timeline!

Hi!

Do they share phones really early? The earliest I saw was 7.7, though I'm not especially eagle-eyed. Beyond that instance and dd using gg's phone while the cast ate lunch on 8.2, I didn't notice either of them sharing phones in the videos I saw.

I guess I'm the odd one out bc I don't think they became familiar unusually fast. It seems like a reasonable timeline for the age they're at, from my experience. So I don't see the need to have an explanation for that since I don't see anything out of the norm in how their relationship progresses.

That's probably why I take the Devil's Timeline as interesting speculation but not much more.

But your main point is definitely a sticking point for me too.

Spitballing it, maybe they wanted to hide the nature of their relationship at first until they realized it was a gay-friendly set. But even then, why act like they don't know each other at all? They have a reasonable explanation for how they'd be acquainted: they met on DDU a year before. I'm not sure why they'd play coy.

Of course, behind the scenes industry stuff is always a wild card. We don't know what we don't know, and maybe gg and dd had a good reason to pretend they didn't know each other at all. I'm not well-versed enough in c-ent to even have a guess as to what that might be, but I assume it's possible.

At the same time, they later seem open about their relationship on set, even having couple fights and flirting while surrounded by cast and crew. So why hide things at the beginning?

I've been watching through some more of the daily bts on another playlist, and gg and dd act how I'd expect 2 reserved people to act on the first few days of working together. Of course, that's real subjective to assess, so somebody else could come away with a completely different impression of how they're acting. But, personally, I don't see anything that needs any explanation.

re: your second para: I'll probably go back to lurking. I have a primary tumblr acct that I use to lurk on a bunch of fandoms. I already followed the bjyx tags and a lot of the turtles on that acct before setting this up. I definitely plan to keep up with the boys, but I don't foresee posting that much in the future.

(I reserve the right to give in to my impulses and hunker down for the long-haul, though.)

I always get to a fandom late! I missed all the excitement when the bts first came out, but I still feel hype when I come across new-to-me stuff. I'm happy to enthuse with others!

[samueldays]

Sam Reviews: H. Beam Piper

I bought a fat collection of short stories and novels by H. Beam Piper, a sci-fi writer of the 50s and 60s. It holds up quite well, I think, as I reread the whole collection recently. There's a variety of content, from alien first contact to space-pirates and time travel, and a "thick" setting base for much of it with elements like carniculture or the veridicator that pop up in several stories without being the basis of one. Piper uses a pair of shared universes for many of his stories where you can see connections without needing to have read the previous. I think there's also less showing off wiseass references than in a lot of contemporary sci-fi, though I might simply have missed some.

The odd pair out is Graveyard of Dreams and its quasi-rewrite The Cosmic Computer, which belong to the first shared universe. Both books have the same start: Boy comes home to frontier colony planet after having studied at prestigious university in the core worlds, receives welcome as hometown hero, is now expected to solve planet's problems of being a run-down backwater after the space war, also find the allegedly war-winning supercomputer that's rumored to be located somewhere nearby and could be dug up like it's pirate treasure. Boy has learned at university the computer is probably imaginary, but it would break the community's hearts to tell them.

Graveyard takes the view that the population has been thinking too much in terms of blaming the war and hoping for the plot-device computer instead of doing anything, so the boy tells his dad the computer isn't real, and they start a conspiracy to reform the planet as part of the computer hunt: The computer might be on the moon, or another planet in the same solar system, so we'll need a spaceship. We can't search the whole planet in one go, so we'll need regular refueling and resupply and a spaceport here. We'll need radars and scanners and drones and other things bought from Earth, so we'll have to invite trade ships to our spaceport, and produce things to sell for Earth currency. Implementing the computer's economic plan once we find it will no doubt require infrastructure, which we should build up in advance. And so the colony gets better, ostensibly as part of looking for the computer.

Through all this, I never felt like Piper was dunking on people who put all their hopes and dreams in a problem-solving magic supercomputer, or on fellow sci-fi writers with their plot device computers. There's very little vitriol. Characters had simply built up their hopes too high. (If he had written it sixty years later, though, I might have thought it was a dunk on people going "crypto fixes this! put vegetables on the blockchain!")

The story is in one sense hard sci-fi, because it limits itself to realistic known capacities of computers, and in another sense, not sci-fi at all, because the computer is a pure McGuffin and the moral of the story is that people should work on solving their problems and improving their community instead of hoping for a McGuffin to fix everything.

The Cosmic Computer starts the same way with much the same plan, and a "salvage company" double-bluff that's supposedly supposedly for picking up other things while hiding the secret supercomputer, but supposedly actually for getting the computer, but actually just for looting abandoned military bases from the war as a way of revitalizing the economy.

Then they find the computer for real, and things get odd.

---

Uller Uprising is one of his earliest stories and the first I read that hinted at the specific timeline mentioned above, branching off from the era when he wrote, that did not come to pass but is an interesting speculation to read. The dating system is AE (Atomic Era), counting from 1942, when mankind first harnessed nuclear power. Most of the Northern Hemisphere nuked itself (or each other) in great power conflict in later world wars that timeline; the rebuilding of Earth and colonization of the stars was mostly done by Southern Hemisphere states such as South Africa and Argentina. The story features a pair of ships named Paul Kruger and Jan Smuts.

Oh for the South Africa that was! Piper saw a country that would reach for the stars once the US and SU had ground each other down. South Africa once had a nuclear power program. Now it can't keep the lights on. But I digress.

The scene for the Uprising is a Terran trading colony, in the 'colonialism' sense like the British India Company, on a world populated by aliens. Piper's aliens are polylithic*: among them is joy in prosperity, and resentment at colonists, and desire to learn, and factional infighting, variety "I want those fancy gadgets the Terrans have so I can crush my rival", and variety "I want to manipulate the Terrans into crushing my rival for me". They have personality of their own, rather then being mere foils or subjects of history. One can say that such infighting is the often the downfall of colonized people, but that begs the question of calling them "a people" in the first place, rather than two peoples who fought until they both lost to a third.

*I would have said "diverse" but that has other connotations these days.

There's an angry mob of Ullerians that's been inflamed into simply going out and murdering Terrans, and there's cunning Ullerians who have signed on for a term of work on Terran ships going to the uranium mines, to learn the secrets of nuclear power. There's also awful smut that's relevant in-universe. Quite good stuff.

---

Little Fuzzy is also set in the Atomic Era timeline. The Terran Federation is spreading across the stars, and on the planet Zarathustra, the prospector Jack Holloway stumbles across an odd creature:

He turned quickly to see two wide eyes staring up at him out of a ball of golden fur. Whatever it was, it had a round head and big ears and a vaguely humanoid face with a little snub nose. It was sitting on its haunches, and in that position it was about a foot high. It had two tiny hands with opposing thumbs.

He thinks it's cute, and adopts it to live in his house, and the critter brings its family, and he sees they're smart enough to use tools when eating some of the other local wildlife.

This raises a question of whether they're smart enough to count as native sapients and should have rights to the planet. We hear about the "talk and build a fire rule" which is the precedent of a future court case deciding that those two activities are sufficient proof of sapience, but not necessary for it, as shown in another court case when a woman murdered her infant baby and tried to plead that the baby couldn't talk nor build a fire, and was convicted of murder anyway.

Jack Holloway, of course, is all in favor of getting his cute adopted fuzzball recognized as sapient. The antagonist of the story is the Zarathustra Company which holds a Class-III legal charter for the settlement of an uninhabited planet; recognition of the Fuzzies would make it an inhabited Class-IV planet and void the corporate charter and make a lot of rich people lose a lot of money.

Again, there's a lack of dunking. The ZC is wrong, and commits crimes in an attempt to maintain its position, kidnapping the Fuzzies, fabricating evidence, and so forth. But I don't hear commie sneering from Piper as the ZC loses in court and one of its corrupt cops is put to a veridicator.

It's a very sci-fi piece of technology: an advanced mind-reading (brain-reading?) lie-detector helmet with the finesse to identify technically true but misleading statements.

There was a bright conical helmet on his head, and electrodes had been clamped to various portions of his anatomy. On the wall behind him was a circular screen which ought to have been a calm turquoise blue, but which was flickering from dark blue through violet to mauve. That was simple nervous tension and guilt and anger at the humiliation of being subjected to veridicated interrogation. Now and then there would be a stabbing flicker of bright red as he toyed mentally with some deliberate misstatement of fact.

---

The veridicator pops up again in Space Viking, farther in the future. The Terran Federation is disintegrating.

"Nifflheim, no! There aren't a dozen and a half planets in the Old Federation that still have hyperdrive, and they're all civilized. That's if 'civilized' is what Gilgamesh is," he added. "These are homemade barbarians. Workers and peasants who revolted to seize and divide the wealth and then found they'd smashed the means of production and killed off all the technical brains. Survivors on planets hit during the Interstellar Wars, from the Eleventh to the Thirteenth Centuries, who lost the machinery of civilization. Followers of political leaders on local-dictatorship planets. Companies of mercenaries thrown out of employment and living by pillage. Religious fanatics following self-appointed prophets."

The viking-esque privateers of the Sword Worlds are raiding the Federation worlds for loot and machinery and personnel to build anew on their own planets; this situation is already so far advanced that one character bemoans the Sword Worlds themselves sliding into decadence and barbarism as their best and brightest leave to outright conquer Federation worlds and live there. All this is the backdrop to a hunt for vengeance and a grudge to be settled between one Space Viking and another, which in the process results in taking over a world and becoming King, and watching another world collapse.

---

Some of the minor stories:

Naudsonce is about first contact with an alien species and the attempts to establish communication when the odd aliens make sounds, but do not seem to have language. They can gesture enough for trade, though, and sell off some of their spare livestock. The brass provisionally file it as Domesticated Type C. The enlisted men, wanting to discuss the barbecue, cut this down to "domsee" and the name sticks.

Lone Star Planet is rather comic: there's a planet settled by exaggerated Texans, the most Texan ones who wanted to live in Space Texas specifically, and they brought the Alamo with them on a spaceship. They breed dinosaur-like "supercows" on their ranches, their cowboys need tanks for herding the supercows and implicitly constitute small armies, and it's legal to kill politicians for the crime of attempted taxation. Our protagonist is a nervous new ambassador sent to this planet after his predecessor was killed, suspecting that his government wants him also killed as casus belli. (Partly inspired by H.L. Mencken's The Malevolent Jobholder.)

A Slave is a Slave concerns the imperialistic abolition of slavery on a planet where slavery has been the order of the day for so long that it's becoming an in-name-only matter: the "slaves" are the ones who operate everything important, while the "masters" spend their days in petty feuds with each other. The imperial potentate sent to oversee abolition is a first-timer, learning on the job how to administrate foreign planets. This does not go entirely smoothly.

Hunter Patrol is a time loop. A present-day soldier is drawn to the future to help overthrow a tyrant that has conquered the world and conditioned people into servile pacifism. Returning to his own time with a bit of loot and papers from the tyrant's office but without future memories of what they are or why, he uses the future knowledge to become rich and powerful, aims to establish world peace, and ironically becomes the tyrant murdered by his past self.

Null-ABC depicts a future where "Literate" has become a profession; most people aren't literate and look down on the concept. Instructions are usually pictographic, or you hire a Literate to read it for you. Data storage and messaging is commonly audio. TVs and videos are still around, naturally. This because Literacy is associated with propaganda pamphlets and hell-tomes like Mein Kampf and Das Kapital, and the four world wars they caused. This is the one story where I recall Piper does get in some cheap jokes, in the world news report of items such as,

"The Central Diplomatic Council of the Reunited Nations has just announced, for the hundred and seventy-eighth time, that the Arab-Israel dispute has been finally, definitely and satisfactorily settled."

unrelated to the plot of the story, which involves political strife about the status of Literates and literacy.

That joke has aged very well, I must say.

---

Piper's second shared universe set of stories is the Paratime collection. In a future without interstellar travel, as Earth's resources run dry, mankind has instead developed the technology of visiting alternate timelines and parallell universe Earths. On the uninhabited ones, futuremen mine resources directly; on the inhabited ones, futuremen buy from the local miners.

This gives the protagonists reason to get involved pretty much anywhere in history or alt-history as they have to cover up the Paratime Secret, or stop a time crime, or catch the Venusian Nighthound that some dumbass let loose in a 1950s America before the cops ask too many questions about the unusually mutilated cattle. It is a really great Excuse Plot for whatever time period, technological level, and/or cultural group the author feels like writing about today.

It could easily have stopped there, and become a series of disconnected anecdotes and shiny distractions, but Piper executes it well and gives it context. Home Timeline has people and places and customs and strife, although some of the bits feel clunky to me.

Tortha Karf fingered them and nodded. Then he became as visibly angry as a man of his civilization and culture-level ever permitted himself. "What does that fool think we have a Paratime Code for?" he demanded. "It's entirely illegal to transport any extraterrestrial animal or object to any time-line on which space-travel is unknown. I don't care if he is a green-seal thavrad; he'll face charges, when he gets back, for this!"

It's very hard to make future ranks sound appropriately important while staying foreign, and "green-seal thavrad" falls short, IMO. (Also clunky: "We'll blow them to Em-See-Square!" elsewhere in Piper's writing.)

Most of the Paratime protagonists are time cops of some sort, though with a major exception: Calvin Morrison, a man from our time's America, gets sucked up in the wake of a paratime travel vehicle. Falling into a timeline where America was colonized by an eastward Indo-Aryan migration and the technology level is late medieval, he becomes Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen, protagonist of his own novel by the same name and several sequels by Piper's peers.

(A time cop stops by to check whether the Paratime secret has been leaked, and is very satisfied that Calvin has told everyone "a wizard did it" and is helping to keep the secret.)

In this alternate timeline, America is divided into kingdoms worshipping the Wolf-God and the Sky-Father and the Earth-Mother and other interpretations of ancient Aryan deities as filtered through 1950s historiography and then cultural drift as imagined by Piper, which makes it an interesting sort of foreign place. But the supreme god of the time is Styphon, whose priesthood alone holds the secret of making fireseed (gunpowder). This monopoly is the main source of their power, and Calvin is about to break it.

The plot outline "Contemporary man falls into the past/fantasy world and introduces gunpowder" has been recycled a thousand times by worse writers, and I wonder how many of them would trace their literary ancestry back to Piper if we could see who they'd copied. I know it's more than zero: like with Journey to the West but less famous, reading Lord Kalvan made several things click into place as I recognized elements other authors had been copy-pasting that made sense in the original but were weirdly out-of-place in the flimsy knockoffs. Literary cargo cult.

---

In closing, Piper was an original writer, and I recommend his stories.

No man is entirely original, one can locate him easily in the late golden age of American scifi with peers and influences, but he stands out to me as the sort of person that others were copying a great deal. Lord Kalvan I mentioned above, the Sword-Worlds of Space Viking went right into the Traveller RPG, Little Fuzzy was rebooted by John Scalzi as Fuzzy Nation, Star Trek's "tribbles" were originally "fuzzies" before Legal got involved, the Paratime series was an inspiration for Charles Stross's Merchant Princes, the list goes on.

And it looks to me, as with several other of my favorite and respected authors, that this is partly because he could draw on a wide set of life experiences outside of the incestuous 'literary class'. (Vague, I know.) He worked on the railroad, he studied engineering, he collected firearms and helped compile a collection of archaic ones. His short story Omnilingual turns on the fact that science has a shared true referent: the Periodic Table of the Martians must refer to the same elements as on Earth, and so the long-dead Martians' language is deciphered.

I might say: he was a shape rotator. :-)

[lo-fi-charming]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

got tagged by @milkteamoon! ^^

1. How many works do you have on Ao3? // 176!

2. What’s your total Ao3 word count? // 866,977

3. What fandoms do you write for? // Mainly TMA the last few years; previously, I wrote a lot of OPM fic. I'd say those are easily my two 'biggest' fandoms in terms of being actively involved and writing fic for them. I'll also write fic of other things I enjoy though, so I have a lot of one-shots and short series for other things too!

4. What are your top five fics by kudos? // Sticking with TMA fic for this one, so:

What Lies Beyond the Frame (rated G, jmart) — A minor AU where I give Jon a new Beholding power, letting him see through his glasses when he's not wearing them. One of my earliest works for the fandom! I'm actually surprised to find it at the top of this list.

off-the-clock assistance (rated E, jmart) — An AOB fic taking place during the iconic Martin Living In The Archives era. I wrote this after realizing that other TMA smut fics had taught me I actually DO enjoy fisting as a concept, lol.

The Kissing Game (rated T, jmart) — A lighthearted, Christmas-y fic where Jon, Tim, and Sasha get into a competitive little holiday game of trying to catch Martin under the mistletoe. This one was very fun to write and I quite like how I ultimately wrapped it up.

A Friendly Favor (rated E, martim) — An AU where Tim and Martin are friends with benefits! I used to be very into martim when I first got into the fandom... I do still enjoy them, but we all know where my main focus/energy ultimately started going hehe. This one ended up developing into a tiny series of fics in the same setting.

Sizing Up (rated E, jmart) — Wherein Jon discovers that Martin is a size queen. This one was based off a stupid little comic I drew and is probably the closes I've gotten to writing a 'crack fic', though I wouldn't call it that - it's more in terms of the Energy I brought to writing it? Just doing something with a very silly base concept but taking it (mostly) seriously.

5. Do you respond to comments? // I do sometimes, if I feel like I have anything worth saying! Sometimes I'll respond with a simple 'thank you' or variation thereof if someone says something particularly nice though ;w;

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? // Kind of a difficult question honestly... I don't really write 'angsty' endings to my fic, even if they do have a darker tone or a lot of angst in the middle somewhere; I'm not really a hurt-no-comfort guy. I also think it's hard to say whether an ending is angsty because it can kinda depend on the perspective of the character(s) and I'd say generally, when I'm doing things as I intended, even if the ending is a bit dark, that doesn't ring as angsty to me?

If I HAD to choose one... maybe when the dream ends, a very old, Sans-centric Undertale fic I wrote where he experiences disorienting dissociation and deja vu of other timelines post-pacifist ending. It has a hopeful conclusion, but still leans heavily on his feelings of detachment, vague depression, and anxiety from feeling like everything around him is impermanent and repetitive.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? // Hm, approaching this in terms of fic where the happiness of the end feels earned, that'd probably go to The Taste of Midnight, my witch!Jon AU fic where he has to save his town from a disastrous force (with Martin's help). The final chapter, once the plot is resolved, is very idyllic and fluffy - a nice, pleasant conclusion for all the dramatic stuff that happened!

8. Do you get hate on fics? // I've gotten hate on a fic ONCE, as far as I can remember! It was for Deep V (rated E), a fic where Jon is trans and has dysphoric feelings about his chest, but decides he wants to try improving his relationship to it via kink. I made the mistake of openly asking for feedback on it when I posted it, and one of the more well-known assholes in the fandom (which I would learn after the fact), left a very nasty comment on it basically scolding me for even having written/shared it in the first place. Luckily I got a lot of useful advice and more friendly feedback/encouragement from much cooler people in the fandom, which was very nice and helped keep my feelings towards the fic largely positive! A harrowing but imo good learning experience in the end.

9. Do you write smut? // Yup! I have for a long time. It's generally my favorite kind of fic to read as well as write, though my tastes have been refining the last couple of years. I could write a whole big thing on my feelings about smut fic but I'll refrain this time!

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written? // I don't think I've ever written a crossover fic! Right now, the closest I've gotten is vaguely contributing too (and loudly supporting the creation of) a Murderbot/Among Us fic my roomie started a year or two ago. Which I need to continue yelling at them to publish... hehe.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? // Boy I sure hope not!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? // Yes, actually! Someone asked for permission to translate my OPM fic The Apron (rated E) into Russian! This is wild to me.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? // Yes, I'm actually co-writing one now with my friend V! It's an edited version of a long-going Jondaisy RP called Open Door (rated E). It's been a fun (if slow-going) project; it's an interesting challenge to go through an RP where we're each playing one character's part and try to edit it into a state that makes it more natural to read for others.

14. What’s your all time favorite ship? // Jon/Daisy!!!! You might want to call recency bias, but they are simply Everything To Me that I've ever needed in a ship, actually, it's kind of insane how much of a hold they've taken over me. I look back on my older ships and I enjoy them all very much, but nothing hits the way jaisy does. I fear nothing else ever will... they're my true OTP...

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? // I have quite a few... A lot that I really want to go back to... Probably my most ambitious and least likely would be And Only Space Stood Between Them, which is an unfinished Oban Star Racers fic that would've involved interplanetary space travel, worldbuilding for a planet and alien species that was only VERY lightly explored in the anime, two protagonists/alternating POVs, a huge cast of supporting characters, an overarching plot amidst a star-racing competition, and a developing friendship/romance(?) between Eva and Aikka. I had SUPER big aspirations for it, and only got to the 4th chapter, when Eva first leaves Earth to head for his home planet. In a perfect world I would write this space epic..... It is my dear wish that... maybe someday...................

16. What are your writing strengths? // I've been told I'm good at writing in-character, which I greatly appreciate as feedback and dearly hope is true. I personally think I'm actually pretty decent at naturalistic dialogue, which I often hear is a difficult aspect of writing for folks. I think I'm generally good at pacing too, and I'd like to say that descriptive imagery is a solid strength of mine, though that's an element of writing often subject to taste...

17. What are your writing weaknesses? // I have no idea if it's a real weakness but I often get self-conscious about my writing being boring or repetitive or trite or something, despite people telling me this isn't the case when I've asked. I think it's just a case of, despite how long I've been writing, I'm still relatively young and have a lot to learn; I'm still finding my confidence in my unique voice and what I'm good at.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? // At the moment I only feel comfortable dabbling with the inclusion of Spanish, and only because I've been actively trying to learn it for a year. Even then, I basically only use it if I'm writing something with canonically Spanish-speaking characters. As a reader, it's something I really like to encounter when done well! Especially as a way to explore a diverse headcanon for a character.

19. First fandom you wrote for? // Pokemon!

20. Favorite First fic you’ve written? // (I actually misread this question, then decided to keep my first answer, because I'm so bad at picking a favorite fic! Honestly!)

Anyways, in terms of my first fic: it was a Pokemon fic with no main title. It's about a girl named Kim with a Charmander starter. She visits a pokemon center after adopting an abandoned and injured Growlithe, only to realize the center has been infiltrated by Team Rocket, who attempt to steal the Pokemon being healed there. I have an original, printed version of this fic in my stuff somewhere! I've daydreamed about making a comic out of it while keeping all the original narration/dialogue.

Okay, now I tag my dear friends. Obvs only do this if you want to~

@temporalreplicsimile , @callmearcturus, @zykaben, @ostentenacity

[babyspacebatclone]

I’ve been meaning to get something like this done for a bit, and this post from @my-autism-adhd-blog gave me the nudge to type it out.

I’m keeping it here in my own post, though, to not clog their notes too much. 😅

I’m sure anyone with an invisible illness or neurodivergence has had to come up against the idea of “Well, back in my day, no one ever had [very real problem you are suffering from], we just bucked up and deal with life!”

Oh, really?

Do you [theoretical irritating naysayer] know when the term anaphylaxis was coined?

You know, “hypersensitivity (as to foreign proteins or drugs) resulting from sensitization following prior contact with the causative agent”?

The potentially fatal reaction where people can lose the ability to breathe? A very real, repeatedly proven reality for a large segment of the population?

It was created in 1905.

(I’d go into more about the individual who named it, but he also subscribed to a lot of the worst fields of thought in the early 20th century and therefore we shall move on.)

On the other hand, we have writings explicitly referencing horse allergies from the turn of BCE to CE (one of the sons of Roman Emperor Claudius), among others.

What we now recognize as Seasonal Allergies have been identified around the 16th century, under names like “rose catarrh” (as in, a believed reaction to roses, most likely a reaction to the pollen of other plants during their blooming season) and “summer asthma” (asthma being used as a general term for an ability to breathe).

What fascinates me is the end of the 18th century, where

Seasonal allergic rhinitis was now often observed and recognized. The term “hay fever” replaced “rose cold.” Physicians believed seasonal allergies were an aristocratic disease because it was most commonly diagnosed among the upper class. (emphasis mine, taken from document described below)

Huh, I wonder why upper class people would be the ones most diagnosed with seasonal allergies? I wonder what myriad of reasons could lead the financially secure to seek out personal aide for non-debilitating but extremely uncomfortable symptoms?

Not the least of which being a lifestyle which allows it to be merely non-debilitating.

Anyway….

At some point I want to fully read this summary of the book Ancestors of Allergy edited by F. Estelle R. Simons (as getting my hands on the text itself would be more effort than it’s worth for me personally). What I’ve skimmed thus far is fascinating.

Here’s a timeline from those 16th century misclassifications of seasonal allergies to the present understanding of allergic reactions (as the source from that one quote from above):

It’s humbling to see the development of understanding and acceptance towards a medical condition we take existing for granted nowadays.

On the other hand, the length of time it took to clarify these experiences when they have indisputable physical symptoms (if sometimes difficult to identify triggers) can be disheartening when we thing about where the scientific community currently is regarding mental health, neurodivergence, and invisible illnesses.

But my main take away in this review of the history of allergies:

It was never new. It had always been there, people had always suffered from it. The only things that changed were the public perception of the condition and the treatments afforded to people struggling under things other people dismiss.

@my-autism-adhd-blog ‘s post about dismissive attitudes towards neurodivergence, specifically Autism and ADHD, which reminded me I wanted to share this all with my pocket friends and anyone it breaks containment for.

[readyfreddy]

Ok a question: is the bad grade because you're missing so many assignments that the 0s are stacking up, or is it because of a series of poor grades?

Because for the first one, ask for an incomplete and give them a TIMELINE on which you will complete the work over eg summer (like 1 assignment a week or sth, nothing super intense just to prove that you're actually going to do it) and maybe also offer to meet with them regularly/send them email updates regularly while you're working on their work (again to prove you won't ghost them and will actually finish the class).

The second one, you could try to ask them to bend the syllabus for you. Definitely tell them how much they mean to you as a prof and how much you like their class, but also just express the difficulty you've been having honestly (tbh just like the first two lines in quotes in your post) and maybe see if they will let you maybe do something to your grade advantage, like take a final essay grade or final exam grade in place of your average if it's higher.

I don't know what your relationship with them is or your other needs, but you could also ask to retake the class with lower demand (like attending lectures you feel you need to and not the ones you don't need over again) or ask for maybe an independent study class to help with their research or something to help raise your overall GPA if the course grade doesn't matter as much in the grand scheme.

Sorry for the rambling in your inbox 😅 I live surrounded by academics so it's kind of the stuff I hear about all the time and this seemed less wierd then DMing idk? Uh I hope this helps and isn't like intensely overstepping 😅

All good and I genuinely appreciate your imput <3 Inbox or DM work equally as well for me :)

I've handed everything in on time but have a series of 50's and below :( , and I don't really have a relationship with him beyond discussion my academic accommodations. I'm aiming for pharmacy school, but at that becomes less of a reality every single day (or at least what it feels like). I have other options that I'd be happy with, but as of right now, pharmacy school is a big goal of mine.

I ended up sending him an email, that he'll likely see Monday morning, my email (w/o identifying features) is below the cut:

I have enjoyed your class thoroughly and have learnt a lot. Despite what it looks like on paper, I am trying my best and working hard to succeed in this course. 

This term has been incredibly difficult for me as I have been balancing two jobs,  handful of extracurriculars, as well as dealing with an out of province parent who is becoming increasingly disabled as time progresses and doing extensive research regarding their condition. It is hard to ignore that there is a lot going on in my life and I am trying to keep a lot of different areas of my life in control, even if those matters are completely beyond my control. 

As a result, this has taken a major toll on my mental health. What I was once able to successfully manage has now become near debilitating. I have used some of the on-campus resources, and they have made a noticeable difference. One of my lab instructors has already expressed concern regarding my mental health and have taken some small actions to help me.

I’ve been able to go to all your classes; however, I have found it hard to focus and retain information, even if I am taking notes and engaging in classroom discussion. 

I know that it is very late in the term, and there is very little that can be done while still maintaining fairness to all students. If there is anything that can be done, please let me know at your earliest convenience. Unfortunately, I will not be able to attend your office hours this upcoming Monday,  I am aiming to be there around 9:30 on Wednesday. If these times do not work for you, please let me know and we can discuss a time that works best for both of us.

[holocene-sims]

Nos. 7 and 10 for whichever Sims you please, please?

thank you so much!! ❤️🫶

7. what's one way your OC has changed since you first came up with them?

so, fun fact about grandma aoife 😬

in the original earliest pre-simblr universe of grant and his family's story, grandma aoife was actually DEAD, in addition to his sister elizabeth.

i did change my mind about it pre-simblr as well but not that long before. i decided that was a bit too much trauma for grant lmfao and re-alived aoife. also, i just felt like it would be way more interesting in terms of lore and relationships to keep the beloved family matriarch around longer, and she's ended up growing a lot as a character since then. there's no way i could kill her off again now!

oh! and when i was still doing my first "draft" of her life, she was supposed to have become a florist in her later life instead of a baker, but i changed my mind on that, too, because i know more about baking than flowers lolz

10. what's an AU that would be interesting to explore with your OC?

you know, i LOVE a good historical story, so i've always thought it'd be fascinating to put grant in his grandparents' shoes and have him be the immigrant in an AU. i would definitely change the timeline, though, for him and have it occur during the peak of irish immigration to america.

the reason i think it'd be fascinating is because (1) he would obviously react in a different manner to the circumstances and (2) he's far more educated than his grandparents, so you'd get an entirely different look at immigration. he'd be something like a doctor (which is what his parents wanted him to be in his real universe) vs. a farmer or craftsman turned factory worker, which implies a lot of opposite motivations and experiences.

ANYWAY NOW FOR A LESS SPECIFIC IDEA

idk i kind of love the idea of grant as a teacher in an AU. i have a soft spot for "teacher x single parent" AUs in fanfic for whatever reason and i think grant fits into that concept perfectly!

[changelingsandothernonsense]

A very special comb.

Considering the very recent announcement coming from Tel Lachish I thought I’d write a little about what this discovery means in terms of the history of writing in the Near East, and Canaan specifically.

In the 2016 June-July archaeological season an ivory comb was discovered and put into storage (standard practice, it takes years to go through finds). It was only re-examined recently, and an inscription was found, the inscription, a spell of protection against lice was possibly written circa 1700 BCE. The inscription reads "May this tusk root out the lice of the hair and the beard.” The teeth of the comb even had the remains of lice nymphs, this comb was used for the purpose given.

But that, whilst cool is not why we are so excited.

What makes this comb particularly special is what language this inscription was written in, and the proposed date.

The comb (if this date is correct) is the oldest example of the Proto-Sinaitic script, it is also the earliest full sentence of this writing system found in Israel. This writing system has so few examples that it is a running joke whenever the “Australians” join a dig that we will write the alphabet on a rock and joke about it being the greatest find ever. It was one of the jokes pulled by a friend of mine at this exact dig.

Now we seemingly not only have proof that this was more than a few letters and names that Canaanites were playing around with at the time, but we now have a solid example of Canaanites using their own alphabet in daily life during the Middle Bronze Age in Canaan proper, a time where the most prevalent script was Akkadian Cuneiform.

The timeline for Proto-Sinaitic script is not well established (very few examples of this script exist, and nothing from the early phases) but the consensus is that this script was invented by Canaanites in Egypt circa 1800 BCE. However, there are some doubts as to whether the script really arose in Egypt, or the Hyksos homeland. What we do know is this alphabet, the first in existence and the basis for our current writing system, was greatly influenced by Egyptian hieroglyphics. We only had a few words, and a few letters dating from this early period, the thought was that, because most of the substantial examples of the Proto-Sinaitic script date from the 13 century BCE onwards, that it was not really used prior to the early Iron Age, after the Akkadian Cuneiform writing system went into disuse due to the Bronze Age collapse. Anything before the 13th century BCE is either poor in quality or removed from its original context (makes dating the text harder). All pre 13th century BCE inscriptions were single letters or words.

Enter Tel Lachish and this ivory louse comb, Lachish was a major city state during the Second Millennium BCE and is where most of these Proto-Sinaitic inscriptions were found, if any writing dating earlier than the Iron Age exists, it’s at this site. The existence of this comb, found at the highest point of the site (where you typically find both public buildings and elite homes) tells us that firstly, Lachish was importing ivory from Egypt and making these combs in the same style as those found during the Second Intermediate Period (the comb is double sided as opposed to the more traditional Canaanite one sided comb), and that our scribe was not great at writing in a confined space. The letters are increasingly smaller and more squished as they go along. It also suggests that the wealthy were learning to write their own language in their own script, alongside Akkadian Cuneiform.

The comb being used for lice removal tells us that Canaanites were using their own language and their own writing system at home at least for ritual purposes, something we also see in Egyptian and Hittite cities, and its use may have been more commonplace than initially though. From what we know about our Iron Age examples, Proto-Sinaitic script was mostly written on perishable materials with ink (Lachish is moist as anything and the soil is incredibly fertile, not a great preserver of papyri or ink).

Why is this important? Akkadian Cuneiform was the major form of international writing during the Middle to Late Bronze Age and was used from Babylonia to Egypt, Canaan to Anatolia, and all the way to Iran. The Amarna Letters, a collection of correspondence between the pharaohs of the late 18th Dynasty and their Canaanite constituents were written in this international script, a script mostly written with a reed stylus on clay or carved into stone stele. The thought that Canaanites may have had two writing systems makes a lot of sense when you take this international correspondence into context, Egypt won’t write to Canaanite kings in hieroglyphs or hieratic script, Hittites won’t communicate using Luwian cuneiform of hieroglyphs, those are specifically liturgical languages.

What this find tells us if the 1700 BCE date is true (the layer it was found in has an Early Iron Age date, which complicates everything), is that Canaanites were using their own alphabet for ritual purposes at least 400 years earlier than what we initially thought.