#but its not necessarily like. idk; what /I/ would be thinking of in reference to like [western] cartoon style??

[sundial-bee-scribbles]

ME ASK U THE 21TH QUESTIONS

21. Art styles nothing like your own but you like anyways

hard one to answer b/c 1) i don't even know what exactly what category my art style would fall in, so therefore i don't necessarily know what would be the opposite of it? 2) idk how to properly categorize art styles in general or like the names and stuff [aside from like generic umbrella categories]

its kinda basic[???] but i do def have admiration for the rubberhose cartoon style, and/or also like that sort of early western 2000s cartoon style?? really exaggerated expressions and fun dynamic poses that sort of break proper logic but LOOK really fun and expressive in general, i wish i could do smthn like that lolll

there's also just some art styles that i feel are more soft and "rounded" ig?? i have no idea if that makes sense but those are sometimes interesting to look at too, i feel personally my art style's very like pointy/sharp? so i feel like i struggle w/ trying to make smthn softer w/ rounded edges and cutesier? (like best example i'd be able to think of is making like chibis. i suck at those 😭)

i have mixed feelings on [photo?]realism, and idk if this necessarily correlates w/ that but for a really niche one: vintage woodcut/lithograph illustrations (basically the really scratchy sorta ones you'd see in like really old books or newspapers?) are so fascinating to me, especially more so considering the medium but i also just like how they look its very interesting... not sure how to describe it properly b/c there's also quite some variation but it just looks so coolll

weirdly specific artist asks

[daenystheedreamer]

Valyrian Pantheon Headcanons

We know the names of 5 of the Valyrian gods and that's it. We don't know anything about the practices or even what those gods were patrons of. Here is my headcanon reconstruction of the pantheon ^_^

I think the Fourteen Flames (the volcanoes) are named for fourteen gods who constitute the main pantheon, similar to the 12 Greek Olympians or the 12 Roman Dei Consentes. There are many minor gods, usually personifications of concepts like seasons/emotions.

I imagine them like Egyptian gods, who are personified sometimes as humans, sometimes as animals, sometimes as animal-headed humanoids. I imagine the main fourteen as dragons, though idk how silly that would look lol.

I think they were also androgynous gods. Why? That's fun. That's so fun. Dragons are theorised to be hermaphroditic/intersex who can change their sex at will, but also are referred to as she-dragons if they are confirmed to lay clutches of eggs. So some of these gods are gods, and some are goddesses, despite being a-gender

Canonical Gods

BALERION: I believe Balerion's name is at least a little inspired by Ba'al, an ancient Semitic god who was very important to the religions of the region (Canaan, Babylon, etc) and features as a false god in the Hebrew bible. I think he's the King of the gods, like Zeus. God of war or fire or conquest or all of the above. Many ancient gods shifted their patronage and powers.

VHAGAR: Consort of Balerion, similar to Hera. Goddess of war/wisdom, similar to Athena. I think this fits a person like Visenya.

MERAXES: Perhaps a concubine of Balerion? Like how Zeus had thousands of lovers. Metis, Leto, Demeter, etcetera. Goddess of love, because Rhaenys seems like a woman who enjoyed love and life. Perhaps also a goddess of marriage?

SYRAX: It's gotta be someone Rhaenyra would think is cool. Perhaps a goddess of the sun/moon? Another war goddess? A queen? Actually, perhaps Syrax is the Hera of the pantheon, while Vhagar is not necessarily virginal like Athena but 'unmarried' so to speak. Goddess of beauty/wealth would also fit Rhaenyra. Goddess of the sun or moon would be fun in opposition to Sunfyre.

BOASH: called 'The Blind God' Mentioned as the god the Lorathi worship, whose religious followers (dissidents of the Valyrian Freehold) founded the city of Lorath. The name doesn't follow the typical Valyrian naming traditions, perhaps he was originally Boax/Boaxes? Would be fun. He's a very esoteric god connected to 'higher truths', the priests are eunuchs and the followers are vegetarian teetotalers and a main tenant is that everyone is equal. They also wear hair shirts which is an old Christian practice. I think he's a version of a Valyrian death god

the BLACK GOAT: Whose followers founded Qohor. I think he's a minor god, perhaps of magic or agriculture even, agricultural deities tend to be very important to common folk. However the goat imagery evokes Satan and Baphomet, so I think a villainous or death deity would be fun.

Non-canonical gods

A lot of the Targ dragons are given names with similar naming style to the canonical god dragons.

VERMITHOR & VERMAX: The naming conventions of Vermax and Vermithor intrigue me... I think one is the name of the God and one is a theophoric name in reference to the god. Perhaps a god of justice, law, order, etc, since they were the dragons of Jaehaerys and Jacaerys and I can see them picking that kind of God.

ARRAX: Lucerys names his dragon this, so I think a coming-of-age god or god of youths would be fun since he, yknow, got eated at 14.

CARAXES: This is Daemon's dragon so I'm saying Caraxes is the Dionysus/Hermes trickster god. Daemon picking the bacchanalian drunk sex god for his dragon is real to me.

MELEYS: Rhaenys TQWNW's dragon. Rhaenys gives off SUCH demeter vibes idk so agricultural god would be fun but idk i don't think she'd pick something like that. Perhaps its based off of Meraxes since Rhaenys is her namesake. Perhaps an oceanic or weather-based god.

MORGHUL: Morghul is simply the word for death in High Valyrian e.g. 'Valar Morghulis', but I like it as a euphemistic name for a God of death. Like his name is so tabboo that you just refer to him as death, or he's just named death in relation to afterlife, like how Hades refers to both the god and the underworld. I think perhaps Boash and the Black Goat are actually interpretations/aspects of the same deity, perhaps a death - morghul - god.

SHRYKOS: Sick name sorry just had to say that. He's Jaehaerys (son of Helaegon)'s dragon. got no clue what he could be a god of cos jaehaerys is a plot device character. I think he's just a cool Valyrian word, like Morghul, since Jaehaerys and Jaehaera are twins. Be fun if they picked life/death dichotomy for their dragons :p

TERRAX: ridden by the pre-doom character Jaenara Belaerys, who flew further south in Sothoryos than anyone else. God(dess) of travel/wisdom/conquest/oceans would be fun since she's a traveller who flew across oceans and sort of exemplifies the Valyrian conquest/adventurer spirit.

TESSARION: Okay the blue queen has to be a goddess of the ocean or the sky<3

TYRAXES: Joffrey's dragon :) I think a god of animals would be cute also cos he sounds like T-rex. I would name my dragon T-rex. Possibly a bastardisation of Terrax though...

URRAX: This is the name of a legendary/fairytale dragon from the story of Serwyn and Daeryssa from the Age of Heroes. By Daeryssa's naming convention and the fact she is mentioned only in AGOT, I think she was perhaps supposed to be a Targaryen before GRRM had established a full history. I think he's just a bastardisation of perhaps a Valyrian god like Arrax.

So my vision of the Valyrian pantheon includes Balerion, Vhagar, Meraxes, Syrax, Vermithor, Arrax, Caraxes, Terrax, Tessarion, which is 9 gods

plus Meleys and Tyraxes who I'm not sure if I want to be referring to above gods or just the name of a god entirely, which makes 11

Adding a death god (Boash, Black Goat, Moghul) makes 12,

which leaves another two unnamed for my personal idea of a Valyrian pantheon :)

[bozepomagaj]

ATINY/MOA/CARATS vs Made in Abyss was the last thing I expected and its hilarious

feel like I need to say something since twitter absolutely loves spreading misinfo and just accusing people of shit, how have you people not LEARNED your lesson yet? Since when is twitter such a trusted source, especially gossip accounts?

And before you braindead stans start calling me a d!ckrider, I promise you I do not care about these men cuz I've got better things to focus on and I'm making this because people are overreacting and it's getting annoying. It's so obvious 90% of you haven't watched the anime (and thats completely fine, I get you) and then ended up listening to someone who made stuff up and overexaggerated. I'm not here to defend the author because I hate him as much as you do and can absolutely recognize the dude is into some weird shit but saying people are ONLY interested in this series because of r@pe and p€dophilia is INSANE. So let me answer some questions as a Made an Abyss reader (not calling myself a fan because you'll catch me DEAD before you see me buying any merch or manga despite my love for the series), kpop fan second.

Does Made In Abyss contain p3d0ph1l1c themes, gore etc.?

There absolutely is because the author is a creep (refering to the nsfw however, most of the times it's very easily skippable. As someone who hates l0l1con cuz it creeps me out, I can tell you that I really didn't have a hard time skipping said scenes even in the manga which is far more explicit than the anime (Prushka asking about Bond's 'stick', Faputa looking into Regs pants, Vueko's weird comments) and sometimes, they're even added as extras (0.5 chapters) which certain sites that contain scans don't even include. I didn't even know about the existence about a few of these chapters BECAUSE they don't include them.

The OVA is a nightmare to watch and was not only unfunny but creepy as fuck especially when they try to boil down such an amazing character like Ozen into 'I like seeing little kids in pain'. Now I have no idea if this was made independently but I don't remember the author making any spin-offs that they could base this on so I can't tell you who wrote it but even then I doubt that the author minded it since the man himself had to include that Faputas behind smells like the 'Sun' so again, not here to defend him cuz he most definitely is a weirdo, no doubt about it.

Is Made in Abyss torture p*rn?

If MiA is torture p*rn then AoT is military propaganda and supports child labor, TPN is also torture p*rn, JJK promotes violence, Berserk excuses r*pe and Evangelion is also p*do bait. See how stupid that sounds? Just because an anime INCLUDES something, does not mean it necessarily supports it. Yes, r*pe is mentioned but it's not even SHOWN, and it's a cruical part of a characters backstory. The torture that happens, happens only once if we exclude Riko's 'experiment' at the very beginning of the manga. And Mitty's transformation can't even be classified as torture cuz it's a.... transformation. Prushka's death is very censored so its not like you can jack off to that anyways. Now the piss thing is something I have noticed but haven't really payed attention it because bffr why the hell would I so idk, maybe the author is trying to tell us something or the guy thinks pee pee poo poo funny🤷‍♀️.

Is there any plot besides the weird stuff?

See now this is the part that gets me most because the reason why a majority of people nowadays got into MiA in the first place is BECAUSE of the amazing plot. The world building, the mystery, the fight scenes, etc. It's amazingly drawn, nicely paced and unique in its own way. But of course, it's manga&anime and what's anime without fanservice? I already explained that in manga, said scenes can be easily skipped and the anime thankfully doesn't include a lot of these. I do have to admit thag I dropped the manga for now since the chapter where they were in a bath cuz it was another one of those 'here we go again' moments where it made me roll my eyes and just close the tab so I don't really know what's been happening recently and if things go weirder.

I'm also gonna tell you honestly that yes, the fandom is filled with sweaty dudebros itching to see these kids half naked and the author is aware of them and pondering to them because he too is one of them. But a large majority is back from when the anime originally came out and are mostly hiding on twitter so it's easy to avoid them and they've been pretty rare ever since people with actual interest in the series have begun watching it. A reason why back in the day I didn't wanna interact with the fandom at ALL was because the moment I tried to have a normal conversation about the plot and what might actually be going on, I instead get bombarded with "UWAAAA😭😭😭" and 'c*nny' comments. I also cannot defend and don't even plan on defending the fact that Faputa is pretty much naked the entire series. I get that she lives in the literal wilderness, but the very least you could do is put a cloth on her y'know. And mind you, I'm talking about the manga. The anime is a LOT more heavily censored, and from what I heard, even MORE censored in Korea.

To sum it up:

Do I think Mingi/Soobin/Woozi are p*dos cuz they watched the anime? Absolutely the fuck not. Considering Mingi is a big CSM fan, I can see why he watched Made in Abyss because I was in that same pipeline. I think some of you are going way too far with these comments, if you wanna call them weird, creepy, wanna unstan them for reading stuff like this go ahead, not gonna stop because in the end no one can but accusing people of crimes isn't funny and never will be. If they were exposed for watching shit like Kodomo no Jikan then that most definitely IS eyebrow raising. Maybe I'm slightly biased due to me only enjoying MiA for the plot so seeing people say the fans are p3d0s when the first time I watched this was when I was freshly 15.... yeah idk abt that one. Whether they liked the weird and questionable scenes, I have zero idea I'm just here to say that you can enjoy said anime without being a weirdo and you shouldn't begin jumping to conclusions and start calling people straight up criminals. If anyone wants to have a productive conversation and ask questions abt said anime cuz I doubt you're gonna go watch an anime over a Twitter drama, go ahead and ask. If you wanna insult me and call me a d!ckrider then go ahead and do that too, who am I to stop you?

[queer-reader-07]

op could you elaborate on the she/her muriel thing. because i totally get what you mean but i find it so hard to articulate why... its just like. mmmmm. canon they/them character. but you wont respect their prns. but then again i enjoy when people get genderwierd w the ineffable spouses. would you respect my prns if you cant even respect a fictional character. is that the same thing. idk.

hi anon! i'll try best to elaborate, but apologies in advance if it comes off a bit... intense?

to give some context to my words:

i am nonbinary

i am afab

my pronouns are they/them

most everyone with the exception of close friends and people on the internet misgender me with she/her pronouns because they perceive me as a woman.

i think the root of it for me is that muriel has no experience interacting with earth, let alone humans, before they're sent down to be Inspector Constable. and because they have no experience with humans, they most definitely have very little context for the human construct that is gender. muriel's pronouns are they/them because those are the default gender neutral pronouns in english. muriel (like the other angels and demons) is referred to with they/them pronouns because, for all intents and purposes, they don't have gender.

whereas aziraphale and crowley (and even gabriel to a certain extent) have interfaced with humanity enough to have developed some level of understanding regarding gender, and possibly even an understanding of what they want their gender to be/be perceived as.

additionally, crowley and aziraphale play with gender in a way that feels very intentional to me.

crowley has canonically, in the show, presented femme. meta writers far more skilled than me have examined how, during the crucifixion scene, crowley is very obviously dressed more like the women in the background than the men. and it's not just in the historical flashbacks that we see crowley's genderfuckery. his modern look is comprised of a combination of femme and masc pieces. he wears a woman's cut waistcoat and his "11 years ago" look features women's sunglasses. all while inhabiting a decidedly man-shaped body.

i'm also just going to remind the audience that crowley outright denies being "a lad" in season 2. he straight up told us he's not A Dude.

aziraphale's genderfuckery is definitely less obvious and some might say debatable. that being said, i would make the argument that aziraphale's tendency to dress and present in a way that results in him being almost universally perceived as not only A Gay Man, but an effeminate gay man at that, is a quintessential example of gender as performance. and i do believe that aziraphale is making a very conscious and deliberate choice to present as a gay man. for fuck's sake he calls himself THE Southern Pansy, he knows what he's doing.

also, i know it didn't actually happen, but we almost got both of them presenting femme in the 60s so like. there's that too.

so, to me, it's ok to fuck around with crowley and aziraphale's genders in fanfic and art and the like because they do so canonically. the book makes it very clear that they are "man-shaped" but not necessarily men, ie they have chosen bodies that are perceived as being A Gender but that doesn't mean they technically are.

whereas muriel does not. muriel doesn't have a concept of gender because they haven't been on earth or around humans long enough to develop one. they are only ever referred to with gender neutral language. so it just feels really gross to me when people choose to she/her them. because to me it feels like saying "well this body that appears woman-shaped to me must mean they are a woman" which is a sentiment i, unfortunately, know all too well.

muriel is a character that is canonically referred to with they/them pronouns, on a major TV show on a major streaming platform no less. so it really fucking sucks to see people disregard that because they "can't remember to they/them muriel" or because they "seem like they use she/her."

to put it bluntly, every single argument i've ever read in favor of she/her-ing muriel has boiled down to "i just can't be bothered to remember they use they/them" and if you can't use a fictional characters pronouns correctly then i have zero faith you can use a real person's pronouns correctly. all i hear when i read those arguments is "i can't be fucked to do the bare minimum of gendering trans people correctly."

and lastly, i know it's genderfuckery when people she/her aziraphale and crowley because they're "man shaped" in the book and played by male actors in the show. but i don't have much faith that it's genderfuckery when people she/her muriel because i can almost guarentee it happens for no other reason than the fact that Quelin Sepulveda is a woman.

[nono-bunny]

While listening to The Summoning first thing as I wake up, you know, as one does, I noticed something: the LiB mention being forever in their debt when talking about the price of the bargain.

Is it like... Maybe possible that THAT'S why Grace loses it at the end? She made a bargain and now has to serve the black book and its lords forever?

You can maybe even go farther and posit that also works for the alternative timelines, in some form: maybe Grace's understanding with Lumberaxe had more to do with the LiB than we could see!

Idk that I necessarily like? Believe this, but it definitely got me thinking! It's for sure more fun to just view Grace as being extremely vulnerable to getting swept away when given power, but like. Idk, what if? We know NPMD was written first, who's to say it's not also the first timeline to get reset? Tinky can probably see all of them at once so idk that his comments referring to Ted would necessarily place it later, because it does seem like Ted always goes back and get trapped in the past- the homeless man is for sure an entity in all the timeliness we know of!

In conclusion I got swept away in theories based on one fucking line of The Summoning again.... That song just seems to do that to people lol

[pocketsizedquasar]

HI please shout about your ahab and fedallah ideas im so curious, what you did say sounds sooo cool and good. theyre... i have my own normal feelings about them general, but its more of a narrative relationship thing than like- them actually interacting?? idk. im fascinated your work has a grasp on my psyche for real

HI YES OK I LOVE THEM SM ok ok so

all of this was kinda just born from me thinking abt what i can do w/ fedallah to fix how shitty & racist he’s treated by the og narrative and just sorta. asking questions abt him and taking those answers to their logical conclusions , and filling in the gaps w my own personal thoughts where needed

ie: why is fedallah on this ship? why would be put his life at risk for this? not just the general deadly risk of whaling, but also the legal/social implications of the fact that he’s a stowaway and the shipowners definitely do not approve of him being on board? he (and the other four of ahab’s oarsmen) certainly is not getting paid by the shipowners for this; did ahab offer them portions of the captain’s pay instead? we know ahab wanted a boat’s crew of his own, but why did he ask for fedallah, specifically? why does he trust fedallah so much — both to be his harpooner, and with his prophecies&foresight? why are they so devoted to each other, such that fedallah is constantly referred to as ahab’s shadow?

the answer to a lot of these came very naturally like: okay, they must’ve been friends. they must’ve been close. they must’ve known each other for some time, and in such a way that ahab would trust fedallah this much, and fedallah would be so willing to massively inconvenience & risk himself for him.

^thats what i can get from the text (wringing it out though i must, since melville refuses to tell us this himself, but it’s what we can infer based on what we know)

the rest of this is my (head)canon territory (aka canon to the comic) and me filling in the blanks:

- ahab saved fedallah’s life, once. i think that’s how they met. in ch 19 “the prophet” elijah tells us ahab was once in a “deadly scrimmage with [a] spaniard;” i’m stealing that to say that that fight was an encounter where aforementioned spaniard was targeting fedallah, and ahab as passerby got a bit caught up in it but, seeing a fellow brown dude tm in trouble, stepped in & saved him.

(also: consider—sexy sword fight ahab. that is all. i know the text just calls it a “scrimmage” without specifics but like. sword fight. swords. ahab w a sword. that’s all)

anyway. they’re in spain maybe? the text says “deadly scrimmage with a spaniard before the altar in Santa,” which i can only assume is referring to holy week in spain / santa semana? and, since we also know this fight was “deadly” and ahab is, ahem, not dead, by this point, obviously the other guy must’ve died, so ahab&fedallah probably skedaddle very quickly. back to ahab’s ship, probably, which was likely just temporarily making port in spain for whatever reason.

- from then, fedallah very much clings to ahab — you saved my life; i owe you a debt; if ever you need anything of me etc etc, you know how it goes. ahab brushes off the offers and claims of a favor in return; you don’t need to do anything for me, i don’t begrudge you this, i don’t feel you owe me anything. it’s fine mdude.

- anyway. they’re besties!! they enjoy each other’s company! fedallah is a frequent (though not necessarily permanent) member of ahab’s ship rosters. they bond over being SWANA in the good ol’ us of a. fedallah teaches ahab how to make chai properly — he never got to learn; his mother died far too early in his life (book canon). they probably fucked once (1) on a drunken night and then mutually decide never to do that again /lh.

fedallah’s also disabled — he wears a knee brace on his right leg, perhaps an aftermath of that fight w the spaniard, perhaps from something before — when ahab gets disableified by The Dickening TM fedallah’s council on how to manage pain and other things like that is extremely helpful.

and ahab never takes fedallah up on that favor. he doesn’t think he needs to; he has no desire to. fedallah is his friend. he doesn’t view their relationship that way; he genuinely doesn’t feel like fedallah owes him anything, for saving him or for anything else.

- & then moby dick happens.

- moby dick happens and ahab loses his leg and spends weeks on his own ship tied and restrained to his own bed because his own crew decided that him — in his newly disabled, unable to walk, but in Pain and “Insane” state — is too much of a threat to be allowed to exist freely. and he spends weeks straitjacketed to his own bed.

and then he gets back to shore and his own prosthetic snaps underneath him and stabs him in the abdomen and nearly kills him and it’s taking him weeks to recover, and those shipowners are talking about sending him out again anyways, even though he’s still in the middle of recovering from That, and if we’re being honest still hasn’t properly recovered or healed from losing his leg in the first place — did you know that the first few months after an amputation are the most important when it comes to long term healing of the scar tissue? and we know he wasn’t able to take care of himself in those critical weeks, lashed to his bed, muscles atrophying and whole body growing sore as it’s forced to stay in one position for god knows how long on end, and oh he’s going to be in pain for the rest of his life because of this, isn’t he.

so they’re putting him back on the pequod while he’s still in recovery. the last time he was on that ship while recovering from a major wound, his officers tied him up like an animal. he doesn’t know if he can trust these new officers, though they weren’t on that voyage. he doesn’t know if he can even trust his own body, his own prosthetic leg, to not fail him, to not break on him and incapacitate him again.

so he needs an ally on this ship. he needs someone he can trust.

so he asks for fedallah. finally calls in that favor, even though he’d never planned to.

- anyway, in terms of how i’d describe their relationship, it’s basically what i said in the tags of that post fjskdjsj they’re not friends they’re not lovers they’re not family but also they’re all of the above and also more; there aren’t words for them to talk about what they are to each other; they trust each other and are devoted to one another and imo losing fedallah on the second day of the chase is the final nail in the coffin of the tragedy that just keeps building.

like, when fedallah tells ahab in chapter 116 that fedallah will die first, and ahab will follow, ahab doesn’t take that as a thing to be worried about: he takes it as another pledge that he will survive this voyage.

and when it actually happens, well. look how ahab responds:

even with melville’s inability to treat fedallah like an actual person, ahab is more panicked than we ever see him when he realizes fedallah is gone. and yeah, you could argue that he’s just panicked that he’s going to die because fedallah died first, but if you listen carefully to a lot of what ahab says throughout the book, he’s not actually that afraid of himself dying. that might still be cause for panic here, sure, but i also very much choose to read this as shocked grief — gone? not gone! not gone! — his friend is fucken dead!!!

- (also worth nothing that immediately between those two passages^ is starbuck begging ahab to turn around once again, saying how many awful things have happened already, and one of the things he says is “thy evil shadow gone” — and immediately after starbuck’s speech, we get ye infamous “of late I’ve felt strangely moved to thee; ever since that hour we both saw—thou know’st what, in one another’s eyes” from ahab immediately followed by him ultimately rejecting starbuck and life and the possibility to turn around and etc etc — and with this context? w the context of having Just lost fedallah only to have yet another person calling him ahab’s “”evil”” shadow in a long litany of people who have spent the entire book hounding fedallah as evil and the devil? i don’t know, it’s hard not to read these lines from ahab as almost spiteful. i once saw something in your eyes. i can’t see anything anymore but this. this was always going to be the outcome — ‘twas rehearsed by thee and me a billion years before this ocean rolled.’)

- ow.

- fedallah makes me ache. we know so little about him and he does nothing tangibly wrong but he spends the entire book being derided by both the narrative and the other characters as some evil hellish monster. and for what. look at him. he’s just a silly little guy. he was ahab’s friend. he had to have been.

- it’s important to me that you know that fedallah is much, much shorter than ahab. he’s a short king

plus bonus fedallah’s full design because i love him:

[infriga]

After finishing my replay of the main game I have adjusted my theory about who Ahti is. So my previous theory was that he is the owner the Oldest House is bound to. That hasn't necessarily changed on a fundamental level, but based on what I now know about the origins of his name the details of my theory have expanded a bit.

I think the Oldest House is essentially the Sampo, and Ahti is the Finnish god of the sea. The reason being that one of the things the Sampo is thought to possibly be is a pillar/tree (a la the Tree of Life), which sounds pretty dang familiar, and the Sampo also at one point fell into the sea and was in the possession of the Finnish god Ahti/Ahto. That would make it an extremely powerful Place of Power, and imo I think Places of Power are essentially larger more powerful Objects of Power that can be bound like regular OOPs can be, though I think the effects they have on the ones they're bound to would be much greater. With that in mind I think the House is bound to Ahti.

I'm not sure if Ahti is the legit OG Finnish God to begin with or more along the lines of a god in the same way that Odin and Tor from Alan Wake are gods, since they do seem to be mortal to some degree. They age and lose their power as they grow old but I'm not sure if it's been stated anywhere how old they actually are. Ahti on the other hand we know has been around for a while because he was there before the Bureau discovered the House 59 years ago and as far as I'm aware he hasn't changed since then. Though idk if that'd be because of who/what he is, or because of his connection to the House itself. But he refers to Odin and Tor as old friends, and Odin mentions that the first time he lost an eye was "before time", so that muddles things a bit.

It's possible that people who embody the spirit of certain "gods" like Odin, Tor, and Ahti are created in the same kind of way that altered items, OOPs, and Places of Power are created: via the collective consciousness. Alternatively, it's also possible that certain PoPs or OOPs can turn people into gods under certain circumstances. Now it's not super clear how much an OOP/PoP influences or is influenced by the being it's bound to. Did Ahti gain his godhood from the house, or did the house gain its power from being owned by a powerful user? In a similar vein of "which came first", did Odin and Tor start drinking from the Cauldron and gain their godhood because they changed their names while living near Cauldron Lake aligning them with the collective consciousness while in the vicinity of a powerful PoP, or did they change their names because they were becoming gods due to drinking the water from the lake? Is Cauldron Lake a PoP like the House is? Or is it just an AWE and we haven't found out what OOP is causing it yet? If it is a PoP, is it possible that the lake is bound to someone, like Barbara, Zane, or Alan? Or even the Dark Presence itself? Was the Dark Presence once human?

Jesse is capable of great feats with her OOPs, but other users who have been bound to them in the past didn't achieve the same degree of power when using the same objects, meaning a lot of their strength seems to come from her. So it's possible the Oldest House is as strong as it is because of Ahti being who he is, and that in turn gives him his power. The main reason I think the house is bound to him is because he's the only one who is tied so intrinsically to it, whereas other people living within the house are not given the same abilities, knowledge, presence, or timeless nature that Ahti has, not even Jesse. But if the House is the Sampo and thus a version of the Tree of Life, then presumably it's not something meant to be hoarded and kept to one person to use alone. So I think that's why Ahti acts as a custodian, because the House is meant to house many people, not just one, like an apartment building. But he doesn't charge rent or anything, so instead of a landlord he's a janitor lol.

Some people have noted that if you hang around Ahti in Alan Wake 2 for a while he starts acting like he's confused, upset, and disoriented. It might be because he was separated from the House during his vacation in Watery, and that separation started having a negative effect on him. Now whether he's unable to get back to the house because of what was happening in the Foundation (which is where he went through to visit Watery), or if it was because of the influence of the Dark Presence, I'm not sure, but I doubt he planned for his vacation to last several years. I haven't replayed the Foundation DLC quite yet so I'll see if my theory changes regarding that once I have and refreshed my memory on the plot and stuff. It's also possible that Ahti just stayed in Watery to help with the Dark Presence AWE and the length of time he stayed away from the House was what affected him. Or it's possible it was just the influence of the Dark Presence and not the separation, and the Dark Presence just had a home advantage. And in relation to that, maybe the reason Odin and Tor age and weaken is because they went on tour, and their powers are linked to Cauldron Lake in a similar way that Ahti is connected to the Oldest House so being separated from it weakens them or lessens their power whenever they go on your and allows them to age faster than Ahti seems to. Once they enter the lake they do appear young again. So maybe the lake sustains them, and similarly the House sustains Ahti. Maybe we'll learn more about the Anderson brothers via Saga in future games and how their godhood possibly ties into AWE/OOP/PoP stuff.

It is possible that Ahti doesn't own the house, and he's just been "drinking the water/moonshine" so to speak much longer than any other inhabitant and that's why he is the way he is, but I feel like he'd have to be connected to it more closely than just that if he was given the amount of authority over it, and everyone in it, that he has. Not to mention his connection to the foundation. But I don't think he is the House itself, since he's able to leave it without the house losing any functionality, and when separated from it he seems just a bit more vulnerable and human in nature.

Anyway there's my obligatory updated theory post on our favourite mysterious friend-shaped janitor.

[tommyssupercoolblog]

Writing Pattern Tag Game

@bootlegfrank tagged me and @septiccoffeefreak - who shares this post w me because we're writing partners >:3 (frank tagged us indirectly. and then directly because i responded saying i was gonna do it. so in-indirect-diretly(??))

Rules: list the first lines(s) of your last 10 fics and see if there's a pattern. I also said where each one is from in case u don't wanna scroll through our ao3 and do the math urself!!!

all these fics except one r RPF, sooo BE WARNED. i'm putting everything under da cut, and i'm also putting my reblog banner since fanfiction!!! is!!! art!!!

Seán’s about ready to burn his entire calendar.

from "Scheduling Conflicts and How To Cope - A Guide For The Busy Homosexual"

Tommy hates LA with every fiber of his being.

from "City Of Angels"

it's cold, and it hurts.

from "The Part Where it Gets Better (Lads rescue AU)", and also THIS SOUNDS SO WEIRD OUT OF CONTEXT LIKE WHAT'S COLD??? it's water. the water is cold. this is the character based one btw. WE FOUND IT, THE NON-RPF!!!

Tommy inspects Seán’s behelit tattoo carefully, running his thumb over it a little, then kisses it.

I fucking would. kissing all his tattoos right now. mwah. this goddamn MOOD is from "There's No Place Like Home"

Ethan N3st0r was not expecting Seán to still be awake at three AM, even though with jet lag considered, he really fuckin should have.

I censored the name for search but it's not like that in the fic, that's just for tumblr. anyway, from "Three Drabbles In Which Tommy and Seán are bad at Keeping Secrets"

Ethan's the one to bring it up first, on Brain Leak, of all things.

OPENING WITH ETHAN AGAIN LMAOO. this is from "And Suddenly, It Makes Sense."

"So, who would have thought, huh? T0mmy1nn1t and Jacks3pt1c3y3, famous YouTubers, passed away in their sleep on the same night."

censored for tumblr again. from "Count your Soulmates- There's only one."

Seán and Tommy have sleepovers sometimes.

from "kissing practice". very original opening line /sar /lh (also tbh i feel awful about em being evil in this one :( I know its fanfic and i can do whatever I want but like. idk. i'm not accusing em of being mean IRL okay??? OKAY))

Seán spends about fifteen minutes pacing and staring at himself in the mirror, doing breathing exercises his therapist taught him and trying not to rub or scratch his wrists too much.

from "Puppy Love", the closest we've ever gotten to full misce posting on main

They were gluing ducks to a jeep the first time it happened.

FROM "PETNAMES" AND ALSO THE BEST OPENING LINE EVER

INTERPRETATION TIME!!!!

soooo yeah!!! we like to jump right into action as well but I think it's safe to say our autistic ass habits of giving exposition for everything lead to the specific outcome of starting in the middle of a scene, WITH an explanation of the scene. like we're already in the middle of something going on but also sometimes it's exposition at the same time somehow?? or like right after these first lines. idk maybe that's just me????

the way it's usually less (character does this) and more (character does this BECAUSE ____ // character is doing this and FEELING ____) feels like it's trying to give context, to me. but again idk maybe just me

TIME FOR SEÁN'S READING:

@septiccoffeefreak - "What I'm noticing here is more along the lines of just, how we almost always seem to open with a person. Usually by their actual name(s) too and not just a pronoun. I understand what you mean, Tommy, but I don't personally get that vibe? You could totally be right, of course, I just don't pick up on that. I defenitely notice, though, just how many of these are sentences where the literal first word is a name. the two exceptions to that are the pronoun "they" (which is still a person- or two people actually), and then water.

I guess the dialogue could also be considered an exception, but I don't think it counts since it also directly references us as characters.

and that's not something you necessarily have to do. You could open describing scenery or objects, or with dialogue that DOESN'T have the names of the characters in it- you could open with wind through a blade of grass or a character cursing under their breath or someone's cellphone crashing to the pavement or something. So it's definitely an "us" thing, it's a quirk of our writing style and not just normal writing. I don't know if like, we ALWAYS do this, but I do know that in these ten fics you pulled we do. I wouldn't be surprised if we did it like literally all the time as well, but I'm not going to pretend to know every first line we've ever penned to paper. or...print?? I don't fucking know, here, I'm just analyzing sentences on the internet for a tagging project.

Sorry if this ramble is kind of long, I hope it's at least interesting though??? sort of interesting? kind of interesting, in it's own way, hopefully. at least mildly, like a video you didn't turn on but aren't really reaching for the mouse/remote on to change it. You know?? Yeah. Like that. Or more interesting then that, hopefully. Thanks for uh, reading or, whatever, listening if you have a screen reader i guess, I'm getting nervous and it's very obvious because i'm rambling so I'm gonna hand things back off to the birthday boy, Toms. wish Tommo a happy birthday or I swear to fucking god your liver will be missing in the morning and you'll find it at the bottom of your morning cup of coffee."

back to me:

LMAO

wow omg i love my babygirl,,,, that made me laugh >:p

ANYWAYS. i didn't notice that!! oh em gee,,,,, name moment.

YOU SHOULD DO THIS TOO AND SEE IF YOUUUU SEE ANYTHING!!!!!

I'M TAGGING @kalcifers-blog AND.... no one else because all my other mutuals who i know for a fact write have paused as far as i'm aware, bc they're into mcyt RPF like I am and the w1lbvr situation put them on hiatus. and i don't know if any of them are back to feeling up to writing stuff.

I don't write about w1bvr ever and didn't watch him so I wasn't that affected but a lot of people were even if they just watched so like... Kalcie ur alone on here i'm SO SORRIE. ALSO this is /nf so u don't have to if u dont want to :p :3 >:D :000 >:PPPP :000 >:00

[candiid-caniine]

Bug, I need advice

I want to ask my master to start using it pronouns for me (not for gender reasons- I'm staunchly they/them- but BC I'm pathetic and don't deserve anything else). I want to show him that I'm nothing more than his pathetic toy.

...but I don't want to just ask him. That would be too easy- to put it into conversation like I'm a person. I don't deserve that.

So what can I do to ask him? What show should I put on to make him stop respecting me? I want to be degraded and sobbing and a desperate leaky mess for him when I ask but I can't think of anything 😭

Assume nothing is off the table. Edging covered in drool, licking the toilet, anything.

Help,,

Thank you bug. Us leaky cunts gotta stick together.

arf this is a tough one!! obviously you know your master, but just in case it hasn't come to mind, remember that for some people this may feel like misgendering or orientation play, so it's always best to gauge your partner's limits first. (this warning isn't necessarily for you, bc i trust that this is a committed relationship w good communication, but for anyone else interested in something like this!)

here's what i would do. think of the thing that makes you cry. humiliation? pain? edging? whatever it is, think about that. for me, it's easier if i'm put into subspace slowly before whatever makes me cry is starting; i'm more open and emotional that way.

ask your master to plan a scene for you. you're basically asking him to break you, possibly in a way he never has before, so please please take advantage of his care for you--make sure you'll have ample time and supplies for any aftercare you might need; this is gonna be a tough scene, a show of devotion and ownership that is going to be intense. tell him that at some point during this scene, you're going to give him a gift somehow.

what i would do if i was doing this (pls bear in mind im a dumb fuck): i'd write it down. maybe on a piece of paper. maybe on a dog tag to attach to my collar. or go fucking crazy and have a plaque made, or a custom paddle, or cross-stitch some shit...make it unique, but tangible. here are some ideas for how i would say it:

pathetic toys don't deserve pronouns (and on the back it says "it/its")

congrats! it's an it! (im trying to riff on cringey cishet 'gender reveals' but idk if its working lmaooo)

fleshlights don't have pronouns (this prob only works if ur a bottom and he's a top so disregard if needed lmao)

dildos don't have pronouns (if ur the top and he's the bottom)

certified object (TM) (and on the back it says "it/its")

sex toy (and on the back it says "it/its")

if i was a toy 👀and u were a real person 👀would u respect me 👀or nah? (check yes or nah) and if u checked nah 👀would u maybe 👉🏽👈🏽 call me it/its? 👀 haha jk,, unless....?

omg or,, one of those like fake certificates? or a deed of property?

Here on this 14th of February, 2024, by Notarized Declaration, has been bequeathed to You, the Undersigned, a certification: that [sub's name] has been deemed a Material Object, pursuant to Code 98.706 of the Consensual Dehumanization Act, and shall hereby be referred to by "it/its" pronouns throughout any Proceedings of Consensual Power Exchange (PCPA). (Initial)___ I, the Undersigned, hereby agree to this Declaration and the Conditions elaborated herein...

did yall think i was joking about being a clownpuppy

anyway. whenever you've figured that shit out, be it a plaque, a fake contract, a dog tag, whatever the fuck, hide that shit. whatever your master has planned for the evening, incorporate it.

is he gonna tie you up and put you in a suspension rig and pretend he's livestreaming you? hide that shit in his ropes.

is he gonna make you hump his shoe and bark? hide it in ur mouth and drool it out onto his thigh.

is he gonna edge you and call you names until you cry? fam, put that shit in your holes. that is the ultimate objectification (to me): be the vase you hide your v-day roses in.

so that's my advice, basically. if you don't want to ask outright like a person, then symbolize it in your play. it's still communication, which is vital for a scene that's gonna be as intense as you want it to be, but it also fits the theme of what you're trying to tell him. come up with a basic plan for the night, then place your declaration somewhere accessible either by you or him when you hit the point in the night that you want to reveal it.

i'm so excited for you. idk if i really helped, this is just *my* style of play (read: stupidtown to the max), but regardless i'd love to hear how it goes, whatever you end up deciding!

[vintagewildlife]

my opinion is really just that "conman" is a very light term for someone who did material harm to indigenous communities by spreading misinformation and speaking on their behalf while never actually respecting the groups he impersonating, i think that's the biggest issue, especially as his conservationism work ended up being an extension of his racism and exploitation- i dont think its necessarily on you to know every detail of american history like why would you if you aren't american but its also kinda like uhhh idk its a small blog so its not really "platforming" someone who is also dead but its just a bit like lighthanded for something really heinous

Yeah, I can see that. The articles I found referred to him as "self-identifying as Indigenous" and "pretendian" neither of which felt appropriate, but I wasn't sure what else to call it. The best thing probably would've been to break format and write more than a single sentence in the description.

[the-grey-hunt]

new day new dracula babey! i got to talking with a friend so i have some meta to share as well!

jonathan refers to the new area of the castle he's explored as belonging to the ladies of bygone days, which i find FASCINATING, as someone who writes a lot of high fantasy and loves to design castles. jonathan talks about the windows, referring to how he's moved up a few storeys and therefore found a part where the windows aren't guarded against attack (i.e., arrow slits to be fired out of but too narrow to admit any enemy fire) and therefore are much nicer and let in more light.

as for identifying it as being a ladies' area of the castle, it's entirely possible! upper floors were traditionally more residential areas in castles as opposed to lower floors, since anyone could walk into the lower floor from the front door. He mentions the furniture being nicer, too, indicating this is a more private area of the castle made for comfort (once upon a time) rather than a utilitarian receiving area/lord's hall as might be on the first floor. Private areas are somewhat more likely to be ladies' rooms, such as private drawing rooms or solars (aka ye olde sunroom), as women in Europe were traditionally relegated to more private areas of the home rather than outright participating in public affairs that might go on in the lower floors.

this entry, while short, does a lot to emphasize jonathan's relationship with the feminine/female. I mean this in a sort of narrative sense, since jonathan occupies a very feminine gothic niche. The "female gothic", a term of analysis coined in the 70s, is what I mean specifically. The female gothic essentially is a way of talking about how women in gothic stories represented contemporary anxieties about women, their roles, and their place in society. It "centers its lens on a young woman’s rite of passage into womanhood and her ambivalent relationship to contemporary domestic ideology, especially the joint institutions of marriage and motherhood...[and] deploys the supernatural for political ends."

In the sense of being trapped, especially in a home (and in the private, withdrawn, female parts of the home such as bedrooms and drawing rooms), Jonathan is very much subservient to the master of the house (Dracula) and preyed upon by the supernatural forces. He is also being tested by these supernatural forces on the verge of marriage - a point in life which many Gothic women are placed at, since it's a major transition in their lives. There's also this quote:

"the genre’s starring female role...is transported to, and...imprisoned in, an ancestral Castle or manor home by the text’s other star—the enterprising, unyielding, ruthless, and attractive Gothic hero-villain who threatens the young woman’s maidenhead and inheritance. The protagonist’s exploration, often at night, of the apparently haunted Castle’s maze-like interior involves confrontation with mysteries whose ultimate unravelling signifies a process of self-discovery."

not commenting on jonathan's maidenhead or inheritance here, but this seems VERY applicable to his experience! a lot of people have talked about gay undertones (stoker's sexuality is apparently under debate, but idk much about that) between him and Dracula, the threatening master of the house. as for self-discovery in the unraveling of the mystery (aka the vampires), i don't know if i've read enough of Dracula so far to really comment on it.

I don't necessarily know where to GO with that, but I thought it would be fun to comment on, since I studied the "female Gothic" specifically in a class a few years ago. I'm excited to see where this analysis takes me as the dailies continue and jonathan gets into deeper trouble (or hopefully gets out of it a little?). in the meantime i think i need to go find some good analysis of vampires in gothic works.

[roobylavender]

im not sure your take on this but god now that age charts are being brought up it really fucking weirds me out the ages bruce pursues a relationship with talia and selina, its not necessarily the age gap but more so the maturity level. if it were later on in the girls life yet you keep the same age gap i’d be more okay with it but…idk the fact that selina is NINETEEN like to a 26 yr old would that not just be a. teenager to them ?? shes so young. same with talia

i mean to be fair to selina i think people get her timeline mixed up often esp because the long halloween is more prominent on batman reading lists than is her early post-crisis reading. the late 80s were used to revitalize selina with a new origin before she was inevitably thrust back into the present-day canon of tim's tenure. so there's a whole decade or so of her life after she first donned the costume that we were hardly privy to (with the exception of a few stories), but that was implied by writers to have been fairly isolated in the sense that selina's interactions with bruce were neither constant nor often. she led her own life and lived in her own corner of the world and survived, etc., and maybe a handful of times did their paths cross on the bigger heists albeit ultimately without much consequence (e.g., mindy newell's little bird story in the 80th anniversary spectacular). once 90s dc canon generally started to take on a more universal, event-focused quality writers integrated selina into the main batman storylines and began developing the romance between them consistently while they were both well into adulthood

what the long halloween did in comparison is make a mess of all of that progression because it not only rewrote selina's late 80s origin but also depicted her in reference to the more powerful character she'd become by the time it was published in the late 90s. so loeb's selina is less a 19/20 year old prostitute with a whole worldview to develop and more a seasoned socialite with a concrete goal and specific skillset honed presumably over the years. they're two entirely distinct characters and the 00s canon that followed increasingly took more from loeb than it did newell to the point that i think most new batman readers believe the long halloween is the definitive origin story even though it is very much not and only became heralded as such due to its overwhelming popularity. ultimately, on one hand you have the early post-crisis canon which set bruce and selina apart for a large part of their masked life and only began to concretely develop anything between them maybe ten or more years after the fact. on the other hand you have the long halloween canon which set them up as something akin to equals from the get-go and erased the existence of the original power imbalance entirely. and then you also have brubaker who tried to meld the two somewhat but like i said earlier ultimately pandered more to loeb's characterization even though he made his foundation out of newell's narrative skeleton. all of this to say: i don't think there are necessarily huge issues in their relationship as pertains to age if you distinguish the various timelines. but there certainly are issues as pertains to social class

talia in comparison is obv a lot trickier. i always go back and forth on whether i want to designate her as 26 or 22 upon debut. obv 26 would be the (somewhat) nicer option and there's plenty of evidence as to denny's research work being poor when it comes to the al ghuls. he may very well have believed that medical school is an institution you attend after undergraduate school in egypt the way we do here in the states. but the truth of the matter is that a lot of countries don't operate the way we do and actually allow you to attend a specialized / graduate school straight out of high school. such is the case for a career in medicine in egypt. and then on top of it all.. i honestly do think there is racist exoticization at play with the creation of talia's character. the older white savior paired with the considerably younger exotic heroine is a tried and tested trope across decades! one of talia's hallmarks upon debut was her universal sex appeal to the point that it's all people talked about in the comment columns at the time. and of course there was a very sexualized aspect to her relationship with bruce in general as depicted by neal adams. so it's hard not to come away with that reading of her character and even harder not to try to reconcile it with her very unforgiving treatment thereafter

which is why i'm as much upset by the age gap as i am honestly interest-piqued by it. bc it sucks on its face for sure. but with the right amount of care it is a really powerful lens through which to analyze talia as a character over time. her initial powerlessness to the two men in her life, her increasing emotional and physical isolation, her susceptibility to abuse, her constant experience with abandonment, etc. like would someone so young not become bitter over time at having to be left alone to fend for herself so often while the men simply get to go on? whatever the tragedy of their relationship bruce always gets to go back to a home. he always gets to go back to alfred or dick or jason or whoever else. but who does talia have? in a world where every interaction between bruce and her father emotionally bludgeons the latter to the point of delirious possessiveness, where does she go? who does she turn to? she has absolutely no one. and she has to be the one who finally makes the decision to break off on her own bc she's so tired of never feeling like she has any power. the fact that she goes through all that she does in pre-00s canon before she even turns 30 is so insane! and if any writer had bothered to dwell on that fact then we might have seen her receive far more empathetic storytelling than she actually does. i very much think a huge reason as to why her character assassination was so easy for writers to indulge in is bc they never recognized how much she was a victim

[thereal-true-ogilvie]

Hello everyone welcome BACK to: I talk about Benrey for a minute here!

Today we will talk about everyone's favorite: Mischaracterization in Fanfiction!

[I want to preface this with a very important note. Anything I bring up here is NOT something I'm complaining about. I LOVE mischaracterizing my little guy sometimes, especially by making him more like me, heart emoji. I just also know what's wrong so I mischaracterize him in a better and more accurate way /ref]

Now, the most common little thing is him showing basically any emotion in a human/allistic way. Laughter is pretty much the only exception, followed only by whining. He would NOT apologize and he would NOT break down sobbing. In fact I don't believe he has tear ducts he forgor to make them.

[as user needsmoreexplosions has said in the replies, this is hyperbolic! he does show plenty of emotions, just more muted than you'd expect. The first act has more bursts of emotion than the later acts as well. They brought up the "dont FUCKING talk to me" and I mentioned him yelling to Tommy happily. However, there's still not MANY examples. I'm going to rb this with every example of strong emotion he conveys and itll probably be shorter than this post. again. i love people making him emotional anyways, even if its not quite in character]

If he were to learn that Regular People Can't Respawn, he wouldn't go crying and apologizing to Gordon. He would go "oops." He would complain that no one told him. He would make fun of Gordon for not being able to respawn.

See:

"Benrey's not on this team anymore, apparently."

"Yo what- why would you say that, that's so mean."

[Whining, not crying. Always]

SPEAKING OF WHICH. The arm thing. A LOT of people tend to go with "he was trying to get the trackers out/hev suit off," when Dr. Coomer literally says, "I think they're just spiteful." He was getting back at Gordon for all the times he like. Shot him or somethin idk. People are right that he didn't expect the soldiers to cut off his arm, but he also DID expect them (and hype them up) to kill him. Not so he'd respawn without the hev suit or with his passport, just because "hey everyone else has died. And you are so mean to me. Your turn."

He doesn't act like a cat or crave attention, I'm so sorry fic writers [again, it's so fun and I love it tho, so keep doing it please] In fact, he loves to fuck off and leave the team, he does not need their attention. And, when given attention, he tends to just be mildly confused or antagonistic.

And he's not obsessed with the passports, guys! Let me get my fuckin 26-page document up rq... He says Passport/ID 26 times in Act 1 [yo what the fuck what a cool coincidence..... That's actually fucking awesome], then literally once in Act 2 and it wasn't even directed at Gordon. He doesn't say it at all in Act 3, though he does say One (1) time how much he loves his. He says it 6 times in Act 4, ALL of which are during his Boss Fight.

People make him a gamer. Yes, he is 100% but they make him the wrong KIND of gamer. He's not a Minecraft Animal Crossing Mario Kart gamer, he talks about Heavenly Sword, God of War, Halo, MAG, Grand Theft Auto and TF2. 2 First Person Shooters, 3 very violent action/adventure games, and TF2.

[actually, speaking of this image, did anyone else catch Gordon referencing the stairs bit but with ropes? Gordon has canonically read Homestuck]

The only TV he references is All Dogs Go To Heaven 2 and Fighting Redemption which are WILDLY different. And also whatever Ms. Pebbles is.

Not necessarily a common mischaracterization, but an important tidbit is that Benrey tends to be pacifistic towards Xen creatures, and not towards scientists and later security guards. Lots of people headcanon Experimentation which, while there's not really any evidence for that, there's also no evidence against it and it's a good headcanon that I like a lot.

He likes taking pictures. (shakes fic writers) give him a photo album!!!! SCANS OF GORDON'S FEET WOULD NOT BE IN THE ALBUM HE DOESN'T ACTUALLY HAVE THOSE. IT WAS NOT A FOOTSCANNER HD HE LIED.

The things he does know vs doesn't know are. Difficult. He isn't clueless about "human Things" he understands that shaking = nervous and balled fists = angry. He doesn't know what pigeons are but he does know mayonnaise and Big Mac with Freesh Fries.

The final important bit of info. Canon is kinda... flimsy? Canonically, according to Gir, Bubby is a straight guy who FUCKS. Canonically, according to Holly, Bubby is agender and married to Dr. Coomer.

So like. Go fucking crazy! Go stupid! A a a a a!

Just be aware when you're wrong LOL

[kiwibirdlafayette]

I’ve keep thinking about one of your tags, specifically the “self fulfilling prophecy a display of a true role of an ianitee” and I would love for you to go into that!

if I may, I’d like to give my understanding of that and you can tell me how far off base it is.

With Redbeard it’s him thinking something will always go wrong around him whether he causes it or not. He chalks it up to his “natural unluckiness” and puts little effort to fox said issues. If we go to Capsize’s death, she gets threatened and he stands and does little to stop it. He crashes the first airship and brushes it off, he actively heavily drinks during the mission, like he for some of it causes his own misfortune.

For Jordan, it’s being alone within his faith. (This one I’m a bit shakey on cause I don’t think I have a good footing when it comes to his character.) He wants community but he does not find it with the pirates. Specifically with Capsize. Back to Capsizes death, he also doesn’t jump in to stop Furia from killing Capsize. Both Andor and Capsize end up getting imprisoned in-front of the group, although the reason why is different (to my memory) he doesn’t jump in to save either. He does find community with Andor though! But he’s now separated from him, so once again he’s alone.

Idk what Spark or Capsizes problem is, wish I did though. They probably have tons.

OH ok im sorry Im so late in responding Im gonna be honest. I completely forgot initially what I was thinking about when I made that tag but its finally come back to me ok. ok.

Basically what I think I was referring to in the concept of a 'self fufilling propechy; filling the role of an ianitee" is the kind of idea that champions of Ianite, or gods in general are tied to their deity in not just a follower kind of way, but like in a metaphysical manner- like where the principle of whomever they end up following are somewhat built into their characterization, and in the way worked into the fibers of their soul. Its present with the other gods/followers but its really interesting with the ianitees I think.

It may not necessarily be intentional or conscious on the part of the follower but essentially their morals, actions and the foundations of relationships are centered around what aspects the god stands for, and sort of act like a compass for them. So like in Capsize's case, I had interpreted Cat's post as like even though Capsize was born the "luckier" of the twins- aside from her name being that of a literal disaster- a lot of her actions to me take on a very heavy kine selflessness, putting herself at risk for like Red, doing things that would put her in a place of misfortune almost as a protective maneuver for others which I could almost call to be her fatal flaw. She has to be balanced in nature somehow to counter feeling like she's stolen Red's luck (from Cat's post, that line is driving me nuts in the best way), and that's how she does it.

And like, what you were saying with Jordan, his seeking of balance comes in surface level playing mediator between Tom and Tucker but like in a subconscious way (at least how i interpret it haha) its more got to do with yeah, like community. Jordan, as a character to me is very tied to the idea of home/closeness/familiarity, which ties into the lighthouse metaphor I like to cite between him and Tom (essay for another day before I go on yet another tangent), and his evolving relationship with the others over the course of the series. He, by nature is really drawn to carving his own path (i mean the man fully invents his own ass god) and has like an ambition that tends to isolate him from others (I haven't forgotten jokes in other SMPs about his house always being so far away from everyone else) but what he really craves, in needing to adhere to some kind of balance is closeness, a safe familiar place to rest his head, a lack of separation that he always ends up wanting to fully lean towards, but because of this balance thing- he can't have all of one or the other.

Spark I think follows a similar pattern to Jordan, and as a result as do Andor and Martha (albeit in different ways I'll try to speak on but I don't spend much time with their characters aside from the fact that especially in Ruxomar where Ianitees are kind of othered (cough queer metaphor, this is not an original thought but it makes so much sense) that to counter this oppression of their beliefs they too seek out community which is why Andor and Jordan get on so well.

Because Spark grew up with something different and we don't get much canoncially of him, its a little harder to analyze him, but if I had to give it a guess, I think his is moreso like he falls between two worlds in being the s/o of a literal goddess, that he feels an obligation to act as a mediator (as Jordan is), but rather between his two brothers-in-law, but instead between that of the immortal and mortal worlds, where like Capsize carries with him a protective nature to make them feel more in alignment. Essentially, in someway or another, giving agency and power to the mortal world and making the immortal world feel less distant and understandable/attuned to those who they rule. But its less a burden he chooses to carry, like a i must take control to bring this balance, and more a internal kind of responsibility to maintain his connections between both worlds, to keep himself together.

And Red, gods Red m8, I haven't dug too deep into him but I really like your take on him! Someone who I think is a really good example of how his unluckiness, rather than being something that unconsciously he wants to correct to find an internalized balance, instead has found a certain apathy to the notion that he was supposed to be the unlucky side of the twins, that i could almost say mans like found a neutral ground that way; sitting on a middle ground of having neither fortunate nor an unfortunate influence on the way things happen because either way he feels he'll only worsen it which. idk about you but Ouch That Hurts. Like he wants to strive for finding balance in having some type of influence of fortune, but its so out of reach he chooses instead to take a role of inaction

GAHHH theres so much brainrot that can come from this. I will be thinking about this forever. i hope i didnt fully just do the horribly misinterprets the characters LMAO any way. thank you for this

It eez what it eez TLDR; Ianitees come into the realm with an almost pre-determined alignment long before they consciously are aware of the goddess, a kind of self-fulflling that drives a lot of their emotional-moral compass in seeking a balance within them that gives them a role and purpose in the fabric of their characterization and relationships with others

[fanaticsnail]

If you ever need visuals/inspiration for the dancing prompts I am HERE.

Mihawk (tango):

You obviously are familiar with Mr & Mrs Smith and the ICONIC Morticia and Gomez dances. However, may I suggest;

"Cell Block Tango" - you know I had to include it.

"Shall we dance?" (2004) - so sensual and intimate. Poetry in motionm

"Take the Lead" - there's a tango in a detention centre with two people (which is what I was thinking of), but there's also a lovely sandwich tango (iykwim)

And my personal fave: the introducing the tango scene from the story of Vernon and Irene castle - and old movie, black and white, but my GOD the CHEMISTRY. The CUNT. The FLUIDITY. The subtle but adoring smiles and glances.

Luffy:

Ok the Bachata for Luffy is perfect and I don't want to change it but I would like to offer up for your viewing/imagining pleasure: La Cucaracha. Simple, sweet. Folk dance. Gives young love. Lots of Luffy vibes. Just imagining them dancing in a town square.

Otherwise, no notes. The song is amazing I can't wait.

Buggy (swing):

Songs wise:

Tangled up - Caro Emerald (specifically the Lokee remix)

Dancing with the devil - Elle & the pocket Belle's

And idk how swing they are necessarily but; I don't have a name for it by Steam Powered Giraffes, Gentlemen by OR3O (or even All eyes on me by OR3O, but that's less of a love song and more angsty), vending machine of love by the stupendium

Zoro (Capoeira):

I love this. When I heard(read) "dance series" I immediately knew a dance fight style would KILL. I never knew Capoeira before this so I have to thank you for introducing me because *chefs kiss* muah.

I couldn't find many Capoeira scenes in movies or shows, but from what I did see there's a lot of break-dance-esque leg action. So I gotta suggest the Eggsy vs Gazelle fight from Kingsmen. (Side note: the kingsmen movies are actually so camp).

If you don't know, Gazelle is an antagonist with prosthetic legs that are basically spears and she fights with a lot of slashes. The scene is beautiful. Lots of legs swinging, lots of fists flying, very lethal. Lots of physics defying and frankly reality bending moments that fit into the drama of anime fighting, specifically one piece.

Now idk where it would fit but I would kill myself if I didn't mention the Naacho Naacho dance scene (essentially a dance battle) in the movie RRR (seriously good movie, it is v long tho). It's an Indian movie set during the war of the English colonisation. One of the main characters has a crush on a white girl who invites him to a party, and his friend tags along for moral support. They use the power of friendship and dance to defeat a racist white guy who thinks that they're not sophisticated bc they don't even know how to dance any of his fancy dances (which aren't even english dances, by the way) by dancing a dance that gets everyone to join bc it's so fun, and they manage to continue dancing as everyone falls around them bc of the pace and stamina needed. If you watch none of the scenes I've suggested, please watch this one.

Honourable mentions;

Zendayas dance off in dancing with the stars (https://youtu.be/2Iw951fviP4?si=_Bj4Wav5pcpYyLIZ)

And it's not necessarily a romance song and the context is icky but the tempo and the cunt in 'Papi' by Todrick Hall and Nicole Scherzinger from 'Straight Outta Oz' (musical) is unmatched, and there's a music video with some dancing.

Oh my gosh, yes 😫. I love all of these things.

For the Mihawk Tango/Pasadoble; immediately my mind went:

-Zorro & Elena from The Mask of Zorro: Soooo enemies to lovers

-Mr & Mrs Smith, the drama and disaster: I love it

-AND!!!!! El Tango de Roxanne from Moulin Rogue: Need I say more? The DRAMA, The EMOTION, AHH.

-TAKE THE LEAD is where my brain went YES!!!!!! The dominant gentleman lead, the DRAMA I LOVE.

For the Luffy Bachata its a bit more tricky for me to find an appropriate reference for it because he's so PLAYFUL and less sensual than the way it.

-Mr & Mrs Smith has the Mondo Bongo scene that I think about quite regularly for references.

-I also am on the dance side of TikTok currently, these vids keep popping up and I adore them.

Now, for the Buggy Solo I'm having some conflicting thoughts. He deserves a soft little dancey dance, but I could also see it getting VERY ANGSTY very quickly.

My song choices are as follows:

-Sway by Mr Bubes himself.

-Express Burlesque by Christina Aguilera just screams Buggy to me.

-The improv style that Emeline brings to this dance off is just MENTAL, I love it. Like, soooo playful my brain can't process it.

ZORO is REALLY TRICKY.

However, my inner teenager went immediately here, to Aang and Katara's dance in the caves.

I will need to check out RRR again, it has been a hot minute.

Shanks as a Jig is superb: @sordidmusings has me in a chokehold with this suggestion and as a former Irish Dancer myself, I simply can't imagine anything more FUN than THIS. Like, as a violinist, this is going to be so much fun to write.

Hobbits dancing on a table, The Jolly Roving Tar is just immediately speaking to me. I could also see the circular jig from Disney's Tangled being incorporated with the entire crew.

The Buggy x Mihawk Sandwich is just writing itself at this stage, my brain rot is simply drawn to the dynamic and I can't even process it.

Masterlist Link for when they drop!

[thesherrinfordfacility]

I kind of think the reason why the Book of Life is referred to as 'extreme' sanctions and why they haven't used it yet is because it's intended to be an absolute last resort, due to how badly it may mess up the timeline. Butterfly effect and all that. And they'd be looking at potentially undoing/rewriting 6000+ years of history. Who knows what life would be like for anyone if humans never left Eden. I mean. No death and no suffering, obviously, but no free will or knowledge, either. But it WOULD accomplish the basic plan everyone knows God has laid out- create humans that live eternally in paradise. I'd imagine using the Book of Life is very risky and they can't account for the full extent of the effects, but I don't think that would stop the Metatron from using it as a means to make Aziraphale go along with the Second Coming. If anything, the chaos of that potential timeline might be even more of a motivator for Aziraphale to follow orders in this one.

that's a very good point!!!✨ definitely would fit the bill of 'extreme', but then again - if it is only used in extreme circumstances, as i said here and @aq-uatic reminded me in a separate ask, you'd think that the stopping of armageddon would be worthy of threatening the BOL, and yet it wasnt? or the fall of humanity, or even the fall itself... but somehow, hiding gabriel is bad enough to warrant erasure from existence...?

this does however only take into account how michael is threatening to use it (i.e. the extreme sanctions are not, in fact, officially sanctioned; metatron confirms this in ep6). michael takes the supreme archangel position, and presumably considers this to be adequate authorisation to wield the BOL as a weapon - something we don't see gabriel do in s1.

i would love to know what michael's rationale behind this was; jumping straight to erasure of existence for a fairly insignificant transgression. it might say more about michael's character than 'the true nature' of the BOL, but still find it interesting that for a reasonably cunning character, this threat is so... little thought-out.

and maybe that's just it; that the BOL does exactly what it says on the tin, and it's just michael getting gung-ho on their assumed new power and station. maybe gabriel never intended to ever wield this weapon because of the catastrophic implications it has (though this would bring into question what the point of the BOL is to begin with, if not to be used).

i honestly don't have much of anything to negate this from within the narrative itself, other than crowley saying that it was only a rumour (which i do think has some basis). but from a storytelling perspective, i do think it very odd that this new concept, this huge-ass weapon that heaven seems to have had in its back pocket all along, would be so blatantly explained and handed to the audience in s2. the whole thing, imo, just feels a little off.

biblically speaking, too, i feel that the BOL in the context GO poses is somewhat off too; revelation shows that the book belongs to jesus christ, and (heavily paraphrasing multiple references here but this is my understanding of the christian scripture on BOL) was for humanity to repent and enter the kingdom of heaven, or face erasure and be cast instead into a lake of fire in everlasting punishment.

now, of course, GO does not necessarily follow the word of scripture by the letter; but regardless, the whole notion seems odd in relation to angels. they... are of heaven; would erasing them from the book lose them their existence, or would it cast them out of heaven? by the same logic, does erasing humans from the BOL during the last judgement also mean those humans will cease to exist? the lake of fire is described as being "a second death" (20:14), but is that the same thing?

basically, anon - i don't know. idk if the BOL is what we're led to believe it is, but something in my gut (and by god has it been wrong before) is telling me not to take it as read!!!✨