#but this was more general and didn't have to do with body-swapping in particular so i exiled it

[altraviolet]

Hello! I'm not sure if its okay to send asks rn. I'm sorry if they aren't open. I was curious about something small and was hoping to ask you. (If it isnt, pls feel free to ignore me and im sorry again).

I was re-reading some chapters of The Echo Garden and Rodimus mentioned learning Soundwave's Cybertronian so they can have a secret language. (So cute!) I was wondering if they were going to do that? And also, are there any details you could share about the differences between 001 dimension cybertronian and Soundwave's Cybertronian? Also also, the explanations you have for 2938 Cybertronian are very fun to read about.

Hi! It's totally ok to send asks :) I open anon asks every once in a while for people who are nervous about asking not-anon. But asks are always open to people who are signed in.

>if they were going to do that?

Oh yeah... they should, shouldn't they? ;) Good reminder.

>any details you could share about the differences between 001 dimension cybertronian and Soundwave's Cybertronian?

I don't have any really hard and fast rules in mind. Sometimes with worldbuilding you can get away with making general statements without having details sorted out, and that's the case here. If I think about it for a lil bit I can give you this:

-I imagine the LL's NeoCybex has more influence from human language than Soundwave's, due to those mechs being wayyyy more open to conversing with organics, as well as the influence of Movie Night and the movies that they get from Thundercrackers as they travel

-in terms of grammar and structure, I think of the two methods of speech as truly being accents. they can absolutely understand each other. the biggest difference is found in writing. An Earth example would be something like: Urdu and Hindi are mutually understandable via speech, but they each use a different alphabet. 0001 and 3244 have different slang, and the body-based aspects of their language use (field pulses and biolight signaling) are quite different.

I didn't have the time or points of view to get into it in TEG, but every time an alt dimensioner boards the LL, at least a tiny bit of their culture gets absorbed. You've seen it via the 2938 "glittering polymorphy" in Ch 45. I honestly don't have Ambulon or Trailbreaker's influences fleshed out. Those would be interesting to think about and either touch on in this fic, or perhaps in a sequel or related story. This is inspired by the phenomenon that happens in the real world- cultures meeting and swapping ideas/fashion/food/language/etc.

>the explanations you have for 2938 Cybertronian are very fun to read about.

Thank you! After the fic is done, I'mma have an Afterword with a FAQ, and I'll explain the inspiration for that (it's the same as the 'meaning of Soundwave' thing).

This does give me a chance to do something I've been thinking about for a few months: visually representing the way they speak in an economical manner. I wish there was a way to represent in text how the 2938 mechs spoke, while keeping the text accessible to screen readers. If I knew a way to do it, I would've done it throughout the fic in a way that looks something like this:

That would probably be exhausting and annoying to read, but 2938 Megatron is exhausting to comprehend. I didn't play around much with opacity in the examples here, but if there was an accessible way to do this, I'd love to do it with color and shape and tilt and opacity. Make it as otherworldly as possible.

The only way I know to do this on AO3 would be through images, but they would really stick out against whatever default formatting any particular reader might have. (there's mouse overs as well, but eh, doesn't give the spatial property)

If the fic were being read aloud, you could whisper those words around their 'root' words. But, here we deal in pixels ;)

Anyhoo, hope you enjoyed that little trip into my brain! I love languages and culture and all the good things. Thanks for the ask! :)

[thornfield13713]

night, bling and change for ned

What does your OC wear to sleep? Do they have a favorite pair of PJs, or are they more the birthday suit type?

In the Underdark, they mostly slept in animal form. It was generally safer to be a sleeping panther than a lone sleeping drow, and often more comfortable as well. At camp, they mostly sleep in their camp clothes, just taking off the bodice of the outfit for added comfort while they sleep. So, peasant-blouse-and-trousers. They might also get back to sleeping in panther form if they feel particularly unsafe, or if somewhere is too uncomfortable even with a bedroll, but might be more bearable for an animal. They also get into the habit of sleeping in owlbear form and cuddling up with the owlbear cub and Scratch. When they get to the Elfsong and rent rooms, though, they might end up just sleeping naked for the novelty of getting to do so and still have clean or clean-ish clothes to put back on in the morning.

What jewelry does your OC wear? Does it have any meaning?

Ned has their silver earrings. Four of them in each ear, the 'bard rings' style. No particular meaning except that they like the look of it, but it's one of the few things they have left from Menzoberranzan, though they've adopted a much simpler style of earrings since leaving (scavenged from the bodies of raiders in a myconid colony some years ago). They have also adopted the standard array of rings and amulets scavenged from bodies and crates, but those are just for practical purposes.

Has your OC ever drastically changed their appearance? Significant haircuts, big tattoos, complete wardrobe swap, etc? Why? How do they feel about the change?

Ned is more-or-less entirely unrecognisable from who they were as a young priestess of Lolth in Menzoberranzan. Their hair is maybe the only thing that is mostly consistent, as they couldn't quite bring themself to cut it, but even then they wear it very differently - space buns and long braids instead of the more formal style that proclaimed their status in drow society. Similarly, they used to dress in a much more typically drow style - dark colours, revealing clothing, all the conventional signs of power and status in drow society, even if they weren't entirely comfortable with it, because projecting power and status was a big part of how one gained and maintained that status. And that's without mentioning their beholder tattoo.

The change happened sort of piecemeal. First, they were fleeing Menzoberranzan in nothing but a prisoner's shift, and had to find clothing as they could. And then they started learning how to make dyes, and pale colours were...maybe not practical, but something...fun. Edgy. The sort of thing that you didn't wear in drow society if you wanted to go anywhere. In essence, Ned is having their rebellious adolescence in their mid-hundreds, after having spent their actual adolescence as a perfectly-behaved little model initiate.

[pulim-v]

Asgorudy week day 4: AU!

I don't really have a name for this AU? Maybe DeltaHouse? It's basically a The Owl House crossover, with the monsters as witches. I'll go into the specifics a bit after the cut, but here's the pic:

So, umm, to be a bit more specific, DeltaHouse isn't really swapping any particular characters around because I couldn't think of characters with similar personalities and chemistry to these two, maybe Willow's dads but that would mean one of them would have Abomination magic and it doesn't fit either, or Hunter and Willow but the personalities only kinda match up and it's not in the way that the body types and magic affinities do.

So, why did I choose this? Three things mainly, general Owl House brainrot, wanting the two to use magic, and wanting more humanoid designs for them. The three combined into the general idea, and then I had to decide the types of magic each would use: Plant magic for Asgore and Construction magic for Rudy, which kinda diverge from their supposed regular types of magic but are based on their personalities and likes

Uhh, yeah I think that's about it. I could go in detail about the designs but I genuinely didn't really think them through that much lol. Anyways, sorry for posting so late! I was busy with school stuff today and just Could Not pay attention to what I was doing 😞

[timbrrwolfe]

It occurs to me that I never actually posted about my current BG3 playthrough and the character I made for it. Or if I did I forget what I tagged the posts. So.

Basically, I wanted to rush through a playthrough to unlock the self-imposed limiter of "No making other characters, no playing with friends until I finish 1 (one) playthrough." Which seems to have backfired a bit because I'm currently stalled out early into Act 2. Anyway. To that end, I decided to make a very generic self-insert type, so I didn't spend a ton of time in character creation. Except that when I picked a body type I /thought/ was gonna be husky or heavyset, it turned out to be muscular. So my elf (half-elf? I think?) ended up looking....a bit more chadded out than I intended.

Seriously he's even making the face. Sort of. Anyway, I left it.

I also decided to stick to one class for the whole playthrough, rather than multiclassing. Part because I wanted to keep things simple, and part because, uh, most of the other build ideas I have are multiclasses. Maybe all of them actually. Though they probably won't all stay that way. But I digress. I settled on Storm Sorcerer because I'd heard that lightning could be ridiculous in this game, and I'm a fan of storms, so it worked out. That lasted for a few levels. until I realized that the lightning build I was thinking of was a multiclass of Sorcerer and Cleric. At which point I decided to pivot.

it took some thought, but I knew pretty quickly that I wanted to stay with a spellcaster. Specifically, a charisma based spellcaster, since I'd been enjoying being the face of the party and all. Which meant I had to choose between Bard (which I dismissed because I had already passed on an interaction with a Bard NPC), a different strain of Sorcerer (Draconic Bloodline was already spoken for and I didn't feel like dealing with Wild Magic for my first playthrough), or Warlock. I ultimately decided on Warlock because, even though I'd already put some time in with Wyll without being a Warlock, it was still the best option in my head. And then the rest of it just kind of fell into place from there.

He became an Archfey Warlock. His patron granted him power just to see what he'd do with it because they sensed a fun mix of mischief, knowledge-seeking, and ability to influence others. Pact of the Tome due to the aforementioned knowledge seeking. The backstory became that he'd hidden what he was at first because it's smart to keep your cards close to the chest. And while he loved learning he felt no need to let everyone know everything about him immediately. Shadowheart wasn't the only one keeping secrets. Speaking of Shadowheart, he cozied up to her and got her to open up to him by letting her do so at her own pace. And once she trusted him enough for that, he started to question her about her beliefs in Shar. Not for any particular purpose, just to get her thinking about things. Lae'zel got a similar treatment, in a more accidental way. She was part of the party early on, then got swapped for Karlach for most of Act 1, only making an appearance for a specific mission. During which, he convinced the blindly loyal Lae'zel to lie to her Queen's right hand man, avoiding a fight. And then after that mission I put her away for a while longer, bringing Karlach back. Until other things happening on the adventure made it clear that Lae'zel was going to feature a much bigger part. Including accidentally bedding her, despite courting Shadowheart the whole time. Oops. But neither seemed to have a problem with it. Yet. Despite their animosity towards each other. I'm sure it'll be fine and definitely won't blow up in his face down the road.

Anyway I renamed him to Trick at some point. It seemed fitting. And was a minor Lost Girls reference. Someday I'll go back and finish that show. I won't go into every choice I made with Trick, since this is long enough already (and I probably don't even remember all of them), just know that there have been a lot of persuasion and deception checks. Also despite his interest in knowledge and fucking around and finding out (...and having a patron that gives him power) Trick has something of a moral qualm with the idea of using the mind flayer parasite to become stronger. Probably something about the non-consensual nature of it, if I really had to put a finger on it. So he's been studiously avoiding that (which means I'll definitely be having a playthrough where someone dives right into the deep end with it. Just don't know who yet, as most characters I have in mind are pretty opposed to the idea.

Also, bonus, but if you recognized that the pink-haired character in the screenshot above (Larian photo mode soon pls) wasn't an NPC you can find in your game, that's because she isn't. As something of a salve for my altitis itching at me, I got a Hireling from Withers and made her after an OC for a story I haven't written yet. She's a thief Rogue, and I built her to be something of a gunslinger, which is not exactly accurate to the story idea, but the story doesn't really get into what kind of a build she'd have except that she's sort of Jessica Jones-y in that she's a private detective type solving mysteries and stuff. But I figured I probably wasn't going to do a whole playthrough with her, so she was a good candidate to be a hireling (and I didn't mind benching Astarion because I'd watched a good chunk of a playthrough by someone who is neck deep in Astarion love). The name is a placeholder but here's a better look at her.

I think she's human because you can't change hireling race (and I didn't think far enough ahead to hire a half-elf and respec her into a Rogue) but rest assured she's half-elf in lore.

[snuggles-and-struggles]

"Index" of my spicyhoney ideas and AUs, in no particular order

16-20/???

✮ Band

The first chapter has been sitting in my wip folder for years lmao. Basically, after surfacing, Edge unexpectedly winds up the singer/rhythm guitarist for an underground (lol) rock band. No one knows and he tries to keep it that way, until one of his friend group unknowingly gets recommended to see a show and invites a bunch of their mutual friends. Edge is also invited of course and is mortified, but ultimately decides to go on anyway.

Stretch in particular is stunned, even though they'd never really gotten along he is very much attracted to Edge and seeing that show certainly didn't help.

Probably the biggest reason I never finished it is because I couldn't ever really think of much of a cohesive story beyond Stretch and Edge bonding over music and falling for each other. Which is like. Fine but also kind of boring lol

-

✮ Code Blue

Another very old one that I think I've already posted a more full summary of here elsewhere. So I'll keep it brief. Edge was a lab experiment found in the secret labs of his underground after all the various undergrounds surface. He has a "vampire mutation" on top of just not really knowing how to be a monster since he grew up entirely isolated in an abandoned cage basically.

Blue is a nurse with a rehabilitation hospital that US Toriel runs, and asks specifically for his help rehabilitating Edge before he’s declared too dangerous and put down like an animal.

Of course it works and has a happy ending where Stretch helps him acclimate once he’s made enough progress to be released under Blue's supervision. Of course they fall in love, and it's complicated at times, but sooo worth it.

-

✮ VF

Again, another older one. Shortly after its conception, I of course thought up a spicyhoney variant.

At a point earlier in VF's timeline, before the others know the truth, an unexpected "glitch" throws the UT and US brothers in VF. Stretch and Edge get along horribly at first, yet that doesn't stop Stretch from jumping headfirst into one of Edge's "episodes" to try and help him.

Aside from Flowey, Stretch becomes the first person to know the truth about Edge and resolves to help him gain some measure of control.

Takes place in a Variable Ending setting where eventually US, UT, and VF wind up sharing a surface and Edge and Stretch get married and Stretch works from home while Edge goes off Voiding it up in the multiverse helping people, and it's mostly just domestic fluff aside from the occasional insane cryptid/body horror/existential drama bouts <3

-

✮ "Bad Brother" Swap

I might have the note for this one somewhere but now that the notes app search doesn't work it might take a while to find. But! Basically, US is a bad brother au.

UT, SF, and UF have already met, and manage to connect to a new universe. I don't actually remember how they get from point a to point b but they find out quickly about the way the Sans from US treats his brother. Shade, this specific UF Papyrus, is the one who actually retrieves the battered US Papyrus while some of the others go after the Sans in retaliation.

Afterwards, Shade basically decides this pathetic little thing is his and tries his best to help Honey, the US Papyrus, heal and recover.

Their characterizations differ a bit from my usual Edge and Stretch, hence the different nicknames. Shade is very...cold. He seems almost mechanical. Efficient and barely emotes, but he’s also very quiet and blunt generally. Aside from what he has to do as captain of the guard, he’s actually a deceitfully gentle giant (he’s also like a ft taller than Edge. Very Big).

Honey on the other hand is...quiet. Anxious and a bit skittish. More than anything his self image is what took a beating, feeling useless, worthless, and utterly incapable. He’s suspicious of Shade's motives initially, but too scared to really stop him. Luckily, it gets sorted out pretty soon in when he finally manages to ask and Shade bluntly tells him that he just sort of. Claimed him as his problem? He’s so pathetic and weak but he’s also kind and smells nice. So yeah. Also weirds him out seeing any version of himself so helpless so he wants to help him regain a stronger sense of self again.

Of course they fall in love super fast after that point, and eventually surface together and it's very nice and good 👍

-

✮ Reincarnation

This one is a looser sort of idea. It's one I've tossed around weakly a few times, rotated different scenarios, ones where Edge always remembers but Stretch doesn't, ones where that's vice versa, ones where they both know, ones where they used to be celestial gods who gave that up to be mortals who keep getting reincarnated and keep finding each other in ever life.

The most recent one was VF specifically, as Void's essentially immortal, so in that idea, Stretch keeps getting reincarnated across the MV and Void seeks him out every time he can. Sometimes Stretch remembers, other times he doesn't. And since he’s born into new AUs, it can vary like crazy what kind of world he’s in or even what kind of monster he is (though he’s always a Papyrus).

[toastedicarus]

I was feeling bad about missing the first post, but apparently the next update is in MARCH so I'm not too late if you think about it?

One of the things that put me off reading Twig the first few attempts was that instead of joining on the premise of 'superheroes' or 'magic' I was instead slapped in the face with the premise of 'biology' which while I think Wildbow does an excellent job of mucking about with to create cool, horrifying, and other sorts of rad shit with, isn't exactly my personal cup of tea? I'm a fake wildbow fan, I'm here mostly for the Rad Shit and rely on other wormbloggers to present Themes and Ideas and such.

Sy this is a lizard. A snake with legs is just a lizard. Did you perhaps miss the second lesson, after 'life needs these elements' in which they go 'this is a lizard'?

The beginnings of Sy being a little shit. I don't remember him laughing a lot later on though? I've heard people (including wildbow) describe twig as a coming of age story, so maybe this is part of it. Like I said earlier, do not expect particularly deep cuts in this liveblog lol.

Hello Fred-From-Scooby-Doo. I sure hope you don't rot away first when these child experiments are revealed to have expiration dates. This is also the second mention of the wax masks that I thought were going to be like, an Everytime thing instead of just something prepared for this particular outing. I dropped my first reading this very chapter because I didn't want to read about wax cracking just as often as taylor reached out for her swarm, given wyvern makes Sy watch peoples faces for tells or whatever.

Hello the girls! I'm sure the gender ratio of the team here will have no surprises later on. Lillian gets a smaller introduction here compared to the other lambs(? I'm not sure if they're called that at this point.) I faintly recall her being the unenhanced medic/intern on the team, and I wonder if Sy thinking about her less here is intentional.

Hello Helen, who's apparently the best lamb (And I found myself agreeing with this with what little I read.) I forgot you were a fucked up blonde little girl like bonesaw, with the 'bending body in odd angles' I had swapped your mental image to the girl from the ring after a bit.

I had to google Wallaces law, because I am dumb. I don't know if this is 'alt earth Wallace got more credit for shit than Darwin did' sort of thing or if Wallace's Law is also a real thing.

Is this the problematic yuri I've heard about or am I reading too much into things because the next chapter comes out in march?

Giving Sy the benefit of the doubt for now that he's doing this because he thinks it's funny to make her mad and genuinely doesn't think it's an issue, and is also twelve(?). May change my tune later given I've heard it doesn't really get better?

Mostly clipping this bit trying to burn the aesthetic into my mind given I forget it over time, replacing every location with a new Generic Brown Brick Building. Haphazard buildings with petrified trees holding them up. Not just Detroit but More British.

We live in a so-Sy-ety.

Oh yeah it was intentional. I remembered one thing about twig, woo.

Very good character establishing being done here.

Hi Jamie. Trying not to read too much into initial description seeing as I know some spoilers about them, but not liking how they look with short hair instead of being happy with long hair is relatable. Men's haircuts suck.

I wonder if we ever get details about the gangs previous monster of the week shenanigans. Also if one counts the kittens, this is two mentions of baby murder in the first chapter.

Sy doing his thing is fun. The fact he's like 12(?) and looking down on the ten year old is also fun.

Wildbow fixing his problems with numbers by introducing ten dollars as a lot of money to share between a few ten year olds. Any attempts to calculate how much anything is actually worth in the twigverse is going to be wrapped up in this murkyness.

So you were curious then.

And given Helen's manner of sitting it actually is a recurring problem. god damn it Sy.

Wollstone, after a google, is just a reference to Mary Shelleys mother, and not another real scientist I should feel dumb for not recognizing.

I could not picture Jamie's hiding spot or the way the door was propped up. Taylor and your omniscient swarm to make sense of wildbow tabletop RPG paced fights, I miss you. I'll even take Victorias 'thinker 1' power. Someone stitch echolocation bat ears on Sy or some shit I'm begging you.

Confirmation that Sy was being a twelve year old about the ten year old he was playing.

I guess I can let the lizard thing go if Sy is only calling that because they're giving all their cases dorky saturday morning cartoon names

I remember Sy calling himself dogshit at fighting and I really hope theres more of these moments where shit he tries just fucking fails like this.

The gang of 12 year olds watching a man be devoured by his own creation, and Sy is more interested in putting Lillian in the out group for covering her eyes. I think this is why I dropped twig the second time, I judged it by it's first chapter and thought with the 'monster of the week' type of plot, with the focus on hunting and food, pretty much every death was going to be indulging in vore instead of other fun ideas for death in a 'biopunk' setting. Snake charmer is a decent starter antagonist, I'll probably have more thoughts about him once we have others to compare him to. Being against the academy but wanting to join it, spouting a few lines about

I don't know Sy well enough yet to know if he was lying to me, the reader about the fake fall he made sound natural in the narration, or if he's just actually bad at fighting. There's a post going around about 'real people falling for the acts that characters put on' and Sy might be doing that to me.

Hooray government created child murderers! You did it! See you again in March, apparently.

[marissapaul]

12/22 day 7: Syncretism and Cuba

so i of course have to start of with something tangentially related to the day's readings. this is orisa from the video game overwatch. i didn't make this connection yesterday, but reading The Blood of Mothers i was reminded of her and i remembered her being from numbani, overwatch's representation of a utopian african city. i did a little more digging online and it turns out that she was named after the yoruba orisha's but the relation kind of stops there. her values and backstory are pretty watered down and generic, her wiki page just says that she is devoted to "honor and duty" which could mean any number of things. and unlike my digging on far cry 6 yesterday, the discourse surrounding orisa's yoruba inspiration was not nearly as pleasant nor did it feel like people felt authentically represented. this is not necessarily surprising as blizzard has a notoriously not great work culture

https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2021/08/06/blizzard-culture-sexual-harassment-alcohol/

but on to today's readings! i particularly enjoyed The Blood of Mothers. I have become interested recently in corporeality in history and talking about people's relationship to their body and lived experience and this is a solid addition to the toolkit. it also feels like a lot of atlantic scholarship in the past twenty years that has given considerable attention to the ways in which Black women especially were in such a liminal space as their bodies were so important for labor and for reproducing and they were pseudoscientifically presumed to have higher pain tolerances which made them "ideal" candidates for medical experimentation and the rigors of childbirth. yet they were simultaneously made out to be an incorrect example of femininity. these women were simultaneously integral to the truly immense wealth that was procured through the slave economy, and somehow not important as people. this is the conversation that The Blood of Mothers talks to, and i appreciated reading this particular aspect of it. i think that it was specifically positioning reproduction:fertility & transformation:witchcraft which made this piece so powerful for me. transformation being analogous to witchcraft makes so much sense to me. we've spent a lot of time in this course looking at the ways in which colonial authorities and white supremacy have tried to control witchcraft, and if you just swap out "witchcraft" for "transformation" right there, the picture becomes abundantly clear. change is dangerous to an institution that is precariously balanced upon a pseudoscientific and hateful interpretation of the universe. and that is what witchcraft is, change. making new. adapting. creating out of whatever materials have been given. in a history course we might spend time each week talking about our definition of witchcraft. we often do this over the course of the semester as we work towards our historiographies, and i think this might be a useful practice for me going forward in these reflections. witchcraft can be so many different things, but it is - at least in part - change. i will keep coming back to this with a willingness to adjust and add and... change with new information.

i also thought it was really interesting to learn about how important post-menopausal women were to the economy of yoruba especially as a figurehead and overseer. i tend to enjoy bottom-up histories so that is typically what i read but what i read is always from a post-contact perspective so it was interesting to read what was not really a top-down history, but yoruba society was just structured so differently than anglo society that i found it really interesting to read about these women who were at the top, figureheads and negotiators that kept the economy of yoruba alive and thriving.

but then we also see how this relationship to the mother's relationship turned inward when it came to the new world. if witchcraft is about change, then the way these women changed their circumstances was through infanticide and voluntary abortions. going back to what i talked about in previous posts, freedom looks different for everyone. and freedom can be asserted in different ways by different groups. for enslaved Black women, who were so so so vitally important to the system of slavery because of their ability to reproduce an exploited labor force, infanticide and abortion was one way in which they were able to assert their freedom. and yet they did not turn these relationships inwards only, they began creating new types of community. the article talks about this horizontal refabrication of disparate west african people and heritages into a common/allied heritage of those who survived the middle passage. community adapted. it no longer made sense to organize community in the way that these individuals had organized in their homes. and this all goes back to the importance of these west african spiritual traditions being rooted in the here and now, concerned with the material reality of its practitioners. for what is a set of spiritual beliefs if not a blueprint for how to live in the world. and when your spirituality is connected to the corporeal, we see that really powerful transformations are able to happen.

this is a video essay about wakanda forever and its depiction of grieving and an african spiritual tradition. in particular, he talks about community grieving and the idea of a spiritual totem that communities can draw strength from (the figure of the black panther is a spiritual totem) but he goes on to talk about how it is actually community that provides the power to the spiritual totem and thus the totem is self-reinforcing. i clung on to a particular quote from the video that goes, "so long as there's a village, there will always be a totem" it really perfectly encapsulates the power of community and the importance of intentionally building community that is able to lean on one another for strength. because (SPOILERS AHEAD) wakanda does not stop functioning in the year between t'challa's homegoing and when shuri takes on the mantle of the black panther. of course that whole time the country was looking to the black panther for strength but the black panther was not there. what was there was a bunch of wakandans who uplifted one another and kept the country moving forward and so the totem of the black panther really actually was there the whole time because it is every wakandan that believes in the power of the ancestors and in the black panther to protect through which the black panther has power as a spiritual totem. if y'all couldn't tell yet, i'm a big fan of community and it is the central focus of my thesis.

In anything we do, 

If we do not guarantee the place of women

That thing will not succeed. 

[Ifá says,] “we should acknowledge the power    of women,” 

[And that,] ‘‘if we acknowledge their power, 

The world will be peaceful.”

i love this poem from page 26 of Hidden Power. humanity has structured society in so many different ways over its 260 century journey and it is so wonderful to see a structuring of society that pays clear attention to the power of women in real and tangible ways. "nana bakuu is the courage and accomplishment of women, sublimed to the form of an orisha" p. 68.

one of my biggest gripes with evangelical christianity is that it is so person-centric and not focused on tangible ways that people might make their life better. and i think that is deliberate. being told to pray on something does not tangibly change the reality of your life. but all of these here-and-now religions we have been studying couple the idea of prayer with tangible action, and that is what makes them so powerful. in fact, that coupling of tangible action actually makes the act of praying more meaningful. because speaking to a community-based support group (alive or otherwise) that is going to then tangibly help you with your situation is so powerful. spirituality as we have seen it presented in this course is not abstract and unreachable. it is tangible and powerful. and i like that kind of spirituality.

[nerves-nebula]

you know what that's fair! I kinda somewhat co-hab and eh? it's more wonky than cool but I think that's 'cause we're both kinda passive RIP. One thing that gets really wild is identity issues, because after so many years of co-habing where's the difference between the two people?

Like, idk it gets blurred and messy and traits can swap back and forth, but DANG if you wanna info dump you can!! wanna rant about one thing in particular? go for it!! (as long as the other guy is chill lol). The problem is that you can get stuck in a loop of just talking to each other because like, you already know that person yeah?

idk living with just yourself in your head sounds easier in some ways but also sounds a lot more lonely. Like where's the commentary on things? Where's the random opinions and stuff?

Another -very odd and probably VERY specific- experience I've had with it is the experience of having 2 dreams at once! Like on dream is more visual while there's an entirely separate more auditory-based dream happening. It's really hard to explain and nothing IRL will ever capture anything close to that experience, but it sure is wacky!

I'd rate it 6/10. It's cool sometimes and I've adapted, but sometimes it absolutely SUCKS because you live permanently with your best friend (<- ???) but you can't like, go do stuff with them or live together or stuff like that. We're both trying our best tbh. The other guy LOVES pancakes though and they make me sick so there's that too LMAO

Trying to find rep that isn't about one person being intrinsically bad is toughhhhh. But we LOVE reading things like that because explorations into psyches are fascinating!

idk if you wanna ask a question or whatever go for it haha

OH. I didn't realize you were speaking from experience! I should probably make it clear that I'm not, like, wishing for DID or to be a system or something hah. I never had DID but my brain made like, these auto response voices for me because I couldn't handle doing things on my own and they both turned very, very mean in the end. So I had to get rid of them. I try not to miss them though, cause they really were just the meanest parts of myself hah.

I'm a bit disappointed in myself tbh because I don't have any questions ready!

When I imagine this kind of body sharing scenario, I'm usually thinking of it in terms of sharing physical experiences and supporting each others goals. And (this is a bit embarrassing to admit) the intense intimacy of literally sharing a body and life with someone.

I've kind of always desperately wanted to be understood (cause of a lot of reasons, one of which might be The Autism but there was a lot of other shit going on too) and the idea that I would share my entire life and experiences with someone DIRECTLY is. Well it's everything I want.

Hm, I guess one question I've got is how you guys decide what your life goals in general are going to be. Like, if one of you wants to go to college but you wouldnt be able to afford schooling for both the things you guys like, how do y'all decide what to pursue?

[yuleshootureye]

Madwheelclair and Mike realizes his feelings and Mike goes to Will for help and Will’s just like ‘you couldn’t have realized you were queer when we were 14 I pined Michael I mean idk maybe just be in a three person relationship, it’s working for my brother and your sister and steve harrington’ and Mike is like ‘??? they’re just living together because it’s cheaper’ and will’s like ‘no, they’re really not’

and then Mike calls Nancy and is like ‘how did we both get the threesome gene I mean how do I stop being in love with my best friend so that I don’t ruin my relationship with him and my relationship with Max and also am I gay now???’

And Nancy gives her perspective on being in a triad/throuple/whatever but also Jonathan asks for the phone and talks to Mike (basically his second younger brother, and he’s already had a version of this talk with Will, and now I’m having Byers Brothers Feelings but anyway) about how he’s been there, he’s been the nerdy kid going through a sexuality crisis in small town Indiana but fuck those people they don’t matter and also there’s this thing called bisexuality and it’s okay if you’re gay but also you can be attracted to more than one gender and it’s okay

and Mike calls Will back and they have a heart to heart about Mike having a crush on Lucas and how much it sucks to have a crush on a friend and worrying about ruining the friendship and how Will has been there and he knows it sucks but also he knows Mike will get through this and maybe be braver than Will was and actually tell his crush he likes him and then they side-track into Mike assuring Will he’s brave and Will assuring Mike he’s brave because idk i like it when the support each other

and then idk confessions and madwheelclair happen I guess

[teddy-feathers]

Prompt from @moss-flowers-trees not exactly fulfilled.

Up to No Good

-

Now it was well known that across the multiverse there was no Papyrus lazier than Stretch. After all, most took him as nothing more than a 'swapped' personality of Classic Sans and his brother.

That was their - a collective term here referring in a general way to the entirety of the multiverse and all of the alternates - first mistake.

Because a swapped Papyrus was still a Papyrus and all Papyri enjoyed a good jape.

Their second mistake was, as always, underestimating his brother.

Blue was a Sans in the way Stretch was a Papyrus, and from day one had resented being underestimated. Credit where its do, no one could do shenanigans like a Sans, especially his brother. It was as admirable as it was terrifying.

The last was more of a fortuitous boon, luck if one really wanted to be so crass, then a mistake on anyone's part and that was no one spoiled the fun.

So to set the stage, to really understand just how priceless the current situation of a nightmare carnival mirror image of him frothing in rage, you have to go back to the beginning.

Not the very beginning - though any good story should perhaps start there - for the sake of time, argument, and a joke that will only grow stale for having to wait for it, let it be assumed for the moment that Stretch is the center of the universe the second he and his brother stumble into a room full of strikingly unfamiliar faces in some sort of mirror maze of 'what ifs' and 'could have beens'.

Papyrus - one of many now, always? Apparently. - zones out, empty sockets not giving away his unfocused attention as Not his Brother Sans reluctantly and with much prodding from a much more handsome and friendly reflection Papyrus explains something about Universal Causality. What homeowners insurance had to do with this bowl of Flowey Flakes they found themselves in he missed, but at some point someone had pointed out that they couldn't all share the same name without even the most friendly of them wanting to dust the others like some bad Highlander reboot.

His brother, Blue now - cleverly claiming the Sans favorite color as his own - nudges him from a lovely little daydream back into the existential nightmare that was the current universe, and Papyrus folds his fingers together and lifts them above his head tilting this way with that until his back pops. This is met with disgusted looks from many faces around the room - most of them his own - and he slumps back comfortably into his hoodie. "Guess I'll go by Stretch."

Several voices protest of course, because life from now on was going to be lived by committee.

"Well That is certainly... unique Orange Me." Says Putting a Positive Spin on This With All His Might Papyrus - or Creampuff as he'd agreeably allowed Edgelord Papyrus to dub him.

"It is Ridiculous is what it Is." Protests the version of his brother that had wandered into a Hot Topic and had never left. "It doesn't Fit with the Already Established naming convention!"

It was times like this that he - The Papyrus who was going by Stretch for Spite now - was glad he had never bothered with the magic expenditure that was eyelights. Meant no one could see him roll his eyes.

There was no Convention - no real pattern for the group as a whole or even just through the pairs. Classic Sans - named such for his outdated old man jokes no doubt - seems to notice all the same and huffs out a laugh. "gotta say buddy, kinda agree - name like that seems like a stretch."

Blue looks as cross as Stretch feels but it would take someone who knew him well to see it. He grabs onto Strectch's arm in a show of solidarity and asks "Brother, why did you choose such a Unique name?" The way he says unique stands in tonal counterpoint to how Creampuff had said it, and Stretch smiles down at his older brother discarding the first three responses that come to mind.

No need to make his brother worry, or get labeled as the Depressing Papyrus right out the door - even if none of this did matter. "Cause bro, I'm the tallest one here."

Of course his brother immediately catches on, lights going to stars in a way that brightens his expression both figuratively and literally. "Nyeh heh heh of Course! How very Astute of you Stretch!"

Immediately several voices raise in protest, and boy did his own voice sound worse when amplified and played back a half dozen times, but it was worth it when his Blues cuts across the din to add with sly earnestness "I Knew my brother was the Coolest!"

This of course started a whole new argument that derailed the last and the rest should have been history.

But of course some part of him just couldn't let it go.

A universal constant for Papyri apparently was a vicious strain of competitiveness. And while Stretch could have let the jape die, it was nice to have something - no matter how fake - to lord over the other Oh So Talented versions of himself.

Literally in some cases.

Creampuff, if not a Perfect host, was unfailing in his attempts to fulfill that responsibility while the whole living arrangement situation was dealt with, that when Stretch's insomnia got the better of him he'd inevitably pop into the kitchen just to grab something off the top shelf for his better mirror's ungodly hours Breakfast Prep.

This was particularly satisfying as Creampuff apparently put everything up on the very top shelves and with the whole lot of them living there, something inevitably ended up pushed to the very back that he just Had to have. It was child's play - minus the murderer possessed doll - to time things that Stretch's arm could slip over his and pull done the item before he had a chance to grab it. Add that to some casual comment about the perks of being tall and...

It was inevitable that Edgy Mc My Chemical Romance would catch wind of the ongoing shenanigans. And unlike Creampuff who tried hard and was generally likable despite his Arrogance - another trait shared by those who shared his face . Edgelord didn't have a redeeming bone in his body. Made him insufferable... and a particularity sweet target for tomfoolery.

So when at some dinner or another that they all agreed to go to on occasion after they'd gotten their own places, and Edge once more started in about how obviously he was the Superior Specimen of the Skeleton Species, well Stretch wasn't going to take that lying down.

Or, well, he was laying on the Fell - the call sign they'd agreed to for their universe - Bro's couch. But he had lifted his hand and said in a deliberately matter of fact dry tone, "Not the tallest though."

It was like he had murdered their damn cat (who was a friendly surface beasty... if you didn't mind being considered a scratching post). Edge sputtered in rage and had dragged him upright by force, while Stretch uncooperative hug heavily like a rag doll in his unphased grip.

If Creampuff was the Handsome Papyus than Edge was the Strong Papyrus, it would have been easy to hate him just for that if he didn't so obligingly make himself as unlikable as he had. Of course with a little expended magic to give his brother the Babybones Look that worked every time, and Blue's quick intervention with a level and a bit of slight of hand - the fight was diverted and the Japery continued.

Perhaps the most agreeable of the versions that had clowned their way out of the Multiverse Machine that day was the one that went by Mutt. Agreeable in the sense he kept his head down, mouth shut, and kept away from all of them. That could be because his brother was annoying enough for the both of them, but Stretch thought an argument could be made that Mutt didn't consider himself a Papyrus at all - he'd already had the moniker long before the pageant had begun afterall.

Black combined the Worst of Stretch's brother and the Best - if that quality could even be ascribed to him - of Edge. A menace of a monster who honestly came across as the smallest of the Sans in a more convincing way than Stretch was the tallest of the Papyri... Not that anyone had dared mention it to him of course. Stretch was saving the observation for a special occasion.

For whatever reason the Tiny Tyrant had taken an exception to the idea that he was just the evil twin of Blue and went out of his way to be exceptionally petty about finding ways to make himself out to be the better version of his older brother.

Honestly it was a bother and Stretch tried to stay out if it since Blue Obviously could take care of himself but for whatever reason Black seemed to take Stretch's height as a challenge as much as any Papyrus... With the sole exception of Mutt.

Trying to recreate the circumstances of Edge's measuring contest between the Stretch and his own brother during a holiday social backfired spectacularly into Mutt curling even more into himself and Stretch - more than a little tipsy - actually challenging Mutt to see who could slump the most.

Mutt had shrunk so fast into his coat that his skull had almost vanished amidst the fluff like a turtle and Stretch had laughingly declared him the victor, pleasing Black and being the last time for years that anyone bothered with his height.

So now onto the present situation.

Edge had been so pleased when he ambushed him and his brother in the grocery store, smug about his six inch heeled boots and his mastery thereof, dying to show up Blue who also had an insatiable love of the damn feet death traps and he had turned to ice his cake by pointing out that with these he could be the tallest of the Papyri...

That annoying smirk whipped clean off as he met sockets - exactly level - with Stretch who didn't do more then smile back because this was the joke of the lifetime.

"How!" He choaks, the sweetest music to hear.

Stretch leans in even closer to whisper conspiratorially "I'm standing up straight."

This only makes Edge froth with rage and stomp off without ever noticing that Stretch had been standing on a divider on the floor giving him a physical lift along with the rise to his spirits when Edge's dropped like a man into a river with cement shoes.

Blue laughs, mood doing a 180 as quickly as Edge's. "You should have told him the Truth Stretch!"

"Mmm?" He hums curiously, moving to drap himself back atop the already half full cart. The other versions of himself were fun to get the goat of but they were exhausting even in small doses. "What that this place's floor is poorly designed? But he was being insufferable."

"Nope," His older brother says in an insufferable tone of his own - oh no, not one of his 'great' jokes. Those were the worst. "That the reason you're always going to be taller than the others is that you're always Up to No Good!"

Stretch groans and covers his skull with his arms, pushing the cart away with more vigor than he'd shown anything all day. "Title drops are the Height of bad comedy."

Of course that only makes Blue laugh harder.

[randomnessunicorn-imagine]

US+SF+UF+UT Gaster reacting to one day coming home to see his SO asleep on the couch with wings made of chitin(it's what makes up most of a bugs wings, like butterflies, bees, dragonflies, ect) When SO wakes up and is asked about it, they freeze a moment, their wings tensing closer to them before slowly explaining that they are delicate and easily damaged, and didn't show him to avoid risking any damage done to them, and that SO didn't want to risk loosing him in case he thought they were ugly.

{ Aww~I’m happy to receive some asks about other characters that are not the skelebros, I love them –don’t let me be misunderstood- but I think every characters deserve love ~Then, I don’t know very well his Swap and SF version but I tried anyway -! And send me more asks about Gaster, he’s cool and I had so much fun writing this-!  }

⊰ Tale! Gaster ⊱

You were the one who saved him from the misery he lived when he was into the void.He has never believed in miracles, God or angels, in any religion since he was a scientist and scientists could not believe in those irrational and fancy things. This would be crazy.From the first time he saw you, he felt a strange feeling he has never felt in his life. Something brand new, magical and special. You gave to him life back. Like he saw the light of Heaven because you appeared just like an angel in his eyes and he has always thought you were too special for this world. These last days, Gaster worked so much in his lab and he ignored you, because science has always been his true and eternal love even if he loved you so much in the same way, but sometime his passion got the best of him without realizing. You knew it and you have never complained this behaviour of his, this was one of the reasons he adored you.He realized he ignored you a bit much and he wanted to apologise to you because he thought he was not the mate you deserved and he had to spend more time with you.The moment he came back home hearing only the sound of the clock. Tick tock. No other sound, it was quite sad. He did not call your name, he just searched for you until he found you laying on the couch. When he noticed your wings, he remained enchanted. He could have never imagined something so beautiful. You were just like a terrestrial angel for him, but you were a real angel. He could not believe his eyes. Maybe he was dreaming.You were so scared and worried for reasons he could not understand and he felt sad and guilty because he knew it was his fault. He neglected you this period and he was unpardonable. You explained to him that you felt uncomfortable with your wings and they were so delicate and you were afraid he could find you disgusting since they seemed bugs wings. Gaster just smiled at you sweetly, walking up to you with his slow steps. Caressing your forehead, he assured you that you were perfect the way you were and your wings were so beautiful and extraordinary. He could never hate you, he thought he was the one to be hated. It was pretty funny and strange. He kissed your forehead telling he loved you so much with his timid voice because it was a thing he was not used to say, asking for your forgiveness because he was not so present in your life. You had nothing to worry because he was not going to leave you because of your wings. It was something so marvellous.

⊰ Fell! Gaster ⊱

Science was his true and real love and so many times he asked himself why you were his mate. It was an illogical mystery for him. Sometime he ignored this fact, keeping living his days with this unsolved mystery but, other times, he wondered why he could love a mere and simple human like you. He spent hours thinking about it, observing you with his cynical and scrutineer orbs while you were doing your jobs. Why? It was the most annoying question mark. It was so frustrating for a scientist not to understand something so simple. He was going crazy. You could see he was mad to you for something but you have never asked for an explication so the two of you ignored to each others. Gas was an egocentric and cold person who thought only to himself, he did not care even about Sans and Papyrus, and he did not consider them like his children or worthy of his consideration. Sometime, he said they were not his real sons but only two spoiled and annoying kids he decided to take care of because he felt particular generous in that moment of his life. At first, he started dating you only because he pitied you and he wanted to use you like his personal guinea pig for his eccentric experiments. Then, he strangely forgot this idea seeing you like a “not so bad” company. He had to discover the reason why he felt that way for you and he was sick and tired of this confusion that did not make him sleep at night and that was driving him mad.One day, Gas decided to come home earlier than his usual because he wanted to have a conversation with you, maybe he would have understood the reason why he found you more interesting than the other living organisms.The moment he opened the door, seeing you sleeping on the couch his soul missed a beat, and he felt a strange warmth inside his body even if it was not new. This was another question mark. Then, when he noticed your wings, he got curious and he desired to know what those wings were and where they came from since he has never seen them on you before. His imagination was exploring weird places of perversion and he wanted to study your new nature but your voice landed him into the reality and those horrible desires vanished instantly. You were afraid because you thought Gas was mad at you for have hidden your wings, like you lied to him about your real nature but you were only ashamed of yourself. When you explained to him your feelings, he could not understand even if he was incapable to say something sweet and comforting.Actually, Gas did not act mad like you thought; his voice was not that rude even if he was still serious. He told that he did not care you had wings or anything else. It was ok, that made you different from other humans. If you truly hated your wings he could have taken them off through a surgery, it was quite painful but if they made you uncomfortable. Don’t be worry, Gas did not want  to hurt you, since he did not want to use you for his experiments, anymore.The next day you would notice his behaviour changed, he appeared less rude and maybe he realized the sentiment he felt for you was not pity or curiosity, but something else he was still incapable to confess you.

⊰ Swap! Gaster ⊱

He has always been a weird man since he was the river man with the right mystery around him. Nobody knew his true identity, maybe you were the only one since you were always kind and sweet with him, sharing to him the lunches you bought to Muffet’s, listening to all his particular quotes and he was happy for this. You were his favourite human and company, his only company. Gasty loved so much bringing you to his boat singing you songs about the Underground or simple stories and fables because they were amusing and he felt so relaxed by your side. You made his life worthy and less boring.Even his job like as gondolier was getting better since so many people wanted to join him in his boat trips, driving everyone in the Underground. He became friendlier than before thanks to you, he did not care if he appeared less mysterious, since it was great to be happy.The day he came back home seeing you so sad and exhausted, he could not believe you were so tired and he suddenly approached you asking for an explication. Then, he noticed your wings and he realized he was not the only mysterious creature here and he felt nicely shocked, he laughed slightly. Then, you explained to him that you hated your wings because they appeared so weak and ugly, they were just like insect’s wings and this fact was so gross for you. Gasty did not think your wings were weird, they were so beautiful and you should have been proud being so special and gorgeous. He was sure everybody would congratulate to you and you had no reasons to hide them. He was so cold and suspicious before he met you, you helped him so much to become a better person and now he desired helping you with this problem because the things people considered flaws usually were not.

⊰ SwapFell! Gaster ⊱

You were an odd person. Really the oddest person alive if you wanted to spend your precious time with him, the weirdest gondolier of the Underground, actually he was the only gondolier here (and he was enough for now).Gassy could not understand why you enjoyed so much his stories that he found quite boring and a lot of them were real scary and you should have the taste of macabre if you kept listening to his horror stories, wow-! He was impressed but he has never manifested his curiosity to you, he always treated you with indifference and rudeness but you came back to him anyway and everyday so he got used to your presence. You were his greatest client –and he did not have so many customers since he had a bad reputation and everyone felt uncomfortable on his boat. Some legends said that some of his customers have never came back and they disappeared into the river, eaten by the mysterious creatures that lived there. Gassy was the one who loved to narrate these stories saying he only fed the beasts that lived in the waters of the Underground. It was one of his duties, but it was just a legend you did not believe. You thought he had a big imagination and it was so funny.When he saw you laying on the couch so weak and lifeless he thought the worst… Not that he cared about you but it was strange since you were the bright and amusing person here, not him. Then, he noticed your wings and he did not know what to think about it, maybe they were fake and you wanted to play some game with him…? A sort of role-playing even if he was too old for it. You woke up confused and alarmed because you did not want him to see your wings, they were your misery and shame. You explained to him your fear but he told you that he would have left you before, even without wings, but he was still here for reasons unknown for him and you were not that bad. You were good enough and your wings were not a problem for him, but maybe someone could have found them weird but he was ready to feed his lovely marine monsters with their wicked flesh.