#colonialism isn’t an ancient thing!

[cvctuslesbian]

my mom tried to call me an idiot today because i said that i think the united states being built on the blood and subjugation of other people is bad

[i-must-confess-i-am-an-idiot]

Being a non-native French speaker is like:

rolling your rs but you sound like an asthmatic cat

Rolling your rs good but only when you’re congested out of your mind (nasally language)

The difference between ‘u’ and ‘ou’ is in fact real and does in fact make a difference

Using the wrong u/ou and now ‘tu’ sounds like ‘two’ and you’re saying under insetead of over

WHY ARE ALL OF THE WORDS OBE WORD WHY CANT ANYONE SAY A PHRASE WITHOUT MAKIBG MY EARS BLEED FROM MELDING RHEM ALL TOGETHER SWEET GOD

Being intimidated by a 6-year olds language skills like babe I barely know that many words in English the fuck

My teacher s pending a whole class going ‘uh, yeah, you uh really don’t wanna say that word it DOES NOT MEAN WHAT YOU THINK IT MEANS DONT SAY IT NO’

THE FUCKING GRAMMAR OKAY. I LIKE ENGLISH GRAMMAR BUT DEAR GOD I WILL SOB IF YOU ASK ME TO USE PASSÉ COMPOSE AVEC L’IMPARFAIT OU MÊME UND PHRASE SUBJONCTIF JE VAIS MOURRIR LITTÉRALEMENT.

I literally almost failed my grammar final okay like actually don’t even look at me

LIKE MOST OF THE TIME THE SPELLING DOESNT EVEN MATTER WHEN YOURE SPEAKING. LIKE LITERALLY NATIVE SPEAKERS MAKE GRAMMATICAL ERRORS ALL THE TIME ABD THEYVE NEVER GOT SHIT FOR IT. NATIVE ENGLISH SPEAKERS MAKE GRAMMATICAL ERRORS ALL THE TOME TOO AND WE NEVER GET SHIT FOR IT. NO ONES GONNA CARE IF ITS ‘Parlait’ or ‘parlé’ or ‘parler’ (well okay not true there’s a slight difference in pronunciation between number one and the rest BUT STILL)

THEYRE PRONOUNCED THE EXACT SAME NO ONES GONNA FUCKING KNOW

Anyways. I love language

[maglors-anion-gap]

.

[rue-with-the-tarot]

I will never, ever trust anyone who calls themselves a priest(ess) unless they have a myriad of qualifications and experience behind them. Are you aware of the kind of responsibilities you’re accepting? Are you able to comfort the downtrodden effectively and not just say “the gods love you” and leave it at that? Are you able to keep your composure and not allow the plights of others to affect you so you can better be of service? Do you have experience in counseling and leadership? Are you prepared for when someone comes to you with a pile of woe upon their shoulders? Do you have experience or knowledge about community building? Are you well studied in both the culture, history and religious traditions of your chosen religion? Are you able to guide and nurture countless individuals and modify your knowledge and beliefs to fit into their lives? Are you able to continue the work of uplifting a whole community even when you are tired, depressed, or going through hardship yourself? If you are not able to be initiated and guided under a trove of elders and the more experienced, what are you going to do to combat that problem? Who are you responsible to? What are your morals for leadership? Are you able to admit when you are mistaken? Have you been acknowledged by others to be worthy of that title? How are you enriching someone’s life and practice outside of the culture of doomscrolling on the internet? Do you know how to write sermons? Do you know how to lead prayer and ritual for a lot of people? What will you say when a congregate comes to you, devastated by death? Rape? Trauma? Mental illness? Can you recognize the signs of spiritual psychosis? Do you know how to navigate that? Can you spot cultural appropriation? Have you deconstructed from white supremacy and colonialism? Do you have connections with others that have experience in other belief systems so you can direct people to where they need to go? Have you and the gods ever discussed what you are willing to sacrifice in order to hold this position? Are you aware that you will make sacrifices at all and that this isn’t just a cozy, fun thing? Are you even old enough? Do you have enough life experience? Are you able to guide someone older than yourself effectively? How will you serve your community outside of religion?

I know everyone is different in their religious lives, but for me personally, it took me 5 years to answer the call of priesthood, and I AM STILL NOT A PRIESTESS. I am unable to be initiated, so my path involves seminary and intensive theologian study for what will likely be about the next 10 years of my life. Under no circumstances will I set up a group chat and call myself a priestess, no disrespect, but the ease of it takes away from the sacredness. In ancient times, priests were educated from CHILDHOOD and assumed their duties in ADULTHOOD.

At best it feels self-serving and at worst, cultish, to just set up a digital server, call it a temple, and give yourself a flashy title.

[professorcalculusstanaccount]

Time for a pretty obscure character, it’s Miss Martine! In the Rodier version of Alph-Art everyone is incredibly 70s, while I love 70s fashion I thought I’d do my own design of her that’s rooted in the 30s. I was very much inspired by Miss Lemon from ITV’s Poirot.

Tintin absolutely needs some female friends, and friends that are more his age. I can imagine Martine, Chang and Tintin forming a chaotic trio and tearing up Brussels!

Martine is left in a predicament after her former employer was murdered. The case of his death may have been solved and her name may have been cleared, but she is now left in unemployment during an economic depression. 

She reluctantly goes to Tintin for help; things are a little awkward as he previously turned her down when she asked him out at the end of the last case. At Marlinspike she meets Chang who is just moving into his room, and she bumps into Ramo Nash, an artist who worked with the art gallery she was formerly employed at. Nash has been secretly seeing Captain Haddock so has been around Marlinspike more frequently.

Nash informs her of a new exhibition he’s working on at the Museum of Art and History and suggests she applies to work there as a curator. Chang helps break the awkward tension, leaving Martine intrigued about Tintin’s friend from Shanghai.

Martine decides to follow Nash’s advice and applies for work at the museum. Chang and Tintin tag along as Tintin wants to show Chang around the city. Before the interview Martine has a panic attack - Chang manages to calm her down and gives her encouragement. She later gets the job and quickly forms a friendship with Chang, the two often going out in the evening to dance at local jazz bars and dance halls.

In between cases the three of them meet up to hang out. Tintin isn’t used to spending time with his peers so is a little socially awkward. He also still feels guilty for accusing Martine of murdering her former employee, as well as for not reciprocating any feelings for her.

To smooth things out and to thank Chang for his help Martine decides to invite them to the museum’s archive for a behind-the-scenes tour, before Chang is due to return to Shanghai to see his family for the Lunar New Year. Chang’s excitement quickly turns cold when he sees artefacts that have been stolen through colonial force. He quietly laments to Tintin, who impulsively decides to steal an ancient Chinese whistle to return it to its place of origin.

The museum descends into chaos. Nash’s exhibition is cancelled. There is a huge police investigation. Martine is a prime suspect yet again. Tintin is, suspiciously, missing. She and Chang work together to track him down to clear her name. Rather conveniently, Tintin turns up in China having “retrieved” the missing whistle, but when she inspects it closely she can tell it’s a fake. She confronts Tintin about this, but Tintin tells her if it becomes known the real whistle is gone she may lose her job. Martine is horrified at his betrayal.

She decides to stay quiet but cuts ties with Tintin. She remains friends with Chang but warns him to be careful, and not to get too close to Tintin or his work. 

[gabessquishytum]

While backpacking through the wilderness, hob gets extremely lost. Unable to walk any further, he sets up camp in the forest and hopes in the morning he’s able to see more clearly.

That night, his camp is ambushed. Hob is awakened by strange creatures with glowing eyes. He shouts, sets off his flare and tries to fight, but they are too numerous. they take his things, bind him and carry him off too.

He’s brought to what seems to be a colony of a half-human half-animal race, and dumped as an offering at the foot of dream, their king.

Dream is ancient and huge, with a set of jet black wings rising behind him, and he peers down at hob with keen interest. He reaches out and runs his hand through hob’s hair.

Hob, at this point is so hungry, thirsty and scared, that he can’t help leaning into the man’s gentle touch, and he does as he’s bid and stands up.

The man’s wings flare out and over his head as he pulls hob closer. Hob isn’t sure what he is. He has wings, but a strange, snake-like tongue and sharp, retractable talons that he uses to slice hob’s clothes off. Hob whimpers a little at the sight of his own hardening cock, exposed to the air.

Dream chirrups and touches him, stroking his cock until hob is panting and squirming.

He’s begging by the time he comes all over Dream’s hand.

Dream purrs, picks hob up with unyielding strength, and carries him up into the air, where he has a nest dizzying high up. Hob would never be able to climb down on his own. Hob clings to dream so he doesn’t fall as Dream deposits him there. Hob is terrified but altogether too into it as Dream pushes apart his thighs, and studies his hole with eager focus, while his own strange looking cock rises between his legs. Looks like the king has a new mate.

This is peak monster porn, and i absolutely love it!

Hob is just completely lost as to what he can even do in this situation. He can't run away, nor does he particularly want to. The monster who now seems to own him if surprisingly beautiful and gentle, despite certain terrifying aspects (the strange hissing language of the creatures definitely takes a minute to get used to). The King of the creatures is also fiercely intelligent - Hob is starting to suspect that these strange beings are far more advanced than humans. Sometimes he feels like they can read his mind. The King certainly seems to know exactly what Hob likes sexually. His cock is strangely shaped with ridges running down the shaft and it is big, but Dream prepares Hob for it diligently with his own saliva. He always cums inside Hob and then plugs his hole shut for at least an hour afterwards.

Hob’s life in the nest, high above the ground, is surprisingly pleasant. The creatures bring him suitable food, he is never cold because Dream keeps him wrapped up in his huge magnificent wings whenever they're together. Hob’s life is one of luxury, really, and he spends most of his time being tenderly fucked by his King.

What does being the King's mate truly entail? Only time can tell. As people search for Hob on the ground in the wilderness, they have no idea that he's high above them with Dream’s serpentine tongue buried deep in his hole. Eventually they'll give up on finding him. But that's okay, because Hob is happy! He's having the adventure of a life time, and plenty of orgasms... what's not to like? Let's just hope that this new role as the King's mate doesn't involve anything more complicated, right??? Right, Dream???

[moldycigarette]

alright so i know this isn’t like my normal posts but a lot of people on this platform struggle with writers block, including me, and i wanted to give some prompts that could help! you don’t have to use these and can adjust them however you’d like, these are just ideas!

—————

Fiction & Creative Writing

1. a character wakes up in a world where everyone communicates through music.

2. a mysterious book appears on your doorstep, but its contents change every time you read it.

3. write about a time traveler who is stuck in the past and can only communicate through dreams.

4. a detective who solves crimes using supernatural powers realizes they’ve met their match.

5. a ghost is trying to prevent the person who killed them from dying.

6. a famous artist is haunted by a subject they’ve painted who comes to life.

7. your character is the sole survivor of an apocalyptic event, but soon realizes they're not alone.

8. a town where no one is allowed to speak after sunset, and no one knows why.

9. an inventor creates a machine that allows them to experience alternate versions of their life.

10. a person discovers their reflection in the mirror has its own consciousness.

Fantasy

11. a magical library appears only at midnight to those who need it.

12. in a world where dragons are extinct, your character finds a dragon egg.

13. your character inherits a mysterious key with no lock and begins a quest to find out what it opens.

14. write about a warrior who is bound by a curse to protect the very thing they want to destroy.

15. a forest that grows whenever someone tells a lie.

16. your protagonist discovers they are the reincarnation of a legendary hero, but with none of the hero’s abilities.

17. an ancient prophecy foretells that your character will either save the world or destroy it.

18. write about a society where magic is powered by emotions.

19. a kingdom built on clouds is in danger of falling to the earth.

20. a witch casts a spell that backfires, turning her into a child and her familiar into her guardian.

Science Fiction

21. a spaceship is sent to explore a distant planet, but the crew starts aging in reverse.

22. an AI designed to assist humanity begins developing emotions.

23. humanity’s last hope for survival is a space station, but something—or someone—inside it doesn’t want them to survive.

24. a society where everyone’s lifespan is determined at birth by an implanted chip.

25. your character discovers an alien artifact that changes their perception of reality.

26. a scientist creates a device that can predict the future, but only five minutes ahead.

27. the world’s oceans have disappeared, and underwater civilizations are revealed.

28. in the future, people can purchase memories and experiences—but at what cost?

29. a human and a robot must work together to survive on a hostile alien planet.

30. a colony on mars finds an ancient alien structure buried beneath the surface.

Romance

31. two rivals are forced to work together and uncover feelings neither expected.

32. your character accidentally texts a stranger and starts an unexpected relationship.

33. a love story set in a small town where everyone seems to know your character’s secrets.

34. two people from different timelines fall in love through letters that mysteriously appear.

35. your character is engaged but starts to question everything when they meet someone new.

36. write about a romance that blossoms during a road trip across the country.

37. your character returns to their hometown and reconnects with a childhood friend who has changed in unexpected ways.

38. a relationship between a human and a shapeshifter who struggles with their dual identity.

39. a character falls in love with someone from their dreams, only to meet them in real life.

40. your protagonist is a famous actor who falls for someone who has no idea who they are.

Horror

41. a family moves into a house where no one can leave after nightfall.

42. a seemingly ordinary object starts bringing terrible luck to everyone who touches it.

43. a town where no one remembers the year 1999, but your character discovers they lived there during that time.

44. your character is being watched by something in the shadows, but no one else can see it.

45. a child starts drawing pictures of places they’ve never been, but those places exist.

46. a group of friends find an old VHS tape, but every time they watch it, the events change.

47. your character wakes up in a hospital with no memory of how they got there and discovers they’re not alone.

48. a haunting occurs only when your character speaks a specific word they can’t remember saying.

49. write a story about a character who realizes they’ve been dead for years, but no one else knows.

50. a creepy doll your character threw away keeps reappearing in their home.

Historical Fiction

51. write about a soldier who returns home after a war to find their village completely changed.

52. a story set in ancient rome, where a slave and a senator form an unlikely alliance.

53. during the salem witch trials, a character must prove their innocence while hiding a dangerous secret.

54. set your story during the french revolution, with two characters on opposite sides of the conflict.

55. write about a young woman navigating life in the 1920s, struggling between traditional roles and modern aspirations.

56. your character is a spy during WWII, but their mission is compromised.

57. a historical figure falls in love with someone who wasn’t meant to exist in their time.

58. a doctor in the victorian era discovers a breakthrough that could change medicine forever, but at a high cost.

59. write a story set on the titanic, focusing on passengers from third class.

60. a knight and a scholar form an unlikely partnership to solve a mystery in medieval england.

Thriller & Mystery

61. your character receives a letter from a friend they thought had died years ago.

62. a private investigator uncovers a conspiracy that links seemingly unrelated crimes.

63. your protagonist’s sibling goes missing, but as they search, they uncover secrets about their family.

64. a heist goes wrong, and now your character is on the run from both the law and their partners.

65. write about a detective who must solve a crime, but they themselves are the prime suspect.

66. a series of disappearances in a small town are all connected by a single photograph.

67. your character is trapped in a game where their every move is being watched, but the rules are unclear.

68. a journalist uncovers evidence of a crime that happened decades ago, but someone wants to keep it buried.

69. a locked-room mystery where the murder weapon has vanished without a trace.

70. your character witnesses a crime but is unsure whether it was real or imagined.

Dystopian & Post-Apocalyptic

71. after the collapse of society, your character stumbles upon a group that claims they can rebuild the world.

72. in a future society, books are banned, and your character is part of the underground effort to preserve them.

73. your protagonist lives in a world where all forms of art are illegal, and they are secretly a painter.

74. a virus has wiped out most of humanity, and your character is immune—but they’re hiding that fact.

75. the government monitors everyone’s emotions through implants, but your character is beginning to feel something new.

76. in a world where water is the most valuable resource, your character uncovers a hidden freshwater spring.

77. a character is chosen to participate in a deadly competition, but they have no idea why they were selected.

78. the sky has turned permanently red, and no one knows why—but your character is determined to find out.

79. society is divided into castes based on intelligence, and your character is faking their way to the top.

80. in a future where memories can be bought and sold, your character is tasked with recovering a stolen one.

Literary Fiction

81. a character returns to their hometown for the first time in years and must confront their past.

82. your protagonist faces a moral dilemma that could change the course of their life.

83. write about a friendship that slowly unravels over the course of a year.

84. a character grapples with the realization that they are more like their parents than they ever wanted to admit.

85. a story about an ordinary day that takes an extraordinary turn.

86. your protagonist is an artist struggling with creative block, but an unexpected encounter changes everything.

87. a character is given a choice between two life-changing opportunities, but both have major consequences.

88. write about a family gathering where long-held secrets come to the surface.

89. a story about forgiveness, where a character must come to terms with a betrayal from the past.

90. your character navigates life in a big city while feeling completely disconnected from those around them.

Memoir & Personal Reflection

91. write about a time you felt completely out of your comfort zone.

92. describe a moment when you realized you were stronger than you thought.

93. what is a memory that you revisit often, and why does it stay with you?

94. reflect on a relationship that changed your life, for better or worse.

95. write about a place that holds special significance to you and why.

96. describe a moment when you had to make a difficult choice and what you learned from it.

97. write about an event in your childhood that shaped who you are today.

98. reflect on a time when you felt misunderstood and how it impacted you.

99. write about a dream you’ve had that you can’t seem to forget.

100. reflect on a moment of failure and what it taught you about resilience.

Romance x Mystery

1. a couple moves into a new home only to discover love letters hidden in the walls, all addressed to someone who lived there decades ago. they set out to uncover the fate of the mysterious lovers.

2. your character is a private investigator hired to follow someone’s spouse suspected of cheating. along the way, they start falling for the person they’re spying on—but discover something far more dangerous than infidelity.

3. two strangers meet on a train, both running from their pasts. they quickly fall for each other, but one of them is hiding a dangerous secret that could destroy their new connection.

4. a detective is assigned to protect a key witness, who turns out to be their ex. as they work together to solve the case, old feelings resurface, but so do the reasons they broke up.

5. your protagonist receives a love letter from a secret admirer—except it’s from someone they thought had died years ago. the search for answers leads them deeper into a web of lies and hidden passions.

6. a journalist meets a charming stranger while investigating a string of disappearances. as they grow closer, she begins to suspect the person she’s falling for may be involved in the case.

7. two former lovers reunite when a mutual friend goes missing. as they investigate, they discover that not only is their friend in danger, but someone is trying to keep them apart.

8. your character finds an old photograph of a couple at a flea market and becomes obsessed with finding out who they were. along the way, they meet someone who helps them uncover the mystery, sparking a romance.

9. a billionaire hires your character to solve the mystery of a missing family heirloom, and they quickly fall for the billionaire’s aloof but alluring sibling, who may know more about the theft than they’re letting on.

10. your protagonist is a novelist who starts receiving anonymous love letters that mimic the plot of their latest mystery book—except the events in the letters begin happening in real life.

11. two people inherit an old mansion, discovering a series of love letters that reveal a tragic romance tied to a long-unsolved crime. as they investigate, they find themselves falling for each other.

12. a couple's relationship is tested when one of them starts receiving cryptic, romantic messages from an unknown sender. the deeper they dig into the messages, the more dangerous the situation becomes.

13. your character's spouse disappears, leaving behind a single cryptic note and no trace. as they unravel the mystery, they uncover shocking secrets about the person they thought they knew—and question whether they should trust their love.

14. a woman finds a diary in a forgotten room of her partner's house, filled with entries that seem to predict the future—including their blossoming romance and an unsolved murder.

15. two rival art thieves fall in love while hunting for a legendary painting, but as they get closer to the truth, they discover one of them is keeping a dangerous secret.

16. a wedding is interrupted by the arrival of a mysterious stranger who claims to know the groom’s deepest secret. as the bride searches for the truth, she finds herself questioning the person she’s about to marry.

17. your character starts dating someone new, only to realize their new partner is connected to an unsolved crime from years ago. as they grow closer, they must decide whether to confront them or live with the suspicion.

18. a character receives an anonymous invitation to a masquerade ball, where they meet someone they feel an instant connection with. after the night ends, they’re left with only a cryptic clue to the person’s identity—and a growing sense of danger.

19. two amateur detectives fall for each other while solving a case, but the deeper they get into the mystery, the more they realize their pasts are dangerously intertwined.

20. your protagonist's ex goes missing, and as they investigate the disappearance, they begin receiving love letters and cryptic clues that suggest the ex may still be in love with them—or is leading them into a deadly trap.

21. an online dating match leads to a whirlwind romance, but when your protagonist tries to learn more about their new love interest, they realize the person’s entire identity might be a fabrication.

22. a librarian and a mysterious stranger team up to investigate an old family mystery involving forbidden love. as they unravel the clues, they find themselves drawn to each other, despite the growing danger.

23. a woman starts receiving flowers from a secret admirer, but each bouquet contains a puzzle piece that, when put together, reveals a decades-old mystery involving her own family.

24. two people reconnect at a high school reunion, but one of them is hiding their involvement in the disappearance of a mutual friend years ago. as old feelings resurface, so do dark secrets.

25. a detective falls in love with a suspect in a high-profile art theft. as they try to clear the suspect's name, they begin to question whether they’re being manipulated.

26. your character starts dating a brilliant scientist, only to discover that the scientist’s previous partner vanished under mysterious circumstances. the deeper they dig, the more dangerous their relationship becomes.

27. a couple’s honeymoon is interrupted when they find a hidden message in their hotel room, leading them to uncover a mystery involving a missing person.

28. your character falls for a charming stranger while on vacation, only to find out that the stranger is under investigation for a crime they may or may not have committed.

29. a letter from a long-lost love arrives, telling your character to meet them at a specific place. when they arrive, they find a murder scene and a trail of clues leading them to question everything about their past relationship.

30. your protagonist discovers their new partner is being stalked by someone who knows intimate details about their life. together, they must uncover the stalker’s identity before it's too late.

Romance x Science Fiction

1. after a nuclear apocalypse, two survivors meet while scavenging for supplies. they fall for each other, but one holds a secret that could jeopardize their relationship—and their survival.

2. a deadly virus wipes out most of humanity, and your character is immune. when they meet another immune survivor, they struggle between opening their heart and staying emotionally distant for survival’s sake.

3. a comet is heading towards earth, and society collapses in the face of the impending disaster. your protagonist falls in love with someone they meet in a survival bunker, but time is running out.

4. the world is overrun by zombies, and two people from rival survivor groups find themselves trapped together. as they fight to survive, their initial distrust turns into an unexpected romance.

5. an alien invasion destroys civilization, leaving two humans as the last survivors in a city. they rely on each other for survival, but the closer they get, the more they worry about what will happen if one of them doesn’t make it.

6. the sun is dying, and a scientist is working on a solution to save the world. as they work against the clock, they fall for their assistant, who is secretly planning to escape to a hidden underground colony.

7. after the collapse of technology, two people living in a primitive society discover old-world relics that hint at a more advanced way of life. as they journey to find answers, they grow closer, even as danger looms.

8. in a world where oxygen is scarce, two people fall in love while competing for a limited supply of clean air. they must decide whether to share their resources or save themselves at the expense of the other.

9. a solar flare wipes out all electronics, plunging the world into chaos. two strangers meet in the aftermath and fall for each other while trying to build a new life in a world without technology.

10. a giant earthquake destroys most cities, and a woman is trapped in a remote cabin with a stranger. as they rely on each other for survival, they discover a deep emotional connection.

11. a group of survivors hides from relentless storms that have devastated the earth. two people find solace in each other while living in an underground bunker, but when they run out of supplies, their bond is tested.

12. the earth is slowly freezing over and two people stranded in an arctic research station fall in love. they must choose whether to stay together in their isolated world or attempt the dangerous journey to warmer lands.

13. in a dystopian future where water is scarce, a water hunter and a desert nomad fall in love while on a dangerous quest to find the last freshwater source. their romance grows even as they realize they may not both survive the journey.

14. a plague wipes out most of the population, and two survivors from different backgrounds must navigate the ruins of civilization. as they work together to stay alive, they find love in the most unexpected circumstances.

15. humanity flees earth to live in space stations, and your character is separated from their partner. as they try to reunite, they must survive the dangers of space travel and the political intrigue aboard the stations.

16. the world is invaded by hostile robots, and two people from opposing resistance factions are forced to work together. they fall for each other despite the growing tension between their groups.

17. a mysterious fog covers the earth and people begin disappearing. two survivors fall in love while trying to unravel the mystery of the fog, knowing they could be taken at any moment.

18. a solar flare has caused mass blindness, and two sighted survivors meet while helping guide the blind to safety. as they fall in love, they must decide whether to reveal the truth about their abilities.

19. the seas have risen, and the last remnants of humanity live on floating cities. two engineers from rival factions fall in love while working on a project that could determine the future of their people.

20. after the apocalypse, a group of survivors rebuilds a small community, but food is running low. two members of the group fall in love, but their relationship is put to the test when one of them is chosen to leave on a dangerous supply mission.

21. a solar storm wipes out communication satellites, and a long-distance couple is separated. as the world descends into chaos, they struggle to reunite, facing dangers and new relationships along the way.

22. a mysterious virus kills anyone over the age of 30, and two young survivors fall in love in a world ruled by teenagers. as they grow older, they must come to terms with their inevitable fate.

23. after a global blackout, two people living in a fully automated city must learn how to survive without modern conveniences. their romance blossoms as they work together to find food, water, and a sense of purpose in the ruins.

24. a volcanic eruption covers the earth in ash, and a scientist and a firefighter trapped in a rescue bunker fall in love. as they wait for the skies to clear, they must decide whether to stay together or return to their previous lives.

25. in a world where the air is toxic, two survivors live in protective suits, communicating only through radios. as they fall in love without ever seeing each other’s faces, they must decide whether to risk exposure for a chance at real connection.

26. the oceans have dried up, and a sailor and a scientist searching for answers fall in love in a world of endless deserts. as they race to find a solution, they must confront the possibility that it may be too late.

27. a supervolcano has erupted, and two people living in different cities are connected through a ham radio. as they fall for each other over the airwaves, they must decide whether to risk their lives to meet in person.

28. a worldwide famine has left food scarce, and two strangers form a bond while scavenging in the wilderness. their romance blooms, but they must decide whether to keep their relationship or join larger, more dangerous groups for survival.

29. the stars begin to disappear, and two astronomers fall in love while trying to solve the mystery. as the universe itself seems to collapse, their relationship becomes their only anchor.

30. in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, two bounty hunters are after the same target. as they compete—and eventually team up—they fall for each other, even as their dangerous line of work threatens to tear them apart.

—————

i hope these helped! if you have specific genre suggestions just let me know in my inbox and i can give ideas!!

likes, comments, reposts, and submissions to my inbox are always appreciated.

☻ kenai

[olderthannetfic]

https://www.tumblr.com/olderthannetfic/736934958092959744/ive-actually-been-genuinely-wondering-how-greek

Yeah, sorry, but this is one of those situations where people really need to consider where these “cultural appropriation” discussions started before (heh) appropriating these terms to talk about stuff like Ancient Greece.

Cultural appropriation came out of discussions of cultural imperialism, and particularly the way that empires would deny non Western and indigenous peoples their own cultures while stealing those cultures to profit off of themselves. That’s what appropriation is. But while they were taking those original cultures they were also imposing Western cultural values, including teaching people to value its history and its literary, artistic, mythological etc. canons, which included the ancient Greek pantheon and their associated stories.

Which is to say… idk, i find it super rich that someone growing up in, say, an Asian or African country, learning about Greek mythology because the history of that colonial education system making it An Important Thing to Learn In Every Culture (because references to it are common knowledge now that people mention and art draws on and so on), and then connects really well with, say, Orpheus and Eurydice, or the Iliad, or Herakles, or whichever and whomever as kids often do when learning about cool ancient mythologies in school… and then as an adult they write a book on it, and then some white American who has some Greek ancestors or whatever, a white person from a country that played and still plays a huge role in spreading that cultural colonialism — that person has the AUDACITY to tell this Asian/African/whatever author that now THEY are the colonizer engaging in cultural appropriation for doing their spin on Orpheus and Eurydice. That this colonized person making the best of their colonial education system is actually the one doing a colonialism now — which is what they’re saying by using these terms even if they don’t realize that. Like do people get the problem with abstracting away the concept of “appropriation” so hard from its colonial roots, means a Greek-American can accuse someone from, say, the Philippines (once colonized by the USA) of “appropriating” religious beliefs that that Greek-Americans’ ancestors haven’t worshipped in nearly two millennia?

And if this sounds like some ridiculous hypothetical it isn’t — I’ve already seen the “invoking classical Greece if you’re not on Greek ethnic origin is appropriation” type crap start popping up on book social media, with even one author invoking her identity as a “Greek person” to claim that it was racist to criticize her bad YA novel styles of “being a Percy Jackson ripoff”

--

[shentheauthor]

I drew out my iterator ocs from this post

Extra info below cut

Clipped Wings:

- the rains in their region are far worse than the others due to how much processing power they use

- They scratched off their own head symbol (it used to be an upside down triangle)

- they resent the ancients a LOT for abandoning them, and they despise Wishes to Understand

- They even neglect their own puppet alongside their city

- they’re almost out of water. Time is running out.

Stack of Tomes:

- knows No Significant Harassment as well as Sliver of Straw

- she’s considered an outsider in her own local group lately

- she tries her best to guide the younger iterators when she isn’t busy worrying about Sliver

- the best genetic engineer of the bunch. Gazes Upon Countless Stars goes to her for help a lot

- the closest thing Wishes to Understand has to a parent

- GAY GAY HOMOSEXUAL GAY

Gazes Upon Countless Stars:

- he’s trying to create a purposed organism to launch into space

- before the ancients fucked off, they were starting a space program in his city

- GUCS (goofy ass initials) is by far the easiest to talk to out of everyone

- his chamber is decorated with star charts

- he had an ancient friend! Her name was Distant Days of Snow, Seven Golden Wires (Snow for short).

- Snow wanted to be the first ancient to reach the stars, but she never made it

- she always supported GUCS’s idea that the Solution™️ is in outer space

- so he wants to fulfill both of their dreams

Wishes to Understand:

- they actually woke up after the ancients were gone

- something went wrong in their activation, so they were assumed to be “stillborn” for lack of a better word

- SOT was the first to discover it was actually alive

- It was never properly given a name, so they chose WTU on their own

- Wishes has a good relationship with the beings inhabiting their city and structure

- their region is also the least rainy

- as a result, there are many thriving slugcat colonies and scavenger tribes living there

- Wishes regularly trades with the scavengers, using them as eyes and ears outside of their overseers.

- scavs bring them data pearls and any other records they can find, then they’re allowed to bring the pearls back to their tribe with some extras that Wishes doesn’t have use for

- scavs also keep predators and other pests from infesting their memory arrays

- it gave their scavengers the gift of communication with iterators, and it’s learning the scav language as well

- Scavs are well on their way to become the next major civilization, in my opinion, but WTU’s accelerating the process by a lot

- admires and looks up to the other iterators

[asanee44]

EXPLORING THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN HOODOO AND VOODOO

Hoodoo and voodoo are two ancient forms of magic that have been around for centuries. However, these two forms of spiritualism are often confused with one another. Many people typically use the terms synonymously – and with good reason. They are closely linked as they are both spiritual systems derived from African traditional religions.

However, they somewhat differ in their origins, methods, and practices. Though both share the same goal of harnessing the power of supernatural forces to bring about desired outcomes. Hoodoo and voodoo practitioners use various techniques, such as spell casting, rituals, incantations, and talismans, to achieve their goals.

Hoodoo is an African-American folk magic system rooted in African spirituality. Contrarily, voodoo practiced in the Americans is said to come from Haiti, though it likewise has West African roots. Despite the similarities between these two belief systems, they are distinct from one another and should be recognized as such.

HOODOO BELIEFS AND PRACTICES

Hoodoo is a combination of traditional African beliefs and practices, as well as indigenous folk magic. In some instances, European folk magic has been infused into Hoodoo practices due to colonial influences. This distinct African American form of esotericism originated during the period of slavery in America. It is an intriguing blend of African spiritualism and religious beliefs adopted by many in the African diaspora.

Also, while Hoodoo is considered a distinctly African American tradition, its roots can be traced to many parts of Africa. Strong Congo, Yoruba, and Vodun influences exist within the tradition. Additionally, many elements of Islam are present within the tradition. As a result of the transatlantic slave trade, the practice also has major Christian influences as the Bible is used in much of the conjure work.

HOODOO BELIEFS

Hoodoo practitioners believe in the power of the natural world. And they use it to help them achieve their goals. Its roots primarily stem from the American South, where various botanical elements are used in magic and conjure work. It has evolved over the years to include more elements as other people groups have integrated into this practice.

Hoodoo practitioners primarily cling to the belief in ancestral spirits and a Sovereign Creator. Though the believers work with and acknowledge the existence of other spirits, Hoodoo doesn’t have a defined system of deities. This element contrasts other African-derived spiritual systems practiced throughout the diaspora.

HOODOO PRACTICES

Hoodoo combines many things, including astrology, herbalism, and magic. Because of its many influences and occultic past, Hoodoo can look very different from family to family or individual to individual. There isn’t a central governing authority for this practice. Many people had to go underground with their practices during the slavery era. As such, rootwork and conjure differ throughout the Hoodoo system. For more details about the Hoodoo practice, check out this resource.

Grann Briggite – 11 oz Black Mug // African Spirit Etsy Shop

VOODOO BELIEFS AND PRACTICES

Voodoo is an ancient religion with African roots that has been practiced in Haiti, Louisiana, and other parts of the Caribbean Islands and the Americas for centuries. It is a spiritual practice that incorporates elements of ancestor and nature veneration and the worship of various deities.

Voodoo followers believe in one God, but also in many spirits or loa who act as intermediaries between humans and the Divine. These spirits often possess people during rituals and ceremonies, allowing them to communicate with the Divine. Haitian and other voodoo rituals involve singing, dancing, drumming, and offerings to these spirits. Through these practices, believers seek guidance from their ancestors or gods on how to live their lives.

The use of herbs, roots, and natural elements is also prevalent in voodoo. In fact, many of the remedies used in voodoo are quite similar to those used in Hoodoo. These materials are believed to be imbued with powerful energies that influence events, heal ailments, and even grant wishes. By combining these elements in certain ways, practitioners of voodoo are able to create spells and rituals that bring forth desired results.

THE LOA OF VOODOO

Voodoo practitioners also rely heavily on a system of deities known as loa. These loa, or spirits, are believed to be powerful forces in the universe and offer guidance and protection to those who invoke them. Voodoo practitioners use various rituals and ceremonies to summon the loa and ask for their assistance in matters of love, luck, health, wealth, and more. With their help, practitioners can gain access to unseen forces that can help bring about positive change in their lives.

Some of the primary loa of the voodoo tradition include Papa Legba, Baron Samdi, Ezili Freda, Ezili Danto, and the like. The identities of these spirits are rooted in many West African spiritual practices, particularly the Fon and Yoruba traditions. Though elements of them can be seen within pantheons throughout Benin, the Congo, Egypt, etc. For more details about Haitian Vodou, check out this resource.

THE PRACTICAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN HOODOO AND VOODOO

While Hoodoo and Voodoo are very similar, they are distinguishable by the culture from which they were derived. Moreover, the events, beliefs, and rituals associated with these two practices have also shaped their development over time. Though they appear very similar in scope and practice, it is vital to give due homage to the cultures that shaped these systems. In doing so, we pay due honor to the ancestral legacies of African people groups worldwide.

[vertumnanaturalis]

A lot of people seemed to like my last one, so woe! More fic ideas be upon all ye again; compilation of au ideas I posted in LQ and haven't been edited to be easier to read edition!

(below the cut, because theres like 12 of them and its a big messy mess)

Nem?Tang fic where they wake up in some ancient convergent domain plant device with only hazy memories of how they got there but nothing solid enough to work off of, and also why is their hair so long, and where are their clothes, and where is the goddamn colony? Because oopsie daisy! it seems that somebody put them in the ancient alien magitech healing goo and forgot to take them out when they were done, and now two hundred years have passed and everybody else they know and love are long dead, and also apparently some giant ass fleet of earth guys tried to land while they were having a snooze but! oh! whoopsie! yet again! somebody sent them the wrong information about how to safely get through the wormhole and the majority of the fleet did not make it to the surface in one piece!!! and the some of the survivors may or may not have folk stories about people that may or may not be Nem and Tang’s loved ones doing either great or terrible things during those two hundred years they were sleeping through!!

mermaid au where Besk was a mermaid trapped in a research facility and Instance broke her out during her ecoterrorist days but Besk couldn’t go back to the ocean because (hand waves) so she stayed with Instance as a slightly-more-free test subject who could technically come and go as she pleases, and she did, and eventually came back from one of her outings with two whole goddamn babies, and despite their both their hopes both babies seem to be pretty much normal human babies except for the occasional weird non-human thing, like eating whole raw eggs or Tangent having an overnight sex change shortly after saying she’s a girl, and feeling like she’s the only mermaid left in the world eventually leads Besk to doing the same thing she always does, and now Instance is stuck with two ambiguously half-human grieving kindergartners, and now it’s the world’s words hybrid of Wolf Children and The Thirteenth Year (with a mild dose of human experimentation sprinkled on top)

modern day/modern-ish all humans on earth au fic where Sym is a pre-school teacher(or aid??) who just moved to a new town with his beloved edgelord of a boyfriend who never wants to talk about his past or childhood and Sym only knows bits and pieces that he’s mentioned over the past few years (but that’s fine he’s just got his secrets nothing new there), and at his new job with his new class there’s a young single parent of twins that also moved into town only a little bit after he did, and apparently they don’t have anybody in their life besides their kids, they don’t have any family and the kids dad isn’t in the picture, so he does the nice friendly thing and offers to lend a hand if they need help with anything, and one afternoon as he’s supposed to be leaving work after making sure that the kids are all picked up, he spots said single parent and said beloved edgelord talking/arguing about something, because apparently they used to know each other but haven’t seen each other in a long while, and his boyfriend doesn’t wanna hear what “actually super important and kinda immediately relevant” thing that his old friend wants to talk about, and before Sym can really stop them the two kids go running to greet their parent, and look we all know where this plot is heading fellas

(not sure if this one should follow Tang or Dys primarily but Imma go with Tang side for this) fic where there’s more people than canon but they’re still on Vertumna with little research on it & Sol has dream memories (maybe use part of the old idea about the Helio arriving as part of a mini fleet instead of a lone ship?), and Tang’s intelligence is lauded like in canon and she’s put into the best position to learn smarty smarts stuff, while Dys’ rebelliousness gets him no favors with the Man and gets himself marked as a troubled kid and moved away from his sister, with Tang being told that she can seek him out once she’s an adult if she still wants to but for now not to waste her time or energy on worrying about him and focus on her studies. She keeps hearing him being mentioned in passing as being part of some big secret alien-centric program to so she knows that he hasn’t gone awol, but she still doesn’t see him for the next 3 to 5 years even tho she still gets to see most of the other kids (bar Sol, who was also yoinked by the secret alien program). Fast forward to her being an adult enough adult who seems appropriately level headed for doing amoral sciences, so she’s invited to see the big important secret alien project, and “_so Tangent, you know how some of the xenofauna can pass information and feeling between individuals of different species through physical contact, and that there’s some functional technology leftover from the alien civilization that lived here beforehand? And that your brother spent a lot of time exploring ruins? And how sometimes science needs sacrifices? For the greater good and all that? :)?” and Tang gets to see her brother as one of the star subjects of the project’s attempt to recreate a messy version of the array (while not even understanding what it actually is)

like 3 different variants (Geranium, Flulu, and Hal+Tonin+Sol’s she group on a field trip” of “like 3 weeks after landing somebody falls into a mini wormhole and comes out 25 years into the future, except none of them went missing in the second timeline, and now they’re in the future having to deal with the way life actually turned out, and they don’t even know all of the stuff that their other selves do/did, because they may or may not be alive still in this other timeline”. (Actually what got me into working on all those future kid things because I wanted to know who’d be doing what when and with who)

au where Besk blacks out shortly before her suicide attempt and wakes up in a cave on Vertumna, having 0 idea where she is or how she got there, and stumbles around thinking she’s dead until one of the surveyors finds her, and upon getting back to the colony she finds out that she’s supposed to have been dead for the last 11 or so years, with her two five year olds now being sixteen (the same age as her when she left Earth & also how long she spent on the Strato), and she has to learn how to adapt to everything and being alive when she shouldn’t be while there are so many others who died and aren’t magically alive again, and also has to do all this while more or less locked under constant observation, because BOY nobody is going to casually leave her alone for like, so many reasons

fic that opens with Kom waking up in the medbay after the age 14 glow attack and Nem and their younger brothers and all his friends are so unbelievably glad he’s awake and ok, but he keeps learning about the not canon possible things that happened either during the attack or while he was healing (like his mom dying while helping the kids evacuate the creche or chief Rhett and Sol’s parents having died defending geoponics), and he’s just stuck with this unending feeling that he’s supposed to be dead right now, but he’s not, and I’m not sure where to go with the story past that

au where Kom wakes up five years before the Strato reaches the wormhole with the knowledge that he’s going to die ten years from now, and it more or less follows a dreamer Kom story except that he knows that his story only has one conclusion, and rather than trying to prevent his own death he spends that time trying to save and protect as many people in his life as he can (maybe prequel to above scenario?)

obligatory single “nice” modern au fic except that nice has to be in quotation marks because technically it’d be about Dys breaking into Sym’s house after committing a major felony and definitely in a big hurty thinking that it was abandoned, but like surprise! it’s not! and even tho Dys fully expects Sym to call the cops on him and wake up in jail he instead wakes up in Sym’s guest room and immediately assumes that he either died already, accidentally tripped into the fae realm, or Sym is some kinda polite hannibal ass serial killer, and it’d be just a whole bunch of Sym being genuinely kind and nice to Dys while Dys is just “y tho like literally what is wrong with you”, and it takes like 2 years and several more major felonies for them to get together. also this might’ve spawned off of the earlier pre school teacher one but it’s not 100% attached to it so that’s why it has it’s own bulletpoint

2.5 flavors of a Hunger Games AU, which are "special games where its announced that this year each district has to send two siblings/other close family members, and the twins get reaped in their district", "one of the younger boys gets reaped but Kom volunteers in their place", and "Tang watching as Dys gets reaped the first year he's applicable for it and she can't do anything about it, and then having to watch as Kom (in his last year of being applicable) volunteers in her brother's place and all of his siblings are now freaking out" which only came to me as I was sharing the first two.

also have this flawless related image

au where Sym sees videos of wild animals in urban areas being relocated to a better habitat on the data thing Sol gives him and he comes up with a fresh new idea; cut to his two favorite humans (age 13/14) waking up on a strange beach some few thousand kilometers away from the colony several weeks later with 0 idea how they got there (ark opening tune starts to play)

also whatever this is

anyways, that's definately not all of the random au ideas I've had and don't include some of the more developed ones I've actually made effort to work on/flesh out, but these were on hand and I wanted to share them too

[salm-rain-world-blog]

Okay, for those who might be confused: the Cycle still exists in my AU. If you die, you just wake up at the beginning of the cycle. Ascending via Void Fluid or Saint is the only true death.

Hunter isn’t technically dying, his body is being replaced by the Rot. I imagine that the Cycle applies more on a biological level that a spiritual one. From Hunter’s perspective, he’s absolutely dying. He’ll just get weaker and sicker until all that’s left of him is his brain receiving no outside stimuli. Once he’s reached that point, it’ll just get harder and harder to think until he can’t anymore, and then he’ll truly be gone.

I imagine this is only possible because the Rot is essentially cancer. It’s not a separate organism, it’s just Hunter’s cells growing into what we call the Rot.

For those generally curious about the Cycle in my AU, I’ll explain it. None of the currently ask-able slugcats could explain it better than “if you die, you just wake up that morning,” and Saint would just give you a spiritual word-salad when she gets unlocked.

The Cycle is a 2 day timespan, though, due to evolving to live in a world consumed by the Rain, most animals only experience the first day of the Cycle (will explain later in this post). If a creature dies of anything besides old age, they’ll reset their cycle, losing a Karma level, unless they’ve eaten a Karma Flower. Now, if someone dies during a cycle and you survive, they’ll be dead permanently in your cycle.

Here’s an example: Enot & Nightcat are exploring Outskirts.

Enot gets speared by a Scav, Nightcat doesn’t.

For the rest of Nightcat’s life, Enot is dead. They’re permanently gone and can never return.

Things are different from Enot’s perspective. Enot wakes up the day they died and can change the events of that day so they don’t die.

Let’s say Enot & Nightcat are good friends. Well, Enot dies and Nightcat doesn’t wanna lose Enot, so Nightcat let’s themself get speared too. Both Enot & Nightcat would wake up at the start of the cycle they died.

Now, remember how I said the Cycle is 2 days, but most creatures only experience one day of the Cycle? This is because the Rains were timed with the Cycle by the Ancients. Each Cycle is timed the same. There’s the Clear Day, then it rains all night, and then the Drain Day. During the Drain Day, the world is completely flooded and all the water is draining out to sea, so it’s pretty uninhabitable on the surface.

Even when not affected by the Rain, such as the Sluggang living in Metropolis (Arti cleaned out the Scavs very thoroughly) or the Scug colonies in Outer Expanse, Slugcats will still typically sleep through the second day of the Cycle. It’s just how they’re built.

Sorry for the long wall of text lol. Idk, I find the Cycle as a game mechanic & story element super interesting, so I took as much as I could and used it for my AU!

[duncebento]

the revival of like. ancient greek pederasty type people online is such a setback. not that i want to be in community with any more of the most annoying people around, but so many men (a term used here loosely) on like reddit are externalizing struggles with their own identities— and i’d say these are oftentimes closeted gay and trans people— and behaving almost colonially towards existent communities. that part maybe isn’t new; in fact i’d guess the very category of “chaser” has always worked to excuse cishet men’s “embarrassing” attractions with a semi-self-effacing admittance not exactly to attraction, but of intent to conquest (less embarrassing than being BEHOLDEN to trans women or fat women or older women, god forbid.)

anecdotally, i know next to nothing about the character astolfo (from fate?) but i DO know that the way people discuss her on here (astolfo as trans girl anime rep) is very different from the way i’ve seen the broader community of fans discuss her (astolfo as some rather disrespectful term that i’d rather not put here.) but my hypothesis is that for the latter group, who is also perhaps the hornier of the two, approaching the character of astolfo in the way of the former group would make them beholden to an attraction to, or identification with, a transfem character. so even though there are countless fans who CAN recognize this character as a “trans girl”, a category with a long-standing and far-reaching and proud real-life community, this latter group, completely disinterested in ascribing a position of pride to their object of attraction, must insist that she is instead part of a group whose existence is most reified via a pornographic category. they will not call her trans. (some will fight tooth and nail against the category “trans” to describe “looks and acts like a girl and lives life as a girl and goes to a girls’ school and uses she/her, while having a dick” storylines.) like a colonist who has come across a native artifact, they assume powerlessness of the object and its origins and place themselves as the arbiters of its true truth.

which is unfortunate, since so much of what they’re clutching their pearls about (what if you’re a MAN but you’re DISINTERESTED in DOMINANCE??? my lord) has been comfortably sorted out already by queer theorists as much as regular-ass queer people. they’re pathologizing (fetishologizing?) the naturally ambiguous self-evidencing modes of loving: it can’t be normal to like muscular women for example; instead it has to render one a “degenerate” or some such thing. and i’d feel worse for them if in their shame and suffering they hadn’t also made themselves comfortable completely objectifying (and using slurs for, and being very oblique about the oppression of) the sorts of people theyre attracted to lol

[woodsfae]

Babylon 5 s03e11 Ceremonies of Light and Fire table of contents - previous episode

It opens with a neat shot of Ivanova’s face in a porthole, backs away to show how tiny it is against a fraction of the ship, then back in. Love little things like that when they’re sprinkled in. Also, really smooth use of CGI there.

Garibldi’s arm is broken and, to my surprise, Ivanova rubs his back supportively when he talks about not wanting to be in a cast!

Delenn and Lennier are working hard.

“Lennier, you still haven’t told me what you think of all this.” “Opinion doesn’t enter into it. What is, is. Prophecy said one day we would unite with the other half of our soul in a war with the ancient enemy. It is what we have done.”

It’s amusing to see a mystic that’s so pragmatic. But Lennier hold multitudes. He’s a complicated, serene little guy. I just wanna. Squish him. In a nice way.

Not sure who was almost just attacked. Marcus? Probably Marcus. He’s from the Mars colony and is happy they seceded from Earthgov.

Sheridan is back in a dress uniform for the funeral of the crew who died defending B5 last episode. It’s surprisingly few, and only seems to have human names. I do hope we get a recounting of the Narns who died as well.

Does Londo holographically record all his meetings? Amazing. Love the tiny hologram to shame Lord Refa from Londo, who should be feeling a lot more shame than he is. So funny - legitimately funny seeing Londo try to shame Lord Refa into doing the right thing. When did shame ever work on Londo? Oh, never mind. He’s backing up the shame with poison. That’s a much better insurance policy.

Londo seems to be feeling emboldened by his meeting with Lady Morella, third wife of the late Emperor, and seer of renown. Since he made a series of Less Idiotic Decisions and Delenn wants to invite him to the healing ceremony it looks like we might be at the beginning of Londo’s redemption arc!

Ahhh, the would-be-murderers are Nightwatch who went undetected, and one of them is a total murderous psychopath who “once took seven days to kill a Minbari,” and from the sound of it, enjoyed slowly dismembering a living person and would love to do it to Delenn! Fucking creepy! I don’t like that! To the Nightwatch person who said the Minbari are weird about their leaders and might take it personal if they kill Delenn…yeah. Maybe reconsider your life choices.

This dive bar people have been ending up since season one is, I have just realized, one of the places where B5 is actually high fantasy. People slink around in dark hooded cloaks, in leather bondage gear, with strange costumes and bandoliers slung around themselves…it’s the fucking tavern everyone starts their quest in when they play DnD.

The station’s base setting is as a snarky, New Jersey-accented AI? That’s actually quite fun.

Londo, don’t dish out the snark if you can’t take it. And also, be more grateful that after you expressed that you missed Delenn a few episodes ago, that she invited you to something!

Something about Londo brings out my urge to lecture directly to the character. Probably because he could use a good talking-to.

Tragic Marcus backstory! It seems he didn’t grow up on Mars colony, since it was destroyed, or perhaps it was a single dome? He doesn’t want to do the ceremony, since it requires giving something up, and he’s lost his friends, family, and home. Delenn says, wisely, that he must give up his grip on the past, and how he uses it to hurt himself.

I knew there was depth behind those devil-may-care green eyes. He’s so rogue-coded.

The Nightwatch successfully kidnapped Delenn! And Mr “I like to cut people up while they’re alive” does not like being told that she’s faced worse than him. He wants to be the worst thing anyone’s ever faced.

Wow, Delenn really got to him! Her psychological warfare game is on point.

The aftermath of this barfight isn’t doing anything to convince me that Marcus isn’t rogue-coded.

Lennier: “I see they trained you well back home.” Marcus: “I’m not repressed anymore.”

B5 is a comedy, actually. That's the real quote. And then Lennier goes, basically…. “Me neither. I love Delenn!!” Me too, guy.

He’s her knight! In a scholarly way! He’s a chivalric ideal. Very sweet. Very high fantasy of him to confess his love of a Lady to a rogue in a tavern. Me too, guy.

The senior staff: we need more info Marcus: I got u. Level 14. Senior staff: how do u know that Marcus, hiding his bloody knuckles: a kind stranger told me

Are they having a shootout in the fusion reactor core? Fucking ballsy, as is Captain Lennan successfully throwing down with his hands tied behind his back. And Delenn jumping in front of a knife for John??? Wow, I got 20 credits on John not killing him. Ope, I win.

“I can no longer imagine my world without you in it. I don’t know exactly when or how it happened, but I’m glad it did.”

OK, so I was having feelings about everyone bringing their uniforms and confessions to Delenn…and I was tearing up over Susan’s “I think I loved Talia,” and when Dr Franklin came in, Partner said, “I’m addicted to speed,” and then Franklin said “I think I have a problem,” and that shook me right out of my sadz with a guffaw. I miss Talia! Bring Talia back! I don't believe she's gone for good. I was promised. p r o m i s e d . a kiss.

Nifty new uniforms! For a moment I was almost correct with my joking prediction that they were going to run around in civvies till humanity is reunited.

If Londo and G'Kar had some to the ceremony, did Delenn have new kicks for them too?

Next!

[ashcroft-writes]

Calamity Horizon for the ask game? O.o I'm so curious <3

Oh oh! So, I couldn’t find a second snippet from my fic that didn’t give too much away—but I can answer with a tiny bit of lore/worldbuilding that I’ve been working on! :D

Part of Calamity Horizon involves a plot that takes place in a city founded by Duros settlers at the very edge of Republic Space. It was created as a mining colony centuries past, and powerful economic interests hold the most sway there still. But I hadn’t yet fleshed out my thoughts on colonial Duros culture and how it differs or relates to what I was writing both on Duro itself and its satellite cities. After all, the Duros expanded out from their home sector a great many years ago, and I assumed that disparate colonies probably had their own ways of thought that had risen in the years since.

Probably my favorite facets of this worldbuilding have to do with spirituality and how they view history. For the homeworld Duros that yet remained before the attack in Homeworld Elegy, they clung to a lot of old ways most of the outside Duros had long abandoned, such as the tradition of the river rowers and their funeral rites. There was an idea of glory days existing back in the monarchy (long since replaced,) when the homeworld was of great importance to the galaxy, the Duros a guiding light of technology and political power, and even the most washed out contemporary villages often housing great religious centers, political networks, and vast ship yards. One might have still found images of the important monarchs treated with respect around the towns, and many residents clinging to their ancestral land would have claimed a bloodline from the old royal courts (some truly, and some not.)

Indeed, Duro was also one of the last holdouts in my story of a really old form of a once-common star-based Duros faith. There are still cultural and linguistic underpinnings of this sprinkled throughout Gunslinger's Paean—for example, a tradition to say one was born under certain constellations, lending astrological significance to one’s life (for example, when Bane thinks about how the Explorer’s stars were his, or when we see the economic blessings in the signs of The Miner on the governor’s seal.) Or, another example: some Duros utter “by the stars” as a soft expression of disbelief.

For most Duros in general, these things are just part of the common language and culture, and don’t really make them modern-day adherents of such a faith. Bane in particular, I do not write as having much truck with the old religion, whether he was from the homeworld or not. In fact, some satellite-city Duros don't understand the earnest belief in such things, finding a dogged insistence on near-dead modes of thought to be one of the things that makes homeworld Duros a bit difficult.

But, this doesn’t mean those ancient thoughts didn’t give rise to other things elsewhere in the diaspora. In the colonial city I’m writing, one doesn’t find any torches burning for the old monarchs, but one can find a little star temple in the downtown's heart. Homeworld Duros might find its architecture entirely different, its rituals bereft of certain steps, and its believers emphasizing different things in the practice, however. It’s become more of a personal faith, no longer meant to rally the people in a communal push towards greatness, and often isn’t taken literally. Still, it provides guidance and comfort for some, and in the wake of Duro’s downfall, for refugees, it is sanctuary still.

Unfortunately, just like on depleted and polluted Duro, the colonial leaders that grew incredibly wealthy and powerful on the riches of the land never really learned the lesson of moderation in regards to their new home’s resources. Slowly, their mines start to run dry, and they need to turn to… other means to keep their power base stable.

And in such places, there’s always someone willing to pay to get certain unsavory jobs done.

Hence some good plot seeds for both Calamity Horizon were born, AND a little short story in Summer's End about Bane doing a job there in the early stages of his galactic career. It’s actually one of my fave pieces in that collection, and introduces some lore and characters that really drives Calamity Horizon forward later. :D Cured a bit of writer’s block I had during this development something fierce! And there’s other little stories there too that reference some of these ideas.

Aughghgh and this doesn’t even get into the songs, the dances, etc. I’ve got. I’ve got so much. Too much 😂 I hope this tiny peek under the hood is fun though!! I’m tinkering with the stories today as well to keep them moving forward to the finish line. :D

[1ore]

of course i continue to rotate that beast in my mind. tamahuaq thoughts because i can't catch a break to draw hardly anything of substance

It would be very funny if Tamahuaq’s ability to parasitize others was limited to gods, endlings, and mages, because they all have exposed/dissociated “souls” to some degree, and Tamahuaq eats god’s blood i.e. “souls” i.e. metaphysical bodyjuice. One (1) human normie walks into Old Sond and the plantfungus loses it. doesn’t know what to do. Heterotrophs are so SCARY!!!!!!!!!!!

Tamahuaq’s emotional world is made of many bodies that are only kinda assimilated into one body. I think it is big enough that it can’t really afford to centralize physically or mentally. So it can pass around impulses and selectively access information from different parts of its network, but if one daughter colony is cut off from the main mass, that physical/emotional/mental space is typically lost to the rest of the body.

Being a part of Tamahuaq is frightening, not because one is a passenger to its hunger against their will or anything like that, but because Tamahuaq is like an echo chamber for one’s own fears and desires. Most of the gods imprisoned in Sond are already resentful of their wardens, if not certifiably off the shitts in pain, so they are already primed to lash out. but they don’t realize how far they’ll go until they’re taken out of it.

IDK how the endlings extract gods and other beings from Tamahuaq, but I think it might be as simple as cutting off that “limb” and peeling off as much plantmycelium as they can. At a certain point, there just isn’t enough Tamahuaq to functionally feed anymore. I think Tamahuaq (or rather its satellite flesh?) self-terminates or jumps hosts when it can no longer justify hitching a ride on that particular host.

The constant risk of losing satellite limbs brushes shoulders with its need to explore and forage, so it has become very efficient at partitioning itself into smaller spaces using simple directives and selective memories to puppet a scout around. A lot of these satellite bodies carry a basic compulsion to get back to the rest of the body at some point, but are also less coordinated and easier to dissociate.

Because of the Boiling Rage shared by its primary food source, Tamahuaq is thought to be hateful and angry and generally motivated by revenge. But it isn’t, inherently. It is apparently able to exploit anger and other emotions-- or at least transmit emotional memories-- but whether human emotions are intelligible to it, or it has just learned thru pattern recognition how to get what it needs is hard to say. It does have its own interior emotional world, but it has been largely diluted by its hosts (and is difficult to understand outside of basic needs like “I don’t want to die” and “I am so hungry all of the time”) For his part, the Tamahuaq depicted in oral tradition is anthropomorphized and has ~human-like motivations.

(in reality Tamahuaq is like a vessel of the pain of his ancient enemy, the very first endling, beloved folk hero twisted by resentment when betrayed and locked up in Sond as Tamahua's keeper. but we will not discuss him further.)

When the endlings do finally succeed in cutting out the “heart” of Tamahuaq—its original body and the closest thing to a central “brain” that it has—the rest of it rapidly dissociates into smaller and smaller functional parts, and decays. Tamahuaq’s psyche also shrinks in a rather violent and disorienting way, as trahearnexpy finds out. This sudden smallness is AHHHH VERY SCARY to the plantfungus, and it loses many of its formative memories that have been scattered across this wider network. Its sensory world shrinks, too, in that its funnie plantmonster body is experiencing the world thru touch, taste, smell, and some rudimentary thermoception, where it used to be able to sense. Probably anything it wanted. I think this is part of why it clamps down on tree boy and does not let go. You WILL interpret the world for me (because im too scared and small ahhhhhh I cant do it myself )))): )

eventually it learns the power of love and being small, but in the mean time it is so scared of heterotrophs. It is so scared of heterotrophs. It is so scared of h