#during july and then during fifth moon

[seoafin]

so. nobody is talking about how knives was impregnating the plants huh.

[vashs-ass]

TRIGGER WARNING // SA

Analysis of Vash and His Assault in Trigun

Now that I’ve finally finished the manga, I want to discuss why I believe the fifth moon incident in Trigun is supposed to represent sexual assault. Apparently this interpretation is somewhat controversial so I’m going to go over how I see it. If you have a different interpretation that’s completely fine, I’m not trying to say one is more correct than the other.

One other thing I will preface this with, is that I do not think Knives canonically SAed Vash. I think the situation is supposed to be metaphor for sexual assault.

So anyways, why do I think it’s supposed to represent sexual assault and not physical assault? In my opinion, Knives’ main objective is not to physically hurt Vash, his goal is to force Vash into preforming non consensual acts.

The symbolism in fifth moon is very heavy handed. This is the first time we see Vash be assaulted. Knives is depicted as completely naked. Yes, there is an explanation for this in the plot but I do think it was a deliberate choice.

Prior to the fifth moon incident, Vash has no memories of what happened at July. This is unusual because Vash does not have a pattern of shutting out distressing events in his life. He’s able to remember his childhood and Rem’s death in great detail. So something about what happened was particularly disturbing and violating to Vash in a way he’d never experienced before. Even Knives notes that this is unusual, apparently expecting the incident would have ‘after effects’ for his brother.

During this initial discussion Vash begins to recall some of the memories of what happened, or rather, what he felt. He describes the feelings surrounding what happened as ‘something horrifyingly sick’.

Now we will get into the meat of things.

The visuals of the actual assault are horrifying. Nightow uses some great body horror to amplify the severity of what is happening to Vash’s body. During this assault, Knives is constantly grabbing at Vash’s body, forcing it to do what he wants. This one particular panel I don’t see talked about much really hit me in the gut, with knives standing naked between Vash’s legs. This is kinda what solidified everything for me.

Knives is almost always seen holding a hand over Vash’s eyes and his heart. This is a very intimate gesture and I think this can have a lot of different reads depending on who you ask. For me covering his eyes further takes away Vash’s control over what’s happening to his body, Knives’ hand clawing at his heart representing his desire to violate Vash’s very being and take it for himself. To possess him. To objectify him.

He asks Vash how it feels, and Vash can be seen sobbing in what I think is emotional agony rather than physical pain. Having this happen to him again seems to have triggered the memories he had tried to burry.

Other people have pointed out that the angel arm can be seen as a phallic symbol. I’m not really sure where I fall on this idea but I thought I’d mention it at least.

I will also point out one more instance of assault after fifth moon because this is not the only time Vash is assaulted by his brother

I think this takes place towards the middle of the manga if I remember correctly. This scene (to me) represents the ‘loss of self’ victims often feel as well as the physical aspect of sexual assault. Knives briefly attempts to force Vash’s body into his. He stabs Vash through his arm, pinning him down in attempt to ‘merge’ Vash with himself. When it doesn’t work he rips it out of Vash which seems to cause him horrific pain.

The fact Vash goes on to use his angel arm to save people later on in the story is very powerful. It was once a reminder of the violations he had endured but he reclaimed it as well as his bodily autonomy.

After this there are a few other more minor instances of Knives violating Vash, but I won’t get into those because I feel I’ve made my point. If you have anything to add I’d love to hear it!

[sword-dad-fukuzawa]

The difference between Knives’s last words in Trigun Stampede and Trigun Maximum is…insane. They aren’t words of hatred or anger or fear, not even derision. They’re a goddamn promise. “I’ll win a place for us! A paradise…for us.”

versus his last words to Vash during the July Incident and Fifth Moon (born included here because it looks like Tristamp is combining those):

It’s staggering. Tristamp’s Knives and his refusal to hate his brother the way he hates everything else, his declarations of love and faith in the face of repeated rejections and betrayal, his dogged insistence that he’ll bear all the weight of creating the paradise he wants…holy shit.

“I’ll protect you, Vash.” Even as he perpetrates terrible violations of his brother the cruelest thing he says is a jilted cry that Vash has killed him, and his last words are a lover’s promise. Insane behavior. Absolutely insane.

Trigun Stampede’s Knives Millions would hate every single one of his previous iterations for cutting off his brother’s arm in anger instead of a genuine desire to keep him alive, for forcing Vash to murder thousands instead of taking on that task himself, for trying to kill Vash over and over again. Insane.

[thalialunacy]

Johnlock | Parentlock | 27k (!!) | E-rated | serial | fluffy as a box of baby chickens

You're Not Designed to Be Alone

There's schmoop, there's smut, there's first times and second times and fifth times, there are fun facts for your next trivia night, there are puns, there are appearances by a lot of our faves... and there is most definitely a Happily Ever After.

Author ramblings:

Once upon a time, if by that I mean May 1st 2024, I decided on quite a whim to join the fun folks doing wee Johnlock prompt fills during the month of May. (Led by @calaisreno, who is almost certainly over me tagging them every other day lol but did a brilliant job at modding.) I have never done such a thing before; my other timed writing experience had been the Merlin fandom's Summer Pornathons of the 'teens, which were kickass as hell but only (only) required one 750 word story a week. But the May fest seemed low pressure and high support, so I said wth, I'll do a couple.

........

Yeah so I am a stubborn asshole? Ish? I posted the last of 31 installments on July 10th.

They are serial, though that was not my intent at first. But I just love these two so much, and the low pressure but high output vibe allowed me to stop hemming & hawing over plot, and also to stop being precious about every word.

Which, I suppose, is why it ended up just under twenty-seven thousand words. Peanuts in this fandom, I know, but longer than 95% of the stuff I write.

It was just so FREEING.

AND, most importantly, it came with enthusiastic community of cheerleading & support that I gobbled up with a gd spoon.

YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE, you utterly gorgeous people. Thank you, for real. You are the stars and moon. 💞

[to-eat-laugh-love-in-peace]

I wouldn’t be surprised if there were at least a few people who didn’t believe the general consensus that Vash the Stampede was the villain behind the July’s destruction and the deaths of 90% of its population just because he’s Vash the Stampede, the Humanoid Typhoon, the man who will slaughter the innocent, who does the most evil of evil deeds for the price of 60 billion double dollars on head, because in Tristamp, even before Lost July took place, there were a couple of details about Vash that didn’t seem to add up like how the stolen Plants were being brought to July City when it was the same city that put a bounty on Vash’s head for supposedly running around stealing Plants from all over the planet in the first place as seen in the city’s symbol stamped on the corner of his old wanted poster.

I do wonder though not only how much Meryl decided to or was able to include in her article following Lost July assuming she was even able to get her article published but also how she’s seen and treated by the general populace in Tristamp because not only is she a reporter in this iteration but also its one thing for her to defend Vash after he blew a large crater in the fifth moon. It's another thing for her to defend Vash after he blew a large crater where the wealthiest and largest city in No Man’s Land used to be. I mean in the dub the radio host even outright says that if they were the demon who turned the city into a crater overnight, they’d hide their face too because they doubt that the mob of mourners who had gathered to pay their respects to the friends and families they’ve lost for the two-year anniversary of the incident would be so quick to forgive while she's in the truck on her way to the memorial she put up for Roberto.

And in Trimax and even 98’ Vash had people actively going after him because of what happened in July like that fancily dressed Plant engineer who sent an assassin after him and then later locked him in a room with a soon to be exploding Plant to kill him even if it meant endangering an entire city, the old lady had hired an assassin to kill Vash in volume 6 chapter 5 because her son, daughter-in-law, and grandchild had been one of the many who died in July, and Brilliant Dynamites Neon had revealed to have been prepared to kill Vash for some time since July during their duel on the sand steamer in volume 1 chapter 8 with Vash even outright asking him if he had folks who lived in July when the incident took place after he asked him why there weren’t any corpses to be found in the ruins of July City.

So I wonder if Meryl has had even a fraction of the ire those who’d lost friends, family, loved ones in July had towards Vash directed towards her during the two years Vash spent in hiding with Lina and Sheryl as Eriks because not only did she likely go around No Man’s Land literally being the devil’s advocate during that time, as she'd said so herself that its her duty as a member of the press to clear his name if proves himself innocent, but she had also been announced on the radio in episode four to be a possible accomplice of Vash’s who the military police were looking to bring in as a person of interest alongside Roberto, with Roberto mentioning how if word of this got out to HQ then they’d be sacked.

Speaking of Brilliant Dynamites Neon, I think that he and Meryl could be set up to have a confrontation in S2 for this very reason. Which would be very cool to see since these two haven’t interacted much outside of her and Milly disguising themselves as members of the Bad Lads Gang to later back up Vash and Kaite when they’re cornered and then identifying Vash as the Vash the Stampede during the Bad Lads Gang's heist on the sand steamer in the ‘98 and Trimax

and leading to, in both iterations, Neon taking the time to ask Vash about what exactly happened in July that led to the city being destroyed and, in '98 its residents being left alive but homeless unemployed and impoverished leading them to fight and kill each other to survive in the fallout of the incident, and in Trimax being swallowed by a black hole leading to no survivors or even any corpses left to be found, which led Vash to ask him if he too had folks who were in July at the time of the incident and then admit that he just didn't remember much about July when asked if he had anything to do with it which Neon was forced to accept before the two had a duel

and then after Neon shot a rock about to crush Vash's head during their duel he was revealed to have been prepared to kill Vash for some time since July

only for him to decide spare him, for now at least, not having let go of his reasons for wanting revenge post-July to stay true to the terms of their duel.

Whereas in Tristamp Meryl was not only in July when the incident took place but also was there to witness firsthand what exactly happened that led to the city getting completely demolished and more than half of its population to have been killed by a large explosion. On top of that Meryl unlike Vash in '98 in Trimax and possibly in Tristamp didn't develop partial or complete amnesia following the traumatic incident and then there's also the fact that she's met the Bad Lads Gang when they took her and Roberto with them to the sandsteamer to take pictures of them during their heist to publish in the paper and this was a day before July 21st, meaning that those Bad Lads Gang members who were clearly shown fleeing by the time the ion cannon was being powered could identify her if they came across her again or even tried to find her two years later.

Like I imagine in S2, when Vash is brought back to the scene and he finds himself in another situation at a sand steamer where the Bad Lads Gang are involved, only Brilliant Dynamites Neon himself has made an appearance this time around (I’m not even going to begin to imagine just what details Studio Orange is going to keep or change about their first meeting, they’ve already changed a lot about how and when the Bad Lads Gang were introduced-) at some point a scene similar to the original where Meryl with Milly come to back Vash up while he goes up against Neon and his gang, and one of his goons recognizes Meryl as that woman who they got to take pictures of them during their heist on the sandsteamer a day before Lost July, who's been going around vouching for Vash the Stampede for the past two years after the incident, Neon connects the dots, asks about what happened in July, Vash doesn’t remember so he can’t answer, but Meryl does so she can.

Which would make it the first time Neon has ever gotten an answer to his question, whether or not he believes her is anyone’s guess since it just seems so impossible doesn’t matter. The fact that there isn’t a scene in either 98’ or Trimax where Neon and Vash meet up again to talk about July after Vash recovers his memories of the incident makes this a big deal as is. I do think that Vash met up with Neon off-screen to talk to him about it and that Neon might have gotten some form of closure from that, or maybe he hadn't and he still wanted Vash’s head on a silver platter, who knows, I certainly don’t, which is exactly why I think it’d be really cool to see in S2.

Also I do wonder why Neon wasn't on the ship at the time like he was visiting his folks in July only to be pulled away when he heard that the heist was a bust because the ship was taken off course and its ion cannon was locked and loaded to fire at Hopeland. And if Neon did have folks in July in Tristamp then what's their deal since while July seems like the perfect city for someone like Brilliant Dynamites Neon to have folks in, seeing as it’s big, it’s bright, it's opulent, able to afford all the bullets it wants thanks to having a monopoly on Hydro-Plants, as was described by Wolfwood, additional background info on the seven major cities posted on Studio Orange’s twitter having said that its citizens have to contribute to the city's development and pass a screening process in order to obtain citizenship, which is what keeps the city’s Plants from overworking themselves to a Last Run. @tristampparty

[trigun98watchparty]

Alrighty!! So poll results are out (thank you so much!!!) and I'm taking it as a go-ahead for this event! Lurker majority, welcome~!

So, the tag will be #tri98watchparty, @ this blog and I will find you immediately in case your post doesn't show on the tumblr tags.

The duration of the event will be monitored (softly) from now until the first week of August (because that is 26 weeks for those who'd like the time), and primarily during the month of April (where the event will follow one episode per day for 26 days).

The prompts are set up so that anyone can build their own watch party experience however way fits them best, and of course the prompts are just there as suggestion ideas for topics and everyone is free to ignore them entirely.

The main goal of this is to have fun with your friends, on your own, with the community. Interact or lurk, we are all sharing the love and appreciating the media we were given.

It goes without saying that the main rule is to not be mean or aggressively negative towards anyone. Everyone is allowed to like and dislike something so long as no one is hurting another. I'm excited for discussions and banter!

All of this being said, if you would all like me to make a trigger warning list for each episode, please let me know!!! I've seen some out there, but I'd be happy to double check for any specific triggers that anyone has, and I can post a list with time stamps if preferred. Just specify the triggers you want flagged.

Without further delay, prompts below, and fun away!

Episode 1: The Stampede Episode 2: Water / Resources

Episode 1&2: The Legend, No Man’s Land

Episode 3: Frank / Brandon Marlon Episode 4: Derringer

Episode 3&4: Guns / Weapons, A Haunting Past / Then and Now, Forgiveness

Episode 5: Ideals / Community Episode 6: Survivor

Episode 5&6: Necessity / The Will to Survive, July

Episode 7: Memory Episode 8: Principles

Episode 7&8: Keeping a Promise, Atonement

Episode 9: Wolfwood / Kindness Episode 10: A gunman / Wit Episode 11: Milly / Strength

Episode 9&10&11: Burden / White, Black, and Gray

Episode 12: Anger, Diablo Episode 13: Complexity Episode 14: Family

Episode 12&13&14: Meryl & Milly, Mercy / Peace, Value

Episode 15: Gung-Ho Guns Episode 16: Fifth Moon

Episode 15&16: Legato, The Body / Autonomy

Episode 17: Childhood Episode 18: Anonymity / Eriks

Episode 17&18: Safety / Rem

Episode 19: To not kill Episode 20: Home Episode 21: Death

Episode 19&20&21: Brad, Loss of innocence

Episode 22: Orphanage Episode 23: Paradise

Episode 22&23: The quartet, Journey to Eden / The price to pay

Episode 24: Sacrifice Episode 25: Life / Love Episode 26: Brothers / Peace / Forgiveness

Episode 24&25&26: Healing / Love & Peace, Paradise & Redemption / The price to pay

[carlos-in-glasses]

2023 Writing Round Up

Thank you for the tag @heartstringsduet @reasonandfaithinharmony @jesuisici33 @chicgeekgirl89 @thisbuildinghasfeelings @theghostofashton @orchidscript @welcometololaland @ladytessa74 @strandnreyes @reyesstrand @alrightbuckaroo

Rules: Share what you wrote this year! It can be works you posted to Ao3, Wattpad, Tumblr, or anywhere else! You can share everything you wrote or just the ones you're most excited about.

15 fics this year! I have loved writing and sharing every one of them. Thank you to everyone who has read or will at some point. Work is a lot busier these days, so I don’t anticipate writing the same volume in 2024…but we shall see! I just want whatever I share to be good quality, and it’s my New Year’s resolution to keep improving. I love Tarlos. I love writing Tarlos fic. I love this fandom.

January

The Ruins of Wonderland – a reimagining of TK and Carlos getting back together after their breakup. I posted this on New Year’s Day, resolving to start 2023 off on the right fanfic foot.

Chasers – A coda for 3x13. TK talks to Cooper about his past, while Carlos goes for a swim and thinks about his own. When Carlos gets home, he and TK have an important chat. The rection to this fic spurred me on to continue writing in the flashback/vignette/timeline format.

February

Man to Man – A coda for 2x11 and 2x12, which also looks at Carlos coming out to his parents and where he is now with it all.

March

Afterglow of a Supernova – When fiancés TK and Carlos help Carlos’ high school crush and his wife during a call, they end up having a dinner with them that leads to jealousy in an unexpected way. The feedback I’ve had on this fic sent me to the moon on rainbows.

April

The Heart Behind the Shield – My first chaptered fic! I'd been wanting to write a 2x08 coda, but it was 4x04 that made it possible. This combines events from both episodes where there’s duality, and was an absolute blast to write and post.

The Light of Our Life – Listen, I wrote this during an extended lunch break and posted it the same day. For somehow it’s my fifth most kudos’d fic of the year…Thank you!!! We were all deep in our Lou II feelings at this time. Never forget.

Fire Island – TK and Carlos travel to Fire Island, where an older gay couple talks to them about their experience of the AIDS crisis in 1980s New York. This fic by far had the most emotional impact on me while writing it, and based on feedback it seems to be the same for readers(?) People have shared personal stories and memories with me since I posted this, and I just want to say I’m truly grateful for the response, given I wrote it in January but didn’t feel brave enough to post it for a few months.

May

With Infinity Folded Into It – Written for the @tarlosweeklyprompts Countdown to the Wedding event (prompt was: Love). After TK proposes, Carlos remembers the first time they said “I love you.” It’s fluff, it’s smut, it’s kinda angsty because Carlos is trying to bake and baking is stressful.

The Center of the Maze – Another written for Tarlos Weekly Prompts Countdown to the Wedding. (Prompt: "I Never Thought I Would Get This Day".) I thought this was going to be a 2k one-shot; it turned into 20k split into 4 chapters… Seven times they thought they would never get married, and one time when they actually did. I was super inspired and happy with the writing in this one.

June into July

When Soulmates Swim – The closest I’ll ever come to writing a sports AU (….or is it?👀…) Sparks and splashes fly when TK and Carlos each take up swimming while they recover from workplace injuries. I really pushed myself with smut and humour in this fic and the feedback I’ve had has been incredible. One of the most enjoyable writing experiences I’ve ever had, this fic holds a special place in heart.

Release The Hand to Relax the Animal – TK and Carlos explore the world of tantric massage in their own way. Written because Rafael Silva has madly attractive hands, and @heartstringsduet and I thought we should celebrate. You can read Michelle’s hands fic, Take My Hand, Take My Whole Life, Too, here. It is BEAUTIFUL.

(Nothing in August)

September

Sweet Dreams and Flying Machines – A 3x08 coda, which also gets into TK and Carlos’ childhood memories of 9/11, and the way that event went on to impact their lives (to the point where it set them on the path to meeting each other). It recieved the most amazing comments, with people sharing their memories of 9/11, so like Fire Island this fic feels deeper to me in a social way.

October

Suddenly in the Silence – I’d ‘joked’ about the show giving us Ghost Gabriel in season 5, but a conversation with thisbuildinghasfeelings led me to explore that concept myself. In this fic, it’s up to the reader to decide whether they think the spirit of Gabriel is around, which made writing it challenging but a lot of fun. It’s so interesting to see what side people fall on!

November

Where All This Love Comes From – This is my Tarlos novel at ~90k words, due to finish posting in February. I began writing it in March, when a hefty amount of plot relied on Gabriel being alive after season 4. Substantial rewrites happened after May, which was pretty gutting at the time, but ultimately I think this has ended up being the best thing I’ve written so far in my life.

December

There is a smutty one-shot coming with a scream very soon…And I hope you like it!

I'm not sure who has already done this - tagging with no pressure if you want to share/haven't already - and open tag!

@cold-blooded-jelly-doughnut @goodways @lemonlyman-dotcom @paperstorm @wandering-night19 @heartstringsduet @im-overstimulated-and-im-sad @rmd-writes @rosedavid @chaotictarlos @lightningboltreader @taralaurel @three-drink-amy @redshirt2 @noxsoulmate @sanjuwrites @bonheur-cafe @liminalmemories21

❤️🩷🧡💛❤️🩷🧡💛

[wisedo]

Inktober2023 Day 29 - Massive

The Punisher weights 100 kg and can deflect bullets, so IMHO Nico should have used it to protect Vash in the last tristamp episode.

Screenshots and thoughts under "read more"

in 12th episodes, when Vash tries to escape from Nai, he has an encounter with soldiers:

And it would be the perfect timing for this scene from Trigun Maximum, chapter 35

As Nico said earlier, he is no match for Knives, but he could have protected Vash from the soldiers. One can say that tristamp Juli incident should be compared to the Fifth Moon incident in the manga and not to trimax chapter 35. And during the Fifth Moon incident Nico did nothing, but in tristamp Nico knows Vash for 9 episodes, not 3 chapters, they were through a lot together and Nico had enough time to get from "What the hell are you" to "I'll protect you and I'll trust you with my life".

Besides Nico's presence there would have ruined Nai's next speech

[sheeple]

Miracles don't exist | 10: The greatest nightmare

Genre(s): Riddle!reader / Slytherin!reader / kinda slowburn / little happy moments Fandom(s): Harry Potter Pairing(s): Theodore Nott x Reader / Harry Potter x Riddle!reader Summary: Being the Dark Lord's daughter and raised under the strict supervision of the Malfoy's is no easy life. Especially if you start crushing on your father's arch-nemesis, Harry Potter. And that while being engaged to one of his follower’s sons. Warning(s): Moldy Voldy is back bitches, now the real shite show begins. A/n: So I'm gonna take a couple weeks off before posting year 5, just to give myself some time to further develop the story and so I don't get burned out lol. Next chapter will be posted 2nd of July [Masterlist] [Mini masterlist] [Playlist]

You're hesitant to knock on the headmaster's door. But the door swings open before your knuckles can make contact with the door.

Professor Dumbledore sits behind his desk, half-moon glasses down his nose. "Ah, Miss Black. For what do I owe the pleasure?" The Headmaster rises as you enter the office. He motions for you to sit in one of the chairs in front of his desk, and you obey.

"Liquorish snap?" Dumbledore holds a bowl with black droplets for you to take, but you politely decline.

"No thank you, Sir. I've uhm... I've come to suspect something is happening, Sir." With a motion from Dumbledore, you continue; "I've this weird feeling. It's dark and festering inside me, down to my bones. And when I saw Professor Karkaroff's Dark Mark and heard him speak about it burning, it confirmed my suspicions. The Dark Lord is returning, Professor."

Dumbledore drops his back against the back of his chair, his hands clasping the armrests. "Are you one hundred per cent sure? Do you know when he will return?"

You frown and look down at your hands. "I do not, Sir. But I am terrified. Terrified of what will happen once he does return. What will happen to me?"

Dumbledore hums, stroking his beard. "I am afraid I do not have an answer, Miss Black. The only thing I can tell you is that Hogwarts is always your home."

You sigh. Great, so nothing can be done at all. And it's not like you can stay at Hogwarts during the summer.

Having told what you needed to tell and getting nowhere, you stand up from the chair. "Thank you for your time, Professor. I'll have to go, otherwise, I'll be late for History of Magic."

"Of course, have a nice day, Miss Black." Dumbledore waves you out of his office, a hand massaging his forehead.

You slip just in time into the History classroom and take your usual spot, which is next to Blaise. He gives you a glance and a nod before turning his attention back towards Professor Binns. It's the only class you have with just Blaise.

Today you're learning about the Goblin Rebellion of 1890, which was led by Ranrok. It was said a Fifth-year student with the help of a professor defeated the rebellion.

As Professor Binns' ghost drones on about the ways Ranrok and Rookwood helped each other, Blaise leans over. "How are you and Theodore doing?"

It makes you turn your head towards the taller boy. "Okay? I guess? Why are you asking?"

"Well... the two of you seem awfully close since Christmas break, I only assumed you and him made it official."

You frown. Did you and Theodore grow closer? You guess... but it's not that much different than before the break. Sure, he hangs around more and you actually enjoy his company now, rather than before. But that's because you're friends.

"We're just friends, Theo and I." 

"Theo?", Blaise licks his lips and looks at you incredulously, "yeah- just friends. Sure. Theodore jinxes anyone else to hell and back if they dare to call him by anything other than his name."

You glance at the Professor — who keeps droning out his lecture, unbothered by the many sleeping students. "That can't be true. You are all just too wimpy to do it. And besides, Theodore isn't that intimidating."

A laugh escapes Blaise, which makes Professor Binns stop briefly in his story before continuing. "You've never been on the receiving end of his hard stare. He has always been soft for you." 

You roll your eyes. "We haven't spoken to each other before this year."

"He's always been too intimidated to approach you. Your family's reputation proceeds you."

You glare at him. Of course, your family is the problem. They are always the problem. 

Blaise flicks your wrist with his fingers. "Hey now, don't give me that look. You should be happy anyone told you."

"Why are you even telling me? Aren't you also in the race to win my hand or whatever?" You fold your arms over each other and slump down in your seat.

Now it is Blaise that rolls his eyes. "Originally. That was until she found out your lot still supports You Know Who."

He refers to his mother, obviously. Miss Zabini is truly a beautiful witch, but something about her is off. At least, that was the one time she was introduced to you. Maybe it was the party filled with Death Eaters.

"I don't blame her", you mutter. You wouldn't want your son to marry into a family of crazy blood supremacists.

The remainder of the class is spent in silence. Blaise has nothing to say and your thoughts are running wild. If what Blaise says is true and Theodore has been quote-unquote 'interested' in you for quite some time... Why? What made him? If you never interacted, what pulled him to you?

You only notice that class is over by Blaise getting up and packing his bag. You snap out of your thoughts and collect your ink and quill, stuffing it in your book bag.

"You're coming to the stands with us?", asks Blaise as he points over his shoulder towards the general direction of the final task. 

You shake your head. "I'm going to the library and finish an essay I have yet to finish. I'll come later."

Blaise nods wordlessly and turns around, loosening his tie and stuffing it in his bag. 

You don't actually need to finish an essay, you just need to have some alone time. And you're glad you took it, because once you reach the tribunes of the final task, people are talking loudly, cheering, and there is a band playing. You spot Draco and his friends and go to stand with them.

Looking around, you see Gjol and his friends standing with Durmstrang and the both of you wave to each other. You also spot Hermione and give her a small smile.

"You've just missed the send-off", says Theodore as he makes room for you to stand next to him. 

You hum. "So we're supposed to just stand and wait here?"

Theodore nods. You let out a huff and go sit on the edge of the tribune behind you. That earns a laugh from the dark-haired boy and he goes to sit next to you. "You've just got here, why are you already sitting down?"

"I am not going to stand for who knows how long waiting for someone to show up with the cup to end the stupid thing."

Theodore chooses to stay silent and the two of you sit next to each other, listening and participating in the conversations around you.

The first thing that happens is a red spark rising up from somewhere in the maze and Fleur gets pulled from the competition. Next to getting dragged out of the maze is Victor, who looks weird. 

Finally, it is between Harry and Cedric. There are no red sparks or anything coming out of the maze, so they're probably lost somewhere.

Suddenly, a cold-like grip travels up your spine and grabs your throat, making you gasp. You reach for Draco's arm. At first, he looks at you annoyed but when he sees the panicked look on your face, his own quickly morphs into that of concern.

"Are you okay?" Draco crouches down so he's at eye level

You shake your head, blood drained from your face and eyes wide. Without knowing exactly what the feeling is, you know what it means. "I felt it..."

"Felt what?", inquires Draco, grabbing your shoulders to stop your shaking.

"He's back."

At that moment, appears Harry with Cedric out of nothing. The elder boy lies limp on the ground. Harry's bent over Cedric, his shoulders shocking. And he says the words you've been dreading your whole life.

"He's back! He's back! Voldemort is back!"

Taglist (bold means I couldn’t tag you): @the0doreslover @lqndkxlmqma @st4rrry @choppedpartymuffinwinner @ledtassoo @literallyobessed @lestat-whore​ @vanishingcherry @harrysnovia @pietrobae @ireallywannasleep127

[britishchick09]

facts about josefina, kirsten, addy, kit and julie! :D

(from their new pages!)

✿ To learn more about what Josefina’s life would have been like, author Valerie Tripp spent two summers in New Mexico. She visited living history museums and interviewed elderly New Mexican women about the daily lives of Hispanic families and children in rural New Mexico.

The models for Josefina’s home were la El Rancho de las Golondrinas near Santa Fe and Hacienda de los Martinez near Taos, NM. Both are former ranchos from Josefina’s time and now living history museums that you can visit today.

Josefina’s first and last names are drawn from the New Mexican censuses of 1790 and 1823.

American Girl worked closely with the advisory board to decide what Josefina would look like. Board member Felipe Mirabal even cut off a lock of his own hair and sent it to AG to ensure that the Josefina doll’s hair color was just right!

Although Josefina is actually a Mexican citizen, the advisory board felt comfortable calling her an “American girl” because her story presents a history and heritage that’s an integral part of America today.

By the end of her series, Josefina has a new mother. This plot element symbolizes the change for the Spanish settlers of New Mexico and the Southwest, who lost their mother country of Mexico when they became citizens of the United States, their new mother country. ✿

✿ Kirsten was one of the first three characters in The American Girls Collection, along with Samantha and Molly, when Pleasant Company debuted.

The Kirsten doll and accessories were “archived” in 2010 and have only been rereleased once in 2021 and once in 2024 since then.

One of the outfits that was sold for Kirsten was a housecoat and sockor, or wool slippers. The sockor for the Kirsten doll were handmade by a woman in Sweden beginning in 1987 for twenty years.

The original family portrait in Kirsten’s books is made to look like a daguerreotype, which is a type of photograph from the time. Later, the portraits of Kirsten’s family and friends were done individually to match the other American Girl books.

In Pleasant Rowland’s original business plan, Kirsten was named Rebecca, and was a Norwegian immigrant in 1865.

The team who created Kirsten did a lot of research with the Minnesota and Wisconsin Historical Societies, who had a lot of information about the Swedish settlers who came to these states in the 1800s.

Kirsten’s Swedish dirndl and kerchief outfit were first released in 1989. ✿

✿ Addy was the first American Girl doll that came with pierced ears.

The cowrie shell necklace that Addy wears is special, as the cowrie has ritual significance for some West African cultures.

The Addy doll and books debuted in September 1993. She was the fifth historical character and the first Black character.

Pleasant Rowland, the founder of American Girl, reached out to author Connie Porter to write the Addy book series after reading her adult novel All-Bright Court.

To promote the Addy book series, American Girl took author Connie Porter on a 10-city author tour to bookstores, libraries, and schools, reaching an audience of more than 15,000 people.

Researchers on Addy confirmed when the full moon would have been during Addy and her mother’s escape from enslavement in 1864 to ensure historical accuracy in the timing.

The museum program, Addy at Ohio Village, debuted in 1998.

The dialect used in the Addy books was created by author Connie Porter to be a balance between what speech of the time would’ve sounded like and what is accessible for young readers and was reviewed by two dialect experts at Jacksonville State University in Alabama.

Addy was the first American Girl character to have an advisory board. Addy’s advisory board was made up of Black historians, educators, and museum curators who ensured the depiction of Addy’s life and times was historically accurate.

The advisory board for Addy included: Lonnie Bunch, Cheryl Chisholm, Spencer Crew, Violet Harris, Wilma King, June Powell, and Janet Sims-Wood.

Addy’s first three books sold more than a million copies in the year they were released.

Some of the original time periods discussed for American Girl’s first Black character included the Harlem Renaissance and the Civil Rights era, which were used later for Claudie Wells and Melody Ellison, respectively. ✿

✿ Kit Kittredge is the seventh historical character that American Girl created.

When she wrote the Kit books, author Valerie Tripp was inspired by her mother, who was Kit’s age in 1932.

The movie Kit Kittredge: An American Girl was released in 2008 and starred Abigail Breslin as Kit—plus actors Chris O’Donnell, Julia Ormond, Joan Cusack, and Stanley Tucci.

Illustrator Walter Rane used himself as a model for the grumpy grocery store owner in Kit’s stories.

When Kit launched, American Girl held events called Kit’s Share and Care Party where girls were invited to donate canned goods for a food drive.

Like Kit’s dad, author Valerie Tripp’s grandfather paid his staff out of his own pocket as long as he could, but eventually had to close his hotel during the Great Depression.

Kit was the first American Girl character doll with freckles and the first with short hair.

Development on Kit was started before Mattel purchased Pleasant Company (American Girl’s original company name) but she was launched after the purchase.

After the launch of the Kit doll and books, Valerie Tripp received a letter from a woman named Kit Kittredge who had grown up in Cincinnati during the Depression and was very excited about the coincidence!

American Girl’s Claudie Wells, whose stories are set in the 1920s, could have faced the challenges of the Great Depression in her teens and twenties. ✿

✿ When Julie launched, in 2007, American Girl historical characters’ years had always ended in 4, so Julie’s year was set as 1974—even though her stories begin in 1975.

Julie’s stories are set in San Francisco to express the open-minded, progressive spirit of her time. At the forefront of the hippie counterculture, San Francisco’s colorful, creative, free-wheeling vibe strongly influenced the music, fashion, and art of the 1970s.

When Julie debuted, some customers felt American Girl should not depict a girl with divorced parents. But since about 50% of kids today live with divorced parents, the creators of Julie felt it was important to have a character and doll who represented their experience.

Author Megan McDonald has four sisters who inspire many of her stories. Quite a few of the scenes between Julie and her teenage sister Tracy were inspired by Megan’s experience growing up with her sisters.

When she’s running for election to student body president, Julie debates her opponent, a popular sixth-grade boy. The 1976 Ford-Carter election debates inspired author Megan McDonald to come up with this plotline.

When author Megan McDonald was ten, her first published story appeared in her school newspaper. Her story was about a pencil sharpener! ✿

[bestworstcase]

Out of curiosity, what are the month/day names of the hegemonic calendar in TDT!Remnant? (I'm also sort of wondering what they're, like, Gregorian equivalents are, for lack of a better word? Like, is Imbrisfest equivalent to March, and so on and so forth?)

the months proper are bruma, elada, gwenna (winter); imber, irnina, melanth (spring); iubar, lira, terne (summer); & vina, cassia, anfa (autumn). each is 32 days long divided into four eight-day octs.

every month-proper is preceded by a 4-or-5 day period (<- these are generally referred to as the fests or the breaks in the secular vernacular, but if you're a draconist they're the dies unitates)—what i mean by "4-or-5" is that every fest is always the same length as the others in the year, which is normally five except in years divisible by five, when it's four. these are all named for the month they preceded, so brumsfest, eladsfest, gwensfest etc.

fest days are named differently from oct days; the fest days are virtuum, [vitarum], malorum, nutuum, fatorum. oct days are fenday, glarday, mareday, isenday, galenday, wihtday, fyrday, askeday.

THERE IS ALSO embrisfest, which is a twelve-day festival at the beginning of summer (after melanth, preceding iubarsfest) every fifth year (so in years when the regular fests are four days, there is also embrisfest).

and then the vytal festival is also an intercalary period of sixteen days, occurring every other year. when in the year the vytal fest occurs rotates—this hearkens back to a pre-draconist religious tradition of maiden-worship where each season had a major festival once every eight years, staggered (winter festival one year; then spring two years after; then summer, then fall) to keep the seasons from wandering away from their ruling maidens. the original maiden-festivals were longer but the idea behind them sort of caught on more widely and a lot of calendars have similar rotating intercalary systems.

in any case, the vytali common calendar was refined and codified during the vytal accords and thus the rotating festivals were combined with the idea of an international festival that could be hosted in a different kingdom each year to promote #unity; thus the vytal festival occurs between brumsfest and bruma when it's hosted by atlas, between iubarsfest and iubar when it's hosted by vacuo; between imbrisfest and imber when it's hosted by mistral; and between vinasfest and vina when it's hosted by vale. or to put that more simply, beginning of winter for atlas, beginning of summer for vacuo, beginning of spring for mistral, beginning of fall for vale. in that order.

a solar year is 450.8 days long. the maral cycle (=lunar cycle of the largest moon) is 36.8 days in length. all this whacky intercalation is the product of the vytal accords synthesizing the old valean solar calendar and the mantelian maral calendar together into a new lunisolar calendar that pleased nobody but everyone could at least agree to hate together, and of course seventy years later no one thinks twice about it because it's just normal now.

obviously the VCC is mathematically quite different from ours but in terms of like, time of year, the twelve fest+month periods correlate approximately to gregorian months like:

december -> bruma january -> elada february -> gwenna march -> imber april -> irnina may -> melanth june -> iubar july -> lira august -> terne september -> vina october -> cassia november -> anfa

and then octs you have fyrday and askeday are the octends + isenday is traditionally a day off. so the work-oct is six days, but you do three on, one off, three on, two off, rather than working six days straight. (in industries where round the clock coverage is necessary, often half the workfoce will be on reverse schedule, which means fenday + glarday and galenday off. this is common enough that people will talk about it the way people talk about working nights—a la "i can't, i'm on back shift this month.")

bruma, imber, iubar, and vina were the names of the original four maidens. the other months are named for various mythical figures and culture heroes of mostly northern sanus and the maragda valley.

[anxiety-elemental-kay]

TriMax Vol. 5, Part 1: Vash Time

MY FAVORITE VOLUME LET’S FUCKING GOOOOOOOO

This is going to be especially interesting to talk about because from what I’ve read this is the volume where I’ve seen the most variety in interpretations. I’ll go over what I think is happening and why. I’ll be splitting my volume 5 thoughts into two posts, because I have So Fucking Many. This first one is just focused on Vash, the second will cover everything else. Because Vash is my blorbo and I have many thoughts. I am normal about this man and this franchise.

LOST JULY

[ID: A crop of a page from TriMax Volume 5 chapter 3. Vash is unconscious, wearing a straight jacket of some kind and strapped down to a table. His right arm is extended and held in an unknown device, surrounded by syringes and wires. Conrad and Knives are looking down at him. End ID] I’ve seen some disagreement about whether or not this was just Knives taking some kind of measurement, or if it continued into full experimentation on an unconscious Vash. I don’t think it’s clear either way, though I’m inclined to think more was done to Vash than just measuring his gate. We never see Vash use his powers before July, so I’m left to believe Knives did something to him to open his gate or make it so Knives could manipulate it. It could also be that once Knives wanted to know how powerful Vash was first before forcing his powers. There is room for interpretation: Vash could not utilize his powers on his own, didn’t even know his body was capable of something like this before July. It’s likely Knives didn’t either.

It’s not clear to me if Knives wanted Vash to manifest and fire the Angel Arm, or if he only wanted to transform him enough to frighten Vash, remind him that he isn’t human. Across panels the transformation is inconsistent, sometimes the barrel has formed, a panel later we can see Vash’s hand again. It’s not clear to me if this is an error, or if Vash is actively fighting the transformation. I did read another post that suggested Vash fired the Angel Arm in a deliberate attempt to hurt Knives without thinking/knowing about the damage it would do to July. Which. Top tier suffering. Something something impulsive choice made during a highly stressful and emotional moment with devastating long-term consequences leading to hyper-vigilance and self-flagellation.

THE NATURE OF VASH’S POWERS

Outside of the Fifth Moon, this is the first time we get a good look at Vash’s powers. Sure he has faster reflexes, greater intelligence, and (.) than humans, but those are more passive. They’re just part of who he is and how he moves through the world.

The wings though? Oh, boy howdy. They first appear when Hoppered nearly kills him. We see here (and later) his powers rise up when his life in danger. This response appears to be autonomic, entirely outside of conscious control. In fact when we get the reveal of Turbo Trauma Chicken Mode, Vash’s eyes are blank. The lights are on but no one is home.

The next chapters he spends in this state, and it’s unclear how aware he is of his surroundings or what he’s doing. When he tries to manifest and fire the Angel Arm, Elendira stops him by impaling it (and Legato’s weird monster) with a nail. Then Vash’s iris becomes visible again, either because of the pain, or the realization that he’d almost used the Angel Arm again.

Then he grips his transformed arm with his left, and this happens:

THAT’S SOME GOOD FUCKING BODY HORROR

[ID: A page from TriMax volume 5 chapter 6. Vash is kneeling, drawn without any clothing details against a black background. His left arm, flash and blood and not his prosthetic, is gripping his right near his shoulder hard enough to make it bleed. His right arm is a mutated mass of crying eyes, screaming mouths, deformed arms and hands, and long fleshy tendrils. End ID]

Another one of my favorite pages because holy shit that’s gross and terrifying and exactly the kind of shit I’m here for.

I interpret this moment as taking place in Vash’s head/a mindspace shared with Knives. Vash looks naked, but he has his original left arm, no black hair (briefly), and his body is outlined like he’s wearing clothes. That plus the black background and the presence of Knives makes me think this is meant to be how Vash sees himself and his powers. This is what it feels like to be Vash, part of his body has become a grotesque horror beyond his control. It’s repulsive and horrifying.

Quick side note: we also see this effect briefly during the Lost July flashback:

[ID: A crop of a page from TriMax Volume 5 chapter 3. Two vertical panels. In the first we see an unknown surface pierced in two places by fingers with long, broken fingernails. The second panel shows the gaps widened, the surface tattered, revealing a dark mass of screaming mouths and crying eyes. End ID.]

For two panels we see similar masses tearing through something, a representation of his gate opening for the first time? Back then they’re also shown screaming and crying, even as the mass breaks through with long, broken fingernails. It seems to represent now just Vash’s power, but also his own terror and grief. In the present, in Vash’s mind, the mass of his arm is screaming and crying, mirroring Vash. When Knives speaks I get the impression this is a telepathic conversation happening in the present. It reads to me like Knives preying on Vash’s vulnerable state to try to win him to Knives’ cause. Vash confesses he doesn’t know if humanity can be “saved” or if his way of life is correct. (Love a character who expresses doubt about what appeared to be a firm belief!). What he does know is that the people of July, the ones he killed, were kind to him. Above all else that’s the impression he’s left with. They were kind to him, and he killed them.

He’s able to calm his powers, becomes conscious and mobile enough to try to protect Hoppered from Legato-controlled zombie Midvalley, until Elendira decisively ends the fight.

VASH AND THE DEAD

Here’s two moments I want to point out in the final chapter:

[ID: A crop of three panels from TriMax volume 5 chapter 6. In the first we see Vash reaching down with both hands towards Hopper’s limp hand. In the second we see Vash take Hoppered’s hand gently in both of his. In the final we see Vash’s face, with an unclear expression, looking down at his right hand holding Hoppered’s. End ID]

[ID: A crop of three panels from TriMax volume 5 chapter 6. In the first we see in the foreground two silhouettes of cross-shaped gravestones, one with a saxophone hanging on it. Behind them we see Vash bowing with his hands together. Wolfwood is behind him, holding up a small cross. In the second panel it’s a closeup of Wolfwood’s face, he’s wearing sunglasses and holding his cross. His speech bubbles say “Yer bowin’ with yer palms together? Wrong religion, pal. Look, those are crosses.” In the last panel we see Vash’s face, he’s looking to the side with a small smile on his face. His speech bubbles say “I can put more feeling into it this way. Is that so wrong?”. End ID]

We see Vash hold the hand of a dying/dead man, one who just wished him eternal suffering. Then we see that he’s buried both Hoppered and Midvalley, probably with Wolfwood’s help, and given them last rites. How often do we see a protagonist of an action series take the time to put his enemies’ dead to rest? Vash saw both Hoppered and Midvalley as people, even though he didn’t know them, even though they tried to kill him and hurt both innocent people and the ones Vash personally cares for. He took the time he could have spent helping the living to care for the dead.

It bothers me when people reduce Vash’s philosophy down to “no killing” exclusively, because this scene shows it’s about more than that! It’s about even seeing terrible people as human, ones who should be comforted as they die, who deserve burials and late rites. Yes not killing anyone is important, because death is final and robs a person of a future and a chance to change. It’s not the end of the conversation though.

I think this distinction is important, and is related to something I know I’ll want to talk about near the end of the manga.

CONCLUSION

I just. I have a lot of emotions about Vash the Stampede. Someone please get this man some space antidepressants and a hug.

[witch-ix]

Time on Magix

I took a closer look at the fairy signs in the Winx Club Wiki and had fun thinking about how a year with 16 months would work.

+ i read some scientific articles on how a planet orbiting around twin suns would/could potentially work.

One full orbit around Magix twin suns takes the planet exactly 336 days. Each year has 16 months and exactly 48 weeks. Every month lasts for 21 days, whereas one week has seven days. A day lasts the equivalent of around 26 hours on earth.

Due to garvity the twin suns spin around each other as well. Which leads to a sun-sun-eclipse on every seventh day.

The cycle of Magix' moon lasts for 21 days - every month strarts with a new moon.

Each month is named after its most prominent starsign on the night sky.

The first month of the calendar is the day after the solstice and the start of the spring months.

1. Griffin

2. Satyr

3. Elf

4. Chimera

Between the forth and fifth month is the first equinox. It indicates the beginning of the summer months.

5. Hippogriff

6. Mermaid

7. Unicorn

8. Nereid

With the second sun solstice the it's the beginning of the autumn months.

9. Elemental

10. Salamander

11. Dragon

12. Triton

The second equinox announces the start of the winter months.

13. Pegasus

14.Centaur

15. Dryad

16. Phoenix

Every school and college on Magix has summer break during Mermaid and Unicorn, new years break during the last week of Phoenix and first week of Griffin, and a break of seven days during each week of equinox. Hippogriff is the month of final exams everywhere.

But after all, one year on Magix is just as long as one year on Earth.

+ here is how long each month is when looking at Earth-months:

solstice of the frist sun, beginning of a new year and the spring months: April 2nd and April 3rd Griffin: Apirl 3rd - April 25th Satyr: April 26th - May 18th Elf: May 19th - June 9th Chimera: June 10th - July 2nd first equinox and beginning of the summer months: July 2nd and July 3rd Hippogriff: July 3rd - July 25th Mermaid: July 26th - August 17th Unicorn: August 18th - September 9th Nereid: September 10th - October 2nd solstice of the second sun and beginning of the autumn months: October 2nd and October 3rd Elemental: October 3rd - October 25th Salamander: October 26th - November 17th Dragon: November 18th - December 9th Triton: December 10th - January 1st second equinox and beginning of the winter months: January 1nd and January 2nd Pegasus: January 2nd - January 24th Centaur: January 25th - February 16th Dryad: February 17th - March 10th Phoenix: March 11th - April 2nd

[sororalice]

On The Blessedness Of Healthy Growth

A homily for the Full Moon on July 21, 2024.

Dearly beloved,

Happy Full Moon! In the “Farmer’s Almanac”, this month’s Full Moon is traditionally called the “Full Buck Moon”, named such because this is the time of year when the antlers of the young bucks have fully come in. Given this, I am moved to speak about growth and development.

Growth is usually seen as a good thing in our culture. The endless push of capitalism is for constant and eternal expansion and growth, and stock exchanges throughout the world always want to see the lines on their graphs go higher, the bars grow taller, and their “parts of the pie” get bigger. Growth is the name of the game in the world we live in…growth at all costs.

But is growth at all costs really a good thing?

As pagans, we believe in a naturalized theology. Our ideas about the Divine and the spiritual world are extensions of our ideas about the natural world and we look to the features and processes of the natural world to inform us about the features and processes of the supernatural world. So what does nature teach us about growth?

Growth is often a beautiful but bittersweet process. As we grow up, we exult in our new powers, while simultaneously our bodies ache from growing pains, and our minds and hearts wrestle with our new responsibilities. I don’t know of anyone who thinks of their teen years, a time of dramatic growth and development, as “easy”. Even those of us who were happy during our teens suffered the pangs of physical, mental, and emotional growth. Growth is difficult, and often leaves a trail of painful memories behind us.

Unlimited growth is also dangerous, as any of our siblings who have suffered with cancer can tell you. Our bodies, minds, and hearts simply can’t deal with the constant strain of growth, with cells, thoughts, and feelings multiplying out of control. Things that should be small grow too large, while things that should be large and robust wither and sicken as their resources are stolen. It is clear that growth of the wrong sort, growth in the wrong directions, is to be avoided when possible.

But these detriments aside, growth is almost always a good thing. One of the most important goals of the Great Work, the life of mystical exploration and growth pursued by many of our siblings (including myself!), is to purposely keep growing, keep changing, over the course of our lives, like a tree reaching towards the Sun. We wish to grow in our spiritual lives, in our relationship with ourselves, and our relationship with the Divine, and to do so we must remember that true growth takes place within and without, above and below, and in both the light and the dark. Spirit, that fifth element which guides, reconciles, and unifies the other four, is also that within us which aspires to rise to the Divine and that within us which pulls us down into the underworld to walk in the darkness and be reborn.

So as we look up at the beautiful light of the Full Moon tonight, as we greet Her in all Her glory, let us remember the joy and pain of reaching up towards the Sun with our branches and down into the darkness with our roots. Let us remember the joy and pain of expanding our horizons, testing ourselves in new and unexplored territories, and reaching out to new people and ideas. Let us remember to change for the best and avoid changes for the worst. And let us always remember to grow.

Happy Full Moon.

In love,

Soror Alice

Art: Raden Saleh, “Young Stag”, (~1844)

[alexiethymia]

misc. vashmeryl thoughts and headcanons

- In the ‘98 anime, Meryl’s choice of gift seems to always be donuts. During that one episode with the kids, we see Meryl with a large batch of donuts she prepared herself, so maybe Meryl’s specialty is making donuts? If so, Vash really lucked out in choice of wife. Good for you, donut boy. - In the english dub of the movie, somebody called Vash, Meryl’s boytoy. I have thoughts. Mainly that Vash one day wears a collar with “Meryl’s boytoy” on it to embarrass her and Meryl just combusts. (Also that scene where they were bantering while Amelia was just caught in the middle was just hilarious to me for some reason. You could see on her face she was thinking something along the lines of, ‘Oh so thaaat’s how you deal with your idiot. Why does your idiot keep bothering me anyway?’ It’s like she felt relief the moment Vash was sidetracked with Meryl, and though we know Vash was intentionally trying to get her to leave town, he still couldn’t help but have fun with his insurance girls anyway.)   - How thematically, the girls and Wolfwood just match with Vash. When I first watched the ‘98 anime, I thought insurance agent was such a random job, but Vash was apparently a human disaster, then oh I finally got it. Then comes Wolfwood, and he’s a Priest, which again I thought was a bit random, but then later on we find out Vash is apparently a space angel, plant...thingy. - Color schemes! Although this is more prominent in TriStamp. Meryl is white and blue. Vash is black and red. It also works with Wolfwood and Knives. Where Meryl is blue, Vash is red, Wolfwood is black, and Knives is white. Makes me wonder what color they’re gonna assign to Milly. Brown maybe? - I mean it’s definitely not an original idea, but I always thought Lina slightly reminded Vash of Meryl, the same way Meryl reminded Vash of Rem. The same haircut, spunky, angry, and yet kind and helpful. Who knows? Perhaps in the aftermath of July (or Fifth Moon), he was looking for something familiar to tether him. - Vash loves Meryl’s earrings, but later on when they’re in an established relationship, they always get tangled whenever the two of them become intimate, so maybe Vash gets Meryl stud earrings like his own. A matching silver set, or just one silver earring on the ear opposite where Vash wears his gold one so they match. It’s also a transmitter to help them communicate over long distances so it helps both of them when they get lonely.

[to-eat-laugh-love-in-peace]

So I have a theory that the next season of Trigun Stampede is going to tackle the Fifth Moon Incident seeing as one, there have been a few official merchandise that depicted one or more moons in the background such as a t-shirt depicting the phases of the moon right beside the series’ title and above Vash and Wolfwood who are standing back to back with their guns drawn,

a Vash figure that again has him with his gun drawn depicting not only three moons but also Jeneora Rock, which was where the Fifth Moon Incident took place in the manga, behind him,

and a poster from the Blu-ray Soundtrack CD Booklet depicting Vash releasing a grappling hook from his prosthetic arm towards the general direction of the largest of the three moons present in the background, with the friction from the grappling hook being released causing sparks to fly,

and two, in the end credits scene in episode 12 an unbroken shot of the crater-laden surface of a moon overlooking a red and brown planet that I think is supposed to be No Man’s Land is shown while two people can be heard talking to each other off-screen. This leads me to think that Chronica and the other members of Project Pieces of Earth are going to have something to do with the Fifth Moon Incident happening this time around as seen how one of the two voices belongs to an unidentified man, who says that Project Pieces of Earth is entering phase two now that the drain gate deployment has been completed and the experimental warp drive craft is just about to be released, only for the other voice belonging to a woman later identified as Special Ops Lieutenant Colonel Independent Chronica, to give him the order to suspend the countdown because she notices a fluctuation in the gate, that they’re receiving something via subspace, and so she gives the order to be given readings of the entire solar system from which they learn that the noise is coming from Project SEEDS, which leads to Zazie letting Meryl know that ships from Earth will arrive at No Man’s Land after crossing a bridge of light thanks to the twins casting a bridge across the void during their confrontation in July when they met up at the memorial, before they take off. Also, in Tristamp’s iteration of the July Incident, when Vash tries to keep the excess energy from his gate he had condensed into the cube he kept contained within his demon arm from killing every living being on the planet and even possibly destroying the entire planet itself once the cube came apart, he couldn’t just point his demon arm up at the sky from where he was standing like he did in Trimax and ‘98, he had to actually fly past the planet’s atmosphere in order to release the blast into space so he’s likely going to enter into another fight with Knives that takes place in space for the Fifth Moon Incident to take place so they might be bringing in the Ark.

And on top of that, I think that the series of events that lead up to the Fifth Moon Incident are going to be combined with the series of events that lead up to another incident in Trimax where Vash nearly caused another July Incident, the Dragon’s Nest Incident, seeing as the people present and had a role to play in the Dragon’s Nest Incident were Hoppered the Gauntlet, Midvalley the Hornfreak, Zazie the Beast, Legato Bluesummers, Elendira the Crimsonnail, Millions Knives, Vash the Stampede, Nicholas the Punisher, Meryl Stryfe, and Milly Thompson, and in Tristamp, and in Tristamp Hoppered is pretty much confirmed to show up since his entire character hinges on the destruction of July City, Midvalley was name dropped in a newspaper article Roberto was reading in episode 6 about how he was scheduled to perform in September City for his live tour, Milly was also name dropped and practically confirmed to appear in S2 as Meryl’s very own newbie, with Meryl literally heading back to HQ to pick her up, Vash, Meryl, and Wolfwood have traveled together and gotten to know each other for at least two months prior to Lost July, with episode 1 taking place at May 25 and episode 12 taking place at July 21, which they were personally there to witness, and even play a part in, with Meryl learning not only more about Vash but also Wolfwood thanks to Conrad after getting kidnapped by Zazie and held hostage at the EoM’s base of operations in July City on top of receiving her signature weapon that is her derringer from Roberto and solidifying her resolve to go after Vash and help him however way she can to stop Knives from killing off each and every human on the planet, and Legato and Elendira have already made an appearance, however brief they were, so the cast lines up.

Starting with Vash having to leave behind his life with Lina and Sheryl as Eriks, I think that bringing him back into the fray in S2 is going to be group effort among Meryl, Milly, and Wolfwood for reasons others have pointed here and here, and that S2 is going to take the scene of Meryl returning Vash’s belongings that had been confiscated by the Bernardelli Insurance Society now that it had gone out of business with everything that had been happening with Knives and the ark in Trimax, and have it be her returning Vash’s belongings that he didn’t bring with him to July and instead left on Ship 3, like his photo of him, Nai, and Rem, along with the other photos of them and maybe even that recorder thing that Rem used to film their first birthday that Brad had been able to bring back from the ruins of Ship 5 back then and also that notebook he was shown writing what were likely journal entries during the flashback to the first few years he spent living in Ship 3, among other things like small trinkets he’s kept during his travels around No Man’s Land in Tristamp, since he was kind of pressed for time what with Meryl and Roberto getting kidnapped by Zazie so he really only brought the bare necessities with him to July.

That is assuming Meryl was able to visit Ship 3 at some point after the July incident which I like to think that she was able to one way or another even if she did leave on short notice. I figured that with how well Meryl and Luida got along while she was on Ship 3, especially with how supportive Meryl was of Luida’s goal to terraform No Man’s Land into a green planet with the flora she’s been growing in Ship 3’s biodome in order to lessen the strain the plants, they would want to keep in touch with one another somehow from that point on. And then there’s also the fact that Zazie told her that ships from Earth were on their way to No Man’s Land so Meryl would want to talk to a first-generation Project SEEDS crew member about it which I wonder how it’ll go since it seems like in Tristamp no one not even the people on Ship 3 seems to hace any idea that there's still life of Earth seeing as Luida’s plan in Tristamp isn't to repeatedly send a message to Earth until their receive and respond to it like it was in Trimax but to terraform No Man’s Land into a green planet in order to lessen the amount of work that the Plants have to do in order to keep humanity alive. Also, I also have a theory that the new pairs of earrings that she’s shown wearing two years after the July Incident aren't just for show, that they were given to her by Ship 3 and they work kind of like how Vash's earring does in '98 and Trimax where it acts as a hidden communication device connected to a pen or just the other earring in her case since she owns a pair ever since I heard someone, somewhere, forgot where, point out that Meryl’s new earrings look not only like a combination of her signature dangle earrings and Vash's signature huggie earring in silver, but also like a Dependent Plant with their petals curled to form a bulb around their upper torsos, I haven’t stopped thinking about it ever since.

I’ve theorized before in the tags of another post here that Brilliant Dynamites Neon and Meryl might have a confrontation with each other in S2 since although the two haven’t interacted much outside of her and Milly disguising themselves as members of the Bad Lads Gang to later back up Vash and Kaite when they’re cornered by the Bad Lads Gang during their heist on the sand steamer in the ‘98 and Trimax, in both iterations Neon took the time to ask Vash about what exactly happened in July that led to the city being destroyed, and in '98 its residents being left alive but homeless unemployed and impoverished leading them to fight and kill each other to survive in the fallout of the incident, and in Trimax its residents being swallowed by a black hole leading to no survivors or even any bodies left to be found which led Vash to ask him if he had folks who were in July at the time of the incident and then admit that he just didn't remember much about July when asked if he had anything to do with it which Neon was forced to accept before the two had a duel and then after Neon shot a rock about to crush Vash's head during their duel he was revealed to have been prepared to kill Vash for some time since July only for him to decide spare him for now not having let go of his reasons for wanting revenge post-July to stay true to the terms of their duel as was pointed out in this post.

Now in Tristamp Meryl was not only in July when the incident took place but was also there to witness firsthand what exactly happened for the city to have been completely demolished and more than half of its population to have been killed by a large explosion. Also, unlike Vash in '98, Trimax, and possibly Tristamp she didn't develop amnesia from the traumatic incident and still retains her memories of the incident. On top of that, she along with Roberto were announced on the radio to be suspected accomplices of Vash the Stampede who the military police were looking to bring in as persons of interest in episode 4, and she’s implied to have been spending the past two years since the July Incident defending Vash as was pointed out here. And then add in the fact that she's met the Bad Lads Gang when they took her and Roberto with them to the sandsteamer to take pictures of them during their heist to publish in the paper before Vash came in and knocked them out and all of this took place on July 20, the day before the July Incident took place, meaning that they could recognise her if they tried to find her. Also I wonder why Neon wasn't on the ship at the time like was he visiting his folks in July only to be pulled away when he heard that the heist was a bust because the ship was taken off course and its ion cannon was locked and loaded to fire at Hopeland? And if Neon had folks in July in Tristamp then what's their deal since it's been said to be the wealthiest city in NML with its citizens having to contribute to the city's development and pass a screening process to obtain citizenship according to additional lore provided in a tweet by Studio Orange.

I’ve also theorized in the tags of another post here whether or not Studio Orange will adapt the Little Arcadia arc considering what they've established with the flora in S2 which I think that they’ll likely adapt it because one, that’s when Marilyn Nebraska along with her mother and brothers make an appearance in Triamax and in Tristamp she’s been seen in wanted posters from time to time confirming her existence in this iteration, and two it puts a lot of focus on Meryl and Milly, like it provides some insight into their personal lives with their families and everything, as well as who they are as individuals and as partners, and with Milly being confirmed to show up in S2 as Meryl's very own newbie it's going to be crucial that they take some time for them to get to know each other and grow closer. Besides that if they ever do adapt the Little Arcadia arc I wonder how they would adapt Badwick and his family? With how Meryl reacted to the flora and by extension Geo Plants on Ship 3 are Geo-Plants just that rare even among Plants? Does no one else really try to use them to grow flora to the extent that Luida does? If so, what would that mean for Badwick's parents? Are they people who have no connection to Luida or Ship 3 and simply happen to share her dream to terraform NML into a green planet through the use of a Geo-Plant they have in their possession only for their dream to be threatened by their son planning to sell the land to someone who wouldn't really take care of it not to the extent that they have and certainly not with the dream that they hold? Or is something else going to go on with them?

Moving onto Legato, I think that when he does reappear in S2 he’s already going to be in a body cast like his Trimax counterpart was in since I think that the reason why he wasn’t in the S1 finale was because Knives crippled him prior to Vash’s arrival as punishment for acting on his own when he had taken the sandsteamer off of its original course to July through the use of his telekinetic ability to have it collide with Hopeland instead, leading Vash to take even longer to get to July after he had exhausted himself from communicating with the ship’s Plant to slow the ship to a stop, on top of redirecting the ship’s ion cannon which he had also telekinetically manipulated to power up to keep it from firing at Hopeland, fighting with Livio who he had sent after him, and fighting off the Bad Lads Gang who’d taken over the ship and held Meryl and Roberto hostage, and so had to be taken to Ship 3 to rest and recuperate for more than half of the day he was supposed to have already arrived in July, when he was just supposed to take the ship’s Plant once it arrived to July and further raise the stakes by stranding the ship’s passengers, leaving them with no other choice than to seek refuge in the city.

Either leading him to focus either solely on Vash after possibly both out of anger for being responsible for Knives’ state after July, nevermind the fact that Knives wouldn’t have been in that state had he not continued to put himself in Vash’s demon arm’s line of fire to reach for the cube despite Vash yelling at him to stop, to get out of the way, that he’s going to burn himself alive if keeps this up, and shame because his actions had led him to be put in a position where he couldn’t assist Knives when he surely would have needed it most, or direct his attention to Vash along with Wolfwood and Meryl because all three of them, in his eyes, had a part in Knives’ being severely injured, if not nearly dead after July. Or at least in Wolfwood’s case, he was the reason why Meryl had gotten out of July before the incident took place which I’m sure he wouldn’t be very happy about.

For a moment I thought that the idea of him meeting Vash for the first time since July in a full metal body cast like the coffin-shaped one that was either carried around by a lackey, attached to a motorcycle he would drive around, or attached to a sort of arm piece that would prop him up or push him forward his Trimax counterpart was in when he introduces him to the game he’s set up wouldn’t be likely since it would be a bit too conspicuous for him to go out in public in but then I remembered that his Trimax counterpart had also used his ability to make himself invisible to everyone but Vash in their first meeting, which was why Meryl and Milly expressed confusion when Vash warned Wolfwood about him on the bus ride to Jeneora Rock, so he could also just do that in Tristamp. And the thought of Vash being the only one who is able to see him in this utterly ridiculous contraption while everyone else just goes about their day like nothing’s wrong is such a funny mental image to me.

Since Monev is dead in Tristamp, I think that the one who Vash is going get into a fight with first after Legato introduces him to the game that he’s set up for him is Dominique the Cyclops because when he fights her in Trimax, he’s down one arm after he had his prosthetic arm blown off during his fight with Monev, and in Tristamp he’s also down one arm after he had sacrificed his prosthetic arm along with his gun to form his demon arm during his fight with Knives in July so the circumstances he’s in in Tristamp kind of line up with the circumstances he was in in Trimax. Also, Studio Orange could could easily give Dominique a backstory in Tristamp similar to Monev’s in Trimax with just a few changes to act as a parallel to Legato’s backstory, considering how they revamped Monev’s backstory to act as a parallel to Wolfwood’s backtory in Tristamp, again with just a few changes made for it to also act as a cautionary tale for both Wolfwood and Vash.

Seeing as what we do know about her is that she talks about the deaths of half of the Roderick Slavers as a simple matter of taking out the trash that profits off of the suffering of others, even calls it spring cleaning, and expresses happiness and relief over the surviving slavers having left town and no longer lining their pockets at the expense of the townspeople and expects Vash to feel the same, she has the ability to induce sensory paralysis in her foes, momentarily stunning them and making her movements appear immediate, when she lifts her eyepatch, which reveals a reptilian eye that I like to think is simply from a mutation rather than a product of experimentation, and locks eyes with her foes, regardless of the distance between them, and she commits suicide after she loses to Vash, saying that if she couldn’t be of use to Legato, then there was only one way this could turn out, which already kind of mirrors how Legato acts when it comes to Knives.

So she could made to be another slave girl who Legato freed for whatever reason, maybe not even with the intention to free her, like how he violently killed over a dozen people with his powers in front of those slave girls in Trimax, not because he intended to free them but because the slavers picked a fight with him first, though he did spare the girls, none of them were physically harmed at all despite the carnage, and he did offer them the closest thing he had to reassurances before he left, when he could have just ignored them, which he also could have done when he freed Dominique, the difference being that instead of being left to process what exactly went down in front of her like those girls did, Dominique expressed an interest to learn from him, work for him, if he’d let her, which Legato did allow her to do, though not without warning her that she would die a slow and painful death if she ever failed or disobeyed him, maybe after learning about her left eye’s ability and figuring that it could prove useful to further Knives’ cause much like his own ability.

Since Grey the Ninelives had also made an appearance, both as the mech suit in episode 3 and as the nine people who control it in episode 10, the attack on Ship 3 is all but guaranteed to take place, and I’ve also theorized in the tags of another post here that Meryl and Milly are going to play a much larger role to take them down probably alongside Wolfwood unlike in Trimax when they really showed up at the end of the fight as comic relief like they literally just happened to land on top of the surviving pilots right when they were just about to try and attack Wolfwood again since in Tristamp Meryl got to learn more about them when Conrad took her and Roberto in a tour around the Eye of Michael’s base of operations in July after she and Roberto had gotten kidnapped but not kept locked up by Zazie so she could be how Wolfwood finds out that this big guy is just a mech suited being piloted by nine people and in Trimax there’s this line that the guy who gave Meryl her first derringer says in a flashback something along the lines of how even small gun like that could even the odds between the biggest guy and her which really gives off a lot of David and Goliath vibes that they could and I kind of want them to reference during the fight. Though I’ve briefly considered that Milly is going to be the one who gets kidnapped instead of Meryl since she’s already gotten kidnapped before by Zazie in episode 9 during which she learned more about not only Vash but also Wolfwood thanks to Conrad in episode 10 and even had gone through quite a bit character development in an elevator lift thanks to Roberto later on, I think that Meryl is still the one who's going to get kidnapped, probably to keep Vash from reaching Knives before he’s fully recovered from his injuries this time around, seeing as Wolfwood did tell her he got her out of July in a mad dash that they were likely going to be hunted down by the Eye of Michael since they’ll never allow those who pose a threat to them to survive so maybe they’re eventually going to catch up to her and then take her away when she finds herself in a vulnerable position, maybe when she’s in the middle of looking out for Milly during a fight.

Which would automatically give Milly a personal stake to get Meryl back alongside Vash and Wolfwood since not only was she there when Meryl was taken away but also she was the reason why Meryl had been taken away despite how vigilant she’d been since she was aware of what was going on. And could lead to Wolfwood and Milly having an argument over whether or not she should come with them to get Meryl back.

Wolfwood could also have a conversation with Meryl after her kidnapping about what Vash and Knives are and what they can do as well as how Meryl should maybe back out and take Milly with her like he did in Trimax, which would be a stark contrast to how he planned to leave her and Roberto behind to be digested by a grand worm to separate them from Vash so he could get he alone would bring him to July as was pointed here and here. This could be something Meryl might seriously consider doing especially when she keeps in mind the fact that they’re fighting actual supervillains and she’s nowhere near on par with Vash and Wolfwood physically, so how is she supposed to protect an intern, who is bigger and stronger than her, as the situations become more and more dangerous, and on top of all that she’s still dealing with her grief and guilt over Roberto death so she wouldn’t want to risk repeating history with Milly.

Since Zazie appears to no longer side with Knives after what he had pulled in July nearly put them and their planet in danger of being wiped out, with how Wolfwood pointed out that he had never seen them so flustered when the two met up just outside of July, and how Zazie expressed confusion and borderline disappointment towards how the general public made Vash out to be the villain behind the July Incident when they and Meryl met up at the memorial, it’s unlikely that they’re going to be ones to kidnap Meryl this time around, with that role either falling to Midvalley or someone else. I think that it's going to be Midvalley since he was the one who commented on Zazie being the one to come up with the idea to kidnap Meryl and hold her hostage to draw Vash out in Trimax so why not just have him be the one to come up with the idea instead in Tristamp, seeing as there’s also this scene during his and Hoppered’s fight with Vash and Wolfwood where he manipulates the sound waves in the area in such a way that Vash can’t hear Hoppered lunging right at him so that could be how he catches Meryl off guard.

I didn’t even bother considering Hoppered to be the one to kidnap her since I think he’s much more likely to try to kill her the first chance he gets when you keep in mind that in Tristamp not only does Meryl know more about what's going on in than her ‘98 and Trimax counterparts have at this point of the series as was pointed out here but also she’s been implied to have spent the past two years since the July incident defending Vash’s name seeing as the first scene we see of her two years after the July incident was her ripping off Vash’s new wanted poster of the wall of the rest stop she stopped by at and then she later gets scolded and even threatened to be transferred to the insurance society by her coworker if she kept acting on her own after she told him she was at the crater so Hoppered definitely wouldn’t think killing her right then and there would be meaningless like he did in Trimax.

Lastly, seeing as Elendira was first introduced in Dragon’s Nest in Trimax, in Tristamp it could be where she could make a reappearance and have that rematch with Wolfwood Kenji Muto mentioned in a post on his twitter that depicted an older Elendira dressed and posed just like her Trimax counterpart, even holding that suitcase from where she would fire her nails in Trimax so I'm guessing that it’s somehow supposed to help her generate larger nails from her gate, did in the only flashback we ever see of her where she follows behind Knives from Legato’s perspective so she likely won’t show up just to keep Vash from firing his angel arm, or I guess demon arm in Tristamp, and retrieve Legato on Knives’ orders.