#especially if it's something I'm not that knowledgeable in

[pixeljade]

I mean, I think this is something where the answer is nuanced

My whole family is educators, at every level. My mom, in particular, always put a strong accent on education. And so, I absolutely did pay attention...and yeah, a lot of people who simply didnt pay attention are claiming they werent told.

However

I know for a fact, in public schools, most of the curriculum is pre-built according to standardized testing, especially these days. As such, the teachers quite often...dont teach more than that. And standardized testing absolutely has a bias, especially in red states! Heck, I heard my mom rant about things they were SPECIFICALLY told not to teach! That shit DOES happen!!!

And even being a good(-ish) student, and being told lots of extra stuff by my mom growing up, I can name several things I wasnt taught growing up. The bombing of black wall street. Red-lining. Basically any history which wasnt focused on western society.

Now, one COULD argue that with the internet today, all that info is available, and so its on the individual for not knowing. But that argument simply doesnt hold up...by that logic, every person alive SHOULD know literally every single thing ever. I mean, ALL the knowledge is out there, right! Its all buried in this massive archive, and you don't even know what to look for, but, it's OUT THERE! SOMEWHERE!!!

Obviously there ARE some people who are just ignorant and looking for a scapegoat, but there's also plenty wrong with the current system. I'm not gonna let us all act like the American Public School System is perfect when its been NOTORIOUSLY BAD for literally my entire life! And every step (such as NCLB) just made things worse.

And even with teachers teaching, as ANY educator worth their salt will say, quite often the students who dont absorb the knowledge fail to learn because they have external factors at play. A kid's not going to be paying perfect attention at school if their parents regularly beat them, or if their family cant afford food. Putting this entirely on people just being stupid is ridiculous, unrealistic, and has extreme tones of classism, racism, ableism...basically every ism on earth.

So yeah. We can admit that there's some people hiding behind this bullshit, while also admitting its not as simple as "just pay attention in school!"

[twstfanblog]

Omg requests are open 🥺 okay okay so last week I had this dream that I was at a party and some random little wizard man cursed me with a spell and all of a sudden I was in just my underwear in the middle of the dance floor?? So like How would the twst cast - mainly scarabia and savanaclaw - react to that happening to their partner? Especially if their partner had a lot of scars or stretch marks and was really insecure about everyone seeing them :(

You absolutely do not have to do this ofc I just thought it was an interesting idea - no pressure!

I really really love your blog I’ve been following for agesss 🥺💛

Boys React to Lover Being Stripped

Leona

Lowkey, I don't think the spell is hitting anyway. Leona's got mad points in defense spells. So if he's standing near you and a spell is coming, he deflecting that shit.

But, if by some horrible design the spell actually hit, you're basically in his vest and halfway out of the room before you even realize what just happened. He's concerned, checking you over to make sure you're not hurt, and that's when he notices how shy you are about your marks, so he goes to get you clothing to cover up.

Now, while you're resting together, he'll just like, use his tail to play with your shirt hem. He wants to look at your body closely. Scars are a sign of pride and considered beautiful in the Sunset Savanna. He also just thinks the stretch marks are sexy. Literal tiger stripes as far as he's concerned.

Ruggie

Freaks out once he sees what the spell did. His shirt is off and on you while he's hunting in the crowd for the fucker who just stripped his lover from across the room. He gives up pretty quickly to usher you out of the room. He barely even registers the marks because he's honestly no stranger to random scars.

Afterwards, he's now more comfortable shirtless in front of you. It helps you get more comfortable seeing that he has his own scars. And better fed he is, you can still see a rib or two. He's got fucking hyena spots on his hips, your strech marks aren't even anything weird to him. Another who equates scars with something to be proud of.

Jack

Nearly kills someone. At least everyone thinks he is from how loud he growled while picking you up in his arms. He's basically covering you like that; his biceps are all the clothing you need at the moment. He's leaving immediately and you're coming with him. The next day, he's a man on a mission to figure out who did the spell because he's going to just...break someone's arm real fast.

Jack has stretch marks, I'm calling it. The boy is 16, 6'2" and ripped as hell. He's got stretch marks just from growing the way he has. Mostly understands your insecurity about them as he has his own issues with his growth spurt in middle school. But, he also starts showing his stretch marks more, just so you know he has them too. Can't talk bad about your marks without talking bad about his.

Kalim

Yelling the second he sees your bra. Blushing, taking his jacket off to cover you and calling for Jamil. Ushers you out of the room, ends the party right then and there. Yes, it is a literal investigation about what happened at the party. Yes, someone will be put to death for the crime of making you cry at one of Kalim's parties.

Doesn't really understand that you're more upset at the mark becoming public knowledge than the fact you were stripped. He's been around all of his mom's, he's seen stretch marks and thinks they're pretty, like tiger stripes. Lowkey, didn't even think people came without them after a certain age. Offers to find a way to cover the marks if they bother you. You could get tattoos like his, then you can match!

Jamil

You barely realize what's happened because Jamil's already got you covered up and halfway out of the room. He's glaring in the crowd, having anticipated something happening at the party, but didn't think it was going to be this. He thought someone was going to make an attempt on Kalim’s life.

A little peeved when it turns out you're more upset about 'flashing the crowd' than the action of being stripped. But he can pick up on the insecurity of your marks. He does tell you it's all natural with growing, that scars are a sign of strength to plenty of people in Twist. But, if you really dislike them, he will offer up some lotion that the Asim's use to stay buttery soft and smooth. It will at the very least help soften and fade the marks.

[echantedtoon]

Heeeey! Saw your posts of CRK x reader

(you have all of my favorites there yay!)

So I was wondering if it's not too much...

Like how would the cookies act when they fall in love for the first time?

I love your work! And stay safe and take care!

Thank you! I'm sure which ones you mean but I'll do my top three favorite cookies.

ELDER FAERIE COOKIE:

-He actually takes it rather well. The most mature of the three of them about it. Doesn't mean he wouldn't be surprised. Out of the three of them it would take him the longest to fall in love. He'd only fall for someone who was patient and understanding of his title and the extreme burden he carried on his shoulders,so with his busy life it would both take a long time, and he wouldn't even notice it at first. It'd take him a really, really, REALLY long time to actually figure it out. It also hits him out of nowhere where. Comedically. Like he'd be talking with White Lily Cookie about something and suddenly it strikes him, making him completely stop talking to her confusion as his eyes go wide. "......Oh."

SHADOW MILK COOKIE:

-The quickest to figure it out tbh. He's literally the cookie of knowledge. He's smarter than his chaotic personality let's people to believe. He knows from the moment he falls in love with you and honestly.. He's pretty delighted and goes with it! However his behavior towards you with noticably shift. Clingier, more possessive and overprotective, more touchy like arms around you and hugs- He tries to deny it if you call him out but he's always laughing too loudly and there's a darker blush on his face. You two gradually become an item without really confessing but the first time you call him your boyfriend/husband/etc- He's freezing in his tracks flushed.

PURE VANILLA COOKIE:

-It'll also take him a little while to figure out because of the burden he carries and his responsibilities. In all honesty it's probably Ginger Brace or someone else who points it out to him. "Hey. Do you like.. Y'know. Love Y/n?" "I love all my friends!" "No. I meant like..LIKE like her. Like romantically. 'I want to marry and have baby doughs with her' kinda love." It hits him like a ton of bricks. He's instantly flustered, blushing and unable to look anyone in the eye especially you! He's going to be stuttering and flustered around you for a while after confesses by shakily giving you flowers with shaking hands. He really is too sweet for this world.

[princelysnape]

What kind of kinks do you think sneep would have? Would he be more vanilla? Or would he be a dom daddy with multiple kinks he'd want to try with his partner?

And... please don't judge me. I'm ovulating right now tehe ��🙃

i would never judge you, anon. god knows i'm not in a position to point fingers lmao

before we can discuss what kinks i think severus can possibly have, first let me acknowledge that 1) whatever desires sev may or may not have, he probably doesn't have sophisticated names for them (as previously established, the wizarding world stopped evolving in the middle ages; they're conservative and repressed), and 2) this man is extremely untrusting of others, insecure and sexually inexperienced (if he was a virgin or not by the time of his death, it's still something i'm contemplating about; ask me again in a few weeks, and i'll give you an definitive answer)

so from this alone we can presume that, yes, by definition severus must be quite vanilla. he's not seeking out people to be kinky with, simply because he's not seeking out anyone at all lmao. i mean, i guess that could change if he was to enter a stable romantic relationship with someone who's into the same things as him. it's not completely out of the realm of possibility. still, it seems rather unlikely given the time period and severus' own trauma towards intimacy and just sheer sexual repression

that's not to mean he doesn't have fantasies and desires considered out of the norm though. he does, but it's something that only exists in the depths of his mind, yes? i think he would have trouble accepting any kind of loss of control over his body and mind, especially if we're talking about his sexuality. besides, not everyone is open minded and "woke" enough to understand that having depraved and perverted thoughts doesn't necessarily make you depraved and perverted

so yeah, technically, he's not very kinky at all

HOWEVER, just because severus can't name or recognize his kinks by what they are, doesn't mean they're not real. have you ever heard of linguistic relativity? it refers to the idea that the language one speaks can influence the way they think. so if you don't have the words for something, a definition, then it's not a thing. it's not a valid concept worth thinking about seriously, and that's what happens to severus in regards to his kinks

okay, so this is getting way too fucking long to such a silly goofy ask, so let's go to the list:

voyeurism. i said this before and i will say it again: you can't be a good legilimens if you're not curious about people's secret thoughts and ideas. you have to want to know, and you have to like having the knowledge even if you don't like the knowledge itself. also, the guy was a literal spy. he thrives on knowing intimate things about people. oh, prince, but what does that have to do with anything???? BITCH, don't suppress the artist. this shit has to bleed over to other parts of his life, it's what i mean—there's no fucking way it doesn't. are you telling me he never caught a stray sexual fantasy out of someone's mind? are you telling me he never jerked off to the sound of his classmates jerking off in the slytherin dorms? are you telling me that during his gig as a spy, wandering around the manors of sexually repressed dark wizards, he never got an eyeful? please

olfactophilia. scent kink, basically. it's one of my headcanons that severus has a very acute sense of smell, weirdly so. like, imagine hannibal lecter being able to literally smell out sickness, that's severus snape. he's not really into fetid smells though, it's more of a natural body smell thing. some people say it's a pheromones thing, who knows. but give him your working out clothes and he'll masturbate with them on his face. i know this dude is into licking armpits, but i just can't prove it—

underwear fetish. panty sniffer. i'm sorry, but it's true. and yeah, it's the smell thing again, but it's also the inherently intimate nature of panties in general. i mean, your underwear is constantly cupping your bits and i feel like this is a thought severus would obsess over every time he sees someone's underwear (which, admittedly, isn't very often). also, have you ever watched call me by your name? there's a scene where elio puts on oliver's shorts and masturbates while wearing them. now that's severus snape

degradation/praise kink. this one will make enemies, i know, but hear me out. do i think severus enjoys being called names during sexy times? no, absolutely not. he will get upset, angry and insecure wondering if there's an edge of truth to your words. so no calling him a "slut". but i also do think he can enjoy it in a very specific way. if you use a softly mocking and condescending tone of voice while simultaneously praising him, this man is done for. say he's desperate or pathetic, and also call him "love" or "honey" and he's putty in your hands (needless to say, this isn't something you can just throw at him or he'll hex you to hell—baby steps)

humiliation kink. again, only under very specific circumstances where there's no actual risk of being humiliated for real. probably not even involving another human being at all, just him alone. maybe he imagines himself jerking off or having sex in front of the death eaters and the dark lord or he uses a pensive to see his own performance during sex (if you know, you know lmao) and the cringe makes him hot for some fucking reason. maybe it's because he's the one in control of the narrative so that's sexy for him, who knows🤷🏾‍♀️well, i probably should know since this is my post, but sometimes i work with vibes only, guys. i do stand by this though

exhibitionism. but like, a passive sort of exhibitionism if that makes sense. a dormant sort of exhibitionism only activated when he's aware he's being watched and the person who's watching him is also aware he's watching them. it can't be a sneaky thing, or that'll turn him off

bondage. but don't think you'll be the one tying him up because that just won't happen. yes, i think he could be into the idea of tying up his partner. of just having them completely at his mercy. he probably wouldn't even know what to do at first, but that's not really the point. it's a trust thing for him. if you trust him enough to let him restrain you like this, then that must mean you really love him and is unafraid of him. which is an honor, really. hypocritical? maybe, but you try getting hanged upside down to see if you can trust anyone restraining you ever again

soft dom/domme. you asked if i thought severus would be the type of being a daddy dom and the answer is no. honestly, i can't see him being very dominant in bed at all. but i can imagine someone doing it to him. would his person be his dominant in a official way? also, no. i think it would sneak up on them; a dynamic where severus has a partner who's "bossy", assertive and decisive and severus would just let them take the wheel sometimes. and not always sexually either. they would make sure he eats, sleeps, go out etc, and he would agree with minimal grumbling because it just feels easier having someone telling you what to do. i mean, he already has two masters, what's another one?

yeah, i think that's it for now. i hope this was... something🙂‍↔️

[jd-loves-fiction]

hello! for the valentines event, can i request a piece with isagi from blue lock?

the general idea is about childhood friends to lovers, with reader owning a coffeeshop and isagi being a pro player who visits the cafe quite often. since being kids, they were unseparable, until high school and the blue lock thing starting; then, both isagi and reader started noticing the subtle changes and how pretty/handsome the other is. after blue lock and isagi becoming the pro player, they couldn't see each other that often, so some angst and misunderstandings could fit in here, overall i ask for fluff!

if i messed up something or didn't explain properly please ask, i am currently losing my mind over him and am not thinking straight

(and hi! could we by any chance become moots? you seem really cool and making friends here is hard >.<)

🌑Of course honey!! Nearly had a heart attack thinking Tumblr deleted this request but it just didn't show up on desktop for some fucking reason 🙃

Anyway here it is i'm quite proud of it. Also since i got a job I've been focused on adjusting so i've been writing slowly but it's picking up! :)

𝓘 𝓶𝓲𝓼𝓼 𝔂𝓸𝓾, 𝓬𝓸𝓶𝓮 𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮!

Isagi’s shoulders ache, so do his thighs and his feet and just about everything else. But such is the life of a professional football player – even when there’s no official game, training always succeeds in kicking his ass.

Although, the sight of your face at the end of a long day whenever he had the time to visit always serves to make it all more bearable, like a reward.

You’re buzzing around behind the counter like a busy bee when he arrives, despite the lack of customers  currently ordering – seems like closing hours might be especially busy for the sole worker for the day, who also happens to own the store.

Watching you from afar helps to settle his nerves slightly, but only slightly. You're no longer kids, and that knowledge weighs on him through every interaction – feeling as if he’s both too stiff and overstepping all at once somehow.

Little does he and his usually abnormally observant eyes know, you're having the same problem. Everytime you catch a glimpse of him outside the shop window, you take an instinctive moment to make sure you don't look too frazzled – an automatic action that greatly confused you at first. Why do you care if he sees you like that? Every other customer does.

But he’s not every other customer, obviously, even before you grew apart and the distance someone made your heart grow fonder, he’s always been special to you – just in a different way.

The one who never laughed at your little coffee shop dream, the one whose immense determination in his own dream you always admired – Isagi Yoichi, then best friend, now pro-player whom you barely get to see nowadays.

The bell above the door rings as it opens, a head of dark hair coming though and a pair of blue eyes locking with yours immediately upon entry. You exchange tight-lipped smiles as you put the finishing touches on his usual order, before he’s had the chance to order it.

As you work, you covertly (or so you think) observe him as he moves closer to the counter… before being cut off by some girl excitedly dashing up to him to ask for a picture. Fine, that's fine, totally normal for a decently world-famous athlete, no reason to make it weird… Except for the swirling ugliness in the pit of your stomach – twisting, writhing like some creature from the depths, aching to grab that girl by the shoulders and–

And nothing, because anything else would be stupid and silly. Pulling a girl's pigtails for trying to steal Isagi’s first kiss may have been somewhat acceptable in kindergarten, but no longer.

So you do what is acceptable; side eyeing them both as you finish up the orders you've taken.

“Hey–” you nearly slam the plastic cup in front of your childhood friend (once that girl is pulled away by her friend), thankful for the lid or else it would've sloshed all over his shirt. “Thanks… how'd you–”

“You've asked for the same thing since before Blue Lock and every time you try something different you never like it so, it's not too hard to guess what your order would be.” He still blinks at you as if you've said something utterly bizarre. You shake it in his direction to indicate he should take it and he does.

“When do you get off work?” he says it so quietly you nearly ask him to repeat himself, “5 o'clock.” He nods, hands fiddling with the straps of his backpack nervously – strange, he's never been one to fidget.

As the day winds down too many customers start coming in for you to linger on what he could possibly be nervous about.

You keep an eye on the corner he settles in as you work, alone during the afternoon rush as you are any other, though this one seems a bit busier for some reason… and there's a lot more pink?

No time – not for wondering if you've forgotten something important or to think about how the light catches on Isagi's blue hair as he sips his drink, casting glances towards you and locking gazes every time you do the same – no, no time for that.

You've nearly forgotten all about Isagi once the late afternoon rush has passed, the back of your neck sticky from the harsh lighting and feet throbbing slightly. Wiping down the counter as the last of your patrons filter out slowly, a shadow comes over you, blocking what little sunlight still lingers, “So, uhm, wanna walk home together? You know, like before?”

It almost sounds like he was going to say something else with how he trips over his words but you’re too tired to push, “Sure. Let me just close up.”

Isagi continuously shuffles from one foot to the other as you check over everything before locking up, fiddling with the straps on his duffle bag while waiting for you. You can just about catch him reaching into it once before taking his hand away, changing his mind. His face is still beet red.

“Ready?” You ask him, already starting to walk away from the building.

“Wait! Just… one thing.”

You turn back to him upon hearing his words and taking note of the shakiness of his voice, to see him with darting eyes and hands behind his back, looking like his heart might just run out of his chest from the nervousness.

As you stare at him expectantly, Isagi finally remembers what he’s supposed to be doing, puffing out his chest in an attempt to steel himself. You’re damn near holding your breath by the time he decides to move again, pulling the mysterious object from behind his back to reveal…

“Flowers…?”

“Y-Yeah, since it’s Valentine's I thought–”

“It’s Valentine’s?” The boy you once knew, now a man, looks at you like he once used to whenever you would steal his football and make him chase you down in order to finally play with him – exasperated and silently praying you aren't serious. “I mean, I kinda knew that I just… kinda sorta forgot until now.”

Isagi heaves a deep sigh, ending in a defeated sort of chuckle, he raises the beautiful, custom bouquet of all kinds of flowers (seemingly as to cover as many bases as possible since he likely doesn't know what flowers you’d like) towards you. You take it gingerly from his hands, waiting patiently for what he has to say.

“I think I’ve always loved you. In some way. I just never realized it, until now. At some point during Blue Lock I started feeling like something was missing– no, like something was taken from me. And it wasn't just my phone and… everything else they took – it was you. Every time I felt discouraged I wished you were there to cheer me up like you always used to do when we were kids. At some point that ache became its own motivation, thinking that you’d tell me how proud you were if I won.”

“Listen, I wrote a whole speech, but it doesn't feel right anymore. I love you. I don't know if you feel the same but I just– I just needed to tell you.” The sound of crinkling paper sounds between you, seemingly echoing as you clench and unclench your grip around the sheets enveloping the array of beautiful flowers in your hands.

You think to yourself that there's nothing you could possibly say to that that would even come close matching it in how raw that confession was. So you surge forward to kiss him, clutching the flowers to your chest in order to not drop them.

The kiss is light, full of hesitation and restraint, but earnest, made of love that’s been brewing for years and is now finally realized, “I love you too. And I think that speech was perfect.”

Isagi chuckles, releasing all the tension in his broad shoulders all at once, and though he looks like all he wants to do is kiss you again, he speaks instead, “That’s all I needed to hear.”

[neowqing]

Sirius noticed the way James, Remus and Peter's eyes were fixed on Severus, now that Evans wasn't defending him, and after they'd stripped him in the courtyard, something was off. The way Peter's gaze lingered, the way Remus tried to get closer uncomfortably, and the way James' hand was clutching Severus' clothes in a tight grip, everyone was looking for an excuse to get closer, and Sirius was very unhappy about it.

Sirius Black could have been in love with some pureblood lady, good family, nice looks, maybe he could have been with some muggle-born, anything to defy his parents, she would have shown him a real world full of something more interesting than fancy dinners with snobs, but he was obsessed with Severus Snape. From the first year, from the first look, the first fight, Severus had been his, and to neglect it any longer could lead to something Sirius would never allow.

Luckily for Sirius, he was handsome, wealthy, still inherited, and all too aware that Severus was watching. The way the little snake squirms when Sirius disregards his knowledge and uses it for a joke, the way he rolls his eyes when Sirius is with a girl. Lily had once said that they weren't as bad as Severus had complained, and that Sirius wasn't the horrible, tactless, ill-mannered stray dog that Severus had said he was, the others he had generally referred to as marauders. Sirius then shook his head, Severus thinks about him, especially him, complains, singles him out, and oh, he absolutely completely understands the kind of person Sirius is.

So when Sirius closes the door to the room he's shoved Severus into, he sees a scared rabbit, with poison in his mouth, so unique. Snape looks like a miserable kitten living on the street, being bullied by other animals, but he is full of energy to lash out in revenge, he is not beautiful in the conventional sense, he is interesting, perfect, the way Sirius wants him to be.

Black doesn't talk, he doesn't explain when he kisses and squeezes, Severus is bony, too much so, but still Ideal for Sirius' hands. Snape tries to get out of it for the first ten seconds before giving in, opening his mouth, Sirius knew Severus was his, and Severus was of the same mind.

Sirius isn't getting enough kisses, he fucks Snape up against the wall while Severus digs his blunt nails into Sirius' forearms, leaving marks under his clothes too, Sirius is left hickeys and bites, high up on his neck for all to see, he even tried to bite Severus' cheek but got a smack on the head for it, giving up the idea.

This is no joke, so he helps Severus clean up, sitting Severus down on the table because his legs are still not functioning well, Sirius pulls the pendant out of his pocket.

"Ta da" he shows a simple chain with a family ring on it, not the famous Black ring because it is recognisable, but it is also from the house of purebloods, something that screams wealth and protection.

" And?" Severus looks at it as if it were some unnecessary trinket Sirius puts on, placing it on top of his clothes so it's visible.

"And nothing, your highness"

It's a good move, the next time James wants to touch Severus, Sirius stops him by the arm, nodding towards the ring.

"We don't want any trouble," Sirius whispers in his ear, pulling his friend away, the other two following. Sirius turns back to Severus, who is all too happy about it.

"Sirius can I have a word?" Remus calls them to a corner of the common room. "It's not that I'm doing it on purpose, it's just an accident, you know, but you and Severus, you smell like each other."

Sirius smiles, yes, an accident, as if he hadn't seen how much deeper Remus was sniffing next to Snape.

"Moony," Sirius pulls out, "do what you always do, pretend not to notice and keep quiet."

Sirius finishes with a toothy grin, returning to the sofa, to the loud circle of conversation and jokes. Maybe he'll invite his friends to his wedding to Snape, he thinks about it.

[cpvnksabm]

you know, in general i am the #1 defender of ricky potts as disability rep (before the erasure rewrites) especially when it comes to his pre-cyclone backstory. but occasionally i do remember the details about ricky's parents, specifically, how stupid it is. i spend most of my time in this fandom internally screaming "stop haphazardly changing rickys backstory, youre erasing the parts that made him special to me" but this part is one of few things in the whole musical that i actually do want changed. because if you take it at face value it makes no sense at all.

direct quote from the script:

"when Richard lost his power of speech, the Potts family took a vow of silence; usually communicating in a series of strange gestures that only they understood. The only time they interacted with one another was when they read comics, or fed the cats… they had fourteen cats."

there is so much weird shit going on here.

first of all. vow of silence? i have never in my life heard of that being someone's response to having a nonspeaking child. i am not nonverbal myself but based on what ive heard from people who are, i understand that not being able to just talk out loud for ease of communication, it complicates every interaction... so why would ricky's parents, presumably non-disabled (the term "vow of silence" definitely implies a choice and not like, selective mutism or anything), do that voluntarily?

no seriously. why. the script makes no attempt to explain their reasoning behind this or how ricky feels about it. why did they do this. is it a symbolic gesture? an attempt to better understand what their son is going through? i can't see it helping ricky in any tangible way. in fact, not being able to have his parents stand up for him (especially as a disabled person who is chronically ignored, especially as a child) would probably make his life harder.

i'm going to guess that the reasoning behind this out-of-universe, the general concept the writers were trying to communicate, was something like "one of the problems with how society treats disabled people is that sometimes they get too much support, and people make really drastic life changes to give them help that they don't even need"...

...and on top of directly contradicting the rest of ricky's backstory ("the most appalling cruelty humanity can muster: complete indifference", anyone?), this is just not true! the idea that disabled people are given/offered "too much" help is a myth and a stereotype. the vast majority of disabled people in real life have less than what they need, and have to struggle to get by. every organisation that is supposed to help disabled people, at every level, is biased toward giving the bare minimum or less - not to giving people more than they need.

to my knowledge, the whole "my son cant speak so im taking a vow of silence" thing, this has just... never happened in real life. not only would it Not Even Help it's just... not an idea that occurs to most parents of nonspeaking children. because why would it? it's ridiculous! the potts family "vow of silence" is just a ridiculous overexaggeration of the concept of "parents of disabled children make sacrifices for their children", and i dont like it.

now, if you want you can handwave all this away with "yeah this would be insane and ultimately unhelpful, but the musical never says that it is helpful, so for all we know ricky doesnt like it and it isnt good and his parents are just insane for doing that". and if that was the case, it would kind of fit with a recurring theme in the musical of performative efforts to "help" ricky that actually just make him more miserable. although i would say that a literal vow of silence is waaaay too big of a life commitment for parents to realistically do performatively. but then again, ricky's parents are clearly already odd people, with the 14 cats and the "strange gestures", so maybe it's just their characterisation...

and that reminds me. why the hell are they communicating with "strange gestures that only they understand".

i think most of the fandom interprets this as referencing ASL. but based on the description that's not what ASL is. sign languages are languages, with their own complex grammar, vocabulary, etc. they are not "strange gestures". this is like if noel's lament ended with our Objective Omniscient Narrator Karnak saying "monique and the priest communicated with a series of strange sounds that only they understood" and then they just spoke regular ass french.

but of course the script never says they're using ASL, and to my knowledge no production has ever actually done ASL for the "gestures", that part is really just fanon.

if you interpret the "strange gestures that only they understood" wording more literally - there is such a thing as home sign! home sign is a communication system made of gestures, generally not considered a complete language, that develops in households where communicating in language (either spoken language or sign language) is not an option. primarily, this is something that happens to linguistically isolated deaf children. if a child cannot hear well enough to learn & communicate with spoken language, and their parents don't give them an opportunity to learn sign language, they develop their own communication methods.

even this isn't quite what's happening in the musical if you take it literally, though, because home sign is developed by the child, by the child who doesn't have access to language. ricky could be d/Deaf or hard of hearing, which would impact his ability to hear and thus learn spoken language, but there's nothing in the musical to really point to this and so i dont think its what the writers were going for. the phrasing of the "vow of silence" thing implies that it was ricky's parents' choice to develop their own communication method consisting of gestures, rather than just an existing language including the language they presumably all already knew and communicated with prior to the "vow of silence".

this truly just boggles the mind. how did this happen? was there a point where mr potts sat down with the family and said "okay, so when we all take a vow of silence, this gesture will be how we ask each other when the cats food bowl was last fulled"? i will give canon the benefit of the doubt on one thing - while it isnt specified in the script, based on how degenerative (neuromuscular) disorders work in real life, it's likely ricky losing his speech would have been a gradual process rather than an overnight thing, and therefore i suppose the parents could have had enough warning time to develop the basics of a signed conlang. but they could have also used that time to learn an existing sign language, which im sure would have been easier for everyone. or they could have used that time to say "considering english exists in forms that dont require talking out loud (AAC), it would probably be easier to learn that rather than a new language, and also why are we taking a vow of silence anyway, how does that help our kid".

of course we dont know exactly how this language of "strange gestures" came to be. because canon, rather than elaborating on any of this, simply dropped the out-of-context claim on our feet. but depending on exactly how it went down, if you take it seriously, i think it could range from "bizarre form of child abuse/neglect that would have a severe impact on rickys communication and social life for years to come" to "technically harmless but really weird and convoluted".

and while we're on the subject of potential neglect. may i remind you, the last part of the section on ricky's parents:

"The only time they interacted with one another was when they read comics, or fed the cats… they had fourteen cats."

This is, frankly, maddening. it seems to imply that ricky's family ignored him a lot due to his disability which, while depressing, is definitely consistent with the rest of his backstory - being ignored at school/in uranium in general, retreating into his own imagination to cope. and i've said time and time again that the ableism ricky faces, being constantly ignored and condescended to and having to literally die and have his disability be magicked away in the afterlife before anyone actually listens to him, this is the most realistic part of the whole musical.

with that being said uhhh. that ending line might be consistent with the rest of rickys backstory but its NOT consistent with everything else karnak said about rickys parents, as recently as thirty seconds ago! are you telling me these parents took a vow of silence in some sort of weird symbolic solidarity with their kid, went as far as creating their own gestural communication system (/signed conlang) to facilitate communicating through this vow of silence... and then barely interacted with the kid they had sacrificed so much for?

if i take karnak completely at his word here, the only explanation i can come up with is that ricky was the subject of some linguistic experiment that his parents came up with. and frankly im not convinced the experiment is scientifically or ethically sound.

okay, in all seriousness,

i know the potts family is not conducting an unethical linguistic experiment. or at least, i know that is not the intended subtext of the musical. it's possible to come up with contrived situations in which these bizarre decisions would be realistic in-universe, but we all know that ride the cyclone is a work of fiction. and when things are this contrived... the most reasonable explanation is simply "the writers never thought that hard about it".

and that's disappointing! this blatantly nonsensical detail stayed in the musical for years, and apparently nobody thought to be like "hey, does this make sense? should we fact-check this?". this part of rickys backstory stayed the same until his entire backstory was overhauled to remove his disability in 2022 and, tbh, i dont think that was actually that anyone realised this part didnt make sense and tried to fix it, more likely that it just happened to get thrown out while they were doing disability erasure.

everything about this short paragraph indicates the writers being unwilling to research. which is bad writing practice in general and particularly bad when you're writing about disabilities!

i find this particularly disappointing because, as ive said, most of ricky's backstory was very realistic in the old scripts, and surprisingly well done; this is one of the aspects of disability rep where they just, completely dropped the ball. unfortunately, that was years ago, and now rtc has so thoroughly gone off the deep end in terms of disability ""representation"" that it's hardly worth it to nitpick the worst details in the best versions of the script...

but, still, i wanted to share my thoughts on this. it's surprisingly under-discussed in the fandom. i see a lot of people attempting to explain how rtc's disability rep was always flawed, some better than others... and i thought it would be good to go through and actually nitpick what rtc did wrong in the first place so we can all try to do better.

anyway, to the half-dozen people still reading this. fic writers. if you are a stickler for Canon Compliance then please understand that the canon here is nuts. i'm not saying don't put it in your fics, personally i sometimes love to write fics that i call Canon Malicious Compliant, which is when you stubbornly refuse to acknowledge what the author probably meant to say and instead explore the fucked-up explanations of what the author literally did say. i would love to see some fics that explore how ricky would actually feel about the "vow of silence" thing, and how it would impact him & his relationship with his parents, rather than just having it as a background info that isn't acknowledged as the weird thing it clearly is.

alternatively, to the large section of the fandom that is willing to say "I recognize the canon has made a decision, but given that it's a stupid-ass decision, I've elected to ignore it" - can i suggest CODA!Ricky, as in Child Of Deaf Adults, as an alternative headcanon that stays close to the canon while actually making sense? this would explain why his parents use a sign language at home way better than the "their kid cant speak so naturally they took a vow of silence" nonsense. obviously, headcanon what you want, this is the one part of canon that is really so nonsensical you might as well ignore it and treat it as a blank space in which to write whatever hcs you want, i just wanted to suggest one possible (more reasonable) explanation

[honeygrahambitch]

"Tell me I'm the worst. Tell me I'm guilty of all your crimes."

Hannibal grinned intrigued.

"Interesting. In fact," he said as something in his gaze changed, "Shall we dive more into that?"

"Hearing the confirmation of what you keep telling yourself is a relief as much as it is a final sentence."

"It had been a sentence, hadn't it? You have been imprisoned especially for the accusation that you wish to hear from me."

"I heard it from so many people. Jack, Alana, Chilton. They wouldn't say it the same way you would."

"I wouldn't say it derogatorily," Hannibal reflected, "Regarding what I said before you voiced your request, I would like to correct myself. I no longer believe you have urges to be degraded."

"What do you believe then? And for your own knowledge, I'm having this conversation only because you insisted."

"I insisted yet that request of yours followed shortly. I wonder which of us was more eager to hear it aloud," Hannibal said before answering Will's question. "I believe degradation arouses you only when it's said as praise. You were right, many people called you names and accused you. It had been your prison guard who had praised you for it for the first time. You might have discovered something about yourself in that very moment, hadn't you been so driven to have me killed."

"Continue, doctor, call it praise straightforwardly."

"I wouldn't. You don't get off to praise like other people do."

"Like you do," Will interrupted him.

"If it comes from you, yes. And the reason why you haven't been that impressed by Matthew Brown is that you weren't looking for his appreciation. And not only that." Hannibal paused… "Although I was not in the room with the two of you, I imagine his appreciation had outweighed your need for degradation."

"So it's because he told me I'm the best boy and not the worst? Say it the way I would like it," Will challenged him as he shifted in his seat.

"You didn't commit the crimes I did, I will not give you any credit for that. Not for my own work, Will," Hannibal started, "however that doesn't mean that you haven't been on my mind during every single one of them. The sole thought of the way you would look at it the next day had been like a muse to me. You see me, you see the worst because you are capable of the worst. When the time comes you will see that with your own eyes." Hannibal said.

When Will wanted to reply, Hannibal gestured to him to remain silent for just a bit more. "You are unforgiving, your resentment is sharp like a hunting knife. You crave violence and blood. You find nourishment in my tableaus. They scratch areas in your brain that long to be stimulated. You thrive on anguish and fear. Your pulse quickens just as my crimes remind you of how much beauty there is in the ugliest things in the world. People appreciate you for saving lives. I appreciate you for taking lives and for feeling a certain thrill. Matthew was a mere fan of my works, not yours. Straightforward praise does nothing to you because of your inherent belief that you don't deserve it. But being praised through having your violence and cunningness acknowledged, that's something else. You're bloodthirsty and you find delight in that. You find delight in the way I appreciate that."

Will looked at his watch. He might just have been forced to face an intimate truth. He wondered if words had any point. Hannibal didn't need him to confirm that he was right.

"There is nothing more thrilling than being seen and being appreciated for what we are" Will finally said.

"We crave what we have been denied. I don't want to deny you anything, Will."

"In that case, I suggest we go home."

[dividedheartkeeper]

going very so much insane over the fact that the beasts, once called the Five VIRTUES. hmm. hmmmmmmmmmm

yeah no they aren't. "virtues" yeah that's going in the dumpster.

a theory: the beasts were given ABSTRACT CONCEPTS as their powers. abstract powers, likely disguised with "virtue" as a label.

there's so much i could/should say about this but lowkey...

if we define "virtue" as "having high moral standards" or "the quality of being morally good" there's some things we can see here

for example... knowledge, if we define it as "facts, information, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject" (taken from google definitions)

as you can see. having knowledge isn't explicitly defined as "being virtuous". however, apparently having knowledge is a FACTOR for being virtuous. or being morally good, in that sense.

because you can apply knowledge anywhere. both in good and bad ways. you can learn something "good" or "bad" it's how people act on that knowledge is whether it can be considered "virtuous". and even that's a morally grey ocean i'm not going to even dive into yet.

but as you can see with Shadow milk and Pure vanilla (and also their diverged forms) there's a HUGE difference.

Shadow milk uses deceit for his own selfish desires, and that being hurting others. and it's glaringly obvious he doesn't give two shits about anyone other than himself and those on his side.

the Sage, while seemingly different than shadow milk, leads others to the cruel truth (and he KNOWS it's cruel) but he could care less anyhow. he doesn't care because all he does care about is enlightenment. because what is there to fear when you know the real truth?

Pure vanilla uses truth for the good of others. he seeks the truth for this purpose. though, he knows how terrible it can be, shown with Recluse in canon. BUT, after both embracing truth and deceit when awakening, PV carefully treads the line of how to use his own knowledge to help others because he cares about them.

Diverged Recluse is similar in that vein but he's all for avoiding the cruel truth for the good of others. he doesn't want to see them get hurt. and while he embraces deceit, he leads others away from what will hurt them. Recluse uses his knowledge of the truth because, like PV, he cares about them.

if you notice, shadow milk/sage does not care about whether their actions are being "good". and, well. pure vanilla/recluse does. very much. tying it back to the definition of "virtue", you can say that pv/recluse is "virtuous". and smilk/sage is not.

the fount of knowledge is a bit of a grey, foggy area since we don't know much about him specifically, but going by the notion of he does what he's created to do, which is spread and teach knowledge to the cookies - he's most likely unaware of what the potential consequences of knowing can do. that potential being hurting others, though it mostly helps them. presumably, it's because he was never told this side of it so.

fount's just doing what he's been told to do, and not because it will help or hurt others necessarily. and if we try to apply the definition of "being virtuous" to him it gets confusing. there's not necessarily a motivator for him to care about others, especially since he's an omniscient-like Cookie and revered for his power. he's so distanced from his followers it's likely he doesn't care about them on the level like Pure vanilla does. not because he hates them (or does he?) it's just because there's no close connections forming.

which brings up some... interesting things.

like... at this point, can you even call knowledge itself a virtue?

because it's supposedly not. it's an abstract, subjective concept. anyone can take a concept and twist it into something good or bad. it's how people act on the knowledge is being "virtuous."

this can be applied to happiness, volition, change, and solidarity, (though solidarity's a bit of a vague one since silent salt's not released yet, and also it involves unity/agreement between people. but i guess that's another topic for another day)

i'm not going to go into depth with those since i'm tired but i'll probably expand on that later. but anyway.

the beasts were given abstract concepts, labeled falsely as "virtues" and were likely, only taught the neutral/good things about their "virtue". that's why when discovering the "bad" side they got corrupted, since they literally DID NOT KNOW that the side of their concept existed in the first place. because it was there, all along. they were given SUBJECTIVE powers, with the potential for being seen as "bad."

man the witches are really being the narrator from slay the princess rn, slapping labels on their creations without thinking WHAT THEY ACTUALLY ARE. can we put them in a mirror. and shatter them please /ref

i can be wrong about this though, after all! i definitely missed some details with this (and also it's my interpretation of smilk and pv, all of this anyhow)

also i'm just some deranged idiot rambling about this stupid ass theory when i should be sleeping, and i'm like. dead tired rn lmao (also first post on this blog... a ramble... yayyy...)

very curious what other people think of it all though!!! even this theory is subjective lol, i'm literally only (softly) yelling this out here to a void because talking directly to other people about my weird as hell philosophical ramblings frightens me haha... and i'm going to explode if i don't drag anyone into my eldritch horror reality with me somehow at some point, intentionally or unintentionally. welcome to my world!!! /silly

[galpaladvns]

I'm playing Dragon Age: Inquisition for the first time with basically no knowledge of the Dragon Age franchise other than what I've gleaned in passing on this hellsite, and I gotta say... playing Solavellan and knowing some of what's coming, especially as a mage, is WILD. Lavellan is an elf. She's been raised her whole life not to trust humans, only to suddenly be proclaimed a messiah in their religion- a religion she doesn't even follow! And as a mage she's considered an apostate by default and seen as dangerous-and she sees what happens to mages who are considered too dangerous, and to my Inquisitor, being made Tranquil seems like a fate worse than death.

And there's elves and mages around, but there's only one elven mage going out of his way to talk to and help Lavellan, and with all the insanity happening, it's hard to trust anyone-they barely trust her, after all. But here's Solas, curious instead of hostile, even-keeled when everyone else seems ready to blow. After Haven falls and he tells her about the orb being elven, that feeling of distrust toward the humans only grows- and he just feeds into it.

Lavellan has just lost the closest thing she has to a home, and needs something, someone, that feels safe, that she can trust-and here's Solas, telling her "you change everything"-not with fear or expectation, but curiosity, and something like desire...

you can see exactly where this is going.

It's codependent trauma-bonding at its finest, but damn it hurts so good.

And then he vanishes and she's devastated, and she eventually finds out she was in love with the elven equivalent of Lucifer? And probably still is??

Like...what the fuck is Lavellan supposed to do with any of that? I'll get to Veilguard eventually, but how the fuck doesn't she just go feral and run screaming off into the woods after all that??

[shifterin]

🍋, 🍊 and 🥧 for the s/o ask gameee <3

you have no idea how excited i am to talk about george omg thank you!!!

🍋 : for fame drs: is your relationship private? Public? If public how did your fans react?

so, right now... we're not officially together at all. it's... a weird situation. it's kind of common knowledge that we belong to each other, we even turn down interested folks because we're... waiting for one of us to actually make a move. one time i asked george why he turned down a pretty girl that asked him out and he just gave me a meaningful look and said, "i'm just waiting for you." and i was like... was that a joke? is he being serious? what does that mean, hello????? i was too afraid to ask him that, so i just sort of nodded. now, whenever one of us finally decides to be brave and do something, i imagine we'll probably keep it a secret for a few months at least. we've always gotten a kick out of sneaking around together, it's kind of our thing. we may even keep it from the boys for a little while, though i imagine they'll catch on pretty quickly. i think our fanbase will have mostly positive reactions, there have been rumours about us for years and we even have a certain set of fans that already theorize that we've been dating since before we became famous. now, some fans may also be quite cynical about it, thinking that it's gonna spell the end of the band. either because we break up or because we form a united front against the others and become tyrants or something. little do they know that we've always been a team, so really very little will actually change.

🍊 : what kind of date would your s/o organize for you. Are they more of a restaurant date lover or just the kind to cook you your fav dish?

both george and i prefer a more intimate setting for a date, especially nowadays where there are so many eyes on us. we've been on fancy dinner dates before (yes, actual dates, that's what we called them, even though neither of us has been willing to make an actual move) and we always end up running into fans outside. there was this huge scandal over it once. george playfully proposed to me with a rubber band (that he'd removed from the bouquet he bought me) over dinner and he slid it onto my ring finger. when the fans stopped us outside to sign some things and take some pictures, a young girl told me i was her favorite lennon. bless her. you know what my stupid drunk response was? i flaunted the band on my finger and said, "ah, but i'm ivy harrison now, haven't you heard?" no, ivy, but now they will. everyone was convinced we were engaged for months, i couldn't go anywhere without being asked about it. so, all that to say, we usually have our dates in secluded areas, if not just indoors. he likes to cook for me, because uh... i'm not very talented in that area. in fact, sometimes he cooks just for us two on a daily basis and the others will get jokingly outraged about it.

🥧 : is your s/o more on the flirty or the shy side?

he's 50/50, i'd say. the thing about george is that he has no trouble saying very bold things, but the moment it comes down to actual action, he freezes. he'll just sort of say something flirty and then stare at me expectantly as if he's willing me to kiss him. he's told me before that i make him nervous. sometimes i can see it. the way he can't seem to hold my eye when i'm the one flirting with him. the way he gulps when my fingers brush against his neck as i tie his tie for him, even though he's the one who asked me to. he likes to test me, like he's seeing what he can get away with before i finally make the move that he's too afraid to make. i always second guess myself, though, like maybe we're just having fun and he doesn't really mean what he says. so, maybe he's just gonna have to push through the nerves. or maybe he's gonna push me so far that i stop overthinking and make a really impulsive decision. place your bets, ladies and gentlemen!

[cricky-butspicy]

No idea if this has been asked before, and there's too many answers to go through for me to ACTUALLY find it- question for Slasher boys!

If the reader was, let's say, hurt by their family and possibly kicked out for coming out to their family as gay, bi, trans, or anything along the LGBTQ+ spectrum before they went off to college, how would the Slasher boys react to finding out that tidbit of knowledge?

ANOTHER THING- EXPECT ART OF MY READER INSERT AT SOME POINT IN TIME WHEN I FIGURE OUT MOST OF HIS DESIGN. You have a moth lover reader insert coming at ya, prepare yourself for tiny, moth color painted desk helper robots he collects and names, and prepare yourself for cute, moth themed jackets

I think there is a way to go to the magnifying glass and search posts by words/tags they contain! It's easier than going through the whole blog. If anything, I usually will link you an answer if it's been previously answered! So, no worries! This one hasn't been answered.

They seem fine at a glance. Of course they are sorry you had to go through that and are upset by it, but really, it's hard to see how upset they are by it. Like the tight fists and the bitten tongues and the pure rage trying to seep out of their skin. They focus on you when you tell. They make it about you and how they are worried about you and your feelings. They don't let you see just how worked up they are from hearing something so terrible.

Hope that these boys don't know your home address and hope that you don't give them time to find out! Also hope that you are clear on who was bad and who was good to you in your family. Otherwise you might just find that they are taking a "trip" for a few days! Where are they going? Oh, nowhere special. Just a little place they know that they want to spend a little time at. Oh? You want to come? Sorry, but maybe next time! They just need a little them time is all!

And if you look and see in the papers that your family was massacred, don't even worry about it! You get calls about them all passing away under a mysterious attack? Murderers that look to have killed in cold blood. That's so strange! Who could have done it? And Soleil and Atlas come back and ask you how you've been while they've been away and you tell them of this "tragedy" and they wonder what on earth could have happened! They comfort you a lot; they do know even separated family can have complicated ties to a person, but they assure you everything will be alright. They were so cruel to you. They didn't deserve you. You're better off without them. They'll help you through this. Everything will be ok <3 And you know, you are perfect just the way you are, right? No one could ever tell you differently, you know? Not on their watches. Not. On. Their. Watches.

In reality, this is a hard one for both of them to hear. Soleil has some major problems accepting his own sexuality while Atlas's mom has major problems accepting his sexuality and his older-half sibling's, Deimos, sexuality and gender identity. Soleil is scared his family and the world would despise him for coming out and accepting his feelings (which I will tell you, would never happen with his family. They are a very accepting group of people and love him no matter what) while Atlas's mom wants to save her children for her god (who she assumes is their god naturally.) Atlas thinks it's horseshit, and will openly flaunt how in love he is with Soleil around her and that Deimos is fucking Monty behind her back (which she full-heartedly denies,) and that her god can screw themself. He's not worried about other people's opinions like that. Especially not his mom's.

They take care of you in the way they know how.

-

I look forward to your self insert!!! I live to see them all! 🥰💕 Poor Soleil will have a time! He's terrified of most flying insects but especially of butterflies with moths as a close second! He's a fearful guy! But I LOVE MOTHS SO I'M EXCTIED!

[tanoshiboo]

Just wanted to add more, this was initially going to be a reply to someone on Reddit, but Reddit has a letter limit. So some things I'm saying might sound repeated or towards a person that said something - Although there are some new things here.

"It goes a lot deeper than what I've said here though, there's lots of Greek stories tied to them and a lot of symbolism that is also tied to the both of them (especially relating to a cycle/sun and moon/life and death/white and black/etc). If Shadowsugar is real at all then I wouldn't be surprised if it were such a huge secret considering the things I have been looking into. I studied a lot of Greek mythology and symbolism and considered many things (It's honestly why I like it so much, because I feel as though there's something very deep behind it all, but it could be reaching at nothing, ultimately it's constantly learning new things and having fun)

I used to be put off by the idea that Hermes and Aphrodite could be like Shadow Milk and Eternal Sugar, but nope, that is actually the case - and very clearly too

Hollyberry and Eternal Sugar's story is based off of Odysseus and Calypso, the only reason Odysseus really managed to escape was because Hermes (a.k.a, the "Divine trickster" which is probably exactly why Eternal Sugar was referring to him as that specifically) tried to convince Calypso to let go of Odysseus

Hermes also guided Aphrodite and Athena to Paris, but I don't think the story is much inspired by the Judgement of Paris. It is funny that he has involvement in both though

It also might be why there was ouroboros in the first trailer, and there's also many similar motifs. Because Hermes is also associated with a greco-egyptian religious system called Hermeticism where the ourboros is one of their primary symbols

Hermes was also the creator of the lyre

I also thought it was interesting that the caduceus that he holds has two snakes alongside wings, and most of the snakes in Eternal Sugar's garden have wings

Hermeticism is associated with both Hermes and Thoth, who was an Egyptian God and was the God of knowledge, the cresent moon, dark magic/magic in general and creator of scrolls - he was also the "equal balance of good and evil" . This reminded me heavily of the Fount of Knowledge

Also, regarding cresent moons, Shadow Milk's hair is meant to be shaped like three cresent moons. I thought that was funny, but it actually may be symbolic for something else as well (particularly relating to a cycle once more). I haven't gotten too deep into that one yet

Regarding their other inspirations, especially relating to a cycle much like all this, they do also share motifs with them. Shadow Milk shares a lot of symbolism with Hades and Eternal Sugar shares a lot of symbolism with Persephone - both who contributed to the cycle which is why Hades and Persephone as a symbol were so important (life and death, the seasons, etc)

I think Eternal Sugar and Shadow Milk, considering all this, might have been the sun and the moon like Pure Vanilla and White Lily. Because the interesting part for me is that despite Shadow Milk and Pure Vanilla looking like the sun and the moon, White Lily and Pure Vanilla are also the sun and the moon. I wonder if there's another sun

And there is.. Eternal Sugar is constantly seen with a sun or a bright yellow light behind her with sunlight - I think what adds to this is that she might also take inspiration from Chamuel, who was the archangel of happiness and love (and also often portrayed with cupid), and was often associated with "a pink sun" or pink rays from the sun

also, her red cape in the pre-corrupted form reminds me of the red cape Helios wears (the Greek god of the sun) and is also holding a globus cruciger like Helios does (although I think he might actually be holding the sun) but I think she's also inspired by Iris because of the rainbows, but I think it wouldn't be surprising if it were both because "sun and rainbows" literally means happiness, but also, a rainbow halo around the sun is also associated with Helios..

And usually, rainbow halos are around the sun

Also, design-wise / visually , Eternal Sugar is white and Shadow Milk is black (outside of pink and blue, which are also opposites in their own way)

I wonder if Shadow Milk gravitates to Pure Vanilla, not only because of the soul jam, but because it's the sun too. Shadow Milk was so related to balance and a cycle and good and evil pre-corruption that I wonder if he craves that. Especially since it turned out that he was stalking Eternal Sugar for a long time (if you read Sugarfly's dialogue and look into certain assets)

in official art, Shadow Milk likes to put White Lily and Pure Vanilla together. Maybe he desperately yearns for that...

"Sun and Moon stand for a hidden alchemist and nature work. Sun and Moon are, together with Ouroboros, the most enigmatic and ubiquitous hermetic symbol. Indeed Sun and Moon, Sol et Luna, represent the foundation of hermetic symbolism."

Personally, although no one knows for sure, I think something awful between Eternal Sugar and Shadow Milk happened and led to both their corruption, everyone elses and their own resentment for each other . Because while everyone is a little annoyed by Shadow Milk in their respective dialogue for obvious reasons, Eternal Sugar seems to have the most bitterness and resentment with him and Shadow Milk had implied more than a few times that they had a history together .. Their connection also seemed to be very highlighted and important

Maybe they were based off of the Japanese mythological story of Amaterasu (Goddess of the sun) and Tsukuyomi (God of the moon)

Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi were married (they were brother and sister, but many married gods were siblings for some reason, they were siblings because they were born of the left and right eyes of Izanagi.. In a way, I guess you could say this applies to ES and SMilk as well because they were born from the same oven... Although I'd really rather not imagine them to be siblings at all)

Amaterasu found out that Tsukuyomi did something horrible, which was killing Uke Mochi . Amaterasu thought it was dishonorable and vile, and ever since then Tsukuyomi and Amaterasu were seperated/divorced and Amaterasu declared she never wanted to see him again and banished him from her presence

There's not much on Shadow Milk and Silent Salt but I think they'll definitely have some kind of connection too. I think there is literally three moons here (Shadow Milk, Silent Salt and White Lily) but I could be going crazy lol

and maybe the three suns are Pure Vanilla, Eternal Sugar and Golden cheese cookie (??) I don't know about this one lol

Hollyberry reminds me of the earth or jupiter, but not really the sun or the moon.

All I theorize is that Shadow Milk and Eternal Sugar had a very important history together, although it doesn't mean it doesn't make room for Hollysugar for example .. Especially if there's no development with Eternal Sugar and Shadow Milk . If Shadow Milk did something unforgivable in Eternal Sugar's eyes, maybe they are better off seperated (if this theory is correct)

If opposite/evil Purelily was a thing, I'd definitely expect them to be very unhealthy and resentful because Purelily is healthy, developing and loving. Purelily is the common depiction of the sun and the moon who despite being often apart, love each other dearly"

PSA:

Some of this is a bit untidy and disorganized in terms of thinking because I literally brainstormed it - You can make of it what you will, some of these things might lead to other conclusions or ideas and not exclusively Shadowsugar but may be more associated with the respective characters

VERY LONG READ AHEAD!!!

I just wanted to brainstorm about more Shadowsugar theories and the mentions of an ouroboros/two-headed snakes/general symbolism relating to the cycle of life I already cleared up that there is no cycle in Eternal Sugar's garden because the goal is to be stagnant and sloth is inherently stagnant, and there are not many things that imply a cycle - her "Eternal" refers to basically eternal stagnation and not like an eternal cycle which is what the ouroboros and the two-headed snake represents So a while back I connected them with a few things:

- Hermes and Aphrodite - Persephone and Hades - The cycle of life, life and death, the ouroboros

I wanted to look more into the Hermes and Aphrodite things, I mean I already figured that Persephone and Hades together were also associated with the cycle of life and whatnot

In Greek mythology (although this is actually Greco-egyptian), the ouroboros is also associated with Hermes, but in a different way - it's called Hermeticism which is based off of the writings of Hermes Trismegistus which is a blend of Hermes and Thoth

I already pointed out the similarities of Hermes and Shadow Milk, but I'll talk about them again anyway:

Hermes is considered the "divine trickster" and is well-known for his mischief and tricks

Hermes was a shapeshifter

Can easily shift or move between both the mortal and divine realms

Associated with animals like the ram

In some portrayals, he has a jester-like hat, too

Now he also has a few similarities with Thoth, although particularly pre-corruption:

Thoth is the god of knowledge, magic, art and wisdom

Thoth is strongly associated with the moon (particularly the cresent moon) and scrolls (in fact, I'm pretty sure he apparently invented papyrus scrolls and hieroglyphs)

Shadow Milk's hair is actually shaped like cresent moons

Basically, Hermeticism is directly associated with the ouroboros / or I'm pretty sure Hermeticism adopted the ouroboros as one of their symbols

(you can see this in the second image that displays an ouroboros)

So maybe Shadow Milk was actually more associated with Hermes than I thought in this theory. I didn't think of it much initially

Aphrodite and Hermes had a child called Hermaphroditus, which became the origin of Hermaphroditism because he was a Hermaphodite (if it wasn't obvious enough by the name)

Now, I think this is not a child that Eternal Sugar cookie and Shadow Milk supposedly had if they are Hermes and Aphrodite but another thing that represents or symbolizes a cycle/or opposing ends In Hermeticism/Alchemy, this is called a "Rebis" and is born from the sacred marriage of opposites - it represents masculine and feminine, life and death, the sun and the moon - in other words, a cycle / duality Design-wise, and in many manners, Shadow Milk and Eternal sugar are opposites and probably even more-so pre-corruption. Eternal Sugar is white and pink and Shadow Milk is blue and black which is the prime aspects of their designs (as simple as it sounds, design contributes highly to the telling of a character and your subconscious, another example is Pure Vanilla being yellow and white and Shadow Milk being blue and black, telling that they too are opposites)

Technically speaking, happiness is kind of the opposite of knowledge because it's blissful and emotional, meanwhile knowledge is more logical and reliant on reality.. Knowledge can either be incredibly destructive and painful to happiness or contribute to it much like any other opposite

Now, this is stretchy, but I also often see Eternal Sugar with sun-like or light motifs surrounding her

I mean, it could easily be a halo, though...

But another reason I feel like it could be a sun is because the pink sun/pink rays is associated with the archangel Chamuel, who was associated with love, peace and happiness and is often portrayed wearing a heart and surrounded in pink (because pink is his color) and also really often portrayed being around a cupid (stereotypically)

Shadow Milk is often associated with the moon (and particularly dark moon magic) and darkness , although funnily enough, he's really often seen with both the sun and the moon

Also the sinking sun is interesting to note.. Maybe I'm wrong and he could actually be both the sun and the moon here, especially since he's seen holding light in his gacha (and also note the dark moon magic logo, the sun and the moon)

It could actually just be representing Shadow Milk's control over dark magic and white magic (because there's also a white magic logo right there)

Maybe he's actually the rebis, at the end of the day? lolol

So this one I don't know what to make of, these things might be more related to Smilk than the latter

Although out of the sun and the moon I think Shadow Milk represents the moon the most, especially since he's around rabbits a lot which could mean other things but in Eastern Asian folklore it's because a rabbit lives on the moon and that rabbits are associated with the moon - Also his design is just really moonlike in a lot of manners and has so much moon symbolism overall

and he lives on the dark side of the moon, I think..

So what I was just theorizing is, pre-corruption, Shadow Milk and Eternal Sugar had very much to do with the cycle of something relating to cookiekind, which is why they are so closely tied - Judging by what Shadow Milk told her in both the KR and EN version, I think Shadow Milk and Eternal Sugar's separation (in any manner) both somehow contributed to their corruptions and the rest as well as the chaos (because obviously without a cycle there is chaos, let alone if they were one of the biggest contributors to a cycle) that cycle in which Burning Spice cookie was fighting for - I think Shadow Milk and Eternal Sugar might've really been the "Purelily of the group" so to speak

So some might think that this "opposites" thing might tie more directly to Shadow Milk and Pure Vanilla, but the truth is, yes you would actually be right. Considering this theory, despite having broken off from his initial opposite and contributing to the end of a cycle, Shadow Milk still winds up gravitating towards Pure Vanilla more affectionately who is too, his opposite... For there to be balance there must be a sun and a moon

I think all of this also ties with how I believed Eternal Sugar to have her connections with PV and White Lily much like Shadow Milk has his connections with PV and White lily and vice versa , Pure Vanilla and Eternal Sugar are basically Shadow Milk's opposite

White Lily cookie could, too, be Pure Vanilla's moon IN A WAY because

literally "Moonflower queen/faerie"

"One glance at the Queen bathed in bright moonlight will bewitch anyone, body and soul."

Usually reliant on colder colors , especially in her assets and backgrounds and generally herself , tends to radiate and generate moonlight rather than sunlight

She literally does get stuck in a moonstone (I'm not being serious on this one lolol)

Lilies are sometimes associated with the moon and the phases of the moon / but honestly generally just white flowers in general are associated with the moon

Her general association with silver which is directly correlated to the moon

Dark Enchantress cookie for White Lily is, in a way, kind of like the dark side of the moon but also "According to Mesopotamians and Incas, the blood moon symbolizes the death and the downfall of the king" + Blood moons are also generally associated with bad omens and evil

The first riddle in Spire of Shadows, the sun and the moon is referring to Pure Vanilla and White Lily

mon... I think two suns and two moons mean something too, but I'm too sleepy to look into this further

I also remember when @/sylvieserene made some connections between PV and ES;

I could be reading too much into it, but it's honestly interesting ...

--- Oh yes, on an unrelated note, but it's often thought that if Eros was the child of Aphrodite and Ares, this would probably imply something like Eternal Sugar was actually with Silent Salt (Because out of all of the beasts that could be Ares, it would 100% be Silent Salt) but you see...

No one actually knows who was Eros' father, it's only believed that Eros might be the child of Ares only because Aphrodite was with him primarily for a while, but the reason why Eros was thought to maybe be the child of Hermes is because he looked and behaved like Hermes more than he did of Ares ... Hermes was winged and mischievous , Hermes invented the lyre and Eros was often with a lyre, in Roman mythology, Eros was written as the child of Hermes In this case, that would be accurate because Pavlova is made of sugar, cream and berries and is also to an extent a trickster. Now I'll never be 100% sure about this theory, I think I did write about it before. The idea that Black Sapphire cookie, Candy Apple cookie, Pavlova cookie are their children will always be a teeny bit of a stretch for me but it's fun to think about. It would be mythologically accurate to some extent But also it could be likely that Pavlova is the child of no one's, because in Hesiod’s Theogony (prior to traditional/more modern Greek mythology) Eros is born out of chaos rather than family

[benevolenterrancy]

Drawing prompt- qing jing peak disciples hanging out with the gusu lan clan disciples (+jin ling) 🫶 (love your art btw)

they're supposed to be promoting inter-sect goodwill, but only two of them seem to have gotten that memo

[dreamingofthewild]

Once again, I feel the need to point out that Gale did not know the orb was the Karsite Weave, capable of destroying Mystra, until she told him in Act 3. And that was after she had already ordered him to kill himself—only revealing the truth once he had set his sights on the Crown, which she wanted for herself.

Gale genuinely believed he was returning a lost piece of the Weave to her. He wasn’t trying to surpass her. He did it because he wanted to please her. He never felt worthy. Yes, he hoped that one day she would see him as her equal, allowing him access to the knowledge the gods kept hidden. His ambition, while misguided and reckless, was never malicious—he was not seeking to overthrow her or destroy her.

As a Chosen, Gale was already an incredibly powerful wizard, and it wasn’t his fault that he reached for something he didn’t even know existed. Mystra never warned him—she simply told him to be content. And when Gale takes the Crown (provided you’ve read the Book of Karsus), we learn that he is powerful enough to ascend to godhood. Yet, unless you pursue the Origin Evil ending, he doesn’t attempt to claim her domain—he creates his own. That is ambition, not hubris.

Gale’s ambition is not the equivalent of a man thinking he’s better than a woman, nor is it the act of someone trying to surpass a figure they have no skill in. His heartbreak is clear. He is devastated, and he is ready to obey Mystra’s order to sacrifice himself. You don’t think that if she had told him the truth from the start, he wouldn’t have begged her, pleaded with her in horror, to remove the orb and forgive him? But she only told him when he sought something she wanted. And even then, I have no doubt that had she simply asked him to give her the Crown in exchange for forgiveness, he would have done so. Instead she ordered him to die for it, and if you know what happens if he uses the orb in Act 2, you know that his death achieves nothing at that moment apart from her getting the crown.

The only reason he goes after the Crown at all is because it’s his only alternative to dying at Moonrise, and it's his chance to prove himself worthy. He is desperate at this point, but his indignation remains at the God's themselves and the way they treat mortals, not just Mystra. Gale is essentially going through a crisis of faith. I think many either forget or downplay this element of Gale's relationship with Mystra. She's an Omniscient, Omnipotent being, and Gale is a mere mortal. She had/ has all the power.

There have been so many others who have portrayed this more eloquently than I, and with screenshots.

[hamletkin]

i do have time to talk about this now so i will try to articulate my thoughts.

"hamlet killed ophelia" and "polonius' death killed ophelia" are statements that really fail to take into account ophelia as a person. she is often looked at through the lens of the men in her life within the fandom which is just...devastating to see. of course, it can be read that way! that ophelia's life is seen through the eyes of the men in her life more than it is her own. but that doesn't mean that you, as a viewer, have to portray her that way... why would you look at this beautiful work, this beautiful character who just so happens to be a woman...and say "oh, yes, her death stems wholly from hamlet being mean to her"... we know why. it's BECAUSE she is a woman. no matter what i say or anyone else says, she will always been looked down on for this. she isn't the first, she won't be the last. and i fucking hate it.

to say that hamlet's cruelty killed ophelia or that it was her father's death is ultimately just...incredibly reductive. it takes away from ophelia. i'm not saying that those can't be contributing factors. that is entirely possible. so, let's go in order.

first, we have ophelia here. she has very little agency as a woman, even with her father's position. i would argue that her character does not completely lack agency. as she has been in a secret relationship with hamlet, she has clearly gone against her father and brother's wishes. if she were to lose her virginity/become pregnant (i'm a pregnant ophelia truther i'm sorry) it would be a stain on their honour and hers. not only that but consorting with a man - let alone a prince - in private is already scandalous. but ophelia seems happy with this; her secret romance with the prince who writes her terrible poetry that she adores. her secret, her silent, (mostly) unknown rebellion, is something that belongs entirely to her.

she is knowledgeable, beautiful, clever...everything a lady should be. she can read and write and sing and sew and tell you how shitty you are with a flower. she loves her family.

the first straw comes from within: the extreme pressure placed upon her by her father and brother. she adores them, truly! but you cannot deny that they put a lot on her shoulders. she is reminded in the play, by both of them, that she needs to protect her virginity because... that's basically where her worth is. (read: i love polonius and laertes but that doesn't change their words/deeds towards ophelia)

then comes the death of king hamlet and the wedding to follow, a definitely strange thing. hamlet becomes scarcer during this time. there are no more letters, no grazing of fingertips in the halls... she worries about it but what can she do? especially with so much going on! and then her dear brother leaves for france and she's left alone in this quickly crumbling court...

hamlet is distant until he comes to her and frightens her so much she immediately goes to her father...who she very well knows could scold her for it. instead, he takes her to the king and queen. he then forces her to break off her relationship with hamlet and she agrees to...because she has no other choice. hamlet, likely feeling betrayed and put upon, is exceptionally cruel to her. he takes out his pain entirely on her, perhaps knowing that she was set up and seeing that as a further betrayal of him who should have been her husband. rather than deigning to look at it through her eyes, he treats her poorly...and she still prays for him. she still loves him.

with laertes gone and hamlet out of her orbit, she has only her father left to confide in, a man who puts his honour before her emotions. she isn't tended to. she isn't asked after. all she has to do is grieve hamlet and try to keep living her life even as he mocks her further, gives her something of a false hope.

for her father to then be killed by that same man who still may hold some part of her heart is just...devastating. accident or not, ophelia has to contend with the fact that her dear father is dead and her lover held the blade.

people tend to think that is the breaking point for ophelia...but i'd argue that she's been falling apart for far longer than this. with so much pressure on her to be perfect, to keep up appearances, to keep the truth from everyone including people she loves. that had to weigh upon her. everything had always been heavy but she kept her head held high out of duty and love.

ophelia's world has all but unravelled at this point. she's been abused, she's been grieving loss after loss after loss, she's been doing this alone, mostly in her own head. how could it not get to her after a time? she is HUMAN. her descent is seen as quick but i like to think it's been going on for years and she finally has come to a breaking point. one where her exceptional grief, pain, sorrow, and anger have all pooled into one and all she can do to protect herself is sink inwards. this looks to the others as madness but for the first time they listen to her...though all of them seem to miss her meanings entirely. her songs tell a story, her words about the plants are pointed, she knows, even in such a state of severe mental unwellness, that there is truly something rotten in the state of denmark...

whether you believe she was pushed, that she fell, or that she jumped to her own death it doesn't really make much difference as far as i see things. ophelia's death was tragic. it was the product of many things. to blame it on one single act is unfair to ophelia. she didn't kill herself because of a man. she didn't fall to her death because of a man. her death was caused by a system of oppression that constantly beat against her, that told her that her worth was in her body, that told her that she was expendable. she died alone in a world that treated her as though she was.

perhaps it's easier to place the blame on something more tangible. a prince. a father. but to do so takes away from everything ophelia faced, everything she stood against for so long. you take away her struggle, her choices, her heart if you look at things so narrowly.

ophelia will always deserve better than we are willing to give her

i don't have enough time rn to fully go into this but saying that hamlet killed ophelia as a blanket statement is so reductive and lazy...