#feel free to reply into a thread

[scarlxtleaves]

unprompted / always accepting / @sparklymuses​ :" i'm surprised the fatui has the guts to try and wall right into mondstat ... "  -  rosaria to childe!

His eyes quickly darts towards the young woman that had been so..’friendly’ enough to ensure the night was not a lonely one for him. “Oh, oh no no it’s nothing like that I assure you Sister.” The mask that was his bright smile was now donned upon his face. Her majesty was clear on her order and he would be extremely thorough with his search for the deserter. There was something interesting about this Sister that had approached him, as a warrior himself, someone inept in the art of war; he knew another weapon of destruction when he saw one. This woman..she was more than what she seemed.

“I assure you, the visit is completely diplomatic, but perhaps you could aid me. Has there been sightings of any outsiders here lately? A mysterious fellow perhaps..” Who knew, maybe she had heard from or seen his designated target.

[themosthatedbeingg]

{ Pride Ball event !!}

{ read more for long post }

It was time, everything was set up, the staff was ready and the food and drinks have been cooking and set out, the Pride celebrations and parades were going on right now and soon guests would start appearing for the actual Ball.

The hotel had been cleaned up and decorated accordingly , with signs leading to the grand ballroom that had been transported from the palace to the Hotel, an extra dimensional space added on to make room that linked to the Morningstar palace itself in case of extra storage needed.

Lucifer was pretty sure most of the guest’s doors were locked and he was sure no one was stupid enough to go snooping around but who knows what would happen when the party was in full swing.

There was security around the outside as well a few guards inside ; as the Royals would be attending, Monty would sadly not be able to sit this one out on Lucifer’s hat as per usual.

The mood was festive and loud and proud as Hell celebrated not only Pride but the Fall/Entrance of their King themself Lucifer Morningstar , when the star came down to Hell and gave it a new life .

Welcome to the Hazbin Hotel/Pride Ball party !

[radioiaci]

𝕭𝖑𝖔𝖔𝖉 𝕽𝖔𝖘𝖊 𝕸𝖆𝖘𝖖𝖚𝖊𝖗𝖆𝖉𝖊 𝕭𝖆𝖑𝖑 - Open Starter

[ Preface: Alastor is in attendance as Rosie's ( @cannibalxroses ) spouse in this universe. They have been both privately and publicly announced as a married pair. This thread is open for interaction with any others who are attending the ball and are okay with this setup! ] [ Alastor's Masquerade Outfit ]

He is hovering.

Though he's been in attendance at Rosie's side for the majority of the night, he has allowed her to drift and mingle as needed. But he is close by, only opting to speak in friendly candor when approached, but otherwise lingering like a stone monolith, both keeping an eye on the door for any unwanted intruders and on Rosie for any indications that he is needed at her side. But she is an expert in the art of the affair; he will not pretend that he is necessary to remain so rooted at her side.

Unless asked, of course.

In his hand, he nurses a drink, though it's not quite clear whether it's one of the red wine variety or if it is actually some of the offered blood beverage. He will keep all guessing as to which. Alastor will not be giving away the secret. (He enjoys just the touch of mystery, given that it is quite obvious as to who he is beneath the motif of his mask.)

But he is quite pleased that, thus far, the evening's festivities seem to be going off without a hitch. Pleased on Rosie's behalf, really.

As he orbits the room, he will continue to observe, looking for all of the world like a circling vulture to prey upon the corpse of any creature or thing that could threaten to subvert all of Rosie's work and dedication to the event.

He will not allow any of that, so long as he is watching.

And he will certainly enjoy the music and the fare in the meantime.

[ghostlyrps]

Ghost stretched with a yawn.

Their upper arms were high above their head, lower stretched in front of them. A tear pricked their eye, tongue lolling from their mouth before they shut it, smacking their lips before sticking their pink tongue out.

Normally they'd be dressed formally, always ready to be called into work or go in for a new interview. Always looking their best.

They couldn't be bothered today. The Blood Ball had taken a lot from them energy wise, their social battery was pretty much zero, so they'd called off work and put their phone on "Do Not Disturb", pulled out their largest, loosest, softest sweater- their personal favorite, a blue one with sharks on it- and had thrown on a pair of sweats. They even tied back their neck fur, braiding it to reveal their shoulders and collarbones- shown off by the too-large sweater. They hadn't even bothered with their binder- didn't give enough of a shit to.

Didn't really matter. What did matter was they were out for the day, despite not wanting to be. They were going to grab some stuff from the store- shit for dinner, some soda and maybe some sweets or snacks for later, get some food from the nearest fast food place and go home and relax the rest of the day.

Yep. Today was a day to just relax.

[ofxhollows]

Where: Ira’s home who: the class of 2008 survivors - @illucides, @oh-the-hcrrcrs, @ungxards.

There existed a place that held solitude mixed with an allure for her, a place where secrets seemed to linger in the whispers of the wind. Or perhaps it was merely a meeting ground, chosen by some unspoken agreement. How long had it been since they last gathered? Years, it seemed, since their paths crossed, their conversations now distant echoes. Evelyn found herself taking a seat since arriving to Ira’s home .The other survivors would be coming soon. "Interesting how time moves forward and yet, takes you back."

[noah-atwood]

OPEN STARTER for @aurorabaystarter

“Oh, this?”

Noah steps back from the bulletin board in the library with various postings for events around the community. From yard sales to sales, his laminated paper is for as it says: 

Local D&D Players New & Experienced Looking for 4 - 6 people

And his discord information for contact along with silly graphics put around it to make it eye catching. He looks at the person, “It’s been something I’ve wanted to try, and I figured the library would have some people who would like this kind of thing. Might be stereotyping, but it's between this place and the comic shop.”

[viaetor]

hi everyone! i hope you're all doing well and taking care of yourselves and having good days. i haven't been very active here because of my surgeries, but i plan on being more active soon since i've been missing writing a lot. before that though, i need to state something very important for my blog going forward: i will not be interacting with any natlan characters/blogs or characters related/inspired by the region (including ocs), only if they're canon divergent. this will not change with the release of the archon quests. i will simply take whatever i feel is relevant to my aether and that’s it. my reasons for this drastic decision will be explained below. please take this post not only as an announcement but as well as a vent and an attempt to call for awareness, especially since many of us are not only roleplayers but writers, artists and content creators. i'd appreciate it if you could all read this post in full.

this post is also not directed at my mutuals or any people i have contact with. this is just me trying to make my boundaries clear, explaining them, and hoping you can understand (and perhaps relate to) my hurt. read this post and make your own judgement. i appreciate your time regardless. 

i'm latin american, proudly born and raised. my parents fought in the dictatorship of our country, my grandparents were of indigenous settlements. i'm a history graduate with honours, and before that, i studied social and political sciences. i've been a part of political movements in my university to guarantee equality and education, and i only stopped being part of some of them because i received threats by alt-right extremists targeting my family. even so, i still continue to be a constant participant in assemblies and projects. i'm an avid volunteer worker in local schools, and i worked in hospitals, too. i speak portuguese, spanish, french and english with varying levels of fluency. i've lived most of my childhood and early adolescence in villages. i've participated in many religious rituals, invited by practising people of those beliefs, and i've shared so many wonderful memories with people from so many latin american backgrounds that i can't even make a cohesive timeline of all my adventures. 

i'm saying all this to emphasise that i'm speaking from a place of experience, knowledge, and culture. my word is by no means the law, but i sure do believe it holds weight. you're free to disagree with me and think otherwise, of course. but i do think that, if that's the case and you have very strong positive feelings regarding natlan as a whole, it'd be best if you would unfollow and block me for both of our sakes.

i've been playing genshin impact since its launch, and ever since the release of inazuma as a region, i've been discontent with how the game has been progressing in design. i've also written and published scientific articles about the inherent colourism, racism and orientalism found in genshin, specifically in sumeru, while also nodding in acknowledgement to some of the research that the design team put in some characters—namely al-haitham, nilou and cyno. i know the issues we are seeing today are not new. however, it for sure has gotten worse. 

with these disclaimers out, i'd like to put some of my grievances out in the open. 

when you play genshin, you can feel that liyue is china. mondstadt feels like germany. inazuma resembles japan. fontaine is an ode of love to french steampunk and was very well designed. even sumeru, with all its issues of blending all of swana in one single region, has some research done when it comes to the islamic golden ages and pre-islamic mythologies. so if you see anyone arguing that hoyoverse is “just a videogame company”, know that they can and have done better. as their popularity and revenue grow, as players—free to play or otherwise—we are entitled to expect the same quality or more from them.

i don't feel the same way about everything we've seen of natlan so far, and i've been feeling more and more disrespected. 

i was sceptical when natlan was first announced, and some leaks were happening. i expected the worst, and honestly, it sunk even deeper than i thought. the names of the characters we've got, alongside some leaks, suggest that the characters we will be getting are based on the north, central, and south americas, africa, and oceania. this worried me very, very deeply and today, with the newest released trailer, i just gave up hoping for anything good, really.

although some people may (ignorantly? optimistically? blindly?) claim that all these continents are connected—and they certainly have many influences on each other through religion, culture and economics, born from colonisation processes—, it's at best stupidly naive to believe that one single entire region in an online videogame will tactfully tackle complex non-western and non-asian cultures and customs. because, yes, those are non-western and non-asian societies: we are progressively denied a place in western politics and cultures, we are treated as lesser, and we do not participate in global economics. when did you last buy a chilean videogame in the united states or europe? or a fiji pair of shoes? or a nigerian movie ticket in your city theatres? if you've answered "never" to just one of those questions, you've proven my point that these countries and regions are not "part" of the west or even asia. we are outsiders. we have always been treated as outsiders. while these european and asian powerhouses were allowed to stand as their own regions, genshin muddled all these cultures and ethnicities into one melting pot that they are calling natlan. the game is quite literally a global phenomenon now. imagine the impression natlan will be projecting to an audience that is none-the-wiser to the cultures natlan is meant to be inspired from.

so, again: when it was announced that natlan would take inspiration from all these regions, my heart sank. it feels like we're all being put together in one single frying pan of "exotic," "distant," and "unknown." everything that is considered "tribal" (because that's how westerners and asians tend to see us) is being thrown in natlan. it's demoralising. 

this is not to mention the clear money-grabbing and capitalist recycling of character designs going on with some of the characters—something never seen before in genshin impact’s history, by the way! they always came up with new concepts—and the abhorrent colourism that has been intensified. 

the disrespect has been getting rampant. some of the already shown characters have tribal tattoos that are used by some of the indigenous people for important rituals. the patterns of clothes they've shown also mix many cultures and peoples (sometimes even historically rivalling ones, to top that off) that are disrespectful. they went for a streetwear/biker kind of look that looks completely soulless and unimaginative, instead of doing the bare minimum of researching beautiful contemporary indigenous-owned fashion companies. because it's easier. i think it’s also easier to hire voice actors who aren’t latines, right? we must be “scarce, barely existent”.

and, what kicked the bucket for me, after trying so hard to give genshin the benefit of the doubt: an important deity for the yorubá people, iansã/iansan/oyá, has been shown as a fucking child in the game. she… and olorun, who you might know as ororon if you play in english, even though in all other translations (japanese, korean and chinese), his name is written correctly as olorun. but of course, the english translation team for hoyoverse, as usual, couldn’t do the bare fucking minimum. because it’s a nigerian name, right? why do they/you care? but just so you know, in case you’re the least bit curious: iansan and olorun are two of the most important orixás/deities in african and african-latin american religions. they’re worshipped to this day. they’re real, representative religious symbols. not tokens. not your average dead gods. i want to ask you, sincerely: what would you think and how would you feel if genshin named a guy "mohammed", or "allah", or “jesus christ”, or a girl "mary magdalene"? what do you think happened when cod vanguard showed the quran's pages on the floor? people were pissed. and of course, people should be pissed. and don't try to "oh, but people do that with greek and egyptian gods". don't be disingenuous, i know you’re smarter than that and that you know there's a difference and creeping power dynamic here. 

if this is not enough for you, then please, enlighten me. where are the beautiful forests of natlan that could have been inspired by the amazon? where are the amazing deserts inspired in bolivia or chile? how about the colourful cities of el salvador or cuba? is it truly enough for you guys to have something slightly resembling the aztec empire and its continuous fetishisation? wouldn't it be easier to play crash bandicoot or the old indiana jones games? why are we celebrating this?

i'm beyond heartbroken. 

to my latine siblings, whether you’re celebrating/enjoying natlan in your own way and finding light in it or if you’re as disappointed as i am, we deserve better than this. 

to my usamerican, canadian, european and asian friends, please, please, please listen to people who have lived and loved latam and all the other regions. i already did what i could: i've sent tickets to hoyoverse, i'll be muting natlan-specific words, and i will not be rolling on any upcoming natlan banners. 

so this here is just the nail of the coffin: i will not be accepting anything natlan-related on this blog.

thank you for reading!

[variouscolors-old]

@glassesandpassion replied to your post “"Good luck, Momoe-senpai. You will need it~"”:

momoe: "Daisuke-kun, you could try and help me for once, you know?"

​"Wait, you really really mean it?"

"Hmmm... Helping how? You're not planning to make me reveal my sister's deepest secrets right? I thought she had told you all of them already! You might know her even better than me -- I think!"

[grimowled]

;ooc

[expirednostalgia]

STATUS: closed for @tctteredwings

LOCATION: trove thrift

Trove Thrift was far from where Devi typically shopped, the idea of owning secondhand clothing made her skin crawl. She was more used to getting whatever shiny, new thing her heart desired either by asking when she was kid or purchasing it herself without caring about the price tag as she got older. Her life had drastically changed, however, and in desperate need for some retail therapy with limited funds, she would have to settle for something at the thrift store.

Her fingers carefully combed through rows of clothing, before pulling a baby pink sundress off the rack. "Be honest," she addressed the nearest person, "this isn't completely hideous, right, or have I officially lost mind?"

[babyitsmagic]

@shxfting

"at the risk of acknowledging how fucked up my childhood actually was... can we do something, i dunno, fucking normal this weekend? i don't think i've been to a movie theater since i was like... seven? maybe eight?"

[coollyinterferes]

*taps mic; a certain gentleman is standing right beside him*

"Good evenin', everyone!! We're back!! Hope you didn't miss us much!"

"It sure hasn't been that long.... has it....?"

Uhhmmm....

[wild-pineapple-butt]

@bleachbrainrotbro continued from here

Why? Why had Renji stepped into his captain's fight? Why had he felt the need to protect Byakuya? The lieutenant was a bit befuddled at the question. He didn't think that he would be asked that so outright. Well... the answer was quite simple.

"Uhh... well Taichou, forgive me." Renji first started out with an apology, to show that he was remorseful for his actions, hoping that his answer would not offend.

"I... it's my duty to protect my captain, sir. I know that yer more than capable of defendin' yerself, and yet I couldn't help but jump in when I saw that ya could potentially get injured."

It had been instinct - his body reacting before his mind could even catch up. A bad habit that he was working on to fix, a habit that had gotten him into trouble multiple times before. "I'm sorry if I offended ya in any way Taichou..."

[hcttrick]

💓

Lyney was taking a slight nap as performing a lot of magic shows can take a toll, however, he couldn't help but feel something up against his chest as a slight noise escaped his lips.

He was so sleepy though to open his eyes, he remained where he was resting as he tries to pinpoint what was against him.

[cartelheir]

i'm gonna revamp this blog pls don't hate me

[ladyseidr]

starter call time, this time normal length ( probably ~2 paras ). like this post for a starter from the fn.af muses. open to all mutuals, and new mutuals are super encouraged to like this post if you're interested!! please specify muse(s) or i will not write you a starter. as these are slightly longer starters, please only request one muse/dynamic per blog ( i do mean blog, not mun ).