#hopefully that all makes sense

[pine-needle-shuffle]

HIIII i have a question about the riptide au<3 when did the firsts get all harpy? was it like a similar timeline to the wing stuff we get in cc or something else? same question for zack and cloud too :3 (if it's spoilers you don't have to get into it, i just wanna draw something lol<3)

*cracks knuckles* Hell yeah, I can absolutely answer this

So it's not like what happened in Crisis Core, the Firsts and all Harpies that came after them* were born that way. Genetically engineered with monster DNA to yield enhanced, flighted soldiers.

*with the exception of Zack and Cloud, I'll get to them in a minute

What I would compare to CC is "degradation". It doesn't work quite the same, but it's the monster DNA coming into a more prominent role in Harpy's make up, which can manifest in several ways. In Genesis's case, he was near mortally wounded, survived, and became a monster. his mind is still intact, but his visual humanness is almost completely gone. For others, it comes with time, they might start growing more feathers or taking on other small changes.

R&D needed(wanted) to find a faster way to make Harpies; raising them for years before they could be utilized was expensive and hurt ShinRa's bottom line. It did not help that roughly a year prior to this universe's equivalent to the Nibelheim incident was a mass desertion in the wake of the Specimen G catastrophe, which was Genesis getting injured and turning.

This is where Zack and Cloud come in. Nibelheim gets attacked and burned to the ground(under different circumstances from canon, but that is spoilers so I can't talk about that just yet.), and they get captured. R&D used them for their experiment, which is similar to the ones Hojo was already performing in the Nibel Reactor(Think the human that had been suspended in mako for so long they were turning into a monster, the one Sephiroth removed from the pod).

Over the course of 4-5 years, they were pulled in and out of mako, tested on until R&D decided that they were developed enough to show to ShinRa's higher-ups. It was after one last "check-up" that Zack had gained enough strength and consciousness to fight back and escape with Cloud. Chapter 1 takes place about 2 months after their escape :]

also I will literally never say no to infodumping about my au ask all the questions you'd like

[imjustavenuxwithaboomerang]

okay so i don't know if this is gonna take off or anything but i've decided to take requests for my "they can never make me hate you" collages

if you want to request a character or multiple characters, send an ask with:

the character(s)'s name(s)

what show or movie they're from

how many pictures you want in the collage (minimum: 3 max: 9)

optional: pictures that you want me to use in the collage (you can send as many as the number you choose, or just a handful, up to you)

optional: specifics for the pictures, like a specific season of a show/movie in a franchise or specific outfits that the character(s) wore

examples of my collages:

korra (the legend of korra)

addison (zombies franchise)

usopp (one piece live action)

tagging mutuals to help spread this around: @cottonheartsxmateo @spacecowboy-01 @daphnebowen @kyshiwarrior @giyuulatte @flwrstqr @rea-pancakes @lighter-like-a-feather @angelliicc @ashlynmoonn @yeehawthethird @dewdropppy @arcturion-the-joke

[aces-and-angels]

Hi! I was wondering what exactly the windverse is lol I’ve seen it loads recently and i am just lost😂

dear anon- you are my favorite person

@oh-so-youre-a-nerd explains it pretty well here, but i'll take a crack at guiding you through everything too lol

wind velez- the wonderful oc owned by @oh-so-youre-a-nerd- is at the center of it all (hence the title into the windverse). their story is a reimagining of events following the end of book 1 of laws of attraction + incorporates characters from other choices stories (ex. crimes of passion, it lives anthology)

why do this at all? well it essentially boils down to us thinking martin deserved a better portrayal than what he got in book 2. gabe, a senior partner, being able to easily leave mcgraw byrne and essentially run them into the ground with his new startup also made no sense to me personally. (the actual case surrounding book 2 w/ the conservatorship scheme was p interesting tho, imo)

anyways...

sadie's untimely "retirement" from the firm leaves everyone else up to their necks in casework. that's where @saibug1022's oc, magnus bishop, comes in. he is mcgraw byrne's latest hire (recommended by wind)- along with joaquin morales (recommended by martin)- both brought in essentially to ease the burden on the rest of the staff

while mcgraw byrne attempts to stay afloat under the less than stellar leadership of eli byrne- there's another competitor surfacing. old friends turned rivals who've patiently waited for the day the great sadie mcgraw falls: agnes park and jina davis aka the founding partners of park & davis. and with them- is my blorbo, enid mendoza.

there's a lot left to be told; betrayals to uncover, traumas to unearth, romances to blossom, merges to be made~ it's all very exciting (to us at least lol)

here's the masterlist of into the windverse if you're interested- it's an ongoing list of fics/art for our lil au 🖤; there are also some miscellaneous hcs floating between all three of our blogs (@oh-so-youre-a-nerd, @saibug1022, and mine) that would take forever to link one by one but do exist lol

[f4rlands]

For the cursed wizard au What types of magic do they use that the others don’t what makes them stand apart from each other and what is there role in the group what do they contribute while doing wizard stuff

jimmy is a transfiguration wizard, meaning that his magic tends to focus on changing things from one thing to another. he’s very experimental in his magic, (and doesn’t want to admit that he’s just Not Very Good), so he often tries out spells from other schools that are waaay above his skill range, which yknow. inevitably leads to him getting more cursed.

honestly he’s just… terrible at what he does. most of the time his spells fail and the others have to save him.

joel specialises in necromancy, dark magic and curses. necromancy itself often isn’t that handy as a traveller, but he’s taught himself enough dark magic to put up a good fight if necessary, and he absolutely knows how to throw a punch. necromancy is what’s best that though, it’s the thing that he used to formally study after all

joel is also annoyingly good at curses. he doesn’t even mean to be casting curses a lot of the time, but they still end up getting slung around like candy whenever he’s doing magic. (the trio are still like 50% certain that at least one of grian’s curses is joel’s fault. oops)

grian is a divination wizard. this school is often considered the weakest,, ironic considering grian is the only competent one of the trio. he’s the only one who finished school, so he knows the highest level spells of the three of them and is able to reliably cast quite a few different spells.

(the magic system in the au is somewhat based on dnd, but we tend to use it more as a guide than a strict set of rules, which is kinda why they’re sometimes still able to do some spells outside of their specific schools of magic)

they all cast their magic in different ways: grian has a fancy wand, jimmy has his staff, and joel tends to just use his hands.

so, as sam puts it, they’re all just dumb wizards.

[toribookworm22]

Happy Worldbuilding Wednesday!

A bit of a meta question today: you know these long lists of questions on weather, flora, fauna, fashion, religion, government, etc. that are supposed to help you flesh out the setting?

Which section do you find is inapplicable to the setting of the Animatronic Saga? Be it because the plot doesn’t let you explore it or because it’s just not a thing in your setting (e.g. fashion may not be applicable in animal xenofiction).

Hey, Sam! Thanks for the ask, love!

Oooh, an interesting one-- as always. 🙃

Even though I haven't fully fleshed out some of these, most of them do help build out the world. However, some outliers I spot are religion and fauna.

While religion isn't eradicated within the Animatronic Saga universe, it holds less power over the general population and almost no power over my main characters and so building it out would be useless. (Note: religion is different than spirituality of course.)

Fauna is still alive and well, too, but due to where my characters live and travel-- mainly within cities or space 🤣-- figuring out which species survived extinction and how evolution has changed some others wouldn't do me much good in this world.

[somnimagus]

My page for @sheikahzine; about Impaz's duty to her village, empty of people and full of memories.

[id in alt text]

[commander-revan]

There's something so funny, and sad, about Touya, whose thoughts and feelings about things have often been a mystery since we barely ever get his POV and who had done so well at maintaining a pretty stoic, uncaring mask around others that some fans to this day argue about whether or not he actually cared about the League (he does, it's just in his own way and he's in denial) or meant for Twice to die (he didn't), being betrayed by his own fucking heart monitor.

He was keeping up that persona so well, talking shit to Endeavor and not really responding to much, but the second his dad says he wants to continue seeing and talking to him every day, his heart beats faster.

And it happens again when Fuyumi and Rei say they want to do the same thing.

He might stay quiet about his actual feelings about everything for the most part, but he can't keep his heart monitor from going off. And he does eventually open up to Shoto and apologize.

I need 10 more full chapters of just the Todoroki's communicating with Touya, or an entire spinoff, just so they all can have some closure and bond, and Touya can defy the odds yet again and survive.

[jingerpi]

i think the main character that differs transmisogyny from transphobia + misogyny, is the goal.

trans masculine individuals experience what we'll call "corrective misogyny", where they experience a derision of their chosen gender in an attempt to push them back into the class of [cis]woman this is transphobia + misogyny.

People I think confuse this with transmisogyny because it involves transphobia and misogyny, but transmisogyny is not "corrective". The point of transmisogyny is to push trans feminine individuals out of both the class of man and woman, into a gender underclass, a subaltern as some have called it. There is no premise of "rescuing" trans women. trans men are abused in attempt to bring them back into the protected underclass of women, while trans women are abused in an attempt at the opposite, the intent is explicitly to push us out of all protected classes.

[calmlb]

It’s been clear that the Tanizakis aren’t siblings from the very beginning

here’s some evidence now that it’s been confirmed canon…

everyone who’s read irl Tanizaki’s book knew that Junichiro & Naomi weren’t siblings as soon as they introduced themselves

BUT just because the Tanizakis aren’t siblings doesn’t mean you can’t feel uncomfortable about them. if you feel uncomfortable, GOOD. that’s exactly what they want

the Tanizakis, Mori— they all use these disturbing ruses to disarm or distract people in order to protect themselves, or to accomplish their goals. this is a writing device that asagiri commonly employs as a way to parallel the irl literature (it’s actually ingenious)

there are 4 main indicators that have always made it clear to me that Junichiro & Naomi are not siblings:

1. most obviously— their character designs. Harukawa is extremely intentional with character designs, & she very intentionally made Naomi & Junichiro look nothing alike

their eye shapes are purposely different

their color palettes are contrasting

even their differing styles of clothing have meaning

this was all done so that the audience could PLAINLY see that they’re not related— so that WE know that they’re lying when they say they ARE related

2. how the people around them respond to their act.

the general reaction is “don’t question it”— which is exactly what they want. “be distracted by how uncomfortable you feel so that you look away from what we’re hiding” (this is likely a protective measure)

3. most importantly, this is meant to parallel irl Tanizaki’s book “Naomi,” where the main character Joji picks up Naomi to raise her into his ideal woman, but since she's so young (& a minor) they call each other cousins (Joji makes no sexual advances on young Naomi btw)

however, his plan backfires because when Naomi gets older & they get married, she flips the script on him & manipulates HIM so that he's under her thumb (which is why bsd Tanizaki is at a domineering Naomi's mercy). Joji let her have her way because of his masochistic tendencies

4. lastly is the emphasis that Asagiri and the Tanizakis themselves put on calling each other siblings.

over & over, it’s “my brother this” & “my sister that”

like they’re desperately trying to convince us that it’s true (“don’t let your lying eyes deceive you”)

here are just a few of many examples from the light novels…

again, if you’ve read “Naomi” you knew that Junichiro & Naomi weren’t siblings as soon as they introduced themselves

just like if you’ve read irl Mori’s works, it’s clear that bsd Mori isn’t a pedophile

just like if you’ve read No Longer Human you know that Dazai’s an unreliable narrator. he makes you think he’s a bad person bc he believes he’s a bad person, but those around him see him differently (btw this doesn’t mean he’s never done anything “bad,” though bsd isn’t about morality— but that’s another discussion)

anyway, i’m so excited for the Tanizakis backstory to be revealed so that we can better understand why they use this defense!!

also let this be a reminder to READ THE LITERATURE if you’re able to!! even reading synopses & analyses of the coordinating books makes bsd make much more sense 🥹

reminder that this how you’re supposed to react while reading bsd:

also, if you’re interested in a post explaining how Mori isn’t a pedo, i wrote this analysis on twt. OR you can read this document that one of my moots sent me (remember: analyzing a character does NOT mean you condone any actions they may or may not commit!)

[stench-core]

I find it a bit strange how it's okay and normal to say trans men have 'afab privilege' but if you say trans women have 'amab privilege', that's bad and wrong and incorrect and also maybe you should kill yourself. strange stuff

somehow trans men were 'socialised female' and therefore can 'get away with being women' but trans women were not 'socialised male' and can't 'get away with being men' cos there's something inherently feminine, inherently queer about them.

though, i spent my whole life being called gay, getting asked if i was a butch lesbian, getting asked if i was a tranny, cos i wore pants [girls!] instead of skirts, cos i wore shirts [girls!] instead of blouses, cos i wouldn't wear dresses and would prefer [girls!] formal wear that weren't dresses, cos i liked bionicle instead of dolls, cos i played video games, cos i swore, cos i liked heavier music, cos my favourite colour wasn't pink, cos i wore caps. i would not say i fit into girlhood at all, actually.

but this masculinity was inherent to me, it still is, i couldn't and can not change it (despite trying, very hard, to my detriment) so i ALWAYS stuck out as being 'too masculine' for other girls. and then i come into queer spaces and i'm 'too masculine' for other queer people - but that's besides the point, currently.

so, currently, when i see people say 'trans women aren't "socialised male," that's not real, they always stick out as "other"' and then turn around and say 'trans men have afab privilege, they can be women to get away with things, they fit into girlhood so well' I can't help but become incredibly fucking frustrated. this is not true and actually it's something we have in common! neither of us were socialised 'correctly' cos we're both trans and raised amongst peers who were not trans!

everything from masculine girls to trans men do not fit into 'girlhood' cos masculinity is not what girlhood is meant to be. this shouldn't be hard to grasp. this is why the 'socialised' concept is bullshit cos it's founded on whatever was forced upon you as a kid and if you don't fit that standard you will not be socialised that way due to, in large part, being fucking ostracised from everyone else. and that doesn't mean there won't be things to unlearn, i know very many trans men who were very feminine for a long time and the opposite for trans women, but someone who clearly cannot fit what's being pushed onto them is going to come off as 'strange' and 'uncanny' to the people who can fit into what's pushed onto them.

but the way people talk about this really highlights to me that yous don't want to consider us trans in the first place - transness is for trans women and not for trans men, socialisation concepts are fake when it comes to trans women but real when it comes to trans men cos they're not really trans, 'amab privilege' would get you branded a TERF or radfem saying it to a trans woman but it's fine to say trans men, trans men have 'afab privilege' cos we're not trans, we're just women. you know until we get a little too rowdy and then we're not trans, we're just men.

maybe i'm just jaded and bitter. idk

[otiksimr]

Average un-symbiosed Leafwing.

There are actually two types of leafwings, variants if you will. "Living Gardens" and "Walking Plants". This post is about the Living Garden variant.

At heart, Gardens are just that, gardens. They on average look like sticks or peculiar driftwood, and throughout their life have plants growing on them. It starts young where they have the highest chances of a complete symbiosis with a plant, When a Garden first symbioses with a plant, usually only ever one species of plant for their whole lifetime (things can get messy if there's multiple species on one dragon, the plants basically fighting each other for real-estate on the dragon). Vines and trees are by far the easiest for a Garden to symbiose with, with carnivorous plants being the hardest.

Garden families have traditions of keeping the "Family plant", with each generation either symbiosing with the same plant as their parents or the same general species.

[dotted-clouds]

Replaced.

[mordimor]

swfitmurderstuck number 5

big one this time

[alltimefail]

Can we take a second to talk about Niko's connection to the Principal?

Because I think we all moved on a little quickly from that!

General disclaimer before we begin: this is just my own theory and my personal interpretations. <3

As a refresher, The Principal is the Night Nurse's "Superior." We see her for the first time at the end of season 1, episode 8. In this theory, I will be analyzing the potential role The Principal plays in DBDA, especially where our beloved Niko Sasaki is concerned.

A connection between The Principal and Niko is undoubtable to me for two reasons: the first reason being that they intentionally focused the camera on The Principal zero-ing in on Niko's case card, and she has a visible emotional reaction to seeing Niko's name.

The second being that, before departing, she quotes what Tragic Mick told Niko before the face-off with Esther which ultimately resulted in her death.

One popular theory I saw floating around in the first few weeks after DBDA released was that The Principal is Niko herself, and while this is a fun concept I can't get behind it because, well, Niko is "alive" at the end of the season. Yuyu has confirmed that she's the one in the igloo with the sprites, and Steve has confirmed that Niko is not dead/off the show as well. While we have no clue where the igloo is for certain, or what state Niko is in, it's safe to say that Niko has not moved on to her afterlife, so she can't be the Night Nurses' superior in the Lost and Found Department.

My theory doesn't reinvent the wheel, but I personally think The Principal could be Niko's mother.

From a non-storyline standpoint, The Principal looks to be a perfectly appropriate age to have a 16 year old daughter. From a casting standpoint, Yuyu and Tamlyn also are a convincing mother/daughter pair. I think their mannerisms (body language and expressions) are even a bit similar:

But most importantly, from a writing and storyline standpoint, Niko's mother is mentioned multiple times throughout the season but we never actually see her or hear from her - not in a phone call, a voicemail, or even in a picture in Niko's meticulously decorated, aesthetic bedroom. This is what leads me to believe that the persistent mention of Niko's mom is an example of Chekhov's gun being fired.

Emphasis here on: "If it's not going to be fired, it shouldn't be hanging there."

From the persistent plotline surrounding...

Niko's grief not just with her father's death but also with her mother who sent her to school across the world literally the day after her father's funeral to "escape the sadness,"

to the pile of letters from her mother that she couldn't bring herself to respond to,

to the response letter she finally writes to her mom but we don't learn the fate of,

to Niko telling Crystal that her mom would always say "A mother's intuition is very strong," (which could be why The Principal reacted to Niko's case card in the way she did...)

to even Jenny mentioning Niko's mom in the finale

... and so on, the writers seem to mention her as often as they can, even up to the very end. This makes Niko's mom a sort of looming figure in the narrative, a thought persistently brought back in a "Hey, remember this?" kind of way to the viewer, and that kind of intentional presence needs to serve a purpose or have some kind of payoff later. After all - if it's not going to be fired, it shouldn't be hanging there... if we aren't going to get some kind of closure regarding Niko's family, especially her mother who is still alive, it shouldn't be brought to the viewer's attention again and again.

Also, The Principal being Niko's mother would make Niko at least half supernatural being (we don't know much about her father, but considering the fact that he's dead we can assume he was likely fully human). Niko being half supernatural-being would explain a few allusive plotlines such as:

Why Angie the fish does not try to tempt Niko into the water.

Why Crystal tells Niko that she should stay behind and not fight Esther because Niko is "Just a human."

Why we don't see Niko's spirit separate from her body at any point, nor do we get Death's blue light.

How the Principal knows Tragic Mick's last words to Niko and why she quotes them to the boys who were not even present at the moment the sentiment was delivered the first time.

Starting with Angie, it's obvious why the boys are not affected by her call: Charles and Edwin are incorporeal spirits, they have no physical body and Angie's call is sent out with the goal of finding food to eat, plain and simple. Niko not hearing Angie's call, considering the fact that she's flesh and bone just like Crystal, is noteworthy to say the least. After all, we can safely assume Angie's call can beckon more than one person at a time because the group is worried about the populated kite festival becoming an all-you-can-eat buffet, essentially. They need to figure out the case and only have 24 hours to do so before area is filled with bodies for Angie to tempt into the water, that's the whole time-constraint conflict that adds pressure to an already delicate situation. The first time Crystal hears the call she is with Charles at the top of the lighthouse with Niko nowhere near Angie, but the second time Crystal hears Angie she and Niko are standing literally right next to each other. Niko then confirms that there's "No voice" coming from the water after they save Crystal, but considering how Niko's grief surrounding the death of her father is such a huge part of her characterization - in the same way Crystal not remembering her parents is critical to hers - it makes no sense that Angie wouldn't try to lure in Niko as well by using the voice of her deceased father.

But let's consider what we learn from the Night Nurse: trans-dimensional beings don't die when they're swallowed by a giant fish, so they do not satiate Angie's desire for food. This is why everyone assumes Kashi is not human because he, like The Night Nurse, is alive inside the stomach of a fish. So if Niko's mother is like The Night Nurse, a trans-dimensional being, that would explain why Angie's call would not effect Niko, because Angie just wants to eat... and ghosts and immortal beings (even if only semi-immortal) do not count as food.

As for Crystal telling Niko to stay behind because she's human: this line felt so... strange to me the first time I watched the series. After thinking about it though, I couldn't help but compare it to Charles' line in the pilot episode right before they enter Esther's house. He tells Crystal that "She still has a life to lose" and they want to "Protect it while they can," and while the sentiment is the same, the dialogue feels vastly more natural and understandable being delivered from the mouth of a ghost - a dead 16 year old boy - to an alive 16 year old girl. On the contrary, Crystal citing Niko being a human when she is also alive and very much a human just as capable of dying as Niko is, feels out of place. There's simply no need for Crystal to clarify that Niko is a human as the audience has already assumed that and been given no reason to believe otherwise. It's a small detail, but the only way for this line to make any sense is if it serves an ulterior motive - perhaps with the intention of getting the audience's gears turning and/or serving as the framework for a future plotline. Again, if Niko is related to The Principal, this would make her half supernatural at least... so, ironically, less human that Crystal is and less likely to face a typical human death...

which also might explain the "Outlook not so good" on the Magic 8-Ball. It's not the worst response you can get, it's not a critical failure or natural 1 in DnD so to speak... but it's also not great. Niko's not alive, but she's likely not as she once was either (but that's an entirely different can of worms).

As far as explaining how The Principal would know what Tragic Mick told Niko, I feel like an infinite trans-dimensional being who works as a higher up in the afterlife's Lost and Found Department would have no issue accessing their own child's file. We know the Lost and Found Department is nothing if not rigid, specific, and detail-oriented, and the files they have include the details of every child's death - it isn't so far-fetched to believe that Niko's file (and all the files, really) would also include insight on what Niko's last day on Earth (interactions and such) were like. Not to mention the fact that The Principal tells the boys she can pretty much do "Whatever she likes..." so she's powerful, she has resources and abilities that might even surpass those of the Night Nurse (who can literally dig around in people's minds and choke people with a snap of her fingers). If she is Niko's mother and she just lost her child and husband in a short amount of time, it would make sense for her to allow Charles and Edwin to keep doing what they do because they are helping people like her daughter, and maybe they could help her daughter again.

Lastly, I can't help but acknowledge how there is some kind of recognition, spark, or tenderness on The Principal's end when she first appears before the boys. I've seen other people say they feel similarly, almost like she seems disappointed or a bit taken aback when they ask who she is. She especially lingers on Edwin for a beat, and we all know how important Edwin was to Niko! Again, this is all just my own theory, but if The Principal is Niko's mother, her sparing the boys of being taken by the Lost and Found Department with the tenderness she does - by using Tragic Mick's words, the ones offered alongside a good luck charm (the last kind act toward Niko before she died) at the boys who loved her daughter and saved her once and could very well save her again - feels tear-jerkingly poetic to me. The Principal seems choked up before she goes, almost as if she's repaying them a favor they didn't know they were owed - the boys saved Niko once, and now that good fortune is coming back around to them.

So what would that all mean for next season? Where might Niko be? Who knows for sure! Perhaps she is imbued with Dandelion Sprite magic, or is currently an "Undead," a zombie, like the kind mentioned in the Night Nurse's book in Episode 6... but whatever she is, I have a feeling the boys and Crystal will find her again.

But all this to say, whether The Principal is Niko's mother, a reincarnation of Niko's father, an estranged aunt or family member we haven't met yet, a complete rando with invested special interest in Niko's case, or shit - even Niko herself somehow - I can confidently say that episode 8 won't be the last time we see The Principal, and that we're meant to draw a connection between her and Niko.

Now we just need a season 2 so we can get some answers @netflix!!!!!

[somnimagus]

My page for @kairizine. It was such a huge honor to be part of this wonderful book with everyone, I had so much fun!

[id in alt!]

[clownsuu]

I get Dusty listening to Wally and Howdy, but why would he listen to Frank? Are the two friends in the Mob AU or something?

Frank is the manager, of course he would have rights to use money from the vaults (however him and Howdy have a strict amount they can borrow at a time. Anything higher than 500k would need to get explicit permission from Wally first)

most of the lil dust sprites/bunnies do the little work, Dusty is typically on the side taking a nap or somethin on the floor, doin whatever dust does