#i really want to post my graphs but also

[n7punk]

for the last week. i have averaged 5384 words a day

[blackmesa-researcher]

I kinda hate how dead Half Life/HLVRAI tumblr rp is. :(

Then again I may just not have found those people yet. Wanted to rp Half Life on here, but yeah, couldn't find any active accounts.

Anyway, if you come across this and you'd like to rp Half Life or HLVRAI on discord, you can send me a message, and I'll check you out. :> As long as you're a pretty decent person who won't ask anything illegal of me, I wouldn't be opposed. I'm also A-Okay with OC's.

[cyberhexes]

you only wanna be the one that i call baby :(

ten days ago i said something about this edit on twitter and then didn't make it. hyperfocus hit so hard last night and i finally made it

[happypeachsludgeflower]

@staff i suggest that year in review should include a personal analysis section in our settings.

Like how many people unfollowed me? How many times was I blocked? I need to know how many people I successfully pissed off without trying, okay??

this is vital information.

[darcylindbergh]

Can't vote for Biden and his vicious and cruel destruction of title ix. Really embarrassing that Dems have mainly left it to the right to try to defend it, and it's not like I can vote for them because they also hate women just in different ways. Shat on by the left, shat on by the right, women are in an awful situation

i'm posting this so we can all deconstruct what a far right psyop ask looks like.

on first read, this looks like someone who wishes they could be confident in voting blue but they're bummed by the democrats in office. targets title ix for their ire but doesn't really explain, perhaps assuming i'm out of touch and will just react instead of doing my due diligence (bad bet: i'm an attorney). uses over the top dramatic language like "vicious." they equate the left and right as being identical and indicates they won't be voting for either, with the implication that i shouldn't either, but goes on to blame the dems specifically for...something.

look at the very specific way they've couched this sentence:

Really embarrassing that Dems have mainly left it to the right to try to defend it,

i'm not meant to fight them on this. i'm meant to be embarrassed to be voting blue in november, i'm meant to blame democrats for abandoning some law, and i'm meant to recognize the right as upholding it.

title ix, if you didn't know, bans sex-based discrimination in schools and education. when someone tells you about democrats destroying title ix, that someone is a TERF.

and TERFs largely have aligned with the conservative hard right. I'll link a few articles at the bottom with detailed explainers, but for right here it's enough to say that TERFs want the far right to win because the far right is voting with them on their single issue, which is the destruction of trans rights and the ouster of trans and gnc women from public spaces. TERFs have marched with the Proud Boys. TERFs have partnered with anti-lgbtq groups to advance their anti-trans agenda. they will throw every other issue under the bus repeatedly if their anti-trans agenda wins.

and, importantly, the far right recognizes that TERFs are a tool they can use to destablize the left. the far right knows that as long as they will align with TERFs on this single issue, which they will because they too want to enforce the gender binary and traditional gender roles, TERFs will vote for and with them regardless of every single other issue. not only that, but the far right knows TERFs are a modern movement that's gained traction in social media spaces over the last several years, and they are relying on TERFs to send asks like this one to infiltrate spaces like tumblr and twitter and tiktok to encourage would-be blue voters not to vote because they want the far right to win.

this is a psyop. this is, whether formalized or not, a psychological operation intended to discourage voting in and among the left.

don't fall prey. vote blue in november.

I like this one because they have this great graph that specifically points out the link between TERFism, the far right, and disinformation attempts like the ask above.

[percreates]

Some sketches of an OC I made for a friend's minecraft smp- Benni, it/they, it comes with Lore (so so much lore)

There's SO many things I want to draw from the server and adventures that have been had, but I'm still figuring out how I plan to draw certain mobs and also fighting executive dysfunction so. Incoming eventually

Some earlier sketches before I actually had the idea to create Benni and just wanted to fuck around with armor concepts (hence the little notes), and then my detail list to refer to when actually drawing it

My first actual drawing of Benni, still my favorite even though the design in my head has changed a little

First (and only so far) attempt at finding a color scheme, definitely not sticking with this lol, I don't like the pants even though this is the closest I could get to my actual minecraft skin. I also just don't like how the pants look even though they look like the reference 🤣

Basically everything in this image gets changed afsfdgdggd

Another sketch figuring out an armor design, based on a moment in game

And then my most recent sketches, trying to figure out exactly how buggy to make them, because it's enderman-adjacent (it's a lengthy explanation. Like I said, Lore), and this is my concept for the endermen. Based vaguely on bullet ants, because I'll also use those as inspiration for my endermite and enderdragon designs

For some reason, despite being a very capable warrior and colonizer adventurer, Benni is perpetually confused in my sketches. I'm still getting the hang of drawing mandibles, and I thought that last enderman looked judgmental so I gave it a thought bubble afsfsgdg

Bug-like creature warning below the readmore

[lilacstro]

astrocartography and relocation charts in astrology

Paid readings open!!

support me on ko-fi :)

Hey!! I am clearing my drafts as much as I can before we start with Vedic astrology. This post would not be as big because there is overwhelming information on this topic as well, but let us see.

Astrocartography is a discipline of astrology that graphs out where planets were conjunct angles anywhere in the world at the moment of your birth. While relocation chart is a birth chart of a place if you were born there, what would your life look like.

These are very useful to see what place is best for you to travel, or relocate to for specific purposes like maybe education, finding a partner and so on..

NOTE: SKIP TO THE LAST SECTION IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO HAVE TOO DEEP INFORMATION ON HOW TO USE COMBINATION OF THESE CHARTS!!

🌐History and a little astronomical knowledge (skip if uninterested)

There are two techniques to study this discipline. En Mundo and Zodiacal. En Mundo is what we use by default as this is what Jim Lewis the creator of astrocartography used. For some extra knowledge, (you can skip pass this section if you want to!) look below:

Image source: kepler college

The basic difference is that En Mundo measures the planets relative to the celestial equator while the Zodiacal used Ecliptic. So basically the Zodiacal misses the declinations and the right ascensions (the 23 degree tilt basically). Now look at the charts below, the left one is En Mundo while the right one is Zodiacal. You can see how planets are in one line on the Zodiacal while the shift to different positions in the En Mundo chart.

🌐How to use astrocartography and relocation charts

🎀 here is how you can create relocation and astrocartography charts. I HIGHLY recommend using these in combination to have the best ideas of your experience at a particular place.

Know that your astrocartography map is based on your relocated birth charts. That’s the first, most important thing to know. Your birth chart shifts depending on where you are in the world. Meaning you have MANY charts for all of the places in the world! The natal planet and aspects of your chart don’t change, but the houses (areas of life), angles and aspects to those angles do. When you’re pulling up your astrocartography map, you’ll notice you have 44 lines criss-crossing across the globe. These lines show where the planets were situated on angles in the relocated chart.

You do not have to be situated right on a line to activate that story. You don’t have to live on a cruise ship and venture to the ocean to experience your astrocartography lines. Note where you have planetary lines and measure 150-200 miles surrounding it to see the strongest influence. 

Jim Lewis, the creator of Astrocartography, used 800 mile of an influence. most astrologers use 600 miles maximum, meaning you can feel effects of a line around 600-800 miles either side from where the line passes. Now the question is which side is the influence strongest? the answer likely is towards the west.

There’s a saying by Jim Lewis that “west was best” but it’s been said that moving west of a planetary line makes that planetary line more angular and dynamic, and moving east of a line places it in a more cadent position, which is less powerful.

However you can always see a relocation chart for the desired place to understand what is it that you want!

For example: Having planets in angular houses, the 2nd house and 6th house may be really good if you have been wanting a career success and recognition, having planets in 9th house is good for higher education and so on. You should see the location of chart ruler for more information on the main themes you can expect! The rising sign is incredibly important as well. I would not be making this too long because you can interpret your relocation chart very similarly to your natal chart, however let me know if you guys want a separate post on that one! I also recommend looking at the Vortex and Part of Fortune for more information.

Now let us see what do the lines on your Astrocartography map mean for you. Below would be an interpretation table for each lines, HOWEVER use these lines with accordance to your natal chart. If say you have Moon in 8th house, you could experience extreme emotional experiences along your Moon lines, and though depending on whether what type of line it is would make differences, your natal chart would still show effects.

For example if you have Uranus on your angular houses or maybe you are Aquarius rising or have Uranus in 1st, or aspects to Uranus like Uranus Trine Sun, Uranus lines passing through your birth country or where you live currently, you could either want to or struggle or maybe both for self expression and crave freedom, rebel. There was some actress whose chart I saw and she was very rebellious when she was in her home country and much better when she moved out, she had her Uranus lines passing through her birth country. It is worth mentioning that all aspects to Uranus are important, if I remember correctly, astrologer Noel Tyl used to take these very seriously.

Here is what astrologer Helena says:

We all have a fixed permanent astrocartography map based on when we were born. That never changes. But what does change is timing. Regardless if whether or not you’re in a nice location, if you have hard transits or progressions at that time, and hitting that location (and the angles of that new relocated chart), it will bring up challenging times. Progressions can last up to 3 years and transits can be as short as a few days to 3 years. Timing matters. Just as much as location. So if you’re wondering, “why am I having such a hard time in this location but I’m on a supported planetary line!” first ask yourself if you’ve looked at the relocated chart and parans, then ask yourself if you’ve looked at the timing.

(Parans are the latitude lines that are within 70-75 miles north and south. These crossings of lines create latitude lines that are a blend of two planets. Parans are incredibly powerful and can make or break a place. I would not be discussing them here since it is beyond what most people here would be willing to dedicate time to, however if anyone is curious they can study it themselves or I can make a post!)

🌐Meanings for each types of lines, AC, MC, DC and IC.

AC (Ascendant) Lines:

Moon: Heightened intuition, emotional sensitivity, and connection to needs and heart. Strong emotional bonds but be cautious of neediness and psychological worry.

Sun: Vitality, creativity, self-expression, and ego increase. Ideal for networking, social connection, and personal relationships.

Mercury: Energy abounds! Expect mental agility, restlessness, and a love for travel, writing, and speaking. Social interactions are lively, and this is an excellent place for networking, learning, and sharing ideas.

Venus: Enhanced beauty and identity, ideal for romance, indulgence, and a relaxed lifestyle.

Mars: Increased leadership, motivation, and action. Caution advised for impulsivity, recklessness, and relationship challenges.

Jupiter: Optimism, expansion, and resilience are heightened. A lucky place where you may feel compelled to share wisdom, but watch for overconfidence.

Saturn: A serious, stoic outlook on life is adopted here. Increased responsibilities and leadership roles, but also potential physical strain. Relationships may feel monotonous and duty-bound.

Uranus: A place to break free from your identity and explore authenticity. Expect changes in lifestyle and possibly even physical appearance. Relationships may be interesting, spontaneous, and non-traditional.

Neptune: Life feels dreamy and romanticized, but also prone to confusion and escapism. Relationships here can be enchanting but may involve glamorization or projection.

Pluto: A transformative place where you explore your identity and inner power. Relationships can be intense, with themes of power dynamics and potential for conflict.

MC (Midheaven) Lines:

Moon: Excellent for compassionate service careers, fame, and emotionally led work. Caution against emotional thirstiness and people-pleasing.

Sun: Optimal for launching products, promotions, and realizing potential in work and vocation. High public profile and exposure.

Mercury: The ultimate career line for work in communication! Ideal for advancing in travel, media, sales, writing, teaching, and any field that involves communication.

Venus: Ideal for careers in design, beauty, fashion, and the arts. Recognition and public acknowledgment are common.

Mars: Great for daring, risk-taking careers, especially in entrepreneurship, training, and the military. Expect hard work and bold moves.

Jupiter: One of the luckiest places for career expansion, especially in publishing, travel, teaching, and spiritual work. Expect growth and new opportunities.

Saturn: Increased authority and responsibility in your career. Success comes from hard work and effort, though it can feel lonely at the top.

Uranus: Ideal for breaking new ground in careers involving science, technology, and entrepreneurship. Expect fluctuations and sudden changes in work and public image.

Neptune: A place for public visibility in careers related to media, spirituality, and healing, but be cautious of illusions and confusion in contracts and agreements.

Pluto: A powerful location for career transformation, often involving work in government, psychology, or disrupting and transforming industries. Be cautious of controlling bosses and authority issues.

DC (Descendant) Lines:

Moon: External situations reflect subconscious needs. Emotional relationships are likely, but watch for desperation or worry.

Sun: Opportunities for business, friendships, and personal relationships increase. Ideal for popularity and extroversion.

Mercury: Social butterfly energy abounds! You'll enjoy lively discussions, meet interesting people, and possibly start a client-based business. Great for flirting, gossiping, and learning from others.

Venus: Romance and pleasant relationships thrive. Likely to meet romantic partners or enjoy romantic getaways.

Mars: Challenges in relationships, with potential for breakups, confrontations, or aggression. Strong need for physical activity or training.

Jupiter: Relationships expand and grow, with the possibility of meeting uplifting people, teachers, or guides. Business partnerships may also flourish.

Saturn: Relationships may be slow and laborious, with a focus on duty and responsibility. Romantic partnerships could face delays and challenges.

Uranus: Relationships can be exciting, inspiring, and non-traditional but may also be unstable and unpredictable.

Neptune: Romantic and spiritual relationships thrive, but there's a risk of confusion, escapism, and projection. Stay grounded in your interactions.

Pluto: Intense, transformative relationships, with themes of power dynamics and psychological exploration. Be cautious of conflict and manipulation.

IC (Imum Coeli) Lines:

Moon: Deep connection to home and family life, with a focus on nourishment and settledness. Often a more private and comforting location.

Sun: A place to build a joyful private life and focus on self-expression at home. Ideal for settling down and family life.

Mercury: One of the best lines for working from home, writing projects, or exploring family lineage and the past. Local travel and community engagement are common.

Venus: Creates a love for domestic life, pleasure, and beauty in the home. Ideal for creative expression and local community involvement.

Mars: Home life may feel chaotic and busy. Not ideal for peace, but careers in risk-taking and pioneering thrive.

Jupiter: An ideal place for a joyful home life, personal hobbies, and retirement. Expect freedom and space to pursue your interests.

Saturn: Not the easiest place for family life, with a sense of duty and obligation. Maintenance, renovation, and feelings of being stuck or isolated may arise.

Uranus: A place for breaking away from family and tradition. Restlessness and frequent home changes are likely, so consider a trial visit before moving.

Neptune: A peaceful, dreamy location for healing and escaping reality, but be cautious with real estate investments and contracts.

Pluto: A location for deep psychological exploration of family roots and ancestry. Be wary of real estate investments and potential family conflicts.

Now I would yet again say this could be such a lengthy post but no one really has time for that. For example,

🎀people usually would suggest against travelling to your Pluto lines, however, if you have Pluto trine/conjunct Sun, you could benefit from travelling along your Pluto lines.

🎀Jupiter DSC lines can sometimes show the location of your spouse or maybe where would be the best place to find abundant love/partnerships.

🎀 I have often seen people having IC and ASC lines passing through their childhood home/birth country.

Now you can look up a combination of your relocation chart, natal chart-astrocartography chart to get a good idea of what your life could be at a place

I hope this helped,

paid readings open

send post suggestions

xoxo

[chiiroptereh]

[Please zoom in, there's a lot of detail! And a massive file size...ouch]

Hi guys, long time no post! Been working on Art Fight and life stuff, but I've got something kinda fun for you.

This is a compilation exploring how a mortal Bill may interact with our world if there were still some kinda Euclidean instincts buried in there. Y'know, before the Book of Bill ruins all my headcanons >:P (EDIT: IT HAS BEEN READ. YAHOOOOOO)

Also quite an experimental piece as you can probably tell. Lots of details on both said headcanons and the art stuff under the cut, but I invite you to study the colorful texture yourself beforehand and think about what it might be representative of, just for fun because I got some really cool answers from my friends when asked :]c

TL;DR: the headcanon is that Euclideans have exceptional eyes for geometry. They find things like symmetry, tessellating patterns, graphs and fractals very aesthetically pleasing. If pushed into our 3D world, they feel comforted by the familiarity flat objects/spaces bring, as well as high-contrast patterns. Shadows especially are a familiar dimensional reduction that may bring them much comfort.

Bill would surely not be happy about these inclinations, constant reminders of a past long gone, but I'm not sure he's even aware of them here :P I think his ego gets in the way to the point where he just views these interests as common sense, which, of course, us lame humans just don't understand because we aren't nearly as cool as him. Of course he likes perfectly symmetrical leaves and staring at the kitchen floor, it's called taste, look it up!

And yet, he can't seem to shake the strange sense of melancholy he gets from viewing his own shadow.

~ End of TL;DR, long version below! ~

🔺 Headcanon Development

So, the catalyst of this idea was in relation to my friend and I's AU ( @love-triangles-au ). TL;DR, Bill's brought back mortal, meets another triangle named Y.V. (it's his hand holding the paper in the piece, actually), at some point they fall in yaois together, you know how it is. And, in writing a pair of triangles (or, more broadly, writing from the perspective of a different species), something I've had to consider was that you really can't get much further removed from a human being than sentient geometry.

The anatomical aspect was mostly figured out (see my piece on Bill's eye-mouth), but I wanted to consider what psychological differences might be at play. I wanted them to be weirder, more alien, double-so for Bill. At first I explored these possibilities through the lens of Bill and Y.V.'s relationship, specifically the question "what might a triangle find appealing about another triangle?"

Well, really the only things that came to mind were straight lines and symmetry, anything related to the geometric form of such a creature. That's more-or-less where that ended until the thought struck me that there's no reason this aesthetic appreciation couldn't extend to the rest of the environment, and then further when I realized, "wait, this is a species that is designed to live in a 2D environment. Like, they should seriously be really weird. I need to push this like 200% more."

So...yeah! I did some thinking and brainstorming with others and came up with a pretty long list of things a Euclidean in our world may be inclined to enjoy or find some level of comfort in. It's worth noting again that in this piece specifically this is a mortal/powerless Bill, so he can't really escape this Earthly environment. IF he's aware of these instincts at all (and that's a big "if"; when have you last been cognizant of your own instincts let alone known where they were stemming from?) I think he'd have snuffed them out in immortality and/or purposefully gone against them; he doesn't take kindly to being told what to do.

In order from left-to-right, top-to-bottom, here's an explanation for each!:

Flat objects such as paper are something he may find particularly engaging. It's basically 2D!

Tessellations are especially fascinating, and our world has them everywhere in the form of tile floors. Symmetry and such a predictable pattern...as the infinity of the starry sky might for us, the infinite potential of tessellations might invoke a similar sense of awe in him. Add on the maximum contrast of black on white kitchen tiles and the forms are only even better defined! A sensitivity to contrast would be very helpful for a 2D being navigating their environment.

Fields are flat and open, much like Euclydia itself. Laying flat may make him feel a little more at home.

More tessellation in the honeycomb of hymenopterans (bees, wasps and friends)! It helps that pain is hilarious.

The city is an absolute treasure trove. Rectangular buildings, precise architecture, square sidewalks and straight lines abound...he may as well be looking at a rainbow or an art gallery! I think a Euclidean's brain is very fine-tuned to mathematics, especially in regards to trigonometry. What may appear to be a straight painting might appear obnoxiously crooked to him.

Zebras are high-contrast :]

Another flat surface, another relaxing space <3

I think graphs are about as high as high art gets to most Euclideans.

I've touched on shadows before, and for good reason; truly they must be something borderline magical to the Euclidean and perhaps bitterly nostalgic.

This one kinda speaks for itself. Dweeb.

🎨 The Artsy Stuff

Lately I've been trying to find ways to fit more color into my work, as color is perhaps one of my favorite things in the world. My wardrobe is rather garish; my dad jokes that you could see me from space. My fursona is obnoxiously bright for a reason -- I feel my soul is a very colorful one!

I also realized recently that I don't actually know the exact style that speaks to me. I could talk about the phenomenon of the "style crisis" that many artists have all day, but in my mind the best cure for this feeling is to go against it entirely and begin stealing as much as possible.

So, I've tried to keep an eye out for more sources of inspiration everywhere I go, physical and digital. I've tried to train my mind into making a habit of considering, "can I do anything with this?" everywhere I go, and it recently paid off!

The glittery rainbowy texture you see plastered all over Billiam is this one, a photo-manipulated set of fruit stickers. I must confess I've been obsessed with this image for the past 72 hours, and this seemed like a good excuse to try it out!

I worried throughout the process if it might be so abstract that it loops back around to being horribly deliberate, if that makes sense -- like each sparkle was not a piece of a whole but rather an object in itself -- but it seems like that hasn't been a problem, so I'm grateful for that :Dc

I hope it can dazzle and delight you as it does me, but as long as you find it fascinating at the very least then I consider it a success! I really enjoyed hearing my friends' interpretations while workshopping it, and got tons of amazing answers from opal to kaleidoscope to fossilized bone marrow! I truly believe that the best art has some room for interpretation and it really excites me to be surrounded by that kind of creative energy that follows said pieces. That definitely adds to my pride in this work. It's weird, it's colorful, it's detailed and yet ambiguous. I'm feeling pretty autistic about it

Alright, I think that's about it. Thanks for listening!

[nocturniashifter]

𝓦hat is your friendships like in your dr? | pick a pile

Hello, my angels! After a long time without posting any PAP, here I am. I really hope you like it and that it resonates with you ;) ♡

┈─★ Disclaimer: This reading is for entertainment purposes only and shouldn't be taken seriously or used as a substitute for medical and professional advice. It's also a general reading, so it may or may not resonate with you.

┈─★ How to choose: Close your eyes, take a deep breath and choose the image that catches your attention the most – trust your intuition.

MASTERLIST | PAID READINGS

── .✦ PILE 1

Shufflemancy: Hippies - flipturn, Picture Frames - rei brown, Knight - Maddox, I Love You But I Need Another Year - Liza Anne, Persephone - The Tragic Thrills.

It's funny because from the first moment you started your friendship, you and your friends are “the weird ones” together – you might have a more alternative style or you just don't fit into the boxes that society tries to put you in/don't follow the expectations that society imposes on you.

In your friendship, you accept and love each other exactly as you are and since there is no judgement, you can let your weirder sides out because there is this safe space in your relationship lol. But although you may be judged as “the weird one” by other people or even by yourself jokingly, your friendship is very beautiful!

You really are there for each other whenever one of you needs. If one of you is going through dark periods in life, the other will not abandon you in those difficult times and will reach out to help as much as they can – you are like each other's knights in armor. I say this not only metaphorically, but for those who are shifting into a DR that involves a lot of action and is more dangerous, your friends will really be there to protect you because they want to keep you safe. They would even risk their lives for you if necessary – and they wouldn't do that for just anyone but you. It's so cute, you are always in their hearts 😔💗

You and your friends really love each other. But, one of you is facing mental health problems – you may not even have a diagnosis yet because this person is avoiding therapy, if it's you go now or I'll pull your foot when you're sleeping 🤨 – and you don't want to become a burden to the other person in friendship.

Because of this, this person who is facing this problem may end up distancing themselves from other people because they don't want to drag them into this situation even if all they want is for someone to be present in their life supporting them during this difficult time. Be there for that person just like they were there for you when the world was falling apart.

Demonstrate through words and actions that you care about that person's well-being and encourage them to seek profissional help because it will be beneficial for them - and if you are the one going through this, be there for yourself, take care of yourself and, above all, seek professional help. Know that, regardless of what happens, your friends love you very much and will always be here for you – when the world is falling apart or when everything is fine.

── .✦ PILE 2

Shufflemancy: Five Foot Tree - Flannel Graph, She Sings in the Morning - Pierce The Veil, The Fall - half•alive, What the Heck - Tried to run away, Ultimately - khai dreams.

Your friendship is so beautiful, pile 2! Your friends love you so much that if they could, they would take away all the suffering you have and leave you with only the best that life has to offer.

Your friends may think that they don't have many material things to offer you, but they give themselves completely to you and hope that that is enough.

In your friendship, your friends are not the type of people who tell you what you want to hear – no, on the contrary, they tell you what you need and often give you reality checks or make you wake up/open your eyes for a certain situation that you weren't seeing things right or lying to yourself, but they do it for your good.

Due to negative experiences in previous relationships – whether platonic or romantic – you or your friends have developed trust issues and therefore do not feel safe opening their hearts and being vulnerable with other people for fear of being stabbed in the back like It's happened other times. But, it seems that little by little you or your friends are learning to open your hearts, to share your thoughts and ideas and to trust each other despite the fears and insecurities you feel and that is very good.

You're the kind of friends who can talk about literally any topic or sometimes just make small talk – one moment you can be talking about the silliest, most idiotic things, making jokes, and the next moment you're having deep conversations about serious and important topics.

You and your friends are learning and growing together over time and through your experiences. You love and accept each other exactly as you are – including all your flaws. When you make a mistake, you admit it and always do your best to keep your friendship working. You support each other, care for each other, respect each other and generally bring out the best versions of each other. This is very beautiful, pile 2!

── .✦ PILE 3

Shufflemancy: Corpses - Saint Sisters, Cocoa Hooves - Glass Animal, To Love Someone Else - Avery Lynch, Tesselation - Mild High Club, new skin - VÉRITE.

You and your friends have more than just a friendship. Your friendship goes far beyond that: you are each other's family and you are truly there for each other in the worst and best moments you face in your lives.

Your friendship is so strong that you will spend your entire life by each other's side and will remain friends until old age. You've been through a lot together and will continue to be by each other's side whenever one of you needs it, until death.

Just like in pile 2, you or your friends have difficulty opening up due to negative experiences in previous relationships – be it trust issues, fear of judgement, fear of rejection or their own insecurities – and may end up trying hide parts of yourself. But all this effort to try to hide who you really are is in vain, because your friends can clearly see through you.

As I mentioned earlier, your bond is so strong that your friendship will last until old age and your friends know you better than you know yourself, so there is no need to try to be someone you are not because they love you exactly as you are. It is. Your friends really love you and you make them feel great, so stop thinking you're not enough.

For some of you reading this pile, one of these friends is your s/o and they really love you but they need to keep it a secret because they don't know if you reciprocate their romantic feelings and they're afraid of rejection or ruining their friendship with you.

Although you and your friends have many things in common, you are still completely different people who share world views that are not the same as the other person – and in your friendship this is not a problem, on the contrary, you end up learning a lot with the other person, gaining new perspectives and experiences. You take yourself out of your comfort zone and, thanks to you, your friends feel like they are different people than they were before and even better.

That was all, everyone! I hope y'all liked it. Until the next PAP! ♡

© nocturniashifter – don't copy, redistribute or edit my content | dividers

[yuurei20]

Received a request for more information about personal pronouns! (Thank you very much to @/irafuwas for help with this post! ♡)

Personal Pronouns in Twst (1/3): Ore

Foreword: Pronouns can vary by person depending on age, gender and context, but they also vary based on personal preference and how a person wishes to present themselves! In casual situations there is not really such a thing as using the “wrong” personal pronoun. Outside of those situations it is all about being polite!

Q: Someone’s preferred personal pronoun can be interpreted as “rude” by unrelated third parties?

A: Yes! For example:

Ore: Used by Trey, Cater, Floyd, Ace, Kalim, Deuce (sometimes), Jamil, General Lilia, Leona, Silver, Ruggie, Jack, Epel (sometimes).

The vibes of pronouns change drastically depending upon whether or not you are in a casual situation:

School/Work/New People/Anywhere That Isn’t a Casual Situation with Close Friends

“Ore” is not a personal pronoun that one should use outside of very casual situations, such as when you are around friends or family, or it can be perceived as sounding haughty.

It can be described as a more “masculine” pronoun, but you can also say that it is just more casual!

Women can (and do!) use this pronoun and it does not mean that they identify as male—language is not black and white! It can even vary by region: the graph above shows how it is common for men and women equally to use “ore” in places like Akita, Iwate, Nara, etc., for example.

So does someone using “ore” with you mean that they’re looking down on you? 

That depends on context! 

If you are meeting for the first time, you do not want to use ore or you might put across that vibe. It is also rude to say it to people like teachers at school, bosses/customers at work, etc.

Casual Situations

If you are close friends or family members with a person, then it will not be unusual to hear “ore”!

Deuce, for example, uses “Boku” when he is around upperclassmen, but will use “Ore” when he is alone with Ace.

I prefer to avoid Wikipedia, but I liked this graph very much:

It shows percentages of university-age men using “ore” with their friends, switching to “watashi” in class, and to “boku” when speaking with someone they do not know.

(This information is, however, from nearly 20 years ago, and language is always evolving. Just like speakers of English do not talk the same now as they did in 2009, the same is true in Japan!)

It is not uncommon for men to decide they do not like the sound of “ore” and go with “boku” or “watashi” instead, or maybe they don’t like “boku” either and “watashi” is too formal for friends, so they go with “jibun,” etc. Casual situations are flexible!

Personal Anecdote: At my previous job I would often visit a senpai who worked the front desk downstairs, and he would rotate through three different pronouns depending who he was talking to: Watashi for customers, Boku for coworkers, and Ore for when his friends came to visit. And this was how I learned that he and our newest hire had started dating in secret: one day he accidentally used “Ore” with her instead of his usual “Boku.” After they realized that I knew, they would use casual pronouns/speech patterns with each other in front of me, but whenever someone else came in the room they would switch to senpai/kouhai speech. Drama drama~

Written Language

In the case of Twst, we have additional personalization taking place: while Trey, Deuce, Epel, Jamil, General Lilia, Leona, Silver and Jack use “Ore” in kanji, Cater, Floyd, Ace, Kalim, and Ruggie use it in katakana.

This is a stylistic choice to reflect the different personalities!

Kanji can be used to make something seem more serious/mature/traditional (re: Trey/Jamil/Silver) or confident/assertive (re: Deuce/Epel/General Lilia/Leona/Jack).

Katakana is being used to add personal flair to reflect the characters who are more laid back and emphasize differences in attitude. Both Leona and Kalim say “Ore,” for example, and while it is technically the same word, the atmosphere/tone between the two could not be more different!

(To be continued!)

[mecachrome]

landoscar ao3 stats — 2023 overview

notes

retrieved ~sometime in march 2024

methodology: scraped metadata for every fic in the landoscar tag and...... that's it. however one important constraint is that all temporal data is date updated (not posted), so the above timeline isn't exactly a true representation of fic growth but rather how many fics were last-updated at that time. of course this is still its own reflection of fandom health in a way since dead fandoms don't update old fic but well... it's just not quite the same!

this is just info about general trends, fic content, tags etc... so nothing about kudos/comments or any authors specifically

i decided to focus solely on fics last-updated in 2023 (unless otherwise mentioned) because i wanted a tidy set that i can maybe compare & contrast in a year's time, because i expect a lot of details to look different then (tho as stated above this set isn't exactly static... 🤷‍♀️)

ngl i had to re-scrape a bunch of times because i forgot about it for like 3 weeks and then there were 100 new fics 😭 so if there are some minor discrepancies across the post it's because of that halfskh.

also i wanted to include more global comparisons (aka how 814 stack up against the f1 rpf tag in general), but this is also considerably difficult in some contexts since i can't exactly scrape 31,000+ fics can i... or i didn't even want to entertain the thought of trying to do so!!!

why did i do this? who knows.

anyway here's some viz T__T

ship growth

as evidenced in the opening graph, landoscar have been a very fast-growing ship over the past year — although interestingly enough they didn't really start growing substantially until july / the ~better half~ of the 2023 season. here are two views showing their "growth" (by date updated) alongside two other ships on the fringes of the f1 rpf top 10 (sebchal & galex):

landoscar are very much on-track to surpass them and officially enter the top 10 soon, likely before mid-april ❗️ :o

ship characteristics

onto the ship content — another thing i was mildly curious about was how landoscar differs in certain areas from other f1 ships, or the f1 rpf "global" average you could say. for example, here's a breakdown of rating popularity in their ao3 tag:

seeing as explicit is their most common rating, and that i don't necessarily expect this to be true for all ships/fandoms, i compared these percentages with the general f1 rpf tag to see whether some ratings are more commonly represented in 814 fic than average, which produced interesting results:

do lando ships simply skew more HornyTM in general? is it oscar? a secret third thing??? who knows... actually i think it would be fun to do more analysis in this direction but that can wait for another time!!!

similarly i also wanted to see which ships are the most "public" on ao3, as in have the highest share of fic that isn't user-locked... i will refrain from peppering in my feelings about the 4th wall too heavy-handedly but i was curious to see whether some sort of perhaps... er, generational gap (?) of sorts between ships that are more public vs. not could be identified. however i don't pretend to have any takeaways from this LOL i conclude absolutely nothing. (for ref landoscar is currently 72% public, vs. a global avg of 63%)

note that this graph is current stats, not filtered for 2023

looking at relationship tags, i also wanted to know whether landoscar suffer noticeably from Second-Ship Syndrome, so i tallied the first-tagged ship of every fic to find out. i know this doesn't necessarily mean that it's always the "main" ship but it's a good enough approximation. the results were quite positive!

filtered to top ships with count of >1 only

i then also calculated the number of ships tagged for each fic to discern the profile of multi-shipping in 814 ficdom; i did have to do a little bit of string standardization (all instances of implied / background / hinted collapsed to hinted for simplicity's sake + removal of other redundancies), but otherwise i left everything mostly untouched.

as you can see, landoscar also have a fairly promising amount of OTP: TRUE fic:

by the time you get to the fics with 10+ ships tagged, landoscar are less likely to be the primary ship, which makes sense just on a basic statistical level... this is also a very small sample size though

i also lazily tallied the 10 most common ships that weren't NOR/PIA or NOR & PIA to diff their shares of the 814 tag vs. of the general f1 rpf tag, to see which other pairings are more represented in the 814 tag than on average (because lestappen are the most popular by pure count but this is also true of fandom in general, so it would be a misrepresentation to say that their popularity is out of the ordinary):

maxiel's gap isn't really that surprising since i think that, generationally, in terms of when both pairings were teammates there is quite a gap; with carlando—actually let me tally this again but including all instances of "implied" and "past" as being part of the same ship, since that's how ao3 tag-wrangles as well:

Aha ! obviously as a direct ship there is competition between 814 and other lando or oscar ships, but this difference is somewhat less pronounced once we include all formats. tbh none of this really means anything but i thought i'd add it anyway... (it's also very possible that there are several errors in this, in which case my b 😔)

before we move on to additional tags, there are a few more basic characteristics of 814 fic we can calculate. i realize i never offered an overview of Super Basic Stats, so here are a few:

plus, looking at word counts, here is a distribution of those in 2023-updated fic, which shows that a majority of 814 fics were under the 5k mark:

85% of landoscar fics were under 10k & nearly 97% under 25k

i don't really have any reason to believe that landoscar's wc stats differ significantly from average ? so this is kind of just Data To Have Data, and it most likely reflects normal ao3 trends in general... but i thought i'd include it anyway because i already made it lol. similarly, here are word count distributions but stratified by rating:

& same info but heat map view:

i feel like this is also probably something you'd find across fandom in general — that gen fic is likely to have a higher share of under 1k works, since Building Up to sexual content often takes... Literal & Metaphorical Foreplay ! and the longer a fic is the more opportunities an author has to include a sex scene or other explicit content (ofc, not necessarily just porn but also graphic violence & so on). but i thought this was fun to visualize haha

additional tags & aus?

back in my old f1 rpf stats post, i made a table comparing fluff/angst "ratios" (not exactly a direct ratio because of how tag wrangling works, but an approximation) of the most popular f1 ships, and now that landoscar are somewhat popular i thought i'd first do an update:

also current data, not 2023 to make things easier

just like before, simi are one of the most fluffy ships and brocedes are by far the most angsty, but it's interesting to see 814 also extremely high up on the charts, with far and away the lowest % of angst. will be exciting 2 see how that holds or changes as the seasons progress !

finally, i also wanted to do a bit of au/additional tag analysis because you can kind of see this when you use additional filters on ao3 but the previews are limited and get bogged down by the prevalence of *checks notes* Fluff, Angst, PWP, Anal Sex and what have you. which are nice stats to have and all but what of the rest !

disclaimer that the set for these tables is a biiiit outdated because by the time i'd wrangled everything i was like I Am Not Changing It Again. unfortunately i clean my data with shoddy queries and regex functions in googsheetz...

there were 48 tags with at least 10 instances from 2023 fics, shown below, with ones that are (some ~vaguely) nsfw in red just to kind of get a rough sense of which tags get commonly used in M/E fic:

getting a bit too much into small sample size / specific fic territory so if you're an author i sincerely apologize for that... do not mean 2 put u on blast... TT__TT but i also tried to tally the most popular aus people write for 814, which is a bit dubious because people tag in really different ways and i had to accommodate for a lot of string formats but ... it's close enough ! (?)

i feel like this is very little interesting info but idk what else to add so i will stop here for now... well!!! if you made it to the end i hope u learned something or even vaguely enjoyed reading T__T and most of all thank you :')

[yumeka-sxf]

I would have included this scan with my recent miscellaneous collab scans post, but I decided it deserves its own post, not just because it's one of the loveliest official Twiyor illustrations I've seen, but also because the story of how I got it is...interesting 😅

This image is from the chara fine graph (which is basically a framed picture) that was included as a preorder bonus for buying the complete season 2 blu-ray set from a shop called Rakuten Books (together with badge pins of the same designs). I briefly mentioned it back in October of last year when season 2 was airing, along with preoder bonuses from other shops like Animate and Amazon. I only wanted to get this one though, so as per my usual process of trying to secure rare SxF goods, I made a note to myself to keep an eye out for when it released. Rakuten, which I believe is the main company for Rakuten Books, has their own proxy buying service, and as the season 2 blu-rays were released, I saw them appearing there. But as noted on their main site, the condition for them to send you the chara fine graph is that you must preorder all of the three season 2 blu-ray discs from them. Once you buy the third one, if they know that you've already bought the others, then they'll send you the preorder bonuses along with it.

I was concerned that if I bought the discs via proxy, they wouldn't know that I bought all three and would cancel my order at the end! I would be devastated if that happened after waiting months and spending all that money on the complete set. I knew people would sell the chara fine graph second-hand as soon as it released, so I decided to wait until then and try to find it on Mercari.

So the months went by and eventually I found out that the final blu-ray volume of season 2 would release on April 17th, 2024. I made a mental note to check Mercari for it then, but unfortunately something else released around that same time...CODE: White in the US, which had its first screening on April 18th. Admittingly, I got distracted by the CODE: White release and had seen it twice by the following weekend. I did do some preliminary searching for the chara fine graph, but not with my usual refined search terms. It wasn't until the 21st that I finally sat down and really started searching for it. And while I did find a few listings, they had already been sold.

I was hopeful that more people would sell it, since it had only been less than a week since release. But I guess I underestimated how popular this chara fine graph was because, after the initial five listings I saw that were sold within the span of a few days, none appeared after. I had, like, ten Mercari tabs open on my browser with different search terms that I refreshed many times a day, but nothing was showing up. I would groan whenever I'd see the preorder bonuses for the other shops like Animate and Amazon pop up, but not Rakuten Books. I did finally see one new listing of someone selling just the badge pins, but that was sold within a few minutes, which made me even more nervous. I would also be nervous getting up in the morning since I didn't want to see that a new listing was posted and sold while I was sleeping! Thankfully I work from home so it wasn't too much of an inconvenience for me to refresh the Mercari tabs on my personal computer whenever I had a minute. But as the days went by and I didn't see any new listings, I started getting mad at myself that if I had only started seriously searching for it right on release day, I would have had at least five chances to get it and could have saved myself this hassle. I even sent a message to Rakuten Books via their online form, asking (in Japanese) if they could somehow sell it to me and ship internationally, etc. But their response was pretty much what I expected...a polite "no."

But then, on the evening of May 4th, I found a new listing and immediately bought it! What should have been a red flag though is that the person was selling it for $30 (with the badge pins included), while everyone else had been selling it from around $80-$100. The title they gave to the item was weird too; they simply called it "Spy Family" instead of "Spy Family Chara Fine Graph" or "Spy Family Rakuten Books Bonus" or something descriptive like that. But the seller had a decent rating so I didn't think there was a problem. After I got the email from Buyee (my proxy service) that they successfully bought the item, I thought I was all set. I closed out all my search tabs and went to bed feeling satisfied.

However, when I got up the next morning, my heart sank when I saw that about an hour after I had gone to bed, Buyee sent me another email saying that they refunded and cancelled my order! The reason they gave was "due to the convenience of the seller" 😫

But what was most frustrating about this is that, when I checked the searches again, I saw that the same seller had relisted the item, with a higher price and more descriptive title, and it had been sold already. What probably happened is that the seller realized they made a mistake with the title and price of the listing and wanted to change it, which Mercari apparently allows them to do even after it had already been sold and paid for!

I was furious with Mercari for allowing this. The least they could do in a situation like this is give the original buyer, like, one day to buy the item again with the increased price before the seller is allowed to relist it again. I wanted to write to the seller and/or Mercari, but I wasn't able to make a Mercari account since it's restricted to Japan. I was also internally yelling at myself that if I had just started searching for it within a day or two of release instead of procrastinating, I could have avoided all this. So it was back to square one, but I wasn't going to give up! I opened up more search tabs with even more refined search terms. I also expanded to other proxy-supported shops like Surugaya and Yahoo Japan Auction. I even got my mom to help me, since she's often up in the middle of the night and can check in case anything is listed during that time while I'm asleep. I downloaded the Buyee app too so I could check listings even if I was away from my computer. With all this, I was hopeful I'd be able to buy it again, though it was more of a question of "when" than "if." With second-hand collectibles, you never know when they could pop up...I could find a new listing the next day, or not for a year or two. But I just kept up the searching, and finally, after another month went by, on June 3rd (June 4th in Japan, so technically Twiyor day 😁) I finally found it again...on Yahoo Japan Auction of all places!

I had never bought via auction before so I was a bit nervous I'd get outbid or something. But I immediately clicked the "pay buyout price option" (which was only a few dollars more than the original price) and, thankfully, a short while later Buyee informed me that I successfully won the auction! But after what happened before, I was still paranoid that it could get canceled for whatever reason. But that didn't happen, and after waiting for shipping, it finally came~

I always like to add a "lessons learned" in these situations, so I'd say the lesson here is don't be blasé or procrastinate when it comes to something you really want. And of course, being persistent pays off more than not!

[shapelytimber]

Look, social media aus are very dumb but fun to do fklxkdk Illya would make short videos (mostly) about fashion, and Napoleon would be very unsubtle about being a Spy

I am formally apologizing to the uncle fandom for tiktoker Illya Kuryakin, I have no regrets (also @quijicroix is part responsible, being my evil advisor)

Here are the posts in details, and the profile pics :)

[COMMISSIONS]

No process this time, just me yapping for way to long about every choice and refs that went into this dumb au below vvv

Illya is younger than Napoleon (I usualy headcanon him at around 25 and Napoleon 35ish), so I think their use of social media would be quite different : hence Illya on Tiktok and Napoleon on Instagram. Also it's not the 60s so Illya can be like 10% less reppressed :)) but as a debuff Napoleon now has the technology to call him a nerd

Illya's page started as a cover for some affair, but he ended up kinda enjoying doing it in his free time. It's like a hobby for him, a way to experiment with fashion ! It's what made him want to pursue fashion design as a career after his curent spy job. And also I think he gets more and more nervous the more followers he gets, because as a spy having a chance to get recognise in the street is really bad dkdldlos Napoleon teases him endlessly that he became a tiktoker (as he should)-

Did I, at one point in the project, had to scrap the thirst trap idea to keep the fashion nerd vibes ? Yes I did, but just know he uses the "twink" tag :)

• The first post is a ref to the discotheque affair, not the best episode and a great miss for not including a disco Illya outfit, so I made him one to match the other :D

• The second is to the Hot number, but he gets to wear the thrush pattern !

• The third one is what made me do all of this ! Because, if you're not french, you might not know about one of my favorite yearly twitter threads : Met Gala outfits as INSEE graphs by Clara Dealberto ! Don't care about the met gala, but this is very funny :) and such a Illya Kuryakin thing to do kdkdkd

• fourth one isn't fashion related, it's a ref to popart and the "he has Dostoïevski eyes" line that made us laught a lot

• A little Fiddlesticks for the dog post, because it's a banger episode. Plus a nod to he dog expert from it, with whom Illya had palpable sexual tension fkfkfkl I like to think they kept contact ;) (shoutout to this fic (Intensity by AconitumNapellus) who absolutely get the vision, 10/10 guy to "cheat" on your boyfriend with)

• and the final one is a make over because of course it is

As for Napoleon, being older and less invested in this, an instagram made sense. But crutialy, I get such strong modern oss117 vibes from Napoleon (the way he shoots his gun, the goofy faces, the awkward stance everytime he enters a place, the inexplicable in universe rizz...) dkfkldls modern oss117 was a parody of both 60s james bond and older oss117 movies, but I'm now convinced they also whatched some uncle while doing these, it's just so obvious- anyway all this to say, in the second movie oss117 has to pose as a photographer and gets way too invested in his cover (it's his thing don't question it), and at the end of the movie we get to see all the photography he took during his mission..... Let me tell you how hard it was to resist him having an instagram full of blurry women on the street (canon 60s napoleon would have done it I'm sorry)- but what I kept was the pretty "badly" shot pics of random things, tho you sometimes get the odd decent pic taken by Illya. And he gets to be in a duck floatie as a treat and nod to oss <3

• Pinned post is because it became frustrating for him having to respond to people asking him if it was his real name or if he was a far right french man simping for Bonaparte

• first post is not a ref, but if my very sexy flat car was burning in the desert I would take a pic (ft Illya despairing) kdkdkd

• Duck floatie is a oss117 ref

• selfie with a beautiful woman (ft his finger), no ref I just love drawing women

• also Fiddlesticks for the cute Napoleon fox !! And to kinda link the two profiles :)

• and finaly Spy with my face ! He tried taking a picture of his date (I'll let you decide who it was), but oops front facing camera kdkdkdk

Can you tell I had a lot of fun doing this ? I love this show way to much omfg

PS : if you've never seen the recent oss117 movies, you should they funny ! But oh god some jokes are terrible- the first one is the best, minus one gay joke frankly not great. They nail the gay joke in the second one but oh god... They do not always win the 'is our character a piece of shit or is the movie problematic' gamble so be aware of that. And the 3rd one is shit don't bother

PPS : I don't use Tiktok, I tried my best to emulate the feeling of it but be aware I have no idea what I'm doing dkkdld

[artificial-transmutations]

Out Now: Dam Breakers

Hello everyone! I'm extremely excited (and, quite frankly, more than a bit nervous) to announce that I finished my fantasy romance novel Dam Breakers!

For the very TLDR-version: It is available here! Be sure to read the disclaimer below, though.

First of all, thank you! Everyone who reads my stories or likes them shows me that there is at least some interest in my mediocre writing. And even though the novel is not exactly like my stories here (more to that later), it gives me hope that you and other people might like it.

Now, for the actual novel!

Dam Breakers is the tale of Jared, a rather normal modern day college student, and Aleron, an apprentice mage living in a secluded tower with his teacher. One fateful day, they meet and are drawn into a maelstrom of magic, change and love - and dark secrets threatening to destroy everything they loved.

With over 120000 words, this is not only my longest story yet, but also my most carefully crafted one. I will attach an image of my Obsidian graph for the story at the end of the post.

Disclaimer:

As I have mentioned, it is a bit different from the stories I usually post here. First and foremost, it's a lot tamer. This novel isn't meant as a porn piece, but as an intriguing fantasy and romance tale. While there is love, desire and sex, of course, it's way more sparse and less explicit than, for example Closer Than Flesh.

It also features transformation themes, and the concept of change is one of the main focus points of the book, but, again, don't expect 500 pages full of transforming bodies because of it :)

And, finally, for a multitude of reasons, it does not contain AI generated images. I wouldn't be able to generate any that do the story justice, anyway.

Now that you know what not to expect, here are some things you MAY expect:

Transformation. Both in the sense of bodily changes but intriguing character development as well.

Gay Love. This is a story about two men from different worlds falling in love with each other, and their stony road to being together.

Magic. It's a fantasy story, and a truly enchanting one at that, with a fresh concept of magic and change.

Story. Last, but certainly not least, it's a good and interesting read, at least according to my opinion. Since I might be a bit biased here, let me tell you that my beta readers agree.

If you still want to read it (and I hope you do!), then you can grab your copy here:

If you are not in the US, you can just replace the .com with, for example, .co.uk to go to your local Amazon marketplace

I have not forgotten, of course, that I promised a special condition for you folks at Tumblr. Since Amazon makes it a bit difficult to actually implement that, I plan to offer a time limited discount or giveaway in a few weeks. I'll announce the exact time here on my blog beforehand.

If you really want to support me, it would mean a lot to me if you could leave a review on Amazon. That influences the algorithm a lot and helps the book get visibility, which is incredibly important . So, please, if you like the book, leave a review.

Teaser / Preview (mild spoilers)

And here is a short look into the book, from chapter 4. It contains some mild spoilers, but nothing too important. I also added an AI image, which is not in the book (see above).

[...]

Even though the weather was unstable, Jared enjoyed the journey through the vibrant spring land. It was a closeness to nature he had never experienced. Even back home with his parents, in rural Texas, the land had seemed different. Back there, the wilderness had been tamed decades if not centuries ago. There was no wonder, no adventure. Here, there were hills and forests, rivers and bogs, and who knew what else. It was as if Jared was seeing the world for the first time. Not to mention the smell. Jared could not remember a time when he had smelled the spring air like this.

In addition to the landscape, Jared's traveling companion also played a big part. Aleron was an intelligent and witty conversationalist, and Jared learned a lot about his new friend. They spoke of everything under the sun, and Jared told stories of his home, of modern inventions and the differences between this world and his. Even though Aleron was fascinated by his tales, he was also clearly skeptical about some of them, especially when it came to the more complex topics. That was only fair, though, as Jared himself had a hard time believing the fantastic stories of this world, even after having experienced some with his own eyes. Dragons, for example. It didn't matter how often Aleron recited what little information he had about those magnificent beasts, something in Jared resisted fully believing in them. He hoped that he would be able to see one of them for real - although Aleron repeatedly stressed how dangerous they were - in order to be able to fully believe in them.

While Aleron's world was certainly magical, it wasn't all like in the Lord of the Rings. There were, for example, no other humanoid races, as Jared learned. No elves, dwarves or orcs, at least to Aleron's knowledge, which, to be fair, mainly included the Kingdom of Myrthien. Although the Whispering Woods were not technically a part of Myrthien, and were generally considered wilderness, it was clear that they were no part of another nation either. The closest neighboring country to the Whispering Woods would either be the Golden Isles beyond the coast south of Eldoria or the Verdant Lands to the west. According to Aleron, the Verdant Lands couldn't really be considered a nation, too. It was more of a loose confederation of tribal communities, living in the characteristic dense forests of that region.

As Helena had promised, Luminara wasn't difficult to find. The capital of Myrthien was well known and if there was a sign post somewhere, it was sure to point to Luminara.

There was no shortage of smaller and bigger settlements, and about every third or fourth night they were able to sleep in beds. During the other nights, they made camp a bit off the road in order not to attract too much attention. It was one of those nights, about two weeks after they had left Eldoria, that Jared woke up in the middle of the night. Aleron, who was sleeping next to him, was moving in his sleep and occasionally made a sound, which had caused Flicker to gain a bit of distance to the sleeping man.

It was clear to Jared that his friend was dreaming, and he briefly considered waking him up from his nightmare. However, judging by the sounds, Jared began to suspect that Aleron was not having a nightmare but quite the opposite, although the dream seemed to be just as intense.

Quietly, he left the tent, careful not to wake the sleeping mage. Outside, he was greeted by the stars and a clear sky with an almost full moon. The campfire was almost dead, just a few embers and ashes were left. It was a quiet, peaceful night, and Jared decided to go to the nearby lake to drink. Aleron had never once shown a single sign of sexuality before, except for demonstrating a certain uneasiness around nudity and related topics. He never had commented on any woman - or man - in a suggestive way, so Jared had been half- convinced that this whole topic didn't have any relevance to the mage at all.

Of course, for his own reasons, Jared had avoided the subject as well, so, perhaps Aleron thought the same about him. Jared didn't mind that. As magical as this world was, he had yet to encounter a single sign of same-sex attraction. Perhaps this wasn't a thing here, biologically, or perhaps it was socially frowned upon, like in his world's medieval ages - or rural Texas, present day. In any case, there was absolutely no reason to bring that topic up, so he didn't. Not bringing up his sexuality was a sport he was very experienced in for 9 years straight now, after all.

As Jared neared the lake, he was feeling weird and tingly all over. It was not entirely unpleasant, but it stirred a vague memory in Jared. He had felt this feeling once before, but he couldn't quite recall when.

When he bent down to scoop some water into his hand, he stopped before his fingers touched the surface of the lake. The moon was bright, and Jared could see his reflection in the mirror-smooth water quite well. The only problem was that it was not him who was looking back at him.

Of course, there was a strong resemblance, but the details weren't right. His face looked somewhat stronger, his jawline a bit squarer. His hair a bit lighter and styled like the day he first stepped out of the mirror. On his chin, there was a short well-groomed beard even though he had shaved just last morning. It wasn't just his face, though. As he looked down on himself, he looked fitter than he should, as if he was visiting a gym regularly. In fact, the definition of muscle on his torso increased further, just as he was watching. Suddenly, the wonder was replaced by fear. He had felt that way before, and now he remembered when. It had been during his first visit to Aleron's world, when his body was 'destabilizing' as Aleron had put it. Given, the feeling had been stronger then, but it was definitely the same. And now, his body was changing again, and he was weeks of travel from the magic mirror.

Half-panicking, he sprinted back to the tent, not caring about being quiet anymore. Perhaps Aleron knew what to do! He ducked into the entrance and called out to the mage.

"Aleron, wake up!"

Almost immediately, the apprentice jolted awake. "Jared? What is wrong?"

"I... don't know, it's me. Look at me!"

After a few words of encouragement, Flicker began burning brighter, allowing them to see in the tent as well. Aleron looked at the half-naked Jared critically for a few moments before asking: "Okay... what am I looking for?"

"Can't you see? I'm..." However, as Jared looked down on himself, everything was fine again. He was looking at his plain old self, just as he should look like. The tingling feeling was gone, too.

"Oh." Jared felt incredibly stupid all of a sudden. "I... must have been imagining things."

[...]

If you liked the teaser, be sure to give the whole thing a read :)

Let me close with another whole-hearted Thank You for your continued interest!

Stay awesome!

And here, as promised, a peek at the creative complexity of the story:

[minty-mumbles]

Linked Universe Survey 2023

The long awaited results of the survey. Sorry it took me forever, making graphs is hard.

There were 452 responses to the survey as a whole, which is almost double what we got last year, so thank you to everyone who participated!

If you want to see the raw data, you can find that here. I had thoughts about the data, but compiling that into another post would be too much of a hassle. Feel free to send me asks about it though!

The rest of the post will be under a read more as it it large

Demographics

Other: Demigirl (4), Transmasc (3), Grey genderfluid, Unlabeled, Demiboy, Demiagender

Other: Omnisexual (4), Poly (2), Trixic, Abroromantic or Bellusromantic, Demisexual

General Questions

Other: Quotev, Discord, their own google docs

Other: Discord, Variations of "I haven't posted yet, but I pan to" and "I haven't posted my fics in ages",

Other: Wattpad, Deviantart, Discord

Other: Crochet dolls, Custom dolls, Roleplay blogs (2), Fan translations, Headcanons (2), Piano music

The purple section in the “Warriors vs Warrior” chart is supposed to read “Warrior.” I made a typo.

Favorites and Least Favorites

Selected Free Response Answers

im sorry warriors i just can't play your game (it is very very hard. i am stuck very early on in the game)

I love cats meow meow meow

was extremely tempted to put twilight for least favorite. unfortunately he is my favorite to write from the perspective of (he has taken over most of my wips. help) and that probably counts for something. WILD on the other hand. hooo boy how the hell do i characterize this gargoyle. why is he Like That. least favorite it is

Twiddy

very good fandom to be in :) everybody is very nice

It's a straight up crime that Wars lost the aesthetics poll so quickly. He has such a peak Link design with the best colors. Ugh I'm getting wistful.

FROGS. FROGS. FROGS. ALSO HAPPY PRIDE MONTH. FROGS. FROGS. FROGS. FROGS. FROGS.

I will fight Hylia herself and the next person who implies Twi can't handle spice. If we're going to lean into him being southern/Midwestern, which is an alright stero type for our rancher, please keep in mind the culture you're basing him off. The south and midwest can handle their spice, I assure you. Have you ever had authentic Louisiana gumbo? It will melt you tongue off. Or some good old fashion spicy fried chicken? I promise the real stuff has quite a kick. (In all seriousness, though. It's more important that you're having fun. And even I can admit the idea of Twi being an Ordonian who can't handle his spice is more than a little funny.)

I am an OoT Link edgelord and have been since early 2017. So, in September of that year, when an artist by the name of jojo56830 puts out a lineup of nine different Links and the Hero of Time is there – the oldest, no eye, Hero’s Shade armor? I saw that one sketch and just thought “oh this is gonna be bad.” Yeah of course he has the coolest design. By the way, it’s only a matter of time until Fierce Deity shows up in the comic and I have reason to believe it could be this current Dawn arc. Dawn … Dawn of a New Day … and who brought about the Dawn of a New Day? Fierce Deity. Twilight is recovering but still injured and what will happen if he falls again? Fierce Deity is coming and we need to be prepared. In this essay I will—

Remember that time when someone put the whole script of the bee movie in here? I’m not that dedicated, and I don’t have that time, but let us remember and hope someone else does it again this time. Cause someone is bound too. We’re all crazy enough to do it. Alright, love you and stay hydrated pls!

Hi! I joined this fandom really recent but i’ve always seen LU stuff on pinterest and elsewhere. Only recently have i actually took the time to understand the fandom and get back into LOZ stuff and i adore the characters and story! The more and more fanart, fanfics, and comics i see about the different Links the more i love them all. It’s such a pain to pick just one i like or one i don’t like because they’re all so unique. I love this fandom and hope to get more involved!! Have a wonderful rest of your day :]

Epona is an underrated queen

your mom

I really don't get why Zelda is called Artemis. Athena makes more sense???? It perplexes me

Anyone seeing this should check out Breanna’s E!Wild AU

Something something queer every Link into oblivion!

[relaxxattack]

Hi i want to thank you for the QPR vs Moirail venn diagram. Its a rly excellent way of showing the difference. My gripe is about human romance, and how people will either 1- conflate it in a 1:1 ratio with Matesprit, or 2- claim it is “all the quadrants”. I personally feel both are false equivalency, and that the human romance is similar to both pale and red rom* and SO i was wondering if you agreed w that assessment, or if not, if you have the time to explain your thoughts on human traditional romance vs the quadrants (perhaps w another nifty graph)?

* which is why Rose’s destructive tendencies during sburb & her descent into addiction on the meteor were not addressed by kanaya, who feared palezoning herself like she did with vriska

OH MY GOD! YES!!!! why am i getting such great asks today?!

no, you're EXACTLY right. people are constantly conflating matespritship in those two ways; "all of the quadrants" being especially irritating (since Some humans occasionally argue, Occasionally in a kinky way, and i guess that means that they totally have all of kismesissitude covered?? :/).

matespritship is its very own thing. of the two interpretations above, i feel the idea that it's 1:1 to human romance is the closest to true. i mean, that's what they literally say in the comic, for gog's sake.

humans do not truly incorporate moirallegiance, kismesissitude, or auspisticism into their lives in any meaningful way. while it's possible for humans to sometimes have romances that might seem more like one of those than matespritship, they're considered abnormal or toxic-- and they often ARE, because humans do not have the same sort of biological drives or social understanding of these things that trolls do. humans do not understand the true needs and ramifications, or even the ROMANCE of moirallegiance. humans would be hard pressed to understand a kismesissitude in a 'healthy' way. i don't even need to mention how auspisticism flies over people's heads.

so, yes, humans only have the one quadrant. (and karkat vantas, i am sorry to say, is not going to "human date" anyone as the "solution to his quadrant problems". this would literally be the same as him trying to stick only to matespritship, and we all know exactly how that turned out.)

however! matespritship is not an exact 1:1 on human romance either. the direct quote from the comic is;

"[It's] the closest parallel to the human concept of romance trolls have." [x]

this is not really expanded on much in the text, honestly-- the intricacies of the social and biological traits of matespritship aren't shown enough for us to draw clear distinctions between them and human romance.

however, i think you're right that rose and kanaya are the best example we have of that-- despite them both aiming for matespritship, they have cultural misunderstanding quite often from some of rose's flirting, or even just her needs, crossing wires into a pale threshold that kanaya is weary of.

it's entirely possible that the differences between troll and human "hearts" might have made it difficult for kanaya to really connect with rose's problems and discuss them with her.

which might explain why when things go "better" for them in the retcon, they're portrayed reading a book on troll romance together:

it could be implied here that searching for a more in-depth understanding of quadrants actually helped rose with her ability to connect to kanaya-- and maybe, reading into it a little too hard here, this also could have been an opportunity for kanaya to work through her vriska-based hangups with the pale quadrant. that's entirely speculation on my part, though.

at the end of the day, we don't really KNOW enough about the details of quadrants for me to paint a clear picture of how matespritship differs from human romance. i mean, i could try, but it would certainly be more of a headcanon post than an analysis one!