#i really wanted nadia's blog to live

[iliveforyouilongforyouvesuvia]

hello! new follower of your blog! i just want to say before anything else, that i'm really sorry for your loss. i hope you will feel better soon. i am sure that your dog loves you so much. i wish you the best for your healing ❤️

this my first request, and it's going to be kinda detailed but i hope it's okay for you

can you please make some headcanons or mini-hcs of the m6 with a malfetto mc? a malfetto (according to The Young Elites book trilogy) is a person who has been afflicted by a deadly plague called the blood fever. mc is a survivor of the plague but they have strange markings on their skin or their eye/hair color changed from their original one. these markings made malfettos to be believed as cursed children because the people thought they were unnatural abominations sent by the gods. because people are evil, they often persecute malfettos and burn them at the stakes, stone them to death, and more execution methods. a malfetto is also gifted with supernatural abilities (fire manipulation, sensing of energies/emotions, teleportation, night vision, etc.), which makes them more scarier in the eyes of people.

i'm sorry if this is too long! but hopefully (if luck is by my side today) you will be able to write some hcs or mini-hcs about this. thank you! :)

The Arcana Mini-HCs: MC is a Malfetto

~ I have no idea what this book trilogy is, so please forgive me if I got the concept wrong! Hope you enjoy these! ^.^ ~

Julian: strongly values your ties to your humanity and, if it's something you want, will dedicate his life to reversing the effects of the blood fever so you can have a normal life. never judges you either way, and is always quick to remind you that you loves you for you

Asra: always happy to use their magical expertise to help you work with your supernatural abilities. they're well-versed in glamour spells to help you move around, but would ultimately love to travel with you until you find a community where you can safely live as yourself

Nadia: admires the survivor's strength you have and wants to empower you to use your abilities for good, while she uses her position as a social leader to effect change on the stigma around malfettos. deeply proud to be seen as your partner in public

Muriel: also knows what it's like to be feared and cast out for his appearance and physical abilities. shares common ground with your experience and is happy to give you a life of peace in the woods with him. fiercely protective of your safety and emotional well being

Portia: genuinely thinks that you are the coolest person alive. you survived a terrible illness, got awesome powers because of it, and a free makeover? she never discounts your suffering, but she wants people to see you as she does and will build a community around you

Lucio: he's not going to lie, he was harboring his own bias against you at first until you were able to prove him wrong. now he uses his own learning experience to challenge other people's assumptions. he'd be lying if he said he never brags about your abilities, though ...

[bakuliwrites]

M6 Proposing to MC

Hi everyone! So I decided I would repost some of my favorite headcanons from my old blog. Sorry if you've seen these already, but I just wanted to have them up on my Tumblr (in addition to where they are on AO3). Just as a heads up: I do not take requests. Hope you enjoy :) As with all my headcanons: Apprentice/MC is gender-neutral unless otherwise specified. This isn't new content, just organizing my new blog and transferring stuff from my old one. This will be part of headcanon Tuesday on my blog.

You and Asra have been together for a long time now, long enough where people just sort of assume you're already married. You live together, you run your shop together, you travel together, and so on. Nothing has really been stopping you, it's just that the two of you have been so busy these last few years. Asra really wants to make it official with you, though. You're the absolute love of his life. He hardly remembers a time before you. You've been on a great many journeys together, but he wants to go on even more. So he starts planning...

One evening, when you close up shop, Asra tells you he has a special surprise waiting for you. He's got that mischievous glint in his eye that he always gets when he's up to something. You can't help but laugh as Asra instructs you to wear something that you'd wear to the beach ("Like a swimsuit?" you ask, skeptically. The smirk on Asra's face grows wider and he shrugs, "I don't know. Whatever you wear to the beach." So helpful, Asra)

Asra guides you down to the shoreline, but doesn't stop there. He keeps going until you get to this secluded little cove. From here, you can see the far off lights of Vesuvia twinkling under a dark, velvet sky. Asra lets you pause to take in the view before beckoning you to follow him again. He leads you into a small cave, pitch black at its entrance. You're about to ask him where on earth he's leading you when all of a sudden you're met with bursts of magic like tiny fireworks and glowing mist swirling gently above and around you. Asra smiles softly at you, that impish glint growing brighter with each step you take.

The cave leads out to a small alcove that opens up onto the water. It's absolutely gorgeous. It's like you can see the whole ocean from here. It's here that Asra sets up a small picnic for you, filled with all your favorite foods and desserts and drinks! "MC, will you lay out the blanket for me? I have to grab something from the basket," he asks. You don't think much of it, though there's something a bit strange in his voice. When you're finished with your task, you whirl around and there's Asra, on one knee, holding out a beautiful, bohemian style ring. "MC, you have my heart, and always will. We've been on all kinds of journeys together. But I want to go on even more with you. I wanted to know if you'd like to share all of life's many adventures with me?" His voice is calm but his hands are shaking. And when you say yes, happy tears stream down his face. He slips the ring on your finger before crashing his lips into yours. Asra is utterly delighted💜

Nadia has been a bit wary of marriage since her first one turned out so poorly. But with you, everything's different. She's ecstatic, actually, to marry you and has been planning her proposal for basically an eternity now. She wants it to go just right. She has checklists, plans, spreadsheets, and so on for this proposal (none that you're privy to, she keeps them very well hidden). She almost had a heart attack one day when you walked into her office while she was working out some bugs in her plans (though she kept her cool so well, you didn't even notice).

The day she's planning to propose to you, however, everything goes wrong. The florist brings the wrong flowers (Nadia had specifically asked for orchids, but they brought white roses and she shudders, thinking of Lucio). All of the musicians she had in her string quartet canceled, except for the bassist (she sighs, supposing you could have a good background beat when she proclaims her undying love for you). And to top it all off, it's pouring rain (she was planning on proposing out on the veranda, under the pinks and oranges of a beautiful sunset, but alas). She's not upset, just extremely disappointed. All that planning and for what? No matter, she'll simply have to switch gears, she tells herself calmly (but she is anything but calm).

She sends everybody home (florist, bassist, caterers, and so on). When you enter the palace, you're practically drenched from your walk from your shop. Nadia is waiting for you, prepared with a towel and warm tea (or cocoa, whatever you prefer). She directs you to one of the many fireplaces and sits you down on a chaise lounge. You beg her to come snuggle up beside you, excited to have her all to yourself that evening, but she simply stands before you, fidgety and anxious looking. She's acting strangely, her crimson eyes hardly able to make contact with you. "Nadia, what's wrong?" you venture, and all of a sudden, Nadia freezes like she's just seen a ghost. You've never seen her this worked up before. It's quite alarming, actually!

You open your mouth to say something more, worry furrowing your brows, when all of a sudden, Nadia takes a deep breath. She kneels down to the ground in front of you and takes both your hands in hers. Her air of calm returns and soothes you out of your initial concern. "MC," she begins in her dulcet tone, "I'd planned out this- elaborate evening for us and, of course, I was thwarted," she laughs a little, her smile crinkling the corner of her eyes, "It's a long story, but suffice to say, just having you here, snuggling up by the fire together- well, I'd say that's a pretty perfect evening, in and of itself. So I'll take this perfect moment to ask you..." She pulls something out from the pocket of her dress. It's a square, velvet box that she opens, revealing an elegant, sparkling ring. "MC, will you marry me?" She holds her breath, watching your stunned face as you go through a thousand different emotions at once (all of them good). When you say yes, she exhales, tears falling gently down her cheeks as she slips the ring on your finger and presses her lips tenderly to yours 💜

Julian (oh, Julian). He's probably been carrying a ring around in his pocket for months now, waiting for the right time to propose to you, but too nervous to do it. You fluster him like no one else does. Every time he thinks he's found the right moment, a little seed of worry stops him (what if you say no? what if you say absolutely no? what if you just look at him like he's crazy and say nothing? what if he drops the ring???). Literally nothing is stopping him, except his own anxiety about how he thinks you could potentially maybe possibly react.

The two of you are wandering the streets of Vesuvia one afternoon, hopping from market to market, looking for some ingredients. There's nothing really special about today, but when Julian looks at you, he feels his heart just swell with adoration. This was the day, he thinks. The time is right. But he wants to do it somewhere a little more private, a little less hectic. So Julian directs you to that garden the two of you once hid from the guards in. "What are we doing here?" you question, raising a perplexed eyebrow at him. He merely smirks, waggling his eyebrows in return, "You'll see." He tells you there's something interesting about one of the statues and directs you to take a look at it. You acquiesce, with a bit of hesitance, but Julian is Julian, so him acting sort of weird like this isn't that much of a surprise. It's obviously all a ploy so he can distract you while he pulls out the ring.

So, of course, now that it's the right moment and Julian feels a swell of confidence, he realizes, Good God, I've lost the ring. He could've sworn it was in his coat pocket. Like, it was there yesterday, wasn't it? He's frantically patting himself down, feeling every inch of his coat, his pants. He even looks in his boots. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Did it fall out last night at the Rowdy Raven? Was he pickpocketed? Was there a hole in his pocket? What on earth was he to do now that he didn't have the ring? He whirls around, looking frantically for something circular he might be able to use as a replacement until he finds it again. And then he wonders if he should just hold off?

"Hey, Julian, honey," your voice pipes up from behind him, startling the poor man out of his thoughts. He's even more alarmed (and embarrassed) when he turns around and sees you holding up the little black box that was storing your ring. "I think you dropped this," you say, trying everything in your power to not burst into giggles, "It was on the ground right in front of you." Of course it was. You hand the box over to Julian and with a small smile add, "I'll pretend I didn't see it." You give him a small peck on the cheek before turning back to the statue he'd directed you to. Loudly and overenthusiastically, you exclaim how interesting the statue is, allowing Julian to pull himself together. With a renewed wave of confidence, Julian kneels to the ground. "MC?" he begins, gaining your attention again. You whirl around, a knowing smile tugging at your lips as you’re greeted by Julian's blushing face. "I know I've rightly fumbled this proposal," he laughs, his eyes already glimmering with tears, "But you've turned this salty old dog into a bumbling, flustered, happy mess. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Would you be the captain to my first mate?" You burst out laughing, and Julian's heart stops in his chest. "Of course!" you cry, practically throwing yourself into his arms. His worry is quickly forgotten as he slips a timeless, antique ring on your finger and captures your lips in his 💜

Portia is quite good at keeping secrets, so while the two of you have discussed getting married, she absolutely does not let on about her plans of proposing to you. You are totally in the dark about them, much to her delight. She has the perfect thing planned for the two of you! She goes out shopping for everything she needs for a romantic dinner at her cottage. She even manages to subtly find out from you what kind of ring you'd want. The night before she plans to propose to you, she's so giddy, she can hardly sleep!

The next morning, she lets you sleep for however long you need to (but not too late, she's got a schedule to keep to!). Once you've gotten ready for the day, Portia takes you out to go on an adventure! Since you both have the day off, it's time to do some exploring. She won't tell you where you're going, though. "You'll just have to trust me!" she winks, taking your hand in hers and bounding off towards town. The two of you start in the markets, where you first met. Portia describes to you how positively adorable she thought you were on your first meeting. She'd spilled all those pomegranates everywhere, but you were so kind to help her pick them all up! She was taken with you immediately.

Portia takes you on an entire tour of Vesuvia, stopping at all the places that are significant to you, and even places you just pass every day that you hadn't even realized carried so much meaning. With each stop, she describes something important about your relationship with her. "It was here that we had our first kiss, and there that we first danced. Oh! And here's where that guy tried to pickpocket you-" But you cut in to finish the story, bubbling with laughter, "And you started threateningly waving that basket at him! The look on his face! He was so scared of you, Portia." The two of you double over with laughter. Once you calm down, you start walking back to Portia's cottage. "Why are you doing all of this today?" you question, smiling gently and feeling a bit confused. Portia shrugs, cryptically responding with, "Just feeling a bit nostalgic, I guess."

The sky is bright with the colors of the sunset when you finally return to the cottage. As you're about to enter, Portia whirls around and exclaims, "Oh! Can you grab one of those yellow squash from the garden? I need it for our dinner tonight!" You head back towards the garden, not even an inkling of suspicion in your mind. You spot the best looking, ripest squash in the bunch and start to tug and twist at its stem when you notice something glinting on one of the curly vines shooting off of it. It's a ring, you realize as you pick it up, and quite a lovely looking one, too! It's bright and colorful. You turn to call to Portia, wanting to share your discovery with her, but when you whirl around, she's already kneeling before you, a bright beam on her face. She giggles at your flabbergasted look and says, "MC, this is where I want us to make our home. Well, our home we can come back to in between adventuring. But I've also realized that no matter where we go, I think I've found my home in you. Would you do me the honor of being my adventure companion, for life?" Before you can even say anything, Portia knows your answer by the way your eyes light up, but she waits for you to say it anyway. When you're finally able to speak, Portia slips the ring on your finger before pulling you into a tight embrace, pressing her lips fervently against yours 💜

Muriel wants to marry you so badly, but he's so worried about what you would say if he proposed to you. Do you even want to marry him? Is that something you've even thought about? Is that something you could even comprehend with him? He works himself up into an anxious mess, but he doesn't show it. But you've helped him discover how to be kinder to himself, to be more confident. He loves you with all of his heart and wants to spend the rest of his life making you happy.

Muriel sets to work immediately. He doesn't have any grand plans for your proposal, but only because he knows you'd each want something quiet. His first order of business is the ring. He decides he's going to craft it himself. Secretly, he gathers all his materials and works during times that you're out of the house. If he doesn't know how to shape metal or set a stone into a ring, he learns. He'll spend the rest of his life, learning and growing with you, and he's delighted. After he finishes the ring (and he's sure that it's absolutely perfect), he starts to practice what it is he's going to say. He sits in front of Inanna and goes through a variety of speeches he's worked out in his head. But absolutely none of them seem right. He fumbles over the words, starts to feel emotional when he delves into the intricacies of his love for you (why can't he stop crying when he talks about how grateful he is to have met you? how is he even going to propose at this rate?!).

Finally, Muriel settles on writing it down. He drafts a short, but sweet little proposal and rolls it up. He keeps it hidden somewhere you won't go looking and waits for the right opportunity to bring it out. Now there's the question of when he's going to propose. He wants the timing to be just right. But what would "just right" be? He could cook you a nice dinner and propose when you return from the shop one day. He could hide the ring in the chicken feed and wait for you to discover it while you're helping him feed them (but then there was the risk of accidentally feeding a chicken the ring, and the thought spooks him). Brainstorming practically keeps him up all night. And absolutely nothing he comes up with seems right.

The next morning, Muriel rises before you do. He's hardly slept, but he simply can't stay in bed any longer. The anxiety he's getting from trying to come up with the perfect proposal is just too much. He sits down at your breakfast table and sips at a mug of that lemon tea you bought him a few weeks ago. It's warm and citrusy and comforting. As he mulls over even more possibilities, he gazes across the room at your slumbering form. You look so peaceful and calm. He feels a swell of adoration for you, and suddenly, an idea occurs to him. He quietly calls Inanna over to him and enacts his plan. As the sun starts to stream through the windows of the hut, you groggily stretch and open your eyes. The first thing you see is Inanna padding over to the bed, carrying something gently in her mouth. "Good morning, Inanna. What's that you've got there?" you begin sleepily, reaching for whatever it is she has. It's a little wooden box with a small scroll attached to it. Curious, you unroll the piece of paper first. In Muriel's messy handwriting is written, "MC, you've shown me how to love myself. I hope to be able to show you how much I love you, too. For the rest of my life, I promise to cherish you. Will you marry me?" Speechless, you open up the wooden box. Inside is an intricately carved ring with a raw emerald in the center. You look up to see Muriel striding towards the bed, a blush spreading across his cheeks. You toss aside the covers and throw your arms around him. "Yes, Muriel! Yes!" you cry, happy tears streaming down both your face and his. He pulls you into a warm embrace and presses his lips tenderly to yours 💜

Lucio is incapable of keeping a secret, so you pretty much know that he's going to propose to you pretty soon. You've heard him (loudly) discussing it with his friends and attendants, trying to plan out the perfect day. You don't really hear the details, but you definitely know it's coming. Lucio is beside himself with glee during the planning process. He has so many ideas, it's actually hard for him to settle on just one.

First order of business is the ring, but he's pretty much got that covered right away. He's had it custom made and it's as elaborate and glamorous as possible. There's no way he's letting your elegant hands be tarnished by anything less than the best. Second order of business: the flowers. Your favorites, of course, and then a plethora of white roses. He wants bouquets upon bouquets. You have to be surrounded by flowers, wherever it is that he ends up proposing to you. Then there's the venue. The palace gardens? A yacht party? A masquerade ball? There are so many brilliant possibilities, can't he just do all of them? Lucio, after some talking down from some of the other M6, settles on the finest restaurant in Vesuvia (but he has some extra surprises in the day for you). He scores you the best seats in the house and makes all kinds of special requests for the menu.

The day of the proposal, you're awoken with breakfast in bed, and your first set of bouquets. Lucio is ecstatic, practically bouncing off the walls. He promises you a day of luxury and non-stop fun! It's all a bit overwhelming, but you can tell Lucio put a lot of work into trying to plan something elaborate and romantic for the two of you. There's a carriage ride around Vesuvia (with more flowers), a couples massage/spa day before a light lunch (and even more flowers), a hot air balloon ride in the evening (and even more flowers, did Lucio just massacre an entire field of flowers?). All the while, Lucio makes sure to tell you all the things he finds adorable about you and all the things he loves. "MC, I think you and I are the greatest couple in Vesuvia. No, this side of the continent. No! The whole entire world," he proclaims as you look out over the sprawling streets of the city from where you hover above in your hot air balloon. You simply laugh at all of his grandiose claims, laughs that Lucio silences with sneaky kisses.

Upon landing, you set out for your dinner. He really did score not only the most expensive and exclusive restaurant in Vesuvia, but the best seats in the house. You're seated on the balcony, overlooking the water below. The breeze is lovely and the sky is twinkling with starlight. Lucio has made arrangements for your meal already. They come in tiny tasting portions, but there's plenty of food so there's no need to worry about not getting enough. Over dessert, Lucio holds your hand, entwining his fingers with yours and staring rather impishly into your eyes. He wears a mischievous smirk and you have a feeling you know what's coming. So when the champagne arrives and you spot something glinting at the bottom of your glass, you're not surprised. But you are absolutely delighted. Lucio fishes the ring out for you (he struggles a bit trying to get the prongs of a fork to hook around the metal, but he manages). He looks confident, but his hands are trembling as he kneels down in front of you. "MC, I really mean it when I say I think we're the greatest couple in the world," he begins, smiling brightly up at you, his pale eyes twinkling, "Together, I think we can take it by storm. They won't know what hit 'em! Want to make us The official power couple of Vesuvia? No, the whole world!" His proposal is utterly ridiculous, so you can't help but laugh. "Yes, Lucio. Just promise me you don't actually have any plans of world domination," you laugh as Lucio slips the huge, sparkling ring on your finger. He shrugs, winking at you before lifting you up and twirling you around in his delight. He embraces you tightly and passionately ensnares your lips in his 💜

Bonus points if Lucio takes a swig out of the wrong glass and nearly chokes on the ring (because that is something he would totally do).

[realistically-shifting]

🛶 do you have any DRs that are NOT based on fictional worlds or some type of fame DR or waiting room?

💍 are you married in any of your DRs?

🫶 who is your favorite person in your DR that is NOT an S/O?

🐶 do you have any pets in your DR?

🛶: I do! I’m copy-pasting from another post, but I have a DR where I’m part of a nonbinary idol group called ‘N.B’. The group has five members, ranging in age from 21 to 30, and all of us typically present neutrally but we fluctuate between feminine and masculine too. The five of us work with smaller artists to develop our albums, plus each member has an album dedicated to their personal music preference mixed with pop. We’re globally popular across age groups and genders, and we probably have fan blogs dedicated to the femme and masc versions of ourselves. I haven’t even finished the script yet, but I’m excited. I wonder what this will do for my fear of publicly dancing/singing in my CR.

💍: Generally speaking, I have S/Os that I intend to marry, but I haven’t experienced it yet. That won’t stop me from taking this chance to talk about them though!

In my zombie apocalypse DR, Orion, I originally had 12 wives (and Remus is our husband). I’m not sure if I should add them back to my script atm. I didn’t include all the faceclaims because I don’t remember the t.o.s and I don’t want to be flagged, but-

Carina is a botanist and gardener who takes care of our current greenhouse. She somehow manages to spoil Hana more than I do, and almost all the rest of us spoil Carina too.

Daphne is a MMA trainer with a passion for picking fights with the Helvigs. Felix falls for her taunts quite easily. She keeps all of us in shape and all of us have to be trained by her.

Ivy is a mechanical-electrical engineer and was actually my girlfriend in college before we were separated, thought each other dead, and I met Remus. We were in a band together in college, we both love mechanical-electrical engineering and music.

Circe was a lawyer before the apocalypse, now she’s taking this free time to study more branches of law while we go over what the new society should look like.

Aaliyah is an investigative journalist and radio personality, she also has a radio show. She set it up after the apocalypse, since she had nothing else to lose anyway.

Sylvie is an assassin. Is, not was. But since we don’t really have people we want assassinated, she’s basically retired. When she’s not training or helping Daphne train us, she’s lounging. She can be really intense with her eye contact, but I love that about her.

Valentina was a logistician that’s currently helping to handle our supply distribution. She and her twin brother are typically fighting, but he lives with us because they’re inseparable after what happened during the apocalypse.

Lucia was an architect, now she’s using her education and skills for some urban planning. She loves having something to sip on (as an oral stim, not alcoholism), so she often has a glass in her hand. She’s super giggly and she’s tied with Carina for most spoiled because we can’t seem to help it.

Nadia’s educated and trained as an ethicist, but she prefers beekeeping. Hana prefers it too, since the honeycomb from Nadia’s hives are perfect for her sweet tooth. When she’s smoking, her personality completely flips and she loosens up.

Adele is a general surgeon that would love to not be working, but the Helvigs like putting her to work. Even with super healing, we still need things taken out, aligned, etc.

Jade was a psychologist. She was working towards her own private practice before the apocalypse, now she has her hands full with us. But she’s considering training people to be counselors to take on some of the work.

Yasmin is a political historian that was working as an archivist, books and research are part of her special interests. She’s super easy to get gifts for, since she loves old books and the apocalypse happened and everything.

Other than them, I don’t have solid plans to marry in most of my other DRs. My only other husband would be…

🫶: HANA To be honest? My CR little sister who shows up in about half of my scripts as my little sister. If not her, then Juliet Starling, who is my opposite aesthetic best friend in my Lollipop Chainsaw DR.

🐶: Yeah! Not many, though. In several witch DRs, I have a white Burmese Python named Velvet. She’s just a baby and she’s the sweetest thing. She’s my familiar, so she helps me with my magic, protects me, and we have a psychic connection that allows us to communicate. This is what she looks like at only four months.

I also have a Bernese Mountain dog named Titan. Technically, he used to be Remus’ trained dog, but the hard truth is that he just likes us better lol

Thanks for asking!

[malka-lisitsa]

hc + for a love themed headcanon

Its no secret that love is Katherine's entire driving force and I have talked about Katherine's relationship with love very often on this blog.

So this time I'm going to talk about a different kind of love that Katherine struggles with.

The love of her daughter Nadia.

Nadia as a person is closed off and abrasive (much like her mother but some how worse?) and I just talked about how Katherine tends to mirror the treatment she's given- but despite that, Katherine does try to keep a better handle on that because Nadia is her daughter.

The biggest problem between the two is the large gap in communication. Nadia has an idea of who her mother should be, and Katherine often doesn't fit that. Katherine is a trauma locked 17 year old girl who more often than not- acts like a 17 year old girl. So Nadia is constantly disappointed because her mother isn't much of a mother to her.

And that outward disappointment causes Katherine to struggle seeing what Nadia really wants from her.... which is to feel wanted and loved.

What Nadia doesn't see because she's caught up in how a mother should act verses... well how hers does....

is that Katherine DOES love her and ALWAYS HAS- but she BURIED her daughter when she thought she was unreachable forever. Katherine made peace with Nadia being dead five hundred years ago, and to learn that she wasn't flipped her whole world upside down.

Katherine by nature is a very VERY emotional creature and she doesn't always express herself well. She struggles with words and how to use them, she speaks largely through actions- but its a language most people don't understand.

So while Katherine is showing Nadia she loves her through actions Nadia can't read, it looks like Katherine doesn't care. She does. A lot. She also has no idea how to be a mother, and she struggles with even accepting the title because she knows she's largely unfit as a person for the job. Which is a show of love in itself- because she's accepting a huge flaw about herself and coming to the conclusion that her daughter deserves better.

Which leads us to Katherine struggling with believing Nadia loves her too- because WHY would she? Katherine is caught up in being a disappointment and seeing it on Nadia's face constantly that she doesn't believe Nadia loves her because how do you love someone that's a constant disappointment? Katherine's parents didn't.

Romantic love is Katherine's entire driving force, its what she lives for, it's what's kept her going for her entire life- but despite being a creature of pure love and emotions Katherine greatly struggles with showing and ACCEPTING any kind of love in a different form. Because her love map was fucked up so badly as a kid- she believes herself largely unworthy of most love but especially the kinds that are not romantic.

Despite her short comings, despite her trust issues, and her damage...

Katherine loves Nadia with her whole heart.

@touchedbydestiny

[theintrovertbean]

Do you think MC ever got their memories back?? Like is it like when mc found out they died and came back to life or did they just never got it back??? I have been thinking about this tbh

I can't really speak about the other LI's so now I'm gonna stick to Nadia's (and since the entire blog is dedicated to our goddess Countess, I assume you're more interested in her).

Honestly, I think it depends on the ending.

In the upright ending, MC doesn't care that much about the past and just wants to live in the present with Nadia (I really can't blame them because who wouldn't want to leave their entire life behind to get smashed by the Countess?) Without performing any spells that could help, I don't think that there's a way for MC to naturally get back their memories. They don't have any memories at all, so there's nothing they could grasp onto like Nadia did. While Nadia forgot her time in Vesuvia, she still had a past that she could hold onto. She still knew who she was and where she came from. MC had nothing. Without anything to grasp, there is nothing for MC that could give them little hints. Asra could tell them stuff, but if none of it rings a bell, then it's a lost cause.

However, in the reversed ending, I can imagine Nadia using her devil powers to make a deal with MC. In exchange for getting their memories back, MC would be bound to Nadia forever. And that's kinda hot

Thanks for the ask!

[consul-valerius]

The top two contestants for “worst taste in Vesuvia”

Idhfgfdihg BUT in reality I have been having a lot of Damien-Verse Thots, specifically about Naima and Antony, so I used all my remaining brain cells to finally complete some headshots for them :’) For further context for those that miss my sporadic shouting on my main blog LOL:

Naima (she/they) is (obviously) the accidental but surprisingly welcomed daughter of Nadia and Julian, and she is one of Damien’s top love interests (even if she doesn’t realize this herself lmfao)

She is an extremely serious person to an almost comical extent; her main aspirations in life revolve around eventually becoming countess and pushing the changes her parents have began instituting to even larger heights.

With that though, she is also a very insecure person, particularly when it comes to her ability to make friendships. She feels extremely inadequate in comparison to Julian and Nadia, which can often cloud her judgement and lead to self-isolation (apple -> tree)

She has had a life-long crush on Damien, but particularly when they were children, she got swept up in how others treated him. She feels partially responsible for his disappearance, and so by default she now feels extremely protective of him but has difficulty showing it

On the flip side we have Antony (he/him): a farm-hand on one of Valerius’s family’s vineyards and is top choice number 2 for stealing Damien’s heart lol

Unlike Naima, Antony did not have a close relationship with Damien when they were children. However, he was very much head over heels for him when they first met as children and he never got over it

He is much more confident in himself when compared to Naima, particularly when it comes to his relationships with others. He has a close pack of friends that he wishes Damien would interact with more; they’re all queer, kinky, and share a collective brain cell lmfao

Many assume Antony is a hard person based on his style (renaissance punk boy LMAO), but really he has a heart of gold and cares deeply for the underdog. He is willing to wait as long as he needs to for Damien to fully embrace being in his own skin, and in an ideal world, settling down together :’)

Some more rapid fire thoughts and facts undercut✨

Naima is trans & ace and primarily enjoys kink as a means of letting loose and building more secure dynamics between herself and Damien; despite many suitors trying to woo her, she truly only has eyes for Damien and would rather remain unmarried than marry some earl she has no interest in (this is partially because of Nadia and her flub with Lucio lmfao)

Antony is trans, queer & poly like all my other OCs LMFAO he has the most relationship experience out of all three of them and it shows

Antony would be considered a bard, though he has no formal magic training. He and Donna have a very special relationship because of this; whenever they are together, Donna tries to teach him something new. Donna obviously has a soft spot for Antony and is very torn between wanting him and Damien to just shut up and get together, but they are VERY aware that Damien is just. Not ready for that & Antony deserves the world lmfao

On the flip, Naima and Valerius are quite close, particularly when he steps down as consul. He thinks that she is, in every way, the perfect suitor for Damien for personal and political reasons (LMAO), and oddly enough, Nadia can’t help but agree. particularly when Damien was still “missing,” Naima enjoyed just having silent time sharing a space with Valerius or listen to him and Nadia talk and talk and talk lol

When Damien disappeared, Naima spent a year living with Nasrin and Namar in Prakra for safety reasons—no one was sure if this was a targeted attack, and despite how painful it was, Nadia knew she would be best protected there than in Vesuvia. This was a very fundamental time for Naima, and because of it, she was extremely close to her grandparents (yes, this has given Nadia and even stranger complex lmfao)

IN TERMS OF EACH OTHER, Antony thinks that Naima is literally a princess and should be protected at all costs. She is too good for this world to him lmfao In the rare times where their paths cross, he has an uncanny ability of getting her out of her shell (it’s the autism to autism communication LMFAO) Naima, of course, is both in awe of Antony and feels very insecure around him. He is confounding to her, and she wishes that they were closer, she just isn’t sure how she would even go about it LMAO

In terms of how Damien views them, he is much more open about his feelings with Antony than he is with Naima. Antony was a lot of Damien’s firsts, and he is truly one of the only people who really make Damien feel beautiful and safe. However, he is deeply frightened by this too, especially when it comes to how Valdemar would react to their bond. He’s terrified of getting too close only for them to, well, get in the way in the way that Valdemar does best :x

With Naima, Damien thinks that he is in control of their relationship and his feelings for her but isn’t LOL he also had a childhood crush on her, even when she would join in with the others and bully him. Her cruelty hurt him the most, and in many ways he treats her so poorly to “get back” at her. However, this is pretty self-defeating as he winds up just feeling very guilty and self-loathing about it LMFAO

In summary, they are all a mess and are bursting with love and none of them know what to do with it LMFAO :’)

[hermitsmirror]

Deck interview: Bee Tarot

With the arrival of spring, it seemed fitting to bring a deck interview for the Bee Tarot into being (bee-ing, har har). The Bee Tarot, illustrated by Nadia Turner with a thick guidebook by Kristoffer Hughes, is one of the new decks being published by Llewellyn Worldwide, my own publisher for the Seaborn Kipper, and I asked if I could have a copy of it when I saw it. In exchange, I would show it off. So to be transparent, this is a ”review copy” of the deck, but it wasn’t foisted upon me, and this is a deck interview, not a full review per se (but if you have questions about it, let me know or read more about it on Llewellyn’s site—one of the surprising features is that it’s a linen texture). I just thought it looked fun and appropriate to my own interest in the intersection of nature magic and divination. I also just really like the idea of apiaries (Robbing the Bees: A Biography of Honey by Holley Bishop is one of the few nonfiction books I would consider reading a second time) and the concept of bees for spiritual work and community.

As it happens, the deck has a tie to Druidic traditions, which may or may not be important to readers. I’m certainly not well-versed enough in that tradition to know how successfully or meaningfully it brings in the Druid element, although I did have the good fortune to interview a prominent Druid author when I was in college (decades ago now), so I probably should know more than I remember.

But to get back to the Bee Tarot, I love how this deck interview builds off of my deck interview with the Apothecary Spirits Oracle and continues the story of reconnecting with a love for life and community, more or less starting with a journey of just being present. It really has me thinking about the Elder Futhark rune wunjo and that concept of joy that could only be found through harmonious community engagement, even as recently as a few centuries ago. You wouldn’t survive if you tried to do it all alone. Why should we not lean into that reminder of communal joy now?

As always now, I used my own deck interview spread, which you can find explained on my blog.

What major lesson are you here to help me learn? 3 of Jars

Through which divine energy can we best communicate? 6 of Wands (reversed)

In what area can you aid me to help others? Queen of Swords (reversed)

In what area could your guidance be easily misunderstood? 10 of Wands

What can I do to keep our communication clear? Queen of Jars

How can I use your guidance for the highest good? 5 of Swords (reversed)

How will I know when we’re ready for a new lesson? 6 of Pentacles

I’ll get to the first card in a minute, but I want to discuss the second card first because the reversed 6 of Wands in that second position takes on a different meaning than I would normally consider for it. In the context of the rest of the spread, the reversed 6 feels like a stark reminder of the importance of humility in spiritual work, especially with the community-oriented and interdependent concepts behind the deck. If nothing else, bees are part of a collective. Yes, there’s a queen bee, and there are distinct roles within the dance of the actual living, breathing bees, but the archetype of the bee is one of community orientation and soul work in line with serving one’s role in a bigger picture, not serving your own whims. That feels important here with the reversed 6 of Wands. I would normally associate that reversal with arrogance or pride—and yes, that’s still relevant—but in answer to the second question, it feels softer. It feels less like chastisement and more like a reminder to let oneself recede into the background. It’s a softer energy in this position of divine energy. Surrender and celebrate alongside in humility, rather than being the central heroic figure.

This of course relates to the lesson that this deck is helping me work through, the fun and celebration that comes with a close community of likeminded souls. The 3 of Jars (Cups) is that quintessential celebratory card, but as I mentioned in the office hours for my spring semester of courses not too long ago, it’s distinct from the 6 of Wands or 4 of Wands in that the celebration is through water instead of fire, a merging and blending of hearts, an expansion of the emotions and of meaningful connections. It’s a softer form of fun. Perhaps the idea of “softer” is what the bees of the Bee Tarot are offering more broadly. Honey is amelioration (and amelioration is literally the adding of honey, the sweetening of things).

This connection ties in with the 5 of Swords in reverse, a laying down of weapons (or arguments) and the blunting of the too-sharp swords. And of course it all fits beautifully with that generous spirit of interdependence and care for the collective seen in the 6 of Pentacles, the final card of the spread.

The Queen of Jars (Cups) also lends a soothing element in the fifth position to the overworking sting of the 10 of Wands. The 10 is such a burnt out card for the busy bee, hot and tired, in need of a little water and rest. That combination of the fourth and fifth cards is a nice reminder that one’s collective soul work, at least as explored with this deck, may be work, but it’s not burdensome. Returning to that first card, the 3 of Jars, it’s important that it’s not the 3 of Pentacles or Wands, cards of communal work and effortful building. If I find myself coming to this deck for tasks (for me or others), the Queen sits ready to redirect you toward the bigger picture. In her role as clarifier to the 10 of Wands, she offers the soothing and supportive effects of seeing easier flow and finding one’s place. Don’t try so hard. There is no spiritual grind, just ego pushing a path forward, wreaking havoc with the tapestry. Sure, you can do that sometimes, but why? Surrender and find that sweet nectar of life in whatever it is you do.

Sometimes readings can feel too coherent, as if the reader has forced redundancy into the cards, but that blending and layering of sticky meanings again seems right for the Bee Tarot. And it’s not quite a seamless match of hexagonal compartments.

The Queen of Swords in reverse poses an odd problem here. How is she helping me understand how I might be helping others? I’ve learned from  a couple years teaching Awaken the Court Cards that the Queen of Swords can be much more accommodating than people assume. Students who embody the Queen of Swords (Water of Air) recognize the flow more often attributed to the Queen of Cups, but it’s funneled or honed like a sword’s point or edge. It’s there, but it’s focused. In this third position, the Queen of Swords in reverse seems to hint at the Queen of Jars in the fifth: she’s inviting me to work with those who have felt the pull or the currents of their soul—a calling, as it were—but who haven’t figured out how to refine that and focus that into something specific.

Combined with the warning to not overwork things in the 10 of Wands, it seems like an invitation to those who find themselves in the problem of the embodied soul who knows what they’re supposed to do “for the collective” in some way, but perhaps they’ve overworked it and limited soul work to spiritual industry work. That’s an important and thankfully growing population—I say “thankfully” because more people are recognizing the importance of doing meaningful soul work. There is pain in trying to force soul work into the limitations of spiritual industry work given our current economic environment. We can all be doing soul-centered things without being full-time energy healers or overworked tarot readers. Teach, volunteer, celebrate, and love as you do whatever you do. Bring spirit and nature and harmony into your world in whatever way you can, small or large. That’s the dream of a mindful and soul-centered collective.

And that helps me better understand the role of the reversed 5 of Swords in the sixth spot: we don’t all need to be competing with each other all the time. Yes, there are market forces that incentivize that. But why can’t we work in collaboration and mutual support? That journey awaits me still, I think, as promised by the 6 of Pentacles. But I suspect that it will find me sooner than later. Here’s hoping!

The Bee Tarot by Kristoffer Hughes and Nadia Turner is published by Llewellyn Worldwide, who publishes one of my one decks. The deck provided here was a gift from my publicist, but these insights about and experiences with the deck are my own.

[nat-of-personifs]

i dont normally send asks but i came across ur blog and you have some really cool ideas when it comes to personification stuff,, ur like one of the few other ppl ive found that actually includes polandball and countryhumans in personified fandom stuff so id love to hear ur ideas abt them!! as someone with a fascination with fandom history id be down to discuss stuff more with u if u wanna

uh *checks notes* I am going to assume you mean their dynamic/hcs about each!! I’ve never delved very deeply into Countryhumans fandom history/her dynamics with the others because. Controversy but I still do have lots of ideas about her. And she is *the* quintessential Canonless G(A) fandomspirit to me, probably because she’s the first one I was part of. You get into G(A) through Hetalia, Countryhumans, or Polandball mostly and they’re the faces of the whole place so,,, very well defined House triad here.

What I do say is CH is PB and Hetalia’s conceptual daughter (her premise is kind of both of theirs mashed together) but Hetalia and the other two are separated by the Canon-Canonless divide (and the fact that he has a husband) and thus don’t talk as much. (Which is funny because his two actual sons, Fandomstuck and Socialstuck, are both Canonless.) Also, he gets into Reality more often because he has more cosplayers. But their dynamic is more like older-younger sibling, they swing back and forth between working together well (sharing headcanons and Netizens) and actually beating each other up (raids). From what I’ve seen, and I’m mostly saying this from CH’s POV, he’s more likely to start it than she is.

Both of them are a little scared of each other, PB because he has a lot of overlap with her and is the closest to seeing inside of her brain (he’s read her writing before) and is uncomfortable around it, CH because she can never tell when PB is being sarcastic and when he actually means what he says. She usually assumes he’s being serious.

Also, fandomspirits don’t get as possessive of their people as much as OTJs do, which, considering the way they feed, is probably a good thing. So they don’t fight about who gets the food; they’re content, and CH even likes receiving less because it’s made her swings less severe.

I have no idea what’s going on with her right now because I can’t check her tag and no longer use Wattpad (her Wattpad room is way more active than her AO3 room from what I remember) for personal reasons, but is the Save the Countryhumans Fandom thing still happening?

Fun fact: she’s the second fandomspirit of Countryhumans. The first one was the Country Guardian, Nadia. She got thrown into temporary leave for killing another Guardian which she felt (feels) guilty about even with most of her memories wiped.

CH’s rooms in G(A) are vandalized to hell and back. She’s used to it.

What I meant about swings: she has periods of making shipping Whatever the Hell She Wants (btw in the personifverse G(A) is technically RPF) and then periods of feeling incredibly guilty about it.

Wikipedia, Britannica and JSTOR are her favorite places.

All of her spin-offs (Statehumans, Planethumans, social media humans (subordinate of Socialstuck in the twins’ journalism business)) live in her head but can manifest bodies at will. Planethumans is the most independent one.

She’s jealous of Centricide because they get to unironically ship Nazis and Communists without people yelling at them.

Actually she’s jealous of pretty much every other G(A) member.

Physically 14 because that’s what everyone sees her people as. Russian-Brazilian, I think? Russian definitely (VK). But no one knows exactly where she came from. Also Korean. Maybe. Everyone sees something different.

Oh!! Oh!! She’s thinking about sending ambassadors to Collab Horror (where SCP lives). I’m the result. I’ve been tasked with giving her another child :) I’m trying I know I don’t talk to her a lot anymore but I still love her

I know you came here half for PB but I don’t have many headcanons about him :( he is definitely the face G(A) would most like to show to the public, and really good at art (terrible at writing) except he can’t be bothered to try mostly. (I’ve been on some of his subreddits some of the pictures are pure eye candy)

I hope this doesn’t spark an argument because I don’t want this to be the third site I kick myself out of.

Sorry for taking a while to reply, I blame the Great Ira-Aaron Angstfest of 2023.

[bradshawsbaby]

I just wanted to tell you how grateful I am for you, you’ve been so kind and welcoming to me, taken the time to give me advice, and indulged every one of my asks, from my screaming about this amazing universe you’ve created, to the headcanons I’ve thrown at you, to all of my many, many, MANY, moodboard asks.

You are a saint for tolerating me, when I know that you could easily tell me to go away, which I would completely understand, given everything you’ve been through lately.

So I just wanted to share my heartfelt, sincere thanks for you, with you.

And I don’t even know what to call you 😂,!

(Maybe all of us followers ought to give you a callsign)

I also wanted to share one final headcanon with you, and give you some news.

The Headcanon: Jake has totally, at one point or another, shown up to work with either his nails painted, or with clips and barrettes in his hair, courtesy of Ellie, and Natasha has the evidence; the Dagger group chat did not let him live it down for MONTHS, and they occasionally whip out the photos for a good laugh.

The News: I wanted to tell you that my writing blog is up, and my first story will be posted probably within the next week or so—@the-authoress-writes, is the name, and I wanted to thank you for being instrumental in my decision to join the ranks of the tumblr writers like you!

So, in closing,

Thank you so, so, very much, and HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!!!

Sincerely,

Nadia of @oh-great-authoress

This is very sweet! 🥹 Thank you so much! 🫶🏻

I’m so happy that you feel welcome here, and I think it’s wonderful that you’re going to give sharing your writing a try!

Haha, I realize that my real name isn’t public on here. I’m a teacher, so I’m very used to keeping my personal details as private as possible on social media. I don’t really have an official nickname either, but I know people have told me that they mentally refer to me as BB or Mrs. B 😆

And I think that headcanon is adorable and totally accurate! Jake is a complete pushover when it comes to his baby girl!

[girlfounded]

i should’ve made this yesterday when i posted it on other blogs but i forgot. anyway, this blog has never generated a lot of traffic, which is a shame bc i just adore nadia with my whole heart. i don’t want to leave her, but it really hasn’t been worth putting my undivided attention here for the 2 people who want to interact with her. so i’m going to move nadia to a new multi i’ve finished making. any and all threads can be moved, reach out to me and it will be done. this blog isn’t going to be deleted or archived, it’s staying in case i ever need it but for the time being, nadia will be found here

[iliveforyouilongforyouvesuvia]

Hiya! Soo, I was wondering. My character has a cockatiel familiar with a kinda weird, controversial past- he was a gift from Lucio when my character was a child. Of course, they understand the politics behind Lucio now and how, yeah, it wasn't really a good idea to give a child an exotic bird. But nonetheless, he's their familiar. (My blog has a whole fic about it if you'd like to read 👀) But anyways, how are the M6 feeling about this? In general about a bird familiar, and with added context?

Hiya floof! ^.^

Your premise intrigued me so much I admit I clicked right over to your blog and read it XD

It's always fascinating to see how the way we interpret memories changes as our older brains have more context for the situations our younger brains perceived, and I thought you caught that wonderfully btw :)

I've already written a full set of headcanons for M6 meeting MC's familiar:

When MC shows up with a familiar

So here's some quick, shorter headcanons on how I think they'd react to yours!

Julian: initially, very impressed. He too has a bird familiar (though he doesn't realize that that's who Malak is until later) and he's exactly the sort to make jokes about birds of a feather sticking together. He's a little less enthusiastic for a bit when he hears the story behind how you came to own Bip, mostly out of concern that you as a young child were exposed to someone who was so dangerous at the time.

Asra: takes full advantage of the fact that cockatiels can imitate human sounds and has taught Bip all kinds of unusual things to say. Not curse words, no, just absolutely unhinged quotes that nobody expects to hear a bird saying. Depending on how close this is to canon, they either 1) knew before the plague and are already chill with it, or 2) found out at the same time you did and processed it with you.

Nadia: Quietly impressed that you own such an unusual bird and wants to compare notes with you on how you manage Bip vs how she manages Chandra. Might ask you for tips on how to communicate with her own bird better. She'll be very focused on soothing you when she finds out the history, because she finds her own past connection with Lucio agitating and wants to make sure that you're okay.

Muriel: Birds are nice. If a little loud, but give Inanna a second to warm up to Bip and he'll be too melted by their friendship to complain. If he messed with one of the shelves in his hut to make a better perch, no he didn't. He's less concerned with you meeting Lucio than he is with Bip living as one of Lucio's animals for a while, and will make sure the bird is properly treated and cared for with him.

Portia: Given Pepi's tumultuous relationship with Camio, another cockatiel who used to belong to the Count, she's a little jaded when she first meets your familiar until she can tell that they're not the same. It takes a while for her to let Pepi loose while you visit though. She's the least affected by Bip's background - she only arrived in Vesuvia after the plague had ended and the Count had died.

Lucio: Legitimately does not remember giving it to you at first, it was a long time ago and he's held lots of parties. It's hard for you to tell though, because he keeps complimenting your bird and has a strange fascination for it because it's exactly the kind of animal he would have collected at one point. Finally remembers after dreaming about it one night and wakes up in a cold sweat: "That was you!"

Cheers @hewwo-its-floof, hope you liked these!

brainrot

[xaharadesert]

Post-Route Nap - Headcanon

Arcana Characters (Main 6) x MC

A/N: I won’t lie, this is probably one of my all time favourite requests, so even though I can’t find the original request or blog,I felt the need to write it anyway :) I’ll keep them short and sweet though, so it shouldn’t take too much time before I move on to requests from people who are still waiting (but watch me make Asra’s section way longer than necessary anyway). The request pointed out that our poor MC hasn’t really had any time to rest, what with saving the world and everything, so when asked what they’d like to do after it’s all over, they respond with declaring they’re going to take a nap for at least, like, the next 48 hours. Requests are open! Please let me know if there are any spelling or grammar mistakes!

Spoilers for all routes, probably, but I never finished playing most of them so who knows

❤️Julian❤️

Frankly, he couldn’t agree more

He’s an adventurous man, for sure, but after everything that had happened, dying included, he was ready for a nice long rest with you by his side

He wanted to hold you close, wrapping his long limbs around you like an octopus, and just… sleep

And seeing as you wanted the same thing, the two of you did just that

🧡Portia🧡

Oh stars, yes, please, the two of you need to just… rest for once

Obviously Nadia delegated Portia’s work to some of the other staff for the time being, knowing that Portia and you needed some time to relax after, you know, saving the world

Not even Portia’s snoring would be able to keep you awake, and with Pepi curling up on your chest and purring like a little motor, you were asleep within minutes

💛Lucio💛

He would never admit it, but he was just as exhausted, if not more so, than you

Both physically and emotionally, he was ready to tune out from the rest of the world for quite a while

You would have to drag him to bed though, because as much as he’s grown, his pride is still something that he refuses to let go of even in the most ridiculous of circumstances

But having you laying beside him, the first person to genuinely stick by his side and help him improve even when he was being difficult, quickly helped him relax enough to set his ego aside and simply enjoy your company as he drifted off to sleep

💚Muriel💚

Honestly, he’d probably be the one to recommend it in the first place

Everything that has happened recently has been stressful for both of you, but considering he’s now had more social interaction in a very short period of time than he has in the last few years, he definitely needs to rest

Knowing that you’re safe and by his side does a lot to soothe any remaining anxiety from the disasters of days prior, and he’s able to set aside all of his new relationships and experiences into a separate part of his mind to sort through later

He feels loved, not just by you and Asra, but by all of the new friends he’s made, and he’s excited to move on to the rest of his life, but first… yeah, napping for a week sounds good

💙Asra💙

For someone who’s usually asleep for a majority of the day when he’s not travelling, Asra is surprisingly not as receptive to the idea of just immediately taking a nap

Is he tired? Yep. Does the idea of curling up in a comfortable bed with the love of his life for a couple of days sound amazing? Definitely.

But he’s got a million thoughts swirling around his mind, most revolving around you and your shared past, and they all demand his attention

So many of his secrets had come to light recently, and you had taken them in stride, but the two of you hadn’t really had any time to process or work through them

Now that you knew the major components of his secrets, he wanted you to know all of it, seeing as he no longer had to worry about you shutting down at mentions of your past

But at that particular moment, as much as you loved him and knew communication was important, you were tired

You would have the rest of your lives together to work through the past and plan a future— for now, it was nap time, and frankly, Asra could never say no to you

💜Nadia💜

A non-magic induced nap with no major upcoming events to worry about plaguing her thoughts beside the person she loved most? Absolutely

She would take an opportunity like that any day, but then again most days she had the responsibility of being Countess to keep her moving and working

But this? This could be the exception

You two had just saved the world, and, honestly, you both deserved to be pampered in her opinion, so starting off with a nice, long sleep sounded amazing in her opinion

For once, as she closed her eyes and drifted off, she didn’t have anything beside love filling her mind

[sugarcubetikki]

Marinette Isn’t A Mary Sue.

At least a half of her salters constantly complain about how Marinette’s a Mary Sue and use this as a reason to justify their hate of her character (Ironically, the other half keeps complaining about how her flaws are really really bad). There are a number of so-called “justifiable reasons” on why she’s a Mary Sue. And I’ll just say that I don’t agree with any of them. These reasons can range from “absolute nonsense. are you even watching the show?” to “I can see why you’d think that but you’re ignoring this aspect.” I’ll be breaking down each and every claim that I know of to tell you why exactly I disagree.

Marinette never faces the consequences of her mistakes

This is one of the reasons I downright disagree with and think is absolute nonsense. Marinette is very fallible. The show has portrayed that on multiple occasions. When she makes a mistake, she always faces the consequences and she tries to fix it. That element to her character is what makes her a great role model and it builds up majority of her character arc. I’m not sure what the salters who say this are exactly thinking, but it looks like they really need to re-watch the show. 

I’ll give you a fine example. Ikari Gozen is one of my favourite exhibits of her fixing her mistake. She judged Kagami too quick. Based on some presumptions she had on her personality, her feelings towards Adrien and her own jealousy, she judged her intentions too quick and made some really bad choices that episode by trying to sabotage her. In the first half of the episode, a lot of us were quite irritated by Marinette’s behaviour, we genuinely felt bad for Kagami. Which is quite surprising as Kagami is an over-hated character and Marinette is the popular protagonist. But no. The show painted the first half in such a manner that we’d feel sorry for Kagami and reprimand Marinette’s actions. The show itself acknowledged that Marinette was on the wrong side in that moment. That she wasn’t perfect, she was in the wrong. Until Marinette finds out that Kagami had genuine intentions, that she only wanted to be friends with her, she feels bad. She feels really bad with the way she treated her previously. And she realises that her unfriendly treatment could potentially lead to Kagami getting hurt, and yes, it did happen. Kagami did get hurt. And Marinette almost lost the chance of becoming friends with Kagami in that moment.  And she would have to live with that guilt for some time if her mother hadn’t called. When her mother called, Marinette stepped up and took the opportunity to prove to Kagami that she was a good friend. That she was sorry. And did want to be friends with her. She made a mistake, faces the consequences and steps up to fix them. The way her relationship with Kagami changes in the course of episodes is a really good example that tells us Marinette is fallible.

Marinette has way too many talents and achievements 

Okay. This one is somewhat reasonable and I can see where people are coming from here. However, I still don’t think it accounts for her being a Mary Sue. Here’s why. In Miraculous World, not going to lie, everyone is pretty talented, they’ve all made crazy achievements. Do I need to list now? 

Alya runs a famous blog: The Ladyblog. She even earned an interview with Nadia Chamack. Nino is a DJ. He appeared on a show and won! Marc and Nathaniel write/illustrate and publish comics! Ivan, Luka, Juleka and Rose are in a band: Kitty Section. They played live on TV! Adrien’s a teen model, multilingual, pianist, has great physical skills due to fencing and basketball. Even Lila has decent modelling skills, she works for Gabriel now. Kagami is an excellent fencer. That comes from the idea that she’s from a prestigious family world-renowned for fencing. Marinette is pretty close with Jagged because she designed his #1 album for him. Also, she won the contest for Gabriel and was recognised by Audrey Bourgeois. Max literally built a super-intelligent robot with emotions and everything. 

So, what does that mean? They’re all Mary Sues and Gary Stu’s. No! We need to remind ourselves that this a kids show and there’s the aspect of encouraging kids to believe in working on their own talents, so they’re encouraged to do anything and push ahead for their dreams. Plus, it doesn’t portray that their talents come naturally, it shows that they work for them and developed these talents through practice. 

Clumsiness and stuttering are Mary Sue traits

First of all, not every character that has these traits is a Mary Sue. It always depends on how these traits are represented. Her stuttering isn’t just there for no reason. It’s meant to display her difficulty with expressing her own feelings. We’ve had episodes with Marinette saying how it’s difficult for her to say what she feels. Episodes! And it isn’t just a meaningless detail. It represents her fear. Her fear of rejection. Her fear of being in a relationship and things going wrong. Her fear of many things. Her fear is the reason why she hesitates. Why she stutters. And it tells us that fear is completely natural. Fear in love is something that’s natural.  

I'm so tired of not being able to just tell him how I feel! But I'm so scared, Tikki, always so scared he'll reject me.

What if he tells me that he loves me? Or that he doesn't love me? Or that he likes me, but not in that way -

Yeah. Don’t you dare tell me that this fear isn’t depicted in the show. It’s blatantly obvious.

As for her clumsiness, it represents her nervousness. It comes in the form of her fear to mess up. She’s clumsy when she’s nervous. And thus she’s afraid she can mess up due to that clumsiness and nervousness. In the Origins, her insecurity, her nervousness was all displayed in the form of her clumsiness, and she knows she displays her nervousness through clumsiness And she was afraid that her clumsiness could mess things up. That’s why she believed she was disaster-prone. And incapable of being a superhero. Because she was nervous and scared. 

She gets too much screen-time

This one I really don’t get. How is having more screen time making her a Mary Sue? She’s the main protagonist. Of course, she’s going to get a lot of screen-time. Her endearing personality and active lifestyle molds the storyline of the show. She’s easy to follow along. If you’re comparing her to Adrien, I’ll say that...Adrien’s a mysterious and sheltered character. Giving him too much screen-time can get boring because he’s stuck at home all the time. We can focus on his family mystery but if the show does it too much, it ruins the mystery aspect of it. I adore Adrien getting screen-time with episodes focused around him too but I’m not going to expect him to get as much as screen-time as Marinette because his character is different, and him getting as much screen-time as her doesn’t work for the style and demographic. And claiming that she’s Mary Sue because of more screen-time is stupidity.

Encouraged jealousy and despising other girls around her crush is a Mary Sue quality

Firstly, the show never encourages Marinette’s jealousy. It doesn’t encourage it. Plus, she’s not jealous in every situation. Only in specific situation when she thinks there’s something off about the person like Chloe and Lila. In Volpina, Marinette had realised she had gone overboard with calling out Lila. And she did face consequences for it. Her akumatization. And she did try to fix her mistake in the end by apologising for overreacting. Lila was the one who turned her away that time. As for Kagami, her jealousy arc changed based on her attitudes about Kagami. During Frozer, she wasn’t jealous per say, upset but not jealous. Frozer made Marinette and Kagami misunderstand each other, that’s why they’re quite petty towards one and other for the next few episodes. In Animaestro, I don’t think Marinette would’ve been that petty if it weren’t for Chloe. But yeah, that episode isn’t one of her best moments. I’m not a fan of it either. In Ikari Gozen, these misunderstandings were cleared and so were the issues from Animaestro, and it’s fine now. On a overall, I don’t believe Marinette would get jealous around everyone. At least, not in a way where she would try to stop them from getting close to Adrien all the time. It depends on the person and situation. 

---

In conclusion, Marinette isn’t a Mary Sue. She’s fallible, has flaws, fears and works for her achievements. And that’s on point. 

[soundsof71]

FIVE ALBUMS YOU NEED IN YOUR LIFE RIGHT NOW!!!

aka, My Top 5 of 2020, but I didn’t want to seem too retro!

Yep, I have a classic rock blog. Yep, I think that the best rock and roll in history is being made RIGHT NOW. And yep, ALL of it is being made by women. 

(Shown at top, Nova Twins by Ant Adams [x] and The Tissues by Michael Espleta [x]. I was planning to make a collage of all my faves in concert, but  not all of them were able to play in 2020. Both of these photos are pre-pandemic.)

There’s been quite a bit of movement on this list, and all five of these have spent some time at Number 1 as the year has done (gestures broadly) All This™. Anyone looking for rock and roll is going to dig any of these. 

Rocking out is just the start of it, though. Wrestling with my bipolarity and schizophrenia is tough on a good day, and there haven’t been too many of those lately. The plague has also taken its toll around me, with two family members dead and a third who’s doing better, but will likely never be all the way back. (Mask up, kids!)

I’ve written plenty about how deeply Taylor Swift and Phoebe Bridgers have moved me this year (and will do so again), but in those rare stretches where I’ve had enough spare energy to listen to music at all these days, I’ve mostly been looking for more than beautiful music. Heavy times need heavy lifting, and I find that in heavy music. 

The five albums here have all helped carry me, pointing the way toward light.

1) BULLY, SUGAREGG

Alicia Bognanno is a force of nature as a guitarist, vocalist, composer, and producer/engineer. (While working on her degree in audio engineering at MTSU, she interned with Steve Albini, who remains both a fan and an admirer). A Nashville transplant from Minnesota, she’s still a natural fit in her home on Sub Pop: as heavy as Soundgarden, as hooky as Sleater-Kinney. 

I was blown away hearing her searing honesty while working through her discoveries of her bisexuality and bipolarity (double bi!), and her triumphant roar lifts me out of my seat every time I listen.

“She sings the hell out of [these songs], her voice fraying to the point of combustion every time she launches to the top of her range. This is phenomenal music for converting anger and anxiety into unbound joy.” ~Stereogum, Album of the Week

Also, check this fantastic interview with Alicia in the New York Times talking about what she’s gone through to get here. 

TURN IT UP!

2) GANSER, LOOK AT THAT SKY

Ganser syndrome is a rare dissociative disorder characterized by nonsensical or wrong answers to questions and other dissociative symptoms such as fugue, amnesia or conversion disorder, often with visual pseudohallucinations and a decreased state of consciousness. ~Wikipedia #it me

‘Just Look At That Sky’ doesn’t presume to offer solutions; it’s an honest document of what it feels like to wade through anxiety, day by day, not a survival guide or handbook of answers none of us actually have. Whether or not you pay attention to this, Ganser are simply one of the most invigorating, exciting new bands. ~Clashmusic

I saw one very positive review compare Ganser to a cross between Fugazi and Sonic Youth, but I think they hit much, much harder than either of those. And as you can surely guess, I also deeply relate to their themes of mental illness and dissociation while trying to make it through All This™. But my god, are they TIGHT. This is a BAND.

Ganser has two fantastic lead vocalists, and on “Bad Form”, bassist/vocalist Alicia Gaines wrote the song for the voice of keyboardist/vocalist Nadia Garofolo. Alicia also wrote a FANTASTIC essay on the strains that making an album during a pandemic puts on the mental health of the entire band at talkhouse: “Writing, recording, reaching out, balancing relationships outside and within the band, I found (and still find) myself under-rested and agitated to no particular end. More than not doing enough, I was not enough.” 

(If you can’t relate to that, I can’t relate to you, tbh.)

This video also does a fantastic job of showing dissociation. TURN IT UP!

3) THE TISSUES, BLUE FILM

“Blue Film” is a ten-song shot of dagger-twisting electro-(s)punk. It’s completely addictive from the very first listen. The tour de force is “Rear Window”, an art-punk masterpiece of slashing guitars and mad caterwauling. Copious doses of jaunty poetics and social commentary reward the earlooker patient enough to untangle Kristine Nevrose’s hysterical meowing about intergalactic salt shakers and hysterectomies, but I’m too emotionally invested to look under the hood.” ~ Sputnik Music

“Rear Window” is in fact my most-played 2020 track. TURN IT UP!

4) GUM COUNTRY, SOMEWHERE

It’s not all heavy! But even when I’m looking for something light and hooky, I need a bite, and Gum Country has done it with the kind of swirly, feeedback-laden wall of sound that Lush or Yo La Tengo would make if they lived in LA. (Recent transplants to SoCal from Vancouver, I do think that the sunshine has gone straight to their heads, in the very best way.)

Indie music nerds will know guitarist/composer/singer/front woman Courtney Garvin from The Courtneys, and she really does throw up a glorious wall of sound. I adore this video too! Sweet, swinging, fun -- and yes, the drummer is playing keyboard with one hand while slapping the skins with the other! 

I mentioned earlier that all five of these albums have spent part of the year at #1 on my list -- I think that this one might have spent the longest stretch there. Like all shoegaze, even as hooky as this, the truth of these songs is revealed in VOLUME. TURN IT UP!

5) NOVA TWINS, WHO ARE THE GIRLS?

Now, THIS is heavy! Amy Lee (vocals, guitar) and Georgia South (bass) are fucking LOUD, and insanely intense. A mix of grime, hip-hop, metal, punk, and good old rock and roll, they’re a harder-hitting, more theatrical Prodigy, with a pyre of intensity that recalls the heaviest howls of Rage Against The Machine. Indeed, Nova Twins spent a good bit of 2019 playing heavy metal festivals and toured as openers for Prophets of Rage. (Tom Morello has been a fan and supporter from the beginning.)

As you may have noted in the photo at the top of this post, their musical audacity extends to visuals too: they design their own clothes, hair, and makeup, they art direct their own videos, and more. They impress the hell out of me, and I’ve been a huge fan since hearing their first singles in 2018. I’ll plant a flag and say that Georgia South in particular is the most innovative musician on any instrument in any genre right now, but they’re both absolutely monsters. 

I’m honestly not at all sure that #5 is high enough for this, but I’m absolutely certain that after this video, you’re gonna need to rest for a little. LOL

“Taxi” is the story of two gleefully and creatively violent women shaking up the local crime syndicate as they use a vintage cab for their moving murder scene. This is the movie that Robert Rodriguez wishes he was making with Sin City, if it were combined with Blade Runner and The Matrix. And gangsters. And a snake.

I’m gonna take your crown I’m gonna, I’m gonna bleed you out We demand it by the hour We devour, control, power

I’m gonna burn it down Even the, even the royals bow

So not the same kind of therapeutic work being explored on this rekkid, but you know what? Fucking shit up is therapeutic too! 

Definitely take this full screen, and for the love of fuck, TURN IT UP!

SO. Not done with the best of 2020 yet? I’m sure not! A lot of my favorite songs aren’t on albums (at least not yet), so for an unedited list of everything I’m finding, check out my Spotify list, 2020: Shuffle This List! 268 songs and counting, over 15 hours, and not finished yet. I’m still checking out everyone else’s Best of lists (including yours! Message me links to yours!!!), so will probably be adding to this for most of 2021, too. 

And for more banging tracks by women from 2020, plus a few 2019 gems that I’m still grooving to, check out my more thoroughly curated Spotify playlist Women Bangers: A Tumblr New Classics Jam. (You’ll see a couple of these tracks there!) I’m working on a YouTube playlist and an essay to properly roll that one out. I’m also still tweaking the ending, but the three dozen or so tunes there are definitely bangin’.

Tell me if you hear anything you dig here, and tell me what YOU’VE found! We’re gonna get through this together.

Yr pal, Timmy

[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

A Miraculous TikTok Account

Part 14

First

Previous

Next

The next day was The Day.

It had been a full month since they had moved into the house.

Tensions had settled somewhat, people had more or less grown used to each other’s presence… but, on that one particular day, the five of them were on edge.

It was the day to begin posting.

Chat bit his lip, scrolling through all the different videos he had taken on patrols. Should he just go in the order that he had taken them in? That would certainly be easier than any arbitrary system he put out.

Then again, if he actually figured out a system it would make what he was doing feel like it had more effort. Out of all the account themes that he knew (Chloe was still refusing to answer any questions about hers), his definitely required the lowest amount of effort.

It fit him, but still.

He decided to schedule a little bit. It would go dogs, then cats, then more unusual animals, then repeat.

There. It wasn’t much, but it was something.

Hopefully, Fu wouldn’t take issue with it --.

He tore through the skin of his lip and hissed in pain. He dropped his phone on the bed next to him and brought his hands up to stem the bleeding until he found a tissue.

He walked to the mirror and snickered to himself when he saw his reflection.

Thank the kwamis he wasn’t home anymore. His dad would have thrown a fit about him ‘ruining’ his perfect face.

The door opened and he looked over to see Chloe. “Bonjour --.”

He groaned a little. “Bonjour. You’re not taking tonight’s patrols from me, but you can come along if you want.”

“What? No. I need more time to edit a video for my account so I’m going to be announcing the start of our accounts.”

“You had a month and you’re still not done?” He teased, tossing the bloodied tissue in the trash.

She scoffed. “Not like I owe you an explanation, but I have an hour of footage to go through and edit down to a few minutes at most.”

Ah. Yeah. That would be hard.

He followed her to where everyone had congregated on the couch.

Well, actually, Ladybug and Carapace were the only ones on the couch, Rena was standing behind it, peering over the other miraculous holder’s shoulders as they scrolled through their phones.

Rena looked up when she heard their footsteps and gasped. “What happened to your lip?”

“I lost a fight...” … with his own mouth, but that was beside the point.

Carapace raised his eyebrows. “You lost a fight without leaving your room?”

Rena’s lips twitched into a mischievous grin. “Who knows, with all the stuff in his room something could be living in there and no one would know.”

He fought the urge to sink into the fabric of his turtleneck (which he now felt weird wearing considering the actual turtle in the group never wore turtlenecks). “Shut up.”

“Nice comeback,” commented Carapace.

“Thanks,” he muttered, dropping down onto the couch beside him and resting his head on his shoulder.

Chloe hummed as she set up her phone to take a video of them all and then she paused, looking at everyone. “Costumes? Since this is the announcement video?”

Ladybug set her phone in her pocket. “Sure.”

“Oh, what if we start in costume and then we detransform?” Said Carapace.

“Why?” Questioned Rena.

“For the drama. Obviously.”

No one bothered to reply to that, instead they all called their kwamis to transform.

Chloe pressed to start recording and then waltzed over to take a seat on Ladybug’s lap. To Ladybug’s credit, her face remained neutral. They all knew she blinked behind her mask even if they couldn’t see it.

Rena snickered a little behind her hand.

Ladybug’s skin flared bright red. There it was. She’d finally finished processing.

“Was… was the spot beside me not good enough?”

“Nope!” Chloe said brightly before turning her attention to the camera. “Hello, Paris… and others, though I don’t know why you’d bother with our accounts if you aren’t Parisian. We’re the miraculous team!”

They went in a line from left to right introducing themselves and then detransforming to show off their civilian clothes.

“Now, you might be wondering: what’s going on?”

“A good question. Not even we really know,” Chat muttered.

(Carapace, the only one close enough to really hear, was now smiling more sincerely.)

“We’ve started TikTok accounts that we’re going to be maintaining until we defeat Hawkmoth. Why’d we decide to do this?”

Everyone’s gazes briefly pulled away from the camera to send Chloe looks that varied from slight exasperation (Carapace) to amusement (Rena).

“No reason! Just convenience!”

Chat rolled his eyes a little.

Chloe went on to explain what each of their accounts would be about, except...

“You forgot your own niche, Queenie,” said Ladybug gently.

“I didn’t forget.”

They waited for her to go on and say what she was going to be doing, but she didn’t.

The other miraculous holders exchanged wary looks.

“All their accounts are going to be in the caption. Follow them!”

The video cut.

~

A day passed, but no one was really getting picked up by the algorithm, it seemed.

They had all convened in the living room again to discuss what to do.

Chat had the most followers, which wasn’t a surprise considering he was just posting cute animals.

Ladybug actually had quite a few as well. A few of them were actual Parisians, but most just seemed to be random French speakers who wanted to get their lives together. Good for them.

Everyone else was having trouble getting their videos seen.

Chloe was taking this especially hard. She had flung herself over the sofa and buried her face in the cushions.

Ladybug didn’t seem all that concerned about the possible impending akuma as she sat down on the arm of the couch. “It would probably help if you had actual content,” she commented.

The other barely lifted her head to send her a glare.

Carapace sat down in the armchair with some chips and salsa. “Maybe we should just use all the trending tags to get people to see us.”

“We could tag our videos as cosplay and then see how long it takes them to figure it out,” said Rena, grinning as she stole some chips.

(Carapace sent her a tired, halfhearted glare but apparently decided it wasn’t worth the effort to keep his food away from her.)

Chat wasn’t really concerned about all of this. He sat in the window, smiling as the sun beamed down on his back. “I don’t know. If we want we can get some blogger to report on it.”

“If we do that one, how about the Ladyblogger? I’m pretty sure she’s the most popular one,” offered Ladybug absently. “And her blog has the option to send in stuff anonymously, too.”

Chloe pushed herself up to a sitting position, apparently done sulking. “Nope, she’s been inactive for a few months. Said something about her schedule getting too hectic, I think.”

“Oh! Is that why I haven’t seen her around?” Said Chat, trying to hide his relief. “I thought I’d done something to offend her or something.”

He noticed, vaguely, that Rena was now bright red. His brain struggled to figure out why and then it clicked. The Ladyblogger stopped showing up a little while before Rena had appeared… she must be feeling left out!

He gave her a tiny smile. “There’s still other blogs, though, so we could try that.”

“You know, I always thought it was weird that the Ladyblogger had always chosen Ladybug for her name when Chat was there first,” mused Carapace.

“Do you know any good puns for Chat Noir that has to do with blogging?” Said Ladybug, a little defensive.

“Fair.”

“She also had a different name originally, she just changed it when Ladybug came on because of the pun,” muttered Rena.

Ah, so Chat had been wrong about Rena’s feelings about the Ladyblogger. Clearly she was just a fan of her work. That made sense, that seemed like the kind of content she would enjoy --.

Chloe was the one to pull everyone on track: “Who cares? If she’s been inactive no one’s checking her page, so we need a new plan.”

The five of them lapsed into silence as they considered the options.

“I could get Nadia Chamack to report on it?” Offered Ladybug.

“No one under thirty really watches the news. Wrong demographic,” Rena pointed out.

Chat hesitated slightly before raising his hand to get everyone’s attention. “Can’t we just use Chloe’s dad? I mean… everyone follows him to find out what insane thing he did for his daughter this week.”

Chloe sent him a glare.

“No offense,” he added quickly. “That’s definitely on the people of Paris for their… judgementalness and tendency to --.”

“Chat, do yourself a favor and shut up,” advised Rena.

“Okay.”

There was a moment as they all thought about it.

Chloe pulled her phone out. She dialled a number and there was hardly a beat before she smiled and said: “Daddy! Hi!”

There was a collective wince that the mayor’s daughter opted to ignore.

“I was wondering if you could -- oh. Thanks! I’ll text you the info to tell everyone, then...”

~~~

Taglist

@nathleigh @mialuvscats @sassakitty @th1s-1s-my-aesthet1c @blueslushgueen @woe-is-me0 @ladybug-182 @cas-and-their-refusal-to-write

[bongboyblog]

A dialect? or a language?

I might lose a lot of readers as a result of writing this post... might even get hate mails (lol), hopefully not. But I think this is a topic that I had to bring up on this blog. So... here we go...

I’ve been seeing a lotta controversy online (including on Tumblr), about whether or not Sylheti and Chittagonian are individual languages. Now, it’s alright if the people themselves don’t want to be called Bengali but there are some points that need to be addressed. I’m not a linguist and these are just the conclusions I have come to after reading some books and doing research online .

A language is a dialect too. It’s just a more widely known, standard, or maybe ‘official’ dialect. The Standard Bengali language is thus a dialect too. But it would be wrong to say that every Bengali speaks in this standard form. Thus those who don’t and yet claim to be Bengali and speak dialects ‘similar’ to the standard dialect can be said to be Bengali. No opposition with that I hope. 

Now the question is, do speakers of these dialects consider themselves Bengali? I’d say part yes, part no. I’ve come across people who argue that Sylhetis are in no way Bengali and then I’ve come across Sylhetis who seem more Bengali than I do. They speak better Bangla than me!

Let me tell the non-northeast Bengalis (since most people are surprisingly ignorant abt it), the people of Sylhet region in post Independence India gave their blood to be Bengali (google the horrific Bongal Kheda movement and the brave Bengali language movement in Assam, India). That’s how fiercely Bengali they are. I don’t know about the Sylhetis of Bangladesh, but the Sylhetis of India do consider themselves Bengali and will hate you if you call them non-Bengali. No kidding!

Also, I’ve noticed that the majority of people who assert that their language is independent and distinct from Bengali are desis living outside of South Asia. Most of them have feeble or no connection with their homeland and never had the chance of learning standard Bengali. I’m saying ‘most’. As such I don’t know how authentic their point of view should be considered. How can you claim your dialect is different when you’re not aware of how different the other dialects are? Again, I repeat, ‘most’ not all.

Then there are people who’ll claim they’re not Bengali because they’re supposedly from a different ethnic group. But Bengali is not merely an ethnic tag. It’s also a socio-political and lingual identity. So it’s fine if your dialect or, ‘language’ if you prefer that, is not Standard Bengali. Or if you look different from a ‘typical Bengali’. As long as you’re from the region and claim to be Bengali, I don’t see any reason why you can’t be a Bengali. 

And just to make it clear, Kolkata and Dhaka Bangla are NOT truly Standard Bangla. Most of us have some regional traits in our speech. We have a ‘Standard’ language so that people from various regions of Bengal (Sylhet and Chittagong fall under this geopolitical entity too) can communicate with each other. Bengali is like an umbrella term, and will lose it’s meaning if everyone assert their regional culture to be distinct and separate.

Ami ki kotha koiDhi bujhoDho to? (Medinipuri country dialect)

Medinipuri Rarhi= Ami ki koitichhi bujhte pattichhen to?

Shadhu (hope I’m correct)= Ami jaha koitechhi apni bujhite paritechhen to?

(Ami ki bolchhi bujhte parchhen to? Are you able to understand what I’m trying to say?) These are just the varieties spoken in West Medinipur! Sylhet and Chittagong are located quite far from Central Bengal (Standard Bangla is supposed to be developed from the Nadia dialect), it’s only fair that their speech will have some variations!!

There are a bunch of people who say that these dialects are ‘corrupt’ Bangla, that’s not true either! They evolved on their own, parallel to Standard Bangla. 

So should the dialects/languages be considered independent languages? I think it should be left to the individual speaker to decide. I or anyone else for that matter have no right in telling people whether or not they speak Bengali or are Bengali. All I want to say is that there’re more kinds of Bengalis than what the media (both South Asian and Western) portray and that all forms of Bangla and Bangali are valid. 

Nomoskar (Nomoshkar is not really the right way to pronounce it, like a majority of Bengalis do. Nope. It’s a dontto so not a talobbo sho. See? I told ya, don’t go by Kolkata or Dhaka standards :) )

I’m open to discussion, as long as you’re willing to listen too. :)